• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Blogs We Heart
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Bloglovin
    • Email
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

Books and Sensibility

We're an Open Book

  • Reviews
    • Young Adult Fiction
    • Young Adult Nonfiction
    • Adult Fiction
    • Adult Nonfiction
  • Features
  • Diverse Reads
    • Asian Stories
    • Black Stories
    • Latinx Stories
    • LGBTQIA Stories

Memoir

Around The Way Girl by Taraji P. Henson

July 24, 2018      Leave a Comment

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

7 hours and 27 minutes |  Simon & Schuster Audio | Memoir | 10/11/2016

I’ve been a fan of Taraji P. Henson since she played Raina Washington on Lifetime’s The Division when I was younger, it was one of the first “adult” shows I watched. The show was ahead of its time and  I sometimes think about how Henson was playing a Black female police officer with lesbian moms in the early 2000’s. I can only imagine if they put that on TV nowadays it might be called “too diverse.”

Anyway, this memoir begins with Henson’s childhood in Southeast DC during the crack epidemic and the years of hustle and hard work that lead to her  Hollywood success in her mid-thirties. Henson is a trained actress who worked with some of the best at Howard University and there is a lot of craft talk in this book. Henson really digs into the minds of the character she plays. The title of the book comes from her concern of always being typecast as the around the way girl from the hood and her hesitation to take the role of Cookie Lyon–the role that has brought her the most notoriety.

This book shares a lot of DNA with the two other memoirs of black women in Hollywood I’ve read, Last Black Unicorn and We’re Going to Need More Wine. They all touch on the importance of having a support system and other black women helping them navigate the Hollywood scene.

I especially liked what Hensen had to say about the stigma of a single black motherhood and how these mothers aren’t afforded the same considerations and respect as married mothers.

 Around The Way Girl is an inspiring and insightful look into the making of an actress and some of Henson’s most memorable moments.

Audiobook Review: Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein

June 29, 2018      Leave a Comment

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Penguin Audio | 7 hours and 4 minutes | Memoir | 10/27/2015

I find Carrie Brownstein really interesting. She’s one of those people who has managed to have two very distinct yet very successful careers in the public eye. Depending who you are you may know her from the rock band Sleater-Kinney or, if you’re like me, from the award-winning show Portlandia.

This memoir is focused exclusively on her relationship to music and Sleater-Kinney. I picked up this book because it was like a window to the eclectic and chaotic world of 90’s punk rock band life during the riot grrrl movement–a world I knew nothing about.

…

Read this Post

Not My Father’s Son by Alan Cummings

June 15, 2018      Leave a Comment

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

HarperAudio | Memoir | 10/07/2014 

Alan Cumming examines the violent and abusive childhood that nearly sent his adult life off course while on a journey to uncover a family secret on the reality TV show  Who Do You Think You Are? Just when Cumming thinks he has a handle on all his family secrets, his estranged father calls and drops a big one.

This silver fox actor is known for playing eccentric characters. I  know Cumming best from his role as Eli Gold on The Good Wife (He was also in X2).  At the time I had no idea he was Scottish but by the time I finished this audiobook the thought of him with an American accent seemed strange.

…

Read this Post

Non-Fiction Mini Reviews : Lawyered !

June 11, 2018      Leave a Comment

I’ll be honest, I’ve been kind of freaking out about getting closer and closer to the big 3-0, but one of the things I learned as I’ve gotten older is that I can read non-fiction. I always thought I was one of those readers who would never be able to get into serious non-fiction, but it’s a muscle I’m slowly learning to build thanks to audiobooks.

…

Read this Post

Book Review/Audiobook Review This Is Just My Face by Gabourey Sidibe

August 12, 2017      Leave a Comment

…

Read this Post

Fresh Off The Boat by Eddie Huang

January 16, 2016      Leave a Comment

  • Release Date: January 29, 2013
  • Audiobook Hours: 7 hours and 55 minutes
  • Genre: Memoir
  • Publisher: Speigel & Grau (Random House)

I really wanted to start this review by saying something like ‘move over Anthony Bourdain, there’s a new bad boy chef on the market, but that doesn’t really fit what Huang is trying to do with this book. While Huang’s claim to fame is his restaurant, Baohaus, this book isn’t really a food memoir. It’s about Huang’s fraught relationship with his Asian identity while growing up around what he calls American Whiteness.

As he recounts growing up in suburban Orlando Huang dismantles the idea of the model minority. Fear of assimilation is a point of tension for him. There is a long history of America being the worst to Asian immigrants and then erasing them from history. His story is a story we don’t hear and I think Huang put together a biting and honest memoir that was also entertaining.

Most people are probably familiar with the ABC show based on this book and while I enjoy the show Iknew Huang publicly expresseda lot of dislike for it and after reading his memoir I get it. ABC bowdlerized the crap out of his story, but kept his family’s names are all over it. I think when Huang sold the rights for a show he wanted something like Aziz Ansaris’s show Master of None where they tackle issues of racism with more dark humor and edge that doesn’t care about offending the audience.

…

Read this Post

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Hello !

Welcome! Here you’ll find book reviews, features and a glimpse into the bookish life of two sisters because here–we’re an open book !

Subscribe

We Review Romance

Reviews by Rating

  • ★
  • ★★
  • ★★★
  • ★★★★
  • ★★★★★

Archives

Grab Our Button

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Copyright © 2023 · Wordpress Theme by Hello Yay!