by Melissa Davidson ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 25, 2015
A powerful, sometimes surreal memoir about facing grief through faith.
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A grieving mother finds comfort in the notion that her deceased son is, in many ways, still with her.
Davidson’s son, Paul, died while in the military at the age of 20, leaving her with grief, many questions, and the uncanny sense that he was still present in her life. Her debut memoir blurs the line between presence and absence, telling stories of Paul’s childhood and of events immediately following his death. Paul, she says, remained at her side through every difficult moment, and many sentences in this book are addressed directly to him: “Do you remember, Paul,” Davidson asks, “when we first looked at houses in our neighborhood?” She informs him that she knows that he’s still with the family even now: “Two days after you passed over to heaven, your aunt Lauren heard you playing music in her house. You let her know you were there with Grammy Elizabeth.” These added layers of complexity give Davidson’s prose a sense of intimacy, as if one is reading a diary or personal letters. She reminisces about the family’s various houses, the times that Paul played with his brother and cousins, and his many accomplishments in high school. She intimately juxtaposes these happy memories with difficult moments from her life, such as when soldiers arrived to tell her that Paul had died, and when she took a car ride to the funeral wearing a black dress. At times, the lines between happiness and grief become indistinct, and this gives the book an ethereal tone, reinforced by the author’s accounts of Paul’s supernatural visits. She asserts that he came to her and other family members in order to comfort them, answer questions about his death, and show them his new life in heaven. It’s never quite clear how literally readers should take these accounts, but this ambiguity only makes their comforting images more powerful. The book also features pictures from Paul’s childhood, selected poems about him by the author, and passages describing Davidson’s faith in God. Overall, the author has crafted a powerful piece about grief, and although it’s filled with hope, it also brings across the severity and sadness of its subject.
A powerful, sometimes surreal memoir about facing grief through faith.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4917-6888-4
Page Count: 126
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Oprah Winfrey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 2, 2014
Honest messages from one of America's best known women.
A compilation of advice from the Queen of All Media.
After writing a column for 14 years titled “What I Know For Sure” for O, The Oprah Winfrey Magazine, Winfrey brings together the highlights into one gift-ready collection. Grouped into themes like Joy, Resilience, Connection, Gratitude, Possibility, Awe, Clarity and Power, each short essay is the distilled thought of a woman who has taken the time to contemplate her life’s journey thus far. Whether she is discussing traveling across the country with her good friend, Gayle, the life she shares with her dogs or building a fire in the fireplace, Winfrey takes each moment and finds the good in it, takes pride in having lived it and embraces the message she’s received from that particular time. Through her actions and her words, she shows readers how she's turned potentially negative moments into life-enhancing experiences, how she's found bliss in simple pleasures like a perfectly ripe peach, and how she's overcome social anxiety to become part of a bigger community. She discusses the yo-yo dieting, exercise and calorie counting she endured for almost two decades as she tried to modify her physical body into something it was not meant to be, and how one day she decided she needed to be grateful for each and every body part: "This is the body you've been given—love what you've got." Since all of the sections are brief and many of the essays are only a couple paragraphs long—and many members of the target audience will have already read them in the magazine—they are best digested in short segments in order to absorb Winfrey's positive and joyful but repetitive message. The book also features a new introduction by the author.
Honest messages from one of America's best known women.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2014
ISBN: 978-1250054050
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Flatiron View Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
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by Jessica Simpson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 4, 2020
An eye-opening glimpse into the attempted self-unmaking of one of Hollywood’s most recognizable talents.
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New York Times Bestseller
IndieBound Bestseller
Rolling Stone & Kirkus' Best Music Books of 2020
The debut memoir from the pop and fashion star.
Early on, Simpson describes the book she didn’t write: “a motivational manual telling you how to live your best life.” Though having committed to the lucrative deal years before, she “walked away,” fearing any sort of self-help advice she might give would be hypocritical. Outwardly, Simpson was at the peak of her success, with her fashion line generating “one billion dollars in annual sales.” However, anxiety was getting the better of her, and she admits she’d become a “feelings addict,” just needing “enough noise to distract me from the pain I’d been avoiding since childhood. The demons of traumatic abuse that refused to let me sleep at night—Tylenol PM at age twelve, red wine and Ambien as a grown, scared woman. Those same demons who perched on my shoulder, and when they saw a man as dark as them, leaned in to my ear to whisper, ‘Just give him your light. See if it saves him…’ ” On Halloween 2017, Simpson hit rock bottom, and, with the intervention of her devoted friends and husband, began to address her addictions and underlying fears. In this readable but overlong narrative, the author traces her childhood as a Baptist preacher’s daughter moving 18 times before she “hit fifth grade,” and follows her remarkable rise to fame as a singer. She reveals the psychological trauma resulting from years of sexual abuse by a family friend, experiences that drew her repeatedly into bad relationships with men, most publicly with ex-husband Nick Lachey. Admitting that she was attracted to the validating power of an audience, Simpson analyzes how her failings and triumphs have enabled her to take control of her life, even as she was hounded by the press and various music and movie executives about her weight. Simpson’s memoir contains plenty of personal and professional moments for fans to savor. One of Kirkus and Rolling Stone’s Best Music Books of 2020.
An eye-opening glimpse into the attempted self-unmaking of one of Hollywood’s most recognizable talents.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-289996-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2020
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