Saturday, September 22, 2018

Autobiographies ...

I haven't read a lot of autobiographies, but here are a few that I've read in the last couple of years that made an impression.

Books about high-altitude mountaineering are exciting by definition.  But there's more to this one than just that.  It's the story of a woman who wants to climb high mountains in a time when it's mostly men who do that sort of a thing.

2. Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl
Ruth Reichl is a restaurant critic / cookbook author.  This is the story of her unusual childhood (dysfunctional family included), and her love of cooking.  It's peppered with recipes that I didn't really want, but I loved the story.

3. God's Hotel by Victoria Sweet
The author writes about her years working at San Francisco's Laguna Honda Hospital, which is one of the last few almshouses (a free hospital for poor and often chronically ill people) in the country. Dr. Sweet also talks about her research of pre-modern medicine (and be warned - those sections are not as interesting).  But overall, I found this book to be very insightful and very fun to read.

The three books above were all surprise finds.  I picked them up at the library and brought them home because I liked what it said on the back cover.  Didn't have them recommended to me by a friend.  Didn't look up the Amazon reviews.  What joy to run into a good book accidentally like that!