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Benjamin Franklin : The Religious Life of a Founding Father
by Thomas S. Kidd
Renowned as a printer, scientist, and diplomat, Benjamin Franklin also published more works on religious topics than any other eighteenth-century American layperson. Born to Boston Puritans, by his teenage years Franklin had abandoned the exclusive Christian faith of his family and embraced deism. Based on rigorous research into Franklin's voluminous correspondence, essays, and almanacs, this fresh assessment of a well-known figure unpacks the contradictions and conundrums faith presented in Franklin's life.
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A Man and His Presidents : The Political Odyssey of William F. Buckley Jr.
by Alvin S. Felzenberg
William F. Buckley Jr. is widely regarded as the most influential American conservative writer, activist, and organizer in the postwar era. In this nuanced biography, Alvin Felzenberg sheds light on little-known aspects of Buckley's career. Felzenberg demonstrates how Buckley conveyed his message across multiple platforms and drew upon his vast network of contacts, his personal charm, his extraordinary wit, and his celebrity status to move the center of political gravity in the United States closer to his point of view.
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John William McCormack : a political biography
by Garrison Nelson
Before the house had Tip O'Neill, there was John McCormack. How did this man, with an eighth grade education and a false family history, become Speaker of the House of Representatives, and later next in line to be President of the United States? In this exhaustive political biography, Garrison Nelson lays out every detail of the life and work of an incredibly forceful and important American politician.
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My life with Bob : flawed heroine keeps book of books, plot ensues
by Pamela Paul
The New York Times Book Review editor reveals how for 28 years she has maintained a personal journal recording every book she has ever read, sharing literature-influenced experiences that shaped her personal and professional life. By the author of By the Book.
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Priestdaddy
by Patricia Lockwood
The author of Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals presents a darkly comic memoir about her relationship with her unconventional married Catholic priest father, describing emblematic moments from her youth and the crisis that led the author and her non-religious husband to briefly live in her parents' rectory.
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Last man standing : Mort Sahl and the birth of modern comedy
by James Curtis
The whole story of Mort Sahl, America's iconoclastic father of modern standup comedy, written with Sahl's full cooperation and the participation of many of his friends and contemporaries. It delves deeply into the influences that shaped him, the heady times in which he soared, and the depths to which he fell during the turbulent sixties when he took on the Warren Commission and nearly paid for it with his career.
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The road to Jonestown : Jim Jones and Peoples Temple
by Jeff Guinn
A portrait of the influential cult leader behind the Jonestown Massacre examines his personal life from his extramarital affairs and drug use to his fraudulent faith healing practices and his decision to move his followers to Guyana, sharing astonishing new details about the events leading to the 1978 tragedy. By the award-winning author of Go Down Together.
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Between them : remembering my parents
by Richard Ford
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the Bascombe novels presents a memoir in two parts on the lives of his parents in the Depression-era South that explores their motivations and dreams, his traveling salesman father's early death and the family's transient lives in a series of hotels.
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The secrets of my life
by Caitlyn Jenner
The author chronicles her childhood as Bruce Jenner and rise to fame as a gold-medal-winning Olympic decathlete; her marriages and her relationships with her children; her transition; and her experience as the world's most famous transgender woman.
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Al Franken, giant of the Senate
by Al Franken
The Harvard-educated comedian and talk-show host chronicles the story of his unlikely senatorial campaign, detailing the ensuing months-long recount and what his service has taught him about America's deeply polarized political culture.
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Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal
by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
A nonlinear memoir from the best-selling author of Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life features her relatable and intimate memories, moments and insights from her own life, divided into classic study subjects like Social Studies, Music and Language Arts.
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Love and trouble : a midlife reckoning
by Claire Dederer
The best-selling author of Poser describes the erotic reawakening she experienced at midlife that completely derailed her family life and career, recounting how she attempted to reconnect with her husband and reconcile her teen past with the woman she became.
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Paradise lost : a life of F. Scott Fitzgerald
by David S. Brown
Pigeonholed in popular memory as a Jazz Age epicurean, a playboy, and an emblem of the Lost Generation, F. Scott Fitzgerald was at heart a moralist struck by the nation's shifting mood and manners after World War I. In Paradise Lost, David Brown explores the many factors that influenced Fitzgerald's life.
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There's a mystery there : the primal vision of Maurice Sendak
by Jonathan Cott
A penetrating examination of the creative inspirations and legacy of children's book genius Maurice Sendak draws on the author's masterful 1976 Rolling Stone interview to reveal the torments and formative life experiences that shaped Sendak's complicated body of work.
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Rising star : the making of Barack Obama
by David Garrow
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Bearing the Cross presents a definitive account of Barack Obama's life before his presidency, sharing insights into his formative years in Honolulu and Jakarta, his influential associates and his community work in Chicago.
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My lovely wife in the psych ward : a memoir
by Mark Lukach
A memoir of a young marriage that is defined by mental illness describes how the author's wife suffered mysterious psychotic breaks on either side of having a child, examining how the challenges of mental illness raise profound questions about love and responsibility.
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