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Biography and Memoir April 2018
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| Educated: A Memoir by Tara WestoverWhat it's about: Raised in a fundamentalist Mormon family who prepped for the "end of days," Tara Westover grew up without an education. Hungering for knowledge, she began educating herself, eventually pursuing an elite academic career at Harvard and Cambridge.
Why you might like it: "With no real comparison memoir" (Library Journal), Educated stands in a class all its own, though fans of The Glass Castle and Hillbilly Elegy should appreciate it.
Read it for: Westover's wrenching, vivid exploration of her family history, rendered in evocative and unsparing prose. |
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Broad band : the untold story of the women who made the Internet
by Claire Lisa Evans
What is it: The YACHT lead singer and VICE reporter celebrates the lesser-known contributions of women to the history of technology, sharing brief profiles of such boundary-breaking innovators as Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper, Elizabeth "Jake" Feinler and Stacy Horn.
Reviewers say: "Journalist Evans's first book is an invigorating history of female coders, engineers, entrepreneurs, and visionaries who helped create and shape the internet." - Publisher's Weekly
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Heart berries : a memoir
by Terese Marie Mailhot
What it is: The author discusses her life growing up on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in British Columbia, her relationship with her parents, and her dual diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar II disorder.
Reviewers say: "Heart Berries by Terese Mailhot is an astounding memoir in essays. Here is a wound. Here is need, naked and unapologetic. Here is a mountain woman, towering in words great and small... What Mailhot has accomplished in this exquisite book is brilliance both raw and refined." ―Roxane Gay
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The stowaway : a young man's extraordinary adventure to Antarctica
by Laurie Gwen Shapiro
What it is: Documents the true story of a scrappy teen from New York's Lower East Side who stowed away on a daring expedition to Antarctica in 1928, tracing the sensational heyday of the time and how high schooler Billy Gawronski jumped into the Hudson and snuck aboard the expedition's flagship, eventually becoming an international celebrity.
Why you might like it: Works of high adventure and derring-do draw on a certain compact between reader and writer. The reader is opened up to a ripping yarn and wholesome uplifting fare about the human spirit.
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I've got this round : more tales of debauchery
by Mamrie Hart
What it is: The popular YouTube personality shares stories from her life inspired by her experiences with turning 30 and finding herself single for the first time since college, a period marked by her resolve to live life fully, pursue bucket-list goals, meet celebrities and venture back into the dating world.
Why you might like it: Mamrie doubles down on her strong female friendships, her willingness to engage in shenanigans, and her inimitable candor, taking the reader along for a wild and unforgettable journey through adulating.
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Everything happens for a reason : and other lies I've loved
by Kate Bowler
What it is: A divinity professor and young mother with Stage IV cancer shares her perspectives on friendship, love and death while describing her efforts to remain true to her faith in spite of impossible hardships. By the author of Blessed.
Did you know? Kate Bowler is an assistant professor at Duke Divinity School. She is the author of Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel .
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The secrets of my life
by Caitlyn Jenner
What it is: 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.
Why you might like it? In The Secrets Of My Life, Caitlyn reflects on the inner conflict she experienced growing up in an era of rigidly defined gender identities, and the cruel irony of being hailed by an entire nation as the ultimate symbol of manhood.
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Fire on the track : Betty Robinson and the triumph of the early Olympic women
by Roseanne Montillo
What it is: Describes the life of the pioneering women's track star, who won gold at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, only to nearly die in a plane crash and then miraculously rehab her way back onto the 1936 Olympic team.
Reviewers say: Told in vivid detail with novelistic flair, Fire on the Track is an unforgettable portrait of these trailblazers in action"--Provided by publisher.
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| My Fight, Your Fight by Ronda RouseyWhat it is: a fiery and engrossing autobiography in which mixed martial artist champion Ronda Rousey recounts her rocky path to stardom, dispensing advice and encouragement to readers along the way.
Did you know? Rousey was the first American woman to earn an Olympic medal in judo.
Reviewers say: "Rousey is a fierce yet endearing role model -- and a woman possessed" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| Forward: A Memoir-[EBook] by Abby WambachWhat it is: a heartfelt, conversational chronicle of Abby Wambach's perseverance in the face of gender discrimination, homophobia, and substance abuse to become soccer's highest goal scorer of all time (male or female) and one of its most beloved players.
Why you might like it: Forward is as much about Wambach's relationships off the field as it is about hers on the field, as she grapples with balancing private and public selves.
Book buzz: Sheryl Sandberg, bestselling author of Lean In, calls Forward "the powerful story of an athlete who has inspired girls all over the world to believe in themselves."
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