English 12 Literary Nonfiction Reviews

Title of the Book: Talking as Fast as I Can Author: Lauren Graham Number of Pages: 209 Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆   Review : Lauren Graham is one of those people that has more personality than most, which helped her memoir, Talking as Fast as I Can, be one of those works that are more memorable than most. She talks about her times as a child, the hurdles she faced to become an actress and her time in Gilmore Girls , one of the most magical times of her life. This book is purely about Lauren Graham’s astonishing life full of lessons and amusing stories. The book starts off with Graham talking about her childhood spent with her father, then she gradually begins to talk about her lifelong journey to become an actress. Not only is it insightful, but hilarious. Lauren is brutally honest to her audience about her experiences in life, regardless of how embarrassing. She mainly talks about her days in Gilmore Girls as well as the revival, however, you may not want to read the end of the boo...

Title: Anne Frank: The diary of a young girl. Author:  Anne Frank Pages:  283 pages Rating: 4 stars ☆☆☆☆ Review:  If you enjoy nonfiction literature, the feeling of amazement and awe, heartbreaking moments, and moments of triumph along with the characters in a book; Anne Frank’s diary is for you. Anne Frank is a young German girl who is Jewish during the time of World War II. She sees the segregation that those who are jews see every day. Her family and some close friends go into hiding to avoid being sent to death camps. Many thrilling and terrifying tales are told by young Anne Frank about herself and her family during this scary time. This book is heart pulling, tear-jerking, and a real emotional rollercoaster. Frank tells about her day to day life and how she is affected by hiding away and such. She was an amazing writer with such strong emotions that I can see and feel decades later. This book is a terrific read and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys ...

Title of the Book: Kitchen Confidential  Author: Anthony Bourdain  Number of Pages: 320 Rating: ☆☆☆☆ Review: For most people, misunderstanding “meat” for “me” isn’t that big of a deal--it most likely won’t change the course someone’s life in any way. That is the case for most people. For Chef Anthony Bourdain, this was not the case. All because he thought the chef de cuisine was asking, “What do you know about me?” when he really asked “what do you know about meat?” he didn’t land the job. Apparently, “little to nothing” wasn’t the answer they were looking for at a steakhouse. The book, Kitchen Confidential was about Anthony Bourdain’s journey to culinary excellence. He started out at Vassar College a mess, but through his job in P-town, he found his calling. Although he realized his passion for food originally during his summer vacations to Europe, he never had experience in restaurant work, so this summer job opened up a world for him. With this job, he was ab...

Title of the Book: Spare Parts Author: Joshua Davis Number of Pages: 224 Rating: ☆☆☆☆     Spare parts, that's what this submersible exploration robot was made of, and better yet it was made by a group or poor, immigrant kids living in the Arizona desert. Spare parts cover the story of four kids in a high school hundred of miles away  from the nearest ocean taking part in a nation wide highly competitive competition while most of the kids are underneath the poverty line and some are Illegally in the U.S. Oscar, Lorenzo, Cristian and Luis all worked on Stinky, and the four are about simple solutions as they were on a tight budget and this story teaches you you don't always need complicated solutions, sometimes the smallest ones work best. What makes this book unique is how much they go in depth with everyone, must go over one or two characters very well and the others briefly, but everyone in this book was introduced very well to the point where you felt for them a...

Title: Wild Author: Cheryl Strayed Number of Pages: 311 Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ (This is an excellent book, and I definitely recommend reading it. Everyone will take something away from this book.) Review: Cheryl Nyland was damaged. Not physically, but psychologically. Her mother, her rock, her world died of cancer when Cheryl was a senior in college in Minnesota. Growing up, Cheryl’s mother was the only one who held their family together. Cheryl and siblings (Leif her brother and Karen her sister) never had the luxuries other kids had. They didn't even have running water or regular meals until Cheryl was in high school. Cheryl’s father was an abusive man who Cheryl’s mother had trouble leaving. When she did finally leave, six-year-old Cheryl and her family moved onto land in Minnesota with Cheryl’s step father. Cheryl never really had a father figure; only a mother figure. When she was deprived of even that, she broke down. Chery tried to figure out why the world ...

Title of the Book: Into the Wild Author: Jon Krakauer Number of Pages: 224 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars Review: The wild transcends societal standards and expectations; a safe haven from people that flourishes with natural beauty symbolizing the freedom and capacity of nature. Christopher McCandless perceived the magnificence of this unknown and set on a journey to become apart of what he loved. Jon Krakauer analyzes his quest for independence through Into the Wild an introspective look into the life of the Alaskan adventurer. In a world of conformity and collective thinking, McCandless saw right through the illusion of success in a society, and developed his own way of life, one of freedom and hope. By hitchhiking all through the midwest of the US, McCandless was on a journey without knowing where the end was, exploring and learning and teaching all those he came in contact with. Once he got introduced to Alaska, he fell in love with it setting the goal of living in the bush fr...

"A Child Called It": Author: Dave Pelzer Number of Pages: 180  Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆  Review:  After reading “A Child Called It” you will learn to appreciate your mother a ton more. This memoir goes into depth about the abuse that Dave went through as a child and how he was deathly afraid of his own mother. The book starts out with Dave making up excuses to his principal and nurse about how he had gotten his bruises for his mother would not get in trouble. His nurse knew he was lying because he always used the same excuses and she called the police. The police took Dave to the station and called his mother, the police promised Dave he would be safe but they soon returned him to his abusive mother. Dave would soon realize that because of the incident with the police his life was about to get a whole lot worse and his abuse. Dave explains all the good times he had with his mother and his life before his mother started drinking and father started working longer hours. Dave ...

Title of the Book: Into the Wild Author: Jon Krakauer  Number of Pages: 141 pages Rating: ☆☆☆☆ Review: Throughout this novel, you learn about the life of Chris McCandless. He was a young man who grew up in a middle-class family. He had graduated from college and was on his way to law school. McCandless had grown up loving the outdoors. He had loved it so much that one day he had dropped his life to make his way into the wild. He had donated all of his money and packed up his car and left without any warning, to anybody, including his parents. He had traveled around the United States in his car, which had eventually broken down, where he then traveled by foot or by hitchhiking. He was tracked down by letters he had written to people he had met along his trip. The author of this book was very similar to Chris McCandless himself. They had shared the same hobbies and often traveled to the same places, such as Alaska. This book has many aspects that sets it ...

Man's Search for Meaning: Viktor Frankl: 165: Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ Review: Can you explain the meaning of life? Uncovered in Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, he analyses his own personal suffering inside concentration camps during World War II. Viktor Frankl informs his reader of the greatest suffering, suffering from the mind. With an immense background and passion for psychology, Frankl reveals how his personal experience inside three different concentration camps allowed him to explore the meaning of life. Viktor analysis many situations which he or fellow campers suffered, and how many were able to persevere, while others simply lost hope. Viktor’s perspective from inside the camp creates an emotional novel, which causes the reader to evaluate personal mental strength, as well as the meaning of life through suffering. This book is extremely unique because it unveils a new area of a commonly know suffering, the holocaust. No one will ever truly understand the suffering...

Title of the Book: The Glass Castle Author: Jeannette Walls Number of Pages: 288 Rating: ☆☆☆☆  Review: When I look back upon my childhood I see moments spent with family and friends, birthday parties, shared dinners, and overall happy memories. The same could not be said about Jeannette Walls who tells her story about her childhood and how it impacted her in her book The Glass Castle. Jeannette begins her story when she was very little. She remembers vividly how she got severely burned when her dress caught on fire, cooking hot-dogs at the age of three. Jeannette grew up in a very unstable family dynamic. Her family was always moving from place to place doing what her father liked to call the Skedaddle. This made life for her and her family very difficult. Her parents were always struggling and had a hard time providing the basics for Jeannette and her siblings. This left Jeannette and the others to fend for themselves a lot of the time. As Jeannette grows older her family...

Title of the Book: Into the Wild     Author: John Krakauer   Number of Pages: 215  Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ "The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have new and different sun."                                         -Christopher McCandless The novel Into the Wild by John Krakauer gives a synopsis of Christopher McCandless', or Alexander Supertramp's, journey to find his true self, and where his crazy adventure began. Krakauer also tells his own stories, relating his adventure-filled life to McCandless'. This book drives thinking from the reader that you would never have thought of thinking of before. The story is of this young man, right after he graduated college. He leaves home due to complications with his home life, and insane want to go away...

Title of the Book: Into Thin Air Author: Jon Krakauer Number of Pages: 301 Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ Review: Do you enjoy climbing or have you ever thought about climbing seriously? Into Thin Air is about Jon Krakauer's experience climbing Everest in Spring 1996, and what happened before, during and after the tragedy on May 10. Krakauer's honesty about the entire experience is what makes Into Thin Air really unique, and his ability to bring in facts and history about Everest during his narrative and still keep his audience intrigued is incredible. There were a lot of mistakes made on May 10, and he doesn't ignore those mistakes, but he also doesn't blame anyone specifically for the tragedy and blames himself for a guide's death and is brutally honest about it. He wrote the book soon after the accident occurred as an act of catharsis, even though people advised him against it, to get Everest out of his mind. Krakauer talks about the individuals who died on the mountai...

Title of the Book: Into The Wild  Author: Jon Krakauer  Number of Pages: 224  Rating: ☆☆☆☆  Review:  Wilderness. Adventure. Fighting for your life. If you are looking for a book that combines all three of these interesting elements, then Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer is a perfect fit for you. The book follows the adventure of a young man named Christopher McCandless who attempted to climb the deadly “Devil's Thumb” mountain in Alaska. Jon also talks about his personal experience with dangerous encounters and life-threatening treks. This book is so unique because of how the Jon Krakauer is essentially examining another man's case, with his own input. This is so interesting because Jon himself has experience with extreme climbs up mountains. His friends were involved on one of the biggest Mt. Everest disasters in history. The author uses a unique one of a kind writing style that makes you feel as if you went through these extreme experience right by s...

Title of the Book: Beneath The Surface Author: John Hargrove Number of Pages: 257 Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ Review: John Hargrove introduces Beneath the Surface by describing himself as a young boy with a dream, a dream that was inspired by SeaWorld. Ever since his first visit to SeaWorld he has wanted to be a killer whale trainer. He starts working hard to pursue this dream at age 6, he eventually got SeaWorld’s attention with all of his letters and became a trainer apprentice. This was the start to his dream coming true. John finally got his dream job as an older adult and it wasn’t everything he dreamed it would be. After a few of his co-workers died while performing tricks and SeaWorld did nothing about it Hargrove decided to do something about it himself. At first glance Beneath the Surface appears to be any other unmasking. But after reading deeper into it the reader realizes how disappointing and arduous it must have been for Hargrove to turn on a place he loved for so ...

Title of the Book: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks  Author: Rebecca Skloot  Number of Pages: 328 Rating: ★★★★★   Review: The very first immortal human cells, used for the progression in science to find cures for disease and cancer, all came from one woman: Henrietta Lacks. While her cells are praised by scientists globally, the woman is unknown to many. Textbooks claim her cells were “donated” when they were actually stolen without her family’s knowledge. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot tells the story of this unknown woman and the ways she changed the world of scientific research forever while als o telling the story of her family’s journey in reaction to her exploitation. The book starts with a brief history of her life and the story of her cervical cancer. During her final days in the hospital before her death, her doctor took a sample of her tumor cells without her permission and was able to keep them alive, unlike other cells he experim...