Tag: Nonfiction

Audiobook Review: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Author: John Berendt

Narrator: Jeff Woodman
Published: January 13, 1994
Audiobook
: 15 Hours 4 minutes

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: October 5-13, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars

Audiobook Description:

Shots rang out in Savannah’s grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. John Berendt’s narrative reads like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction. Berendt interweaves a first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case.

The story is peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman’s Card Club; the turbulent young redneck gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the “soul of pampered self-absorption”; the uproarious black drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young blacks dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else.

Jessica’s Review:

This book is a case of where truth is stranger than fiction and it happens in the Southern town of Savannah, Georgia! We have an intriguing and colorful cast of characters in 1981 Savannah. It has also become a movie that I saw at least 15 years ago, but when I saw it I don’t think I realized it was a true story!

This is a true crime book that reads like fiction! In actuality the author’s ‘character’ in the book is the only fictional character because in reality he arrived in Savannah during Jim William’s first trial.  Yes, I said first trial because he was tried more than once. Berendt really pulls you into this true story with some intimate details that might be TMI for some readers.

Almost any kind of ‘character’ you can think of is in this book: We have a drag queen, a con artist, black debutants, and a voodoo priestess among many more!  The narrator Jeff Woodman did a fantastic job portraying some of these real people’s voices.  My favorite among this colorful cast was The Lady Chablis. She even wrote a short biography around 200 pages that I plan on borrowing from my library! Kevin Spacey portrayed Jim Williams and they did a fantastic job of making him look like Jim Williams from a picture I found online, even though his acting was apparently not up to Berendt’s standards . I loved that The Lady Chablis played herself!

This one was a book club pick, and I enjoyed the book, it’s such an intriguing real-life tale! I even rewatched the movie after finishing it.  It’s a longer one at 2.5 hours and does a good job condensing the story but still getting the whole story.  After finishing the book, it has me wanting to go back to Savannah and even tour Mercer house which you can still do today.

 I enjoyed this true crime book!   

Here is the trailer to the movie:

Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
The Film: Amazon US

Audiobook Review: Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

Greenlights
Author: Matthew McConaughey

Narrator: Matthew McConaughey
Published: October 20, 2020
Audiobook: 6 hours 42 minutes

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To:  June 21-23, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars

Audiobook Description:

From the Academy Award®–winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction.

I’ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.

Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges – how to get relative with the inevitable – you can enjoy a state of success I call “catching greenlights.”

So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops.

Hopefully, it’s medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot’s license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears.

It’s a love letter. To life.

It’s also a guide to catching more greenlights – and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.

Good luck.

Jessica’s Review:

This is a memoir to enjoy! Greenlight!

I have always been a Matthew McConaughey fan and have been meaning to read this one forever! And I went with the audiobook and it gets a perfect 5 stars from me! Greenlight!

McConaughey tells us his life story up to his first 50 years of life, and for the audiobook he tells it himself.  And it wasn’t just him reading the book he wrote, listening to it  was an experience! He tells his story with such expression and puts everything into his narration, I don’t think I could have possibly enjoyed this memoir any more than I did! Greenlight!

McConaughey seems totally down to earth and tells his story where you feel that you get to know him as a person. Everything before, during, and after Hollywood! And things you think you know (aka the bongo drum incident) we actually learn even more about. 

Did you know that McConaughey was an exchange student to Australia?  I didn’t and he definitely had an interesting experience! He tells us about his childhood and he also traveled through Europe on a motorcycle with a few other actors, and he even floated down the Amazon.

McConaughey seems like a down to earth man and did you know all he ever wanted in life was to be a father?  We even get a part of the man’s spirituality.

We get his career in Hollywood, and I forgot he was in Angels in the Outfield!  We get his start with Dazed and Confused I was most interested in his time working on A Time to Kill, and why he doesn’t do rom coms anymore. I learned about a few of his films I did not know about but now want to see: Mud and Dallas Buyers Club. We see him meet his future wife and mother of his three children. Greenlight!

If you are a Matthew McConaughey fan you must read this book! I would say listen to it to hear the literal words come out of his mouth himself.  This is the kind of memoir I love, one where you feel that you really get to know the person.  The last memoir I listened to and felt that way was Jessica Simpson’s memoir Open Book.  If you are looking for any dirt and gossip you will be disappointed. He didn’t kiss and tell on relationships other than his wife.  Listening to this memoir I really feel like I got to know the man, yet he also kept some things private.   Greenlight!

Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

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Audiobook Review: Pageboy by Elliot Page

Pageboy: A Memoir
Author: Elliot Page

Narrator: Elliot Page
Published: June 6, 2023
Audiobook: 8 hours 24 minutes

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: June 6-9, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 3 stars

Book Description:

Pageboy is a groundbreaking coming-of-age memoir from the Academy Award-nominated actor Elliot Page. A generation-defining actor and one of the most famous trans advocates of our time, Elliot will now be known as an uncommon literary talent, as he shares never-before-heard details and intimate interrogations on gender, love, mental health, relationships, and Hollywood.

Jessica’s Review:

Memoirs are a hard thing to rate and review.  It is someone’s life and they are telling their story in their way. And with Pageboy Elliot Page tells his story.  I just didn’t really feel I learned much listening to him actually tell his story. And he does actually tell his story to the listener as he is the narrator for the audiobook. 

The memoir is nonlinear so we are going back and forth through time throughout.  It was at times a bit confusing and didn’t really seem to go where it was meaning to.  Page does show how child actors are treated in Hollywood and it really isn’t something that kids should go through.  Page even had a stalker at a young age. When he talked about that it was scary to hear, as it was early in the internet days where this stalker came from. And the things this stalker said to a young person are just scary!

Most of the memoir dealt with Page being a closeted lesbian to the public, but those in Hollywood knew.  Page came out in 2014 as a lesbian with a speech that Ellen at the time made.  Page does a lot of ‘kissing and telling’ with intimate details with many partners but there are two actresses that he names. I would assume he got permission to tell those tales/names.  One relationship was mentioned more in depth. It also seems like Page may love the idea of being in love with all the details he shares over all the many ‘relationships’ he had. 

Page makes it clear early on in life he knew that he was not a girl but a boy and dressing in ‘girl clothes’ didn’t work for him. That even went into acting jobs in Hollywood that he had.  Page knew he was different from others when he was younger.  Several times he asks others if they think he is trans when he was still Ellen.  Maybe he was looking for support and acceptance from others.

We also see the bigotry and more that Page experienced before and after he was out as Ellen and a lesbian.  We see the anger that Page had with his reactions to those which could make those situations worse.  

There are some stories that Page starts that really don’t get finished and the last part of the memoir dealt with his top surgery. I was wanting to hear more of his transformation process, but it was just skimmed over.  It just seemed like he was telling a lot of different stories that he may or may not have finished. He didn’t really seem to know where he was going with this memoir.

I do applaud Page for telling his story in the way he wanted even if it was not really for me. But I am also not the targeted demographic for this memoir being a heterosexual CIS female. I am sure there are those who are closer to the target demographic that will fully enjoy the memoir. Page was brave by coming out not once, but twice in his still young life and I hope he continues to be an example to others and increase awareness in the LGBTQ community.

Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

 

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