Review:An Age of License by Lucy Knisley

Title: An Age of License

Author: Lucy Knisley (Author Website)

Published: September 2014

Edition Read: Purchased Book

Level Recommended: Young Adult/New Adult

Overall: Knisley made you feel you were having a conversation with a close friend instead of reading a travelogue. Honest and humble with her experiences, Knisley did not disappoint.

Series: Personal Travelogue 

Summary: (From Amazon) Acclaimed cartoonist Lucy Knisley ( French Milk, Relish) got an opportunity that most only dream of: a travel-expenses-paid trip to Europe/Scandinavia, thanks to a book tour. An Age of License is Knisley’s comics travel memoir recounting her charming (and romantic!) adventures. It’s punctuated by whimsical visual devices (such as a “new experiences” funnel); peppered with the cute cats she meets along the way; and, of course, features her hallmark―drawings and descriptions of food that will make your mouth water. But it’s not all kittens and raclette crepes: Knisley’s experiences are colored by anxieties, introspective self-inquiries, and quotidian revelations―about traveling alone in unfamiliar countries, and about her life and career―that many young adults will relate to. An Age of License―which takes its name from a French saying―is an Eat, Pray, Love for the alternative comics fan. 

Review: I've been familiar with Lucy Knisley's online work for several years. I've been interested in her published work for quite a while, but until picking up Age of License I hadn't read any of her published travelogues. I am also not really an autobiography person. In short I just did not know what to expect when I finally sat down and decided to read her newest travelogue An Age of License.


The graphic novel starts off with Lucy getting ready to jet off to Europe for a book tour and personal trip to France to meet her mother. Lucy is also candid about the fact that she is also recovering from having ended a very serious long-term relationship while wondering what will happen in that area of her life.



Reading any of Knisley's work brings up the feeling of speaking with a good friend about her travels. The story is personal and intriguing. The drawings are minimalistic and clean with watercolor paintings sporadically illustrating some of the people, sights, and food that Knisley sees along her trip. I found a lot of what Knisley wrote and drew really resonated with trying to find yourself. Lucy Knisley is continuing to find herself all the while chronicling about that time for everyone to see. That takes a lot of courage. I'm intrigued enough to read more of her published works.

Knisley has published Displacement, a travelogue about Knisley learning more about her grandparents and their time in WWII, and will publish two more graphic novels. Something New, all about her wedding and planning it with her husband, and New Kid, a memoir of her time as the new kid in four different high schools in four years.

For now, you can get a taste of Knisley's work in Stop Paying Attention and her blog. 

Mommywood by Tori Spelling

Mommywood by Tori Spelling

(Author)

If you thought Tinseltown was tough . . .Tori Spelling might have grown up with everything a girl could wish for, but these days she’s just another suburban working mom . . . whose toddler regularly recognizes her in the pages of US Weekly. Welcome to Mommywood, where the stars are two feet tall and your neighbors know who you are before you move in. Like most parents, Tori wants her children to have the one thing she didn’t have as a kid—a normal family. On their hit Oxygen reality show, Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, the starlet and her husband Dean McDermott regularly wrestle dirty diapers, host the neighborhood block party, and tackle temper tantrums on the red carpet. But when the cameras aren’t rolling, Tori’s still having awkward run-ins with a former 90210 costar at a laser tag birthday party, scooping rogue poo out of the kiddie pool on a resort vacation, and racing to win back her pre-baby body before the media starts calling her fat. For all her suburban fantasies, Tori Spelling is no June Cleaver. With the same down-to-earth wit that made her entertaining memoir sTORI telling a #1 New York Times bestseller, Tori tells the hilarious and humbling stories of life as a mom in the limelight, from learning to be the kind of parent her own mother never was to revealing what it’s like to raise a family while everyone is watching. Mommywood is an irresistible snapshot of celebrity parenthood that you won’t get from the paparazzi. (Synopsis from B&N.com)

Yes, I seriously read this book. Yes, I actually liked it! And, no, I don't really make it habit to read celebrity tell-alls. Let alone Tori's first book, sTORI Telling. I know near to nothing about the Tori Spelling nor have I really watched any of her movies. So, why then would I be compelled to read Mommywood. I honestly have no idea. I find Tori and Dean's story to be the anti-Angelina and Brad in that I had no idea that Tori and Dean fell in love while he was still married. It is also something that is talked about in this book, and while I don't love that Dean was married before I can see the love he has for Tori and their children in this book. Tori and Dean talk about thier marriage with honestly and openness that you just don't normally see in mostly Hollywood relationships.

Also, confession time, I had actually watched a couple episodes of Tori and Dean's reality show when Tori was pregnant with Liam...now that Liam is 3 years old, um, I've missed quite a few episodes. However I enjoyed what few episodes I have seen, and I suppose because of that I wanted to read Mommywood. Again, I enjoyed this book for what it was. Tori made fun of herself in that she is a pampered Hollywood child. She isn't used to doing things on her own, and, being an only child, doesn't know what it's like to care for another human being. Her husband, Dean, however has not only had a child with his previous wife, but grew up in entirely different non-Hollywood culture. Tori talks about her insecurities in not only raising her son, but raising her daughter, Stella, and not making the same mistakes that her mother did with her.

I loved Tori's voice in this book. Her ability to make fun of herself and take you almost seemingly into her life made this book relateable. Yes, it was relateable because I think, despite your cultural background, you would be equally scared changing your baby's diaper or raising a daughter without your personal hang-ups. We are all the same deep down, and this book makes Tori so much more human to those who just see her as a Star.

Read this book. Especially if you are going to have a baby. I really think that this book can make you laugh and nod your head in understanding.

Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah

Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah
Young Adult, Memoir

Summary (from author website)
A riveting memoir of a girl’s painful coming-of-age in a wealthy Chinese family during the 1940s.
A Chinese proverb says, “Falling leaves return to their roots.” In Chinese Cinderella, Adeline Yen Mah returns to her roots to tell the story of her painful childhood and her ultimate triumph and courage in the face of despair. Adeline’s affluent, powerful family considers her bad luck after her mother dies giving birth to her. Life does not get any easier when her father remarries. She and her siblings are subjected to the disdain of her stepmother, while her stepbrother and stepsister are spoiled. Although Adeline wins prizes at school, they are not enough to compensate for what she really yearns for — the love and understanding of her family.
Following the success of the critically acclaimed adult bestseller Falling Leaves, this memoir is a moving telling of the classic Cinderella story, with Adeline Yen Mah providing her own courageous voice.
All I can really say about this book is that it really opened my eyes. Not just to life in China during the 1940's and 50's, but how deeply the culture and traditions of China played such a huge part in ostracizing a little girl and her brothers and sisters from her step-family. Chinese Cinderella was one of the most moving memoirs I've ever read. I cried reading this book for the life that this little girl, obviously now a grown women, lead simply because of the circumstances of her birth.
I also snapped up her adult memoir Falling Leaves which continues her story not completely told in her YA book. The way her adult life continues and how she continues even as an adult to try and be accepted by her family is heartbreaking and true to life. I could completely relate to Adeline's desires to be loved by her step-mother. I highly recommend this to readers who love stories where someone has everything against them still raise above her circumstances.
Read an interview with Adeline Yen Mah on Writer's Write.
Or read a book review of Falling Leaves on Book Whisperer.