Staff Picks
New in Biography and Memoir
- Bland L.
- Wednesday, June 01, 2022
Collection
Liz Scheier’s Never Simple, about her difficult upbringing as the child of a mother with Borderline Personality Disorder, has been getting a lot of notice, as has Mary Laura Philpott’s Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives, a set of essays linked by the theme of the author’s anxiety. Other titles of note include Constructing a Nervous System, by National Book Critics’ Circle Award–winner Margo Jefferson, and Geoff Dyer’s The Last Days of Roger Federer, an essay collection about the remarkable end-of-career achievements of the writers, artists, musicians, and athletes he has long admired.
Beatrix Potter
Drawn to Nature
Published in 2022
Drawing on the V & A's collection of Beatrix Potter's artwork--the largest in the world--and little-seen material from international collections, this book explores her achievements as a naturalist, artist-storyteller and sheep farmer, and her legacy in preservation of the Lake District. Potter combined scientific observation with storytelling. Packed with characters such as Jemima Puddleduck and Squirrel Nutkin, alongside botanical drawings, picture letters to friends, Lake District watercolours, rarely seen photographs, and an essay by James Rebanks, this publication embeds Potter's characters in the context of her life, from the confines of middle-class London to the expanse of Lake District hill farming, identifying the people and places that inspired her.
Chasing Lakes
Love, Science, and the Secrets of the Arctic
Published in 2022
"A memoir from permafrost scientist Katey Walter Anthony on her pioneering research studying methane emissions in Arctic lakes-which has made significant contributions to the climate change dialogue-as well as her search for family, faith, and belonging, on her journey to becoming a scientist"-- Provided by publisher.
Where the Children Take Us
How One Family Achieved the Unimaginable
Published in 2022
"Living in Brixton and awaiting the return of her husband and young son from Nigeria, Obiajulu Ejiofor received shattering news. There had been a fatal car crash, and one of them was dead. In Where the Children Take Us, Obiajulu's daughter, Zain Asher, tells the story of her family and her mother's deeply personal fight to protect her children from the daily pressures of poverty, crime, and racism in 1980s and '90s South London as a widowed emigrant. Young Arinze and Obiajulu meet as teens in war-stricken Nigeria. Together, they emigrate to London in the 1960s to escape civil war and make a better life for themselves and their family. While seeking to achieve as much as they could, Obiajulu and Arinze experience prejudice and racism that overshadows their dreams and makes it difficult for them to make connections in a white Western society. When grief threatens to engulf her fractured family, the academic futures of her mourning children are put in jeopardy, but Obiajulu, suddenly a single mother in a foreign land, refuses to accept defeat. She buys the Western literary classics and instills a nightly book club, testing her children on their literacy nightly and challenging their deeper understanding. When they gravitate toward distractions, she eliminates the television and substitutes the phone for a residential pay phone, instead running theatre lines with her son and finishing homework into the early morning with Zain. Drawing on Nigerian parenting strategies encompassing adaptability, language, and foresight, Obiajulu enables her children to succeed under any and all conditions-a drive firmly instilled in her sons and daughters, who grow up to become an international journalist, an Oscar-nominated actor -- Asher's older brother Chiwetel Ejiofor -- a medical doctor, and a thriving entrepreneur. The story of a woman who survived genocide, famine, poverty, and crushing grief to rise from war torn Africa to the streets of Brixton and eventually the drawing rooms of Buckingham Palace, Where the Children Take Us is an unforgettable portrait of strength, tenacity, love, and perseverance embodied in one towering woman"-- Provided by publisher.
The Man from the Future
The Visionary Life of John Von Neumann
Published in 2022
"The smartphones in our pockets and computers like brains. The vagaries of game theory and evolutionary biology. Nuclear weapons and self-replicating spacecrafts. All bear the fingerprints of one remarkable, yet largely overlooked, man: John von Neumann. Born in Budapest at the turn of the century, von Neumann is one of the most influential scientists to have ever lived. A child prodigy, he mastered calculus by the age of eight, and in high school made lasting contributions to mathematics. In Germany, where he helped lay the foundations of quantum mechanics, and later at Princeton, von Neumann's colleagues believed he had the fastest brain on the planet-bar none. He was instrumental in the Manhattan Project and the design of the atom bomb; he helped formulate the bedrock of Cold War geopolitics and modern economic theory; he created the first ever programmable digital computer; he prophesized the potential of nanotechnology; and, from his deathbed, he expounded on the limits of brains and computers-and how they might be overcome. Taking us on an astonishing journey, Ananyo Bhattacharya explores how a combination of genius and unique historical circumstance allowed a single man to sweep through a stunningly diverse array of fields, sparking revolutions wherever he went. The Man from the Future is an insightful and thrilling intellectual biography of the visionary thinker who shaped our century"-- Provided by publisher.
Mean Baby
A Memoir of Growing Up
Published in 2022
"Over the course of this ... memoir, Selma lays bare her addiction to alcohol, her devotion to her brilliant and complicated mother, and the moments she flirted with death. There is brutal violence, passionate love, true friendship, the gift of motherhood, and, finally, the surprising salvation of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis"--Dust jacket flap.
In Love
A Memoir of Love and Loss
Published in 2022
"Amy and Brian's world was changed forever with his diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's. Forced to confront the daily frustrations and realities of the disease and its impact on their lives and marriage, Brian resolved not to let it dictate his life and instead asked himself: What makes life meaningful, and how do I want to live the rest of mine? His decision led them to learn about Dignitas and to fly to Zürich for a peaceful ending of Brian's life. In Love is the illuminating story of a marriage, of the gradual awareness that something was deeply wrong, and of a disease's effect on a man, a woman, a family. What were the signs that Brian and Amy brushed aside, and how did they cope when they could no longer ignore the truth as confirmed by an MRI? Why, in retrospect, did Brian decide to retire from his architecture practice earlier than he had planned? Bloom goes on to recount their search for a dignified and kind solution to the pain of Brian's life, and their discovery of Dignitas in Zurich, where the choice for a dignified end of life can be realized. In this moving memoir, Bloom also writes of their life together before Alzheimer's, and of a love that runs so deep that they were willing to work to find a courageous way to part"-- Provided by publisher.
From the Hood to the Holler
A Story of Separate Worlds, Shared Dreams, and the Fight for America's Future
Published in 2022
"Kentucky state representative Charles Booker tells the improbable story of his journey from one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country to a political career forging new alliances among forgotten communities across the New South and beyond"-- Provided by publisher.
Dilettante
True Tales of Excess, Triumph, and Disaster
Published in 2022
"Dilettante reveals Brown's most memorable moments from the halcyon days of the magazine business, explores his own journey as an unpedigreed outsider to established editor, and shares glimpses of some of the famous and infamous stories (and people) that tracked the magazine's extraordinary run all keenly observed by Brown. He recounts tales from the trenches, including encounters with everyone from Anna Wintour, Lee Radziwill, and Condé Nast owner Si Newhouse, to Seth Rogen, Caitlyn Jenner, and acclaimed journalists Dominick Dunne and Christopher Hitchens"-- Provided by publisher.
Healing
When a Nurse Becomes a Patient
Published in 2022
"When a cancer nurse becomes a cancer patient, she has to confront the most critical, terrified, sometimes furious patient she's ever encountered: herself. A frank look at struggling with illness while navigating the health care maze"-- Provided by publisher.
The Impossible City
A Hong Kong Memoir
Published in 2022
"In a place where time is running out, sometimes the most radical act is remembrance. Hong Kong has long been known as a city of extremes: a former colony of the United Kingdom that today exists at the margins of an authoritarian, ascendant China; a city rocked by mass protests, where residents take to the streets to rally against encroaching threats on their democracy and freedoms. But it is also misunderstood and often romanticized, its history and politics oversimplified in Western headlines. Drawing richly from her own experience, as well as countless interviews with the artists, protestors, students, and writers who have made Hong Kong their home, journalist Karen Cheung gives us an insider's view of this remarkable city, making the case along the way that we should look to Hong Kong as a warning sign for what lies ahead for other global democracies. Coming of age in the wake of Hong Kong's reunification with China in 1997, Cheung traverses the multifold identities available to her in childhood and beyond, whether that was at her English-speaking international schools, where her classmates were often the children of diplomats or corporate officers, or within her deeply traditional family. Along the way, Cheung gives a personal account of what it's like to seek out affordable housing and mental healthcare in one of the world's most expensive cities. She also takes us into Hong Kong's vibrant indie music and literary scenes--youth-driven spaces of creative resistance. Inevitably, Cheung brings us with her to the protests, where her understanding of what it means to belong to Hong Kong finally crystallized"-- Provided by publisher.
Last Call at the Hotel Imperial
Reporters Who Took on a World at War
Published in 2022
"Married foreign correspondents John and Frances Gunther intimately understood that it isn't only impersonal, economic forces that propel history, bringing readers so close to the front lines of history that they could feel how personal pathologies became the stuff of geopolitical crises. Together with other reporters of the Lost Generation--American journalists H.R. Knickerbocker, Vincent Sheean, and Dorothy Thompson--the Gunthers slipped through knots of surveillance and ignored orders of expulsion in order to expose the mass executions in Badajoz during the Spanish Civil War, the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, the millions of dollars that Joseph Goebbels salted away abroad, and the sexual peccadillos of Hitler's brownshirts. They conjured what it was like to ride with Hitler in an airplane ("not a word did he say to any soul"); broke the inside story about Mussolini's claustrophobia and superstitions (he "took fright" at an Egyptian mummy that had been given to him); and verified the hypnotic impression Stalin made when he walked into a room ("You felt his antennae"). But just as they were transforming journalism, it was also transforming them: who they loved and betrayed, how they raised their children and coped with death. Over the course of their careers they would popularize bringing the private life into public view, not only in their reporting on the outsized figures of their day, but in what they revealed about their own (and each other's) intimate experiences as well. What were intimate relationships, after all, but geopolitics writ small?"-- Provided by publisher.
Easy Beauty
A Memoir
Published in 2022
"Moving through the world in a body that looks different than most, Jones learned on to factor "pain calculations" into every plan, every situation. She was born with a rare congenital condition called sacral agenesis, which affects both the stature and gait, and so her pain is physical. But there is also the pain of being judged and pitied for her appearance, of being dismissed as "less than." the ways she has been seen--or not seen--has informed her lens on the world for her entire life... But after unexpectedly becoming a mother (in violation of unspoken social taboos about the disabled body), she feels something in her shift, and Jones sets off on a journey across the globe, reclaiming the spaces she'd been denied and had denied herself."--Dust jacket flap.
Fierce Love
A Memoir of Family, Faith, and Purpose
Published in 2022
Sonya Curry chronicles the never-before-shared story of raising her children and her lifelong devotion to education, family, and faith. Like her superstar sons' and extraordinary daughter's, Sonya Curry's journey was filled with defeats and hard-fought victories, but hers took place out of the limelight, without the eyes of the world watching, cheering, or drawing inspiration from her example. Until now. In this inspiring memoir, Curry tells her story for the first time, beginning with her childhood in rural Virginia and moving through the peaks and valleys of an incredible life--from raising her immensely gifted but sometimes headstrong children, to becoming an educator and founding a Montessori school, to discovering a profound, life sustaining connection to God and faith. Fierce Love, a wise and illuminating story of family, faith, and purpose, is sure to become a classic. With something for everyone--seekers, sports fans, people of faith, lovers of memoir-- it's one strong mother's gift to all who wonder how, where, and whether they'll find the strength.
Adventurer
The Life and Times of Giacomo Casanova
Published in 2022
The iconic libertine Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798) was a storied adventurer through the Enlightenment's shadowy underside. Known as a serial seducer, he was also an aspiring priest, an army officer, a fortune teller, a con man, a violinist, a mathematician, a Masonic master, an entrepreneur, a diplomat, a gambler, and a spy. The first to tell his own story, in his massive autobiography Histoire de Ma Vie, he recorded at least a hundred and twenty love affairs, as well as dramatic sagas of duels, swindles, arrests, and escapes. He knew kings and an empress, Catherine the Great, and most of the famous writers of the time, including Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin.0 Drawing on seldom used materials, Leo Damrosch situates Casanova fully in the multiple subcultures he inhabited. Reading Casanova's memoir with a critical eye and engaging extensively with his non-autobiographical writings, he brings alive this extraordinary figure and the eighteenth-century world that Casanova knew so intimately. Casanova aspired to a life of freedom from restraints, but, Damrosch asks, freedom at whose expense?
Every Good Boy Does Fine
A Love Story, in Music Lessons
Published in 2022
"In this searching and funny memoir, based off his popular New Yorker article, renowned pianist Jeremy Denk traces an implausible journey. Life is difficult enough as a precocious, temperamental, and insufferable six-year-old piano prodigy in New Jersey. But then a family meltdown forces a move to New Mexico, far from classical music's nerve centers, and he has to please a new taskmaster while navigating cacti, and the perils of junior high school. Escaping from New Mexico at last, he meets a bewildering cast of college music teachers, ranging from boring to profound, and experiences a series of humiliations and triumphs, to find his way as one of the world's greatest living pianists, a MacArthur "Genius," and a frequent performer at Carnegie Hall. There are few writers working today who are willing to eloquently explore both the joys and miseries of artistic practice. Hours of daily repetition, mystifying early advice, pressure from parents and teachers who drove him on-an ongoing battle of talent against two enemies: boredom and insecurity. As we meet various teachers, with cruel and kind streaks, Denk composes a fraught love letter to the act of teaching. He brings you behind the scenes, to look at what motivates both student and teacher, locked in a complicated and psychologically perilous relationship. In his imaginative prose, Denk explores how classical music is relevant to "real life," despite its distance in time. He dives into pieces and composers that have shaped him-Bach, Mozart, Schubert, and Brahms, among others-and gives unusual lessons on melody, harmony, and rhythm. Why and how do these fundamental elements have such a visceral effect on us? He tries to sum up many of the lessons he has gotten, to repay the debt of all his amazing teachers; to remind us that music is our creation, and that we need to keep asking questions about its purpose"-- Provided by publisher
Deaf Utopia
A Memoir and a Love Letter to a Way of Life
Published in 2022
Before becoming the actor, producer, advocate, and model that people know today, Nyle DiMarco was half of a pair of Deaf twins born to a multi-generational Deaf family in Queens, New York. Nyle shares stories, both heartbreaking and humorous, of what it means to navigate a world built for hearing people. This is more than a memoir, it is a cultural anthem - a proud and defiant song of Deaf culture and a love letter to American Sign Language, Nyle's primary language.
The Turning Point
1851--a Year That Changed Charles Dickens and the World
Published in 2022
"1851: a year of political unrest and social inequality, industrial progress and artistic innovation, it is also a turbulent year in the private life of Charles Dickens, as he copes with a double bereavement and a home in danger of falling apart. But this formative year will become perhaps the greatest turning point in his life and writing, as he embraces his calling as a chronicler of ordinary people's lives and establishes himself as an important national figure for demanding social reform and justice. Conjuring a bustling, foggy and precarious London in thrilling detail, The Turning Point takes us onto the streets with Dickens, into the office of his newly launched journal Household Words, into his home and marriage, and into his imagination as he begins to compose his masterpiece, Bleak House. Fully illustrated and brimming with delightful anecdotes about the larger-than-life man and his plethora of timeless characters and stories, this is the closest look yet at one of the greatest literary personalities ever to have lived"-- Provided by publisher.
Managing Expectations
A Memoir in Essays
Published in 2022
"A charming, poignant, unfiltered, laugh-out-loud memoir in essays from beloved actor and natural-born storyteller Minnie Driver, chronicling the way life works out even when it doesn't"-- Provided by publisher.
The Last Days of Roger Federer
And Other Endings
Published in 2022
"A reflection on the late works and last days of artists, writers, musicians, and athletes"-- Provided by publisher.
Cimino
The Deer Hunter, Heaven's Gate, and the Price of a Vision
Published in 2022
Examines and re-evaluates the life and career of the director of the critically acclaimed film "The Deer Hunter," as well as 1980's "Heaven's Gate," the most notorious cinematic bomb of all time
The Trials of Harry S. Truman
The Extraordinary Presidency of an Ordinary Man, 1945-1953
Published in 2022
"The nearly eight years of Harry Truman's presidency--among the most turbulent in American history--were marked by victory in the wars against Germany and Japan; the first use of an atomic weapon; the beginning of the Cold War; creation of the NATO alliance; the founding of the United Nations; the Marshall Plan to rebuild the wreckage of postwar Europe; the Red Scare; and the fateful decision to commit troops to fight in Korea."--Amazon.
Who by Fire
Leonard Cohen in the Sinai
Published in 2022
In October 1973, the poet and singer Leonard Cohen—thirty-nine years old, famous, unhappy, and at a creative dead end—traveled from his home on the Greek island of Hydra to the chaos and bloodshed of the Sinai desert when Egypt attacked Israel on the Jewish high holiday of Yom Kippur. Moving around the front with a guitar and a group of local musicians, Cohen met hundreds of young soldiers, men and women at the worst moment of their lives. Those who survived never forgot the experience. And the war transformed Cohen. He had announced that he was abandoning his music career, but he instead returned to Hydra and to his family, had a second child, and released one of the best albums of his career. In Who by Fire, journalist Matti Friedman gives us a riveting account of those weeks in the Sinai, drawing on Cohen’s previously unpublished writing and original reporting to create a kaleidoscopic depiction of a harrowing, formative moment for both a young country at war and a singer at a crossroads.
Truly, Madly
Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, and the Romance of the Century
Published in 2022
"In 1934, a friend brought fledgling actress Vivien Leigh to see Theatre Royal, where she would first lay eyes on Laurence Olivier in his brilliant performance as Anthony Cavendish. That night, she confided, he was the man she was going to marry. There was just one problem: she was already married-and so was he. TRULY, MADLY is the biography of a marriage, a love affair that still captivates millions, even decades after both actors' deaths. Vivien and Laurence were two of the first truly global celebrities - their fame fueled by the explosive growth of tabloids and television, which helped and hurt them in equal measure. They seemed to have it all and yet, in their own minds, they were doomed, blighted by a long-undiagnosed mental illness that transformed their relationship from the stuff of dreams into a living nightmare. Author Stephen Galloway takes readers on a bewitching journey as he studies their tempestuous relationship, one that took place against the backdrop of two world wars, the Golden Age of Hollywood and the upheavals of the 1960s - as they struggled with love, loss and the ultimate agony of their parting"-- Provided by publisher.
The Double Life of Katharine Clark
The Untold Story of the Fearless Journalist Who Risked Her Life for Truth and Justice
Published in 2022
"Illuminating a thrilling untold chapter of the Cold War, The Double Life of Katharine Clark shares the forgotten story of a remarkable woman who pioneered a career in a male-dominated profession. In 1955, Katharine Clark became the first female American wire reporter behind the Iron Curtain, forging a career as a journalist, befriending a leading Communist, and risking her life to smuggle away books that exposed the truth about Communism to the world. This dramatic historical narrative shows how one woman with an unwavering commitment to truth, justice, and freedom of the press put her life on the line to reshape American history"-- Provided by publisher.
How I Survived a Chinese "reeducation" Camp
A Uyghur Woman's Story
Published in 2022
"Born in 1966 in Ghulja in the Xinjiang region, Gulbahar Haitiwaji was an executive in the Chinese oil industry before leaving for France in 2006 with her husband and children, who obtained the status of political refugees. In 2017 she was summoned in China for an administrative issue. Once there, she was arrested and spent more than two years in a re-education camp. Thanks to the efforts of her family and the French foreign ministry she was freed and was able to return to France where she currently resides"-- Provided by publisher.
Valor
The Astonishing World War II Saga of One Man's Defiance and Indomitable Spirit
Published in 2022
"Valor is the magnificent story of a genuine American hero who survived the fall of the Philippines and brutal captivity under the Japanese, from New York Times bestselling author Dan Hampton. Lieutenant William Frederick "Bill" Harris was 25 years old when captured by Japanese forces during the Battle of Corregidor in May 1942. This son of a decorated Marine general escaped from hell on earth by swimming eight hours through a shark-infested bay; but his harrowing ordeal had just begun. Shipwrecked on thesouthern coast of the Philippines, he was sheltered by a Filipino aristocrat, engaged in guerilla fighting, and eventually set off through hostile waters to China. After 29 days of misadventures and violent storms, Harris and his crew limped into a friendly fishing village in the southern Philippines. Evading and fighting for months, he embarked on another agonizing voyage to Australia, but was betrayed by treacherous islanders and handed over to the Japanese. Held for two years in the notorious Ofuna prisoner-of-war camp outside Yokohama, Harris was continuously starved, tortured, and beaten, but he never surrendered. Teaching himself Japanese, he eavesdropped on the guards and created secret codes to communicate with fellow prisoners. After liberationon August 30, 1945, Bill represented American Marine POWs during the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay before joining his father and flying to a home he had not seen in four years. Valor is a riveting new look at the Pacific War. Through military documents,personal photos, and an unpublished memoir provided by his daughter, Harris' experiences are dramatically revealed through his own words in the expert hands of bestselling author and retired fighter pilot Dan Hampton. This is the stunning and captivatingtrue story of an American hero"-- Provided by publisher.
Fly Girl
A Memoir
Published in 2022
"An entertaining and fascinating memoir of "gifted storyteller" (People) Ann Hood's adventurous years as a TWA flight attendant. In 1978, in the tailwind of the Golden Age of air travel, flight attendants were the epitome of glamor and sophistication. Fresh out of college and hungry to experience the world, Ann Hood joined their ranks. She carved chateaubriand in the first-class cabin, found romance on layovers in London and Lisbon, and walked more than a million miles in high heels, smiling as she servedthousands of passengers. She flew through the start of deregulation, an oil crisis, massive furloughs, and a labor strike. As the airline industry changed around her, Hood began to write-even drafting snatches of her first novel from the jump-seat. She reveals how the job empowered her, despite its roots in sexist standards. Packed with funny, moving, and shocking stories of life as a flight attendant, Fly Girl captures the nostalgia and magic of air travel at its height, and the thrill that remains withevery takeoff"-- Provided by publisher.
Admissions
A Memoir of Surviving Boarding School
Published in 2022
"Kendra James began her professional life selling a lie. As an admissions officer specializing in diversity recruitment for select prep schools, her job was persuading students and families to embark on the same perilous journey, attending cutthroat and largely white schools similar to The Taft School, an elite institution in Connecticut where she had been the first African-American legacy student only a few years earlier. Forced to reflect on her own elite educational experience, she quickly became disillusioned by America's inequitable system. In ADMISSIONS, Kendra looks back at the three years she spent at Taft, from clashes with her lily-white roommate, to unlearning the respectability politics she'd been raised with, and a horrifying article in the student newspaper that accused Black and Latinx students of being responsible for segregation of campus. She contemplates the benefits of the education she got from Taft, which Kendra credits as playing a role in her career success, as well as the ways the school coddled her--perhaps, she now believes, too much. Through these stories, she deconstructs the lies and half-truths she herself would later tell as an admissions professional, in addition to the myths about boarding schools perpetuated by popular culture. With its combination of incisive social critique and uproarious depictions of elite nonsense, ADMISSIONS will resonate with anyone who has ever been The Only One in a room, dealt with racial microaggressions, or even just suffered from an extreme case of homesickness"-- Provided by publisher.
My Seven Black Fathers
A Young Activist's Memoir of Race, Family, and the Mentors Who Made Him Whole
Published in 2022
"A memoir by the lawyer, activist, and county councilman Will Jawando"-- Provided by publisher.
Constructing a Nervous System
A Memoir
Published in 2022
"Stunning for her daring originality, the author of Negroland gives us what she calls "a temperamental autobiography," comprised of visceral, intimate fragments that fuse criticism and memoir. Margo Jefferson constructs a nervous system with pieces of different lengths and tone, conjoining arts writing (poem, song, performance) with life writing (history, psychology). The book's structure is determined by signal moments of her life, those that trouble her as well as those that thrill and restore. In this nervous system: The sounds of a black spinning disc of a 1950's jazz LP as intimate and instructive as a parent's voice. The muscles and movements of a ballerina, spliced with those of an Olympic runner: template for what a female body could be. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Topsy finds her way into the art of Kara Walker and the songs of Cécile McLorin Salvant. Bing Crosby and Ike Turner become alter egos. W.E.B. DuBois and George Eliot meet illicitly, as he appropriates lines from her story "The Hidden Veil" to write his famous "behind the veil" passages in The Souls of Black Folk. The words of multiple others (writers, singers, film characters, friends, family) act as prompts and as dialogue. The fragments of this brilliant book, while not neglecting family, race, and class, are informed by a kind of aesthetic drive: longing, ecstasy, or even acute ambivalence. Constructing a nervous system is Jefferson's relentlessly galvanizing mis en scene for unconventional storytelling as well as a platform for unexpected dramatis personae"-- Provided by publisher.
Highest and Hardest
A Mountain Climber's Lifetime Odyssey to the Top of the World
Published in 2022
"At age 16 Chris Kopczynski carved the words "Everest/Eiger" into the handle of his ice axe, marking his goal to climb the two mountains known as the "highest and the hardest." He accomplished that goal by the age of 33, becoming the ninth American to summit Everest and the first American to summit both the North Face of the Eiger and Mt. Everest. With the climbing addiction in his blood, he set new goals and became the twelfth in the world to climb the highest peaks on seven continents"-- Provided by publisher.
I Cried to Dream Again
Trafficking, Murder, and Deliverance
Published in 2022
"At once disturbing and empowering, the memoir of a courageous woman, who, between the ages of thirteen and sixteen, was manipulated, exploited, and abused as a sex worker; who killed her pimp/father figure-and was unjustly sentenced to life in prison without parole. "I was 11 when I met GG. I realized later that he had to have been aware of the chaos that was my life... because he played me perfectly. I was walking home after school... I heard his red Mustang purring like a huge lion behind me before itpulled up catty corner and cut off my path. He leaned out of the open window and motioned with his right hand that I should come closer. 'Hey, excuse me.' I popped down to the window and politely, cheerfully and helpfully replied, 'Yes?' He said, 'I've been noticing you a lot, and I just want to talk to you. I'm gonna go get some ice cream and go to the park. I would love for you to come and join me. We won't be gone long. Is that okay with you?' The appeal of ice cream for me was like, 'YES! I want ice cream.' He leaned over and opened the passenger door, 'What's your name? People call me GG.' I shyly answered, 'Sara.'""-- Provided by publisher.
Whole Earth
The Many Lives of Stewart Brand
Published in 2022
"From one of our greatest chroniclers of technology and society, the definitive biography of iconic serial visionary Stewart Brand, from the Merry Pranksters and the generation-defining Whole Earth Catalog to the marriage of environmental consciousness and hacker capitalism and the rise of a new planetary culture--the story behind so many other stories. Stewart Brand has long been famous if you knew who he was, but for many people outside the counterculture, early computing, or the environmental movement, he is perhaps best known for his famous mantra 'Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.' Steve Jobs's endorsement of these words as his code to live by is fitting; Brand has played many roles, but one of the most important is as a model for how to live. The contradictions are striking: a blond-haired WASP with a modest family inheritance, he went to Exeter and Stanford and was an army veteran, but in California in the 1960s he was an artist and a photographer in the thick of the LSD revolution. While tripping on acid on the roof of his building, he envisioned how valuable it would be for humans to see a photograph of the planet they shared from space, an image that in the end landed on the cover of his Whole Earth Catalog, the defining publication of the counterculture. He married a Native American woman and was committed to protecting indigenous culture, which connected to a broader environmentalist mission that has been a through line of his life. At the same time, he has outraged purists because of his pragmatic embrace of useful technologies, including nuclear power, in the fight against climate change. The famous tagline promise of his catalog was 'Access to Tools'; with rare exceptions he rejected politics for a focus on direct power. It was no wonder, then, that he was early to the promise of the computer revolution and helped define it for the wider world. Unlike most people, who make a mark in one field, Brand has a life that can be hard to fit onto one screen. John Markoff, also a great chronicler of tech culture, has done something extraordinary in unfolding the rich, twisting story of Brand's life against its proper landscape. As Markoff makes marvelously clear, the streams of individualism, respect for science, environmentalism, and embrace of Eastern and indigenous thought that flow through Brand's entire life form a powerful gestalt, a California state of mind that has a hegemonic power to this day. At its best, it is the wellspring for a true planetary consciousness that may be the best hope we humans collectively have"-- Provided by publisher.
Damn Lucky
One Man's Courage During the Bloodiest Military Campaign in Aviation History
Published in 2022
"The incredible true story of John "Lucky" Luckadoo, who survived 25 missions as a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot in WWII. When Second Lieutenant John "Lucky" Luckadoo-a wide-eyed 21-year-old assigned to the Eighth Air Force's 100th Bomb Group-arrived in England, "Axis Sally," an American broadcaster employed by Nazi Germany to disseminate propaganda during World War II, welcomed his squadron by name. "This isn't your war," she told them. "You don't have any business being here, but as long as you're here we're going to teach you a lesson." And they did. Kevin Maurer's Damn Lucky tells the true story of "Lucky" Luckadoo who flew some of the deadliest missions of World War II during the bloodiest military campaign in aviation history. Lucky served with the 100th Bomber Group during the early days of the bombing of France and Germany from England. His story starts with his quest to join the Royal Air Force with his best friend before the war, through 25 missions in combat over Germany to the one mission-a raidover Bremen-where Luckadoo felt like his luck had run out. The statistical chances for a heavy Bomber crew in Europe to be lost on a mission were 1-in-10. At a 25-mission tour of duty, statistically, once a flyer made it to 10 missions they were literallyon borrowed time. Anyone who served a full tour and survived was remarkably lucky. Drawn from Lucky's firsthand accounts, acclaimed war correspondent and bestselling author Kevin Maurer delves into this extraordinary tale, uncovering astonishing accountsof bravery during an epic clash in the skies over Nazi Germany"-- Provided by publisher.
Tasha
A Son's Memoir
Published in 2022
"Acclaimed novelist Brian Morton delivers a moving, darkly funny memoir of his mother's vibrant life and the many ways in which their tight but turbulent relationship was refashioned in her twilight years. Tasha Morton is a force of nature: a brilliant educator who's left her mark on generations of students -- and also a whirlwind of a mother: intrusive, chaotic, oppressively devoted and irrepressible. For decades, her son, Brian, has kept her at a self-protective distance, but when her health begins to fail, he knows it's time to assume responsibility for her care. Even so, he's not prepared for what awaits him, as her refusal to accept her own fragility leads to a series of epic outbursts and altercations that are sometimes frightening, sometimes wildly comic, and sometimes both. Clear-eyed, loving and brimming with dark humor, Tasha is both a vivid account of an unforgettable woman and a stark look at the impossible task of caring for an elderly parent in a country whose unofficial motto is "you're on your own." Turning his novelist's eye on his own life, Brian Morton lays bare the treacherous business at the heart of every family -- the business of trying to honor ourselves without forsaking our parents, and our parents , and our parents without forsaking ourselves." - jacket.
Ancestor Trouble
A Reckoning and a Reconciliation
Published in 2022
"Maud Newton's ancestors have vexed and fascinated her since she was a girl. Her mother's father, who came of age during the Great Depression in Texas, was supposedly married thirteen times, and survived being shot in the stomach by one of his wives. His father purportedly killed a man in the street with a hay hook, and later died in a mental institution. On her father's side, a Massachusetts ancestor was accused of being a witch, who cast sickness on her neighbor's ox and was later tried in court for causing the death of a child. Maud's father had a master's in aerospace engineering on scholarship from an Ivy League university and was valedictorian of his law school class; he also viewed slavery as a benevolent institution that should never have been disbanded, and would paint over the faces of brown children in her storybooks. He was obsessed with maintaining the purity of his family bloodline, which he could trace back to the days of the Revolutionary War. Her mother was a whirlwind of charisma and passions that could become obsessions; she kept over thirty cats and birds in a tiny two-bedroom apartment, and later started a church in her living room, where she would perform exorcisms. Maud's parents' marriage was acrimonious, their divorce a relief. But the meeting of their lines in her was something she could not shake. She signed up for an online account and began researching her genealogy. She found records of marriages and trials, wills in which her ancestors gave slaves to their spouses and children. The search took over her life. But as she dabbled in DNA testing and found herself sunk in census archives at 1 o'clock in the morning, it was unclear to her what she was looking for. She wanted a truth that would set her free, in a way she hadn't identified yet. This book seeks to understand why the practice of genealogy has become a multi-billion-dollar industry in contemporary America, while also mining the secrets and contradictions of one singularly memorable family history"-- Provided by publisher.
Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama
A Memoir
Published in 2022
"Bob Odenkirk's career is inexplicable. And yet he will try like hell to explain it here, because that is what memoirs are for. Charting a "Homeric" decades-long "Odyssey" from his origins in the seedy comedy clubs of Chicago all the way to a dramatic career that is baffling to his friends, it's almost like there are two or three Bob Odenkirks... but there is just one and one is enough, frankly. Bob embraced a life in comedy after a chance meeting with Second City's legendary Del Close, which eventually led to a job as a writer at SNL. As he weathered the beast that is live comedy, he stashed away the secrets of sketch writing-employing them in the immortal "Motivational Speaker" sketch for his friend Chris Farley, honing them on The Ben Stiller Show, and perfecting them on Mr. Show With Bob and David, which inspired an entire generation of comedy writers and stars. Then his career met the hope-dashing machine that is Hollywood development. But when all hope was lost for the umpteenth time, Bob was more astonished than anyone to find himself on Breaking Bad. His embrace of this strange new world of dramatic acting led him to working with Steven Spielberg, Alexander Payne, and Greta Gerwig, until finally re-re-inventing himself as a bona-fide worldwide action star for reasons that even he does not fully grasp! Read this and do your own psychoanalysis-it's fun!"-- Provided by publisher.
How Do I Un-remember This?
Unfortunately True Stories
Published in 2022
"Growing up in small-town Ohio isn't easy, particularly when you're a closeted gay kid surrounded by... no one openly gay. Luckily, Danny Pellegrino grew up in the '90s, coming of age when the internet opened up a whole new world for a curious kid itching for life outside of Midwest suburbia. Danny escaped the pains of growing up by submerging himself in a sea of pop culture-bingeing The Nanny until he had the confidence of Fran Fine, belting out Brandy songs until his heartaches were healed, and watching every semi-clothed Ryan Phillippe scene known to man. Now, as a successful podcaster interviewing the same iconic personalities that he idolized as a kid, Danny's life has only become more entertaining and delightfully chaotic. Heartfelt and hilarious, How Do I Un-Remember This? is a collection of real-life stories exploring Danny's journey from feeling like the only gay kid in Ohio to becoming a big-time podcaster in Los Angeles, and all the amusing moments life threw at him in between. With remarkable honesty and his trademark humor, Danny discusses his struggles alongside his love for all things pop culture in a way that is equally emotional and uplifting. And of course, it's all sprinkled with a little '90s nostalgia and a whole lot of comedy"-- Provided by publisher.
Bomb Shelter
Love, Time, and Other Explosives
Published in 2022
"A poignant and powerful new memoir-in-essays that tackles the big questions of life, death, and existential fear with humor and hope"-- Provided by publisher.
Run Towards the Danger
Confrontations with a Body of Memory
Published in 2022
"Oscar-nominated screenwriter, director, and actor Sarah Polley's Run Towards the Danger explores memory and the dialogue between her past and her present These are the most dangerous stories of my life. The ones I have avoided, the ones I haven't told, the ones that have kept me awake on countless nights. As these stories found echoes in my adult life, and then went another, better way than they did in childhood, they became lighter and easier to carry. Sarah Polley's work as an actor, screenwriter, and director is celebrated for its honesty, complexity, and deep humanity. She brings all those qualities, along with her exquisite storytelling chops, to these six essays. Each one captures a piece of Polley's life as she remembers it, while at the same time examining the fallibility of memory, the mutability of reality in the mind, and the possibility of experiencing the past anew, as the person she is now but was not then. As Polley writes, the past and present are in a "reciprocal pressure dance." Polley contemplates stories from her own life ranging from stage fright to high-risk childbirth to endangerment and more. After struggling with the aftermath of a concussion, Polley met a specialist who gave her wholly new advice: to recover from a traumatic injury, she had to retrain her mind to strength by charging towards the very activities that triggered her symptoms. With riveting clarity, she shows the power of applying that same advice to other areas of her life in order to find a path forward, a way through. Rather than live in a protective crouch, she had to run towards the danger. In this extraordinary book, Polley explores what it is to live in one's body, in a constant state of becoming, learning, and changing"-- Provided by publisher.
Black Ops
The Life of a CIA Shadow Warrior
Published in 2022
"A memoir by the highest-ranking covert warrior to lift the veil of secrecy and offer a glimpse into the shadow wars that America has fought since the Vietnam Era. Enrique Prado found himself in his first firefight at age seven. The son of a middle-class Cuban family caught in the midst of the Castro Revolution, his family fled their war-torn home for the hope of a better life in America. Fifty years later, the Cuban refugee retired from the Central Intelligence Agency as the CIA equivalent of a two-star general. Black Ops is the story of Ric's legendary career that spanned two eras, the Cold War and the Age of Terrorism. Operating in the shadows, Ric and his fellow CIA officers fought a little-seen and virtually unknown war to keep USA safe from those who would do it harm. After duty stations in Central, South America, and the Philippines, Black Ops follows Ric into the highest echelons of the CIA's headquarters at Langley, Virginia. In late 1995, he became Deputy Chief of Station and co-founding member of the Bin Laden Task Force. Three years later, after serving as head of Korean Operations, Ric took on one of the most dangerous missions of his career: re-establish a once-abandoned CIA station inside a hostile nation long since considered a front line of the fight against Islamic terrorism. He and his team carried out covert operations and developed assets that proved pivotal in the coming War on Terror. A harrowing memoir of life in the shadowy world of assassins, terrorists, spies and revolutionaries, Black Ops is a testament to the courage, creativity and dedication of the Agency's Special Activities Group and its elite shadow warriors"-- Provided by publisher.
Diamonds and Deadlines
A Tale of Greed, Deceit, and a Female Tycoon in the Gilded Age
Published in 2022
"Among the fabled tycoons of the Gilded Age--Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt--is a forgotten figure: Mrs. Frank Leslie. For twenty years she ran the country's largest publishing company, Frank Leslie Publishing, which chronicled postbellum America in dozens of weeklies and monthlies. A pioneer in an all-male industry, she made a fortune and became a national celebrity and tastemaker in the process. But Miriam Leslie was also a byword for scandal: She flouted feminine convention, took lovers, married four times, and harbored unsavory secrets that she concealed through a skein of lies and multiple personas. Both before and after her lifetime, glimpses of the truth emerged, including an illegitimate birth and a checkered youth. Diamonds & Deadlines reveals the unknown, sensational life of the brilliant and brazen "empress of journalism," who dropped a bombshell at her death: She left her entire multimillion-dollar estate to women's suffrage--a never-equaled amount that guaranteed passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. In this dazzling biography, cultural historian Betsy Prioleau draws from diaries, genealogies, and published works to provide an intimate look at the life of one of the Gilded Age's most complex, powerful women and unexpected feminist icons. Ultimately, Diamonds and Deadlines restores Mrs. Frank Leslie to her rightful place in history, as a monumental businesswoman who presaged the feminist future and reflected, in bold relief, the Gilded Age, one of the most momentous, seismic, and vivid epochs in American history."--Amazon.com.
Never Simple
Published in 2022
"A darkly funny and devastating memoir of growing up in '90s Manhattan with a mentally ill single parent"-- Provided by publisher.
What's So Funny?
A Cartoonist's Memoir
Published in 2022
Featuring his witty, beloved cartoons throughout, a longtime New Yorker staff cartoonist sketches out his life in this memoir in which he discusses his hapless place in his indelibly dysfunctional family, professes his love for New York City, and exploresthe origins of creativity.
Be My Baby
A Memoir
Published in 2022
"Be My Baby is the behind-the-scenes story--newly updated, and with an especially timely message--of how the original bad girl of rock and roll, Ronnie Spector, survived marriage to a monster and carved out a space for herself amid the chaos of the 1960s music scene and beyond. Ronnie's first collaboration with producer Phil Spector, 'Be My Baby,' shot Ronnie and the Ronettes to stardom. No one sounded like Ronnie, with her alluring blend of innocence and knowing, but her voice would soon be silenced as Spector sequestered her behind electric gates, guard dogs, and barbed wire. It took everything Ronnie had to escape her prisonlike marriage and wrest back control of her life, her music, and her legacy. And as shown in this edition, which includes a 2021 postscript from Ronnie, her life became proof that our challenges do not define us and there is always the potential to forge a fuller life. In Be My Baby, the incomparable Ronnie Spector offered a whirlwind account of the ever-shifting path of an iconic artist. And, more than anything else, she gave us an inspiring tale of triumph"--Book jacket.
Forever Boy
A Mother's Memoir of Autism and Finding Joy
Published in 2022
"With her popular blog, Finding Cooper's Voice, Kate Swenson has provided hope and comfort for hundreds of thousands of parents of children with Autism. Now, Kate shares her inspiring story in this powerful memoir about motherhood and unconditional love"-- Provided by publisher
It Was All a Dream
Biggie and the World That Made Him
Published in 2022
"The Notorious B.I.G. was one of the most charismatic and talented artists of the 1990s. Born Christopher Wallace and raised in Clinton Hill/Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, Biggie lived an almost archetypal rap life: young trouble, drug dealing, guns, prison, a giant hit record, the wealth and international superstardom that came with it, then an early violent death. Biggie released his first record, Ready to Die, in 1994, when he was only 22. Less than three years later, he was killed just days before the planned release of his second record Life After Death. Journalist Justin Tinsley’s It Was All a Dream is a fresh, insightful telling of the life beyond the legend. It is based on extensive interviews with those who knew and loved Biggie, including neighbors, friends, DJs, party promoters, and journalists. And it places Biggie’s life in context, both within the history of rap but also the wider cultural and political forces that shaped him, including Caribbean immigration, the Reagan era disinvestment in public education, street life, the war on drugs, mass incarceration, and the booming, creative, and influential 1990s music industry. This is the story of where Biggie came from, the forces that shaped him, and the legacy he has left behind." -- Amazon.com.
Stepping Back from the Ledge
A Daughter's Search for Truth and Renewal
Published in 2022
"When Laura Trujillo's mother jumps off a ledge in the Grand Canyon and falls to her death, Laura sets out to discover what drove her mother's actions, and begins to explore the painful secrets they shared. As a young girl, Laura was happy that her mother, divorced and remarried, seemed happy again, and so she hides it when her stepfather begins to abuse her. Now grown up with a family of her own, after her mother dies, Laura goes in search of the truth of her mother's life, and of their mutually protective relationship. Breaking the silence that surrounds the subjects of abuse and suicide, Laura explores her own struggle with loss and the trauma of the sexual assault that marked her youth, and candidly recounts how she came to find understanding and hope again"-- Provided by publisher.
Miss Chloe
A Memoir of a Literary Friendship with Toni Morrison
Published in 2022
"The award-winning author of The Good Negress shares invaluable insights on the precarious journey toward creativity that is the writer's life, and tells the compelling story of her relationship with Toni Morrison, painting an illuminating portrait of this towering yet enigmatic cultural icon. With the publication of her debut novel The Good Negress in 1995, A. J. Verdelle became an overnight sensation, winning critical acclaim and competing for prestigious literature prizes. But for Verdelle, the most unexpected consequence was the friendship she formed with the legendary Toni Morrison. Receiving an advance copy of the book, the Pulitzer and Nobel prize-winning author-notorious for never giving early praise-called The Good Negress, "Truly Extraordinary." It was a writer's dream come true-a dream that for Verdelle would become simultaneously exhilarating and challenging. Now, twenty-five years later, Verdelle tells the story of that success and what came after. Miss Chloe begins with the story of young Verdelle's persistent aim to become an author, spending countless pre-dawn hours writing the novel that became The Good Negress. Verdelle then turns to the heady period after publication, focusing on her relationship with Toni-a precious gift that was most of the time a grace and a blessing, and at other times, confusing and too separate from literature. While Morrison continued to rise as an icon, Verdelle's writing career took a sharp turn. Verdelle's next novel-a Western featuring Black characters-is quickly bought by a young editor who leaves for another job before the manuscript is finished. Searching for direction, Verdelle moves to another publisher. Yet this second book will languish for more than fifteen years. In chronicling her journey, Verdelle offers an honest assessment of what it means to be a writer, including the expectations and let downs that famous friendships do not defray. Miss Chloe ends with the period after Morrison has passed away, when Verdelle is left to face the reality of her writing career, pondering what it means to have promise that is yet to materialize. She finds comfort in advice Morrison offered over the years, insight she shares in this wise book. "In order for Morrison to take you seriously, to have patience with you, to be interested, you had to be able to hear her," Verdelle writes. "You had to be able to sit still and listen. You had to be able to pipe up in the pauses, and prove you understood. You needed demonstrate that language was a skill you had, that Black culture was known to you and respected by you""-- Provided by publisher.
Ali's Well That Ends Well
Tales of Desperation and a Little Inspiration
Published in 2022
"New York times bestselling author Ali Wentworth offers a comedic look at family, friendship, and lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic in her new collection of laugh-out-loud comic vignettes. Like many, Ali Wentworth spent the pandemic seesawing between highs, lows, and baking an unnecessary amount of chocolate cake. Between binging every television show in existence to conquering TikTok to becoming a (semi) empty-nester, Ali experienced her share of turmoil (including an early case of COVID), butshe also grew a little, learned a lot, and found comfort in some unexpected people and places"-- Provided by publisher.