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WORK TITLE: Everything I Never Wanted
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: North Salem
STATE: NY
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married; husband’s name Nick; children; grandchildren.
EDUCATION:R.N; B.S; H.C.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Worked formerly as an elementary school nurse.
AVOCATIONS:Cycling. Reading. Spending time with her family and dog.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Barbara Santarelli is a New York-based former nurse. She is an R.N, B.S, and H.C.A. Santarelli worked as a nurse for more than four decades. She was also an elementary school nurse. After twenty-five years in that position, she retired. While working as an elementary school nurse, Santarelli wrote sex education articles for tweens and parents.
Santarelli has been married twice. She is a mother, grandmother, and Daschund owner. When she is not writing, she enjoys bicycling, reading, and spending time with her dog and family. She and her husband, Nick, live in North Salem, New York.
Everything I Never Wanted, Santarelli’s first book, is a memoir documenting her life from a childhood in the Bronx to her later-in-life coming-of-age. Throughout the book, Santarelli emphasizes her taste for the finer things, highlighting her draw to excess and class. She describes how this impulse was instilled in her, and how she ultimately came to learn that material goods would never truly satisfy her.
The book opens in Santarelli’s childhood. She and her brother, Stephen, were raised by her Jewish mother in the Bronx after their father left. Despite the family’s financial struggles, Santarelli’s mother was skilled in the art of social mobility. She befriended the neighborhood socialite and taught Santarelli of joys of the finer things in life. Santarelli struggled in school and had difficulty making friends. In childhood, she felt isolated and lonely, something that would affect her for much of her life. Following her mother’s guidance, she turned to the pursuit of goods and wealth to create a sense of belonging. She dedicated herself to school with the goal of becoming a nurse.
After nursing school, she met her first husband, a pharmacist. The two had children, bought a house, and enjoyed life as an upper-middle class family. When financial issues began to arise, the dream life Santarelli and her husband created collapsed. To deal with this difficult time, Santarelli turned to cycling. It was through this new passion that she met her second husband, Nick. Through their relationship and her newfound love of cycling, Santarelli was able to learn that experiences create a deeper satisfaction than wealth ever could.
A contributor to the BookLife website described Everything I Never Wanted as “told in strong, and often irreverent voice laced with humor,” while a contributor to Kirkus Reviews described it as “a witty and thoughtful account that’s a portrait of the mother-daughter bond as much as it is a search for love.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2017, review of Everything I Never Wanted.
ONLINE
BookLife, https://booklife.com/ (June 3, 2017), review of Everything I Never Wanted.
Barbara Santarelli, R.N, B.S, H.C.A has been an employed nurse for more than four decades and an elementary school nurse for the past twenty five years. She's authored articles about sexuality education for "tweens" and parents and credits her long and varied nursing background for her sense of humor and persistent optimism. Twice married( currently to husband Nick, Santarelli is a mother, grandmother ,avid reader and recreational cyclist who considers Stella, a miniature daschund and Celeste, her road bike to be members of her extended family.
Barbara Santarelli, R. N. B.S. H.C.A, a recently-retired former elementary school nurse has authored articles about sex education for “tweens” and credits her long and varied nursing career to her cryptic sense of humor and persistent optimism. Her memoir, Everything I Never Wanted, A Memoir Of Excess, to be released on September 12, 2017. When she is not writing, Barbara enjoys cycling, reading, and time with her husband Nick, children, grandchildren and Stella, her nine pound Daschund.
Barbara Santarelli, RN, BS, HCA, has been an employed nurse for more than four decades and an elementary school nurse for the past twenty-five years. She’s authored articles about sex education for teens, and credits her long and varied nursing career to her cryptic sense of humor and persistent optimism. Twice married (currently to husband Nick), Santarelli is a mother, grandmother, avid reader, and cyclist who considers Stella, her nine-pound Dachsund, and Celeste, her road bike, to be members of her extended family.
Santarelli, Barbara: EVERYTHING I NEVER WANTED
Kirkus Reviews. (Sept. 15, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Santarelli, Barbara EVERYTHING I NEVER WANTED She Writes Press (Indie Nonfiction) $16.95 9, 12 ISBN: 978-1-63152-258-1
A baby boomer reflects on her Bronx childhood and coming-of-age in this debut memoir. Santarelli always had an eye for details. As she and her second husband stood waiting for the train to New York City one cold January morning, she noticed the clothing, demeanor, and style of a woman her age. Her sharp observations had been with her since childhood, which she spent in the Bronx with her older brother, Stephen, and Jewish mother after her father left. Santarelli quickly became an outsider, struggling with school, her mean neighbor Kathy, and a witch of a teacher. Her mother tried to angle her way up the social ladder, befriending Mary the socialite and imparting a love of life's finer things to her only daughter. Santarelli trudged through school, deciding along the way that she wanted to be a nurse. Her brother suffered, and survived, a harrowing ordeal with a brain aneurysm. After nursing school, she embarked on her nursing career and met her first husband, a pharmacist. They married, had children, and enjoyed upward mobility until financial trouble cast a dark pall over their Tudor home. While they survived that rocky period, a newfound love of cycling introduced her to Nick, and an unexpected chapter of her life began to unfold. While this promises to be a memoir of excess, it's mostly a memoir of details, with beautiful descriptions of furniture, neighborhoods, and memories. The book's best drawn character is the author's mother, "destined to be different even before the divorce." The 1950s and '60s are evoked in various cultural markers, from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to "peasant shirts and long Indian print, gauzy skirts." While the adulthood chapters lack the evocative language used to paint Santarelli's childhood, the drama alone (a broken engagement, angry creditors, infidelity) can keep the reader engaged. The narrator's triumphant training as a cyclist makes for a lovely conclusion and happy ending to a story that shares so many struggles. This book should certainly be of interest to readers of the author's generation. A witty and thoughtful account that's a portrait of the mother-daughter bond as much as it is a search for love.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Santarelli, Barbara: EVERYTHING I NEVER WANTED." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Sept. 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A504217488/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=8f2b2d8f. Accessed 16 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A504217488
Barbara Santarelli
Author
| Website
Everything I Never Wanted: A Memoir of Excess
Barbara Santarelli, author
It took eight homes, fifty years and a three hundred mile bike ride to finally discover what it meant to belong. Everything I Never Wanted is a story about the importance of belonging and life-long impact of an isolated childhood. Told in strong, and often irreverent voice laced with humor, the memoir examines the positive outcomes that may be the result of negative conditions and innate optimism.
BookLife Prize - 2017
Plot/Idea: 8 out of 10
Originality: 9 out of 10
Prose: 7 out of 10
Character/Execution: 8 out of 10
Overall: 8.00 out of 10
Assessment:
Plot: This fascinating and, at times, challenging tale of one woman’s journey to find herself is full of emotion and stark, uncomfortable truths. The deeply personal narrative reveals a vulnerability that is as painful as it is endearing.
Prose: The depth and breadth of detail and backstory—needed to set the stage for Santarelli's later decisions—enriches the reading experience but is handled clumsily at times. The repetition of certain themes cements their importance, but also manages to provide small interruptions to the narrative's overall flow. However, the conversational, relatable writing style is enough to captivate readers and keep the pages turning.
Originality: The author manages to invite readers in and share both the good and bad aspects of a life well-lived. The bold examination of an era featuring so much change is refreshing.
Character Development: Santarelli's growth as a person, mother, wife, and nurse is clearly delineated and lovingly detailed. Readers will want to see more about how the momentous decisions changed the author's life, though that may simply be the desire to not see the story end.
Date Submitted: June 03, 2017