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Biography and Memoir April 2026 |
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| Moses and the Doctor: Two Men, One Championship, and the Birth of Modern... by Luke EpplinReaders who love “smart sports history” (Kirkus Reviews) will devour sportswriter Luke Epplin’s dual life story of pro basketball legends Julius “Dr. J” Erving and Moses Malone, whose combined talents helped win a national championship for the Philadelphia ‘76ers in 1983. While the two men were a study in contrasts on and off the court, both the high-flying Erving and the all-business Malone were trailblazers for the modern game. |
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| Everybody's Fly: A Life of Art, Music, and Changing the Culture by Fab 5 Freddy with Mark RozzoWhen hip-hop luminary Fab 5 Freddy (aka Fred Brathwaite) puts the words “Changing the Culture” in the title of his immersive memoir, he means it. Freddy grew up in an environment that taught appreciation of art both highbrow and low, and was on a mission to merge the two. He acted as a social catalyst between musicians, DJs, promoters, and visual artists who all helped give birth to new forms of expression in late ‘70s and early ‘80s New York. For fans of: Mark Ronson’s Night People: How to Be a DJ in ‘90s New York City. |
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| The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg, and the Battle for the Soul of... by Paul FischerDocumentarian Paul Fischer’s collective biography charts the early careers of Hollywood titans Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg, whose rise coincided with the fall of the old studio system and ushered in the era of the blockbuster. Though each director has his own style and vision, Fischer’s gossipy, novelistic narrative shows the influence they had on each other as friends, competitors, and co-conspirators while changing the way movies are made. |
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| The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief by Richard HolmesBefore Alfred Lord Tennyson became a famous Victorian poet, he was a young intellectual suffering through a long, dark night of the soul. Richard Holmes examines Tennyson in his twenties, when the poet’s depressive personality, the sudden death of a close friend, and the ideas sparked by fresh scientific discoveries combined to produce in the young man a desperate existential terror that found its way into some of his most profound work. Holmes’ brilliant analysis is a “must for poetry readers” (Kirkus Reviews). For fans of: The Turning Point: 1851 -- A Year that Changed Charles Dickens and the World by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst. |
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| La Lucci by Susan Lucci with Laura MortonActress Susan Lucci opens up in her “vivid and engaging” (Kirkus Reviews) second memoir about her life and career highs and lows. With unsentimental candor, the soap icon recounts continuing to work in film and Broadway in her late seventies and goes deep into her inspirations, disappointments, and her motivation to keep going despite some painful losses, notably the death of her husband of 53 years, Helmut Huber, of a stroke in 2022. |
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| Defiance: A Memoir of Awakening, Rebellion, and Survival in Syria by Loubna MrieWhen Syrian photojournalist Loubna Mrie joined the Arab Spring protests as a teenager in 2011, her father, an intelligence official for the Assad regime, cut her off. This started her career documenting the ensuing civil war, and her powerful debut details the personal toll it took -- both from the horrors she witnessed and the implosion of her family -- as political and sectarian violence engulfed the country. For a gripping fictional account of the Arab Spring’s aftermath, try The Republic of False Truths by Alaa Al Aswany. |
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| Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery by Gavin NewsomCalifornia governor and potential 2028 presidential candidate Gavin Newsom’s book briskly lays out his rise in the Democratic party, reveals some of the struggles early in his life that propelled him into politics, and talks about some key achievements of his tenure, including overseeing California’s legalization of same-sex marriage seven years prior to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Try this next: The Deeper the Roots by Michael Tubbs. |
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| Judy Blume: A Life by Mark OppenheimerHistorian and journalist Mark Oppenheimer’s “fitting tribute” (Booklist) to author Judy Blume provides a detailed, chronological view of an ambitious, talented woman seeking something beyond the strictures of her early marriage and motherhood. Though her work was sometimes controversial, Oppenheimer pinpoints the secret of Blume’s success: she was able to produce children’s stories with a keen sense of realism in which young readers could actually see themselves. |
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| Freedom Lost, Freedom Won: A Personal History of America by Eugene RobinsonJournalist Eugene Robinson, who spent COVID-imposed downtime unearthing documentation of his Black family’s history, relates the two centuries of struggle that family endured to simply be American. Though the stories of Robinson’s ancestors’ accomplishments inspire, his impressively researched book reveals a sobering theme: throughout its history, the United States has repeatedly found insidious ways to claw back hard-won African American liberties. Read-alike: The Stained Glass Window by David Levering Lewis. |
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| Bonfire of the Murdochs: How the Epic Fight to Control the Last Great Media Dynasty Broke... by Gabriel ShermanIn media tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s winner-takes-all worldview, his four children -- Lachlan, Liz, James, and Prudence -- become little more than negotiators across the conference table vying for control of his mega-corporation. Biographer Gabriel Sherman documents the family drama, cynicism, and ruthlessness of all concerned in Bonfire of the Murdochs. For fans of: Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy by James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams; the HBO dramedy series Succession. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Villa Park Public Library
305 S. Ardmore Ave.
Villa Park, Illinois 60181
(630) 834-1164www.vppl.info |
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