10 Life Stories the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Time Magazine Say You Should Read
If you still wonder what to read before Summer ends
This time, wondering what to read in Summer instead of my regular options, I opted for life stories. So, I went to the sources where you look for bestsellers. After checking over fifty options, these are the ones that caught my attention.
Some talk about dealing with your ancestry, their stand on race issues, and people who care about animals. Others who, without our attention, are fighting to stop Russia’s oligarchs and corrupt politicians from hiding their money in fiscal heavens.
Also, some about people who shaped society in recent times, in issues of racism, abortion, and life second chances. But for my last two, I couldn’t resist two fiction novels about some future and dystopian societies.
I hope you like these choices as much as I did. Once again, after you read the article, bookmark it on your books-to-read list and share it with other reading enthusiasts
1.- Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation
By Maud Newton, Random House
“If I dug deeply enough, if I scrutinized my findings hard enough and long enough, I might understand why my mother became a preacher and I became a writer and my father was unable to love me in a normal fatherly way.” — Maude Newton
Imagine you send your DNA test to 23 And Me, and a few days later, you receive a link to see your relatives. When you open the page, you find you are related to some famous white supremacist or enslaver. What would you do?
Maud Newton wasn’t surprised to find those lost family members. As a matter of fact, she knew her family had a long history of racism, violence, and cruelty passed by multiple generations of her family.
She wanted to learn more about her ancestors, trying to understand what made his father “cover the faces of brown children in her storybooks with her mom’s nail polish.” Also, why he wouldn’t let her watch Sesame Street because children of different races played together.
Uncovering several generations before, she learns about mental illnesses, multiple marriages, an accused witch, and her ancestors’ roles in slavery and genocide — in an effort to find the transformational possibilities of reckoning and reconciling with her ancestors.
2.- Funny Farm: My Unexpected Life with 600 Rescue Animals
By Laurie Zaleski, St. Martin’s Press
“Okay!” she shouted. “Go ahead and cry, all of you! Cry me a goddamned river! The more you cry, the less you pee! — Laurie Zaleski, Funny Farm
Every little boy or girl dreams of having a home full of cats, dogs, a horse, and a little lamb. Unfortunately for little Laurie and her two sisters, it was not a dream but a nightmare.
She lived in a wealthy home with her sisters, her mother, and an abusive father, who often used her mom as a punching bag. Until one day, he pulled a knife on her, and she decided to grab a couple of pillowcases, fill them with some stuff, grab their children and leave the man.
After living in some shady hotels, they rented the most wrecked house they could find and afford and started a new life without any furniture. Until her father found them, her mom got a German shepherd named wolf to defend their kids, and from then on, they lived with no money but plenty of animals.
Living in what her mother called the Funny Farm, a place fit for lunatics and full of pets. From there on until her mother passed away, she lived in that house and later moved to a farm where she now runs an animal rescue with over 600 animals.
This book, written as a tribute to her mom and her love for pets, takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions, from sorrowful memories to the funny story of how she became the proud Founder of Funny Farm Rescue & Sanctuary.
3.- Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin’s Wrath
By Bill Browder
While most people in the world probably haven’t heard my name, Vladimir Putin thinks about my name on a very regular basis. He really dislikes me because I’m the guy responsible for the Magnitsky Act. — Bill Browder
Where would you hide your money if you were a Russian oligarch trying to keep your billions safe without the USA and its allies freezing them?
Freezing Order follows the story of how Browder, founder of Hermitage Fund, after losing money due to fraud and corruption of shareholders, with very close ties to Putin.
His associate Magnitsky uncovered a $230 million tax fraud, leading to his arrest and suspicious death by the Russian government. Congress passed the Magnitsky Act in 2012, allowing travel bans, asset seizures, and visa freezes on human rights violators. In other words, the reason Putin is so interested in influencing the US government, to the point of bribing members of Congress, hiring top American lawyers, and allegedly interfering with the 2016 elections.
Now in Freezing Order, he introduces other characters who, in Russia and in the USA, try to stop all Russia’s oligarchs and Putin from interfering and kill the Magnitsky Act should Republicans take Congress in 2022 or the presidency in 2024.
4.- His Name Is George Floyd
by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa
“I can’t breathe!” — George Floyd
Perhaps these are the last words you remember from a man that, not since Martin Luther King or Malcolm X, made people aware of racism, racial discrimination, and police brutality against people of color. Unfortunately, like MLK and Malcolm X, Floyd also had to die to do it.
You know how he died, and about the 8 minutes and 42 seconds, he lay under the knee of a police officer. But how much do you know about George Perry Floyd Jr., born October 14, 1973, in Fayetteville, North Carolina?
From the kind-hearted child he was to the loving father he became, in “His Name Is George Floyd,” authors Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa tell the story of the man who became the face of the BLM movement in 2020.
5.- Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life
By Delia Ephron
“Giving with no expectation of a return is the only way to give. That is, of course, the absolute truth, although I had not thought of it before.” ― Delia Ephron, Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life
Do you know what John Travolta’s film “Michael,” Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan’s “Sleepless in Seattle” and “You’ve Got Mail,” or maybe “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” “Bewitched,” and “Hanging Up,” have in common?
They are the work of American bestselling author, screenwriter, and playwright Delia Ephron, who, besides her successful movies, books, and plays, have experienced not only life’s highs but also its lows.
After losing her sister and her husband to cancer, she found a second chance in life by reconnecting with a man she shared a few dates fifty-four years before, and they fell in love.
However, contrary to her acclaimed work, this was not a rom-com — four months later, she was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. In “Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life,” the author, between tears and laughter, tells her story of her life, sickness, and sorrow. But also the fortune of being in love for the second time, enjoying small details, and the fortune that comes with having a second chance in life.
6.- Nasty, Brutish, and Short
by Scott Herskovitz
“Words aren’t just strings of sound. They are strings of sound to which we attach meaning. And yet it’s not the meaning of words that makes them bad either. Just consider this list: poop, crap, manure, dung, feces, stool. It’s all the same s**t. And yet, it’s only “s**t” we shouldn’t say. Why is that? F**k if I know.” ― Scott Hershovitz
Remember when as a kid, you used to play being an armored knight, a cowboy, an astronaut, a nurse, a doctor, or even ThunderCats, He-man, or She-Ra? There were no limits to your imagination. In seconds, you could switch from defending a castle to fighting evil on a remote planet.
The reason is that when you are playing, there are no limits. You don’t stop to think if it’s right or wrong, possible or impossible, because your mind works free. Now, Imagine you’d ask a child the most profound philosophical question.
Law and philosophy professor Scott Herskovitz asked his sons, Rex and Hank, the most pressing questions we face, demonstrating how we all might benefit from harnessing our child-like sense of wonder more often.
7.- The Family Roe: An American Story
by Joshua Prager Finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
“I was the Jane Roe of Roe vs. Wade, but Jane Roe has been laid to rest.” — Norma McCorvey
Not since 1993 has Roe vs. Wade appeared in the news or on social media as now that the Supreme Court revoked it. However, how much do you know about the woman who became known to the world as Jane Roe?
“The Family Roe: An American Story” tells the story of Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff in the case that made until this year abortion legal. She didn’t want to be an advocate for abortion. She was only a homeless pregnant waitress, barely getting by, who had placed two children for adoption, and this time, she simply wanted to end her pregnancy.
Working as a waiter and a prostitute in Dallas, she wasn’t allowed to join the movement she represented because its leaders denied her being part of their protests and rallies. McCorvey told Texas Monthly in 1993, “I think they’re embarrassed. They would like for me to be college-educated, with poise and little white gloves.”
The author spent hundreds of hours interviewing McCorvey for “The Family Roe,” including the last one, from a hospital bed at the end of her life. And getting firsthand her thoughts and if she had changed her mind after all the years.
8.- The House of Dudley: A New History of Tudor England
by Joanne Paul
“Each Tudor monarch made their name with a Dudley by their side — or by crushing one beneath their feet.” — Joanne Paul, The house of Dudley
If you saw “The Tudors” with Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry VIII and Henry Cavill before “Superman” and “The Witcher,” or love Philippa Gregory’s Plantagenet and Tudor novels, you know something about the Dudley family.
They were part of history from the times of Henry VII to their fall from grace for unsuccessfully trying to install Lady Jane Grey on the English throne. The Dudley family had one of its members around each Tudor monarch. Even Sir Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, was allegedly a love interest of Queen Elizabeth I.
You will love this book if you are a fan of history and the gossip around the Tudors’ English throne from Henry VII to Elizabeth I and the rise and fall of “history’s most brilliant, bold, and unscrupulous family.”
**The following books, even though they are fiction, I think you should include them in your reading list. Believe me; you won’t regret it.**
9.- The Women Could Fly
By Megan Giddings
After the Supreme Court revoked Roe vs. Wade, there were plenty of discussions about laws ruling women’s bodies. Imagine for a second if the government strictly monitored and regulated women because they were capable of magic.
In the world of “The Women Could Fly,” the author paints a world where women had to marry before the age of 30, so by 28, they must enroll a registry or be incarcerated because they are capable of witchcraft.
Josephine “Jo” Thomas, the main character, tells the story of how before turning 28, she had to deal with the Bureau of Witchcraft, her mother’s disappearance, and the accusation of witchcraft that hangs over her family.
10.- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
by Gabrielle Zevin
Regardless of the game, the platform, or the device you use to play your favorite adventure, at least once in your life, you thought about creating one. What the heck! You probably had even planned one with your buddies.
In Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, the author tells the story of Sam and Sadie. Two friends who started playing video games by chance in a hospital game room and, years later, get together to create new game worlds for new generations. They struggle through challenges when the pressures of fame and finance appear.
This is a must-read book if you love to read about video games, alternative stories, and Erin Morgenstern’s books.
Take Away
Often, the most exciting books are where you don’t expect them. This was the case with the ten books feature before. Some of them make you laugh. Others teach about the life and story of people we regularly only know from what we read in the news. However, without considering the person behind them and the relationships they left after dying.
Another makes you wonder if you could assume the responsibility of caring for so many sick animals, regardless of how much you love your pets, but 600, I think, is remarkable. I hope you liked the selection.
The information and links will help you pick the next title you might read.
“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” — Mortimer J. Adler
© Copyright Jose Luis Ontanon, 2022