Biography and Memoir
April 2025
Recent Releases
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
by Omar El Akkad

In his frank and thought-provoking blend of history and memoir, award-winning novelist Omar El Akkad (American War) examines the West's apathy and inaction toward Israel's ongoing destruction of Gaza. Try this next: The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Ripper: The Making of Pierre Poilievre
by Mark Bourrie

As Canada heads towards a pivotal election, bestselling author Mark Bourrie charts the rise of Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre and considers the history and potential cost of the politics of division.
Into the Ice: the Northwest Passage, the Polar Sun, and a 175-Year-Old Mystery
by Mark Synnott

New York Times bestselling author Mark Synnott has climbed with Alex Honnold. He’s scaled Mt. Everest. But in 2022, he realized there was a dream he’d never realized—to sail the Northwest Passage in his own boat, a feat only four hundred or so sailors had ever accomplished—and in doing so, try to solve the mystery of what happened to legendary nineteenth-century explorer Sir John Franklin and his ships, HMS Erebus and Terror.
Legends and Soles: The Memoir of an American Original
by Sonny Vaccaro with Armen Keteyian

In his candid and heartfelt memoir, retired sports marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro dishes on his successful career, including his role in signing Michael Jordan to a shoe deal with Nike and creating the Air Jordan shoe in 1984. For fans of: the 2023 movie Air, in which Matt Damon portrays Vaccaro. 
Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World
by Jessica Slice

A paradigm shifting look at the landscape of disabled parenting—the joys, stigma, and discrimination—and how disability culture holds the key to transforming the way we all raise our kids
Focus on: National Poetry Month
You Could Make This Place Beautiful
by Maggie Smith

The award-winning poet explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself, interweaving snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness, and narrative itself and revealing how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power and make something beautiful.
Solito: A Memoir
by Javier Zamora

A young poet reflects on his 3,000-mile journey from El Salvador to the United States when he was nine years old, during which he was faced with perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, pointed guns, arrests and deceptions during two life-altering months alongside a group of strangers who became an unexpected family.
Poet Warrior
by Joy Harjo

Former United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo's engaging follow-up to her 2012 memoir Crazy Brave explores her Muscogee upbringing with a poetry-loving mother, who encouraged the author's interest in words, and how she survived abuse from her father and stepfather to find communion with fellow Indigenous writers as a University of New Mexico student in the 1970s. Further reading: When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: An Anthology of Native Nations Poetry edited by Harjo.
Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir
by Natasha Trethewey

Years after her mother's murder, Pulitzer Prize winner and former United States Poet Laureate Natasha Tretheway returned to the scene of the crime, where she found long-buried answers to questions lingering from childhood. Readers stirred by this lyrical and unflinching portrait of family violence will want to check out Blood by Allison Moorer. 
Contact your librarian for more great books!
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