#237 - Al Pacino remembers his childhood, and Eleanor Roosevelt finds herself

An episode from 8/10/26: Tonight, I read about the childhood and adolescence of the actor Al Pacino (born in 1940), as told in his wonderful memoir Sonny Boy. (I also recommend the audio version, read by Pacino himself). We also hear about Pacino now, and what looking back at his upbringing in the South Bronx means to him.

After a brief detour on Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel, Jane Eyre (and recommending that audiobook, too), I read about the early years of Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), as told in Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns's documentary companion book, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. Here, an orphan by the age of ten, a mostly unloved and unnoticed Eleanor is sent to a boarding school in London, where she finds love and belonging for the first time in her life.

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