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Biography and Memoir June 2020
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| Officer Clemmons by Dr. François S. ClemmonsA 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. The book includes information about 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. Clemmons was the first African American performer to have a recurring role on a children's TV program. |
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| Hollywood Park by Mikel JollettThis memoir details 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. It includes Jollett's richly detailed account of self-discovery and healing. It's 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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Sigh, gone : a misfit's memoir of great books, punk rock, and the fight to fit in
by Phuc Tran
Sigh Gone is an irreverent, funny, and moving tale of displacement and assimilation woven together with poignant themes from beloved works of classic literature. In 1975, during the fall of Saigon, Phuc Tran immigrates to America along with his family. By sheer chance they land in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, a small town where the Trans struggle to assimilate into their new life.
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Books You Might Have Missed: Best of the Decade |
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Negroland: A Memoir
by Margo Jefferson
In this "page-turning, provocative" (Library Journal) memoir, journalist Margo Jefferson explains that "Negroland" isn't a place, but rather a social category or class whose elite members enjoy significant advantages. Coming of age in the 1960s, Jefferson witnessed her parents' aspirations as they modeled the ideals of Negroland. However, the societal and political changes arising from feminism, black pride, and other movements of the era led her to question her parents, the ideals of Negroland, and herself. Candid and moving, this book offers an eye-opening consideration of the challenges facing African American women.
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Barbarian days : a surfing life
by William Finnegan
The award-winning author of Cold New World describes his experiences as a lifelong surfer, from his early years as a white youth in Honolulu through his culturally sophisticated pursuits of perfect waves in some of the world's most exotic locales.
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H is for hawk
by Helen Macdonald
Recounts how the author, an experienced falconer grieving the sudden death of her father, endeavored to train for the first time a dangerous goshawk predator as part of her personal recovery.
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Men we reaped : a memoir
by Jesmyn Ward
Recounts the loss of five young men in the author's life to drugs, accidents, suicide, and the misfortune that can follow those who live in poverty, sharing her experiences of living through the dying as she searches through answers in her community.
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Just kids
by Patti Smith
A richly illustrated edition of Patti Smith's classic memoir incorporates new material and previously unpublished photographs into the story of her artistic collaboration with Robert Mapplethorpe in the heyday of early 1970s New York City.
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Contact your librarian for more great books! |
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Forsyth County Public Library 660 W 5th Street Winston Salem, North Carolina 27101 336-703-3030www.forsythlibrary.org |
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