Jim Motavalli

“Murphy is plain-spoken, a man of faith and modesty, and the ideal person to write this World War II memoir. One hopes the television series will be half as good.”

“The book, told in . . . first person, is heavily plotted and—like the house—full of secret passageways and red herrings.”

“Don’t Know Tough is southern gothic turned up to 11, written by a first-time author who knows the territory. Like . . .

It’s interesting that the title of Ian McEwan’s wide-angle and engrossing family history is Lessons, because his protagonist, Roland Baines, is inclined to abandon his teachers.

Music memoirs come in many different forms, but Three Pianos by Andrew McMahon is in a small sub-genre: the self-loathing confessional.

The stories in Maggie Shipstead’s You Have a Friend in 10A were published in literary journals between 2009 and 2017.

“You learn a lot, change a few long-held assumptions.

“Tracy Flick Can’t Win is a deeply humanist work by a master of observation.”

We’ve all encountered the stories of people who experienced childhood trauma, only to have it blight their later lives until a final reckoning.

The title of this book could be misleading.

On the cold night of January 8, 2014, 22-year-old Kait Leddy walked onto the Benjamin Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia.

Britain’s Desert Island Discs has been on the BBC since 1942. They don’t have to choose records on that mythical patch of sand with a lone palm tree for company, but many do.

“there are a lot of contradictions in modern Iran, and reading this book will give you many valuable insights into how the country functions—with repression and tolerance going hand in hand

“Tiger in the Sea is ultimately an inspiring, uplifting book, with multiple heroes.”

It’s not surprising that the jacket blurb compares this new memoir to Patti Smith’s Just Kids. Besides being a terrific book, that one sold really well.

Let’s face it, a book centered around the wretched child abuse of a large family at the hands of a demented religious fanatic has some inherent drama to it.

Michael Oberman was the music columnist at the daily Washington Star, taking over from his older brother, Ron, from February 1967 to March 1973.