In Their Shoes Challenge Update

Completely unintentionally, the last 4 books I read were memoirs! I have officially completed the In Their Shoes Challenge! YAY!

Here's what I read, with links to my reviews:

So Many Books, So Little Time - Sara Nelson*
Lucky Man - Michael J. Fox
The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama
Candy Girl - Diablo Cody**
The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch
Sister Salty, Sister Sweet - Shannon Kring Biro & Natalie Biro
Night - Elie Wiesel
The Mistress's Daughter - A.M. Homes
Hannah's Gift: Lessons of a Life Fully Lived - Maria Housden
Three Little Words - Ashley Rhodes-Courter

*I didn't review this as I started my book blog after I had already finished. I'm including it in the challenge though, because I read it after January 1.
**I did not fully review this book. Click on the link to see my tiny remark.

I'm hoping I can read even more memoirs/biographies before the end of the year, considering the large amount I've got waiting to be read on my bookshelf.

Three Little Words - Ashley Rhodes-Courter

This is Ashley Rhodes-Courter's memoir; the way she pieced together her childhood as she bounced around 14 different foster care homes in 9 years. Her mother was a teenager when she gave birth to Ashley, and always promised to come get her "soon."

This was a heartbreaking but very enlightening tale of foster care, the abuse that happens more often than we thought, and the case workers who fight vigorously for innocent children. Ashley was smart and had a way of putting aside the horror of life to excel in school. One of the homes in which she stayed for eight months was especially appalling, and Ashley and the other foster children (at times more than 10 lived there) were abused and seriously mistreated. Fearing she might endure more torture, Ashley stayed silent for years but eventually lead a fight and several lawsuits against those foster parents.

Ashley eventually was matched with an adoptive family, with whom she now gets along fabulously. It was hard in the beginning to adjust as she constantly thought her behavior would warrant her return to foster care. Ashley continued to excel in school and advocate for better foster care in the state of Florida (ironically, the state in which I now reside) and eventually earned an invitation to the White House for a reception; she was personally invited by Hillary Clinton! She had been recognized for an essay she wrote in USA Today about J.K. Rowling and how the Harry Potter series changed her life (she also met Rowling, obviously). She also won an essay contest hosted by the New York Times Magazine for the essay about her adoption day, titled "Three Little Words," which she eventually turned into this memoir.

This was a fascinating look into foster care, although I was raging when reading the abusive parts. I am really appalled that the state of Florida's foster care system was so lacking for many years - Ashley was technically considered missing for 9 months because the paperwork showed inconsistencies! I cannot imagine having lived through this nightmare, but Ashley is still thriving. She won several other prestigious awards, including a college scholarship, and a quick visit to her website shows that she is still engaging in speaking opportunities around the country, advocating on behalf of America's foster care children.

The Mistress's Daughter - A.M. Homes

Author A.M. Homes was born to a 22-year-old woman blinded in love by her "boyfriend," who happened to be an older, much married man with a family of his own, and was adopted shortly after birth into a nice family, where she grew up with an older brother.

Homes learned of this adoption at the age of 31. Once her parents dropped the bomb, Homes eventually got in contact with her mother, Ellen, then her father. Her mother turned out to have never lived her life at all - never married, never had more children, really never stopped loving Homes's father, Norman. He, as it turned out, continually lied to Ellen when she was pregnant, telling her he was leaving his wife and family to start fresh with her and their baby, and even moved a pregnant Ellen to Florida with a message that he would soon follow. He never did.

Homes does not feel a connection to her birth mother, and eventually we see why - Ellen is very clingy. When A.M. does not return calls, or refuses to see her, Ellen continuously calls wondering why and when they can meet. Norman, however, makes A.M. submit to a DNA test before he will have anything to do with her. She and her father do meet a couple of times, but eventually he wants nothing to do with her.

Homes becomes obsessed with her birth parents' family history, and pays several hundred dollars and many years obtaining genealogy details. Her constant quest for information consumed a large portion of the book, but it was rather interesting the history she was able to piece together, through data, through joining websites, to researching in libraries, to exchanging emails with distance relatives. She finally hit a roadblock when her father refused to produce a copy of the DNA test she submitted to, a document which she needs to provide to become a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She speaks to several lawyers, even considers suing her father to prove that he's her father, but decides to let it go.

And we leave her with the knowledge of her own little girl, Juliet. I do recommend this book; it's short and quick and really well written. Very interesting, considering all the details she obtains about her lineage. And sometimes witty. I just love memoirs.

In Their Shoes Challenge

So inside of my big challenge - 101 books in 1001 days - I decided to first strive for a mini goal: reading more memoirs/autobiography/biography, and so I joined the In Their Shoes Challenge.

The rules are that I get to pick how many books I want to complete and I must complete them between January 1 and December 31, 2008. Not too hard, right, and I am only chosing 10 books:

Lucky Man: A Memoir - Michael J. Fox
Love Always, Petra - Petra Nemcova
Bitter is the New Black - Jen Lancaster
Sister Salty, Sister Sweet: A Memoir of Sibling Rivalry - Shannon Kring Biro & Natalie Kring
Lessons in Becoming Myself - Ellen Burstyn
Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert
Saving Graces - Elizabeth Edwards
What Remains - Carole Radziwill
Maiden Voyage - Tania Aebi
The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama


I already have 9 of these, and one is my boyfriend's, so I don't even have to purchase any new books to read! I'm starting Lucky Man this weekend.