#BookShelfBook2021
The Pregnancy Project
So. I really wanted to like this book. The premise is interesting. It is a true story. However it reads as a fifteen/sixteen year old who is preaching because she knows it all and has proven her point. She also lost nothing in the process. She actually gained from the experience. It left me feeling frustrated that this book is used in classrooms to teach about teen pregnancy. When the author was not pregnant as a teen in reality. It was a project.
In my three plus decades with young moms the treatment of them is way worse than depicted here. The shaming and name calling is cruel and constant. The medical community as a whole generally do not listen to teens, at their peril or their unborn child’s peril. Schools, Churches, Families, Friends can all be lost in an instant. The public feels they can comment immense cruel things whenever they see a young mom. It is intense and extremely difficult to deal with on top of the fact that you are indeed terrified.
So if you are looking for a a book on teen pregnancy this is not it, in my opinion. It is too problematic and could actually do harm.
I do not like to pan books or give bad reviews because in reality there is a book for everyone and everyone a book. What I may not like you may and that’s okay. However when a book is used to teach and could create harm, I feel the need to speak up.
There is nothing wrong with reading this book, enjoying it-to use it as a tool in teaching teen pregnancy, I cannot recommend that.
“Like jazz I prefer to see life as a river.”
Matthew McConaughey
I have a stack of memoirs from my shelf to read for May. To clear my TBR. For my own #bookshelfbook2021challenge.
This book pictured is a library loan, that I devoured in an afternoon, and took copious notes. Wow.
I saw the Oprah interview with Matthew before reading this and wanted to read it even more than I previously desired… it did not disappoint. At all.
Greenlights is a book by American actor Matthew McConaughey. It was published on October 20, 2020, by the Crown imprint of Crown Publishing Group. The book includes stories and insights from McConaughey’s life in chronological order. It has been described as a memoir but McConaughey has called it an “approach book”.
It is poetry, autobiography, biography, storytelling, travel guide, Philosophy and actually more than these words and I believe that was exactly the intention.
I love the format of the book. I have been told the audio is excellent. Personally I don’t process audio well, but with his voice, it could be a win. I’ve always had a crush on his voice …
Well worth the read.
How I spent Saturday afternoon.
Not just dough but to show that you know she is worth your time
You will lose if you chose to refuse to put her first
She will if she can find a man who knows her worth
‘Cause a real man, knows a real woman when he sees her
And a real woman knows a real man ain’t afraid to please her
And a real woman knows a real man always comes first
And a real man just can’t deny a woman’s worth.”
A WOMAN’S WORTH
This is how I fell in love with Alicia Keys music, her lyrics. All of them. This one though, this lyrical wording and music, it was it. She was writing from knowledge. She gives us herself in her music. Intimate, personal, a peek inside her mind. Poetry in music.
More Myself did not disappoint. I’ve long admired Alicia Keys, this book made me admire her even more. Real honest snippets of her life. You could hear her voice just like you can in her music.
I highly recommend it.
As one of the most celebrated musicians in the world, Alicia Keys has enraptured the globe with her heartfelt lyrics, extraordinary vocal range, and soul-stirring piano compositions. Yet away from the spotlight, Alicia has grappled with private heartache―over the challenging and complex relationship with her father, the people-pleasing nature that characterized her early career, the loss of privacy surrounding her romantic relationships, and the oppressive expectations of female perfection.
Since Alicia rose to fame, her public persona has belied a deep personal truth: she has spent years not fully recognizing or honoring her own worth. After withholding parts of herself for so long, she is at last exploring the questions that live at the heart of her story: Who am I, really? And once I discover that truth, how can I become brave enough to embrace it?
More Myself is part autobiography, part narrative documentary. Alicia’s journey is revealed not only through her own candid recounting, but also through vivid recollections from those who have walked alongside her. The result is a 360-degree perspective on Alicia’s path, from her girlhood in Hell’s Kitchen and Harlem to the process of growth and self-discovery that we all must navigate.
In More Myself, Alicia shares her quest for truth―about herself, her past, and her shift from sacrificing her spirit to celebrating her worth. With the raw honesty that epitomizes Alicia’s artistry, More Myself is at once a riveting account and a clarion call to readers: to define themselves in a world that rarely encourages a true and unique identity.
“As a 15-year-old, I was condemned to long-term solitary confinement in the Florida prison system, which ultimately lasted for 18 consecutive years. From 1992 to 2010. From age 15 to 33. From the end of the George H.W. Bush administration to the beginnings of the Obama era. For 18 years I didn’t have a window in my room to distract myself from the intensity of my confinement. I wasn’t permitted to talk to my fellow prisoners or even to myself. I didn’t have healthy, nutritious food; I was given just enough to not die.”
“In the summer of 1990, shortly after finishing seventh grade, I was directed by a few older kids to commit a robbery. During the botched attempt, I shot a woman. She suffered serious injuries to her jaw and mouth but survived. It was reckless and foolish on my part, the act of a 13-year-old in crisis, and I’m simply grateful no one died.”
“For this I was arrested and charged as an adult with armed robbery and attempted murder.”
“My court-appointed lawyer advised me to plead guilty, telling me that the maximum sentence would be 15 years. So I did. But my sentence wasn’t 15 years -it was life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.”
Poetry.
Memoir.
My Time Will Come by Ian Manuel.
The United States is the only country in the world that sentences thirteen- and fourteen-year-old offenders, mostly youth of color, to life in prison without parole.
Full of unexpected twists and turns as it describes a struggle for redemption, My Time Will Come is a paean to the capacity of the human will to transcend adversity through determination and art, in Ian Manuel’s case, through his dedication to writing poetry.
If you knew me personally you’d know my loathing of the criminal justice system, especially as it pertains to youth. It needs to be destroyed, changed and new ways need to be found. As it is right now, I have nothing good to say. Not one word. What it has done to children. Children I love, have mentored or don’t even know, there are not words.
The book is excellent, the poetry beautiful.
Copeland was considered a prodigy who rose to stardom despite not starting ballet until the age of 13. By age 15, her mother and ballet teachers, who were serving as her custodial guardians, fought a custody battle over her. Meanwhile, Copeland, who was already an award-winning dancer, was fielding professional offers. The 1998 legal issues involved filings for emancipation by Copeland and restraining orders by her mother. Both sides dropped legal proceedings, and Copeland moved home to begin studying under a new teacher who was a former ABT member.
In 1997, Copeland won the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Award as the best dancer in Southern California. After two summer workshops with ABT, she became a member of ABT’s Studio Company in 2000 and its corps de ballet in 2001, and became an ABT soloist in 2007. As a soloist from 2007 to mid-2015, she was described as having matured into a more contemporary and sophisticated dancer.
In addition to her dance career, Copeland has become a public speaker, celebrity spokesperson and stage performer. She has written two autobiographical books and narrated a documentary about her career challenges, A Ballerina’s Tale. In 2015, she was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time, appearing on its cover. She performed on Broadway in On the Town, toured as a featured dancer for Prince and appeared on the reality television shows A Day in the Life and So You Think You Can Dance. She has endorsed products and companies such as T-Mobile, Dr Pepper, Seiko and Under Armour.
“Picture a ballerina in a tutu and toe shoes. What does she look like?”
As the only African American soloist dancing with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre, Misty Copeland has made history. But when she first placed her hands on the barre at an after-school community center, no one expected the undersized, anxious thirteen-year-old to become a ground-breaking ballerina.
When she discovered ballet, Misty was living in a shabby motel room, struggling with her five siblings for a place to sleep on the floor. A true prodigy, she was dancing en pointe within three months of taking her first dance class and performing professionally in just over a year: a feat unheard of for any classical dancer. But when Misty became caught between the control and comfort she found in the world of ballet and the harsh realities of her own life (culminating in a highly publicized custody battle), she had to choose to embrace both her identity and her dreams, and find the courage to be one of a kind.
With an insider’s unique point of view, Misty opens a window into the life of a professional ballerina who lives life center stage: from behind the scenes at her first auditions to her triumphant roles in some of the most iconic ballets. But in this beautifully written memoir, she also delves deeper to reveal the desire and drive that made her dreams reality.
Life in Motion is a story of passion and grace for anyone who has dared to dream of a different life
Even as Demi was becoming the highest paid actress in Hollywood, however, she was always outrunning her past, just one step ahead of the doubts and insecurities that defined her childhood. Throughout her rise to fame and during some of the most pivotal moments of her life, Demi battled addiction, body image issues, and childhood trauma that would follow her for years—all while juggling a skyrocketing career and at times negative public perception. As her success grew, Demi found herself questioning if she belonged in Hollywood, if she was a good mother, a good actress—and, always, if she was simply good enough.
As much as her story is about adversity, it is also about tremendous resilience. In this deeply candid and reflective memoir, Demi pulls back the curtain and opens up about her career and personal life—laying bare her tumultuous relationship with her mother, her marriages, her struggles balancing stardom with raising a family, and her journey toward open heartedness. Inside Out is a story of survival, success, and surrender—a wrenchingly honest portrayal of one woman’s at once ordinary and iconic life.
I learned a lot of Demi’s story that I did not know. She was very very brave in telling her truth. This is a very fast read and I do recommend it. Makes me see her in a whole new light.
For the first four months of 1942, U.S., Filipino, and Japanese soldiers fought what was America’s first major land battle of World War II, the battle for the tiny Philippine peninsula of Bataan. It ended with the surrender of 76,000 Filipinos and Americans, the single largest defeat in American military history.
The defeat, though, was only the beginning, made dramatically clear in this powerful book. From then until the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, the prisoners of war suffered an ordeal of unparalleled cruelty and savagery: 41 months of captivity, starvation rations, dehydration, hard labor, deadly disease, and torture—far from the machinations of General Douglas MacArthur.
The Normans bring to the story remarkable feats of reportage and literary empathy. Their protagonist, Ben Steele, is a figure out of Hemingway: a young cowboy turned sketch artist from Montana who joined the army to see the world. Juxtaposed against Steele’s story and the sobering tale of the Death March and its aftermath is the story of a number of Japanese soldiers.
This book told a most amazing story. I thank @alecbaldwininsta for imploring us to read it. A perfect read for this weekend. Memorial Day read.
The Bataan Death March was the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000–80,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war where the prisoners were loaded onto trains. The total distance marched from Mariveles to San Fernando and from the Capas Train Station to Camp O’Donnell is variously reported by differing sources as between 60 and 69.6 miles. Differing sources also report widely differing prisoner of war casualties prior to reaching Camp O’Donnell: from 5,000 -18,000 Filipino deaths, 500 -650 American deaths during the march. The march was characterized by severe physical abuse and wanton killings. After the war, the Japanese commander, General Masaharu Homma and two of his officers were tried in United States military commissions on charges of failing to prevent their subordinates from committing war crimes.
I did not get to all the memoirs I wanted to this month and I’ve probably forgotten to write a few down here.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading all the books this month that I did get to off my stack and I learned a lot.
We are alike more than we are different, and more people are raped in their lifetime than one could ever imagine.
Staggering.
