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Biography and Memoir December 2018
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A Mind Unraveledby Kurt EichenwaldThis is the story of one man’s battle to pursue his dreams despite an often incapacitating brain disorder. From his early experiences of fear and denial to his exasperating search for treatment, Eichenwald provides a deeply candid account of his years facing this misunderstood and often stigmatized condition. He details his encounters with the doctors whose negligence could have killed him, but for the heroic actions of a brilliant neurologist and the family and friends who fought for him. Many of Eichenwald’s recollections are drawn from his diaries, vivid and painstakingly kept records that helped sharpen his skills as a journalist. He raises important questions about the nature of memory, the revelations of brain science, and the profound mysteries of human perception. Ultimately, A Mind Unraveled is an inspirational story, one that chronicles how Eichenwald, faced often with his own mortality, transformed trauma into a guide for reaching the future he desired.
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There Will Be No Miracles Here by Casey GeraldThe co-founder of MBAs Across America describes his upbringing in a black evangelical family, his football recruitment into Yale and the brutal wealth gap that is forcing increasingly large numbers of marginalized groups to redefine the American Dream. Even as he attains the inner sanctums of power, Casey sees how the world crushes those who live at its margins. He sees how the elite perpetuate the salvation stories that keep others from rising. And he sees, most painfully, how his own ascension is part of the scheme. There Will Be No Miracles Here has the arc of a classic rags-to-riches tale, but it stands the American Dream narrative on its head. If to live as we are is destroying us, it asks, what would it mean to truly live? Intense, incantatory, shot through with sly humor and quiet fury, There Will Be No Miracles Here inspires us to question--even shatter--and reimagine our most cherished myths.
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Ruth Bader Ginsburg : A Life by Jane Sherron De HartIn this large, comprehensive, revelatory biography, Jane De Hart explores the central experiences that crucially shaped Ginsburg’s passion for justice, her advocacy for gender equality, her meticulous jurisprudence: her desire to make We the People more united and our union more perfect. From Ruth’s days as a baton twirler at Brooklyn’s James Madison High School, to Cornell University, Harvard and Columbia Law Schools (first in her class), to being a law professor at Rutgers University; becoming the director of the women’s rights project of the ACLU, persuading the Supreme Court in a series of decisions to ban laws that denied women full citizenship status with men. Her years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit,her years on the Supreme Court... A pioneering life and legal career whose profound mark on American jurisprudence, on American society, on our American character and spirit, will reverberate deep into the twenty-first century and beyond.
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The Kelloggs: The Battling Brothers of Battle Creek by Howard MarkelBrothers John Harvey and Will Kellogg made Battle Creek, Michigan famous for their work in promoting health (and healthy breakfast cereal) from the 1870s to the mid-20th century. Ironically, they hated each other! In The Kelloggs, Dr. Howard Markel, a professor of the history of medicine, details the brothers' lives, careers, and intra-family warfare. Business history, medical history, and legal history combine in this "superb warts-and-all" (Kirkus Reviews) presentation of two radically different personalities whose success depended on their sibling rivalry. As Markel chronicles the Kelloggs’ fascinating, Magnificent Ambersons–like ascent into the pantheon of American industrialists, we see the vast changes in American social mores that took shape in diet, health, medicine, philanthropy, and food manufacturing during seven decades—changing the lives of millions and helping to shape our industrial age.
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Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese LaymonIn this compelling and complex memoir, Kiese Laymon examines the burdens of the frequently policed and politicized black male body. Growing up obese in 1980s Mississippi, his was no exception, and he grappled with abuse, anorexia, and addiction. By attempting to name secrets and lies he and his mother spent a lifetime avoiding, Laymon asks himself, his mother, his nation, and us to confront the terrifying possibility that few in this nation actually know how to responsibly love, and even fewer want to live under the weight of actually becoming free. A personal narrative that illuminates national failures, Heavy is defiant yet vulnerable, an insightful, often comical exploration of weight, identity, art, friendship, and family that begins with a confusing childhood—and continues through twenty-five years of haunting implosions and long reverberations.
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Napoleon : A Life by Adam Zamoyski "What a novel my life has been!" Napoleon once said of himself. Born into a poor family, he was, by twenty-six, an army general. Seduced by an older woman, his marriage transformed him into a galvanizing military commander. The Pope crowned him as Emperor of the French when he was only thirty-five. Within a few years, he became the effective master of Europe, his power unparalleled in modern history. His downfall was no less dramatic. Here, historian Adam Zamoyski cuts through the mythology and explains Napoleon against the background of the European Enlightenment, and what he was himself seeking to achieve. This most famous of men is also the most hidden of men, and Zamoyski dives deeper than any previous biographer to find him. Beautifully written, Napoleon brilliantly sets the man in his European context.
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The Big Fella : Babe Ruth and the World He Created by Jane LeavyA portrait of Babe Ruth and his partnership with business manager Christy Walsh traces how their strategies, achievements and notoriety established a blueprint for modern athletic stardom. After hitting his 60th home run in September 1927—a total that would not be exceeded until 1961, when Roger Maris did it with the aid of the extended modern season—he embarked on the mother of all barnstorming tours, a three-week victory lap across America, accompanied by Yankee teammate Lou Gehrig. Walsh called the tour a "Symphony of Swat." The Omaha World Herald called it "the biggest show since Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey, and seven other associated circuses offered their entire performance under one tent." In The Big Fella, acclaimed biographer Jane Leavy recreates that 21-day circus and in so doing captures the romp and the pathos that defined Ruth’s life and times.
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Becoming by Michelle ObamaIn her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.
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Monday, January 14 Tech Talk with Jay 11:30 a.m. Ask Jay your tech questions and he'll help as best he can, in a friendly, informal one-on-one chat. Bring your tablet, smart phone, or laptop. Tech Talk will be regularly scheduled for the second Monday of every month. Tuesday, January 29 Stealing the Body of Abraham Lincoln 6:30 p.m. Years after President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, in the 1870's, a band of criminals failed in an attempt to steal Lincoln's body from his tomb in Springfield, IL. Historical lecturer Michael Jesberger will present a program on this strange and often overlooked story of our 16th President.
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Saturday, February 2 Backyard Birds 11:00 a.m. Learn how you can participate in the Audubon Society's Great Backyard Bird Count in your own backyard. Kathy Easton will have her scope to help you identify local birds. This program is for all ages. Monday, February 11 Tech Talk with Jay 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, February 12 Make a Card for Valentine's Day 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, February 12 Great Decisions Discussions 7:00 p.m. Discuss the most critical issues facing America today. The first topic is "Refugees and Global Migration."
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Cranbury Public Library
23 North Main Street ~
Cranbury, NJ 08512 ~ Phone: 609-655-0555 ~ Contact Us
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