| Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen by Mary NorrisWhat it's about: New Yorker copy editor Mary Norris' passion for Greek language, history, and culture, which began in unlikely earnest after she saw the science fiction film Time Bandits, partially set in ancient Greece.
Immersive study: Norris traveled solo to remote Mediterranean locales, performed in Greek-language productions of Elektra and The Trojan Women, and convinced her employers to subsidize Greek language courses to aid her in her copy editing work.
Read it for: a lively and upbeat blend of memoir and travelogue. |
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| Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy by Eric O'NeillWhat it is: a white-knuckle account of rookie FBI agent Eric O'Neill's 2001 undercover mission to capture fellow agent Robert Hanssen, a longtime Russian mole.
Want a taste? "Hanssen was a veteran agent, schooled in the tyranny of secrets. I was a pawn."
Try this next: Ben Macintyre's similarly suspenseful A Spy Among Friends spotlights MI6 operative Kim Philby, a double agent who defected to the Soviet Union in 1963. |
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| A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win WWII by Sonia PurnellWho it's about: undeterred American Virginia Hall, who didn't let workplace sexism and the loss of her leg in a hunting accident stop her from serving as a Special Operations Executive (SOE) spy in occupied France, where she established an underground resistance network.
Why you might like it: Offering breakneck pacing and plenty of wartime intrigue, this celebration of a little-known hero is "a joy to read" (Booklist).
Movie buzz: Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley is set to play Hall in a forthcoming film adaptation. |
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Inheritance : a memoir of genealogy, paternity, and love
by Dani Shapiro
The acclaimed author of Hourglass describes her staggering recent discovery that she is not biologically related to her father, tracing her efforts to uncover the truth from a half-century web of family secrets to reestablish her sense of identity
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| What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays by Damon YoungWhat it is: a candid collection of humorous and bittersweet musings on contemporary black manhood.
Topics include: gentrification's impact on author Damon Young's Pittsburgh neighborhood; the relationships forged in barbershops and on basketball courts; the use (and misuse) of racial epithets.
Author alert: Debut author Young is the co-founder of the website Very Smart Brothas and a senior editor at The Root. |
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| Driving Miss Norma: One Family's Journey Saying "Yes" to Living by Tim Bauerschmidt and Ramie Liddle What it is: a therapeutic and life-affirming family road trip.
Starring: nonagenarian Norma, who forgoes intensive chemotherapy after her terminal cancer diagnosis to tour the country with her retired son Tim and his wife, Ramie, in their "mobile assisted living home."
Norma says "yes" to...hot air balloon rides, NBA courtside seats, a feted appearance at the Boston St. Patrick's Day parade, and more. |
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Aloha Wanderwell : The Border-smashing, Record-setting Life of the World's Youngest Explorer by Christian Fink-jensenIn 1922, a 15-year-old girl, fed up with life in a French convent school, answered an ad for a travelling secretary. Tall, blonde, and swaggering with confidence, she might have passed for twenty. She also knew what she wanted: to become the first female to drive around the world. Her name was Aloha Wanderwell. Aloha's mission was foolhardy in the extreme. Drivable roads were scarce and cars were alien to much of the world. All that remained was for Aloha to learn how to drive. The American Aloha Wanderwell was, in reality, the Canadian Idris Hall. Drawing upon Aloha's diaries and travel logs, as well as films, photographs, newspaper accounts, and previously classified government documents, Aloha Wanderwell reveals the astonishing story of one of the greatest -- and most outrageous -- explorers of the 1920s.
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| In Other Words by Jhumpa LahiriWhat it is: Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri's bilingual memoir of how her love of Italian prompted her to move her family to Rome, where she made surprising discoveries about her identity as a writer.
Want a taste? "Writing in another language represents an act of demolition, a new beginning."
Did you know? A national bestseller, In Other Words is Lahiri's first foray into nonfiction and was originally published in Italian. |
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The art of leaving : a memoir
by Ayelet Tsabari
This collection opens with the death of Ayelet Tsabari's father when she was a nine-year-old girl. His passing left her feeling rootless, devastated, and driven to question her complex identity as an Israeli of Yemeni descent in a country that suppressedand devalued her ancestors' traditions. In The "Art of Leaving, Ayelet tells her story, from her early love of writing and words, to her rebellion during her mandatory service in the Israeli army. She travels from Israel to New York, to Canada, Thailand,and India, falling in and out of love with countries, men and women, drugs and alcohol, running away from responsibilities and refusing to settle in one place. She recounts her first marriage; her struggle to define herself as a writer in a new language;her decision to become a mother; and finally her rediscovery and embrace of her family history--a history marked by generations of headstrong women who struggled to choose between their hearts and their homes. Eventually, she realizes that she must come to terms with the memories of her father, the sadness of her past, and overcome her fears if she is ever going to come to terms with herself. With fierce, emotional prose, Tsabari crafts a beautiful meditation about the lengths we will travel to try to escape our grief; the universal search to find a place where we belong; and the sense of home we eventually find within ourselves"
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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