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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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Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life
by Laura Thompson
What it is: an insightful biography of mystery author Agatha Christie, whose elusiveness rivaled that of her own fictional creations.
Topics include: the media circus surrounding Christie's perplexing 11-day disappearance in 1926; Christie's fondness for attending her husband's spotlight-free archaeological digs later in life.
Don't miss: interviews with Christie relatives, including her daughter and grandson.
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| The Growing Season: How I Built a New Life -- and Saved an American Farm by Sarah FreyWhat it's about: Growing up impoverished in rural Illinois, Sarah Frey always longed to leave her family farm, until a change of heart at age 18 inspired her to save the business from foreclosure.
About the author: Now known as "America's Pumpkin Queen," Frey is the CEO of the billion-dollar Frey Farms, one of the country's largest produce suppliers.
Who it's for: Aspiring entrepreneurs and fans of rags-to-riches stories will enjoy this heartwarming and inspiring read. |
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Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
by Zora Neale Hurston
What it's about: In 1927, author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston interviewed Cudjo Lewis (c. 1841-1935), one of the last known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade; the transcript of their conversation was only recently discovered.
Read it for: Hurston's folkloristic preservation of Lewis's West African vernacular and storytelling.
Is it for you? Lewis' clear account of his capture and enslavement is both graphic and illuminating.
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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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Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Survived Slavery...
by Shomari Wills
What it's about: how six men and women -- all former slaves or children of slaves -- became millionaires in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Featuring: Mississippi teacher O.W. Gurley, who developed Tulsa, Oklahoma's affluent Black Wall Street; cosmetics and hair care entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker, soon to be portrayed by Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer in the Netflix series Self Made.
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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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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Daviess County Public Library 2020 Frederica Street Owensboro, Kentucky 42301 (270) 684-0211
www.dcplibrary.org
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