In My TBR Stack:

Funny Face: A Memoir
by Peggi Davis
Archway Publishing
Trade Paperback


From the publisher's website:

The bright lights of Manhattan, burning crosses in Mississippi, and former flames from Texas sparked a series of stories and essays featured here in Funny Face. With wit and wisdom, author Peggi Davis’ musings recount the hilarious and harrowing events that occurred as she gingerly grew up, and her fractured family moved from town to town.

Half hippie, half haute couture, she entered the wacky world of retail advertising at the young age of nineteen. There, her outrageous experiences and escapades with a collection of colorful, creative colleagues provide a humorous personal narrative. And her ability to rise above the secrets hidden from her as a child offers insight into the sadder parts of her life.

Now in her seventies, Davis’ insight on aging and other timely topics gives voice to a generation raised on marvelous music, incredible imagination, and the power of love.

In My TBR Stack:

Man Mission: Four Men, Fifteen Years, One Epic Journey
by Eytan Uliel
Archway Publishing
Trade Paperback

From the book publicity:

In college a group of four young men establish a tradition: every year, they come together for a week-long trip in search of adventure and distraction. They travel around the world to go hiking, biking, or kayaking. They call it their Man Mission, a sacred ritual dedicated to new experiences and friendship.

In the course of their travels, they hitch a ride with drug dealers in New Zealand, down kava shots on Fijian beaches, come face-to-face with a roaring lion in South Africa, luxuriate in a resort intended only for Vietnamese Communist officials, trek to Machu Picchu, and go ice climbing in Iceland. 

Over the years, they all get married, start families, establish careers, and do all the stuff upright men are supposed to do. But when the challenges of real life come into conflict with the perfect lives they are supposed to be living, the yearly Man Mission becomes more than an annual getaway. It's a source of stability and a place to find redemption.

Part travel narrative and part roman à clef, this novel follows four regular guys as they find adventure together, and seek meaning and purpose, in a world where the traditional rules of "being a man" are no longer clear.

In My TBR Stack:

Thrown Upon the World: A True Story
by George Kolber and Charles Kolber
Archway Publishing
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

It is 1938 when the Kolbers, affluent Viennese Jews, flee their country for Shanghai after its annexation by the Nazis. Eva and her daughter take the Trans-Siberian Railroad through war zones where they must confront border guards and Japanese imprisonment. Meanwhile, her husband, Josef, and their twin sons travel by ocean liner, hiding valuables in crates.

Similarly in China, the politically powerful Gan Chen family finds their lives upended by Japanese invaders. Forced to abandon their estate, the family seeks refuge in Shanghai. While the families adapt to their new lifestyles during the war, their children meet. Walter Kolber is a handsome violinist; Chao Chen is a gifted pianist.

After a forbidden romance blossoms, Chao Chen discovers she is pregnant. Without familial blessings, the lovers marry in December 1946 and head with their newborn to a refugee camp in Austria. As Chao Chen grapples with language and cultural barriers, the family is met with turmoil and tragedy. Now only time will tell if they will survive their troubles to start a new life in the United States.

A remarkable true story, Thrown upon the World tells the tale of two families brought together during World War II in Shanghai and the twist of fate that split them apart.