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Biography and Memoir November 2018
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| Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. BlightWhat it is: a comprehensive yet accessible biography of Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), the runaway slave-turned-abolitionist orator.
About the author: Award-winning Yale historian David W. Blight is a longtime Douglass scholar and the author of Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory. What sets it apart: Granted access to private sources previously made unavailable to other historians, Blight offers new insights into Douglass' complicated family life. |
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Ruth Bader Ginsburg : a life
by Jane Sherron De Hart
An extensively researched portrait of the 107th Supreme Court justice—written in cooperation with Ginsburg, associates, friends and family members—explores her passionate advocacy of gender equality, role in key historical changes and transformative legal influence. Illustrations. Tour.
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| The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters: The Tragic and Glamorous Lives of Jackie and Lee by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger What it's about: the close yet contentious relationship between sisters Jacqueline and Lee Bouvier, their privileged East Hampton upbringing, and their roles as America's First Lady and a princess of Poland.
Featuring: candid interviews with Lee about the women's childhood.
Don't miss: surprising, gossipy insights -- Lee was left out of Jackie's 38-page will; Jackie may have helped vet JFK's potential paramours. |
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Heavy : An American Memoir
by Kiese Laymon
In Heavy, Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about growing up a hard-headed black son to a complicated and brilliant black mother in Jackson, Mississippi. From his early experiences of sexual violence, to his suspension from college, to his trek to New York as a young college professor, Laymon charts his complex relationship with his mother, grandmother, anorexia, obesity, sex, writing, and ultimately gambling. By attempting to name secrets and lies he and his mother spent a lifetime avoiding, Laymon asks himself, his mother, his nation, and us to confront the terrifying possibility that few in this nation actually know how to responsibly love, and even fewer want to live under the weight of actually becoming free.
A personal narrative that illuminates national failures, Heavy is defiant yet vulnerable, an insightful, often comical exploration of weight, identity, art, friendship, and family that begins with a confusing childhood—and continues through twenty-five years of haunting implosions and long reverberations.
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Becoming
by Michelle Obama
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.
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| Good Friday on the Rez: A Pine Ridge Odyssey by David Hugh BunnellAvailable only as an e-book.
What it is: David Hugh Bunnell's 280-mile road trip to visit his longtime friend and "blood brother," Vernell White Thunder, at South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Why you might like it: The author vividly blends reflections of his time as a Pine Ridge schoolteacher with historical context as he passes Lakota landmarks and towns.
Don't miss: Bunnell's account of smuggling food to protesters during the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee. |
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| The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin Who it's about: Oglala Lakota chief Red Cloud (1822-1909), the only Plains Indian to defeat the United States Army in a war.
How'd he do it? A brilliant tactician and politician, Red Cloud formed alliances with Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Sioux warriors to reclaim Powder River Country during Red Cloud's War (1866-1868).
Further reading: Autobiography of Red Cloud: War Leader of the Oglalas, which was lost for over 100 years prior to its publication. |
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| Heart Berries by Terese Marie MailhotWhat it is: a raw and powerfully crafted coming-of-age memoir of life on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation, evocatively told in a series of concise and cogent essays.
Want a taste? "The thing about women from the river is that our currents are endless. We sometimes outrun ourselves."
About the author: First Nation writer Terese Marie Mailhot is a graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts and is currently the Tecumseh Postdoctoral Fellow at Purdue University. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Morton Grove Public Library 6140 Lincoln Ave Morton Grove, Illinois 60053 (847) 965-4220www.mgpl.org/ |
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