autobiography

Dancing on My Grave | Greg Lawrence, Gelsey Kirkland

11-30-25: Newest member of my tattoo collection. Meet Gelsey. I was a ballerina for many years so it was only fitting to acknowledge that. I love her💖

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Graywacke

A Backward Glance | Edith Wharton

A Backward Glance - VI-VIII
(Next, Dec 6 IX-XI)
#whartonbuddyread

Wharton‘s early works, through House of Mirth, but more about her “inner group” - with Walter Berry, and a magical section on Henry James:

“these elaborate hesitancies…were like a cobweb bridge flung from his mind to theirs, an invisible passage over which one knew that silver-footed ironies, veiled jokes, tiptoe malices, were stealing to explode a huge laugh at one's feet.”

Graywacke Also, I didn‘t know Emily Bronte wrote poetry! What a gorgeous poem - Remembrance: https://poets.org/poem/remembrance 19h

Graywacke What did you all think? @CarolynM @Currey @IMASLOWREADER @jewright @Lcsmcat @Leftcoastzen @TheBookHippie (edited) 19h

Graywacke On Walter Berry: “From my first volume of short stories to “Twilight Sleep”, the novel I published just before his death, nothing in my work escaped him, no detail was too trifling to be examined and discussed, gently ridiculed or quietly praised.” 19h

See All 17 Comments

Lcsmcat I underlined so many sections! I was particularly amused by her description of New York conversation being like the gossip column of a country newspaper. (My NYC daughter would be incensed!) 19h

Lcsmcat “I remember once saying that I was a failure in Boston. . . because they thought I was too fashionable to be intelligent, and a failure in New York because they were afraid I was too intelligent to be fashionable.” 19h

Lcsmcat “None of my relations ever spoke to me of my books, either to praise or blame-they simply ignored them; and among the immense tribe of my New York cousins, though it included many with whom I was on terms of affectionate intimacy, the subject was avoided as though it were a kind of family disgrace, which might be condoned but could not be forgotten.” 19h

Graywacke @Lcsmcat it‘s a gorgeous section. So inspiring and interesting and amusing. I remember these quotes! 19h

Leftcoastzen I especially love the quote about her family not being interested in her books ! Hilarious they are ! As I think she noted if she was in a British or European family it would be of interest! 17h

Leftcoastzen I like how she discusses her friends and mentors. I read a lot of lost generation writers and in their time they seemed to act like they rose out of the ashes of war fully formed, and owed nothing to the earlier generations of writers. 17h

Currey @Lcsmcat Yes, you picked the perfect quotes for this section. I loved the part on Henry James, instead of making him appear more stuffy, it made him more vulnerable, more insecure and therefore more powerful to rise out of that to write how he wrote. And how could a family just ignore the very thing that is the core of you. She does not have much good to say about her husband does she? 16h

Lcsmcat @Leftcoastzen I liked how she gave her mentors and informal editors credit too. And how she was honest about her early stuff. I don‘t have my copy in front of me now, but there was something about not having a personality of her own until the first collection of short stories was published. 16h

Lcsmcat @Currey Yes, Henry James‘ personality really comes through. 16h

Graywacke @Leftcoastzen well - this lost generation were essentially chanting, “down with Edith Wharton” 🙂 15h

Graywacke @Currey @Lcsmcat Henry James comes out so lovable 14h

Graywacke @Leftcoastzen @Lcsmcat that names were so interesting! The social fabric that she sook out by intent 14h

Lcsmcat @Graywacke @Leftcoastzen And she skewered the lost generation too with “the amusing thing about the turn of the wheel is that we who fought the good fight are now jeered as the prigs and prudes who barred the way to complete expression—as perhaps we should have tried to do, had we known it was to cause creative art to be abandoned for pathology.” 14h

Currey @Lcsmcat Ouch 12h

29 likes17 comments

Kshakal

Humble Pie | Gordon Ramsay

#humble #arichlife @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Eggs True 💕 23h

ShelleyBooksie My motto! 13h

22 likes2 comments

OutsmartYourShelf

Faithfull: An Autobiography | Marianne Faithfull

pan

Autobiography by Marianne Faithfull - best known for a few hit songs & being Mick Jagger's girlfriend sometime in the 60s. Most people in this come across as insufferable bores who think they're erudite & witty because they're always stoned. Talking of insufferable bores - I've never gotten the hype about Dylan. Really can't see what the deal ever was. (continued)

OutsmartYourShelf As for the book, the structure was all over the place & the writing style made it a chore to read for the most part. Faithfull really didn't come across well, definitely not a 'girl's girl' as she slept with anyone - including friends' boyfriends & made vague excuses as to why it wasn't a big deal. Also tended to say things without considering what she was actually saying & goes on as if the sex & drugs just happened, 24h

OutsmartYourShelf rather than being choices on her part.

I don't have one of those personalities that is prone to addiction (except perhaps buying too many books) so I find it difficult to empathise when someone just keeps doing the same thing & wondering why their life is falling to pieces. The only person who comes out of this with any dignity intact is (ironically) Keith Richards. 2⭐
24h

OutsmartYourShelf TWs: (major) drugs, sex, infidelity, strong language (minor) pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion.

Full Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8081897225
Read 20th - 27th Nov 2025

#ReadAway2025 @Andrew65 @DieAReader @GHABI4ROSES 24h

See All 11 Comments

Bookwormjillk Great review 23h

BkClubCare @Bookwormjillk - yes, fab review. I probably will skip this memoir. I actually own a book on Keith Richards but haven‘t yet been inspired to read it. 22h

DieAReader 🥳🥳🥳 19h

dabbe Re: Dylan ... 🎯♥️🎯 19h

OutsmartYourShelf @Bookwormjillk Thank you 😊 17h

OutsmartYourShelf @BkClubCare I have his book 'Life' in my TBR pile & after reading this, I'm probably a bit more enthused to read it tbh. I'd like to know his take on what went off. 17h

OutsmartYourShelf @dabbe Glad I'm not the only one. There's always been this thing about him being a great songwriter etc, & I'm like “Huh?“ 17h

dabbe @OutsmartYourShelf Plus, he wins a Nobel Prize for Literature for writing words I can't understand when he's singing them! 🤣 12h

23 likes11 comments

ChaoticMissAdventures

I Put a Spell on You: The Autobiography of Nina Simone | Nina Simone, Stephen Cleary

pick

When I rate memoirs I rate on readability, structure and if the story is easy to understand. I do not decide what I think the author should tell me.
Simone's bio is fairly linear with not much back and forth through time which I appreciate, I also really enjoyed how she seemed to place herself in the time, not hinting on what is to come later.
For all this I think this is a great bio.
On a personal note 👇

ChaoticMissAdventures I am a bit disappointed on how much she strived to center men and pestle them in her life . At the end she even says I am as happy as I can be without a husband.... Yikes. She also seems to almost completely ignored her daughter which, another yikes. The book does give you a lot to think on around that and around art+politics; stage parents vs. unsupportive parents 1w

TieDyeDude I watched What Happened, Miss Simone? on Netflix. If I remember right, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and especially her later years were a bit tumultuous. Her daughter was a producer on the film, so it is interesting that she was mostly omitted from Simone's autobiography... 6d

ChaoticMissAdventures @TieDyeDude I have not seen this, I should call it up. I thought it was odd she rarely brought Lisa up. She does have a line at the end of the book (published about 10 years before she died) where she mentioned how she felt they were not close because Nina was too busy to have a close relationship with her. But she was also running off to Barbados to have an affair. (Trying not to judge) 6d

38 likes3 comments

Graywacke

A Backward Glance | Edith Wharton

👆Land‘s End - Wharton‘s Newport RI home

A Backward Glance - Chapters I-V
(Next week, Nov 29, chapters VI-VIII )

Before Newport, there is Rome, Alhambra, Paris, Bad Wildbad (Germany), old brownstone Manhattan, Florence and a yacht tour of the Aegean. We also meet Egerton Winthrop, Ogden Codman, Walter Berry, and kinda/sorta Mr. Wharton. Lush stuff, presented as natural and even middle class. The leisure class world. Thoughts?

Graywacke #whartonbuddyread
@CarolynM @Currey @IMASLOWREADER @jewright @Lcsmcat @Leftcoastzen @TheBookHippie 1w

Graywacke @CarolynM - looks like your handle didn‘t take above 1w

Graywacke Scroll down for a video of Land‘s End. It recently sold for $8.6 million. Be sure to check out the backyard views. https://liladelman.com/listing/42-ledge-rd-newport/ 1w

See All 32 Comments

Currey @Graywacke ah, yes, nice middle class views 1w

Leftcoastzen Her writing is just wonderful , as always! I knew we were not going to get true confessions! 😁Her descriptions of her travels with such details of the art & architecture, great . I love the details of how NYC changed from her youth . And her love of books and her father‘s library ! I know people of means loved the long vacation tours . It was harder then , but they had nothing to compare it to . Part of their education indeed ! 1w

Currey @Graywacke She does indeed seem to believe that she was middle class but during that era, the life she describes is not middle class. Her father‘s reversals of fortunes even did not leave them destitute but only forced them to live a cheaper life in Europe. 1w

Currey @Graywacke @leftcoastzen I really enjoyed the section about her mother‘s English and how that reflected exactly their place in society. And as always, it is wonderful to be back in Wharton‘s prose. I also was delighted to see how her life travels turned up later in her books 1w

Graywacke @Leftcoastzen that prose. How does she do it? It‘s the first thing I notice here is how lovely that voice is. Relaxes this reader immediately 1w

Graywacke @Currey right. I think she is clearly advertising the lost joys of the leisure class. But she can‘t bring herself to acknowledge it wasn‘t the fairest of lives. So she pleads denial, while fronting amazing travel, food, books and houses. But - what a childhood! And I love the visual impressions of 1870‘s Manhattan (edited) 1w

Graywacke @Currey one side trip to the accidentally wrong part of the Alps formed the basis of 3 books! I was also fascinated by the focus on the proper spoken English 1w

Graywacke @Leftcoastzen @Currey i‘m so happy you‘re enjoying. I didn‘t know what to expect. It feels lovely so far 1w

Lcsmcat Wow. If that‘s middle class, I‘m destitute. 😂 I think it shows how many even more wealthy people she hung around with! 1w

Lcsmcat I loved her mention of the (then) unpublished Fast and Loose “It was destined for the private enjoyment of a girlfriend, and was never exposed to the garish light of print.” 1w

Lcsmcat She did seem to be trying to justify her privilege. “In every society there is the room, and the need, for a cultivated leisure class” Is there really, Edith, is there really? 1w

Graywacke @Lcsmcat can i volunteer to take that role - for the civic wellbeing? 1w

Graywacke She was a wonderful reader. A quote: “There was in me a secret retreat where I wished no one to intrude, or at least no one whom I had yet encountered. Words and cadences haunted it like song-birds in a magic wood, and I wanted to be able to steal away and listen when they called.” 1w

Lcsmcat @Graywacke Why not? Edith says we need one. 😂 1w

Lcsmcat @Graywacke Per your quote, I wonder if that desire of hers was part of the reason her marriage failed - a la Hudson River Bracketed. She needed more interior life than her society was willing to allow her? 1w

Graywacke @Lcsmcat there were larger issues. He mentally broke down (and emptied her trust secretly) 1w

Lcsmcat @Graywacke And yet she (so far at least) makes no attempt to foreshadow this, which I find odd. 1w

Graywacke @Lcsmcat yes. She hasn‘t said his name, or anything significant about their relationship or his personality. 1w

TheBookHippie Sorry so late! I love the prose. I just love it. As for the leisure class is there a sign up?? The video was a WOWOWOW. Do you think she thought she was middle class??? As for the English it reminded me of my Grandmother who knew the upper and lower class French, Dutch and Yiddish (as it was used) she would say that‘s a scrub woman‘s French of Dutch- I would about pass out ..however she used that in ⬇️ (edited) 1w

TheBookHippie ⬆️volunteering in nursing homes with senile or Alzheimer patients as they‘d lose English immediately if they were immigrants and or refugees like she was- (back in the 1960- 1980s) she felt she owed it to help. 1w

TheBookHippie The not mentioning the MR is saying A LOT. I‘m very much loving this. Do you think she wanted to be single but society didn‘t allow it? 1w

Lcsmcat @TheBookHippie I don‘t know if she wanted to be single when she was young, but I think she didn‘t want to repeat the experiment when older. 😀 1w

Graywacke @TheBookHippie a scrub woman‘s French of Dutch. 🙂 You‘re not late. No clocks here. And I‘m with you on the prose! 1w

TheBookHippie @Lcsmcat For sure that! 1w

TheBookHippie @Graywacke my Bubbe was something ELSE. The prose is so very good. 1w

jewright She certainly had a fascinating childhood. I can‘t imagine spending so much time traveling. I always find people‘s earliest memories interesting, and that‘s how she started the book. 6d

Graywacke @jewright me too - I enjoy reading about early childhoods. I‘m fascinated by the nature of traveling in the 1860‘s & 1870‘s. (I tend to forget she was a child of this era. I think of her as an early 20th century person because that‘s when she started publishing. But she had a lived a lot before that) 6d

CarolynM I haven‘t had a chance to get to this yet. Hoping to catch you up before the end 🙂 5d

Graywacke @CarolynM i was worried about reading it. But it‘s been lovely. Read when you can. Glad you gave an update. 5d

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Graywacke

A Backward Glance | Edith Wharton

Lush life 2 - the books! #whartonbuddyread

Lcsmcat Loved this section. I can visualize that library! 1w

Leftcoastzen Yes ! I loved this section! 1w

35 likes2 comments

Graywacke

A Backward Glance | Edith Wharton

Lush life. The food! #whartonbuddyread

33 likes

ChaoticMissAdventures

I Put a Spell on You: The Autobiography of Nina Simone | Nina Simone, Stephen Cleary

I recently learned that the block of the park closest to my office was designed as Men Only back in the early 1900s.

There is a similar block 2 streets down that was for Women. I am glad we were equal (? At least they are the same size and both have bathrooms) but it really makes me determined to sit at the closer male side whenever I can. It's a good attitude for Nina Simone.

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Graywacke

A Backward Glance | Edith Wharton

#whartonbuddyread - I‘m finally starting. Chat Saturday!

IMASLOWREADER, Lcsmcat, CarolynM, TheBookHippie, Leftcoastzen, Currey, jewright

Leftcoastzen I need to start ASAP!😄 2w

Lcsmcat I‘m finding it a quick read so far. (Love the 🐈‍⬛mug!) 2w

Graywacke @Leftcoastzen I need to get going too. 🙂 I‘m behind my planned schedule. @Lcsmcat glad it‘s fast! The opening chapter reminded me how wonderful her prose can be. 2w

49 likes3 comments

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