|
|
Biography and Memoir June 2026 |
|
|
|
| This Dark Night: Emily Brontë, a Life by Deborah LutzEnglish professor Deborah Lutz has taken what little is known of Wuthering Heights author Emily Brontë and created a richly imagined extrapolation of her inner world. Famously reclusive and resistant to the expectations imposed upon Victorian women, Emily was most inspired by her fantasy life, nourished by her wanderings in the moors surrounding her family home in Yorkshire, where she spent most of her tragically short life. Lush, atmospheric, and “rigorously researched” (Publishers Weekly), Lutz’s book shines new light on a beloved literary figure. |
|
|
|
True Crime: A Memoir
by Patricia Cornwell
Patricia Cornwell is best known for her international bestselling thriller series about forensic pathologist Dr. Kay Scarpetta. Every story comes from somewhere, and Scarpetta's began when Patricia Cornwell embedded herself in a morgue. In this achingly honest memoir, Cornwell excavates her own life, detailing her traumatic childhood being raised by neglectful parents, her father abandoning the young family on Christmas day, her mother being institutionalized twice, an abusive foster family, and developing a parental relationship with evangelist Billy Graham's wife Ruth. Cornwell depicts a harrowing hospitalization and near-death car accident. She unflinchingly shares overcoming obstacles that later gave her the ambition to become an award-winning police reporter. From there it was research in a medical examiner's office that would turn into a full-time job. She would become a forensic expert and worldwide publishing phenomenon.
|
|
|
|
Cut to Black: A Legendary Life in Sports (and Maybe a Few Beers)
by Rod Black
For more than four decades, Rod Black has been one of Canada's most versatile sportscasters. He has either hosted or called play-by-play for practically every sport there is. Rod broadcasted some pivotal Blue Jays games in 1992 and 1993, when the team won the World Series. He was on the ice with Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. He lived with a Toronto Maple Leaf and partied with the teammates until legendary Leafs coach Pat Burns told him to cut it out. He was around for Ben Johnson's fabled win and disastrous fall from grace. He was live on air during 9/11. He captures all of these stories and a lot more in the pages of this book, showing how the business of broadcasting could truly be a blast and also cutthroat.
|
|
|
|
Give Them Their Flowers: Reflections on Women, Film, and Friendship
by Octavia Spencer
Octavia drove to Los Angeles at twenty-six in search of a career in film. What she found was her chosen family. In this captivating memoir, the Oscar-winning actor and producer recounts the seeds of the relationships that grew into the story of her life, from her tender teenage connection with Whoopi Goldberg to her sustaining friendships with Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy, Allison Janney, Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain, and the many talented, inspiring women whose love and advice have helped her become the woman she is today.
|
|
|
|
Ringo: A Fab Life
by Tom Doyle
Often overshadowed by his former bandmates, Ringo Starr has his own remarkable story that is no less compelling. Ringo: A Fab Life highlights a life so jaw-droppingly eventful that one is left wondering how he also had time to become one of the best musicians on the planet. Employing an episodic, mosaic format, critically acclaimed author Tom Doyle takes readers through the ride of a lifetime, from Starr's brushes with death as a child brought up in poverty, through to dizzying heights of fame and success with the Beatles and beyond.
|
|
|
|
A Screaming Life: Into the Superunknown with Soundgarden and Beyond
by Kim Thayil
In A Screaming Life, founding member of Soundgarden and guitar god Kim Thayil goes backstage to introduce the band that fearlessly pushed the boundaries of rock, invented a new genre, and amassed fervent fans from every corner of the world. Thayil shares the story of how he and his Soundgarden bandmates--Hiro Yamamoto, Ben Shepherd, Matt Cameron, and Chris Cornell--faced the triumphs and challenges on the road to their historic and influential rise.
|
|
| Notes to John by Joan DidionAfter author Joan Didion died in 2021, a journal was found among her papers addressed to her husband John Gregory Dunne, written in the early 2000s and concerning psychotherapy treatment that she received at the behest of her daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne. Readers will empathize with Didion as she gives a detailed account of these intimate but painful talk-therapy sessions, which cover fraught family dynamics, alcoholism, guilt, and emotional distance. Recommended for people who were moved by I Will Do Better by Charles Bock. |
|
|
|
Kirk and Anne: Letters of Love, Laughter, and a Lifetime in Hollywood
by Kirk Douglas
The late film icon and screen legend Kirk Douglas was married to Anne Buydens for more than six decades. Here they both look back on a lifetime filled with drama both on and off the screen. Sharing priceless correspondence with each other as well as the celebrities and world leaders they called friends, Kirk and Anne is a candid portrayal of the pleasures and pitfalls of a Hollywood life lived in the public eye.
|
|
|
|
The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder
by William Anderson
A vibrant, deeply personal portrait of this revered American author, illuminating her thoughts, travels, philosophies, writing career, and dealings with family, friends, and fans as never before.This is a fresh look at the adult life of the author in her own words. Gathered from museums and archives and personal collections, the letters span over sixty years of Wilder's life, from 1894-1956 and shed new light on Wilder's day-to-day life.
|
|
|
|
A Private Spy: The Letters of John Le Carré
by John Le Carré
A Private Spy spans seven decades and chronicles not only le Carrâe's own life but the turbulent times to which he was witness. Beginning with his 1940s childhood, it includes accounts of his National Service and his time at Oxford, and his days teaching the 'chinless, pointy-nosed gooseberry-eyed British lords' at Eton. It describes his entry into MI5 and the rise of the Iron Curtain, and the flowering of his career as a novelist in reaction to the building of the Berlin Wall. Through his letters we travel with him from the Second World War period to the immediate moment in which we live.
|
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
|
|
|
