Have you ever considered sitting down to write out your life story? Regardless of who you are or where you’ve been, everyone has a story to tell. From celebrities to politicians to everyday people, it seems that nearly everyone is writing a memoir. If you’re interested in crafting a memoir of your own, here are some great books to help you through the process.
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Did you enjoy the movie Hidden Figures? Then you are sure to enjoy more tales of women breaking barriers in science and math fields. Check out a few of these similar titles or be inspired by the book version of Hidden Figures!
Hidden Figures : The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space.
Among these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching math in the South’s segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America’s aeronautics industry was in dire need of anyone who had the right stuff. Suddenly, these overlooked math whizzes had a shot at jobs worthy of their skills, and they answered Uncle Sam’s call, moving to Hampton, Virginia and the fascinating, high-energy world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory.
The Glass Universe : How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars by Dava Sobel
In the mid-nineteenth century, the Harvard College Observatory began employing women as calculators, or “human computers,” to interpret the observations their male counterparts made via telescope each night. At the outset this group included the wives, sisters, and daughters of the resident astronomers, but soon the female corps included graduates of the new women’s colleges—Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith. As photography transformed the practice of astronomy, the ladies turned from computation to studying the stars captured nightly on glass photographic plates.
Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science-and the World by Rachel Swaby
Headstrong delivers a powerful, global, and engaging response. Covering Nobel Prize winners and major innovators, as well as lesser-known but hugely significant scientists who influence our every day, Rachel Swaby’s vibrant profiles span centuries of courageous thinkers and illustrate how each one’s ideas developed, from their first moment of scientific engagement through the research and discovery for which they’re best known. This fascinating tour reveals these 52 women at their best—while encouraging and inspiring a new generation of girls to put on their lab coats.
Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars by Nathalia Holt
In the 1940s and 50s, when the newly minted Jet Propulsion Laboratory needed quick-thinking mathematicians to calculate velocities and plot trajectories, they didn’t turn to male graduates. Rather, they recruited an elite group of young women who, with only pencil, paper, and mathematical prowess, transformed rocket design, helped bring about the first American satellites, and made the exploration of the solar system possible.
For the first time, Rise of the Rocket Girls tells the stories of these women–known as “human computers”–who broke the boundaries of both gender and science. Based on extensive research and interviews with all the living members of the team, Rise of the Rocket Girls offers a unique perspective on the role of women in science: both where we’ve been, and the far reaches of space to which we’re heading.
The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan
At the height of World War II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was home to 75,000 residents, and consumed more electricity than New York City, yet it was shrouded in such secrecy that it did not appear on any map. Thousands of civilians, many of them young women from small towns across the U.S., were recruited to this secret city, enticed by the promise of solid wages and war-ending work. What were they actually doing there? Very few knew. The purpose of this mysterious government project was kept a secret from the outside world and from the majority of the residents themselves. Some wondered why, despite the constant work and round-the-clock activity in this makeshift town, did no tangible product of any kind ever seem to leave its guarded gates? The women who kept this town running would find out at the end of the war, when Oak Ridge’s secret was revealed and changed the world forever.
Summer is almost over, and autumn is approaching. Here are some books to get excited about as the temperature falls.
FICTION
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
The acclaimed, bestselling author—winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize—tells the enthralling story of how an unexpected romantic encounter irrevocably changes two families’ lives.
One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating’s christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny’s mother, Beverly—thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families.
A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny
#1 New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny pulls back the layers to reveal a brilliant and emotionally powerful truth in her latest spellbinding novel.
When an intricate old map is found stuffed into the walls of the bistro in Three Pines, it at first seems no more than a curiosity. But the closer the villagers look, the stranger it becomes. Given to Armand Gamache as a gift the first day of his new job, the map eventually leads him to shattering secrets. To an old friend and older adversary. It leads the former Chief of Homicide for the Sûreté du Québec to places even he is afraid to go. But must.
Here I Am by Jonathan Sanfran Foer
A monumental new novel from the bestselling author of Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Showcasing the same high-energy inventiveness, hilarious irreverence, and emotional urgency that readers loved in his earlier work, Here I Am is Foer’s most searching, hard-hitting, and grandly entertaining novel yet. It not only confirms Foer’s stature as a dazzling literary talent but reveals a novelist who has fully come into his own as one of our most important writers.
Razor Girl by Carl Hiassan
When Lane Coolman’s car is bashed from behind on the road to the Florida Keys, what appears to be an ordinary accident is anything but (this is Hiaasen!). Behind the wheel of the other car is Merry Mansfield–the eponymous Razor Girl–and the crash scam is only the beginning of events that spiral crazily out of control while unleashing some of the wildest characters Hiaasen has ever set loose on the page.
Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple
Eleanor knows she’s a mess. But today, she will tackle the little things. She will shower and get dressed. She will have her poetry and yoga lessons after dropping off her son, Timby. She won’t swear. She will initiate sex with her husband, Joe. But before she can put her modest plan into action-life happens. Today, it turns out, is the day Timby has decided to fake sick to weasel his way into his mother’s company. It’s also the day Joe has chosen to tell his office-but not Eleanor-that he’s on vacation. Just when it seems like things can’t go more awry, an encounter with a former colleague produces a graphic memoir whose dramatic tale threatens to reveal a buried family secret.
Today Will Be Different is a hilarious, heart-filled story about reinvention, sisterhood, and how sometimes it takes facing up to our former selves to truly begin living.
NON FICTION
Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen
In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl’s halftime show. The experience was so exhilarating that Bruce decided to write about it. That’s how this extraordinary autobiography began.
Over the past seven years, Bruce Springsteen has privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life, bringing to these pages the same honesty, humor, and originality found in his songs.
Killing the Rising Sun: How America Vanquished World War II Japan by Bill O’Reilly
Autumn 1944. World War II is nearly over in Europe but is escalating in the Pacific, where American soldiers face an opponent who will go to any length to avoid defeat. The Japanese army follows the samurai code of Bushido, stipulating that surrender is a form of dishonor. Killing the Rising Sun takes readers to the bloody tropical-island battlefields of Peleliu and Iwo Jima and to the embattled Philippines, where General Douglas MacArthur has made a triumphant return and is plotting a full-scale invasion of Japan.
Anchor & Flares: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hope and Service
Kate Braestrup
B BRAESTRUP
The author of Here If You Need Me presents a new chapter of her life and thoughts as a parent and through her work as a chaplain to the Maine Warden Service. “Bare, unflinching, and very funny.”
And the Good News Is… Lessons and Advice from the Bright Side
Dana Perino
B PERINO
The former White House press secretary reveals the lessons she’s learned that have guided her through life, led to success, even in the face of adversity.
Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates
B COATES
“This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” Excellent reviews accompany this personal narrative, reimagined history and emotionally charged reporting.
The Book of Joan: Tales of Mirth, Mischief, and Manipulation
Melissa Rivers
B RIVERS
The one person who new Joan Rivers better than anyone else tells the story of her life with the inimitable personality.
Criminal That I Am
Jennifer Ridha
B RIDHA
A memoir from a young lawyer who becomes romantically entangled with the convicted drug felon she represents—Cameron Douglas, son of film actor Michael Douglas —and who makes the mistake of her life … or not.
The Double Life of Fidel Castro: My 17 Years as Personal Bodyguard to El Líder Máximo
Juan Reinaldo Sánchez
B CASTRO
Fidel Castro lived a simple soldier’s life in the public eye and a luxurious dictator’s life in private. The author exposes seventeen years of Castro’s secrets.
Einstein: His Space and Times
Steven Gimbel
B GIMBEL
A look at the brilliant scientist who was politically engaged with his times and with a strong moral compass. Here is an engaging look at another side of the famous physicist.
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Ashlee Vance
B VANCE
A look into the remarkable life and times of Silicon Valley’s most audacious businessman. He is the innovator behind PayPal, Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and Solar City.
Getting Real
Gretchen Carlson
B CARLSON
Now a television personality, the author is also a former Miss American and a childhood violin prodigy.
Goldeneye: Where Bond Was Born: Ian Fleming’s Jamaica
Matthew Parker
B PARKER
For two months every year, from 1946 to his death eighteen years later, Ian Fleming lived at Goldeneye, the house he built on a point of high land overlooking a Jamaican white sand beach.
Joan of Arc: A History
Helen Castor
B JOAN OF ARC
A fresh view of the amazing life of the woman who, 500 years after her death, would be declared a saint.
Jonas Salk: A Life
Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs
B SALK
For decades, poliomyelitis stalked America’s children. When the announcement of a vaccine was made on April 12, 1955, the nation learned of the man and his team that made this amazing breakthrough.
A Lucky Life Interrupted: A Memoir of Hope
Tom Brokaw
B BROKAW
The famous newscaster, reflects on a year of dramatic change, a year spent battling cancer and reflecting on a long, happy, and lucky life.
On the Move: A Life
Oliver Sacks
B SACKS
The noted author and physician, recounts his own extraordinary life. From the author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings, among other titles.
One Man Against the World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon
Tim Weiner
B NIXON
A history of the presidency of Richard Nixon that includes all of the secret tapes and documents, many that have been declassified in the last two years.
Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva
Rosemary Sullivan
B ALLILUYEVA
Born in 1926, Svetlana Alliluyeva spent her youth inside the Kremlin as her father rose to power. Eighty-five years later, she died alone and penniless in rural Wisconsin as Lana Peters.
The Theft of Memory: Losing My Father One Day at a Time
Jonathan Kozol
B KOZOL
The noted author and children’s advocate now tells the personal story of his father’s life and work as a specialist in disorders of the brain. At the onset of his own Alzheimer’s disease, he was able to explain the causes of his sickness and then to describe what he was going through.
Under the Same Sky: From Starvation in North Korea to Salvation in America
Joseph Kim with Stephan Talty
B KIM
A heartrending story of starvation and survival in North Korea, followed by a dramatic escape, rescue by international activists, and success in the United States.
Unforgettable: A Son, a Mother, and the Lessons of a Lifetime
Scott Simon
B SIMON
Spending their last days together in a hospital ICU, the author and his mother reflect on their lifetime’s worth of memories, with stories of humor and resilience. From the noted NPR reporter.
A Very Dangerous Woman: The Lives, Loves and Lies of Russia’s Most Seductive Spy
Deborah McDonald and Jeremy Dronfield
B BUDBERG
Spy, adventurer, charismatic seductress and mistress of two of the century’s greatest writers, the Russian aristocrat Baroness Moura Budberg was born in 1892 to a wealthy family. Intrigue!
The Wright Brothers
David McCullough
B McCULLOUGH
On a winter day in 1903, on the remote Outer Banks of North Carolina, two unknown brothers from Ohio, Wilbur and Orville Wright, changed history. Here’s their story from the noted and popular author.
Recently the library has added several new memoirs to its biography collection. Telling a story from the author’s life, rather than the story the author’s life, memoir is a special category of autobiography. Memoir has become an increasingly popular literary nonfiction genre in recent years.
Below, take a look at three memoirs Sewickley Public Library has recently added to its shelves. You may click on the titles to see the books in our online catalog, from which you may place a hold.
GLITTER AND GLUE: A MEMOIR, by Kelly Corrigan – Booklist Review
When mother of two Corrigan struggles with cancer, she remembers a mother she never met more than 20 years earlier in 1992 in Australia. Back then, seeking money to enhance the next leg of her round-the-world travels, Corrigan became the nanny for a widower, John, whose family five-year-old Martin and seven-year-old Milly as well as a garage-living stepson and an in-law-apartment-living father-in-law had just lost their matriarch to cancer. Though it’s a true story, Corrigan has changed the names and some of the details to disguise identities. Here, the memories of her work as companion, surrogate mom, and onetime lover to various family members are filtered through Corrigan’s experiences, good and bad, of herself as mother and herself as daughter (her mom’s admonitions and pronouncements, served up in italics, support the young nanny as well as the text, then and now). The flavor of what a youthful, journal-writing Corrigan probably once hoped this book would be a spectacle of travel and awesome experience comes through in the writing but doesn’t disturb this touching, hard-won paean to mothering and parenting, living and losing.–Kinney, Eloise Copyright 2010 Booklist
This book is also available in Adobe EPUB eBook format via OverDrive.
FLYOVER LIVES: A MEMOIR, by Diane Johnson – Booklist Review
The author of shrewd and scintillating novels about Americans abroad, Johnson (L’Affaire, 2003; Lulu in Marrakech, 2008) grew up in Moline, Illinois, A pleasant place, surrounded by cornfields, I had always longed to get out of. And so she did, as she crisply and wittily recounts in this stealthily far-reaching family history. Johnson’s personal story gains resonance in harmony with a remarkable set of memoirs written by her great-great-great grandmother, Anne, born in 1779, and Anne’s daughter, Catharine, a teacher who, after a tortuous nine-year engagement, married a doctor only to endure his depression and long absences and the deaths of all but one of her nine children. Johnson perceives that her skilled and strong foremothers lived daunting yet satisfyingly useful lives. Adeptly structured, incisive, funny, and charming, Johnson’s look back delves into deep questions of history and inheritance, from the impact of America’s many wars on the Midwest to the transforming changes in modern women’s lives to her own adventures as a novelist and screenwriter raising a large, blended family, living overseas, and keenly observing cultural differences, personal quirks, and timeless commonalities.–Seaman, Donna Copyright 2010 Booklist
THE ANSWER TO THE RIDDLE IS ME: A MEMOIR OF AMNESIA, by David MacLean – Booklist Review
While studying in India on a Fulbright scholarship in 2002, Ohio native MacLean abruptly lost consciousness and came to his senses in a Hyderabad train station minus any memories of his name or reasons for being there. Luckily, a kindly station attendant took pity on the presumably drug-addled foreigner and found him refuge in a well-run mental hospital where he hallucinated his way back to reality as friends and parents were contacted. So begins this riveting, sad, and funny memoir from PEN literary award-winner MacLean, expanded from an essay featured on the radio show, This American Life. Contrary to the station agent’s assumption, however, MacLean’s amnesia was triggered by an allergic reaction to Lariam, a common antimalaria agent that receives a scathing critique here. In addition to short-circuiting his memories, the drug’s aftermath forced MacLean to get reacquainted with his parents, a girlfriend, and his rationale for coming to India in the first place. His work is both a sharply written autobiography and an insightful meditation on how much our memories define our identities.–Hays, Carl Copyright 2010 Booklist
For more memoir suggestions, please visit the Reference Desk at Sewickley Public Library, where a librarian can help you to choose a title of interest.
The folks over at NPR Books usually write a variety of end-of-year ‘Best Of’ lists to highlight the outstanding literary offerings of the past year. However due to the number of lists ballooning from 13 in 2008 to 20 in 2012, they decided to try a different format.
And so, NPR’s Book Concierge was born! It’s billed as ‘Our Guide to 2013’s Great Reads,’ and I encourage you to go check it out. The site allows you to choose what you’d like to read along the left-hand side (in categories such as ‘Eye Opening’ or ‘ It’s All Geek To Me’) and displays a collage of books recommended by NPR Staff that fit you chosen category or genre.
Of course, not all of the books will be available at Sewickley Public Library, but if one grabs your attention, it never hurts to give us a call or stop in to ask a librarian whether it can be requested from another library in Allegheny County.
Here are a few from the site you may not have heard a lot of buzz about that can be found at Sewickley Public Library, to get you started:
FICTION
LEXICON by Max Barry – Booklist Review *Starred Review* – Words have power to persuade, to coerce, even to kill. And so they have since the days when wordsmiths were called sorcerers. Streetwise teenager Emily knows nothing of this until she is recruited to join a clandestine international organization that seems bent on taking over the world through the power of language—the reason, perhaps, that its members call themselves poets. In the meantime, a young man, Wil, is kidnapped from an airport by two mysterious men determined to unlock a secret buried deep in his brain. Yes, Wil and Emily will be brought together in due course, but in the meantime, there is a great deal, some of it abstruse, about language in this fast-paced, cerebral thriller that borders on speculative fiction, but none of it slows the nonstop action that takes readers from Washington, D.C., to a small town in the Australian desert, a town whose 3,300 residents have all died mysteriously and violently. Could the cause have been the power of words at work? The poets sometimes seem a bit too omnipotent, and the book’s chronology is occasionally a bit confusing, but otherwise this is an absolutely first-rate, suspenseful thriller with convincing characters who invite readers’ empathy and keep them turning pages until the satisfying conclusion.–Cart, Michael Copyright 2010 Booklist
NIGHT FILM by Marisha Pessl – Booklist Review *Starred Review* – When the daughter of a notorious film director is found dead in New York, an apparent suicide, investigative reporter Scott McGrath throws himself back into a story that almost ended his career. But now McGrath has his Rosebud, and like Jedediah Leland in Citizen Kane, who hoped to make sense of media mogul Charles Foster Kane by understanding his last word, so the reporter sets out to determine how Ashley Cordova died and, in so doing, penetrate the heart of darkness that engulfs her reclusive father, Stanislas. Like Pessl’s first novel, the acclaimed Special Topics in Calamity Physics (2006), this one expands from a seemingly straightforward mystery into a multifaceted, densely byzantine exploration of much larger issues, in this case, the nature of truth and illusion as reflected by the elusive Cordova, whose transcend-the-genre horror films are cult favorites and about whom rumors of black magic and child abuse continue to swirl. His daughter, piano prodigy Ashley (her notes weren’t played; they were poured from a Grecian urn ), is almost as mysterious as her father, her life and death equally clouded in secrecy and colored with possibly supernatural shadings. Into this mazelike world of dead ends and false leads, McGrath ventures with his two, much younger helpers, Nora and Hopper, brilliantly portrayed Holmesian irregulars who may finally understand more about Ashley than their mentor, whose linear approach to fact finding might miss the point entirely. Pessl’s first novel, while undeniably impressive, possessed some of the overindulgence one might expect from a talented and precocious young writer. All evidence of that is gone here; the book is every bit as complex as Calamity Physics, but the writing is always under control, and the characters never fail to draw us further into the maelstrom of the story.–Ott, Bill Copyright 2010 Booklist
NONFICTION
LAWRENCE IN ARABIA: WAR, DECEIT, IMPERIAL FOLLY AND THE MAKING OF THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST by Scott Anderson – Booklist Review *Starred Review* – To historians, the real T. E. Lawrence is as fascinating as the cinematic version in Lawrence of Arabia is to movie fans. The many reasons interlock and tighten author Anderson’s narrative, yielding a work that can absorb scholarly and popular interest like. Start with Lawrence’s WWI memoir, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1922). A rare-book collectible, it inspired many of the scenes in David Lean’s film and is also subject to cross-referencing interpretations of Lawrence’s veracity. For lyrical though Lawrence could be about Arab leaders and desert landscapes, he could also be enigmatically opaque about the truth of his role in events. Accordingly, Anderson embeds Lawrence and Seven Pillars in the wider context of the Arab revolt against Turkey, and that context is the British, French, German, and American diplomacy and espionage intended to influence the postwar disposition of the territories of the Ottoman Empire. Lawrence was Britain’s agent in this game, and the other powers’ agents, although none enjoy his historical celebrity, assume prominence in Anderson’s presentation. Its thorough research clothed in smoothly written prose, Anderson’s history strikes a perfect balance between scope and detail about a remarkable and mysterious character.–Taylor, Gilbert Copyright 2010 Booklist
TO THE END OF JUNE: THE INTIMATE LIFE OF AMERICAN FOSTER CARE by Cris Beam – Booklist Review *Starred Review* – Whenever newspaper headlines scream about the abuse of foster children, the public is outraged, child protection agencies radically change their policies, and poor children go on living in a hodgepodge of foster care and suffering myriad unintended consequences, according to Beam, whose background includes a fractured childhood and experience as a foster mother. Here she offers a very intimate look at a system little known to most people. Beam spent five years talking to foster children, parents and foster parents, and social workers, mostly in New York. Her profiles include Bruce and Allyson, with three children of their own, taking in as many as five foster children, and Steve and Erin, fostering a child they want to adopt, whose mother signed away her rights on a napkin. Beam also writes about teens who’ve been bounced from home to home, some longing for adoption, others sabotaging their chances out of fear, many hoping for promised aging-out bonuses. Beam offers historical background and keen analysis of the social, political, racial, and economic factors that drive foster-care policies, noting the recent swing from massive removals to support for keeping families together. A very moving, powerful look at a system charged with caring for nearly half a million children across the U.S.–Bush, Vanessa Copyright 2010 Booklist
Sources:
Best Books of 2013: NPR(http://apps.npr.org/best-books-2013/)
Booklist Online: Book Reviews from the American Library Association (http://www.booklistonline.com/)
Big in China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising a Family, Playing the Blues, and Becoming a Star in Beijing
Alan Paul
B PAUL
When the author’s wife was offered the job as the Wall Street Journal’s China bureau chief, he saw it as an amazing opportunity to shake up their staid suburban life.
Cardboard Gods: An All-American Tale Told Through Baseball Cards
Josh Wilker
B WILKER
A baseball-haunted memoir that moves through the author’s coming-of-age through a collection of portraits of Topps baseball cards from 1974-1981.
The Churchills: In Love and War
Mary S. Lovell
B CHURCHILL
The extraordinary lives of the famous family, beginning with the first Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722), is recounted by a noted biographer.
Come to the Edge: A Memoir
Christina Haag
B HAAG
An account of the author’s life and relationship with the late John F. Kennedy, Jr.
Does the Noise in My Head Bother You: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir
Steven Tyler
B TYLER
An old rocker remembers the good old days of “wretched excess in dandified duds.”
Every Day by the Sun: A Memoir of the Faulkners of Mississippi
Dean Faulkner Wells
B FAULKNER
An evocative portrait of the Faulkners of Mississippi and the family’s famous member, William Faulkner.
A Short Autobiography
F. Scott Fitzgerald
James L.W. West III, ed.
B FITZGERALD
The personal essays of the famous author are an intriguing look into his life and times.
Familyhood
Paul Reiser
B REISER
Following his two books, Couplehood and Babyhood, the author humorously shares his view from further down the road in life.
Finding Sarah: A Duchess’s Journey to Find Herself
Sarah Ferguson
B FERGUSON
The personal memoir of Sarah’s journey to “find herself” when her life became off course.
From This Moment On
Shania Twain
B TWAIN
The tumultuous life story of the well-known performer.
Good Stuff: A Reminiscence of My Father, Cary Grant
Jennifer Grant
B GRANT
The only child of the elegant, sophisticated actor reveals him as a loving father.
The Heart and the Fist: The Education of a Humanitarian, The Making of a Navy Seal
Eric Greitens
B GREITENS
The author relates the story of life, his humanitarian work, and his grueling training as a Navy Seal. The heart of his story is the paradox that sometimes you have to be strong to do good, but you also have to do good to be strong.
In Spite of Everything: A Memoir
Susan Gregory Thomas
B THOMAS
A brilliantly told account of a mother’s fight to protect her children’s world and make sense of her troubled past.
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
Manning Marable
B X MALCOLM
The story of one of the most complex, multifaceted and controversial figures in the history of civil rights.
A Man from Another Land: How Finding My Roots Changed My Life
Isaiah Washington
B WASHINGTON
The actor shares his adventure as he searches for both his
American and African identity.
Modigliani: A Life
Meryle Secrest
B MODIGLIANI
Considered to be the quintessential bohemian artist, Modigliani’s legend is almost as infamous as Van Gogh’s.
My Lucky Life in and Out of Show Business
Dick Van Dyke
B VAN DYKE
One of the greats of the golden age of television presents his own heartwarming story.
My Year with Eleanor: A Memoir
Noelle Hancock
B HANCOCK
After losing her job, the author was crippled by anxiety, until she was inspired by a quote on a coffee shop chalkboard: “Do one thing every day that scares you.” – Eleanor Roosevelt.
The Paper Garden: An Artist {Begins Her Life’s Work} at 72
Molly Peacock
B DELANY
The wonderful story of Mary Granville Pendarves Delany (1700-1788) who created a new art form: mixed-media collage, and whose art works are now housed in the British Museum.
Reading My Father: A Memoir
Alexandra Styron
B STYRON
The story of a daughter who comes to know her father at last: William Styron, a noted author and a man whose devastating depression darkened the lives of his family.
Seal Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy Seal Sniper
Howard E. Wasdin and Stephen Templin
B WASDIN
A behind-the-scenes look into the world of Navy SEALs and Special Forces snipers and the toughest military training in the world.
Season to Taste: How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way
Molly Birnbaum
B BIRNBAUM
As an aspiring chef, the author was devastated when an accident destroyed her sense of smell. A look at an often overlooked sense.
A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother
Janny Scott
B DUNHAM
The life story of an unconventional woman and whom President Obama has credited with “what is best in me.”
Small Memories
José Saramago
B SARAMAGO
The respected Portuguese writer presents a simple, yet affecting look into his boyhood and youth.
Stan Musial: An American Life
George Vecsey
B MUSIAL
A tribute to the great “Stan the Man.”
Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography
Rob Lowe
B LOWE
After spending almost his entire in the public eye, the celebrity actor relates his story.
Through My Eyes
B TEBOW
Tim Tebow with Nathan Whitaker
The firsthand story of the young football quarterback’s rise to fame.
“21”: The Story of Roberto Clemente
Wilfred Santiago
B CLEMENTE
A graphic biographical story of the great and beloved baseball player and humanitarian.
Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss & Love
Matthew Logelin
B LOGELIN
The author describes his heartbreaking loss after the sudden death of his wife and his new life with his baby daughter, Madeline.
Against All Odds: My Life of Hardship, Fast Breaks and Second Chances
Scott Brown
B BROWN
The extraordinary life journey of the current U.S. Senator from Massachusetts.
All That Is Bitter and Sweet
Ashley Judd
B JUDD
The author explains why she opted out of a successful Hollywood career to find her true calling: as a humanitarian and advocate for those suffering in neglected parts of the world.
Amelia Earhart: The Turbulent Life of an American Icon
Kathleen C. Winters
B WINTERS
When Amelia Earhart vanished over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 during an attempted around the world flight, she was at the height of her fame. A fascinating portrait of a complex woman.
American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare, The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee
Karen Abbott
B LEE
The extraordinary life of Gypsy Rose Lee and the world she survived and conquered.
And Furthermore
Judi Dench
B DENCH
The life story of the famed British actress, Dame Dench, in her own words.
And I Shall Have Some Peace There: Trading in the Fast Lane for My Own Dirt Road
Margaret Roach
B ROACH
The author left her big-city life, including her work as an editorial director for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, to seek an entirely different reward.
Bird Cloud
Annie Proulx
B PROULX
Bird Cloud is the name Annie Proulx gave to the 640 acres of Wyoming wetlands and prairie that she calls home.
Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef
Gabrielle Hamilton
B HAMILTON
Before the author opened her acclaimed New York restaurant Prune, she spent twenty hard-living years trying to find purpose and meaning in her life.
A Box of Darkness: The Story of a Marriage
Sally Ryder Brady
B BRADY
Upton and Sally Brady were cultivated and elegant, living a life of literary glamour and high expectations. The author looks back on her marriage of forty-six years and the discoveries that she made following her husband’s death.
Branch Rickey
Jimmy Breslin
B BRESLIN
In 1947, as president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey defied racism on and off the field to bring Jackie Robinson into the major leagues.
Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love and War
Annia Ciezadlo
B CIEZADLO
In the fall of 2003, the author spent her honeymoon in Baghdad. Over the next six years, while living in Baghdad and Beirut, she finds the rituals of food and friendship sustaining in a time of war.
The Elephant to Hollywood
Michael Caine
B CAINE
The acclaimed actor tells the story of his transformation from Maurice Micklewhite to Sir Michael Caine.
The Foremost Good Fortune
Susan Conley
B CONLEY
When her family says good-bye to family and friends in Maine for two-years in Beijing, China, that have little concept of just how much their lives will change.
Galileo
J.L. Heilbron
B GALILEO
The hero and martyr of science is captured through a wide-angled lens that takes in the wide spectrum of culture, religion, science, theology and politics of late Renaissance Italy.
I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to The Blind Side and Beyond
Michael Oher
B OHER
An account of the Baltimore Ravens football player who is at the center of the book and the movie, The Blind Side. Here’s his own story.
I Love a Broad Margin to My Life
Maxine Hong Kingston
B KINGSTON
Reflections related in flowing verse lines explore the author’s thoughts as she turns sixty-five.
I’m Over All That: and Other Confessions
Shirley MacLaine
B MACLAINE
The author has reached the time in her life when she realizes what is truly important and what just doesn’t matter any more.
Jackie as Editor: The Literary Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Greg Lawrence
B ONASSIS
A chronicle of an important part of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s life—her nineteen-year editorial career.
J.D. Salinger: A Life
Kenneth Slawenski
B SALINGER
The mysterious and reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye is revealed in this examination of his life.
Known and Unknown: A Memoir
Donald Rumsfeld
B RUMSFELD
A memoir of the controversial Secretary of Defense and his half-century career in public service.
The Memory Palace: A Memoir
B BARTOK
Mira Bartók
“A disturbing, mesmerizing personal narrative about growing up with a brilliant but schizophrenic mother…. Richly textured, compassionate, and heartbreaking.” Kirkus Reviews.
My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth that Led to an American Tragedy
Nora Titone
B BOOTH
A penetrating look a the personal stories of the Booth family and the background rivalry that was integral to the assassin’s motivation.
Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses
Claire Dederer
B DEDERER
After throwing out her back ten years ago, the author turned to yoga and soon fell in love with the practice, both physically and spiritually.
Tough Without a Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart
Stefan Kanfer
B BOGART
A look at one of the great movie icons of the 20th century and an appraisal of the actor’s singular legacy.
Townie: A Memoir
Andre Dubus III
B DUBUS
After their parents divorced in the 1970s, the author and his three siblings grew up with their working mother in a town where drugs and violence were an everyday occurrence. On Sundays his father, a college professor, took the kids to a totally different world.
Wait for Me! Memoirs
Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire
B DEVONSHIRE
The remarkable life story of the youngest of the famous Mitford family, from her eccentric childhood to her residence at the noted historic home of Chatsworth.
A Widow’s Story: A Memoir
Joyce Carol Oates
B OATES
The noted author unveils a poignant memoir about the unexpected death of her husband of forty-six years and its wrenching aftermath.
All of Me Anne Murray with Michael Posner, B MURRAY – The story of the popular singer’s life from her humble beginnings through the career that now spans forty years.
All Things At Once Mika Brzezinski, B BRZEZINSKI – The cohost of Morning Joe relates her struggles as a working mother and her early years as the daughter of President Carter’s national security advisor.
American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Joan Biskupic, B SCALIA – The author presents a detailed portrait of the life and long career of the complicated and outspoken jurist.
The Bag Lady Papers: The Priceless Experience of Losing It All Alexandra Penney, B PENNEY – The author invested nearly all of her life savings with Bernie Madoff and was faced with her greatest fear when she lost it all.
Churchill Paul Johnson, B CHURCHILL – A look at one of the most complex and fascinating personalities in history by a noted historian.
Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession Julie Powell, B POWELL – The author of Julie and Julia returns with further life adventures and her foray into butchery.
Comeback 2.0: Up Close and Personal—Lance Armstrong Lance Armstrong, B ARMSTRONG – Photographs and personal commentary by the iconic biker.
Confections of a Closet Master Baker: One Woman’s Sweet Journey from Unhappy Hollywood Executive to Contented Country Baker Gesine Bullock-Prado, B BULLOCK-PRADO – The subtitles says it all: unhappy as the head of her celebrity sister’s production company, the author and her husband move to Vermont and a small bakery. Recipes included!
Enemies of the People: My Family’s Journey to America Kati Marton, B MARTON – The author discovers the terrifying truth about her family’s past in Hungary during the Cold War.
Finding It: And Satisfying My Hunger for Life Without Opening the Fridge Valerie Bertinelli, B BERTINELLI – More entertaining stories from the author of Losing It.
A Gambling Man: Charles II’s Restoration Game Jenny Uglow, B CHARLES – Charles II was thirty years old when he crossed the English Channel in 1660. A spirited look at turbulent time.
Going Rogue: An American Life Sarah Palin, B PALIN – The story of her life from the vice-presidential candidate.
Here’s the Deal, Don’t Touch Me Howie Mandel, B MANDEL – A memoir from the host of Deal or No Deal and his ongoing struggle with OCD and ADHD and how it affected his life and career.
High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly Donald Spoto, B KELLY – A new look at the glamorous actress who retired at the age of twenty-six to become the Princess of Monaco.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot, B LACKS – The story of an African American woman who died in the 1950s, but whose cells have been grown over the years for a multitude of medical experiments and advances.
The Journal Keeper: A Memoir Phyllis Theroux, B THEROUX – An insightful stroll through the life of a gifted writer as she discusses universal issues: love, loneliness, growing old, financial worries and spiritual growth.
The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn Alison Weir, B BOLEYN – A look at one of the world’s most fascinating and controversial women by a great biographer of British royalty.
Last Word George Carlin with Tony Hendra, B CARLIN – Indeed, the last words from the comedian/commentator.
Living Oprah: My One-Year Experiment to Walk the Walk of the Queen of Talk Robyn Okrant, B OKRANT – The author kicked off a year-long experiment to find out what would happen if she decided to follow all of Oprah’s advice.
Louisa May Alcott: the Woman Behind Little Women Harriet Reisen, B ALCOTT – A lively account of an exceptional woman and writer of the 19th century.
Lunch in Paris: A Love Story with Recipes Elizabeth Bard, B BARD – In Paris for a weekend visit, Elizabeth Bard sat down to lunch with a handsome Frenchman — and never went home again.
Marriage and Other Acts of Charity: A Memoir Kate Braestrup, B BRAESTRUP – The author of Here If You Need Me turns her attention to the subjects of love and commitment.
A Mountain of Crumbs Elena Gorkhova, B GOROKHOVA – Coming of age in the Soviet Union of the 1960s, the author’s passion for learning English bordered on the subversive in a land of political deception.
Mrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon Michael O’Brien, B ADAMS – Early in 1815, Louisa Catherine Adams, with her young son, left St. Petersburg in a Russian carriage and set out on a difficult journey to meet her husband, John Quincy Adams, in Paris.
Open: An Autobiography Andre Agassi, B AGASSI – A very revealing look inside the life of the tennis star.
Peter the Great Derek Wilson, B PETER I – The life and reign of the extraordinary Russian leader.
Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone Nadine Cohodas, B SIMONE – The triumphs and trials of the brilliant singer and musician.
The Queen Mother: The Official Biography William Shawcross, B ELIZABETH – A definitive biography of the mother of Queen Elizabeth II and grandmother of Prince Charles and one of the most beloved members of the British Royal Family.
Staying True Jenny Sanford, B SANFORD – A look at the private ordeal of the first lady of South Carolina after her very public betrayal.
Step Out on Nothing: How Faith and Family Helped Me Conquer Life’s Challenges Byron Pitts, B PITTS – The 60 Minutes correspondent relates the challenges of his life, including stuttering and being functionally illiterate. He also tells of the people who “stepped out on nothing” to make a difference for him.
Angelina 
As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto: Food, Friendship and the Making of a Masterpiece 
At Home in Japan: A Foreign Woman’s Journey of Discovery 
Autobiography of Mark Twain—Volume 1 
Beautiful: The Life of Hedy Lamarr 
Becoming Queen Victoria: The Tragic Death of Princess Charlotte and the Unexpected Rise of Britain’s Greatest Monarch 
Bob Dylan in America 
Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard 
Cakewalk: A Memoir 
Choosing to See: A Journey of Struggle and Hope 
Chords of Strength: A Memoir of of Soul, Song, and the Power of Perseverance
