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Biography and Memoir July 2016
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"Beatrix Potter was a late bloomer, gardening-wise." ~ from Marta McDowell's Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life
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| Double Cup Love: On the Trail of Family, Food, and Broken Hearts in China by Eddie HuangChef Eddie Huang follows his memoir Fresh Off the Boat, which inspired the television show of the same name, with this account of cooking in China itself. After he began to wonder if his New York restaurant's food was really authentic, Huang enlisted his two brothers in a research adventure in Chengdu. In addition to providing a travelogue that vividly describes contemporary China, Double Cup Love is a personal memoir of Huang's family and his romance with fiancée Dena. His "fiery descriptive flair" (Kirkus Reviews) offers an entertaining as well as informative look at modern Chinese life. |
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| Snatched: From Drug Queen to Informer to Hostage -- A Harrowing True Story by Bruce PorterIn the late 1980s, "Pilar," a Colombian aristocrat and former drug trafficker living in Florida, has settled into a quiet life with her children -- until her second ex-husband gives her name to a new DEA task force looking for a contact to help them with a major sting on the Cali drug cartel. In 1991, she begins collaborating with the DEA, but her unexpected success at working with high-level dealers leads to complications that culminate in her kidnapping by Colombian revolutionaries. In Snatched, journalist Bruce Porter (author of Blow, an account of the Medellin cartel) relates her story, supplying white-knuckle details that will appeal especially to true crime aficionados. |
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| Herbert Hoover in the White House: The Ordeal of the Presidency by Charles RappleyeOne-term President Herbert Hoover often takes the blame for the Great Depression, but biographer Charles Rappleye offers a more complex assessment in this sympathetic, though not revisionist, account. While Hoover's personality won him few fans, the stock market crash seven months after his March 1929 inauguration was a matter of unfortunate timing rather than incompetent administration. Rappleye's biography carefully reviews all the aspects of Hoover's election and brief presidency: politics, economic factors, the president's business experience, and his difficult leadership style. Pick up Herbert Hoover in the White House for a "lively guide through Hoover's troubled term" (Library Journal). |
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| Harvey Penick: The Life and Wisdom of the Man Who Wrote the Book on Golf by Kevin RobbinsGolf coach Harvey Penick worked with some of the greatest golfers between 1913, when he began caddying at age eight, and 1963, when he retired as golf coach at the University of Texas; his Harvey Penick's Little Red Book became the best-selling golf manual of all time. In this engaging biography, author Kevin Robbins brings to life the friendly and modest man who exerted a lasting influence on professional golf and on many devotees of the game. Golfers, sports history buffs, and general biography fans will want to check out this intriguing account of an important but little-celebrated sports figure. |
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| A Series of Catastrophes & Miracles: A True Story of Love, Science, and Cancer by Mary Elizabeth WilliamsIn 2010, after journalist Mary Elizabeth Williams received a diagnosis of malignant melanoma and was given six months to live, she enrolled in a clinical trial that offered cutting-edge immunotherapy. Surprisingly, she appeared cancer free after 12 weeks, and remains healthy in 2016. In her candid and detailed memoir, Williams relates the physical and emotional trauma of her disease and treatment, employing an amusing, anecdotal style that reads almost like a novel. If you have faced similar challenges or are especially interested in the current state of cancer research and treatment, you'll want to seek out this uplifting book. |
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July and August Birthdays
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| Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life: The Plants and Places That Inspired the Classic... by Marta McDowellJuly 28, 1866. Author and illustrator Beatrix Potter's 150th birth anniversary is this month. Her charming tales of mischievous rabbits, thieving mice, and quizzical squirrels continue to beguile readers today, but many fans of her picture books know little about her life. In gardening historian Marta McDowell's biography, you can learn about Potter's botanical expertise, farming know-how, and interest in conservation (she left thousands of acres to the National Trust). Connecting Potter's horticultural enthusiasm to her writing and illustrations, while chronicling a year in Potter's own garden, Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life is a don't-miss for garden lovers as well as fans of Peter Rabbit. |
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| Fidel Castro, My Life: A Spoken Autobiography by Fidel Castro and Ignacio Ramonet; translated by Andrew HurleyAugust 13, 1926. Fidel Castro led a revolution in Cuba that overthrew Fulgencia Batista in 1959 and replaced his pro-U.S. administration with a left-wing government aligned with major Communist nations. Castro's Cuba represented a political threat to the U.S. until recently, with Fidel Castro himself the primary symbol of that antagonism. Fidel Castro presents a series of interviews conducted by Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet that offer engaging anecdotes about Castro's life, insight into his personality, and coherent political commentary. This intriguing book, a Booklist Best Biography choice for 2008, relates 85 years of important Latin American history in engaging conversational style. |
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| Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob SpitzAugust 15, 1912. Julia Child, cookbook author and television star, lived a rich and complex life even before she discovered French cuisine in 1948. In Dearie, biographer Bob Spitz recounts details of Child's California upbringing, her wartime service with the OSS, her loving relationship with her husband, and her friendships and professional ties. Her apparently inexhaustible energy and joie de vivre come to life on the pages of this biography. Fans of her televised cooking shows and of Mastering the Art of French Cooking will savor these details, some of which were published in Child's memoir My Life in France and brought to the screen in Julie and Julia. |
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| Tolstoy: A Russian Life by Rosamund BartlettAugust 28, 1828. While Russian author Leo Tolstoy is perhaps best known in the West for his towering literary achievements, especially the novels Anna Karenina and War and Peace, he devoted his life as much to campaigning for political and religious reform as to his writing. In this thoroughly researched biography, which draws on newly available historical records as well as earlier biographical resources, author Rosamund Bartlett illuminates his difficult personality, his military career, his philosophy, and his religious practices. For additional perspectives on Leo Tolstoy, try Sofia Tolstoy, Alexandra Popoff's biography of Leo's wife (whose birth date is August 22). |
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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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