Tag: memoir

Stranger Care

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Plot:

Stranger Care is Sarah Sentilles’ memoir of her and her husband’s journey to become parents. This book shares their process of deciding upon adoption, of the education and homestudy and licensing process, and of the long periods of waiting before they finally get the call that Coco needs a home. They pick up this sweet infant from the hospital, and want her to be theirs forever, but they also know her biological mama loves her and wants her. This memoir will make your heart bleed, but it will also make your heart swell with love. It comes out in May, so make sure to keep your eyes out for it.

The parts of this book where Sentilles was talking about adoption and foster care were absolutely gorgeous. She is a talented writer, and I was so invested in her journey to become a mom. However, much of this book focused on things other than adoption. Particularly for the first third of the book, we would get four pages about adoption, and then four pages on an unrelated nature topic like birds or trees, and then four page on adoption, and then four pages on another nature topic. These were still well written, but were less interesting to me as they weren’t what I had come to the book for. But if you can power through those, it’s absolutely worth your time to read.

What I loved most:

I really appreciated Sentilles’ thoughts on the responsibility of people to each other. American culture is so individualistic, and teaches us to care for ourselves and our nuclear/biological family. Beyond that, we don’t tend to feel like we need to care for other people – and in particular, for other people’s kids. We’re aware that there are kids in foster care, and that’s sad, but we figure it’s someone else’s problem to deal with it. That lets us ignore the fact that in the US, there are around 400,000 kids in the foster care system, and 100,000 of them have parental rights terminated and are ready to be adopted (stats from AdoptUSKids). Stranger Care brings up how important it is to be each other’s support networks. Some families are formed biologically, and that is great. But biology doesn’t always make the best family, and love doesn’t only come in one form.

Read this book if you like:

Memoirs, adoption, foster care, chosen families, Rock Needs River by Vanessa McGrady

Book details:

  • Author: Sarah Sentilles
  • Publisher: Random House
  • Date of Publication: May 21, 2021
  • Interest Level: Adult

Hard Truth

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Plot:

Dr. Lynda Ince-Greenaway was born in Barbados. Her father died when she was young; her mother migrated to England in hopes of creating a better life for her family. Lynda was able to join her eventually, fell in love, and got married. Her husband died just shortly before the birth of their son. She was a single parent, determined to make it through. Hard Truths is a reflection on grief and persistence and overcoming adversity and God’s faithfulness. It shares her story of prevailing over all of the obstacles she’s faced in her life, culminating in her son’s success in the medical field, her own successful attainment of a PhD, and a life lived in service to other people.

What I loved most:

Being vulnerable is one of the hardest things of all time to do. Yet being vulnerable, showing who you are and what you’ve been through, is the only way to form real connections. Ince-Greenway models vulnerability beautifully in this book. She never shies away from being honest about her trauma, her losses, what she’s been through – and this is what allowed her to grow.

As I live in my truth, I am able to take one step at a time and it gives me the confidence to keep moving forward with the intention of increasing my capacity to cope with adversity located in the past and the present. Knowing where I am coming from, remembering my roots and hot hiding the truth has been a powerful way to overcome adversity. As I accepted truth as it stood, I was able to accept the negatives and with time, grew out of them.

Hard Truths, page 164

Read this book if you like:

Pulling yourself up by the bootstraps, processing trauma, social work, reflecting on values

Book details:

  • Author: Lynda Ince-Greenway
  • Publisher: Balboa Press
  • Date of Publication:July 27, 2017
  • Interest Level: Adult

I received a free copy of this book from the author, but all the thoughts in this review are my own. I only write about books I enjoy, and was not financially compensated for this post.

Ms. Adventure

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Plot:

Can you even imagine if someone asked you what your job was, and you legitimately replied that you were a Volcanologist? Because that’s actually a job that some people can have. It blows my mind. Jess Phoenix is a Volcanologist. In Ms. Adventure, she shares stories of working on the side of a volcano with hot lava flows, studying the ocean depths, being the only woman on most job crews, and chasing down cartel members when they stole her favorite rock hammer. This book is part science, part memoir, and part adventure.

What I loved most:

I used to say that I wasn’t a science person. Chemistry and physics were my least favorite classes in high school. My brain leans more toward books and writing than it does toward atoms and matter (and yes, I definitely just googled “physics basic concepts” to have an example of a physics thing that I’m not drawn to. #crushing it). But THIS BOOK Y’ALL. Phoenix makes science SO interesting, and SO accessible to absolutely anyone who wants to learn. You are so wrapped up in reading about lava flows and the ocean depths that you forget you’re actually learning scientific concepts. Come for the volcanoes, stay for the incredible scientist teaching you geology.

Read this book if you like:

Memoirs, science (but even if you don’t like science, read this anyway), adventures, smashing the patriarchy by dominating in your field

Book details:

  • Author: Jess Phoenix
  • Publisher: Timber Press
  • Date of Publication: March 2, 2021
  • Interest Level: Adult