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Biography and Memoir August 2017
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| Daring to Drive: A Saudi Woman's Awakening by Manal Al-SharifThough author Manal Al-Sharif grew up as a devoutly fundamentalist Muslim in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, she later received a technical education that led to a job as a computer security engineer. In Daring to Drive, she relates how she publicized a protest movement, the Women2Drive campaign, with a video recording of herself driving a car. This eye-opening memoir vividly portrays the customary restrictions on girls and women in her country as well as the difficulties of pushing for social change. For additional insight into women's lives in Saudi Arabia, try Jean Sasson's Princess or Carmen bin Ladin's Inside the Kingdom. |
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| A Beautiful, Terrible Thing: A Memoir of Marriage and Betrayal by Jen WaiteIn A Beautiful, Terrible Thing, author Jen Waite movingly reveals the disintegration of her relationship with her husband, which began when she confronted him about a disturbing email from another woman. In alternating chapters that either depict her idyllic life with him before she realized he wasn't the person he claimed to be, or portray the anguish of her gradual discoveries about his personality, Waite's memoir offers a "frank and visceral" (Kirkus Reviews) warning to others who may have a tendency to dismiss potential red flags. |
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You don't have to say you love me : a memoir
by Sherman Alexie
The National Book Award-winning author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian presents a literary memoir of poems, essays and intimate family photos that reflect his complicated feelings about his disadvantaged childhood on a Native American reservation with his siblings and alcoholic parents. 100,000 first printing.
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| Going Deep: John Philip Holland and the Invention of the Attack Submarine by Lawrence GoldstoneLate in the 19th century, Irish inventor John Philip Holland designed the first torpedo-firing submarine that could stay submerged for a long period, but his efforts to sell his designs to Irish revolutionaries and the U.S. Navy ended in disappointment. In Going Deep, historian Lawrence Goldstone provides a "delightful" (Publishers Weekly) biography of Holland, bringing his achievements to light while explaining his political and financial difficulties. To follow up with a comprehensive history of submarines, check out Thomas Parrish's The Submarine. |
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| Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen AbbottIn this well-researched group biography that reads like a spy thriller, author Karen Abbott portrays some unusual participants in the American Civil War. Four women aided their causes (two on the Union side and two for the Confederacy) by going against expected norms to collect and pass on valuable information. Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy weaves together parallel accounts of the women's activities and includes additional historical details about other women who assumed unconventional roles during the war. |
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| The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government by David TalbotIn The Devil's Chessboard, author David Talbot, founding editor-in-chief of Salon, provides chilling details of 1950s CIA Director Allen Dulles' secret influence during and after World War II. With deep connections to powerful business interests, attorney Dulles planned to fight Communism after the war -- in cooperation with German capitalists. Later, he went well beyond intelligence gathering to promote covert actions around the world, including a coup in Iran and the Bay of Pigs debacle in Cuba. For additional recent studies of Dulles, check out Scott Miller's Agent 110 and Stephen Kinzer's The Brothers. |
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Femme fatale : love, lies, and the unknown life of Mata Hari
by Pat Shipman
A portrait of the notorious early twentieth-century dancer and spy considers the theory that she may have been innocent of the charges for which she was executed, in an account that profiles her as a complicated seducer of men who had an unusual talent for manipulating the world in accordance with her preferences. 20,000 first printing.
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The triple agent : the al-Qaeda mole who infiltrated the CIA
by Joby Warrick
A Pulitzer Prize-winning intelligence reporter presents a narrative account of a mysterious Jordanian agent that describes how he infiltrated both al-Qaeda and the CIA before killing himself and seven CIA operatives in a suicide bombing, an event that revealed sobering agency weaknesses. 125,000 first printing.
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Wild Rose : Rose O'Neale Greenhow, Civil War spy
by Ann Blackman
Drawing on a previously unpublished journal, a profile of a remarkable woman describes the espionage career of Rose O'Neal Greenhow, a grande dame of Washington society and devotee of the Southern cause who used her connections and her charm to provide valuable information about Union military secrets to the Confederacy during the Civil War. 25,000 first printing.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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