Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Nadine Takvorian GENRE: Graphic Memoir PUBLICATION DATE: March 10, 2026 RATING: 3.5 stars. In a Nutshell: An OwnVoices graphic memoir offering some insights into the Armenian genocide. The intent is worth appreciating; the content needs more detailing. Good illustrations, but I didn’t like the colour scheme. A valiant attempt at highlighting a part of history that’s never discussed. Recommended for awareness. Not an easy read. In September 2025, I read Pablo Leon’s ‘Silenced Voices: Reclaiming Memories from the Guatemalan Genocide’ , a graphic novel highlighting a genocide in Guatemala I had never heard of. When I saw this book, I was stunned that yet another graphic memoir has opted to showcase a genocide that doesn’t get attention anywhere. It makes me wonder how many mass massacres throughout history have actually been brushed under the table or even been denied their occurrence as propaganda. Kudos to such graphic novelists for making their voices heard and showing the trut...

AUTHOR & NARRATOR: Arundhati Roy GENRE: Memoir PUBLICATION DATE: September 2, 2025 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A memoir written by one of India’s most eloquent writers. I picked it up for her writing and was rewarded richly with her thoughts and words. Her deeds aren’t always my cup of tea, but I judge memoirs by their content and not by their authors’ life choices. This was an easy winner in that regard. Much recommended. I am not a big fan of memoirs. I find most of them fake and pretentious and even indulging in humble-bragging. Celebrity memoirs are even worse because they all sound the same ( probably because most of them are ghostwritten by the same ghostwriters who went to the same kind of creative writing courses .) I also am not a big fan of the new trend in memoirs wherein dirty family linen is washed in public, sometimes after the death of the “antagonist”. Given all this, I shouldn’t even have picked this book up, forget about reading it. But there was one key dif...

AUTHOR: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie GENRE: Memoir PUBLICATION DATE: May 11, 2021 RATING: 3 stars. In a Nutshell: A short collection of notes written by the author after her father’s sudden death. Quite intimate in tone. If you have experienced a personal loss, you will empathise with her feelings. Tough to decide whether and to whom to recommend this. From her home in the USA, author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie spoke to her father in Nigeria on 9th June 2020. On 10th June, he passed away. Though he was due for a hospital visit, there was no indication that his health issues were so severe. The lockdown was on, as were the covid travel restrictions. As you can imagine, coping with a parent’s sudden loss cannot be easy. Adichie uses this little memoir-of-sorts to share her experience with grief. At just 86 pages and with about thirty short notes, the book doesn’t take that long to read. But even within this limited time, it offers a powerful indication of the author’s sense of loss. As a self-...

AUTHOR: Estelle Nadel with Bethany Strout ILLUSTRATOR: Sammy Savos GENRE: Graphical Memoir PUBLICATION DATE: January 23, 2024 RATING: 3.75 stars. In a Nutshell: An upper-middle-grade graphic memoir recounting a Polish-Jewish girl’s experiences during the WWII Holocaust. Excellent presentation of the characters and their struggles. Mixed feelings about the art. Intense scenes, not surprising given the theme. Not for sensitive children. Enia Feld, who later becomes ‘Estelle Nadel’, was born to a large Jewish family in a small Polish village named Borek. The youngest of five, with the closest sibling being seven years older than her, Enia is the baby of the family. She loves to spend her days singing in the fields, playing with her siblings, and helping her mother in whatever little ways she can. All this changes when the Nazis invade Poland in 1939. Over the next five years, five-year-old Enia goes from the girl who sang at every opportunity to the silenced child in hiding, living on the...

AUTHOR: Theo Parish GENRE: Graphic Memoir PUBLICATION DATE: April 23, 2024 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A graphic memoir about a nonbinary person’s journey towards finding the right home within their body. Honest, heartfelt, and heartwarming. Loved the smooth narrative, with the conversational approach helping the content feel more personal. Not a book about definitions or politics. Much recommended to those looking for a book about the interconnection between gender and identity. Theo Parish, a Norwich resident, never realised why they felt odd about certain things, such as wearing girls’ clothes or having girly hairstyles. They also didn’t understand why they gravitated towards hobbies not traditionally considered feminine. It was only after many years of introspection, self-awareness, online searches, and personal interactions, that Theo figured out their true identity of being transgender and nonbinary. In this debut comic work, Theo takes us along their journey, using the me...

AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR: Pénélope Bagieu TRANSLATOR: Montana Kane GENRE: Graphic Memoir PUBLICATION DATE: October 17, 2023 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A graphic memoir, but not of the kind you typically see. Loved this eclectic collection of anecdotes from the author’s life, covering sweet and bittersweet memories. The writing and the artwork both are great. Definitely recommended. Somehow, there have been too many graphic memoirs coming my way in the last few weeks. Most of them hadn’t gone too well, so I had decided to take a break from nonfiction graphic works. When I picked this book up, I didn’t realise it was again a memoir, having totally missed that tiny tagline under the title. I just saw the adorable cover art and grabbed it. But this book has been a delight in various ways. This graphic comic was originally published in French under the title ‘Les Strates’ in 2021. This English translation was released in 2023. Had I not read this on the inside page, I would never hav...

AUTHOR: Ruby Elliot GENRE: Graphic Memoir PUBLICATION DATE: November 17, 2016 RATING: 1.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A mental health memoir in graphic novel format. Mixes text and illustrative accompaniments. Too dry and boring. This graphic memoir details the author’s struggles with several mental health issues such as bulimia, mood disorder, anxiety, and body dysphoria. It is not entirely in graphic novel format; a part of the book is written in ordinary prose and the rest of it is in comics style. The themes are great, and also sounds fairly genuine due to this being an OwnVoices work. But the execution was a bit too disjointed for my liking. There is no flow to the overall book, with topics switching across sections at random. The content is repetitive despite the themed chapters. The tone is way too self-pitying and defensive. Not sure how to feel about this. I get that mental health is a journey, but if this isn't meant to be your private diary, why make your rants public? Isn...

AUTHOR: Sarah Wynn-Williams GENRE: Memoir, Business PUBLICATION DATE: March 11, 2025 RATING: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: An insider account of the allegedly nefarious people and practices at Facebook, written by one of its key ex-employees. Some familiar reveals, some worrisome ones. Slightly lopsided and selective in its narration – a common issue in memoirs. A decent nonfiction option for those interested in the topic, though it might be more impactful to those who still believe that social media is good for people and that corporations such as Meta don’t abuse user privacy. (Is anyone still living under this rock?) As with all memoirs, take it with a pinch of salt because there’s a lot left unsaid. Sarah Wynn-Williams is a New-Zealand-born lawyer and public policy expert. Her childhood was noteworthy in one thing: she survived a brutal shark attack. Following a stint with the NZ government and with the UN after her law studies, Williams realised that she could make a bigger impact at a ...

AUTHOR: Sarah Leavitt GENRE: Graphic Memoir PUBLICATION DATE: September 24, 2024 RATING: 2.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A graphic novel memoir dealing with the author’s feelings after the death of her long-time partner. Depicts the helplessness and frustration of death effectively. Emotional throughout. Philosophical at times. Not my cup of tea but it might work better for the right reader. In April 2020, the author’s partner of 22 years, Donima, chose to have a medically-assisted death after suffering for many years from various severe ailments, including worsening chronic pain. She was only fifty-four, but most of her life had gone in dealing with her various conditions and injuries. This collection of comics was sketched by the author during her first two years without her partner. As she says, they show her “exploration of the new uncharted territory of personal grief.” As you might guess from the above, the book is full of pain. Some might assume that the book charts the course through...

AUTHOR: Mariann Edgar Budde GENRE: Inspirational Nonfiction PUBLICATION DATE: May 23, 2023 RATING: 4 stars. In a Nutshell: I read this more for the author than for the book itself as I am not so fond of this genre. But no regrets at all. This book offers several inspiring anecdotes and life lessons, and also insights on what counts as bravery. January 2025 has already established that this lady is courageous and inspiring. The content of this book shows that she has been walking the talk for much longer than most of us knew. I hadn’t heard of Bishop Mariann Budde until 21st January 2025, when she spoke the bravest words to the toughest audience in the most graceful manner. Her impassioned appeal for mercy towards everyone gave me goosebumps. I don’t remember the last time I have been so in awe of a leader, and more importantly, the last time a Christian leader actually made me feel proud of their approach towards the tenets of the faith. To see a Bishop of a large diocese embody incl...

AUTHOR: Wendy Mitchell GENRE: Memoir PUBLICATION DATE: June 5, 2018 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: The memoir of a woman who unexpectedly became the face of young-onset Alzheimer’s in the UK. Ghost-written with the help of a journalist, this book covers her diagnosis, reaction, coping strategies, everyday experiences, and her plans for the future.. The writing is filled with pain and frustration as well as hope. Much recommended. Do note that it might be triggering for Alzheimer’s patients and also caregivers. A reading challenge I am participating in needed a book penned by a ghost-writer. I was very clear that I didn’t want to opt for any celebrity memoir, most of which are sanitised fake versions of their lives. Nor did I want to try fictional novels that straddled the line between pseudonymous and ghost-written. ( The Nancy Drew series, for instance. ) Google led me to Wendy Mitchell’s memoir. One look at this book’s blurb, and I knew I finally found the right option for the...

AUTHOR: Sayantani Dasgupta GENRE: Anecdotal Memoir PUBLICATION DATE: September 24, 2024 RATING: 3.9 stars. In a Nutshell: A delightful OwnVoices collection of essays about the author’s experiences as a brown woman in the USA. Note that the title and the blurb are somewhat misleading. This is not a generic book on racism or stereotyping or ‘othering’, but an anecdotal memoir: the story of ONE brown woman, and a privileged one at that. It’s wonderfully written, but don’t look for generalised ‘brown woman’ life experiences. There should be no doubt about why I grabbed this book. That title, “Brown women have everything”, beamed out to me like a beacon. As a brown Indian woman, I was thrilled to see someone of my skin colour ( or at least in the same brown-shade family ) pen a set of essays about brown experiences. This turned out to be a slightly incorrect estimation. The title is taken from something a white woman said to the author, so in that context, it is represented in the book. U...

AUTHOR: Maria Augusta von Trapp GENRE: Memoir PUBLICATION DATE: January 1, 1949 RATING: 2.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A memoir penned by Maria Von Trapp, whose life later inspired ‘The Sound of Music’. Written in 1949, much before the Broadway musical and the movie. Offers a decent glimpse of Maria and the Trapp family, and also indirectly shows us the liberties taken by Broadway/Hollywood in their portrayal. A good option for those who want to know more about how a rich Austrian naval captain’s family ended up becoming tour singers in the US. Most English-movie watchers might have at least heard of ‘The Sound of Music’, even if they haven’t watched it. I had first seen this movie in my childhood and immediately fell in love with the music. ( It broke my heart to discover that the couple from my favourite song ‘Sixteen Going On Seventeen’ didn’t proceed to a happy ending. ) It was only many years later that I discovered that the movie was based on the actual family from Austria. I have ...

AUTHORS: Shea & Larami Serrano SERIES: The One, #3 GENRE: Short true-life narrative. RATING: 4.5 stars. Would you like to read a story that's perfect for Christmas time but has no mention of Christmas at all and isn't even set during the holiday season? Try this one! It will warm the cockles of your heart. This story tells us about Shea and Larami Serrano's wedding day in March 2007. They had been together for seven years and had been planning the wedding since fifteen months. However, just two days before the big day, Larami, who was four months pregnant, went into labour. What happens next? If this were a novel, I'd have said that it is too good to be true, that the ending is way too perfect, that the characters are unrealistically sweet, that there are too many coincidences,... But this isn't fiction! As Neil Gaiman once said, 'Life is always going to be stranger than fiction, because fiction has to be convincing, and life doesn't.' And life trul...