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Biography and Memoir August 2016
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"He says he can't decide whether to be a scientist or a comedian." ~ from Jim Ottaviani's Feynman
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| Eve of a Hundred Midnights: The Star-Crossed Love Story of Two WWII Correspondents... by Bill LascherAmerican journalists Mel and Annalee Jacoby married shortly before Pearl Harbor and were working in China until just before the Japanese invasion (they got out just in time). Throughout World War II, they managed to keep a step ahead of the enemy forces while reporting on the Pacific theater. In this swiftly paced dual biography, author Bill Lascher, a distant cousin of the Jacobys, recounts their exploits while chronicling the war's major events "in an utterly detailed and beguiling way" (Booklist, starred review). |
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| William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country by James Lee McDonoughFor many, the name of General William Tecumseh Sherman is synonymous with ruthless, scorched-earth-style warfare. However, according to historian James McDonough's biography, Sherman was a complex man who maintained warm friendships, experienced a difficult relationship with his wife, grieved the early death of his son, and struggled with debt. McDonough provides a comprehensive account of Sherman's life enriched by a generously informative discussion of the history of his period. Whether you're a biography fan or an American history buff, you won't want to miss William Tecumseh Sherman. |
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| Beer Money: A Memoir of Privilege and Loss by Frances StrohArtist Frances Stroh belongs to the family that built Stroh Brewing Company, which by 1992 had earned them the largest private beer fortune in American history. As a child, Frances experienced the fairy-tale privileges that accompany vast wealth, but the accelerating collapse of Detroit's economy in the 1990s was mirrored by the rapid failure of Stroh Brewing and the family's internal dysfunction. In Beer Money, Frances relates her family's decline "with candor and power" (Publishers Weekly), offering intriguing parallels with the business and city around them. |
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| Jane Doe January: My Twenty-Year Search for Truth and Justice by Emily WinslowAs a student at Carnegie Mellon's Pittsburgh conservatory in 1992, Emily Winslow was raped by an unknown assailant. She started life anew in Cambridge, England, where she married and had kids. Twenty years later, police in Brooklyn caught a serial rapist whose DNA matched that collected from a Pennsylvania victim. This was Emily Winslow. In her moving account, Winslow relates how she worked tirelessly with the American police to help prosecute the rapist while striving to balance her very different life in England. Winslow ultimately achieved a sense of resolution, and this memoir "bravely illuminates" (Publishers Weekly) the experiences rape survivors must undergo. |
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| Everything Is Teeth by Evie Wyld; illustrated by Joe SumnerLondoner Evie Wyld spent her childhood summers in New South Wales, where sharks endlessly circle in the waters off the beaches. They also circle endlessly in Wyld's dreams and her waking subconscious, as her awareness of their menace invades her bathtub, her otherwise normal childhood anxieties, and, as she grows up, her presentiments of mortality. Illustrator Joe Sumner perfectly contrasts the vigor and grandeur of the sharks with the vulnerability of mere humans. As for Wyld's brief text, Kirkus Reviews observes that this "rite of passage memoir" offers "the resonance of a tone poem." |
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Graphic Biographies and Memoirs |
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| The Story of My Tits by Jennifer HaydenIn this engaging and informative memoir, author and illustrator Jennifer Hayden traces her life from teenaged flat-chestedness through many of the trials and tribulations of adulthood. With her own breasts as the leitmotif, she recounts her mother's breast cancer, her father's unfaithfulness, her marriage to her college sweetheart, and her children's births. She brings in famous artworks to offer different perspectives, and refrains from sentimentality even when the story turns to her own breast cancer and bilateral mastectomy. For another absorbing graphic memoir on the subject, try Marisa Acocella Marchetto's Cancer Vixen. |
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| An Age of License by Lucy KnisleyYoung author and illustrator Lucy Knisley took advantage of every chance she could get to travel in 2011, even if it meant doing so alone. In graphic novel format, she wonderfully depicts her life during this confusing time, when she visited France with relatives, Norway for a comics convention where she promoted her work, and several other places, including Sweden, where she had a romantic fling. Foodies and cat lovers will especially appreciate this charming morsel, since meals and felines receive lots of attention. If you like An Age of License, try Knisley's 2016 book: Something New. |
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| The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story by Vivek J. Tiwary; illustrated by Andrew C. Robinson and Kyle BakerEveryone knows that there were four Beatles in the wildly popular 1960s band, but there was another essential member of the group: Brian Epstein, their manager since their Liverpool days. Author Vivek Tiwary's biography brings Epstein onto center stage, recounting his life and revealing how his contacts and skills brought success to the young musicians. Tiwary also sensitively explores Epstein's struggles with being Jewish and gay. Drawing on deep research and on interviews with people who knew Epstein well, this is a dexterous and poignant biography, enlivened by artwork that "captures the exuberances and longings of the 1960s" (Library Journal). |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Dauphin County Library System
101 Walnut Street
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17101
717.234.4961
http://www.dcls.org
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