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Biography and Memoir December 2025 |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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Hope in Action: A Memoir about the Courage to Lead
by Sanna Marin
When she became prime minister of Finland at just thirty-four years old, Marin was the youngest world leader at the time, captivating international attention with her progressive ideas and decisive action in a crisis. Marin's story is one of resilience and hope. The first in her family to attend university, she broke barriers to become a highly respected role model for many young girls and women. Her term as prime minister saw historic milestones--she led Finland through the COVID-19 pandemic, and her government implemented reforms addressing climate change, social justice, and equality. She helped the country navigate neighboring Russia's devastating full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Finland's rapid joining of NATO--the swiftest entry for any country in the alliance's history. Through vivid retellings of her experiences, Marin shares how she overcame significant political challenges and how she coped with her personal life becoming public, as in an incident that sparked a media frenzy and prompted women around the world to express their support.
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The Smiling Land: All Around the Circle in My Newfoundland and Labrador
by Alan Doyle
Few Canadian musicians are as synonymous with their home province as Alan Doyle is to his--and even fewer once worked as tour guides. In The Smiling Land, Alan reprises his tour-guiding role to welcome the rest of Canada to his home and take readers on an adventure: a freewheeling road trip through Newfoundland, its history, and its culture. From Fogo Island to the Southwest Coast, Labrador to Ferryland, and everywhere in between, Alan's Newfoundland awaits you.
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Insomnia
by Robbie Robertson
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. The closing of the Band's story with that landmark concert thrust Robertson into a new and uncertain world. With his relationship with his bandmates deteriorating and his marriage collapsing, Robertson arrived on Scorsese’s Beverly Hills doorstep only to find his friend in similar straits. Before the night was out, Scorsese had invited him to move in. 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.
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Star of the Show: My Life on Stage
by Dolly Parton
Featuring engaging stories and memories from Parton’s dynamic life behind the microphone, this exquisitely photographed book spotlights her formative performances and star-making moments, from singing in front of her parents on a woodpile back home in Tennessee to making her debut with Porter Wagoner, from breaking on her own at state fairs to performing for millions of fans on tours, from making her onscreen debut in 9 to 5 to playing to 2023 Dallas Cowboys halftime show and stepping onto new stages today.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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