My Brother by Jamaica Kincaid

Hello my lovely readers! Another day, another book review. Let's get into it.

SYNOPSIS
Jamaica Kincaid’s brother Devon Drew died of AIDS on January 19, 1996, at the age of thirty-three. Kincaid’s incantatory, poetic, and often shockingly frank recounting of her brother’s life and death is also a story of her family on the island of Antigua, a constellation centered on the powerful, sometimes threatening figure of the writer’s mother. My Brother is an unblinking record of a life that ended too early, and it speaks volumes about the difficult truths at the heart of all families.

Wasted by Marya Hornbacher

Hello my lovely readers! This was a re-read for me and part of my 10 Books 10 Decades Challenge. I started this book December 28, 2025 and I'm just now finishing it. Woof. Let's get into it!

SYNOPSIS
Why would a talented young woman enter into a torrid affair with hunger, drugs, sex, and death? Through five lengthy hospital stays, endless therapy, and the loss of family, friends, jobs, and all sense of what it means to be "normal," Marya Hornbacher lovingly embraced her anorexia and bulimia -- until a particularly horrifying bout with the disease in college put the romance of wasting away to rest forever. A vivid, honest, and emotionally wrenching memoir, Wasted is the story of one woman's travels to reality's darker side -- and her decision to find her way back on her own terms.

QUICK REVIEWS pt. VI

Hello my lovely readers! While the whole house is sick as dogs right now, I managed to sum up the little strength I had to write some quick reviews. Let's get into it.

Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology by Deidre Cooper Owens
This book breaks new ground by exploring how and why physicians denied enslaved women their full humanity yet valued them as "medical superbodies" highly suited for medical experimentation. Cooper Owens examines how gynecologists created and disseminated medical fictions about their patients, such as their belief that black enslaved women could withstand pain better than white "ladies."

*An incredibly sad, but powerful and important read. Absolutely well done. 4 out of 5 stars

Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church by Kevin Sack
A sweeping history of one of the nation’s most important African American churches and a profound story of courage and grace amid the fight for racial justice.

*Another sad but important read. A wealth of AME knowledge and Black history in this book. I only wish it included more about the victims of the 2015 shooting and their stories. 4 out of 5 stars

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs

Hello my lovely readers! This was a re-read for me as I decided to make it part of my 10 Books, 10 Decades Challenge. Let's get into it.

SYNOPSIS
The true story of an individual's struggle for self-identity, self-preservation, and freedom, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl remains among the few extant slave narratives written by a woman. This autobiographical account chronicles the remarkable odyssey of Harriet Jacobs (1813–1897) whose dauntless spirit and faith carried her from a life of servitude and degradation in North Carolina to liberty and reunion with her children in the North.

Written and published in 1861 after Jacobs' harrowing escape from a vile and predatory master, the memoir delivers a powerful and unflinching portrayal of the abuses and hypocrisy of the master-slave relationship. Jacobs writes frankly of the horrors she suffered as a slave, her eventual escape after several unsuccessful attempts, and her seven years in self-imposed exile, hiding in a coffin-like "garret" attached to her grandmother's porch.

A rare firsthand account of a courageous woman's determination and endurance, this inspirational story also represents a valuable historical record of the continuing battle for freedom and the preservation of family.

Gather Together in My Name by Maya Angelou

Hello my lovely readers! I'm slowly making my way through all seven of Maya Angelou's autobiographies and this is book number two. It's also part of my 10 Books, 10 Decades Challenge. Let's get into it!  

SYNOPSIS
In Gather Together in My Name, Maya Angelou continues her stunning autobiography. By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, passionate and mellow, she fills the pages with both wisdom and wonder as she brings us along in her struggle and dance through life.

Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice by Virginia Roberts Giuffre

Hello my lovely readers! I don't usually read memoirs, but I had to get my hands on this one. Let's get into it.

SYNOPSIS
The world knows Virginia Roberts Giuffre as Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s most outspoken victim: the woman whose decision to speak out helped send both serial abusers to prison, whose photograph with Prince Andrew catalyzed his fall from grace. But her story has never been told in full, in her own words—until now.

In April 2025, Giuffre took her own life. She left behind a memoir written in the years preceding her death and stated unequivocally that she wanted it published. Nobody’s Girl is the riveting and powerful story of an ordinary girl who would grow up to confront extraordinary adversity.

Here, Giuffre offers an unsparing and definitive account of her time with Epstein and Maxwell, who trafficked her and others to numerous prominent men. She also details the molestation she suffered as a child, as well as her daring escape from Epstein and Maxwell’s grasp at nineteen. Giuffre remade her life from scratch and summoned the courage to not only hold her abusers to account but also advocate for other victims. The pages of Nobody’s Girl preserve her voice—and her legacy—forever.

Dear America: Notes from an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas

Hello my lovely readers! This was the first memoir I've read where I personally know the author. Let's get into it.

SYNOPSIS
Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, called “the most famous undocumented immigrant in America,” tackles one of the defining issues of our time in this explosive and deeply personal call to arms.

“This is not a book about the politics of immigration. This book––at its core––is not about immigration at all. This book is about homelessness, not in a traditional sense, but in the unsettled, unmoored psychological state that undocumented immigrants like myself find ourselves in. This book is about lying and being forced to lie to get by; about passing as an American and as a contributing citizen; about families, keeping them together, and having to make new ones when you can’t. This book is about constantly hiding from the government and, in the process, hiding from ourselves. This book is about what it means to not have a home.

After 25 years of living illegally in a country that does not consider me one of its own, this book is the closest thing I have to freedom.”

—Jose Antonio Vargas, from Dear America

My Friend Anne Frank by Hannah Pick-Goslar

Hello my lovely readers!

It took me a LONG time to finish this book (again, blame the pregnancy), but I finished it a few weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Fun fact: I'm a HUGE Anne Frank fan. Weird, I know, but I discovered her in 2001 when I was 12. 

Anne Frank: The Whole Story aired on ABC over two nights and 12-year-old Naomi was shook! I related to Anne in feeling that no one truly understood me and that I always wore a façade with my friends and family. As a diarist myself, starting when I was 6-years-old, my diary was and still is the only place I can let my freak flag fly freely without judgement.

The house that I lived in at the time, had a huge attic that had a spiral staircase and twin bed (I dragged it up there) where I practically lived in eighth grade year. I was the Black Anne Frank as far as I was concerned.

I say all that to say, that after watching the movie and reading The Diary of a Young Girl,  I became obsessed and bought all books related to Anne Frank and became slightly obsessed with the Holocaust. Needless to say, I know all the players in her story and have read all the books about her and the people within her circle. When I found out her friend Hannah Pick-Goslar was writing her official memoir on her life, the Holocaust and Anne Frank, I was stoked. Let's get into it!

I Know Why the Caged Birds Sings by Maya Angelou

 

Hello my lovely readers! This was another re-read for me. I've been unintentionally re-reading a lot of books from my youth and a lot of them still hold up!

This book was no different. I first read this when I was 16 and spending the summer with my grandparents in Florida. Ah, the memories. This was such a beautifully written memoir and I'm so thankful to have read it again as a grown woman.

SYNOPSIS

Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is the beginning in a string of autobiographies about her life. 

Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. 

Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and racial prejudice.  At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. 

Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors  will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.

A Black Woman's Civil War Memoirs by Susie King Taylor

 

Hello my lovely readers!

I started this book at 10:00 a.m. today and finished by 11:45 a.m. Let's get into it!

SUMMARY

These are the memoirs of a Black woman who was born a slave, who had the good fortune to gain her freedom early in the war, with the education and ability to observe the will to recall in later years the significance of the events in which she was a vigorous participant Susie Kin Taylor's recollections are invaluable for those who wish to understand the Civil War from a Black woman's' point of view.

MY THOUGHTS

This book was an absolute treat to read. I'm not into military or war history at all (funny, because I was raised in the military), but this was an interesting read. We learned a little bit about Taylor's family history, her experiences after the war, but more importantly what she did during the war.

Her recollections are brief and to the point, but the notes after each chapter are extremely helpful in providing context to what was going on. This was published in 1902 and I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of her memoir.

My Life: A Spoken Autobiography by Fidel Castro and Ignacio Ramonet

 

Hello my lovely readers!

I FINALLY finished this behemoth of a book. It only took me 6 years! I started it in 2017 either before or after I went to Cuba because I didn't know a single, solitary thing about Fidel Castro, other than he evokes strong opinions from people.

I just had to be in the right mindset to read this book because if you know me, then you know military history and wars are an automatic snooze for me. I managed to finally finish though, so here we go!

SUMMARY

Based on more than 100 hours of interviews with Fidel Castro conducted in the span of three years, My Life by Fidel Castro covers all aspects of his life. It's the closest to a memoir we'll ever get from the Cuban leader.

Castro  speaks with raw frankness with Ignacio Ramonet about the events of his life and the legacy he hopes to leave behind.