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Biography and Memoir June 2020
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We're adding more ebooks and downloadable audiobooks so you can do your borrowing from home. If a title on this list isn't in the catalogue as a digital copy yet, please check FVRL OverDrive or FVRL RBdigital
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| Officer Clemmons by Dr. François S. ClemmonsWhat it is: a heartwarming memoir from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood cast member François S. Clemmons, who famously broke down racial barriers by sharing a foot bath with Rogers in a 1969 episode.
Topics include: Clemmons' Grammy Award-winning music career, which began at Oberlin College in the 1960s; his life-affirming 30-year friendship with Rogers, which was tested when the latter advised the openly gay Clemmons to repress his sexuality to avoid scandal.
Did you know? Clemmons was the first African American performer to have a recurring role on a children's TV program. |
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Braver Than You Think : Around the World on the Trip of my (Mother's) Lifetime
by Maggie Downs
What happens: the life-affirming story of how Downs, newly married and established in her career as a journalist, quits her job, sells her belongings, and embarks on the solo trip of a lifetime: Her mother's.
Where you'll go: Over the course of one year backpacking, Maggie faces some of the world's most exotic locales while confronting the slow loss of her mother: hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, whitewater rafting down the Nile, volunteering at a monkey sanctuary in Bolivia, praying at an ashram in India, and fleeing the Arab Spring in Egypt.
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The Home Stretch : A Father, a Son, and All the Things They Never Talk About
by George K. Ilsley
What it is : A moving, honest memoir about a man who returns to his rural hometown to take care of his cranky elderly father.
The life story: Decades after George has moved four time zones away, he begins to make regular trips home to help care for his cranky and uncooperative father, and to sift through the hoarded fragments of his father’s life. In doing so, George is forced to confront some uncomfortable family secrets and ugly personal truths, only to discover that the inexorable power of life’s journey pulls everyone along in its wake.
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| Hollywood Park by Mikel JollettWhat it's about: indie musician Mikel Jollett's traumatic 1970s childhood in the Synanon cult; after escaping, his family battled poverty, mental illness, addiction, and abuse, and Jollett later found solace in music.
Read it for: Jollett's richly detailed account of self-discovery and healing.
For fans of: candid memoirs of surviving cults (like Ruth Wariner's The Sound of Gravel) and family dysfunction (like Tara Westover's Educated). |
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Denali : A Man, a Dog, and the Friendship of a Lifetime
by Ben Moon
What happens: When Ben Moon moved from the Midwest to Oregon, he hadn't planned on getting a dog. But when he first met the soulful gaze of a rescue pup in a shelter, Ben instantly felt a connection, and his friendship with Denali was born.
Where they go: Man and dog set out on the road across the American west and through some of the best years of their lives. When Ben was diagnosed with colorectal cancer at age 29 Denali never once left his side until they were back out surfing and climbing crags. When Denali was struck by the same disease, and Ben had the chance to return the favor.
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| The Fixed Stars by Molly WizenbergWhat it is: bestselling food writer Molly Wizenberg's thought-provoking journey toward understanding her sexual fluidity.
How it began: Surprised by the revelation that she was attracted to another woman, Wizenberg and her husband Brandon agreed to an open relationship, an arrangement that left Wizenberg confronting what she thought she knew about herself -- and what she wanted from her life.
Reviewers say: "This is a spirited, terrifyingly courageous, and searingly honest memoir of discovering sexual identity and strength" (Booklist). |
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Books You Might Have Missed
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| Becoming a Man: The Story of a Transition by P. CarlWhat it is: an incisive memoir in essays chronicling author P. Carl's midlife gender transition.
What's inside: Carl's conflicted reckoning with the white male privilege he now experiences, as well as how his understanding of toxic masculinity changed post-transition.
Want a taste? "What do I know about America's fraught relationship with gender having inhabited these two bodies?" |
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I'm Just Happy to Be Here : A Memoir of Renegade Mothering
by Janelle Hanchett
What it's about: At 21, Janelle Hanchett embraced motherhood with the reckless self-confidence of those who have no idea what they're getting into. Having known her child's father for only three months, she found herself rather suddenly getting to know a newborn, husband, and wholly transformed identity. She was in love, but she was bored, directionless, and seeking too much relief in too much wine.
Is it for you? This is a story we rarely hear--of the addict mother not redeemed by her children; who longs for normalcy but cannot maintain it; and who, having traveled to the bottom of addiction, all the way to "society's hated mother," makes it back, only to discover she will always remain an outsider.
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Autism in Heels: The Untold Story of a Female Life on the Spectrum
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Jennifer Cook O'Toole
What it is: an inspirational guide that urges readers -- and the medical establishment -- to reevaluate stereotypical ideas about what autism looks like, especially the ways gender can affect the expression of autistic traits.
Why it's important: Author Jennifer Cook O'Toole encourages readers to view autism as more of a difference than a "disease," and reveals how her diagnosis at age 34 came as a relief instead of something negative.
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| For Joshua: An Ojibwe Father Teaches His Son by Richard WagameseWhat it is: Originally published in Canada in 2002, this moving memoir is a series of letters to Richard Wagamese's then six-year-old-son, from whom he was estranged.
Why you might like it: Wagamese's hard-won wisdom, pulled from Ojibwe traditions, a childhood spent in foster homes, and his battles with addiction, will resonate with readers who enjoy redemption narratives.
Author alert: The late Wagamese was the award-winning author of Indian Horse. |
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