Zami

Lourde is a poet, so it’s not surprising that Zami is often poetic. It’s lucky, actually, because that poetic musing is about the only thing that saves it from being yet another autobiography that carefully tells the reader all about the author’s sex and love life.

3/5

A Boy's Own Story

White's sort of autobiography is interesting, particularly in the way he doesn't build himself up in any way, however, it's not particularly memorable. Already a lot of the details are fading, only a couple weeks later, and the only thing that distinguishes it is that instead of echoing a bildungsroman, it ends fairly early, oh, and has gay sex. And stuff.

3/5

Salvation Army

My stodgy side reappears! A memoir that ruminates for a long time on the author's giant crush on his older brother, and doesn't really contain much other than that, except his parents' fights and this Swiss guy he fucks for awhile, and then doesn't. There isn't much of substance here, and I am willing to admit that the incest threw me out of the narrative, but frankly, there wasn't much of a narrative to begin with.

2/5

A Precocious Autobiography

I’ve never read Yevtushenko’s work, so I can’t comment on his poetry; however, his autobiography is very, very good. I admit to crying multiple times, particularly in his depiction of Stalin’s funeral, however, it collapses toward the end, wherein Yevtushenko spends twenty pages being very smug, very self-congratulatory, and very, very arrogant. When he writes about the Russian people, he is incredibly moving; when he writes about himself, he just comes off like a pompous ass.

3.5/5

Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever...

Swish is a delightful little romp, advertised as a man's quest to become the gayest person ever, and packaged as such, with chapters on knitting, aerobics instruction, and go-go dancing. But instead of being a shallow, if funny, look into sterotypical homosexuality, it is a much more nuanced memoir, tackling issues like the early death of Derfner's mother and his struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder. That isn't to say it isn't funny, because it is very, very funny. But instead of being a waste of time, if an enjoyable time-waster, it is an intelligent little memoir, packaged as something much less substantial.

4/5

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

If you know the basics of punctuation and are looking for something that offers more complex usage, this isn't it. What Eats, Shoots & Leaves does is blithly, humorously take the reader into the mind of the punctuation obsessed. I'm a bit of a grammar and punctuation freak, so I can totally attest to a lot of what Truss is saying, however, at the same time, most of the information she conveys is really only for those who slept through their English classes, and really, those aren't going to be the people who pick this up.

No, what Truss is doing is preaching to the converted, and unfortunately, her very basic guide to punctuation doesn't exactly fit into a book that is really for those people who are well versed in the basics. Yes, I know where a comma goes. Yes, I understand that ownership must be denoted, and that you're and your are different creatures. If I didn't, I doubt this book would have much appealed to me.

This works more as an extremely funny rant than the guide it proposes to be, but as a rant, it succeeds. It's only when Truss decides to be teacher instead of writer that the work falls down.

3/5

History Laid Bare

This is a fascinating read. It's a collection of source material, with few interjections from the author, of love and sex, from ancient times to the early 20th century. That may sound a little dry, right until you are staring at laws from thousands of years ago, accounts of Cleopatra's plainness, Catherine the Great's young male lovers, Edgar Allan Poe's propensity for obsessive courtship, and not just one woman at a time.

You discover that Mozart was a little scatological, Casanova lost his virginity in a threesome with sisters, and a lot of adventurers had a little too much fun with the natives. While long, each of the sources are short and informative, and the only times Zacks jumps in is for clarification and background. It's great to just pick up and read about Marx's softer side before putting it down and continuing on with your day.

3/5