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Biography and Memoir March 2026 |
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Those Who Are about to Die: A Day in the Life of a Roman Gladiator
by Harry Sidebottom
What did a gladiator feel when he stepped out onto the sand of the Colosseum, his life in the balance? What ran through the minds of the masses there to witness his likely execution? And how did this bloodthirsty ritual come to exist in the first place?
In Those Who Are About to Die, Harry Sidebottom pulls us into the arena, and into the homes and forums of ancient Rome, taking the reader on an eye-opening, twenty-four-hour tour through Roman life at the height of the gladiatorial games, from the first century BC to the second century AD.
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| Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America by Howard BryantSports journalist Howard Bryant's affecting history details how trailblazing Black actor Paul Robeson and Major League Baseball player Jackie Robinson's differing political ideologies often put them at odds with each other, culminating in Robinson's 1949 appearance at the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), where he testified against Robeson. For fans of: The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. by Peniel E. Joseph.
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| Fly, Wild Swans: My Mother, Myself and China by Jung ChangIn Fly, Wild Swans, Chinese British memoirist and historian Jung Chang channels harrowing memories of her childhood during China’s Cultural Revolution. Years later she was banished from her native country after publishing an unsparing biography of Mao Zedong, a ruling which prevents her from returning to visit her dying mother. Readers may wish to pair this book with Chang’s previous bestselling memoir Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China.
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| Bernie for Burlington: The Rise of the People's Politician by Dan ChiassonPoet, journalist, and Burlington, Vermont native Dan Chiasson remembers growing up in the small city that a young Brooklynite named Bernie Sanders adopted as his hometown. Chiasson recalls that Sanders was seen as a tad eccentric when he first ran for mayor, yet he was able to garner support on complex local issues while earning a reputation as a fearless underdog’s champion. For fans of: Pete Buttigieg’s Shortest Way Home: One Mayor’s Challenge and a Model for America’s Future.
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Seven Sisters: Captives and Rebels in Revolutionary Europe's First Family
by Veronica Buckley
A spirited, poignant history of the seven daughters of the great Empress Maria Theresia--among them, Queen Marie Antoinette of France--tracing their lives as they balanced dynastic duty with personal ambition in a time of revolutionary cataclysm.
By 1764, after a generation of costly war, confronted by shaken alliances, immense debts, and restive subjects, the Empress Maria Theresia was seeking once again to assert the dynasty's power through strategic marriages. Her arsenal was full: her seven daughters were to serve as her pawns in the ruthless game of eighteenth-century dynastic politicking. Meticulously researched and animated by the sisters' own diaries and the almost daily letters traversing the continent, Seven Sisters reveals the drama, tragedy and comedy of these exceptional yet all too human lives. It is a vivid portrait of a brilliant world collapsing in a fearful time.
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| The Flower Bearers by Rachel Eliza GriffithsNovelist and poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths (Promise) grapples with the twin tragedies of the highly publicized and near-fatal attack on her new husband Salman Rushdie and, less than a year earlier, the sudden death of her closest friend, poet Kamilah Aisha Moon, who ironically passed away on Griffiths’ wedding day. For another emotional memoir about enduring wrenching loss, try Elizabeth Gilbert’s All the Way to the River.
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| Black Dahlia: Murder, Monsters, and Madness in Midcentury Hollywood by William J. MannBiographer William J. Mann's (Bogie & Bacall) well-researched true crime account offers fresh insights on the 1947 murder of actress Elizabeth Short, who posthumously came to be known by the moniker "Black Dahlia." Further reading: Sisters in Death: The Black Dahlia, the Prairie Heiress, and Their Hunter by Eli Frankel.
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Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found
by Andrew Graham-Dixon
This revelatory biography persuasively addresses the two great unresolved questions about Vermeer?why did he paint his pictures, and what do they mean?
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| After the Flood: Inside Bob Dylan's Memory Palace by Robert PolitoBiographer Robert Polito refutes the popularly accepted version of Bob Dylan’s late-career output in After the Flood. Although critical reception of his work has been up and down over the last few decades, Polito instead asserts that Dylan has produced some of the most challenging work of his life in this time frame, including powerful retellings from the Great American Songbook, two books, paintings, and over 3,000 concerts. Try this next: I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen by Sylvie Simmons.
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Happiness Included: Jan Brady and Beyond
by Eve Plumb
It's finally time for Jan, Jan, Jan! As Jan Brady, America's most memorable middle child on the beloved TV sitcom, The Brady Bunch, Eve Plumb has been an enduring icon of American pop culture for over 60 years. Now in an engaging, intimate memoir, she shares the behind-the-scenes story of her colorful and impressively versatile Hollywood career and revelatory recollections of her off-camera life along the way--complete with many photos from her private archives. Recognized world-wide as Jan Brady, the wonderfully misunderstood middle sister on television's The Brady Bunch, actress Eve Plumb has embraced the association that seemed destined at age 10 when she was cast on The Brady Bunch. The iconic 1970s TV series has been in perpetual reruns for five decades and is well known by three generations of children and adults.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Carrollton Public Library 1700 Keller Springs Road, Carrollton Texas 75006 4220 North Josey Lane, Carrollton Texas 75010 |
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