Biography and Memoir May 2026 |
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Where We Keep the Light: Stories from a Life of Service by Josh ShapiroA grounded and intimate portrait of life by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. In the pages of this account of his life, Shapiro relates powerful stories about his family, his faith, and what matters to Americans tired of all the divisiveness and distrust in our leaders. Shapiro reminds us that government can be a force for good, that conventional wisdom is rarely wise, and there's more that unites Americans than divides us.
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Black Out Loud: The Revolutionary History of Black Comedy from Vaudeville to '90s Sitcoms by Geoff BennettBlack comedians have long played a pivotal role in shaping the American sense of humor. The 1990s showcased a golden era for Black comedy, highlighted by the surge of iconic sitcoms that redefined television and left a lasting cultural imprint. In Black Out Loud, Bennett chronicles the transformative history of Black comedy in America, drawing on research and interviews with the actors and executives behind some of the most impactful shows. This exploration traces the evolution of Black comics and provocateurs who reshaped the culture and ultimately became powerful agents of social change -- transforming the way America laughed along the way.
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| Shut Up and Read: A Memoir from Harriett's Bookshop by Jeannine A. CookJeannine A. Cook’s Philadelphia bookstore -- named in honor of Harriet Tubman -- opened barely a month before the COVID-19 lockdown. Yet Cook remained determined. She punctuates her memoir with letters that she wrote to Tubman, Phillis Wheatley, Josephine Baker, and others -- determined Black women of the past whose spirits were beacons of hope and resistance that would see her through the tough times ahead. Six years later, Harriet’s Bookshop is thriving! Try Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller by Nadia Wassef for a similarly inspiring tale. |
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| Kutchinsky's Egg: A Family's Story of Obsession, Love, and Loss by Serena KutchinskySerena Kutchinsky grew up in an affluent Jewish British family famous for its high-end jewelry firm, House of Kutchinsky. When her father Paul took over the business in the 1980s, he hatched an ambitious and risky plan to create and sell the world’s largest jewel-encrusted egg, which went so spectacularly wrong that it bankrupted the century-old firm. For the Kutchinskys, the seized, missing egg became a reviled symbol of hubris and failure. Decades later, Serena’s search for the cursed object would lead her into a web of family secrets in this “riveting” (Publishers Weekly) generational saga. |
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The Typewriter and the Guillotine: An American Journalist, a German Serial Killer, and Paris on the Eve of WWII by Mark Braude In 1925, the Indianapolis-born Janet Flanner took an assignment to write a regular 'Letter from Paris' for a lighthearted humor magazine called The New Yorker. She'd come to Paris with dreams of writing about Beauty with a Capital B. Her employer, self-consciously apolitical, sought only breezy reports on French art and culture. But as she woke to the frightening signs of rising extremism, economic turmoil, and widespread discontent in Europe, Flanner ignored her editor's directives, reinventing herself, her assignment, and The New Yorker in the process. The Typewriter and The Guillotine offers the personal and professional coming-of-age story of an indomitable journalist set against a glamorous backdrop--a tightly-coiled drama full of romance and intrigue.
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| Heartland: A Forgotten Place, an Impossible Dream, and the Miracle of Larry Bird by Keith O'BrienLarry Bird was just a poor kid from a broken home in French Lick who thought his college basketball career was over when he quit the University of Indiana after an overwhelming first semester. In an unlikely turn, Bird was re-recruited by Bob King of Indiana State (a school with zero hoops cred), leading to a trip to the Final Four in 1979 and a storied NBA career. Biographer Keith O’Brien (Charlie Hustle) spins a “smart, well-paced” (Kirkus Reviews) tale of Bird beginning to take flight. |
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End of Days: Ruby Ridge, the Apocalypse, and the Unmaking of America by Chris JenningsOn August 21, 1992, shots rang out while federal agents were surveilling a cabin in Boundary County, Idaho as part of an operation to arrest Randy Weaver--a reclusive, mountain-dwelling survivalist--for failure to appear in court on a gun charge. When Weaver finally surrendered to the authorities eleven days later, his wife, son, and dog lay dead, as did a US Marshal. Ever since, America has been trying to make sense of what happened on Ruby Ridge. Chris Jennings explains the significance of this historic siege by setting the story of the Weaver family within the long history of apocalyptic Christianity in the United States, illuminating the ways in which that faith has gradually transformed the nation.
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| Small Town Girls: A Writer's Memoir by Jayne Anne PhillipsNovelist Jayne Anne Phillips’ Small Town Girls is not strictly a memoir. Yet this collection of previously published essays includes many fragments from the author’s memories of growing up in her troubled, enchanted homeland of West Virginia. Whether pondering the Hatfield-McCoy feud or revisiting sense memories of her hometown’s beauty shop, Phillips’ incisive and lyrical observations give life to a time gone by. For more autobiographical snippets set in the Mountain State, try Crapalachia by Scott McClanahan. |
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I Told You So!: Scientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled, and Imprisoned for Being Right by Matt KaplanAn energetic and impassioned work of popular science about scientists who have had to fight for their revolutionary ideas to be accepted--from Darwin to Pasteur to modern day Nobel Prize winners. In entertaining prose, Kaplan reveals scientific cases past and present to make his case. Kaplan shows how the scientific community can work faster and better by making reasonably small changes to the forces that shape it.
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Work in Progress: Confessions of a Busboy, Dishwasher, Caddy, Usher, Factory Worker, Bank Teller, Corporate Tool, and Priest by James Martin Father James Martin tells the story of a busboy, dishwasher, caddy, usher, factory worker, bank teller, and corporate tool and, finally, a Jesuit priest. This coming-of-age story is set in the 1960s and 1970s, a lighthearted tale for readers who enjoy personal narratives, and it's unlike anything Father Martin has written before. As he puts it, This is a spiritual memoir from a different angle. Each chapter features photos of memories and milestones throughout Father Martin's young life. My summer jobs, crazy and funny and varied as they were, had something to do with who I am. As we Jesuits would say, the lessons I learned helped to 'form me.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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