A remarkably upbeat memoir, ideal for readers seeking to understand and support loved ones with serious illnesses.
An inspiring debut memoir about one woman’s years of illness, during which she forged a rich life full of achievements.
Cramer-Miller was diagnosed with kidney disease soon after her college graduation, and she saw her promising career in marketing and public relations painfully grind to a halt. Forced to leave her beloved Seattle and her vibrant circle of friends, she reluctantly returned to her native Minnesota for years of treatments, transplants, procedures and medications. Instead of submitting passively to the relentless disease, however, Cramer-Miller developed a personal philosophy centered on gratitude and positivity that helped her build a “normal” life. Her joyful persistence came about, in large part, due to the unflagging support of her family—especially her mother, who acted as Cramer-Miller’s health advocate (or “Avocado,” as they cheerfully nicknamed the role). Decades later, the author looks back at her journey with great clarity, remembering not only the medical experiences themselves, but also her emotional and psychological responses to them. When she describes her dangerous levels of fluid retention, for instance, she poignantly notes the numbers’ intangible impact: “For every upward notch on the scale, I lost my desire to be in the world. Each additional pound of water retention felt like a visible measurement of disease.” The author engagingly articulates these complex emotions in simple language, without self-pity, which may give some readers hope. Incredibly, the narrative never gets bogged down in obscure or unpleasant medical detail, and the occasional somber tone is balanced by the author’s sense of humor and attention to happier subjects, such as dating, career ambition, friendship and building a family. The short, readable, well-paced chapters allow the book to cover decades of memories evenly and naturally.
A remarkably upbeat memoir, ideal for readers seeking to understand and support loved ones with serious illnesses.Pub Date: June 24, 2013
ISBN: 978-0615813110
Page Count: 236
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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