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Biography and Memoir September 2020
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| Life of a Klansman: A Family History in White Supremacy by Edward BallWhat it is: the follow-up to Edward Ball's National Book Award-winning Slaves in the Family that focuses on the author's great-great-grandfather, a member of the Ku Klux Klan in late 19th-century New Orleans.
Read it for: Ball's sobering and incisive reckoning with a family legacy of white supremacy.
Reviewers say: "It won't be a comfortable reading experience, and it's not meant to be, but it's a necessary one" (Booklist). |
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| Like Crazy: Life with My Mother and Her Invisible Friends by Dan MathewsWhat it is: a witty and moving chronicle of author Dan Mathews' time spent caring for his aging mother, Perry.
What happened: Worried that his gay bachelor lifestyle would be off-putting to Perry, Dan was instead shocked by the septuagenarian's zest for life. But Perry's increasingly erratic behavior revealed something neither of them would expect -- a long-undiagnosed mental illness.
Read it for: a thoughtful exploration of the ways parent-child relationships evolve. |
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| Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century by Alice Wong (editor)What it is: an illuminating own voices collection written to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
What's inside: essays by a diverse group of disability activists exploring what it means to live in an ableist society.
Topics include: isolation, sexual exploitation, cure mentality, disability in the LGBTQIA community. |
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| Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented... by Charles KingWhat it is: a sweeping group biography of the women who studied cultural anthropology under Franz Boas in the early 20th century.
Why you might like it: This engaging history explores how these trailblazing scientists challenged notions of Western cultural superiority.
On the roster: Ruth Benedict, Ella Cara Deloria, Margaret Mead, and Zora Neale Hurston. |
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| Reading with Patrick: A Teacher, a Student, and a Life-Changing Friendship by Michelle KuoWhat it's about: the transformative power of literature, movingly experienced by Teach for America volunteer-turned-law student Michelle Kuo and her former pupil Patrick Browning, who met regularly for book discussions while the latter was in jail on a murder charge.
On the syllabus: The pair discussed works by Frederick Douglass, Rita Dove, C.S. Lewis, Marilynne Robinson, Derek Walcott, and Walt Whitman, among others. |
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| Undocumented: A Dominican Boy's Odyssey from a Homeless Shelter to the Ivy League by Dan-el Padilla PeraltaWhat it is: Dominican author Dan-el Padilla Peralta's inspiring memoir about triumphing over adversity: growing up undocumented and impoverished in Harlem, the bookish Peralta had limited opportunities for educational advancement.
What happened next: Peralta caught the attention of a library worker who helped him find placement at Manhattan's prestigious Collegiate School; he later graduated summa cum laude from Princeton, earned a second Bachelor's degree at Oxford, and completed a PhD at Stanford. |
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| Mind and Matter: A Life in Math and Football by John UrschelWhat it's about: John Urschel's adventures in academia (he's currently pursuing a PhD in mathematics at MIT) and athletics (he was a Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman for three seasons).
Read it for: Urschel's infectious enthusiasm for his passions.
Want a taste? "So often, people want to divide the world into two. Matter and energy. Wave and particle. Athlete and mathematician. Why can't something (or someone) be both?" |
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| Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West by Dorothy WickendenWhat it's about: In 1916, two well-to-do best friends, Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood, left their homes in Auburn, New York to teach in the remote settlement of Elkhead on the Colorado frontier.
Author alert: Dorothy Wickenden is the executive editor of The New Yorker and the granddaughter of Dorothy Woodruff; she conducted interviews and used letters and newspaper articles to inform this fascinating fish-out-of-water tale. |
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Without You, There is No Us: My Time With the Sons of North Korea's Elite
by Suki Kim
What it is: The award-winning author of The Interpreter traces her experiences as an English teacher to the sons of North Korea's elite during the last six months of Kim Jong Il's reign, an effort complicated by oppressive regime enforcers, propaganda and evangelical missionaries.
Reviewers say: Library Journal calls this book "a touching portrayal of the student experience in North Korea, which provides readers with a rare glimpse of life in the enigmatic country" (Library Journal, vol 139, issue 15, p91).
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I Couldn't Even Imagine That They Would Kill Us: An Oral History of the Attacks Against the Students of Ayotzinapa
by John Gibler
What it is: As told by survivors, eyewitnesses and the parents of those involved, this harrowing account of the Iguala 43 describes how the Mexican authorities attacked, murdered, kidnapped and tortured five busloads of students and a soccer team in September 2014.
Don't miss: Gibler's afterward where he ties this incident to other "force disappearances" enabled by the drug wars and government corruption and shows how this horrific incident galvanized an international investigation as well as change within Mexico.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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