November 2023 MBR The Biography Shelf

The Biography Shelf

Our Secret Society
Tanisha C. Ford
Amistad
c/o HarperCollins Publishers
www.harpercollins.com
9780063115712, $32.99, HC, 368pp

https://www.amazon.com/Our-Secret-Society-Glamour-Movement/dp/0063115719

Synopsis: With the publication of "Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon and the Glamour, Money, and Power Behind the Civil Rights Movement", author and biographer Tanisha C. Ford brilliantly illuminates a little known yet highly significant aspect of the civil rights movement that has been long overlooked as the powerhouse fundraising effort that supported the movement -- the luncheons, galas, cabarets, and traveling exhibitions attended by middle-class and working-class Black families, the Negro press, and titans of industry, including Winthrop Rockefeller.

No one knew this world better or ruled over it with more authority than Mollie Moon. With her husband Henry Lee Moon, the longtime publicist for the NAACP, Mollie became half of one of the most influential couples of the period. Vivacious and intellectually curious, Mollie frequently hosted political salons attended by guests ranging from Langston Hughes to Lorraine Hansberry. As the president of the National Urban League Guild, the fundraising arm of the National Urban League; Mollie raised millions to fund grassroots activists battling for economic justice and racial equality. She was a force behind the mutual aid network that connected Black churches, domestic and blue-collar laborers, social clubs, and sororities and fraternities across the country.

Historian and cultural critic Tanisha C. Ford brings Mollie into focus as never before, charting her rise from Jim Crow Mississippi to doyenne of Manhattan and Harlem, where she became one of the most influential philanthropists of her time - - a woman feared, resented, yet widely respected. "Our Secret Society" deftly chronicles Mollie's larger-than-life antics through exhaustive research, never-before-revealed letters, and dozens of interviews.

"Our Secret Society" also ushers the reader into a world with its own rhythm and rules, led by its own Who's Who of African Americans in politics, sports, business, and entertainment. It is both a searing portrait of a remarkable period in America, spanning from the early 1930s through the late 1960s, and a strategic economic blueprint today's activists can emulate.

Critique: Informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of 16 pages of never-before-seen photographs, "Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon and the Glamour, Money, and Power Behind the Civil Rights Movement" rescues from an undeserved obscurity one of the truly significant woman who made the Civil Rights Movement the success that it was (and continues to be) as a much needed national tool to continue to establish racial equality in our still racially turbulent American politics and culture. While especially and unreservedly recommended for community and academic librry American Civil Rights Movement History/Biography collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of readers with an interest in Women's & African-American Biographies/Memoirs that "Our Secret Society" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $15.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Harper Audio, 9798212698917, $41.99, CD).

Editorial Note: Tanisha C. Ford (www.tanishacford.com) is a cultural critic and award-winning writer. A professor of history at The Graduate Center, CUNY, she has written for the New York Times, the Atlantic, Time, the Root, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, and featured on NPR, among other places. In 2019, she was named to the Root's list of the 100 Most influential African Americans. Ford is the author of Dressed in Dreams, Kwame Brathwaite: Black is Beautiful, and Liberated Threads, which won the 2016 Organization of American Historians' Liberty Legacy Foundation Award for best book on civil rights history. Her research has been supported by New America/Emerson Collective, Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Schomburg Center, and Ford Foundation, among others. She can be followed on social media: @SoulistaPhD

A Man of Two Faces
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
www.groveatlantic.com
9780802160508, $28.00, HC, 400pp

https://www.amazon.com/Man-Two-Faces-History-Memorial/dp/0802160506

Synopsis: With insight, humor, formal invention, and lyricism, in "A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial", Viet Thanh Nguyen tells the story of his own life. He expands the genre of personal memoir by acknowledging larger stories of refugeehood, colonization, and ideas about Vietnam and America, writing with his trademark sardonic wit and incisive analysis, as well as a deep emotional openness about his life as a father and a son.

At the age of four, Nguyen and his family are forced to flee his hometown and come to the USA as refugees. After being removed from his brother and parents and homed with a family on his own, Nguyen is later allowed to resettle into his own family in suburban San Jose.

But there is violence hidden behind the sunny facade of what he calls AMERICA (TM). One Christmas Eve, when Nguyen is nine, while watching cartoons at home, he learns that his parents have been shot while working at their grocery store, a place where he sometimes helps price tins of fruit with a sticker gun.

Years later, as a teenager, the blood-stirring drama of the films of the Vietnam War such as Apocalypse Now throw Nguyen into an existential crisis: how can he be both American and Vietnamese, both the killer and the person being killed?

When he learns about an adopted sister who has stayed back in Vietnam, and ultimately visits her, he grows to understand just how much his parents have left behind. And as his parents age, he worries increasingly about their comfort and care, and realizes that some of their older wounds are reopening.

Profound in its emotions and brilliant in its thinking about cultural power, "A Man of Two Faces" deftly explores the necessity of both forgetting and of memory, the promises America so readily makes and breaks, and the exceptional life story of one of the most original and important writers working today.

Critique: Impressively candid, insightfully informative, thoughtful, thought-provoking, memorable, exceptionally well written, and thoroughly 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation, "A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial" is an extraordinary life story that is a distinctive and unreservedly recommended addition to community and college/university library Contemporary Biography/Memoir collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "A Man of Two Faces" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.24).

Editorial Note: Viet Thanh Nguyen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viet_Thanh_Nguyen) was born in Vietnam and raised in America. He is the author of The Sympathizer, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and soon to be an HBO Original Series; its sequel, The Committed; the short story collection The Refugees; the nonfiction book Nothing Ever Dies, a finalist for the National Book Award; and is the editor of an anthology of refugee writing, The Displaced. He is the Aerol Arnold Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California and a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur foundations. He now lives in Los Angeles.

Leading Lady: A Memoir of a Most Unusual Boy
Charles Busch
Smart Pop
c/o BenBella Books
www.benbellabooks.com
9781637744147, $27.95, HC, 269pp

https://www.amazon.com/Leading-Lady-Memoir-Most-Unusual/dp/1637744145

Synopsis: The Tony Award-nominated writer of The Tale of the Allergist's Wife and the long-running hit Off-Broadway play Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, and a Sundance Festival award winner, Charles Busch has created a unique place in the entertainment world as a playwright, LGBT icon, drag actor, director, and cabaret performer, with his extraordinary gift for both connecting with and channeling the leading ladies of show business.

"Leading Lady: A Memoir of a Most Unusual Boy" is his memoir, (which is by turns comic and moving), and reveals how ever since his mother's death when he was seven, he has sought out surrogate mothers in his life. In his teens, Charles moved to Park Avenue in Manhattan to live with his Auntie Mame-like Aunt Lil, who encouraged and nourished Charles' talents and dreams, and eventually he discovered his gifts for writing plays and performing as a male actress.

Charles also shares his colorful and sometimes outlandish interactions with film and theatrical luminaries including the hilarious comedian Joan Rivers (who became a mother figure to Charles after Aunt Lil's death), Angela Lansbury (who attended her first Passover seder with Charles), Rosie O'Donnell, Claudette Colbert, Valerie Harper, Kim Novak, and many others.

Critique: "Leading Lady: A Memoir of a Most Unusual Boy" features wry humor, anecdotal history, impressive candor, and rare photos. "Leading Lady" is of particular interest to readers of entertainment biographies and memoirs, as well as anyone who enjoys the true-life memoirs of artists, actors, musicians, and creatives whose lives 'break the mold, ditch the boundaries, and find their own unique way to sparkle'. While especially and unreservedly recommended for community and academic library American Biography/Memoir & Broadway/Theatrical History collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Leading Lady" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $13.99).

Editorial Note: Charles Busch (https://www.charlesbusch.com) is an actor, playwright, and drag legend. He is the author and star of many plays, including Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, one of the longest-running plays in Off-Broadway history. His play The Tale of the Allergist's Wife played 777 performances on Broadway and received a Tony nomination for Best Play. Busch wrote and starred in the film versions of his plays Psycho Beach Party and Die Mommie Die, the latter of which won him the Best Performance Award at the Sundance Film Festival. He has been honored with a special Drama Desk Award for career achievement as both performer and playwright and he also received the Flora Roberts Award for Sustained Achievement in the theater by the Dramatist's Guild.

Pauline Boty: British Pop Art's Sole Sister
Marc Kristal
Francis Lincoln
c/o Quarto Publishing Group USA
www.quartoknows.com
9780711287549, $40.00, HC, 256pp

https://www.amazon.com/Pauline-Boty-British-Arts-Sister/dp/0711287546

Synopsis: Pauline Boty (6 March 1938 - 1 July 1966) was a founding member of the British Pop Art movement and one of its very few female performers. She attended London's Royal College of Art at a watershed moment when its students included David Hockney, Peter Blake, R.B. Kitaj and Allen Jones. Dying tragically young at the age of 28, she is now seen as central to British Pop Art and an icon of Sixties culture.

As well as her work as an artist, she appeared on the stage, TV and in film (including alongside Michael Caine in Alfie) and was a regular contributor on BBC radio. She was photographed by David Bailey and other society photographers and became a key player in 1960s London's golden age.

Outspoken, provocative and charismatic, she refused to accept the oppositions between sexual woman and serious artist, between celebration and critique, between high and low culture. Observer and participant, feminist and hedonist, subject and object, Boty's 'double vision' was decades ahead of its time, and prefigured a diversity of artists -- everyone from Cindy Sherman to Madonna.

Having been largely forgotten after her death, her reputation has been growing steadily since the rediscovery and exhibition of her works in the early 1990s. As well as cropping up regularly in various books, documentaries and newspaper articles since then, she features as a central character in Ali Smith's novel Autumn (2016) and one of her works sold for $1.4m at auction in June 2022.

Critique: A fascinating, informative, and illustrated biography by Marc Kristal, this heftly (7.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches, 2.45 pounds) hardcover edition of "Pauline Boty: British Pop Art's Sole Sister" will have a special appeal and value to readers with an interest in 60's British Pop Culture & Art history and personalities. Also available for personal and professional reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $19.99), "Pauline Boty: British Pop Art's Sole Sister" is exceptionally well written and presented, making it unreservedly recommended for both community and academic library Biography/Memoir and Pop Art History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Marc Kristal (https://marckristal.com) is an author, screenwriter, filmmaker, editor, and journalist. He has authored, co-written or contributed to more than forty books, notably Re:Crafted: Interpretations of Craft in Contemporary Architecture and Interiors (2010), Immaterial World: Transparency in Architecture (2011), and The New Old House: Historic and Modern Architecture Combined (2017). His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Architectural Digest, Wallpaper, Metropolis, and Elle Decor. He has also written films about contemporary and modern artists, notably Cindy Sherman and Mark Rothko. He is also a two-time MacDowell fellow.

Judy Canova: Singin' in the Corn!
Ben Ohmart
BearManor Media
www.bearmanormedia.com
9781593933166, $19.95, PB, 234pp

https://www.amazon.com/Judy-Canova-Singin-Ben-Ohmart/dp/1593933169

Synopsis: Judy Canova (November 20, 1913 - August 5, 1983), was the professional name of Juliette Canova who was a 20th Century American comedienne, actress, singer, and radio personality. She appeared on Broadway and in films. She also hosted her own self-titled network radio program, a popular series broadcast from 1943 to 1955.

"Judy Canova: Singin' in the Corn!" by Ben Ohmart is the first biography of everyone's favorite rube and is comprised of family interviews and along with rare and hitherto unpublished photos.

Critique: Impressively informative and a fun read that rescues music/stage/film/radio star Judy Canova from an undeserved obscurity, "Judy Canova: Singin' in the Corn!" is a particularly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university library 20th Century American Biography collections. It should be noted for Judy Canova fans that "Judy Canova: Singin' in the Corn!" is also readily available from BearManor Media in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.95) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Audio, 9781504670227, $19.95, CD).

Editorial Note: Ben Ohmart has written books on voice actors Paul Frees and Walter Tetley, as well as biographies of Don Ameche, the Bickersons, Disney composer Buddy Baker, playwright Tim Kelly, and others. He runs BearManor Media, a small publishing company specializing in books on old radio and old film actors.

The House that Cheese Built
Miguel A. Leal
Wiley
c/o Wiley Professional Trade Group
www.wiley.com
9781394184026, $28.00, HC, 272pp

https://www.amazon.com/House-that-Cheese-Built-Multibillion-Dollar/dp/1394184026

Synopsis: Miguel Leal came to the U.S. penniless as a teenager, speaking almost no English; he literally slept in the boiler room of a Wisconsin cheese factory for months before he was caught. Through hard work, grit, and ingenuity Leal would go on to launch his own business. He is widely credited with introducing Mexican cheeses to the U.S. market and grew his company to a multimillion-dollar success story that defined an industry.

Yet, like many successful entrepreneurs, Leal's great successes were matched by personal failures: the end of a marriage; trouble with law enforcement; and the deeply felt sense that there must be something more to life than great wealth.

With the publication of "The House that Cheese Built: The Unusual Life of the Mexican Immigrant who Defined a Multibillion-Dollar Global Industry" we can now read the astounding memoir of a Mexican immigrant who worked his way to success in the American cheese industry. Readers will find inspiration in Miguel Leal's determination and refusal to give up on his dream. They will see how Leal persevered in the face of obstacles and setbacks in his personal life. They will follow Miguel's story as he finds peace, purpose, and grace -- and realizes that money isn't everything

Leal's memoir, "The House that Cheese Built", is both a quintessential immigrant success story, one that beautifully illustrates the immigrant experiences: isolation, fear, and ambition for a better life and assimilation, as well as a thoughtful personal account of entrepreneurship and all its benefits and costs.

Critique: Candid, eloquent, fascinating, and inspiring, "The House that Cheese Built: The Unusual Life of the Mexican Immigrant who Defined a Multibillion-Dollar Global Industry" is impressively well written, organized and presented, making it especially and unreservedly recommended for community and college/university library Contemporary Biography/Memoir collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "The House that Cheese Built" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $17.00).

Editorial Note: Miguel Leal founded Mexican Cheese Producers in 1994. Leal eventually sold his business to Sigma Alimentos, which used his recipes to win the 2020 World Championship Cheese Contest. Today, Miguel is deeply invested in a new passion project: supporting Mexico's organic farming movement with a farm of his own.

Free Spirit
Tanya Sarne
Mitchell Beazley/Octopus Publishing
www.octopusbooksusa.com
9781784728465, $26.99

https://www.amazon.com/Free-Spirit-barefoot-catwalks-fabulous/dp/1784728462

Free Spirit: A Memoir of a Extraordinary Life tells of the successes and challenges of author Tanya Sarne's life. The founder of Ghost, Sarne is best known for the entrepreneurial fashion sense which led to her success and fame - but her story is so much more than that of building a business. It captures the milieu of the 1960s and 70s fashion world, rubs elbows with artists in other genres, reveals some close calls (as when she was invited to stay with Sharon Tate the night of the Manson murders), and presents a vivid globe-hopping story of growth and discovery which is absolutely riveting. Black and white photos of Ghost models and creations pair well with personal images of her life, adding visual flavor and value to a story highly recommended for any library strong in memoirs, the arts, and women's experiences.

Dancing On Eggshells
John Whaite
Kyle Books
www.octopusbooksusa.com
9781804191491, $29.99

https://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Eggshells-Kitchen-ballroom-inbetween/dp/1804191493

Dancing On Eggshells: Kitchen, Ballroom & the Messy Inbetween is a dance memoir written by the third-series winner of The Great British Bake Off and runner up to Strictly Come Dancing with his same-sex dancing partner, and offers many flavors memoirs typically don't embrace under one cover. John Whaite came out on Bake Off, but before that event he struggled with bulimia, mental health challenges, and his parents' separation. It's unusual to see a book that blends food and cultural focuses with insights on gay people and baking alike, but Dancing on Eggshells hold the unusual ability to bring a wide range of seemingly disparate subjects together under one cover. That it does so in a lively tone that considers changing relationship influences, growth, and personal and professional transformation alike is tribute to its special blend of recipes, competition stories, and emotional examination. Dancing on Eggshells should be in any library strong in gay memoirs, culinary experiences, and psychological growth.

Through it All
Michael Fox
Independently Published
9798988641803, $15.99, HC, 240pp

https://www.amazon.com/Through-All-Jewish-refugee-identity/dp/B0CGKXQ9FP

Synopsis: In late fall of 1938, the unification of Germany with Austria sent its Jewish communities into a tailspin and changed the nature of Austria's relationship with its Jewish citizens forever.

A former Jewish diplomat convinced a British Home Office Secretary to rehabilitate a WWI training center on the English coast as a refugee camp to save German and Austrian Jewish men while secretly preparing Britain for impending war. 4,000 men were saved by cooperating with Jewish authorities in Berlin and Vienna under direction of Adolf Eichmann, architect of the Nazis' final solution.

"Through it All: A Jewish refugee story of escape, war, love and identity", although a work of fiction, is true to the history of such events that were set in motion by the holocaust as represented through the story of one man -- Adolf Fuchs. It's a remarkable, informative, and thought-provoking story spanning some six decades, eight countries and two continents. Inspired by true events, it is the timeless story of Adolf's will to survive and rebuild his life.

Critique: It's the personal view of author Michael Fox that "We don't get to pick the times in which we live, and we don't get to shape the world events that test us to be our best or our worst. We live mistakenly believing that we are dancing on a large ballroom floor of our own design, with all the space we need to glide and twirl and spin. But in reality, we are dancing on the head of a pin, and any slight wind, this way or that, can push us off."

A work of deftly crafted fiction that faithfully adhere's to a backdrop of accurate historical detail and authenticity, "Through it All: A Jewish refugee story of escape, war, love and identity" will be of special and particular appeal to readers with an interest in Holocaust/Jewish Historical Fiction. While especially and unreservedly recommended for community and academic library Historical/Literary Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Through it All" is also readily available in a paperback edition (9798988641810, $10.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $4.99).

Editorial Note: Michael Fox was born near Glasgow, Scotland and moved with his family to New York city at age six where he lived until moving to Madison Wisconsin to attend the University. He graduated with a Bachelor degree in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He worked for the State of Wisconsin for thirty-one years at the Department of Health Services where he managed the State Medicaid Managed Care Program for low-income women and children. He has a life-long interest in world history and European history in particular.

A California Love Story
John W. Thill
Pacific Dream Publications
https://johnwthill.com/a-california-love-story
9798987849309, $16.95, PB, 283pp

https://www.amazon.com/California-Love-Story-John-Thill/dp/B0C32BZNNP

Synopsis: In September 1925, young Ray Wilcox stepped off a train in Southern California. A humble midwestern man, he could hardly believe the remarkable sights before him -- the vast Pacific Ocean, the sparkling California beaches, and the stunning coastal mountain ranges.

Ray immediately began to formulate a plan for a successful life in this California paradise, but he was missing one thing: his sweetheart, Dora. As he embarked on a campaign of letters to convince her to leave Kansas and join him, a love story began to grow. Through their tender and romantic correspondence, the ambitious young couple began to dream about a blissful future together in this gorgeous place called California.

Nearly one hundred years later, John W. Thill discovered a hatbox filled with these forgotten letters from his grandparents' courtship. Within their worn folds, Thill found a story that was at once timeless and evocative, transporting him to a unique era in American history when the future of California was taking shape.

Deftly interwoven with Ray and Dora's authentic letters, Thill fondly discloses his grandparents' touching story -- from the personal and economic hardships they experienced to the romantic hopes, dreams, and commitments of their young relationship. In the pages of "A California Love Story", the optimism and perseverance of the past shines through, offering an inspiration for us all in the present day.

Critique: Charming, heartfelt, deeply personal but universal in theme, "A California Love Story" is a compelling read from start to finish and unreservedly recommended for personal, community, and academic library American Biography/Memoir collections. It should be noted that "A California Love Story" is also readily available in a digital book format ($7.99).

Editorial Note: John W. Thill (www.johnwthill.com) is a learning and development specialist and adult literacy advocate serving people in Southern California. His life experience incorporates more than forty years of business and community service work. John's passion and expertise includes assisting people in understanding their strengths to better navigate relationships and lead themselves to places of fulfillment and success. He is a graduate of San Diego State University, a past president of the Rotary Club of Carlsbad and continues a fifty-year love affair with the Pacific Ocean.

So Long As It's Wild
Barbara Jenkins
Dexterity
https://dexteritybooks.com
9781947297715, $27.95, HC, 288pp

https://www.amazon.com/So-Long-Its-Wild-Standing/dp/1947297716

Synopsis: As a child growing up in the wild beauty of the Ozarks, Barbara often spent her days exploring outside and daydreaming of faraway places to escape the realities of poverty. She longed to trade her homemade clothes and outdoor toilet for spectacular adventures around the world. That chance came in the form of a young wild-eyed, long-haired "viking" man named Peter.

After an exciting courtship and a wedding on a dime, the young couple departed on foot from New Orleans on July 5, 1976, heading toward the Pacific Coast. News of the couple's expedition spread like wildfire, landing them on the cover of National Geographic Magazine and countless other publications.

Soon after beginning their nearly three-year journey, Barbara realized the funny, adventure seeking, charismatic man she married was not the loving partner she thought. Despite this realization, she continued the difficult journey, and whether she faced aggressive renegades, a life-threatening fall from Engineer Pass, or a devastating heartbreak that caused her to feel lost and alone, Jenkins pushed through it all with grit and determination.

Critique: Part memoir, part travelogue, part adventure, "So Long as It's Wild: Standing Strong After My Famous Walk Across America" is an inherently fascinating read from start to finish. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "So Long as It's Wild" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community library American Biography/Memoir collections and will prove of special appeal to readers with an interest in unique true life adventure stories as recounted by those that lived them. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "So Long as It's Wild' is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).

Editorial Note: Barbara Jenkins (https://www.barbarajojenkins.com) grew up in the wild beauty of the Ozarks with no running water and homemade clothes. The first in her family to go beyond an 8th grade education, she received her Master's from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. She shot to fame in 1976 with her then-husband for their ambitious walk across America. That journey became the inspiration for their book "The Walk West". She has since published a number of other books, including The Road Unseen, a Gold Medallion Book Award winner. Her writing and entrepreneurship has been featured on Good Morning America, Reader's Digest and more. Jenkins now travels the country, speaking at universities, conventions, and other events about her story.

Hitman for the Kindness Club
Captain Paul Watson
GroundSwell
c/o Book Publishing Company
www.bookpubco.com
9781570674129, $24.99, PB, 360pp

https://www.amazon.com/Hitman-Kindness-Club-Adventures-Eco-Activist/dp/1570674124

Synopsis: Spanning 1961 to 2022, "Hitman for the Kindness Club: High Seas Escapades and Heroic Adventures of an Eco-Activist" by Captain Paul Watson is an electrifying collection of essays capturing the spirit, mettle, and moxie of one of the most intrepid environmentalists of our times.

Paul Watson developed an enduring passion for the wild as a youngster. This zeal propelled him on an uncharted adventure of outward exploration and inner evolution, with pivotal turning points bringing him to the realization that his life's mission was to defend the natural world and all its inhabitants. In his memoir Watson takes you along for the ride as he upends the Sierra Club, co-founds Greenpeace, and eventually establishes Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

His courageous, often audacious campaigns, held on every ocean and every continent, are hallmarks of his stalwart defense of Indigenous people, marine wildlife, and ecosystems worldwide. These incredible true-life stories reveal how a dedicated group of people with gumption, resourcefulness, imagination, and clarity of purpose can change the world for the better.

Still active, with a new foundation and a loyal crew, Watson now shares his inspirational life lessons for the purpose of encouraging everyone to remain hopeful and to always be kind, without reservation or exception.

Critique: Fascinating, informative, inspiring, "Hitman for the Kindness Club: High Seas Escapades and Heroic Adventures of an Eco-Activist" by Captain Paul Watson will have a very special and particular appeal to readers with an interest in the memoirs and biographers of contemporary eco-warriors and environmental protection activists. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Hitman for the Kindness Club: High Seas Escapades and Heroic Adventures of an Eco-Activist" is a highly recommended pick for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Contemporary American/Canadian Biography/Memoir collections. It should be noted that "Hitman for the Kindness Club: High Seas Escapades and Heroic Adventures of an Eco-Activist" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).

Editorial Note: Captain Paul Watson is a Canadian-American marine conservation activist, founded the direct-action group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in 1977. Watson's other recent releases include Defending Orcas (2022), Urgent! (2021), Death of a Whale (2021), and Orcapedia (2020). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Watson)

8 Reid Street: Snapshots from an Australian Beach
Cassandra Wilson
Independently Published
9798813176722, $14.99, PB, 211pp

https://www.amazon.com/Reid-Street-Snapshots-Australian-Beach/dp/B0B6XSL22S

Synopsis: Cassandra 'Sandy' Wilson's life was gravely altered with the news that young Joan Wilson is dead.

The backdrop of this memoir beginning in one of several convict-built row houses on Reid Street at Newcastle Beach, leads the reader into the world of young Australian surfing women and men, and opens front doors into the homes of the colorful characters of her youth. In her memoir, Sandy takes us good humoredly along city streets and skips the reader down lanes hidden from view, introduces parks, pools, pubs and clubs, as well as monuments and places now long gone.

Becoming a successful, fun loving student and community member, young Sandy's orderly life at 8 Reid Street living with her father and brother, is suddenly thrust into confusion and upheaval with the arrival of a disruptive woman only her father appears to know.

A collection of family snapshots of Australians celebrating a new era, gives memoir an intimate glimpse of life at that time and with familiarity and humor the writer opens the pages to give readers a look behind the curtain of those lives after WW 2 continuing through the 1960's in an honest and straight forward manner.

Critique: The mysterious death of her mother when Cassandra 'Sandy' Wilson was five propels this true-life memoir of an everyday Australian girl during the 1950's and 60's. An inherently interesting life story, "8 Reid Street: Snapshots from an Australian Beach" is an exceptionally well written and presented life story and one that is especially and unreservedly recommended for community library Biography/Memoir collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "8 Reid Street: Snapshots from an Australian Beachd" is also readily available in an inexpensive digital book format (Kindle, $2.99).

Editorial Note: Cassandra 'Sandy" Wilson Joseph, now in her 70s, is a former journalist for the LA Times and college linguistics instructor. She has degrees in journalism, English and linguistics, in addition to certificates allowing her to teach English as a Second Language.

Always Moving Forward
David A. Jones
Old Stone Press
https://oldstonepress.com
9781938462634, $34.95, HC, 550pp

https://www.amazon.com/David-Jones-Always-Moving-Forward/dp/1938462637

Synopsis: In 1961, David Jones and another young lawyer borrowed $1,000 each to build a nursing home. That modest investment turned into Humana: first the largest nursing home company in the U.S., then the largest hospital corporation, and today one of the nation's largest health insurance companies, with 65,000 employees and a value of $65 billion.

"I've always believed there's nothing being done that can't be done better," Jones writes in his memoir "Always Moving Forward: A Memoir of Friends, Family and Building Humana", an engaging account of American entrepreneurship.

Jones also advocates hiring ordinary people who learn fast and get things done, rather than relying on expert credentials. But Always Moving Forward is about so much more as it covers:

The controversy over for-profit medicine (Jones explains why he was "proudly not non-profit."); The artificial heart (The world watched as a Humana team implanted the Jarvik-7 into a man who lived 620 days); A sixteen-year-long humanitarian mission (After the collapse of the Berlin wall and Eastern European economies, President George H. W. Bush asked Jones to help rebuild the Romanian healthcare system, which had been devastated by war and a corrupt dictator); 9/11 (Jones and 23 Humana executives were at Ground Zero when the planes hit. They tell the harrowing story); Life lessons learned (For example, "Family first" and "You don't have a clear idea unless it fits on the back of a business card."); Business failures as well as successes.

Jones was also a great philanthropist, although mostly anonymously. His final legacy is one of the largest metropolitan parks completed this century -- a project led by him and one of his sons in their hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.

Critique: Of particular merit and value for readers with an interest in Business Professionals Biographies & Memoirs, as well as the American healthcare system, "Always Moving Forward: A Memoir of Friends, Family and Building Humana" is a fascinating, informative, and inspiring life story as recounted by the co-founder, CEO and chairman of the board of Humana Inc., a for-profit American health insurance company based in Louisville, Kentucky. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.49), "Always Moving Forward: A Memoir of Friends, Family and Building Humana" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library American Biography/Memoir collections.

Memories of Madhupur
Samarendra Narayan Roy
Parabaas
https://parabaas.com
9781946582010, $14.95

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1946582018

Memories of Madhupur: Mid-Century Vignettes from East of India is a top recommendation for libraries seeking personal accounts of Indian culture and history, cultivating both with a tone of exploration that comes from an author raised by his grandparents in Madhupur in the 1950s and 60s. Although Samarendra Narayan Roy wrote these tales with children in mind, all ages will find these stories of coming of age in India and the adventures and encounters this embraced to be equally compelling.

An introductory story of postal messages Roy read or wrote for local villagers at the age of ten and their place in Indian culture reveals concurrent belief systems and historical precedents which elevates his personal memory with wider-ranging social insights. The rich nature of these memories of youth brings India to life for readers both quasi-familiar and completely unfamiliar with the country, weaving stories of castes, religions, communities, tribes and colorful characters with accompanying insights about India's delightful diversity and cultures.

Vibrant and passionate in its memories and tales of yesteryear, the colorful nature and attraction of Memories of Madhupur: Mid-Century Vignettes from East of India should not be limited to an audience of any particular age, but explored by all as a compelling, attractive story that deserves a place in libraries seeking accessible, lively stories for both enlightenment and entertainment.

Dance to Dreams
Shogo Onoe
Independently Published
9798802245651. $21.00 Hardcover/$14.50 Paper/$6.00 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SJJV9K

Few Japanese travelers would dream of embarking on a journey to an English-speaking country such as Canada without being able to at least converse in the language, but Shogo Onoe's memoir Dance to Dreams: Making the Right Choice chronicles Onoe's choice to begin a new life in Vancouver sans the benefits of fluency. Moreover, his passion for the written word led to his aspiration to become a writer. Despite numerous rejections, he pursued his dream of achieving publication, and Dance to Dreams is just one result from a pen that has experienced many forms of rejection, acceptance, and challenge.

The first thing to note about this story is its passion. Readers might not expect the depths of the candid, passionate tone to ripple through a Japanese writer's memoir. Onoe cultivates excitement, translates that energy to the written word, and brings readers along on a rollicking ride of discovery that translates to readers through dialogues with all manner of people that he encounters along the way. Onoe navigates these strange worlds and their inhabitants with an astute eye to examining the kinds of realities that Japanese natives and those supportive of the culture may find uncomfortably enlightening. These confessions could prove painful to some, but can serve as intriguing discussion points in book clubs choosing this memoir for not just its cross-cultural encounters and journey, but for its succinct, hard-hitting points about how the Japanese interact and intersect with other cultures.

Ex-pat Onoe creates a dialogue of examination that forces readers to probe the undercurrents of the Japanese psyche and its underpinnings. Perhaps he is in a relatively unique position to do so, given his independent journeys through other cultures which lead to new insights and critiques of disparate facets of a Japanese culture that tends to pigeonhole and dehumanize those outside Japan. The story of one who spent only four days in Mexico before deciding to move from Japan to Guatemala creates a powerful inspection especially highly recommended for book clubs interested in Japanese cultural explorations that pull no punches in critiquing psyches, powers, and prejudices. Libraries will find Dance to Dreams a unique blend of memoir and cross-cultural encounters that challenges belief systems and assumptions alike.

Balance, Pedal, Breathe
Claire Unis, MD
Warren Publishing
www.warrenpublishing.net
9781957723099, $29.95 Hardcover/$17.95 Paper/$4.99 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/Balance-Pedal-Breathe-Journey-Through/dp/1957723092

Balance, Pedal, Breathe: A Journey Through Medical School joins a host of other memoirs about medical school experiences, but arrives with a difference - Claire Unis was a young small-town waitress when she received her acceptance to medical school. The paths she would travel there came not from a world of grooming and privilege, but from a calling to medicine which she felt at a young age. This goal was cemented during a painful training process which challenged her ideals of what it meant to become a doctor.

Unis writes with a personal passion that comes across in her memoir of pursing dreams and realizing their illusions and limitations: "In these pages lies the story of a willful, would-be doctor who tried to hold on to the before-self, the not-doctor self, even as she could feel herself changing over the four years of medical education leading up to her degree. In my collection of memories are also the reasons why, if my son must follow this path, I will swallow my misgivings about this career. Though the road itself shudders with ruts and sinkholes, boulders and sand, practicing medicine means living a considered life."

From the realities and downside to training at a private hospital to taking a step back from school to breathe and reconsider, Unis crafts a journey that is not singular and dedicated, but filled with pivot points. The result holds quite a different feel than the usual dogged story of the pursuit of a medical degree against all odds and under nearly impossible residency conditions. It's a more reasoned, mindful account of the process in which one woman achieves her dream - albeit in an unconventional manner which concurrently embraces life events, goals, and challenges.

Anyone with an interest in physician training, personal experience, or professional evolution will find Balance, Pedal, Breathe an inviting, uncommon exploration of a process which often challenges one's perceptions and goals, but here results in a special type of doctor who enters the system with more than technical savvy alone. Libraries seeking a more balanced memoir of an aspiring physician's experiences will find Balance, Pedal, Breathe an especially enlightening and thought-provoking acquisition that not only balances traditional accounts, but expands the possibilities of medical training into more mindful thinking.

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