|
|
Biography and Memoir March 2019
|
|
|
| Black is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother's Time, My Mother's Time, and... by Emily BernardWhat it is: a lyrical memoir in essays that examines author Emily Bernard's relationship to her blackness and her Southern heritage.
Topics include: Bernard's interracial marriage and adoption of twin girls from Ethiopia; her grandmother's Jim Crow-era Mississippi childhood.
Want a taste? "I am black -- and brown, too. Brown is the body I was born into. Black is the body of the stories I tell." |
|
| Shortest Way Home: One Mayor's Challenge and a Model for America's Future by Pete ButtigiegWhat it's about: the inspiring political rise of two-term South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg, a former Rhodes Scholar and U.S. Navy veteran who recently announced his 2020 presidential bid.
Did you know? Buttigieg is the first openly gay Democratic candidate to run for president.
Try this next: For another engaging memoir by a young Democratic politician and Afghanistan veteran, try Jason Kander's Outside the Wire: Ten Lessons I've Learned in Everyday Courage. |
|
| Joy Enough by Sarah McCollWhat it's about: the year Sarah McColl spent grappling with her mother's impending death from cancer and the dissolution of her own marriage.
For fans of: candid memoirs of loss, such as Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking and C.S. Lewis' A Grief Observed.
Why you might like it: Despite its difficult subject matter, Pushcart Prize nominee McColl's introspective debut is ultimately hopeful. |
|
| Madame President: The Extraordinary Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf by Helene CooperWho it's about: Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the 24th Liberian President and Africa's first female elected head of state.
Topics include: Sirleaf's exile following her failed presidential run during the First Liberian Civil War; her handling of the 2014 Ebola outbreak.
Is it for you? Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Helene Cooper's mostly flattering biography spares her subject from in-depth criticisms. |
|
| Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme... by Linda HirshmanWhat it is: an engaging and evenhanded dual biography of the first two female Justices of the United States Supreme Court.
Read it for: the revealing glimpses of how the pair's disparate approaches to law impacted a number of women's rights issues, including workplace sexual harassment and reproductive rights.
Further reading: First: Sandra Day O'Connor by Evan Thomas; Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life by Jane Sherron De Hart. |
|
| Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, the First Lady of the Black Press by James McGrath MorrisWho it's about: pioneering journalist and activist Ethel Payne, who covered the civil rights movement for the Chicago Defender.
Notable achievements: Payne was the first African American Vietnam correspondent, the first African American reporter invited to China, and the first female African American radio/tv commentator to work for CBS.
Did you know? Payne was a witness to the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; President Johnson gifted her the pen used to sign the law. |
|
| The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville by Clare MulleyWhat it is: the previously untold story of Polish-born Christine Granville, the first woman to serve as a British intelligence officer during WWII.
Don't miss: Granville's heroic (and suspenseful) feats, which included skiing the Carpathian Mountains to deliver intel, parachuting into occupied France to aid the Resistance, and bribing the Gestapo to release three of her compatriots scheduled for execution.
For fans of: Ian Fleming's James Bond novels; Granville is rumored to be the inspiration for the first Bond Girl, Casino Royale's Vesper Lynd. |
|
|
Amelia Earhart : the turbulent life of an American icon
by Kathleen C. Winters
In a revisionist biography of Amelia Earhart that draws on contemporary accounts, airline records and other original research, the author paints a picture of a flawed heroine who was often reckless and lacked navigation skills, yet, along with her husband, was a master manipulator of the media. By the author of Anne Morrow Lindbergh: First Lady of the Air.
|
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
|
|
|