| I will scream to the world / Jaha Marie Dukureh ; foreword by Ashley Judd |
 "This extraordinary memoir details the monumental journey of one young Gambian woman from survivor of FGM and forced child marriage, to global activist and political leader who became UN Women's first Goodwill Ambassador for Africa, one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People, and among the youngest people nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Ingrained : the making of a craftsman / Callum Robinson. |
 "For fans of H Is for Hawk and Shop Class as Soulcraft comes a captivating literary memoir, immersing readers in the life of a Scottish carpenter as he perfects his craft, builds a business, and reflects on what inheritance and shared responsibility really mean. The eldest son of a master woodworker, Callum Robinson spent his childhood surrounded by wood and trees, absorbing craft lessons in his father's workshop and playing among the sycamore, oak, and Scots pine that bordered his home. In time he became his father's apprentice, helping to create exquisite bespoke objects. But eventually the need to find his own path led him to establish his own workshop; to chase ever bigger and more commercial projects; to business meetings, bright lights, and bureaucracy; to lose touch with his roots-until the devastating loss of one major job threatened to bring it all crashing down. Faced with the end of his business, his team, and everything he had worked so hard to build, he was forced to question what mattered most. In beautifully wrought prose, Callum tells the story of returning to the workshop and to the wood; to handcrafting furniture for people who will love it and then pass it on to the next generation-an antidote to a culture where everything seems so easily disposable. As he does so, he brings us closer to nature and the physical act of creation. Close enough to smell the sawdust, see the wood's grain and character, and feel the magic of furniture coming to life. At the same time, we begin to understand how he has been shaped, as both a craftsman and a son. Blending memoir and nature writing at its finest, Ingrained is an uplifting meditation on the challenges of working with your hands in our modern age, on community, consumerism, and the beauty of the natural world-one that asks us to see our local trees, and our own wooden objects, in a new and revelatory light"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| I, Rigoberta Menchú : an Indian woman in Guatemala / Rigoberta Menchú ; edited by Elisabeth Burgos-Debray ; translated by Ann Wright. |
 Now a global bestseller, the remarkable life of Rigoberta Menchú, a Guatemalan peasant woman, reflects on the experiences common to many Indian communities in Latin America. Menchú suffered gross injustice and hardship in her early life: her brother, father and mother were murdered by the Guatemalan military. She learned Spanish and turned to catechistic work as an expression of political revolt as well as religious commitment. Menchú vividly conveys the traditional beliefs of her community and her personal response to feminist and socialist ideas. Above all, these pages are illuminated by the enduring courage and passionate sense of justice of an extraordinary woman. |
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| The impossible man : Roger Penrose and the cost of genius / Patchen Barss. |
 "As a little boy, Roger Penrose and his father discovered a sundial in a clearing behind their home. In that machine made of light, shadow, and time, six-year-old Roger discovered a "world behind the world" of transcendently beautiful geometry, beginning a journey toward becoming one of the world's most influential mathematicians, philosophers, and physicists. In the years to come, Penrose earned a Nobel Prize, a knighthood, and dozens of other prestigious honors. He proved the limitations of general relativity, and he set a new agenda for theoretical physics. However, as Patchen Barss documents in The Impossible Man, success came at a price. Penrose's longing for knowledge was matched only by his inability to understand those around him, and he struggled to connect with friends, family, and especially the women in his life. His final years have been spent alone with his research, intentionally cut off from the people who loved him. Erudite and deeply moving, The Impossible Man intimately depicts the relationship between Penrose the scientist and Roger the human being. It reveals the tragic cost-to himself and those closest to him-of Roger Penrose's extraordinary life"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| F. Scott Fitzgerald : a composite biography / Niklas Salmose and David Rennie, editors. |
 "F. Scott Fitzgerald was a man of many aspects, a writer whose complexity and multitudes this composite biography finally aptly portrays. Bringing together twenty-three leading writers and scholars on Fitzgerald, each focusing on two years of his life, this volume presents a new way of grouping together biographical material and perspectives, considering from various angles the author's best-known works as well as understudied writings, personal experiences, and literary relationships"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Thurgood Marshall : American revolutionary / Juan Williams. |
 Presents a biography of the first African American appointed to the Supreme Court, from his crusade against segregation to his friendships with other famous Black figures. |
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| Above the noise : my story of chasing calm / DeMar DeRozan, with Dave Zarum. |
 "From one of the most outspoken and respected NBA athletes comes a groundbreaking and remarkable memoir chronicling a very public struggle with depression, in the hopes that other young men will not suffer alone"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Becoming Little Shell : a landless Indian's journey home / Chris La Tray. |
 "From Montana Poet Laureate Chris La Tray, a singular story of discovery and embrace of Indigenous identity"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| I will do better : a father's memoir of heartbreak, parenting, and love / Charles Bock. |
 The novelist Charles Bock was a reluctant parent, tagging along for the ride of fatherhood, obsessed primarily with his dream of a writing career. But when his daughter Lily was six months old, his wife, Diana, was diagnosed with a complex form of leukemia. Two and half years later, when all treatments and therapies had been exhausted, Bock found himself a widower--devastated, drowning in medical bills, and saddled with a daunting responsibility. He had to nurture Lily, and, somehow, maybe even heal himself. I Will Do Better is Charles's pull-no-punches account of what happened next. Playdates, music classes, temper tantrums, oh-so-cool babysitters, first days at school, family reunions, single-parent dating, and a citywide crippling natural disaster--were minefields especially treacherous for Charles and Lily because of their preexisting vulnerability: their grief. Charles sought help from friends, family, and therapists, but this overgrown, middle-aged boy-man and his plucky child became, foremost, a duo--they found their way together. By turns comical and heartbreaking, I Will Do Better does not shy from moments of sadness, anger, or awkwardness. It's the remarkable journey of two defiant and wounded people, and their personal growth in the name of love. |
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| Woodrow Wilson : the light withdrawn / Christopher Cox. |
 "More than a century after he dominated American politics, Woodrow Wilson still fascinates. With panoramic sweep, Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn reassesses his life and his role in the movements for racial equality and women's suffrage. The Wilson that emerges is a man superbly unsuited to the moment when he ascended to the presidency in 1912, as the struggle for women's voting rights in America reached the tipping point. The first southern Democrat to occupy the White House since the Civil War era brought with him to Washington like-minded men who quickly set to work segregating the federal government. Wilson's own sympathy for Jim Crow and states' rights animated his years-long hostility to the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, which promised universal suffrage backed by federal enforcement. Women demonstrating for voting rights found themselves demonized in government propaganda, beaten and starved while illegally imprisoned, and even confined to the insane asylum. When, in the twilight of his second term, two-thirds of Congress stood on the threshold of passing the Anthony Amendment, Wilson abruptly switched his position. But in sympathy with like-minded southern Democrats, he acquiesced in "race rider" that would protect Jim Crow. The heroes responsible for the eventual success of the unadulterated Anthony Amendment are brought to life by Christopher Cox, an author steeped in the ways of Washington and political power. This is a brilliant, carefully researched work that puts you at the center of one of the greatest advances in the history of American democracy"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Master of me : the secret to controlling your narrative / Keke Palmer. |
 "Keke Palmer thought she knew who she was. What it means to be a good person and what it takes to be a success. It all seemed so simple, until she realized the challenges she would have to face to prove to herself who she wanted to be. From feeling alienated to having to restart her career after ten years in to becoming a single mother just months after her son was born-everything she worked for in life that she felt granted her what she wanted now also reminded her that "life is going to life" and throw curveballs regardless of what you deserve. It was in this realization that her understanding of value changed: "Real value doesn't come from what you experience in the world but from how you manage yourself in the midst of those storms." She found herself asking, Where do I find my power? How do I master myself? In her own raw and intimate words, Keke talks about everything from her struggles with boundaries to unconditional love, forgiveness, and worthiness. "Don't block your blessings and potential opportunities by allowing the voices of other people to influence your actions," she says. "How you're choosing to set yourself up for success is between you and the person looking back at you in the mirror." Throughout the book, Keke also poses readers with the questions needed to get them through their own challenging times by sharing personal stories and lessons she's learned along the way. She gets candid about the tools she's developed to take the reins, harness her vulnerability, and recognize ownership in the narrative of her life-which allowed her to turn personal power into major power. In this exhilarating, deeply poignant, and often laugh-out-loud book, Lauren Keyana Palmer gets real about life, work, love, and belief. These pages will encourage readers to empower themselves with the truth, leverage their currency, and find the keys to master themselves and the art of alchemy. Keke writes. "You are not on anyone else's timeline, only your own." The result is a tour de force. They said, "Jack of all Trades, Master of None." She said, "No, I am the Master. Of Me.""-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Citizen : my life after the White House / Bill Clinton. |
 The 42nd President of the United States writes about his life since leaving the White House. |
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| Growing up Urkel : a memoir / Jaleel White. |
 "An incisive and insightful memoir by one of the most beloved icons of nineties television Jaleel White, the actor who portrayed Steve Urkel on the hit sitcom Family Matters."--Provided by publisher. |
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| Cher : the memoir, part one / Cher. |
 "After more than seventy years of fighting to live her life on her own terms, Cher finally reveals her true story in intimate detail, in a two-part memoir"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Washita love child : the rise of Indigenous rock star Jesse Ed Davis / Douglas K. Miller ; foreword by Joy Harjo. |
 "No one played like Jesse Ed Davis. One of the most sought-after guitarists of the late 1960s and '70s, Davis appeared alongside the era's greatest stars--John Lennon and Mick Jagger, B.B. King and Bob Dylan--and contributed to dozens of major releases, including numerous top-ten albums and singles, and records by artists as distinct as Johnny Cash, Taj Mahal, and Cher. But Davis, whose name has nearly disappeared from the annals of rock and roll history, was more than just the most versatile session guitarist of the decade. A multitalented musician who paired bright flourishes with soulful melodies, Davis transformed our idea of what rock music could be and, crucially, who could make it. At a time when few other Indigenous artists appeared on concert stages, radio waves, or record store walls, in a century often depicted as a period of decline for Native Americans, Davis and his Kiowa, Comanche, Cheyenne, Seminole, and Mvskoke relatives demonstrated new possibilities for Native people. Weaving together more than a hundred interviews with Davis's bandmates, family members, friends, and peers--among them Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and Robbie Robertson--Washita Love Child powerfully reconstructs Davis's extraordinary life and career, taking us from his childhood in Oklahoma to his first major gig backing rockabilly star Conway Twitty, and from his dramatic performance at George Harrison's 1971 Concert for Bangladesh to his years with John Trudell and the Grafitti Man band. In Davis's story, a post-Beatles Lennon especially emerges as a kindred soul and creative partner. Yet Davis never fully recovered from Lennon's sudden passing, meeting his own tragic demise just eight years later. With a foreword by former poet laureate Joy Harjo, who collaborated with Davis near the end of his life, Washita Love Child thoroughly and finally restores the "red dirt boogie brother" to his rightful place in rock history, cementing his legacy for generations to come." -- Amazon |
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| Still life at eighty : the next interesting thing / Abigail Thomas. |
 "From the New York Times bestselling author of A Three Dog Life, a witty and irreverent look at aging and the writing life, delivered with trademark brevity, humor, and wise wit"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Lifeform / Jenny Slate. |
 "What happened was this: Jenny Slate was a human mammal who sniffed the air every morning hoping to find another person to love who would love her, and in that period there was a deep dark loneliness that she had to face and befriend, and then we are pleased to report that she did fall in love, and in that period she was like chimes, or a flock of clean breaths, and her spine lying flat was the many-colored planks on the xylophone, but also she was rabid with fear of losing this love, because of past injury. And then what happened was that she became a wild-pregnant-mammal-thing and then she exploded herself by having a whole baby blast through her vagina during a global plague and then she was expected to carry on like everything was normal--but was this normal, and had she or anything ever been normal? Herein lies an account of this journey, told in five phases--Single, True Love, Pregnancy, Baby, and Ongoing--through luminous, laugh-out-loud funny, unclassifiable essays that take the form of letters to a doctor, dreams of a stork, fantasy therapy sessions, gossip between racoons, excerpts from an imaginary olden timey play, obituaries, theories about post-partum hair loss, graduation speeches, and more"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| One life : the true story of Sir Nicholas Winton and the Prague Kindertransport / Barbara Winton. |
 Sir Nicholas Winton rescued 669 Jewish children from Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia at the brink of World War II. Most never saw their parents again. This is his story. In 1938, 29-year-old 'Nicky' cancelled a ski holiday and instead spent 9 months masterminding a seemingly impossible plan to rescue hundreds of children and find them homes in the UK. There are around 6000 people who are alive today because of him. What motivated an ordinary man to do something so extraordinary? This book, written by his daughter, Barbara, explores the 106-year life of an incredible humanitarian, a man whose astounding feats only came to public light decades later. His legacy is to encourage us all to act when we see injustice or need, and to remind us that every one of us can change the world for the better.-- Publisher description. |
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| From under the truck : a memoir / Josh Brolin. |
 "From Josh Brolin, a unique and decidedly un-celebrity memoir, by turns affecting, funny, uncanny, and unforgettable. Weaving a latticework of different strands, moving back and forth through time, Josh Brolin captures a life marked by curiosity, pain, devotion, kindness, humor. He recounts an unconventional childhood far from Hollywood. Raised on a ranch in Paso Robles, California, he was surrounded as a child by the wolves, cougars, and other wild animals gathered by his fearless and explosive mother, Jane Agee Brolin. Her tragic, early death haunts this book, and the force of her unforgettable personality is felt throughout. Brolin also brings to life his career in the film industry-from his breakout role in The Goonies to the set of No Country for Old Men-and the professional and personal ups and downs in between and since. With unflinching honesty but also great humor, he shares insights into relationships, addiction, love, and fatherhood, while letting the white space in between words speak for itself. Grappling with the mysteries of life and death in a way that will catch readers by surprise, From Under the Truck is an audacious and riveting memoir from a born writer"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Beyond the mountains : an immigrant's inspiring journey of healing and learning to dance with the universe / Deja Vu Prem. |
 "The powerful story of how an immigrant from the Philippines overcame childhood trauma and an emotionally abusive marriage to find her voice and thrive"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Freedom : memoirs 1954-2021 / Angela Merkel. |
 For sixteen years, Angela Merkel was Chancellor of Germany and at the forefront of European and international politics. In her memoir, she looks back on her life in two German states--East Germany until 1990, and reunified Germany thereafter. How did she, coming from the East, rise to the top of the Christian Democratic Union to become the first woman to hold the office of chancellor? And how did she then become one of the most powerful heads of government in the Western world? What guided her? |
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| Cher : the memoir, part one / Cher. |
| "After more than seventy years of fighting to live her life on her own terms, Cher finally reveals her true story in intimate detail, in a two-part memoir"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Fierce ambition : the life and legend of war correspondent Maggie Higgins / Jennet Conant. |
 "Marguerite Higgins was both the scourge and envy of the journalistic world. A longtime reporter for the New York Herald Tribune, she first catapulted to fame with her dramatic account of the liberation of Dachau at the end of World War II. Brash, beautiful, ruthlessly competitive, and sexually adventurous, she forced her way to the front despite being told the combat zone was no place for a woman. While the Herald Tribune exploited her feminine appeal--regularly featuring the photogenic "girl reporter" on its front pages--it was Maggie's dogged determination, talent for breaking news, and unwavering ambition that brought her success from one war zone to another. Her notoriety soared during the Cold War, and her daring dispatches from Korea garnered a Pulitzer Prize for foreign correspondence--the first granted to a woman for frontline reporting. A star reporter, she became part of the Kennedy brothers' Washington circle, though her personal alliances and politics provoked bitter feuds with male rivals, who vilified her until her untimely death. Drawing on new and extensive research, journalist and historian Jennet Conant restores Maggie's rightful place in history as a woman who paved the way for the next generation of journalists, and one of the greatest war correspondents of her time."-- Amazon. |
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| Letters / Oliver Sacks ; edited by Kate Edgar. |
 "The letters of one of the greatest observers of the human species, revealing his intimate thoughts on life and work, friendship and art, medicine and society, and the richness of his relationships with friends, family and scientists over the decades A prolific correspondent, Dr. Oliver Sacks--who describes himself variously in these pages as "a philosophical physician," "an astronomer of the inward," a "neuropathological Talmudist," and "a consummate observer" with "a pure love for phenomena"--wrote letters throughout his life to his parents, his beloved Aunt Lennie, to friends and colleagues from London, Oxford, California, and around the world. The pages begin with his arrival in America as a young man, eager to establish himself away from the confines of postwar England, and carry us through his bumpy early career in medicine and the discovery of his writer's voice and métier; his weightlifting, motorcycle-riding years and his explosive seasons of discovery with the patients who populate his book Awakenings; his growing interest in matters of sight and the musical brain; his many friendships and exchanges with fellow writers, artists and scientists (to say nothing of astronauts, botanists, and mathematicians), and his deep gratitude for all these relationships at the end of his life. From Francis Crick and Jane Goodall to W. H. Auden and Susan Sontag, from lovers to patients, and ordinary folk who wrote to him with their odd symptoms and questions, all are treated equally to Sacks's lyrical, ferocious, penetrating and at times hilarious observations. His musings often contain the first detailed sketches of an essay forming in his mind. Sensitively introduced and edited by Kate Edgar, Sacks's longtime assistant (and one of his correspondents), the letters deliver a complete portrait of Sacks as he wrestles with the workings of the brain and mind. We see, through his eyes, the beginnings of modern neuroscience as it unlocks many secrets of how the human brain defines us. We experience the arc of a remarkable personal evolution, closely following the thought processes of one of the twentieth century's great intellectuals, whose life was long and productive and whose words, as evidenced in these pages, were unfailingly shaped with generosity and wonder toward other people."-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Carson the Magnificent / Bill Zehme with Mike Thomas. |
 Twenty years in the making, Zemhe and Thomas's book examines "one of the most inscrutable figures in entertainment history: a man who brought so much joy and laughter to so many millions but was himself exceedingly shy and private. Zehme traces Carson's rise from a magic-obsessed Nebraska boy to a Navy ensign in World War II to a burgeoning radio and TV personality to, eventually, host of The Tonight Show--which he transformed, along with the entirety of American popular culture, over the next three decades-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Dinner for vampires : life on a cult TV show / Bethany Joy Lenz. |
 "A deliciously witty and inspiring memoir by One Tree Hill star Bethany Joy Lenz about her decade in a cult and her quest to break free. In the early 2000s, after years of hard work and determination to breakthrough as an actor, Bethany Joy Lenz was finally cast as one of the leads on the hit drama One Tree Hill. Her career was about to take off, but her personal life was slowly beginning to unravel. What none of the show's millions of fans knew, hidden even from her costars, was her secret double life in a cult. An only child who often had to fend for herself and always wanted a place to belong, Lenzfound the safe haven she'd been searching for in a Bible study group with other Hollywood creatives. However, the group soon morphed into something more sinister--a slowly woven web of manipulation, abuse, and fear under the guise of a church covenant called The Big House Family. Piece by piece, Lenz began to give away her autonomy, ultimately relocating to the Family's Pacific Northwest compound, overseen by a domineering minister who would convince Lenz to marry one ofhis sons and steadily drained millions of her TV income without herknowledge. Family "minders" assigned to her on set, "Maoist struggle session"-inspired meetings in the basement of a filthy house, and regular counseling with "Leadership" were just part of the tactics used to keep her loyal. Only when she became a mother did Lenz find the courage to leave and spare her child from a similar fate. After nearly a decade (and with the unlikely help of a One Tree Hill superfan), she finally managed to escape the family's grip and begin to heal from the deep trauma that forever altered her relationship with God and her understanding of faith."-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Hello, friends! : stories of dating, destiny, & day jobs / by Dulcé Sloan. |
 Dulcé Sloan's first memoir is organized into essays from her life. From a childhood moving between cities, starting her own business selling toys at a Miami flea market, to being a Black kid in a predominately white school, she's always used her masterful wit to challenge the status quo. Her purpose in comedy unfolded while navigating clubs and the set of The Daily Show. Have you ever dated an adult who roller skated, or went out with a mechanic just to get free auto service? Yup, she's got that story for you. Her stories are both wildly entertaining and culturally resonant. |
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| The price of power : how Mitch McConnell mastered the Senate, changed America, and lost his party / Michael Tackett. |
 The first definitive biography of Mitch McConnell, revealing the personal and political life of one of the most powerful senators in American history. Drawing on thousands of pages of archival materials, letters, and more than 100 interviews with associates, colleagues, and McConnell himself, Michael Tackett pieces together the story of McConnell's early life, his formative battle with polio as a young child, and the teenage infatuation with politics that persisted through his four decades in the Senate. |
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| Ingenious : a biography of Benjamin Franklin, scientist / Richard Munson. |
 Benjamin Franklin was one of the preeminent scientists of his time. Driven by curiosity, he conducted cutting-edge research on electricity, heat, ocean currents, weather patterns, chemical bonds, and plants. But today, Franklin is remembered more for his political prowess and diplomatic achievements than his scientific creativity. Franklin was a shrewd experimenter, clever innovator, and visionary physicist whose fame opened doors to negotiate French support and funding for American independence. Munson argues that Franklin's political life cannot be understood without giving proper credit to his scientific accomplishments. |
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| My good bright wolf : a memoir / Sarah Moss. |
 "An unflinching memoir about childhood, food, books, and our ability to see, become, and protect ourselves"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| They went another way : a Hollywood memoir / Bruce Eric Kaplan. |
 "A darkly comic memoir about being a working creative person in a world that is growing ever more dysfunctional, by acclaimed New Yorker cartoonist and television writer Bruce Eric Kaplan In January of 2022, Bruce Eric Kaplan found himself confused and upset by the state of the world and the state of his life as a television writer in Los Angeles. He started a journal to keep from going mad. That journal is now They Went Another Way. The book's through line traces his trying to get a television project set up in the increasingly Byzantine world of Hollywood. But as he details the project's ups and downs, Kaplan finds himself not only ruminating on show business, but also on today's political and social issues, on old movies and TV shows and music, on his family, on his friends, on his past, on his failing heating system, and on all the dead birds that kept showing up in his backyard. This hilarious and surprisingly moving book is about life-about art, about love, about alienation, about connection, about ugliness and beauty, about disappointment and wonder and hope. In short, it is about everything. And if it's not, it almost is"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Mondrian : his life, his art, his quest for the absolute / Nicholas Fox Weber. |
 "The extraordinary and surprising life of Piet Mondrian, whose unprecedented geometric art revolutionized modern painting, architecture, graphic art, dress design, and much more"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Damn glad to meet you : my seven decades in the Hollywood trenches / Tim Matheson. |
 "If you know Tim Matheson, odds are it's as Eric "Otter" Stratten, known for the iconic line "Damn glad to meet you" in Animal House-the National Lampoon's iconic, endlessly imitated raunch comedy that imprinted at least three generations with all kinds of terrible ideas of what college was going to be like. But that's not the only time Matheson has graced our screens-in fact, FAR from it. A longtime pro actor in Hollywood, Matheson was a contract player in the studio system. He's been an on-screen favorite all the way back to Leave It to Beaver, then on classic TV like Hawaii 5.0, The West Wing, Ironside, Kung Fu, Medical Center, Police Story, Adam 12, and Night Gallery, as well as films like Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry vehicle Magnum Force, National Lampoon's Van Wilder, the Chevy Chase comedy smash Fletch, and the role of Carol Brady's "presumed-dead" husband in A Very Brady Sequel. What's more, he's far from slowing down in his career; he's enjoying a fifth season as Vernon "Doc" Mullins on the Netflix smash hit, Virgin River. He's old school Hollywood and, at some point or another, he's crossed paths and collaborated with, quite literally, everyone. In this memoir, Matheson reveals what it was like to learn from and work alongside everyone from Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Dick Van Dyke, and Debbie Reynolds to Chevy Chase, Mel Brooks, John Belushi, Steve Martin, John Candy, Chris Farley, Ryan Reynolds, and so many more. In addition to sharing his favorite stories from behind-the-scenes of his most iconic projects, he also talks about how he transitioned from acting to directing, the time he bought (and then sold) National Lampoon with a business partner in the '90s, and how his recurring role as Vice President Hoynes on The West Wing nabbed him not just one, but TWO nominations for "Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series" at the Primetime Emmy Awards. Thoughtful, heartfelt, and filled to the brim with fun stories of the ever-changing entertainment industry, you're gonna be "damn glad" you read this fascinating memoir"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| I'm laughing because I'm crying : a memoir / by Youngmi Mayer. |
 "'Do you know what happens if you laugh while crying? Hair grows out of your butthole.' It was a constant truism Youngmi Mayer’s mother would say threateningly after she would make her daughter laugh while crying. Her mother used it to cheer her up in moments when she could tell Youngmi was overtaken with grief. The humorous saying would never fail to lighten the mood, causing both daughter and mother to laugh and cry at the same time. Her mother had learned this trick from her mother, and her mother had learned this from her mother before her: it had also helped an endless string of her family laugh through suffering.In I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying, Youngmi jokes through the retelling of her childhood as an offbeat biracial kid in Saipan, a place next to a place that Americans might know. She jokes through her difficult adolescence where she must parent her own parents: a mother who married her husband because he looked like white Jesus (and the singer of The Bee Gees). And with humor and irreverence and full-throated openness, she jokes even while sharing the story of what her family went through during the last century of colonialism and war in Korea, while reflecting how years later, their wounds affect her in New York City as a single mom, all the while interrogating whiteness, gender, and sexuality.Youngmi jokes through these stories in hopes of passing onto the reader what her family passed down to her: The gift of laughing while crying. The gift of a hairy butthole. Because throughout it all, the one thing she learned was one cannot exist without the other. And like a yin and yang, this duality is reflected in this whip-smart, heart-wrenching, and disarmingly funny memoir told by a bright new voice with so much heart and wisdom." —Amazon |
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| Growing up Urkel : a memoir / Jaleel White. |
| "An incisive and insightful memoir by one of the most beloved icons of nineties television Jaleel White, the actor who portrayed Steve Urkel on the hit sitcom Family Matters."--Provided by publisher. |
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| From under the truck : a memoir / Josh Brolin. |
| "From Josh Brolin, a unique and decidedly un-celebrity memoir, by turns affecting, funny, uncanny, and unforgettable. Weaving a latticework of different strands, moving back and forth through time, Josh Brolin captures a life marked by curiosity, pain, devotion, kindness, humor. He recounts an unconventional childhood far from Hollywood. Raised on a ranch in Paso Robles, California, he was surrounded as a child by the wolves, cougars, and other wild animals gathered by his fearless and explosive mother, Jane Agee Brolin. Her tragic, early death haunts this book, and the force of her unforgettable personality is felt throughout. Brolin also brings to life his career in the film industry-from his breakout role in The Goonies to the set of No Country for Old Men-and the professional and personal ups and downs in between and since. With unflinching honesty but also great humor, he shares insights into relationships, addiction, love, and fatherhood, while letting the white space in between words speak for itself. Grappling with the mysteries of life and death in a way that will catch readers by surprise, From Under the Truck is an audacious and riveting memoir from a born writer"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Citizen : my life after the White House / Bill Clinton. |
| The 42nd President of the United States writes about his life since leaving the White House. |
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| Master of me : the secret to controlling your narrative / Keke Palmer. |
| "Keke Palmer thought she knew who she was. What it means to be a good person and what it takes to be a success. It all seemed so simple, until she realized the challenges she would have to face to prove to herself who she wanted to be. From feeling alienated to having to restart her career after ten years in to becoming a single mother just months after her son was born-everything she worked for in life that she felt granted her what she wanted now also reminded her that "life is going to life" and throw curveballs regardless of what you deserve. It was in this realization that her understanding of value changed: "Real value doesn't come from what you experience in the world but from how you manage yourself in the midst of those storms." She found herself asking, Where do I find my power? How do I master myself? In her own raw and intimate words, Keke talks about everything from her struggles with boundaries to unconditional love, forgiveness, and worthiness. "Don't block your blessings and potential opportunities by allowing the voices of other people to influence your actions," she says. "How you're choosing to set yourself up for success is between you and the person looking back at you in the mirror." Throughout the book, Keke also poses readers with the questions needed to get them through their own challenging times by sharing personal stories and lessons she's learned along the way. She gets candid about the tools she's developed to take the reins, harness her vulnerability, and recognize ownership in the narrative of her life-which allowed her to turn personal power into major power. In this exhilarating, deeply poignant, and often laugh-out-loud book, Lauren Keyana Palmer gets real about life, work, love, and belief. These pages will encourage readers to empower themselves with the truth, leverage their currency, and find the keys to master themselves and the art of alchemy. Keke writes. "You are not on anyone else's timeline, only your own." The result is a tour de force. They said, "Jack of all Trades, Master of None." She said, "No, I am the Master. Of Me.""-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Let's make things better : a Holocaust survivor's message of hope and celebration of life / Gidon Lev, with Julie Gray. |
 "Gidon Lev is eighty-eight years old. He's been a dance teacher and a farmer. He loves soccer, his kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids, his beloved wife of forty years, Susan, who died at age sixty-nine, and his unexpected late-in-life partner, Julie, who he met when he was eighty-one. He's a self-identified rascal and optimist. Gidon Lev is also a Holocaust survivor who was imprisoned for nearly four years in the concentration camp of Theresienstadt. Liberated when he was ten, he lost at least twenty-six members of his family in the Holocaust, including his father, grandfather, aunts and uncles. After decades of silence, Gidon first told his story of being imprisoned in Theresienstadt concentration camp at age six to a group of German high school students. What followed was nothing less than extraordinary: from that one talk, Gidon has spoken to celebrities and diplomats, took social media by storm, all with his signature bluntness, charm, and wisdom. Gidon's life is extraordinary not only because he is one of the few living survivors, but because of his lessons learned over nearly a century. As Gidon says, "you don't get the life you want, you get the life you get"-and it's what you do with it that counts. "Let's Make Things Better" is the calling card of an indomitable spirit-sharing timeless simple beliefs and truths, from reconciling with the past, standing up to hate, living for the moment, bringing people together, and where to find hope for the future. Gidon's ultimate lesson for all of us is that we have many opportunities, large and small, in front of us every day. And our single most readily available and possibly best purpose is to make things better-to incrementally improve what is in front of us and to leave something better behind us. This is a power that we all have, at any moment, and Gidon's life is a lesson of how to do it, even in the face of astonishing adversity"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Dinner for vampires : life on a cult TV show / Bethany Joy Lenz. |
| "A deliciously witty and inspiring memoir by One Tree Hill star Bethany Joy Lenz about her decade in a cult and her quest to break free. In the early 2000s, after years of hard work and determination to breakthrough as an actor, Bethany Joy Lenz was finally cast as one of the leads on the hit drama One Tree Hill. Her career was about to take off, but her personal life was slowly beginning to unravel. What none of the show's millions of fans knew, hidden even from her costars, was her secret double life in a cult. An only child who often had to fend for herself and always wanted a place to belong, Lenzfound the safe haven she'd been searching for in a Bible study group with other Hollywood creatives. However, the group soon morphed into something more sinister--a slowly woven web of manipulation, abuse, and fear under the guise of a church covenant called The Big House Family. Piece by piece, Lenz began to give away her autonomy, ultimately relocating to the Family's Pacific Northwest compound, overseen by a domineering minister who would convince Lenz to marry one ofhis sons and steadily drained millions of her TV income without herknowledge. Family "minders" assigned to her on set, "Maoist struggle session"-inspired meetings in the basement of a filthy house, and regular counseling with "Leadership" were just part of the tactics used to keep her loyal. Only when she became a mother did Lenz find the courage to leave and spare her child from a similar fate. After nearly a decade (and with the unlikely help of a One Tree Hill superfan), she finally managed to escape the family's grip and begin to heal from the deep trauma that forever altered her relationship with God and her understanding of faith."-- Provided by publisher. |
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| How to make herself agreeable to everyone : a memoir / Cameron Russell. |
 "Scouted by a modeling agent when she was just sixteen years old, Cameron Russell first approached her job with some reservations: She was a precocious and serious student with her sights set on college--not the runway. But it was a job, and modeling seemed to offer young women like herself access to wealth, fame, and influence. Besides, as she was often reminded, "there are a million girls in line" who would eagerly replace her. A ferocious, visceral memoir, How to Make Herself Agreeable to Everyone chronicles how Russell learned to navigate the dizzying space between physical appearance and interiority, and making money in an often-exploitative system. Being "agreeable" led to more success, more bookings, more opportunities to work with the world's top photographers and biggest brands. As her prominence in fashion grew, Cameron discovered the work of modeling to be deeply isolating and frustrating. Instead of giving her freedom, her job required her to perform the role of compliant femme fatale, in which she found little room for transformation or growth. So she began organizing with her peers, and together they began finding their place in movements for labor rights, climate and racial justice, and brought MeToo to the fashion industry"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Virginia's apple : collected memoirs / Judith Barrington. |
 "The fourteen literary memoirs collected in Virginia's Apple explore pivotal episodes across poet and writer Judith Barrington's life. Artfully crafted, each one stands alone yet they are linked-characters reappear and, taken together, the pieces create a larger narrative. The content is wide-ranging: the early days of the Second Wave of feminism-the exhilaration, the wildness, the love affairs, the surprises, and the self-invention, as well as the confusion and conflicts of those heady times; navigating a sometimes precarious existence as an out lesbian long before it was commonplace; leaving England and becoming an American citizen; finding a life partner; and growing old with an inherited disability. The author's friendship with the distinguished poet Adrienne Rich is the subject of one story. In another, there's an appearance by the notorious murderer, Lord Lucan, whose wife was a chance acquaintance. These stories are laced with humor and joy, while pulsing below the surface is the slow unfolding of delayed grief over her parents' drowning when she was nineteen, revealing how such a loss can shape a life"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The message / Ta-Nehisi Coates. |
 "Coates originally set off to write a book about writing, in the tradition of Orwell's classic Politics and the English Language, but found himself grappling with deeper questions about how our stories-our reporting and imaginative narratives and mythmaking-expose and distort our realities. The first of the book's three intertwining essays is set in Dakar, Senegal. Despite being raised as a strict Afrocentrist-and named for Nubian pharaoh-Coates had never set foot on the African continent until now. He roams the "steampunk" city of "old traditions and new machinery," meeting with strangers and dining with local writers who quiz him in French about African American politics. But everywhere he goes he feels as if he's in two places at once: a modern city in Senegal and a mythic kingdom in his mind, the pan-African homeland he was raised to believe was the origin and destiny for all black people. Finally he travels to the slave castles off the coast and touches the ocean that carried his ancestors away in chains-and has his own reckoning with the legacy of the Afrocentric dream. Back in the USA he takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina, where he explores a different mythology, this one enforced on its subjects by the state. He enters the world of the teacher whose job is threatened for teaching one of Coates's own books and discovers a community of mostly white supporters who were transformed and even radicalized by the stories they discovered in the "racial reckoning" of 2020. But he also explores the backlash to this reckoning and the deeper myths and stories of the community-a capital of the confederacy with statues of segregationists looming over the its public squares. In Palestine, the longest of the essays, he discovers the devastating gap between the narratives we've accepted and the clashing reality of life on the ground. He meets with activists and dissidents, Israelis and Palestinians--the old, who remember their dispossessions on two continents, and the young who have only known struggle and disillusionment. He travels into Jerusalem, the heart of Zionist mythology, and to the occupied territories, where he sees the reality the myth is meant to hide. It is this hidden story that draws him in and profoundly changes him--and makes the war that would soon come all the more devastating"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| From here to the great unknown : a memoir / Lisa Marie Presley, Riley Keough. |
 Born to an American myth and raised in the wilds of Graceland, Lisa Marie Presley tells her whole story for the first time in this raw, riveting, one-of-a-kind memoir faithfully completed by her daughter, Riley Keough. In 2022, Lisa Marie Presley asked her daughter to help finally finish her long-gestating memoir. A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words, never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and now grieved. Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, lay in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland, about the unconditional love she felt from her father, about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran toward his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble. About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, about being married to Michael Jackson, what they had in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother's wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world. To make her mother known. This extraordinary book is written in both Lisa Marie's and Riley's voices, a mother and daughter communicating--from this world to the one beyond--as they try to heal each other. Profoundly moving and deeply revealing, From Here to the Great Unknown is a book like no other--the last words of the only child of an American icon. |
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| Patriot : a memoir / Alexei Navalny ; translated by Arch Tait with Stephen Dalziel. |
 A political freedom fighter who paid the ultimate price for his convictions recounts his political career, the many attempts on his life and the lives of the people closest to him and the relentless campaign he and his team waged against an increasingly dictatorial regime. |
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| Sonny boy : a memoir / Al Pacino. |
 "From one of the most iconic actors in the history of film, an astonishingly revelatory account of a creative life in full. To the wider world, Al Pacino exploded onto the scene like a supernova. He landed his first leading role in The Panic in Needle Park in 1971, and by 1975, he had starred in four movies--The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon--that were not just successes but landmarks in the history of film. Those performances became legendary and changed his life forever. Not since Marlon Brando and James Dean in the late 1950s had an actor landed in the culture with such force. But Pacino was in his mid-thirties by then and had already lived several lives. A fixture of avant-garde theater in New York, he had led a bohemian existence, working odd jobs to support his craft. He was raised by a fiercely loving but mentally unwell mother and her parents after his father left them when Pacino was a boy. In a real sense he was raised by the streets of the South Bronx and by the troop of buccaneering young friends he ran with, whose spirits never left him. After a teacher recognized his acting promise and pushed him toward New York's fabled High School of Performing Arts, the die was cast. In good times and in bad, in poverty and in wealth, through pain and through joy, acting was his lifeline, its community his tribe. Sonny Boy is the memoir of a man who has nothing left to fear and nothing left to hide. All the great roles, the essential collaborations, and the important relationships are given their full due, as is the vexed marriage between creativity and commerce at the highest levels. The book's golden thread, however, is the spirit of love and purpose. Love can fail you, and you can be defeated in your ambitions--the same lights that shine bright can also dim. But Al Pacino was lucky enough to fall deeply in love with a craft before he had the foggiest idea of any of its earthly rewards, and he never fell out of love. That has made all the difference"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Melania / [Melania Trump]. |
 "In her memoir, Melania reflects on her Slovenian childhood, the pivotal moments that led her to the world of high fashion in Europe and New York, and the serendipitous meeting with Donald Trump, a chance encounter that forever changed the course of her life. Melania opens up about their courtship, life in the spotlight, and experiencing the joy of motherhood. She shares behind-the-scenes stories from her time in the White House, shedding light on her advocacy work and the causes close to her heart. Melania offers an unprecedented look into her time as a First Lady who was born outside the United States--a role she embraced with honor and dedication."-- Provided by publisher. |
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| John Lewis : a life / David Greenberg. |
 Born into poverty in rural Alabama, Lewis would become second only to Martin Luther King, Jr. in his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. He was a Freedom Rider who helped to integrate bus stations in the South, a leader of the Nashville sit-in movement, the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington, and the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which he made into one of the major civil rights organizations. He may be best remembered as the victim of a vicious beating by Alabama state troopers at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where he nearly died. Greenberg's biography traces Lewis's life through the post-Civil Rights years, when he headed the Voter Education Project, which enrolled millions of African American voters across the South. The book reveals the little-known story of his political ascent first locally in Atlanta, and then as a member of Congress. Tapped to be a part of the Democratic leadership in Congress, he earned respect on both sides of the aisle for the sacrifices he had made on behalf of nonviolent integration in the South and came to be known as the "conscience of the Congress." Thoroughly researched and dramatically told, Greenberg's biography captures John Lewis's influential career through documents from dozens of archives, interviews with hundreds of people who knew Lewis, and long-lost footage of Lewis himself speaking to reporters from his hospital bed following his severe beating on "Bloody Sunday" in Selma. With new details about his personal and professional relationships, John Lewis: A Life is the definitive biography of a man whose heroism during the Civil Rights movement helped to bring America a new birth of freedom. -- Provided by publisher. |
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| The message / Ta-Nehisi Coates. |
| "Coates originally set off to write a book about writing, in the tradition of Orwell's classic Politics and the English Language, but found himself grappling with deeper questions about how our stories-our reporting and imaginative narratives and mythmaking-expose and distort our realities. The first of the book's three intertwining essays is set in Dakar, Senegal. Despite being raised as a strict Afrocentrist-and named for Nubian pharaoh-Coates had never set foot on the African continent until now. He roams the "steampunk" city of "old traditions and new machinery," meeting with strangers and dining with local writers who quiz him in French about African American politics. But everywhere he goes he feels as if he's in two places at once: a modern city in Senegal and a mythic kingdom in his mind, the pan-African homeland he was raised to believe was the origin and destiny for all black people. Finally he travels to the slave castles off the coast and touches the ocean that carried his ancestors away in chains-and has his own reckoning with the legacy of the Afrocentric dream. Back in the USA he takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina, where he explores a different mythology, this one enforced on its subjects by the state. He enters the world of the teacher whose job is threatened for teaching one of Coates's own books and discovers a community of mostly white supporters who were transformed and even radicalized by the stories they discovered in the "racial reckoning" of 2020. But he also explores the backlash to this reckoning and the deeper myths and stories of the community-a capital of the confederacy with statues of segregationists looming over the its public squares. In Palestine, the longest of the essays, he discovers the devastating gap between the narratives we've accepted and the clashing reality of life on the ground. He meets with activists and dissidents, Israelis and Palestinians--the old, who remember their dispossessions on two continents, and the young who have only known struggle and disillusionment. He travels into Jerusalem, the heart of Zionist mythology, and to the occupied territories, where he sees the reality the myth is meant to hide. It is this hidden story that draws him in and profoundly changes him--and makes the war that would soon come all the more devastating"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Frighten the horses : a memoir / by Oliver Radclyffe. |
 "A textured, sharply written memoir about coming of age in the fourth decade of one's life and embracing one's truest self in a world that demands gender fit in neat boxes. From the outside, Oliver Radclyffe spent four decades living an immensely privileged, beautifully composed life. As the daughter of two well-to-do British parents and the wife of a successful man from an equally privileged family, Oliver played the parts expected of him. He checked off every box-marriage, children (four), a white-picket fence surrounding a stately home in Connecticut, and a golden retriever. But beneath the shiny veneer, Oliver was desperately trying to stay afloat as he struggled to maintain a facade of normalcy. And between his hair falling out and incapacitating mood swings, Oliver realized the life of a trapped housewife was not one he was ever meant to live. Embarking on a fraught, challenging journey of self-discovery, Oliver navigates the end to the beautiful lie of his previous life-a life he could not continue if he wanted to survive. The story of a flawed, fascinating, gorgeously queer man, Frighten the Horses introduces Oliver Radclyffe as a witty, arresting, and unforgettable voice"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Monet : the restless vision / Jackie Wullschläger. |
 "A groundbreaking look at the life and art of one of the most influential and modern painters of the late nineteenth century and founder of the Impressionist movement. Drawing on thousands of never-before translated letters and unpublished sources, this new biography reveals dramatic new information about the life and work of one of the late 19th century's most important painters. Despite being mocked at the beginning of his career, and living hand to mouth, Monet risked all to pursue his vision, and his early work along the banks of the Seine in the 1860s-70s would come to be revered as Impressionism. In the following decades, he emerged as a celebrated leader of the new painting in one of the most exciting cultural moments in Paris, before withdrawing to his house and garden to paint the late Water Lilies, which were ignored during his lifetime and would later would have a major influence on all 20th century painters both figurative and abstract. This is the first time we see the turbulent life of this volatile and voracious man who was as obsessed by his love affairs as he was by nature. He changed his art three times when the women at the center of his life changed with a nod to the behavior of such painters as Picasso. His closest friend was Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau but Proust as well as Zola, Renoir, Pissarro and Manet were also a part of his life. Brilliant and absorbing, this biography will forever change our understanding of Monet's life and work"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Be ready when the luck happens : a memoir / Ina Garten. |
 "Ina Garten, the author of thirteen best-selling cookbooks, beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation, and the cultural icon whose face has launched a thousand memes, shares her personal story with readers hungry for a seat at her table"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Question 7 / Richard Flanagan. |
 "By way of H. G. Wells and Rebecca West's affair through 1930s nuclear physics to Flanagan's father working as a slave labourer near Hiroshima when the atom bomb is dropped, this daisy chain of events reaches fission when Flanagan as a young man finds himself trapped in a rapid on a wild river not knowing if he is to live or to die. At once a love song to his island home and to his parents, this hypnotic melding of dream, history, place and memory is about how our lives so often arise out of the stories of others and the stories we invent about ourselves"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Earth to Moon : a memoir / Moon Unit Zappa. |
 From Moon Unit Zappa, the daughter of musical visionary Frank Zappa, comes a memoir of growing up in her unconventional household in 1970s Los Angeles, coming of age in the Hollywood Hills in the 1980s as the "Valley Girl," gaining momentum as an accidental VJ on a new network called MTV, and finding herself after losing her father, then her mother, and the testing of her most important relationships. |
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| The elements of Marie Curie : how the glow of radium lit a path for women in science / Dava Sobel. |
 "The acclaimed Pulitzer Prize finalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Galileo's Daughter crafts a luminous chronicle of the most famous woman in the history of science, and the untold story of the many remarkable young women trained in her laboratory who were launched into stellar scientific careers of their own. "Even now, nearly a century after her death, Marie Curie remains the only female scientist most people can name," writes Dava Sobel at the opening of her shining portrait of the sole Nobel laureate decorated in two separate fields of science--Physics in 1903 with her husband Pierre and Chemistry by herself in 1911. And yet, Sobel makes clear, as brilliant as she was in the laboratory, Marie Curie was equally memorable outside it. Grieving Pierre's untimely death in 1906, she took his place as professor of physics at the Sorbonne; devotedly raised two brilliant daughters; drove a van she outfitted with X-ray equipment to the front lines of World War I; befriended Albert Einstein and other luminaries of twentieth-century physics; won support from two US presidents; and inspired generations of young women the world over to pursue science as a way of life. As Sobel did so memorably in her portrait of Galileo through the prism of his daughter, she approaches Marie Curie from a unique angle, narrating her remarkable life of discovery and fame alongside the women who became her legacy--from France's Marguerite Perey, who discovered the element francium, and Norway's Ellen Gleditsch, to Mme. Curie's elder daughter, Irène, winner of the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. For decades the only woman in the room at international scientific gatherings that probed new theories about the interior of the atom, Marie Curie traveled far and wide, despite constant illness, to share the secrets of radioactivity, a term she coined. Her two triumphant tours of the United States won her admirers for her modesty even as she was mobbed at every stop; her daughters, in Ève's later recollection, "discovered all at once what the retiring woman with whom they had always lived meant to the world." With the consummate skill that made bestsellers of Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, and the appreciation for women in science at the heart of her most recent The Glass Universe, Dava Sobel has crafted a radiant biography and a masterpiece of storytelling, illuminating the life and enduring influence of one of the most consequential figures of our time"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| From here to the great unknown : a memoir / Lisa Marie Presley, Riley Keough. |
| Born to an American myth and raised in the wilds of Graceland, Lisa Marie Presley tells her whole story for the first time in this raw, riveting, one-of-a-kind memoir faithfully completed by her daughter, Riley Keough. In 2022, Lisa Marie Presley asked her daughter to help finally finish her long-gestating memoir. A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words, never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and now grieved. Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, lay in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland, about the unconditional love she felt from her father, about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran toward his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble. About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, about being married to Michael Jackson, what they had in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother's wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world. To make her mother known. This extraordinary book is written in both Lisa Marie's and Riley's voices, a mother and daughter communicating--from this world to the one beyond--as they try to heal each other. Profoundly moving and deeply revealing, From Here to the Great Unknown is a book like no other--the last words of the only child of an American icon. |
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| Low-hanging fruit : sparkling whines, champagne problems, and pressing issues from my gay agenda / Randy Rainbow. |
 "A new essay collection by adored comedian and New York Times bestseller Randy Rainbow. Randy Rainbow has a few things on his mind that he wants to talk about. As a savvy social commentator tuned into the public discourse, his unfailing intuition tells him that the perspective everyone in America is clamoring for is that of a privileged white male complaining about a bunch of shit. While writing his New York Times bestseller Playing With Myself, Randy saw an America in crisis. He knew that what the country needed to get back on its high heels was a hard-hitting gay agenda and here it is -- Low Hanging Fruit -- a book filled with sparkling whines, a few flutes of champagne problems and a Birkin bag of the most pressing issues facing the US, from dancing TikTok grandmas, to Elon Musk, the GOP, and Donald Jessica Trump. On the down low, Randy dishes up some sex talk about life on the dating apps, Craigslist hookups and more. ("Gurl, wait till you hear the story about the fireman and the goggles...") Randy's longtime companion, the glamorous Chinchilla Silver Persian cat Tippi, makes an appearance as she dishes about her life Chez Randy. And, in the most highly anticipated sequel since Top Gun: Maverick, Randy continues the conversation with his mother, Gwen, because who knows better than the Jewish mother of a gay man about how to solve America's problems? Randy Rainbow's Low Hanging Fruit -- a bold manifesto for a nation desperately in need of a makeover"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Carson the Magnificent / Bill Zehme with Mike Thomas. |
| Twenty years in the making, Zemhe and Thomas's book examines "one of the most inscrutable figures in entertainment history: a man who brought so much joy and laughter to so many millions but was himself exceedingly shy and private. Zehme traces Carson's rise from a magic-obsessed Nebraska boy to a Navy ensign in World War II to a burgeoning radio and TV personality to, eventually, host of The Tonight Show--which he transformed, along with the entirety of American popular culture, over the next three decades-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Ashoka : portrait of a philosopher king / Patrick Olivelle. |
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| Lifeform / Jenny Slate. |
| "What happened was this: Jenny Slate was a human mammal who sniffed the air every morning hoping to find another person to love who would love her, and in that period there was a deep dark loneliness that she had to face and befriend, and then we are pleased to report that she did fall in love, and in that period she was like chimes, or a flock of clean breaths, and her spine lying flat was the many-colored planks on the xylophone, but also she was rabid with fear of losing this love, because of past injury. And then what happened was that she became a wild-pregnant-mammal-thing and then she exploded herself by having a whole baby blast through her vagina during a global plague and then she was expected to carry on like everything was normal--but was this normal, and had she or anything ever been normal? Herein lies an account of this journey, told in five phases--Single, True Love, Pregnancy, Baby, and Ongoing--through luminous, laugh-out-loud funny, unclassifiable essays that take the form of letters to a doctor, dreams of a stork, fantasy therapy sessions, gossip between racoons, excerpts from an imaginary olden timey play, obituaries, theories about post-partum hair loss, graduation speeches, and more"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Patriot : a memoir / Alexei Navalny ; translated by Arch Tait with Stephen Dalziel. |
| A political freedom fighter who paid the ultimate price for his convictions recounts his political career, the many attempts on his life and the lives of the people closest to him and the relentless campaign he and his team waged against an increasingly dictatorial regime. |
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| My good bright wolf : a memoir / Sarah Moss. |
| "An unflinching memoir about childhood, food, books, and our ability to see, become, and protect ourselves"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Pentimento : a book of portraits / Lillian Hellman. |
 Seven autobiographical essays on people and things that deeply influenced twentieth-century American playwright Lillian Hellman's youth. |
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| With Walt Whitman, himself : in the nineteenth century, in America / Jean Huets. |
 "With Walt Whitman, himself immerses you in the life and times of the poet called "America's bard," with over 300 period images and text with extensive quotes by Walt Whitman and his family and friends (and enemies). Explore the fascinating roots of his great work: a family harrowed by alcoholism and mental illness; the bloody Civil War; burgeoning, brawling Manhattan and Brooklyn; literary allies and rivals; and his beloved America, racked by disunion even while racing westward"--Page 4 of cover. |
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| Sonny boy : a memoir / Al Pacino. |
| "From one of the most iconic actors in the history of film, an astonishingly revelatory account of a creative life in full. To the wider world, Al Pacino exploded onto the scene like a supernova. He landed his first leading role in The Panic in Needle Park in 1971, and by 1975, he had starred in four movies--The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon--that were not just successes but landmarks in the history of film. Those performances became legendary and changed his life forever. Not since Marlon Brando and James Dean in the late 1950s had an actor landed in the culture with such force. But Pacino was in his mid-thirties by then and had already lived several lives. A fixture of avant-garde theater in New York, he had led a bohemian existence, working odd jobs to support his craft. He was raised by a fiercely loving but mentally unwell mother and her parents after his father left them when Pacino was a boy. In a real sense he was raised by the streets of the South Bronx and by the troop of buccaneering young friends he ran with, whose spirits never left him. After a teacher recognized his acting promise and pushed him toward New York's fabled High School of Performing Arts, the die was cast. In good times and in bad, in poverty and in wealth, through pain and through joy, acting was his lifeline, its community his tribe. Sonny Boy is the memoir of a man who has nothing left to fear and nothing left to hide. All the great roles, the essential collaborations, and the important relationships are given their full due, as is the vexed marriage between creativity and commerce at the highest levels. The book's golden thread, however, is the spirit of love and purpose. Love can fail you, and you can be defeated in your ambitions--the same lights that shine bright can also dim. But Al Pacino was lucky enough to fall deeply in love with a craft before he had the foggiest idea of any of its earthly rewards, and he never fell out of love. That has made all the difference"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Eleanor Roosevelt volume one 1884-1933 / Blanche Wiesen Cook. |
 Here is the first biography to show Eleanor Roosevelt both as a shrewd political animal and the complex and often tragic woman that she was. In this first volume of her study, Cook portrays Roosevelt's harrowing childhood, describes the hopes kindled by her marriage to Franklin, and reveals her signficance as the conscience behind FDR's many programs. 16 page of photos. |
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| Wayne Morse : a political biography / Mason Drukman. |
 "The career of Wayne Morse, Oregon's maverick senator (1944-68), offers insights on political issues that shaped the twentieth century and continue to echo in the twenty-first. Best known for being one of two senators to oppose the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that initiated U.S. military intervention in Vietnam, Morse was also outspoken on McCarthyism, the labor movement, civil rights, education, foreign policy, and the importance of constitutional checks and balances. Unpredictable and independent, Morse was never afraid to go against prevailing opinion and party doctrine in defense of personal convictions. In a balanced account and with lucid prose, Mason Drukman offers a critical look at several decades of American political life."--Cover page 4. |
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| John Adams / David McCullough. |
 "In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous life journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution; who rose to become the second president of the United States and saved the country from blundering into an unnecessary war; who was learned beyond all but a few and regarded by some as "out of his senses"; and whose marriage to the wise and valiant Abigail Adams is one of the moving love stories in American history. This is history on a grand scale--a book about politics and war and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship, and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, John Adams is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived."--Publisher's description |
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| Thomas Jefferson : the art of power / Jon Meacham. |
 In this biography the author draws upon archives in the United States, England, and France, as well as unpublished transcripts of Jefferson presidential papers to give readers a view of Jefferson the politician and the President, a great and complex human being forever engaged in the wars of his era. The father of the ideal of individual liberty, of the Louisiana Purchase, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and of the settling of the West, Jefferson recognized that the genius of humanity, and the genius of the new nation, lay in the possibility of progress. Philosophers think; politicians maneuver. Jefferson's genius was that he was both and could do both, often simultaneously, catapulting him into becoming the most successful political leader of the early republic, and perhaps in all of American history. |
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| Eleanor Roosevelt : the war years and after. Volume three, 1939-1962 / Blanche Wiesen Cook. |
 Historians, politicians, critics, and readers everywhere have praised Blanche Wiesen Cooks biography of Eleanor Roosevelt as the essential portrait of a woman who towers over the twentieth century. The long-awaited third and final volume takes us through World War II, FDRs death, the founding of the UN, and Eleanor Roosevelts death in 1962. It follows the arc of war and the evolution of a marriage, as the first lady realized the cost of maintaining her principles even as the country and her husband were not prepared to adopt them. Eleanor Roosevelt continued to struggle for her core issueseconomic security, New Deal reforms, racial equality, and rescuewhen they were sidelined by FDR while he marshaled the country through war. The chasm between Eleanor and Franklin grew, and the strains on their relationship were as political as they were personal. She also had to negotiate the fractures in the close circle of influential women around her at Val-Kill, but through it she gained confidence in her own vision, even when forced to amend her agenda when her beliefs clashed with government policies on such issues as neutrality, refugees, and eventually the threat of communism. These years-the war years-made Eleanor Roosevelt the woman she became: leader, visionary, guiding light. FDRs death in 1945 changed her world, but she was far from finished, returning to the spotlight as a crucial player in the founding of the United Nations. |
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| Theodore Rex / Edmund Morris. |
 In the long-awaited sequel to "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, " which won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award for biography, Morris tells the story of Teddy Roosevelt's two successful terms as president of the United States. Photos throughout. |
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| Eleanor Roosevelt : Volume two, 1933-1938, the defining years / Blanche Wiesen Cook. |
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| The rise of Theodore Roosevelt / Edmund Morris. |
 A biography of Theodore Roosevelt, covering the years 1858 to 1901, before he became the youngest President of the United States. |
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| Who's that girl? : a memoir / Eve ; with Kathy Iandoli. |
 "Our success stories are always undersold. Even when we're lapping men, we're still called 'slept on' or 'underrated' as a means of keeping us below the industry sea level. For me, it was simultaneously being called the pit bull in a skirt and the underdog. My moves were drowning out those words, but they were still used to keep me down. I'm speaking both for myself and other women here, especially Black women. Telling me that I was going to fail wasn't protecting my fragile female heart from disappointment; it was perpetuating a cycle that I wanted to break. Did I do that? Many times. Sometimes I won; sometimes I lost. But eventually I realized that if the music industry wasn't going to let me be the first woman of their universe, then I had no choice. I had to leave and go build my own."-- Back cover. |
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| Frighten the horses : a memoir / by Oliver Radclyffe. |
| "A textured, sharply written memoir about coming of age in the fourth decade of one's life and embracing one's truest self in a world that demands gender fit in neat boxes. From the outside, Oliver Radclyffe spent four decades living an immensely privileged, beautifully composed life. As the daughter of two well-to-do British parents and the wife of a successful man from an equally privileged family, Oliver played the parts expected of him. He checked off every box-marriage, children (four), a white-picket fence surrounding a stately home in Connecticut, and a golden retriever. But beneath the shiny veneer, Oliver was desperately trying to stay afloat as he struggled to maintain a facade of normalcy. And between his hair falling out and incapacitating mood swings, Oliver realized the life of a trapped housewife was not one he was ever meant to live. Embarking on a fraught, challenging journey of self-discovery, Oliver navigates the end to the beautiful lie of his previous life-a life he could not continue if he wanted to survive. The story of a flawed, fascinating, gorgeously queer man, Frighten the Horses introduces Oliver Radclyffe as a witty, arresting, and unforgettable voice"-- Provided by publisher. |
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