Midpoint: A Memoir

title: Midpoint: A Memoir
author: Patricia Angeles
published: 22 October 2022
publisher: self-published
genre(s): memoir, nonfiction
pages: 158
source: Bewitching Book Tours
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | StoryGraph | Goodreads

rating:

the blurb

Midpoint: A Memoir is an immigrant woman’s story of perseverance and building a legacy future generations can be proud of.

Patricia Angeles is at the midpoint of the average human lifespan. Decades of experience, mistakes, love, and loss have led her to contemplate what anyone might when they’ve lived half their life. “What kind of legacy am I leaving behind? What do I want my friends and family to remember after I’m gone? What are the biggest life lessons I can impart while I’m still here?”

Through this collection of personal stories, Patricia attempts to assess her answers to these questions, and perhaps encourage others to do the same. Spanning from her childhood in Manila to her immigration and life in Los Angeles, these stories touch on her youth, her acclimation to American culture, her remarkable career in the world of banking, her thoughts on motherhood, the important people who made her who she is today, and major events that forever changed the trajectory of her life.

A raw, honest, poignant, and at times funny read, Patricia aims to inspire her readers to pursue happiness against all odds and to not settle for a life of mediocrity. Through the power of story, this book ultimately asks: What are we but the accumulation of our experiences?

a few notes

cover notes: minimalist
keywords/phrases: life, immigration, career, motherhood
mood reading: a new perspective on a different life experience

my review

This book is touted as a memoir for the author’s children, something she created so that her daughters can know her in a different light from that of “mother” or “wife.” I think the collected memories in this book will allow them to do exactly that.

The writing is very good, and the descriptive imagery and phrasing took me to places I’ve never visited. The memories are short, small vignettes of moments over the course of the author’s life, telling of her childhood through to the phase of her life currently. I love that the book feels as if it is a conversation between two people. Some of the memories are nostalgic, with others that taught the author some life lesson. There are sad memories, happy memories, memories that speak of simple joy. I enjoyed that the author bared it all… the good, the bad, the ugly.

Rating Report
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