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Biography and Memoir May 2026 |
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August Wilson's American Century: Life as Art
by Laurence A. Glasco
Playwright August Wilson is best known for his American Century Cycle, a sequence of ten plays--including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences and The Piano Lesson--that chronicle the lives of Black Americans in each decade of the twentieth century. But behind the celebrated plays stands a complex man shaped by his hometown's vibrant Black culture.
In August Wilson's American Century: Life as Art, Laurence A. Glasco, draws on Wilson's early poetry, archival material, and original interviews with family members, neighbors, and friends to show how the city and its residents shaped the playwright and his work.
Wilson's overlapping identities as an outsider, warrior, race man, and poet helped him persevere in the face of setbacks, weave real-life observations with his poetry to craft memorable dialogue and compelling characters, and portray the realities of race in America in ways that have resonated with theatergoers and readers ever since.
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Lauren Bacall: The Queen of Cool
by Anthony Uzarowski
Lauren Bacall (1924-2014), or Betty, as she was known to friends, was one of the last great movie stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Her career spanned seven decades and was one of the longest and most distinguished in the history of show business. Lauren Bacall: The Queen of Cool is the first book to bring together all aspects of the legendary star's life and career, exploring her iconic style, her extensive body of work, as well as her friendships and relationships with some of the most famous figures of the twentieth century.
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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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Albert Sabin: The Life of a Polio Vaccine Pioneer
by Karen Torghele
The untold story of Albert Sabin, who developed the oral polio vaccine and became a controversial public health advocate for children worldwide. Jonas Salk may be the name most associated with the polio vaccine, but it was Albert Sabin's oral vaccine that made the goal of global eradication of poliomyelitis a possibility. Epidemiologist Karen Torghele reveals a man driven by compulsion, whom Yale virologist John R. Paul described as a fierce joy when he was making new discoveries. Sabin's journey spanned continents and conflicts, from being a World War II hero to facilitating Cold War diplomacy, culminating in a risky experiment to test his vaccine in the USSR near the peak of the McCarthy era. Torghele combines biography and science to establish Sabin's place in medical history.
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The Traveler: One Man's Quest for Humanity from the South Seas to Revolutionary Paris
by Andrea Wulf
Step into the life and times of George Forster, the eighteenth-century naturalist who sailed the world and made waves with his revolutionary ideas about humanity and freedom.
At just ten years old, he became a botanist when he accompanied his irascible father, Reinhold, on a wild expedition to Russia. By the time he was twelve, they had moved to London and the young boy soon became the breadwinner by publishing translations of the most popular travel accounts of the day. Then, in 1772, at the age of seventeen, George Forster joined Cook's second voyage, the most daring expedition of the time. The HMS Resolution set sail with orders to find what was then the hypothetical southern continent of Antarctica, stopping at the islands of the South Pacific-- including New Zealand, Vanuatu, Tonga, Tahiti, and Easter Island--along the way.
Throughout it all, he held close the radical belief that our common humanity is far greater than what sets us apart. The Traveler recounts the remarkable life of this deeply curious and exceptional man who, though largely forgotten by history, truly belonged to the future.
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| Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn't Easy by Daniel OkrentComposer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim’s devoted fandom speaks to his huge impact on modern musical theater, and a short list of his hits -- Sweeney Todd, Company, Into the Woods -- leaves little doubt. Author Daniel Okrent’s concise, perceptive biography foregrounds aspects of Sondheim’s personal life, like how notoriously difficult he could be to work with, relentlessly pursuing perfection and sometimes displaying a vengeful streak. For fans of: Ira Gerhswin: A Life in Words by Michael Owen. |
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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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| Western Star: The Life and Legends of Larry McMurtry by David StreitfeldNovelist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry is perhaps best remembered for his western novel Lonesome Dove and his screenplay adaptation of Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain, as well as for making his home state of Texas a minor character in most of his writing. Before his death in 2021, McMurtry entrusted his friend and Pulitzer-winning journalist David Streitfeld with writing this biography, a “revealing portrait” (Kirkus Reviews) of a complicated man who remained an enigma to all but his closest associates. |
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Slaying Snakes in the Cockpit: Life Lessons from an Unlikely Astronaut
by Susan Kilrain
In Slaying Snakes in the Cockpit, Susan Kilrain takes readers on a gripping and inspiring journey through the trials that shaped her extraordinary career.
From the relentless demands of aerospace engineering and elite flight training to her service as a US Navy test pilot, earning a place among the first women to fly the F-14 Tomcat, she charts a path marked with grit, courage, and unshakable resolve, ultimately leading to the greatest challenge of her life--becoming the youngest person to pilot a space shuttle.
Alongside her story of professional milestones, Kilrain writes candidly about the personal victories and setbacks that unfolded behind the scenes, including navigating the delicate balance between family life and one of the world's most demanding careers. Through honest reflection, she explores her confrontation with obstacles such as gender bias and institutional resistance as well as her inner battles with doubt and fear. Slaying Snakes in the Cockpit delivers a powerful reminder that with vision, determination, and the courage to keep going, the sky is no limit--it's an invitation.
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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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