Memoirs and Biographies
Chicken and Plums, by Marjane Satrapi
This is a bit of a weird book.
Satrapi is famous for her graphic memoir Persepolis, and rightfully so. This is her third (I think) book, and the first one not to deal with events of her life, but rather those of her great-uncle, Nasser Ali Khan, a famous musician. In this book, he searches for a new tar after his is broken. Unable to find one, he decides to die. This book is the story of the eight days between that decision and his death.
Anyway, like I said, it's a bit weird. Over the course of those eight days we get a series of stories from his life, including his feelings about his children and his wife, memories of his first love, and even flash-forwards to the lives of his children. The story is... a bit difficult to take in, at least for me, and while I enjoyed it, I had a really hard time parsing what was actually occurring. I also found it a bit difficult to sympathize with Nasser Ali Khan, particularly in his interactions with his children.
That said, the art is fantastic, and I loved the interval with Azrael, the angel of death. Satrapi has a real knack for the well-timed humor in very dark times, as well. It's a good biography, insofar as it is one. I just think it's not for me.
As You Wish, by Cary Elwes and Joe Layden
So, I'm a big fan of The Princess Bride, both book and movie. I'm sure you are too. If so, this book may be of interest to you.
As You Wish is Cary Elwes's memoir of making The Princess Bride, of the fun he had and the stupid things he did on set, with interludes by other members of the cast, including Robin Wright, both Chrises, and the director Rob Reiner. It's a pretty interesting look at the making of the movie. I listened to it in audiobook, and Cary Elwes actually makes for a pretty good narrator as well.
The book does focus a lot on Andre the Giant, which is not necessarily a flaw. It also goes on a bit long in some areas, at least for me. That said, I quite enjoyed it, and it certainly shed a new light on the movie. I'd recommend it for fans of the movie.
A Tudor Tragedy: The Life and Times of Catherine Howard by Lacey Baldwin Smith
AUGH.
Okay. This book really frustrated me. I picked it up because I thought it might be a sympathetic view of Catherine-- I thought the author was a woman, based on the name, and I thought a woman might be more understanding. Nope, it's a dude, and he is judgy as all fuck. It was also published in 1961, so, you know, twice as judgy. He calls her things like a silly slut and a frivolous idiot, and I just. Oh my god. She was a child, you asshole. She was no more than nineteen when she died. She may have been as young as twelve when her music teacher abused her. She was a child and she was thrown headfirst into a world she had no ability to understand thanks to her near-total lack of education. Do not complain about what you think are her personal failings when, in fact, she was still so young and so uneducated. We will never know what she could have become, and we will never know the woman she could have been. Don't you dare dismiss her as an idiot when she was only a child.
Ahem. That said. Smith really does have a talent for a good turn of phrase, which is why I kept reading. He also painted a really good picture of Tudor London, but there are other books that do that as well (Liza Picard, anyone?). Maybe read this if you really want to read 1960s Tudor scholarship, but otherwise, I really don't think it's worth anyone's time.
The Making of the African Queen, or: How I went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and almost lost my mind, by Katharine Hepburn
Oh, Katharine Hepburn. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
Ahem. This is very similar to As You Wish, in that it's a memoir of the making of a specific movie. Hepburn's style is much more journalistic, though, as if she kept a diary during the making of the movie and simply transcribed that into this memoir. I don't think that's what she did, but it wouldn't surprise me. It's funny and interesting and clever, just like Hepburn herself, and I haven't even seen the movie to connect it to.
There are some, uh, extremely unfortunate references to local residents, which you wouldn't expect necessarily from a book published in the late eighties. Hepburn does manage to refrain from overt racism, and her most scathing remarks she generally saves for John Huston, the director. So, there's a lot of subtle racism, be prepared going in, but it might be worth it. Individual call.
Hamilton: The Revolution, by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter
*sigh*
*swoon*
Ahem. The Hamiltome, as it is fondly referred to, is the complete libretto of Hamilton interspersed with various essays on the making of the musical. Miranda and McCarter contribute essays on everything from the casting of the original cast to the inspiration behind the show to Miranda's song-writing process. Multiple other people contribute essays as well, on political circumstances surrounding the revolution and today, on the use of the musical in history classes across the country, even on President Obama's minor involvement. It's a beautiful hardcover and kind of tear-jerkingly awesome if you're a fan.
Even more, the libretto has ANNOTATIONS. These veer back and forth between historically nerdy, musically nerdy, and just plain hilariously nerdy, all of which I love. Lin-Manuel Miranda is my new hero and this book is lovely.
I know, btw, that this is stretching the theme a bit, but shh. It's a biography of a musical, and I love it.
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