Biography and Memoir December 2025 |
|
|
|
| Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret AtwoodIn Book of Lives, Canadian author Margaret Atwood brings readers a long-awaited, “marvelously witty” (Kirkus Reviews) memoir. Writing as much about her craft as her life story, Atwood reveals how both have influenced one another, for instance explaining how the dystopian setting for The Handmaid’s Tale was in part inspired by a stint in 1980s Berlin. For another memoir that ruminates on the writing life, try Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami. |
|
|
|
The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland
by Michelle Young
On August 25, 1944, Rose Valland ... found herself in a desperate position. From the windows of her beloved Jeu de Paume museum, where she had worked and ultimately spied, she could see the battle to liberate Paris thundering around her. The Jeu de Paume, co-opted by Nazi leadership, was now the Germans' final line of defense. The Art Spy chronicles the brave actions of the key Resistance spy in the heart of the Nazi's art looting headquarters in the French capital ... While Hitler was amassing stolen art for his future Führermuseum, Valland, his undercover adversary, secretly worked to stop him.
|
|
|
|
Insomnia
by Robbie Robertson
The rock legend tells the story of his wild ride with Martin Scorsese. For four decades, Robbie Robertson produced music for Martin Scorsese's films, a relationship that began when Robertson convinced Scorsese to direct The Last Waltz, the iconic film of the Band's farewell performance at the Winterland Ballroom on Thanksgiving 1976. Both men, already culture-transforming stars before the age of thirty-five, stood at a creative precipice, searching for the beginning of a new phase of life and work. Insomnia is an intimate portrait of a remarkable creative friendship between two titans of American arts, one that would explore the outer limits of excess and experience before returning to tell the tale.
|
|
| The Uncool by Cameron CroweIn the 1970s, writer/director Cameron Crowe was an up-and-coming teenaged rock journalist, writing for Rolling Stone and touring with the likes of Led Zeppelin and the Allman Brothers. Although peppered with upbeat road stories, Crowe’s memoir seamlessly weaves in more emotional passages about close relationships, his older sister’s suicide, and his later fame as a filmmaker. For fans of: Going into the City: Portrait of a Critic as a Young Man by Robert Christgau; the Crowe-directed film Almost Famous. |
|
|
|
The Ride: Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America
by Kostya Kennedy
On April 18, 1775, a Boston-based silversmith, engraver, and anti-British political operative named Paul Revere set out on a borrowed horse to fulfill a dangerous but crucial mission: to alert American colonists of advancing British troops, which would seek to crush their nascent revolt. Revere was not the only rider that night, and indeed, he had completed at least 18 previous rides throughout New England, disseminating intelligence about British movements. But this ride was like no other, and its consequences in the months and years to come--as the American Revolution morphed from isolated skirmishes to a full-fledged war--became one of our founding legends.
|
|
|
|
L.A. Coroner: Thomas Noguchi and Death in Hollywood
by Anne Soon Choi
Choi's true-crime biography adds much-needed detail and perspective to Noguchi's unusual and compelling story. --BooklistL.A. Coroner is a gripping true crime biography of Dr. Thomas Noguchi, the controversial Coroner to the Stars, who performed the autopsies of Marilyn Monroe, Robert F. Kennedy, Natalie Wood, and hundreds of other notable personalities. L.A. Coroner is the first-ever biography of Dr. Thomas Noguchi, the Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner of Los Angeles County from 1967 to 1982. , L.A. Coroner is a meticulously researched biography of a complex man, set against the backdrop of the social and racial politics of the 1960s and 1970s and Hollywood celebrity culture.
|
|
| We Did OK, Kid by Anthony HopkinsOscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins delights with a memoir that is “quiet and restrained but with some darker stuff going on underneath” (Booklist). The introverted only son of working-class Welsh parents who worried about his apparent aimlessness, Hopkins eventually found his way to amateur theater and then the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, all to his own great surprise. For such a venerated artist, his writing is as humble, candid, and thoughtful as the book’s title would suggest. Try this next: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man by Paul Newman. |
|
| John Candy: A Life in Comedy by Paul MyersPop culture writer Paul Myers documents beloved comedian and actor John Candy’s life and career, moving through his tenure on the cult classic program SCTV, his film appearances (Planes, Trains, and Automobiles; Uncle Buck), and his “lifelong struggle with anxiety, panic attacks, and body image” (Publishers Weekly). Candy broke countless hearts upon his death by heart failure at age 43, but Myers’ book is a life-affirming, heartwarming tribute. |
|
| The Man of Many Fathers: Life Lessons Disguised as a Memoir by Roy Wood, Jr.Comedian and television personality Roy Wood, Jr.’s memoir is filled with lessons he learned the hard way from various “father” figures, including his real father, who played a peripatetic but influential role in his son’s life. Some of these figures offered Wood wisdom and advice, while others gave him examples not to follow, but they all made enough of an impression to become comedy gold in a debut that is also “refreshingly earnest” (Kirkus Reviews). If you like this, check out Being Henry: The Fonz…and Beyond by Henry Winkler. |
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|