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Biography and Memoir October 2020
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| A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom by Brittany K. BarnettWhat it is: lawyer and Buried Alive Project co-founder Brittany K. Barnett's impassioned memoir of the cases that helped define her career as a criminal justice reform advocate.
Read it for: an intimate and galvanizing narrative exploring racial bias in the American criminal justice system.
For fans of: Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy. |
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Let's Never Talk About This Again: A Memoir
by Sara Faith Alterman
The producer of the Mortified series describes the innocence of her youth in suburban New England before her discovery that her father was a campy sex writer whose career she assumed when he developed early onset Alzheimer’s.
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Galileo and the Science Deniers
by Mario Livio
The leading astrophysicist and best-selling author of Brilliant Blunders presents a fresh interpretation of the life of the “father of modern physics” that offers new insights into Galileo’s discoveries and the challenges he faced from religious opponents.
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| Eat a Peach by David ChangWhat it's about: chef, Momofuku restaurateur, and Ugly Delicious host David Chang's path to culinary stardom.
Topics include: Chang's upbringing in a religious Korean American family; his battles with bipolar disorder and suicidal ideation; career triumphs and missteps; his friendship with the late Anthony Bourdain.
Don't miss: the author's self-deprecating sense of humor, which he reveals in playful prose, cheeky footnotes, and rules for becoming a chef. |
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Year of the Rabbit
by Tian Veasna
Year of the Rabbit tells the true story of one family’s desperate struggle to survive the murderous reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. In 1975, the Khmer Rouge seized power in the capital city of Phnom Penh. Cartoonist Tian Veasna was born just three days after the Khmer Rouge takeover, as his family set forth on the chaotic mass exodus from Phnom Penh. Veasna has created a harrowing, deeply personal account of one of the twentieth century’s greatest tragedies.
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| Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America by Laila LalamiWhat it is: an unflinching examination of how immigrants and naturalized citizens in America are dehumanized.
What sets it apart: In this incisive essay collection, Pulitzer Prize finalist Laila Lalami offers eye-opening insights from her experiences as a Moroccan American Muslim woman navigating post-9/11 Islamophobia.
Try this next: For another thought-provoking own voices memoir about immigration, check out Dina Nayeri's The Ungrateful Refugee. |
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Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy
by Larry Tye
Draws on unprecedented access to personal and professional records and recently unsealed transcripts to share insights into McCarthy’s complicated personality and contradictory views, tracing his wartime heroics and the rise of his controversial anti-communist campaigns.
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I'm Your Huckleberry
by Val Kilmer
Published ahead of the release of Top Gun: Maverick, a memoir by the iconic stage and screen actor chronicles his Juilliard education, high-profile relationships, spiritual awakening and recent health setback.
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| The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne and Tamara PayneWhat it is: a richly detailed revisionist biography of Malcolm X that reveals previously unexplored aspects of his life and legacy.
What's inside: interviews with Malcolm X's colleagues, adversaries, family, and friends; archival materials from the FBI and NYPD.
Author alert: Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Les Payne spent nearly three decades working on The Dead Are Arising before his death in 2018; his daughter and co-researcher Tamara finished his work. |
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Lou Gehrig: The Lost Memoir
by Lou Gehrig
In 1927, the legendary Lou Gehrig sat down to write the remarkable story of his life and career. He was at his peak, fresh off a record-breaking season with the fabled '27 World Series champion Yankees. It was an era unlike any other. Gehrig's personal remembrances were published that year as popular weekly columns in The Oakland Tribune. Until now, those pages were lost to history. Published for the first time as a book, this lost memoir from the baseball legend at the age of 24 tells the extraordinary story of his life and career.
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American Animals: A True Crime Memoir
by Eric Borsuk
A coming-of-age true crime memoir centered around three childhood friends who hatch a plan to steal millions of dollars’ worth of artwork and rare manuscripts from a university museum– a gripping adventure of teenage rebellion.
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Big Sexy: In His Own Words
by Bartolo Colon
The beloved, Cy Young Award-winning Major League pitcher discusses his life and 21-year career in his own words, from his childhood in the Dominican Republic to playing in four MLB All-Star Games between 1998 and 2016.
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| Crazy Brave by Joy HarjoWhat it is: a reflective memoir from Muscogee poet, musician, and Native Writers' Circle Lifetime Achievement Award winner Joy Harjo.
Topics include: the author's fraught family dynamics and single teenage motherhood; her schooling at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe.
What sets it apart: Harjo's candid, lyrical writing conveys the "intricate and metaphorical language of my ancestors." |
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| Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez CastilloWhat it's about: the author's traumatic coming of age as an undocumented immigrant, which was compounded by frequent ICE raids, his father's deportation back to Mexico, and the rigidity of the U.S. immigration system.
Want a taste? "We were still trying to cross, still moving in maddening helplessness, a revolving door without an exit."
Awards buzz: Children of the Land is a 2020 International Latino Book Award finalist. |
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| I'm Telling the Truth, But I'm Lying: Essays by Bassey IkpiWhat it is: a candid memoir in essays by spoken word poet Bassey Ikpi (HBO's Def Poetry Jam) that chronicles the author's battles with depression and anxiety.
Did you know? Ikpi is the creator of #NoShameDay, which advocates for the destigmatization of mental illness in the Black community.
Try this next: For another lyrical memoir by a poet of Nigerian descent tackling mental health issues, check out Yrsa Daley-Ward's The Terrible. |
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| Priestdaddy by Patricia LockwoodWhat it's about: When lapsed Catholic and prize-winning poet Patricia Lockwood and her husband fell on hard times, they moved back into the Kansas City rectory where Patricia grew up.
Featuring: Patricia's gun-toting, married priest father, content to live life wearing only his boxers; and her sweet but scatterbrained mother, whose devotion to the church doesn't keep her from making lewd jokes.
Is it for you? Lockwood's irreverent memoir of religion, family, and identity offers racy humor and eloquent reflections in equal measure. |
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| The Argonauts by Maggie NelsonWhat it is: a 2015 New York Times Notable Book that offers a thought-provoking exploration of gender, sexuality, and parenthood.
What sets it apart: Poet Maggie Nelson's genre-defying, fourth-wall breaking memoir unfolds in fragments and incorporates poetry and quotes from noted gender theorists, philosophers, and psychologists.
Reviewers say: "A book that will challenge readers as much as the author has challenged herself" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father by Kao Kalia YangWhat it is: author Kao Kalia Yang's tribute to her father, Bee Yang, a Hmong song poet who passed on the traditions and culture of his Laotian homeland to his children through his kwv txhiaj (storytelling songs).
Why you might like it: the first half of Yang's moving memoir is written in the voice of her father; the second is told from her own perspective.
Author alert: Yang chronicled her family's immigration to America in her debut memoir The Latehomecomer. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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