| Down with the system: a memoir (of sorts) / Serj Tankian. |
 "An exhilarating, thoughtful, and beautifully written memoir by musician, songwriter, and lead singer-lyricist of Grammy award-winning metal band, System Of A Down, Serj Tankian"-- Provide by the publisher. |
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| John Quincy Adams : a man for the whole people / Randall B. Woods. |
 "A magisterial journey through the epic life and transformative times of John Quincy Adams"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Travels with myself and another / Martha Gellhorn. |
 Presents the memoirs of novelist, war correspondent, travel writer, and author Martha Gellhorn, as she recalls her life and adventures including her marriage to Ernest Hemingway and coverage of three major wars. |
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| Under a rock / Chris Stein ; foreword by Debbie Harry. |
 ""A Downtown Memory" by Romy Ashby Debbie Harry defined iconic band Blondie's look. Chris Stein--her performing partner, lover, and lifelong friend--was its architect and defined its sound. "Parallel Lines", their third album, catapulted to #1, sold 20 million copies, and launched singles like "Heart of Glass", "Rapture," and "One Way or Another", providing the beat when Bianca Jagger and Halston danced at Studio 54 and the soundtrack to every 1970's punk-soundtracked romance. Chris Stein knows how to tell a story. Under A Rock is his nothing-spared autobiography. It's about the founding of the band, ascending to the heights of pop success, and the hazards of fortune. Famous names march through these pages-Warhol, Bowie, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and more-but you can get famous names anywhere. What you can't get anywhere else is a plunge into the moments that made a giant 1980's artistic sensation. Stein takes us there in this revelatory, propulsive, distinctive memoir"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Immigrant / Marcos Antil ; foreword by Rigoberta Menchú Tum ; translated from Spanish by Beatriz Aguilar Arroyave and Helaine Nightingale de Walton. |
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| Miss May does not exist : the life and work of Elaine May, Hollywood's hidden genius / Carrie Courogen. |
 "Miss May Does Not Exist, by Carrie Courogen is the riveting biography of comedian, director, actor and writer Elaine May, one of America's greatest comic geniuses. May began her career as one-half of the legendary comedy team known as Nichols and May, the duo that revolutionized the comedy sketch. After performing their Broadway smash An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Elaine set out on her own. She toiled unsuccessfully on Broadway for a while, but then headed to Hollywood where she became the director of A New Leaf, The Heartbreak Kid, Mikey and Nicky, and the legendary Ishtar. She was hired as a script doctor on countless films like Heaven Can Wait, Reds, Tootsie, and The Birdcage. In 2019, she returned to Broadway where she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in The Waverly Gallery. Besides her considerable talent, May is well known for her reclusiveness. On one of the albums she made with Mike Nichols, her bio is this: "Miss May does not exist." Until now. Carrie Courogen has uncovered the Elaine May who does exist. Conducting countless interviews, she has filled in the blanks May has forcibly kept blank for years, creating a fascinating portrait of the way women were mistreated and held back in Hollywood. Miss May Does Not Exist is a remarkable love story about a prickly genius who was never easy to work with, not always easy to love and frequently often punished for those things, despite revolutionizing the way we think about comedy, acting, and what a film or play can be"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Make it count : my fight to become the first transgender Olympic runner / CeCé Telfer. |
 "CeCé Telfer is a warrior. The first openly transgender woman to win an NCAA championship, she has contended with transphobia on and off the track since childhood. Now, she stands at the crossroads of a national and international conversation about equity in sports, forced to advocate for her personhood and rights at every turn. After spending years training for the 2024 Olympics, Telfer has been sidelined and silenced more times than she can count. But she's never been good at taking no for an answer. MAKE IT COUNT is Telfer's raw and inspiring story. From coming of age in Jamaica, where she grew up hearing a constant barrage of slurs, to beginning her new life in Toronto and then New Hampshire, where she realized what running could offer her, to living in the backseat of her car while searching for a coach, to Mexico, where she trained for the US Trials, this book follows the arc of Telfer's Olympic dream. But it's also the story of resilience and athleticism, of a runner who found a clarity in her sport that otherwise eluded her--a sense of being simply alive on this earth, a human moving through space. Finally, herself." -- book jacket. |
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| Night flyer : Harriet Tubman and the faith dreams of a free people / Tiya Miles. |
 "From the National-Book-Award-winning author of All That She Carried, an intimate and revelatory reckoning with the myth and the truth behind an American everyone knows and few really understand. Harriet Tubman is, if surveys are to be trusted, one of the ten most famous Americans ever born, and soon to be the face of the twenty-dollar bill. Yet often she's a figure more out of myth than history, almost a comic-book superhero-the woman who, despite being barely five-feet tall, illiterate, and suffering from a brain injury, managed to escape from her own enslavement, return again and again to lead others North to freedom, speak out powerfully against slavery, and then become the first American woman in history to lead a military raid, freeing some 750 people without loss of life. You could almost say she's America's Robin Hood, a miraculous vision, often rightly celebrated but seldom understood. Tiya Miles's extraordinary Night Flyer changes all that. With her characteristic tenderness and imaginative genius, Miles explores beyond the stock historical grid to weave Tubman's life into the fabric of her world. She probes the ecological reality of Tubman's surroundings and examines her kinship with other enslaved women who similarly passed through a spiritual wilderness and recorded those travels in profound and moving memoirs. What emerges, uncannily, is a human being whose mysticism becomes the more palpable the more we understand it-a story that offers us powerful inspiration for our own time of troubles. Harriet Tubman traversed many boundaries, inner and outer. Now, thanks to Tiya Miles, she becomes an even clearer and sharper signal from the past, one that can help us to echolocate a more just and sustainable path"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Bird milk & mosquito bones : a memoir / Priyanka Mattoo. |
 "A memoir in essays from the writer and filmmaker, Priyanka Mattoo, about growing up in India, England, and Saudi Arabia; motherhood; and going to school in the US"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| On call : a doctor's journey in public service / Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. |
 "The memoir by the doctor who became a beacon of hope for millions through the COVID pandemic, and whose six-decade career in high-level public service put him in the room with seven presidents"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| 1974 : a personal history / Francine Prose |
 The first memoir from critically acclaimed, bestselling author Francine Prose, about the close relationship she developed with activist Anthony Russo, one of the men who leaked the Pentagon Papers--and the year when our country changed. |
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| Desperately seeking something : a memoir about movies, mothers, and material girls / Susan Seidelman. |
 Raised in the safe cocoon of 1960s suburbia, Susan Seidelman wasn't a misfit, an oddball, or an outlier. She was a "good-girl" with a little bit of "bad" hidden inside. A restless teenager, she dreamed of escape and reinvention, a theme that would play out in her films as well as in her own life. Because she loved stories, a high school guidance counselor suggested she become a librarian, but she had her sights set further afield. In 1973, she left the Philly suburbs, enrolled at NYU's burgeoning graduate film school and moved to NYC's Lower East Side. There, she found herself in the right place at the right time. New York City was falling apart, but out of that chaos came a burst of creative energy whose effects are still felt in American pop culture today. Downtown became a vibrant playground where film, music, performance and graffiti art cross-pollinated and where Seidelman chronicled the lives of the colorful misfits, oddballs, dreamers and schemers she met there. -- Provided by publisher. |
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| Consent : a memoir / Jill Ciment. |
 "From acclaimed novelist and short story writer, a deft, somewhat shocking, memoir-a 21st-century Lolita turned upside down, told from the point of view of the girl, the author, seen in the context of the current discourse on sexual harassment and abuse in the era of #MeToo. A close-up look at the ardent, willed love affair between the author and her art teacher that began when she was 17 and he, 47, married with two children, and the contortions and erotic wild ride their illicit, urgent passion took them on as it turned into an improbable but blissful marriage that lasted for 45 years until his death at 93. A stunning, riveting book about morality and about a decades-long marriage that begins with a kiss and consensual sex (into criminality?), that asks-and explores-many questions along the way: does a story's ending excuse its beginning? Does a kiss in one moment mean something else entirely five decades later? Can a love that starts with such an asymmetrical balance of power ever right itself . . . ?"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Just add water / Katie Ledecky. |
 "I never imagined I would make it to the Olympics, or be at this level, or write a book about this unlikely career that I've had. But I've really enjoyed the ride, this journey." Katie Ledecky is one of the best swimmers ever to compete. She has won more individual Olympic races than any female swimmer in history. A three-time Olympian, a seven-time gold medalist, a twenty-one-time world champion, eight-time NCAA Champion, and world record-holder in individual swimming events, Ledecky shares what it takes to compete at an elite level. Again and again, Katie Ledecky has broken records: those of others and, increasingly, her own. She is both consistent and innovative-consistent at setting goals and shattering them, and innovative in the way she approaches her training. A true competitor, she sets her goals by choosing the ones that feel the scariest. But, crucially, she never sacrifices the joy of competition, even in the face of adversity. Her positive mental outlook and a great support system provides the springboard to her success. This candid and inspiring memoir charts Ledecky's life in swimming. It details her start in Bethesda, Maryland, where she played sharks and minnows and first discovered the joy of the pool; her early foray into the Olympics at the tender age of fifteen where, as the youngest member of the American team, she stunned everyone by winning her first gold medal; her time balancing competition and her education at Stanford University; how she developed a champion's mindset that has allowed her to persevere through so many meets, even under intense pressure; and how she has maintained her dominance in a sport where success depends on milliseconds. You learn how every element of her life-from the support of her family to the tutelage of her coaches, from her childhood spent in summer league swimming to the bright lights of Olympic pools in London, Rio, and Tokyo-set her up to become the champion she is. In the end, Katie's story is about testing yourself against the difficult, and seeing who you become on the other side"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The uptown local : joy, death, and Joan Didion : a memoir / Cory Leadbeater. |
 "A brilliant debut memoir about a young writer--struggling with depression, family issues, and addiction--and his life-changing decade working for Joan Didion"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The Friday afternoon club : a family memoir / Griffin Dunne. |
 "A memoir and coming-of-age story chronicling the successes and disappointments, wit and wildness of Dunne and his multigenerational family of larger-than-life characters"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Pretty : a memoir / KB Brookins. |
 "By a prize-winning, young Black trans writer of outsized talent, a fierce and disciplined memoir about queerness, masculinity, and race. Even as it shines light on the beauty and toxicity of Black masculinity from a transgender perspective-the tropes, the presumptions-Pretty is as much a powerful and tender love letter as it is a call for change. "I should be able to define myself, but I am not. Not by any governmental or cultural body," Brookins writes. "Every day, I negotiate the space between who I am, how I'm perceived, and what I need to unlearn. People have assumed things about me, and I can't change that. Every day, I am assumed to be a Black American man, though my ID says 'female,' and my heart says neither of the sort. What does it mean - to be a girl-turned-man when you're something else entirely?" Informed by KB Brookins's personal experiences growing up in Texas, those of other Black transgender masculine people, Black queer studies, and cultural criticism, Pretty is concerned with the marginalization suffered by a unique American constituency-whose condition is a world apart from that of cisgender, non-Black, and non-masculine people. Here is a memoir (a bildungsroman of sorts) about coming to terms with instantly and always being perceived as "other""-- Provided by publisher. |
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| What a fool believes : a memoir / Michael McDonald, with Paul Reiser. |
 "A sweeping and evocative memoir from the Rock Roll Hall of Famer, Grammy Award-winning, platinum selling singer-songwriter Michael McDonald, written with his friend, Emmy Award-nominated actor, comedian, and #1 New York Times bestselling author Paul Reiser. Doobie Brothers. Steely Dan. Chart topping soloist. Across a half-century of American music, Michael McDonald's unmistakably smooth baritone voice defined an era of rock and RB with hit records like "What A Fool Believes," "Takin' It to the Streets," "I Keep Forgettin'," "Peg," "It Keeps You Running," "You Belong to Me," and "Yah Mo B There." In his candid, freewheeling memoir, written with his friend, the Emmy Award-nominated actor and comedian Paul Reiser, Michael tells the story of his life and music. A high school dropout from Ferguson, Missouri, Michael chased his dreams in 1970's California, a heady moment of rock opportunity and excess. As a rising session musician and backing vocalist, a series of encounters would send him on a wild ride around the world and to the heights of rock stardom--from joining Steely Dan and becoming a defining member of The Doobie Brothers to forging a path as a breakout solo RB artist. Interwoven with the unforgettable tales of the music, Michael tells a deeply affecting story of losing and finding himself as a man. He reckons with the unshakeable insecurities that drove him, the drug and alcohol addictions that plagued him, and the highs and lows of popularity. Along the way he relays the lessons he's learned, and that if he's learned anything at all it's that there's often little correlation between what you get and what you deserve. Filled with unbelievable stories and a matchless cast of music greats including James Taylor, Ray Charles, Carly Simon, and Quincy Jones, What a Fool Believes is a moving and entertaining memoir that is sure to be a classic"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Traveling : on the path of Joni Mitchell / Ann Powers. |
 "For decades, Joni Mitchell's life and music have enraptured listeners. One of the most celebrated artists of her generation, Mitchell has inspired countless musicians--from peers like James Taylor, to inheritors like Prince and Brandi Carlile--and authors, who have dissected her music and her life in their writing. At the same time, Mitchell has always been a force beckoning us still closer, as--with the other arm--she pushes us away. Given this, music critic Ann Powers wondered if there was another way to draw insights from the life of this singular musician who never stops moving, never stops experimenting. In Traveling, Powers seeks to understand Mitchell through her myriad journeys. Through extensive interviews with Mitchell's peers and deep archival research, she takes readers to rural Canada, mapping the singer's childhood battle with polio. She charts the course of Mitchell's musical evolution, ranging from early folk to jazz fusion to experimentation with pop synthetics. She follows the winding road of Mitchell's collaborations with other greats, and the loves that emerged along the way, all the way through to the remarkable return of Mitchell to music-making after the 2015 aneurysm that nearly took her life. Along this journey, Powers' wide-ranging musings on the artist's life and career reconsider the biographer's role and the way it twines against the reality of a fan. In doing so, Traveling illustrates the shifting nature of biography, and the ultimate contradiction of celebrity: that an icon cannot truly, completely be known to a fan. Kaleidoscopic in scope, and intimate in its detail, Traveling is a fresh and fascinating addition to the Joni Mitchell canon, written by a biographer in full command of her gifts who asks as much of herself as of her subject"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Larry McMurtry : a life / Tracy Daugherty. |
 "A biography of the late Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry from New York Times bestselling author Tracy Daugherty. In over forty books, in a career that spanned over sixty years, Larry McMurtry staked his claim as a superior chronicler of the American West, and as the Great Plains' keenest witness since Willa Cather and Wallace Stegner. Larry McMurtry: A Life traces his origins as one of the last American writers who had direct contact with this country's pioneer traditions. It follows his astonishing career as bestselling novelist, Pulitzer-Prize winner, author of the beloved Lonesome Dove, Academy-Award winning screenwriter, public intellectual, and passionate bookseller. A sweeping and insightful look at a versatile, one-of-a-kind American writer, this book is a must-read for every Larry McMurtry fan"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| What a fool believes : a memoir / Michael McDonald, with Paul Reiser. |
| "A sweeping and evocative memoir from the Rock Roll Hall of Famer, Grammy Award-winning, platinum selling singer-songwriter Michael McDonald, written with his friend, Emmy Award-nominated actor, comedian, and #1 New York Times bestselling author Paul Reiser. Doobie Brothers. Steely Dan. Chart topping soloist. Across a half-century of American music, Michael McDonald's unmistakably smooth baritone voice defined an era of rock and RB with hit records like "What A Fool Believes," "Takin' It to the Streets," "I Keep Forgettin'," "Peg," "It Keeps You Running," "You Belong to Me," and "Yah Mo B There." In his candid, freewheeling memoir, written with his friend, the Emmy Award-nominated actor and comedian Paul Reiser, Michael tells the story of his life and music. A high school dropout from Ferguson, Missouri, Michael chased his dreams in 1970's California, a heady moment of rock opportunity and excess. As a rising session musician and backing vocalist, a series of encounters would send him on a wild ride around the world and to the heights of rock stardom--from joining Steely Dan and becoming a defining member of The Doobie Brothers to forging a path as a breakout solo RB artist. Interwoven with the unforgettable tales of the music, Michael tells a deeply affecting story of losing and finding himself as a man. He reckons with the unshakeable insecurities that drove him, the drug and alcohol addictions that plagued him, and the highs and lows of popularity. Along the way he relays the lessons he's learned, and that if he's learned anything at all it's that there's often little correlation between what you get and what you deserve. Filled with unbelievable stories and a matchless cast of music greats including James Taylor, Ray Charles, Carly Simon, and Quincy Jones, What a Fool Believes is a moving and entertaining memoir that is sure to be a classic"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| I shouldn't be telling you this : (but i'm going to anyway) / Chelsea Devantez. |
 "There are things Chelsea Devantez probably shouldn't be telling you. Many of them are in this book: some are embarrassing (like when she tried to break her three year spell of celibacy using a guide of seduction tips). Some are confessional (getting sentenced to the "hell hill" at Mormon church camp). Some are TMI (a series of outrageous doctor visits that ended with one doctor misdiagnosing her as "pregnant." Woopsies!). Then there are things Chelsea really shouldn't be telling you: like the time her biggest family secret was publicly outed, or about the drive-by shootings and the precipitating domestic violence she survived. Yet through it all, it's the women in Chelsea's life who kept her going -- from the lowest points of her childhood when she and her mom had only $100 left to their name, all the way to her career highs as the Emmy-nominated Head Writer for The Problem with Jon Stewart and sensational podcaster deemed 'the celebrity memoir whisperer' by her fans. In I Shouldn't Be Telling You This, Chelsea centers each story around a different woman who shaped her life, taking us on a tour of friends and strangers, fictional characters and celebrities, heroes and villains who will destroy any Netflix algorithm for a "strong female lead." Reading it will feel kinda like that moment at a party when your friend beckons you close, sloshes her martini around, and covertly whispers, "I really shouldn't say this, but..." Provided by publisher. |
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| The editor : how publishing legend Judith Jones shaped culture in America / Sara B Franklin. |
 "An intimate biography of legendary editor Judith Jones, the woman behind some of the most important authors of the 20th century-including Julia Child, Anne Frank, Edna Lewis, John Updike, and Sylvia Plath"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Life's too short : a memoir / Darius Rucker with Alan Eisenstock. |
 "Raised by a single mother in Charleston, South Carolina, Darius Rucker founded Hootie & the Blowfish with three classmates at the University of South Carolina in 1986. What began as a party band playing frat houses and dive bars quickly became a global rock pop phenomenon through their Diamond-certified debut album Cracked Rear View. ... Later, Darius would also chart a pioneering path as a solo country music artist, with the Diamond-certified hit 'Wagon Wheel, ... while sharing the stage and a mic with the likes of David Crosby, Al Green, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Adele, Taylor Swift, and more. Nearly 40 years into his illustrious career, Darius tells the story of his life through the music that made him, including songs by everyone from Frank Sinatra and Stevie Wonder to R.E.M., KISS, Prince, and, of course, his own music with Hootie and as a solo artist"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Cactus country : a boyhood memoir / Zoë Bossiere. |
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| The call to serve : the life of an American president, George Herbert Walker Bush / Jon Meacham. |
 "The lavishly illustrated The Call to Serve is an intimate, illuminating portrait of the 41st U. S. President, a man many know mainly through his politics. Jon Meacham brings the leader vividly to life, including as a man dedicated to political and moral leadership, and to a life marked by the strong values of integrity and respect for others that Bush learned during his childhood. Bush pursued a life of service to America and to others, including through action in the Pacific during World War II, his political rise to Congressman in Texas, then his serving as U. S. Ambassador to the UN, director of the CIA, Vice President during the administration of Ronald Reagan, and as President. Set against the historical background of periods in America during the 20th and 21st century, this book celebrates the legacy of a man many people do not know, whose bedrock beliefs in honesty and respect for the dignity of others led to a life of leadership viewed as a call to serve. Obama said towards the end of Bush's life that he put the country first, throughout his life, 'both before he was president, while he was president, and ever since.' "-- Provided by publisher. |
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| You never know : a memoir / Tom Selleck with Ellis Henican. |
 An American icon and famed actor brings us on his uncharted but serendipitous journey to the top in Hollywood, clearing up misconceptions; sharing dozens of never-before-told stories from both his personal and professional lives; and offering a truly fresh perspective on a changing industry and a changing world. |
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| I curse you with joy / Tiffany Haddish. |
 I Curse You With Joy is Tiffany Haddish unfiltered. These essays lay it all bare, bringing readers into Tiffany's inner circle where joy, honesty, humor, and heart are the order of the day. |
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| Coming home / Brittney Griner with Michelle Burford. |
 "From the nine-time women's basketball icon and two-time Olympic gold medalist--a raw, revelatory account of her unfathomable detainment in Russia and her journey home. On February 17, 2022, Brittney Griner arrived in Moscow ready to spend the WNBA offseason playing for the Russian women's basketball team where she had been the centerpiece of previous championship seasons. Instead, a security checkpoint became her gateway to hell when she was arrested for mistakenly carrying under one gram of medically prescribed hash oil. Brittney's world was violently upended in a crisis she has never spoken in detail about publicly--until now. In Coming Home, Brittney finally shares the harrowing details of her sudden arrest days before Russia invaded Ukraine; her bewilderment and isolation while navigating a foreign legal system amid her trial and sentencing; her emotional and physical anguish as the first American woman ever to endure a Russian penal colony while the #WeAreBG movement rallied for her release; the chilling prisoner swap with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout; and her remarkable rise from hostage to global spokesperson on behalf of America's forgotten. In haunting and vivid detail, Brittney takes listeners inside the horrors of a geopolitical nightmare spanning ten months. And yet Coming Home is more than Brittney's journey from captivity to freedom. In an account as gripping as it is poignant, she shares how her deep love for Cherelle, her college sweetheart and wife of six years, anchored her during their greatest storm; how her family's support pulled her back from the brink; and how hundreds of letters from friends and neighbors lent her resolve to keep fighting. Coming Home is both a story of survival and a testament to love--the bonds that brought Brittney home to her family, and at last, to herself"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Chasing hope : a reporter's life / Nicholas D. Kristof. |
 "From New York Times columnist, Pulitzer Prize winner, and bestselling author Nicholas D. Kristof, an intimate and gripping memoir about a life in journalism Since 1984, Nicholas Kristof has worked almost continuously for The New York Times as a reporter, foreign correspondent, bureau chief, and now columnist, becoming one of the foremost reporters of his generation. Here, he recounts his event-filled path from a small-town farm in Oregon to every corner of the world. Reporting from Hong Kong, Beijing, and Tokyo, while traveling far afield to India, Africa, and Europe, Kristof witnessed and wrote about century-defining events: the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, the Yemeni civil war, the Darfur genocide in Sudan, and the wave of addiction and despair that swept through his hometown and a broad swath of working-class America. Fully aware that coverage of atrocities generates considerably fewer page views than the coverage of politics, he nevertheless continued to weaponize his pen against regimes and groups violating basic human rights, raising the cost of oppression and torture. Some of the risks he took while doing so make for hair-raising reading. Kristof writes about some of the great members of his profession and introduces us to extraordinary people he has met, such as the dissident whom he helped escape from China and a Catholic nun who browbeat a warlord into releasing schoolgirls he had kidnapped. These are the people, the heroes, who have allowed Kristof to remain optimistic. Side by side with the worst of humanity, you always see the best. This is a candid memoir of vulnerability and courage, humility and purpose, mistakes and learning—a singular tale of the trials, tribulations, and hope to be found in a life dedicated to the pursuit of truth."-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Rebel girl : my life as a feminist punk / Kathleen Hanna. |
 "An electric, searing memoir by the original rebel girl and legendary front woman of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre. Hey girlfriend I got a proposition, goes something like this: Dare ya to do what you want. Kathleen Hanna's rallying cry to feminists echoed far and wide through the punk scene of the '90s and beyond. Her band Bikini Kill embodies this iconic time, and today her personal yet feminist lyrics on anthems like "Rebel Girl" and "Double Dare Ya" are more powerful than ever. But where did this transformative voice come from? In Rebel Girl, Hanna's raw and insightful new memoir, she takes us from her tumultuous childhood home to her formative college years in Olympia, Washington, and on to her first years on tour, fighting hard for gigs and for her band. As Hanna makes clear, being in a "girl band," especially a punk girl band, in those years was not a simple or safe prospect. Male violence and antagonism threatened at every turn, and surviving as a singer who was a lightning rod for controversy took limitless amounts of determination. But the relationships she developed during those years buoyed her-including with her bandmates, Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox, and Johanna Fateman; her friendships with Kurt Cobain and Ian MacKaye; and her introduction to Joan Jett- were all a testament to how the punk world could nurture and care for its own. Hanna opens up about falling in love with Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys and her debilitating battle with Lyme disease, and she brings us behind the scenes of her musical growth in her bands Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin. She also writes candidly about the Riot Grrrl movement, documenting with love its grassroots origins but critiquing its later exclusivity. In an uncut voice all her own, Hanna reveals the hardest times along with the most joyful-and how it continues to fuel her revolutionary art and music"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Another word for love : a memoir / Carvell Wallace. |
 "A lyrical meditation on healing-told through the lenses of justice, sex, love, family, and death-by journalist and podcaster Carvell Wallace"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Say more : lessons from work, the White House, and the world / Jen Psaki. |
 "Not many White House Press Secretaries capture the nation's interest the way Jen Psaki did. Refreshingly candid and clear, Psaki quickly became known for her ability to break through the noise and successfully deliver her message. In her highly anticipated book, Psaki shares her journey to the Briefing Room and beyond, taking readers along the campaign trail, to the State Department, and inside the White House under two Presidents. With her signature wit, Psaki writes about reporting to bosses from the hot-tempered Rahm Emanuel to the coolly intellectual Barack Obama to the surprisingly tenderhearted John Kerry. She also talks about her time working closely with President Joe Biden from the start of his administration to set a new tone for the country, restoring a sense of calm and respect for the role of the media in our Democracy. Since leaving the White House, Psaki's star has continued to rise. She launched a highly rated show on MSNBC and was so successful that in just six months she was given an additional primetime Monday slot, ahead of Rachel Maddow. And Psaki's work doesn't end at the office. She is the mother of two young children and shares her stories about the journey of communicating as a parent: During one bedtime briefing, her young daughter asked the question, "Why do wars start?", which Jen carefully explained and then got a follow up: "Have you ever seen a unicorn?" In Say More, Psaki explains her straightforward approach to communication, walking readers through difficult conversations as well as moments where humor saves the day-whether it is with preschoolers, partners, or presidents. She addresses the best ways to give and receive feedback, how to connect with your audience, how to listen actively, and much more. Say More is the book Psaki wishes she had when she started her career, and is a trove of entertaining, essential lessons from one of the most prominent voices in American politics today"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Chop, fry, watch, learn : Fu Pei-Mei and the making of modern Chinese food / Michelle T. King |
 In 1949, a young Chinese housewife arrived in Taiwan and transformed herself from a novice to a natural in the kitchen. She launched a career as a cookbook author and television cooking instructor that would last four decades. Years later, in America, flipping through her mother's copies of Fu Pei-mei's Chinese cookbooks, historian Michelle T. King discovered more than the recipes to meals of her childhood. She found, in Fu's story and in her food, a vivid portal to another time, when a generation of middle-class, female home cooks navigated the tremendous postwar transformations taking place across the world. |
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| Small acts of courage : a legacy of endurance and the fight for democracy / Ali Velshi. |
 "A captivating family history that illustrates how small actions can have an outsized political impact. Small acts of courage matter. Sometimes, they change the world. Our history books are filled with the stories of those who fought for democracy and freedom-for idealism itself-against all odds, from Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. These iconic struggles for social change illustrate the importance of engagement and activism, and offer a template for the battles we are fighting today. But using the right words is often easier than taking action; action can be hard, and costly. More than a century ago, MSNBC host Ali Velshi's great-grandfather sent his seven-year-old son to live at Tolstoy Farm, Gandhi's ashram in South Africa. This difficult decision would change the trajectory of his family history forever. From childhood, Velshi's grandfather was imbued with an ethos of public service and social justice, and a belief in absolute equality among all people-ideals that his children carried forward as they escaped apartheid, emigrating to Kenya and ultimately Canada and the United States. In Small Acts of Courage, Velshi taps into 125 years of family history to advocate for social justice as a living, breathing experience-a way of life more than an ideology. With rich detail and vivid prose, he relates the stories of regular people who made a lasting commitment to fight for change, even when success seemed impossible. This heartfelt exploration of how we can breathe new life into the principles of pluralistic democracy is an urgent call to action-for progress to be possible, we must all do whatever we can to make a difference"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Rise of a Killah / Ghostface Killah. |
 "The fully-illustrated, anecdote-rich story of the celebrated rapper and the iconic Wu-Tang Clan, told by one of its founding members. With his fellow New Yorker RZA, Dennis Coles--aka Ghostface Killah--established the Wu-Tang Clan, the legendary hip-hop group whose flexible format (originally seven members, growing to ten, it performs in various combinations and also allows its members solo careers), danceable singles and intimate melodic lyrics have kept it at the pinnacle of rap and hip-hop from its founding in the early 1990s to today. Rise of a Killah, Ghost's autobiography, is intense rather than comprehensive, looking back at his childhood in Staten Island, his commitment to his family (including a brother with muscular dystrophy) and lifelong sidekicks, how crime and violence have affected his life, his fellow Wu-Tang members, a formative touring trip to Japan in 1997, and his art. Some of the many evocative and exciting elements in the book are Ghost's lyrics--some printed, some included as pages from drugstore black composition notebooks with his hand-written raps--from the '90s, as well as roughly-designed Xeroxed posters for the Clan's earliest performances and throwdowns, great in-concert photographs, a range of shots of limited-edition shoes and clothing, and a newly-commissioned cartoon of an attack on Ghost by an intruder slinging not bullets but bleach. Rich with both story and imagery, some of it exclusive to this book, Rise Of A Killah is both visual record and a real-feel narrative of a performer's life"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Sociopath : a memoir / Patric Gagne, PhD. |
 "Patric Gagne realized she made others uncomfortable before she started kindergarten. Something about her caused people to react in a way she didn't understand. She suspected it was because she didn't feel things the way other kids did. Emotions like fear, guilt, and empathy eluded her. For the most part, she felt nothing. And she didn't like the way that "nothing" felt. She did her best to pretend she was like everyone else, but the constant pressure to conform to a society she knew rejected anyone like her was unbearable. So Patric stole. She lied. She was occasionally violent. She became an expert lock-picker and home-invader. All with the goal of replacing the nothingness with...something. In college, Patric finally confirmed what she'd long suspected. She was a sociopath. But even though it was the very first personality disorder identified--well over 200 years ago--sociopathy had been neglected by mental health professionals for decades. She was told there was no treatment, no hope for a normal life. She found herself haunted by sociopaths in pop culture, madmen and evil villains who are considered monsters. Her future looked grim. But when Patric reconnects with an old flame, she gets a glimpse of a future beyond her diagnosis. If she's capable of love, it must mean that she isn't a monster. With the help of her sweetheart (and some curious characters she meets along the way) she embarks on a mission to prove that the millions of Americans who share her diagnosis aren't all monsters either"--Dust jacket. |
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| And then? And then? What else? / Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket. |
 The author of the popular Lemony Snicket books discusses his love of strange literature and reflects on his life experiences in an entertaining memoir that also serves as inspiration for aspiring writers. |
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| Relentless : my story of the Latino spirit that is transforming America / Luis A. Miranda, Jr. ; with Richard Wolffe. |
 "Luis Miranda arrived in New York City from Puerto Rico in 1974 to study psychology at NYU, but he soon found himself drawn to community action, eventually working for the Department of Employment, the Board of Education, and the nonprofit Aspira, among many other organizations. In the 1980s he was a special advisor for Hispanic Affairs to Mayor Ed Koch, and he continued to serve in key roles for the Dinkins and Giuliani administrations. In 1990 Miranda became the founding President of the Hispanic Federation, one of the nation's leading Latino nonprofits. In 2000, he founded the Amber Charter School in East Harlem. As a founding partner of the MirRam Group, Miranda has consulted on a number of successful political campaigns, including the Senatorial campaigns of Hilary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, and Kirsten Gillibrand. The list of roles and positions is practically endless, but, more simply put, there is no one on the Latino, New York City, and national political scene who has the breadth of experience, passion, understanding, and storytelling charm of Luis Miranda. In "Relentless," he shares the poignant narrative of his life and career-from his early days as a radically-minded Puerto Rican activist to his decades of practical political advising and problem-solving. We experience the thrill of the ascendency of Luis's son Lin-Manuel's "Hamilton" followed several years later by the devastation of Hurricane Maria. Amid the triumphs, challenges, and ongoing hard work, Miranda examines what it all tells us about our ever-changing politics, demographics, and society"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Once upon a time : the captivating life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy / Elizabeth Beller. |
 "The life and legacy of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, wife of John F. Kennedy Jr., are reexamined in this captivating and effervescent biography that is perfect for fans of My Travels with Mrs. Kennedy, What Remains, and Fairy Tale Interrupted. A quarter of a century after the plane crash that claimed the lives of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn, and sister-in-law Lauren, the magnitude of this tragedy remains fresh. Yet, Carolyn is still an enigmatic figure, a woman whose short life in the spotlight was besieged with misogyny and cruelty. Amidst today's cultural reckoning about the way our media treats women, Elizabeth Beller explores the real person behind the tabloid headlines and media frenzy. When she began dating America's prince, Carolyn was increasingly thrust into an overwhelming spotlight filled with relentless paparazzi who reacted to her reserve with a campaign of harassment and vilification. To this day, she is still depicted as a privileged princess-icy, vapid, and drug-addicted. She has even been accused of being responsible for their untimely death, allegedly delaying take-off until she finished her pedicure. But now, she is revealed as never before. A fiercely independent woman devoted to her adopted city and career, Carolyn relied on her impeccable eye and drive to fly up the ranks at Calvin Klein in the glossy, high-stakes fashion world of the 1990s. When Carolyn met her future husband, John was immediately drawn to her strong-willed personality, effortless charm, and high intelligence. Their relationship would change her life and catapult her to dizzying fame, but it was her vibrant life before their marriage and then hidden afterwards, that is truly fascinating. Based on in-depth research and exclusive interviews with friends, family members, teachers, roommates, and colleagues, this comprehensive biography reveals a multi-faceted woman worthy of our attention regardless of her husband and untimely death"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Another word for love : a memoir / Carvell Wallace. |
| "A lyrical meditation on healing-told through the lenses of justice, sex, love, family, and death-by journalist and podcaster Carvell Wallace"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Joyful recollections of trauma / Paul Scheer. |
 "From award-winning actor and comedian Paul Scheer, a candid and hilarious memoir-in-essays on coming to terms with childhood trauma and finding the joy in embracing your authentic self"-- Provided by publisher |
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| The great abolitionist : Charles Sumner and the fight for a more perfect union / Stephen Puleo. |
 "The groundbreaking biography of a forgotten civil rights hero. In the tempestuous mid-19th century, as slavery consumed Congressional debate and America careened toward civil war and split apart--when the very future of the nation hung in the balance--Charles Sumner's voice rang strongest, bravest, and most unwavering. Where others preached compromise and moderation, he denounced slavery's evils to all who would listen and demanded that it be wiped out of existence. More than any other person of his era, he blazed the trail on the country's long, uneven, and ongoing journey toward realizing its full promise to become a more perfect union. Before and during the Civil War, at great personal sacrifice, Sumner was the conscience of the North and the most influential politician fighting for abolition. Throughout Reconstruction, no one championed the rights of emancipated people more than he did. Through the force of his words and his will, he moved America toward the twin goals of abolitionism and equal rights, which he fought for literally until the day he died. He laid the cornerstone arguments that civil rights advocates would build upon over the next century as the country strove to achieve equality among the races. The Great Abolitionist is the first major biography of Charles Sumner to be published in over 50 years. Acclaimed historian Stephen Puleo relates the story of one of the most influential non-presidents in American history with evocative and accessible prose, transporting readers back to an era when our leaders exhibited true courage and authenticity in the face of unprecedented challenges"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Diary of a genius / Salvador Dali ; introduction by J.G. Ballard. |
 DIARY OF A GENIUS stands as one of the seminal texts of Surrealism, revealing the most astonishing and intimate workings of the mind of Salvador Dalí, the eccentric polymath genius who became the living embodiment of the 20th century's most intensely subversive, disturbing and influential art movement. Dalí's second volume of autobiography, DIARY OF A GENIUS covers his life from 1952 to 1963, during which years we learn of his astonishing creative process, inspired by an amour fou for his wife Gala and their relationship both at home in Cadaqués and during bizarre world travels. This new edition includes a brilliant and revelatory essay on Salvador Dalí, and the importance of his art to the 20th century, by the author J G Ballard. With 20 illustrations. |
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| Fighting the night : Iwo Jima, World War II, and a flyer's life / Paul Hendrickson. |
 "In the fall of 1944, Joe Paul Hendrickson, the author's father, kissed his twenty-one-year-old wife and two baby children goodbye. The twenty-five-year-old first lieutenant, pilot of a famed P-61 Black Widow, was leaving for the war. He and his night fighter squadron were sent to Iwo Jima, where, for the last five and a half months of World War II, he flew approximately seventy-five missions, largely in pitch-black conditions. His wife would wait out the war at the home of her small-town Ohio parents, one of the countless numbers of American family members shouldering the burden of being left behind. Joe Paul, the son of a Depression-poor Kentucky sharecropper, was fresh out of high school in 1937 when he enlisted in mechanic school in the peacetime Army Air Corps. Eventually, he was able to qualify for flight school. After marriage, and with the war on, the young officer and his bride crisscrossed the country, airfield to airfield, base to base: Santa Ana, Yuma, Kissimmee, Bakersfield, Orlando, La Junta, Fresno. He volunteered for night fighters and the newly arrived and almost mythic Black Widow. A world away, the carnage continued. As Paul Hendrickson tracks his parents' journey, together and separate, both stateside and overseas, he creates a vivid portrait of a hard-to-know father whose time in the war, he comes to understand, was something truly heroic, but never without its hidden and unhidden psychic costs. Bringing to life an iconic moment of American history, and the tragedy of all wars, Fighting the Night is an intense and powerful story of violence and love, forgiveness and loss. And it is a tribute to those who got plunged into service, in the best years of their lives, and the sacrifices they and their loved ones made, then and thereafter"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Relentless : my story of the Latino spirit that is transforming America / Luis A. Miranda, Jr. ; with Richard Wolffe. |
| "Luis Miranda arrived in New York City from Puerto Rico in 1974 to study psychology at NYU, but he soon found himself drawn to community action, eventually working for the Department of Employment, the Board of Education, and the nonprofit Aspira, among many other organizations. In the 1980s he was a special advisor for Hispanic Affairs to Mayor Ed Koch, and he continued to serve in key roles for the Dinkins and Giuliani administrations. In 1990 Miranda became the founding President of the Hispanic Federation, one of the nation's leading Latino nonprofits. In 2000, he founded the Amber Charter School in East Harlem. As a founding partner of the MirRam Group, Miranda has consulted on a number of successful political campaigns, including the Senatorial campaigns of Hilary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, and Kirsten Gillibrand. The list of roles and positions is practically endless, but, more simply put, there is no one on the Latino, New York City, and national political scene who has the breadth of experience, passion, understanding, and storytelling charm of Luis Miranda. In "Relentless," he shares the poignant narrative of his life and career-from his early days as a radically-minded Puerto Rican activist to his decades of practical political advising and problem-solving. We experience the thrill of the ascendency of Luis's son Lin-Manuel's "Hamilton" followed several years later by the devastation of Hurricane Maria. Amid the triumphs, challenges, and ongoing hard work, Miranda examines what it all tells us about our ever-changing politics, demographics, and society"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Brutalities : a love story / Margo Steines. |
 "A searing, vivid memoir that investigates the dynamics of violence, power, desire, and a body pushed to the brink. Quarantined in a southwestern desert city in the midst of her high-risk pregnancy, Margo Steines felt her life narrow around her growing body, compelling her to reckon with the violence entangled in its history. She was a professional dominatrix in New York City, a homestead farmer in a brutal relationship, a welder on a high-rise building crew and a Mixed Martial Arts enthusiast; each of her many lives brought a new vantage point from which to see how power and masculinity coalesce-and how her body paid the price. With unflinching candor, Steines searches for the roots of her erstwhile attraction to pain while charting the complicated triumph of tenderness and care"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Rebel girl : my life as a feminist punk / Kathleen Hanna. |
| "An electric, searing memoir by the original rebel girl and legendary front woman of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre. Hey girlfriend I got a proposition, goes something like this: Dare ya to do what you want. Kathleen Hanna's rallying cry to feminists echoed far and wide through the punk scene of the '90s and beyond. Her band Bikini Kill embodies this iconic time, and today her personal yet feminist lyrics on anthems like "Rebel Girl" and "Double Dare Ya" are more powerful than ever. But where did this transformative voice come from? In Rebel Girl, Hanna's raw and insightful new memoir, she takes us from her tumultuous childhood home to her formative college years in Olympia, Washington, and on to her first years on tour, fighting hard for gigs and for her band. As Hanna makes clear, being in a "girl band," especially a punk girl band, in those years was not a simple or safe prospect. Male violence and antagonism threatened at every turn, and surviving as a singer who was a lightning rod for controversy took limitless amounts of determination. But the relationships she developed during those years buoyed her-including with her bandmates, Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox, and Johanna Fateman; her friendships with Kurt Cobain and Ian MacKaye; and her introduction to Joan Jett- were all a testament to how the punk world could nurture and care for its own. Hanna opens up about falling in love with Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys and her debilitating battle with Lyme disease, and she brings us behind the scenes of her musical growth in her bands Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin. She also writes candidly about the Riot Grrrl movement, documenting with love its grassroots origins but critiquing its later exclusivity. In an uncut voice all her own, Hanna reveals the hardest times along with the most joyful-and how it continues to fuel her revolutionary art and music"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Chasing hope : a reporter's life / Nicholas D. Kristof. |
| "From New York Times columnist, Pulitzer Prize winner, and bestselling author Nicholas D. Kristof, an intimate and gripping memoir about a life in journalism Since 1984, Nicholas Kristof has worked almost continuously for The New York Times as a reporter, foreign correspondent, bureau chief, and now columnist, becoming one of the foremost reporters of his generation. Here, he recounts his event-filled path from a small-town farm in Oregon to every corner of the world. Reporting from Hong Kong, Beijing, and Tokyo, while traveling far afield to India, Africa, and Europe, Kristof witnessed and wrote about century-defining events: the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, the Yemeni civil war, the Darfur genocide in Sudan, and the wave of addiction and despair that swept through his hometown and a broad swath of working-class America. Fully aware that coverage of atrocities generates considerably fewer page views than the coverage of politics, he nevertheless continued to weaponize his pen against regimes and groups violating basic human rights, raising the cost of oppression and torture. Some of the risks he took while doing so make for hair-raising reading. Kristof writes about some of the great members of his profession and introduces us to extraordinary people he has met, such as the dissident whom he helped escape from China and a Catholic nun who browbeat a warlord into releasing schoolgirls he had kidnapped. These are the people, the heroes, who have allowed Kristof to remain optimistic. Side by side with the worst of humanity, you always see the best. This is a candid memoir of vulnerability and courage, humility and purpose, mistakes and learning—a singular tale of the trials, tribulations, and hope to be found in a life dedicated to the pursuit of truth."-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The rulebreaker : the life and times of Barbara Walters / Susan Page. |
 "The definitive biography of the most successful female broadcaster of all time--Barbara Walters--a woman whose personal demons fueled an ambition that broke all the rules and finally gave women a permanent place on the air, written by bestselling author Susan Page. Barbara Walters was a force from the time TV was exploding on the American scene in the 1960s to its waning dominance in a new world of competition from streaming services and social media half a century later. She was not just a groundbreaker for women (Oprah announced when she was seventeen that she wanted to be Barbara Walters), but also expanded the big TV interview and then dominated the genre. By the end of her career, she had interviewed more of the famous and infamous, from presidents to movie stars to criminals to despots, than any other journalist in history. Then at sixty-seven, past the age many female broadcasters found themselves involuntarily retired, she pioneered a new form of talk TV called The View. She is on the short list of those who have left the biggest imprints on television news and on our culture, male or female. So, who was the woman behind the legacy?In The Rulebreaker, Susan Page conducts 150 interviews and extensive archival research to discover that Walters was driven to keep herself and her family afloat after her mercurial and famous impresario father attempted suicide. But she never lost the fear of an impending catastrophe, which is what led her to ask for things no woman had ever asked for before, to ignore the rules of misogynistic culture, to outcompete her most ferocious competitors, and to protect her complicated marriages and love life from scrutiny. Page breaks news on every front--from the daring things Walters did to become the woman who reinvented the TV interview to the secrets she kept until her death. This is the eye-opening account of the woman who knew she had to break all the rules so she could break all the rules about what viewers deserved to know"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The loves of Theodore Roosevelt : the women who created a president / Edward F. O'Keefe. |
 "A spirited and poignant family love story, revealing how an icon of rugged American masculinity was profoundly shaped by the women in his life, especially his mother, sisters, and wives" |
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| Subculture vulture : a memoir in six scenes / Moshe Kasher. |
 "After bottoming out, being institutionalized, and getting sober all by the tender age of fifteen, Moshe Kasher found himself asking: OK, so what else is out there? Over the ensuing decades, he found his way to the answer: a lot. From his current vantage point as a successful stand-up comic, Kasher looks back on his years careening from subculture to subculture, and he immerses readers in the hilariously strange nuances of each of the scenes he's found himself in. Immediately after getting sober, Kasher began serving as the self-appointed sheriff of his Young People's AA group. He then went on to start his own club-promoting business from scratch in the heart of the 90s California rave scene, and later became a security guard at Burning Man. Once, he caught a man who worked as a coyote at the US border sneaking punk kids into the festival as a side hustle. A child of deaf adults, he's also served as a sign language interpreter, and once helped an angry client cuss out a police officer. Later in life, Kasher went on to reconnect with his Jewish heritage after the death of his father, and now has a booming career as a stand-up comic"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| There is a river : the story of Edgar Cayce / Thomas Sugrue ; Introduction by Mitch Horowitz. |
 "A reissue of the worldwide bestseller on the life of the famed medical clairvoyant and founding father of the New Age, Edgar Cayce. With a new introduction by Mitch Horowitz"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| You never know : a memoir / Tom Selleck with Ellis Henican. |
| An American icon and famed actor brings us on his uncharted but serendipitous journey to the top in Hollywood, clearing up misconceptions; sharing dozens of never-before-told stories from both his personal and professional lives; and offering a truly fresh perspective on a changing industry and a changing world. |
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| Coming home / Brittney Griner with Michelle Burford. |
| "From the nine-time women's basketball icon and two-time Olympic gold medalist--a raw, revelatory account of her unfathomable detainment in Russia and her journey home. On February 17, 2022, Brittney Griner arrived in Moscow ready to spend the WNBA offseason playing for the Russian women's basketball team where she had been the centerpiece of previous championship seasons. Instead, a security checkpoint became her gateway to hell when she was arrested for mistakenly carrying under one gram of medically prescribed hash oil. Brittney's world was violently upended in a crisis she has never spoken in detail about publicly--until now. In Coming Home, Brittney finally shares the harrowing details of her sudden arrest days before Russia invaded Ukraine; her bewilderment and isolation while navigating a foreign legal system amid her trial and sentencing; her emotional and physical anguish as the first American woman ever to endure a Russian penal colony while the #WeAreBG movement rallied for her release; the chilling prisoner swap with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout; and her remarkable rise from hostage to global spokesperson on behalf of America's forgotten. In haunting and vivid detail, Brittney takes listeners inside the horrors of a geopolitical nightmare spanning ten months. And yet Coming Home is more than Brittney's journey from captivity to freedom. In an account as gripping as it is poignant, she shares how her deep love for Cherelle, her college sweetheart and wife of six years, anchored her during their greatest storm; how her family's support pulled her back from the brink; and how hundreds of letters from friends and neighbors lent her resolve to keep fighting. Coming Home is both a story of survival and a testament to love--the bonds that brought Brittney home to her family, and at last, to herself"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Small acts of courage : a legacy of endurance and the fight for democracy / Ali Velshi. |
| "A captivating family history that illustrates how small actions can have an outsized political impact. Small acts of courage matter. Sometimes, they change the world. Our history books are filled with the stories of those who fought for democracy and freedom-for idealism itself-against all odds, from Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. These iconic struggles for social change illustrate the importance of engagement and activism, and offer a template for the battles we are fighting today. But using the right words is often easier than taking action; action can be hard, and costly. More than a century ago, MSNBC host Ali Velshi's great-grandfather sent his seven-year-old son to live at Tolstoy Farm, Gandhi's ashram in South Africa. This difficult decision would change the trajectory of his family history forever. From childhood, Velshi's grandfather was imbued with an ethos of public service and social justice, and a belief in absolute equality among all people-ideals that his children carried forward as they escaped apartheid, emigrating to Kenya and ultimately Canada and the United States. In Small Acts of Courage, Velshi taps into 125 years of family history to advocate for social justice as a living, breathing experience-a way of life more than an ideology. With rich detail and vivid prose, he relates the stories of regular people who made a lasting commitment to fight for change, even when success seemed impossible. This heartfelt exploration of how we can breathe new life into the principles of pluralistic democracy is an urgent call to action-for progress to be possible, we must all do whatever we can to make a difference"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Say more : lessons from work, the White House, and the world / Jen Psaki. |
| "Not many White House Press Secretaries capture the nation's interest the way Jen Psaki did. Refreshingly candid and clear, Psaki quickly became known for her ability to break through the noise and successfully deliver her message. In her highly anticipated book, Psaki shares her journey to the Briefing Room and beyond, taking readers along the campaign trail, to the State Department, and inside the White House under two Presidents. With her signature wit, Psaki writes about reporting to bosses from the hot-tempered Rahm Emanuel to the coolly intellectual Barack Obama to the surprisingly tenderhearted John Kerry. She also talks about her time working closely with President Joe Biden from the start of his administration to set a new tone for the country, restoring a sense of calm and respect for the role of the media in our Democracy. Since leaving the White House, Psaki's star has continued to rise. She launched a highly rated show on MSNBC and was so successful that in just six months she was given an additional primetime Monday slot, ahead of Rachel Maddow. And Psaki's work doesn't end at the office. She is the mother of two young children and shares her stories about the journey of communicating as a parent: During one bedtime briefing, her young daughter asked the question, "Why do wars start?", which Jen carefully explained and then got a follow up: "Have you ever seen a unicorn?" In Say More, Psaki explains her straightforward approach to communication, walking readers through difficult conversations as well as moments where humor saves the day-whether it is with preschoolers, partners, or presidents. She addresses the best ways to give and receive feedback, how to connect with your audience, how to listen actively, and much more. Say More is the book Psaki wishes she had when she started her career, and is a trove of entertaining, essential lessons from one of the most prominent voices in American politics today"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The house of being / Natasha Trethewey. |
 "In a shotgun house in Gulfport, Mississippi, at the crossroads of Highway 49, the legendary highway of the Blues, and Jefferson Street, Natasha Trethewey learned to read and write. Before the land was a crossroads, however, it was a pasture: a farming settlement where, after the Civil War, a group of formerly enslaved women, men, and children made a new home. In this intimate and searching meditation, Trethewey revisits the geography of her childhood to trace the origins of her writing life, born of the need to create new metaphors to inhabit "so that my story would not be determined for me." She recalls the markers of history and culture that dotted the horizons of her youth: the Confederate flags proudly flown throughout Mississippi; her gradual understanding of her own identity as the child of a Black mother and a white father; and her grandmother's collages lining the hallway, offering glimpses of the world as it could be. With the clarity of a prophet and the grace of a poet, Trethewey offers up a vision of writing as reclamation: of our own lives and the stories of the vanished, forgotten, and erased."-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Sociopath : a memoir / Patric Gagne, PhD. |
| "Patric Gagne realized she made others uncomfortable before she started kindergarten. Something about her caused people to react in a way she didn't understand. She suspected it was because she didn't feel things the way other kids did. Emotions like fear, guilt, and empathy eluded her. For the most part, she felt nothing. And she didn't like the way that "nothing" felt. She did her best to pretend she was like everyone else, but the constant pressure to conform to a society she knew rejected anyone like her was unbearable. So Patric stole. She lied. She was occasionally violent. She became an expert lock-picker and home-invader. All with the goal of replacing the nothingness with...something. In college, Patric finally confirmed what she'd long suspected. She was a sociopath. But even though it was the very first personality disorder identified--well over 200 years ago--sociopathy had been neglected by mental health professionals for decades. She was told there was no treatment, no hope for a normal life. She found herself haunted by sociopaths in pop culture, madmen and evil villains who are considered monsters. Her future looked grim. But when Patric reconnects with an old flame, she gets a glimpse of a future beyond her diagnosis. If she's capable of love, it must mean that she isn't a monster. With the help of her sweetheart (and some curious characters she meets along the way) she embarks on a mission to prove that the millions of Americans who share her diagnosis aren't all monsters either"--Dust jacket. |
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| Ian Fleming: the complete man / Nicholas Shakespeare. |
 "Ian Fleming's greatest creation, James Bond, has had an enormous and ongoing impact on our culture. What Bond represents about ideas of masculinity, the British national psyche and global politics has shifted over time, as has the interpretation of the life of his author. But Fleming himself was more mysterious and subtle than anything he wrote. Ian's childhood with his gifted brother Peter and his extraordinary mother set the pattern for his ambition to be 'the complete man', and he would strive for the means to achieve this 'completeness' all his life. Only a writer for his last twelve years, his dramatic personal life and impressive career in Naval Intelligence put him at the heart of critical moments in world history, while also providing rich inspiration for his fiction. Exceptionally well connected, and widely travelled, from the United States and Soviet Russia to his beloved Jamaica, Ian had access to the most powerful political figures at a time of profound change." -- Provided by publisher. |
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| Fi : a memoir / Alexandra Fuller. |
 "From the award-winning New York Times-bestselling author, Alexandra Fuller, comes a career defining memoir about grieving the sudden loss of her twenty-one-year-old child. "Fair to say, I was in a ribald state the summer before my fiftieth birthday." And so begins Alexandra Fuller's open, vivid new memoir, Fi. It's midsummer in Wyoming and Alexandra is barely hanging on. Grieving her father and pining for her home country of Zimbabwe, reeling from a midlife breakup, freshly sober and piecing her way uncertainly through a volatile new relationship with a younger woman, Alexandra vows to get herself back on even keel. And then-suddenly and incomprehensibly-her son Fi, at twenty-one years old, dies in his sleep. No stranger to loss-young siblings, a parent, a home country-Alexandra is nonetheless leveled. At the same time, she is painfully aware that she cannot succumb and abandon her two surviving daughters as her mother before her had done. From a sheep wagon deep in the mountains of Wyoming to a grief sanctuary in New Mexico to a silent meditation retreat in Alberta, Canada, Alexandra journeys up and down the spine of the Rocky Mountains in an attempt to find how to grieve herself whole. There is no answer, and there are countless answers-in poetry, in rituals and routines, in nature and in the indigenous wisdom she absorbed as a child in Zimbabwe. By turns disarming, devastating and unexpectedly, blessedly funny, Alexandra recounts the wild medicine of painstakingly grieving a child in a culture that has no instructions for it"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Somehow : thoughts on love / Anne Lamott. |
 ""Love is our only hope," Anne Lamott writes in this perceptive new book. "It is not always the easiest choice, but it is always the right one, the noble path, the way home to safety, no matter how bleak the future looks." In Somehow: Thoughts on Love, Lamott explores the transformative power that love has in our lives: how it surprises us, forces us to confront uncomfortable truths, reminds us of our humanity, and guides us forward. "Love just won't be pinned down," she says. "It is in our very atmosphere" and lies at the heart of who we are. We are, Lamott says, creatures of love. In each chapter of Somehow, Lamott refracts all the colors of the spectrum. She explores the unexpected love for a partner later in life. The bruised (and bruising) love for a child who disappoints, even frightens. The sustaining love among a group of sinners, for a community in transition, in the wider world. The lessons she underscores are that love enlightens as it educates, comforts as it energizes, sustains as it surprises. Somehow is Anne Lamott's twentieth book, and in it she draws from her own life and experience to delineate the intimate and elemental ways that love buttresses us in the face of despair as it galvanizes us to believe that tomorrow will be better than today. Full of the compassion and humanity that have made Lamott beloved by millions of readers, Somehow is classic Anne Lamott: funny, warm, and wise"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The rulebreaker : the life and times of Barbara Walters / Susan Page. |
| "The definitive biography of the most successful female broadcaster of all time--Barbara Walters--a woman whose personal demons fueled an ambition that broke all the rules and finally gave women a permanent place on the air, written by bestselling author Susan Page. Barbara Walters was a force from the time TV was exploding on the American scene in the 1960s to its waning dominance in a new world of competition from streaming services and social media half a century later. She was not just a groundbreaker for women (Oprah announced when she was seventeen that she wanted to be Barbara Walters), but also expanded the big TV interview and then dominated the genre. By the end of her career, she had interviewed more of the famous and infamous, from presidents to movie stars to criminals to despots, than any other journalist in history. Then at sixty-seven, past the age many female broadcasters found themselves involuntarily retired, she pioneered a new form of talk TV called The View. She is on the short list of those who have left the biggest imprints on television news and on our culture, male or female. So, who was the woman behind the legacy?In The Rulebreaker, Susan Page conducts 150 interviews and extensive archival research to discover that Walters was driven to keep herself and her family afloat after her mercurial and famous impresario father attempted suicide. But she never lost the fear of an impending catastrophe, which is what led her to ask for things no woman had ever asked for before, to ignore the rules of misogynistic culture, to outcompete her most ferocious competitors, and to protect her complicated marriages and love life from scrutiny. Page breaks news on every front--from the daring things Walters did to become the woman who reinvented the TV interview to the secrets she kept until her death. This is the eye-opening account of the woman who knew she had to break all the rules so she could break all the rules about what viewers deserved to know"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The queen mother : the untold story of Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, who became Queen Elizabeth the queen mother / Lady Colin Campbell. |
 Campbell shows us that the untold life of Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, is far more interesting and moving than the official version that has been peddled since 1923. Elizabeth's life has been filled with controversy-- beginning with the mysterious circumstances of her birth, the roles she played in her daughters' marriages, and her relationship with Princess Diana. |
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| Barbara Comyns : a savage innocence / Avril Horner. |
 The extraordinary twentieth-century writer Barbara Comyns led a life as captivating as the narratives she spun. This pioneering biography reveals the journey of a woman who experienced hardship and single-motherhood before the age of thirty but went on to publish a sequence of novels that are unique in the English language. Comyns turned her hand to many jobs in order to survive, from artist's model to restoring pianos. Hundreds of unpublished letters reveal an occasionally desperate but resourceful and witty woman whose complicated life ranged from enduring poverty when young to mixing with spivs, spies and high society. While working as a housekeeper in her mid-thirties, Comyns began transforming the bleak episodes of her life into compelling fictions streaked with surrealism and deadpan humour. The Vet's Daughter (1959), championed by Graham Greene, brought her fame, although her use of the gothic and macabre divided readers and reviewers. This biography not only excavates Comyns's life but also reclaims her fiction, providing a timely reassessment of her literary contribution. It sheds new light on a remarkable author who deftly captured the complexities of human life. |
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| Did I ever tell you? : a memoir / Genevieve Kingston. |
 Genevieve (Gwen) Kingston's mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer when Gwen was just three years old. Defying the odds, she lived another eight years, during which time she filled a chest with gifts and letters to Gwen and her brother, Jamie, for every major milestone and birthday through age thirty. The day Gwen got her driver's license. The day she graduated from high school. Gwen is now in her thirties and, when Did I Ever Tell You? begins, three unopened boxes remain: engagement, marriage, and first baby. Two decades after her passing, Gwen's mother's extraordinary efforts created a lifelong conversation beyond the grave. |
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| Character matters : and other life lessons from George Herbert Walker Bush / Jean Becker. |
 "As America heads into what promises to be a tumultuous 2024 presidential election year, Character Matters will be a good reminder of the importance of character when defining true leadership. Colleagues, friends, and family will share their often very personal stories of what they learned from watching and listening to President Bush, including former United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Secretary of State James A. Baker; stand-up comedian Dana Carvey; "Queen of Country" star Reba McEntire; American columnist for The New York Times Maureen Dowd; American novelist Brad Meltzer; presidential biographer Jon Meacham; former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom John Major; former Prime Minister of Canada Brian Mulroney; Secretary of Defense Robert Gates; the Oak Ridge Boys and best-selling author Christopher Buckley; and of course his grandchildren. Character Matters will illustrate how George Bush never stopped showing us the way to lead by example"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The making of a leader : the formative years of George C. Marshall / Josiah Bunting III. |
 "A portrait of one of the greatest leaders of modern history, George Catlett Marshall, and a distillation of the essential lessons his formation offers to the leaders of today and tomorrow. George Marshall was a soldier-statesman who guided the Allies to victory during World War II and set Europe on the postwar path to recovery with the plan that bears his name, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. But how did he become such an effective leader? By eschewing the years and accomplishments for which Marshall is most often remembered and focusing instead on the decisive moments that led up to them, Making a Leader provides the most detailed look yet at the mettle of Marshall's character, guiding us from his arrival as a cadet at the Virginia Military Institute and his Fort Leavenworth days--where he "learned how to learn"--to his instructive time as John J. Pershing's aide-de-camp and his critical experiences during World War I. Josiah Bunting III, a lifelong educator and former superintendent of Marshall's alma mater, highlights the importance of Marshall's activity between the wars, when he led "the single most influential period of military education" at Fort Benning, eventually culminating in his appointment as Army chief of staff in 1939. In this penetrating portrait, told with the command and fluency of one who knows the story by heart, Bunting cuts through the legend of Marshall to the man--his frustrations, passions, loves, and brilliance--revealing a humble commander who knew not only how to lead himself but how to see the leader in others"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Wild life : finding my purpose in an untamed world / Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant. |
 Growing up in the diverse and bustling California Bay Area, renowned wildlife ecologist Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant always felt worlds away from the white male adventurers she watched explore the wilderness on TV. She dreamed of a future where she could spend sleepless nights under the crowded canopies of the Amazon and the starry skies of the savanna. But as Rae set off on her own expeditions in the wild, she saw nature's delicate balance in a new light. Wild Life follows Rae on her adventures and explorations in some of the world's most remote locales. Hers is a story about a nearly twenty-year career in the wild--carving a niche as one of very few Black female scientists--and the challenges she had to overcome, expectations she had to leave behind, and the many lessons she learned along the way. An incredible journey spanning the Great Plains of North America to the rainforests of Madagascar, Wild Life sheds light on our pivotal relationship and responsibility to the natural world and the relatives--both human and otherwise--that we share it with. |
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| Reminiscences of a student's life / Jane Ellen Harrison ; with a foreword by Daniel Mendelsohn. |
 First published by Virginia and Leonard Woolf in 1925, Jane Ellen Harrison's Reminiscences are the irreverent memoirs of a student who declared Victorian education "ingeniously useless," who blazed a trail for female scholars, and who changed the way we see the ancient world. Growing up in the Yorkshire countryside, Harrison showed an early aptitude for languages: by the age of seventeen, with the help of a governess, she had learned Greek, Latin, German, and some Hebrew. ("Unfortunately, having no guide, we began with the Psalms, which are hard nuts to crack.") She went on to become the most influential Classicist of her generation. Drawing on the insights of Nietzsche, Bergson, and Freud, and on archaeological research, she helped to revolutionize the study of Greek myth. "The great Mother," she wrote, "is prior to male divinities." Unconventional in her private life ("By what miracle I escaped marriage I do not know, for all my life I fell in love"), she spent her later years with the poet and novelist Hope Mirrlees, thirty-seven years her junior. Harrison's zest for life is everywhere in these pages. Sprightly, amused, and amusing, her Reminiscences form an unforgettable sketch of a woman ahead of her time. -- Provided by publisher. |
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| Waiting for the monsoon / Rod Nordland. |
 In 2019, a Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent who reported in over 150 countries, many in violent upheaval, was diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor, which gave him the strength to face more personal conflicts, in this unforgettable final dispatch that reveals how facing the unknown can change our relationship to the world around us. |
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| Caravans and wedding bands : memories of a Romany life / Eva Petulengro with Claire Petulengro. |
 As traditional Romany ways were disappearing day by day, Eva clung on tightly to her heritage, refusing to say goodbye to the only world she had ever known. In this wonderful book, she provides fascinating glimpses into the lives of her family and their past, telling tales of their whirlwind romances and travelling adventures. She also describes becoming a famous clairvoyant, with celebrity clients lining up to have their palms read, and talks about many of the colourful characters she meets along the way. But it was the Swinging Sixties and an innocent Romany girl could easily find herself in some strange situations ... |
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| Somehow : thoughts on love / Anne Lamott. |
| ""Love is our only hope," Anne Lamott writes in this perceptive new book. "It is not always the easiest choice, but it is always the right one, the noble path, the way home to safety, no matter how bleak the future looks." In Somehow: Thoughts on Love, Lamott explores the transformative power that love has in our lives: how it surprises us, forces us to confront uncomfortable truths, reminds us of our humanity, and guides us forward. "Love just won't be pinned down," she says. "It is in our very atmosphere" and lies at the heart of who we are. We are, Lamott says, creatures of love. In each chapter of Somehow, Lamott refracts all the colors of the spectrum. She explores the unexpected love for a partner later in life. The bruised (and bruising) love for a child who disappoints, even frightens. The sustaining love among a group of sinners, for a community in transition, in the wider world. The lessons she underscores are that love enlightens as it educates, comforts as it energizes, sustains as it surprises. Somehow is Anne Lamott's twentieth book, and in it she draws from her own life and experience to delineate the intimate and elemental ways that love buttresses us in the face of despair as it galvanizes us to believe that tomorrow will be better than today. Full of the compassion and humanity that have made Lamott beloved by millions of readers, Somehow is classic Anne Lamott: funny, warm, and wise"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The Minotaur at Calle Lanza / Zito Madu. |
 Venice, 2020. As a pandemic rages across the globe, Zito Madu finds himself in a nearly deserted city, its walls and basilicas humming with strange magic. As he wanders a haunted landscape, we see him twist further into his own past: his family's difficult immigration from Nigeria to Detroit, his troubled relationship with his father, the sporadic joys of daily life and solitude, his experiences with migration, poverty, foreignness, racism, and his own rage and regret. But as it is with all labyrinths, after finding its center, will he come away unscathed, or will he transform into the gripping, fantastical monstrousness that's out to consume him whole? With nods to Italo Calvino and Jorge Luis Borges, this surrealist debut memoir takes us into the labyrinth of memory and the monsters lurking there. -- Back cover. |
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| The making of a leader : the formative years of George C. Marshall / Josiah Bunting III. |
| "A portrait of one of the greatest leaders of modern history, George Catlett Marshall, and a distillation of the essential lessons his formation offers to the leaders of today and tomorrow. George Marshall was a soldier-statesman who guided the Allies to victory during World War II and set Europe on the postwar path to recovery with the plan that bears his name, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. But how did he become such an effective leader? By eschewing the years and accomplishments for which Marshall is most often remembered and focusing instead on the decisive moments that led up to them, Making a Leader provides the most detailed look yet at the mettle of Marshall's character, guiding us from his arrival as a cadet at the Virginia Military Institute and his Fort Leavenworth days--where he "learned how to learn"--to his instructive time as John J. Pershing's aide-de-camp and his critical experiences during World War I. Josiah Bunting III, a lifelong educator and former superintendent of Marshall's alma mater, highlights the importance of Marshall's activity between the wars, when he led "the single most influential period of military education" at Fort Benning, eventually culminating in his appointment as Army chief of staff in 1939. In this penetrating portrait, told with the command and fluency of one who knows the story by heart, Bunting cuts through the legend of Marshall to the man--his frustrations, passions, loves, and brilliance--revealing a humble commander who knew not only how to lead himself but how to see the leader in others"-- Provided by publisher. |
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