Category: Book Review

“You kids quiet down!”
If you’re feeling wild, you’ve no doubt heard that, or…

It was a youthful indiscretion.
A mistake made due to immaturity or naïveté. Something you did to look bigger, older, or bolder. You knew better but it shouldn’t cost you everything, should it? As in the new book “Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A.” by Danielle Allen, it shouldn’t cost you your life.
He was her baby cousin.

Difficult.
We all know someone like that, who could charitably be called a challenge. Someone who swims against the current, who rubs people the wrong way, who makes you growly. In the new book “Soul Survivor: A Biography of Al Green” by Jimmy McDonough, ruffled feathers can come from surprising places.

Everyone you meet has an effect on your life.
Somehow, in some way, others change you: a stranger’s smile lifts your mood. Kindness makes you happy. An injustice spurs you to action, making you someone else’s change. Clearly, as in the new memoir “Truth Doesn’t Have a Side” by Dr. Bennet Omalu (with Mark Tabb), a chance meeting could alter your path.

He almost got your nose.
Or your cheek. Awkward, for sure, but on the second try, it finally happened. Then again. And again, each one sweeter than the last. As long as you live, you’ll never forget your very first romantic kiss or the person who gave it to you – even if, as in the novel, “The Diplomat’s Daughter” by Karin Tanabe, there’s a war outside the window.