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January 4th-February 28th 2021 |
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Einstein : his life and universe
by Walter Isaacson
A narrative portrait based on the complete body of Einstein's papers offers insight into his contributions to science, in an account that describes the influence of his discoveries on his personal views about morality, politics, and tolerance
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Shirley Jackson : a rather haunted life
by Ruth Franklin
"This long-awaited biography establishes Shirley Jackson as a towering figure in American literature and revives the life and work of a neglected master. Still known to millions only as the author of the "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) remainscuriously absent from the American literary canon. A genius of literary suspense, Jackson plumbed the cultural anxiety of postwar America better than anyone. Now, biographer Ruth Franklin reveals the tumultuous life and inner darkness of the author behind such classics as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Placing Jackson within an American Gothic tradition of Hawthorne and Poe, Franklin demonstrates how her unique contribution to this genre came from her focus on "domestic horror" drawn from an era hostile to women. Based on a wealth of previously undiscovered correspondence and dozens of new interviews, Shirley Jackson, with its exploration of astonishing talent shaped by a damaged childhood and a troubled marriage to literary critic Stanley Hyman, becomes the definitive biography of a generational avatar and an American literary giant."
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Barbara Jordan : American Hero
by Mary Beth Rogers
An intimate portrait of the first AfricanAmerican woman elected to the Texas Senate and the U.S. Congress details her rise from Houston's Fifth Ward to influential political leader, her decision to become a teacher, and her fierce determination, sincerity, bravery, decorum, and oratorical skills.
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The reason I jump : the inner voice of a thirteen-year-old boy with autism
by Naoki Higashida
Co-translated by the Man Booker Prize finalist author of Cloud Atlas, a journey into the mind of a remarkable 13-year-old Japanese boy with severe autism shares firsthand insights into a variety of experiences associated with the disorder, from behavioral traits and misconceptions to perceptions about the world and social awareness.
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Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer
A portrait of Chris McCandless chronicles his decision to withdraw from society and adopt the persona of Alexander Supertramp, offering insight into his beliefs about the wilderness and his tragic death in the Alaskan wilderness.
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Savage Beauty : The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay
by Nancy Milford
From the author of the critically acclaimed Zelda comes a fascinating, authorized portrait of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet that draws on Millay's intimate diary, letters, and other papers to capture the flamboyant and turbulent life of a remarkable woman.
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Will in the world : how Shakespeare became Shakespeare
by Stephen Greenblatt
"A young man from a small provincial town moves to London in the late 1580s and, in a remarkably short time, becomes the greatest playwright not of his age alone but of all time. How is an achievement of this magnitude to be explained? Stephen Greenblattbrings us down to earth to see, hear, and feel how an acutely sensitive and talented boy, surrounded by the rich tapestry of Elizabethan life, could have become the world's greatest playwright."
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The dead are arising : the life of Malcolm X
by Les Payne
A revisionary portrait of the iconic civil rights leader draws on hundreds of hours of interviews with surviving family members, intelligence officers and political leaders to offer new insights into Malcolm X’s Depression-era youth, religious conversion and 1965 assassination.
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Unbroken : a World War II story of survival, resilience, and redemption
by Laura Hillenbrand
Tells the gripping true story of a U.S. airman who was the soul surviver when his bomber crashed into the sea during World War II and had to face thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. By the #1 best-selling author of Seabiscuit.
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Wave
by Sonali Deraniyagala
A memoir of the author's experiences as a survivor of the 2004 tsunami that killed her parents, husband, and two young sons recounts her struggles with profound grief and survivor's guilt and her gradual steps toward healing.
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The cancer journals
by Audre Lorde
"First published over forty years ago, The Cancer Journals is a startling, powerful account of Audre Lorde's experience with breast cancer and mastectomy. Long before narratives explored the silences around illness and women's pain, Lorde questioned the rules of conformity for women's body images and supported the need to confront physical loss not hidden by prosthesis. Living as a "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," Lorde heals and re-envisions herself on her own terms and offers her voice, grief, resistance, and courage to those dealing with their own diagnosis. Poetic and profoundly feminist, Lorde's testament gives visibility and strength to women with cancer to define themselves, and to transform their silence into language and action"
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The autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt
by Eleanor Roosevelt
A candid and insightful look at an era and a life through the eyes of one of the most remarkable Americans of the twentieth century The long and eventful life of Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) was full of rich experiences and courageous actions. The nieceof Theodore Roosevelt, she married a Columbia University law student named Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who gradually ascended in the world of New York politics to reach the presidency in 1932. Throughout his three terms, Eleanor Roosevelt was not only intimately involved in FDR's personal and political life but also led women's organizations and youth movements, and fought for consumer welfare, civil rights, and better housing standards. During World War II she traveled with her husband to meet leaders ofmany powerful nations; after his death in 1945 she worked as a UN delegate, chairman of the Commission on Human Rights, newspaper columnist, Democratic Party activist, and diplomat, and was a world traveler. By the end of her life, Eleanor Roosevelt was recognized around the world for her fortitude and commitment to the ideals of liberty and human rights. Her autobiography constitutes a self-portrait no biography can match for its candor and liveliness, wisdom, tolerance, and breadth of view--a self-portrait of one of the greatest American humanitarians of our time. With 8 pages of black-and-white photographs and an afterword by Eleanor Roosevelt's granddaughter
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A woman of no importance : the untold story of the American spy who helped win World War II
by Sonia Purnell
"In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her." The target in their sights was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore socialite who talked her way into Special Operations Executive, the spy organization dubbed Winston Churchill's "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare." She became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and--despite her prosthetic leg--helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it. Virginia established vast spy networks throughout France, called weapons and explosives down from the skies, and became a linchpin for the Resistance. Even as her face covered wanted posters and a bounty was placed on her head, Virginia refused order after order to evacuate. She finally escaped through a death-defying hike over the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown. But she plunged back in, adamant that she had more lives to save, and led a victorious guerilla campaign, liberating swathes of France from the Nazis after D-Day. Based on new and extensive research, Sonia Purnell has for the first time uncovered the full secret life of Virginia Hall--an astounding and inspiring story of heroism, spycraft, resistance, and personal triumph over shocking adversity. A Woman of No Importance is the breathtaking story of how one woman's fierce persistence helped win the war"
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The woman warrior : memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts
by Maxine Hong Kingston
A first-generation Chinese-American woman recounts the circumstances, conditions, and consequences of growing up in frantic America within a steadfastly tradition-bound Chinese family, and confronted with Chinese ghosts from the past and non-Chinese ghosts of the present
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A Life's Work : On Becoming a Mother
by Rachel Cusk
Moving, riotous, thought-provoking, and extremely illuminating, an intimate account of a year of modern motherhood, set against the backdrop of sexual equality, details the author's many experiences during and after her transformation into a mother, all of which have taught her valuable lessons in life.
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Untamed
by Glennon Doyle
An activist, speaker and philanthropist offers a memoir wrapped in a wake-up call that reveals how women can reclaim their true, untamed selves by breaking free of the restrictive expectations and cultural conditioning that leaves them feeling dissatisfied and lost. Illustrations.
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The Last Queen : Elizabeth Ii's Seventy Year Battle to Save the House of Windsor
by Clive Irving
A timely and revelatory new biography of Queen Elizabeth (and her family) exploring how the Windsors have evolved and thrived, as the modern world has changed around them.
Clive Irving’s stunning new narrative biography The Last Queen probes the question of the British monarchy’s longevity. In 2021, the Queen Elizabeth II finally appears to be at ease in the modern world, helped by the new generation of Windsors. But through Irving’s unique insight there emerges a more fragile institution, whose extraordinarily dutiful matriarch has managed to persevere with dignity, yet in doing so made a Faustian pact with the media.
The Last Queen is not a conventional biography—and the book is therefore not limited by the traditions of that genre. Instead, it follows Elizabeth and her family’s struggle to survive in the face of unprecedented changes in our attitudes towards the royal family, with the critical eye of an investigative reporter who is present and involved on a highly personal level.
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In the dream house : a memoir
by Carmen Maria Machado
The award-winning author of Her Body and Other Parties shares the story of her relationship with an abusive partner and how it was shaped by her religious upbringing, her sexual orientation and inaccurate cultural beliefs about psychological trauma.
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I'll be seeing you : a memoir
by Elizabeth Berg
The New York Times bestselling author, in this moving memoir, shares her experiences caring for her parents in their final years, charting the passage from the anguish of loss to the understanding that even in the most fractious of times, love can heal.
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Tecumseh and the prophet : the Shawnee brothers who defied a nation
by Peter Cozzens
The first biography of the great Shawnee leader in more than 20 years, and the first to make clear that his misunderstood younger brother, Tenskwatawa, was an equal partner in the last great pan-Indian alliance against the United States. Illustrations. Maps.
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Negroland : a memoir
by Margo Jefferson
A highly personal meditation on race, sex and American culture by the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic traces her upbringing and education in upper-class African-American circles against a backdrop of the Civil Rights era and its contradictory aftermath.
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Wuhan Diary : Dispatches from a Quarantined City
by Fang Fang
From one of China’s most acclaimed and decorated writers comes a powerful first-person account of life in Wuhan during the COVID-19 outbreak. On January 25, 2020, after the central government imposed a lockdown in Wuhan, acclaimed Chinese writer Fang Fang began publishing an online diary. In the days and weeks that followed, Fang Fang’s nightly postings gave voice to the fears, frustrations, anger, and hope of millions of her fellow citizens, reflecting on the psychological impact of forced isolation, the role of the internet as both community lifeline and source of misinformation, and most tragically, the lives of neighbors and friends taken by the deadly virus.
A fascinating eyewitness account of events as they unfold, Wuhan Diary captures the challenges of daily life and the changing moods and emotions of being quarantined without reliable information. Fang Fang finds solace in small domestic comforts and is inspired by the courage of friends, health professionals and volunteers, as well as the resilience and perseverance of Wuhan’s nine million residents. But, by claiming the writer´s duty to record she also speaks out against social injustice, abuse of power, and other problems which impeded the response to the epidemic and gets herself embroiled in online controversies because of it. As Fang Fang documents the beginning of the global health crisis in real time, we are able to identify patterns and mistakes that many of the countries dealing with the novel coronavirus have later repeated. She reminds us that, in the face of the new virus, the plight of the citizens of Wuhan is also that of citizens everywhere. As Fang Fang writes: “The virus is the common enemy of humankind; that is a lesson for all humanity. The only way we can conquer this virus and free ourselves from its grip is for all members of humankind to work together.” Blending the intimate and the epic, the profound and the quotidian, Wuhan Diary is a remarkable record of an extraordinary time.
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The pigeon tunnel : stories from my life
by John Le Carré
The author shares personal anecdotes from his life, discussing subjects ranging from his Cold War-era service in British intelligence to his work as a writer in Russia before and after the collapse of the Berlin Wall
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Border : a journey to the edge of Europe
by Kapka Kassabova
The author tells of her return to her Bulgarian border hometown and describes how this place, with its convergence of cultures, has been shaped by successive forces of history, from ancient times up through the current European refugee crisis
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Giving Up the Ghost
by Hilary Mantel
A two-time winner of the Man Booker Prize presents a memoir of how she, after a misdiagnosed illness led to patronizing psychiatric treatment and destructive surgery that left her without hope of children, decided to “write herself into being.”
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The beauty in breaking : a memoir
by Michele Harper
A female, African American ER physician describes how her own life and encounters with her patients led her to realize that every human is broken and recognizing that and moving towards a place of healing can bring peace and happiness.
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Men we reaped : a memoir
by Jesmyn Ward
A National Book Award winner recounts the loss of five young men in her life to drugs, accidents, suicide and the bad luck that can follow people who live in poverty, particularly black men, sharing her experiences of living through the dying as she searches through answers in her community.
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Sylvia Pankhurst : Natural Born Rebel
by Rachel Holmes
Sylvia Pankhurst fought militantly for a woman's right to vote, inspiring movements around the globe. But the vote was just the beginning. A talented artist, a free-spirit, a visionary, Sylvia was seen as “wild,” even by the standards of her activist mother and sister. She became a radical feminist, committing herself to the fight for reproductive rights, equal pay, access to welfare and education, and freedom of sexual expression. She converted her experiences of torture, imprisonment, and violence into a lifelong quest to champion human rights.
Encompassing both World Wars and lasting through the Anti-Apartheid Movement, Pankhurst's political life was international in scope; it included Irish independence, pacifism, the rights of refugees, and the fight against racism in Europe, the Indian subcontinent, and colonial Africa. Her United States lecture tours made headlines and connected her with both American feminists and the NAACP. She spent her life in dialogue, dispute, and resolution with Winston Churchill, Vladimir Lenin, Jomo Kenyatta, Haile Selassie, Harriot Stanton Blatch, and W.E.B. DuBois. And she wrote about it all, prolifically.
In this enthralling biography, acclaimed author Rachel Holmes interweaves Pankhurst's rebellious political and private lives to show how her astonishing achievements continue to resonate today.
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When they call you a terrorist : a black lives matter memoir
by Patrisse Khan-Cullors
A lyrical memoir by the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement urges readers to understand the movement's position of love, humanity and justice, challenging perspectives that have negatively labeled the movement's activists while calling for essential political changes. Co-written by the award-winning author of The Prisoner's Wife.
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Patrimony : a true story
by Philip Roth
The best-selling author offers his observations on the physical decline and death of his own father, in a memoir that captures the loving relationship between father and son. Reprint. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award.
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