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Biography and Memoir September 2020
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| Life of a Klansman: A Family History in White Supremacy by Edward BallWhat it is: the follow-up to Edward Ball's National Book Award-winning Slaves in the Family that focuses on the author's great-great-grandfather, a member of the Ku Klux Klan in late 19th-century New Orleans.
Read it for: Ball's sobering and incisive reckoning with a family legacy of white supremacy.
Reviewers say: "It won't be a comfortable reading experience, and it's not meant to be, but it's a necessary one" (Booklist). |
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| The Book of Atlantis Black: The Search For a Sister Gone Missing by Betsy BonnerWhat it's about: author Betsy Bonner's search for her troubled sister Atlantis Black, whose mysterious disappearance and presumed overdose in a Tijuana hotel room left Bonner with more questions than answers.
What happened? Though Atlantis' ID was found in the hotel room, the body was not identified before cremation. Could Atlantis still be alive?
Try this next: For another candid true-crime/memoir hybrid investigating a family member's death, check out Leah Carroll's Down City. |
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| The Growing Season: How I Built a New Life -- and Saved an American Farm by Sarah FreyWhat it's about: Growing up impoverished in rural Illinois, Sarah Frey always longed to leave her family farm, until a change of heart at age 18 inspired her to save the business from foreclosure.
About the author: Now known as "America's Pumpkin Queen," Frey is the CEO of the billion-dollar Frey Farms, one of the country's largest produce suppliers.
Who it's for: Aspiring entrepreneurs and fans of rags-to-riches stories will enjoy this heartwarming and inspiring read. |
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| Like Crazy: Life with My Mother and Her Invisible Friends by Dan MathewsWhat it is: a witty and moving chronicle of author Dan Mathews' time spent caring for his aging mother, Perry.
What happened: Worried that his gay bachelor lifestyle would be off-putting to Perry, Dan was instead shocked by the septuagenarian's zest for life. But Perry's increasingly erratic behavior revealed something neither of them would expect -- a long-undiagnosed mental illness.
Read it for: a thoughtful exploration of the ways parent-child relationships evolve. |
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The House of Yan: A Family at the Heart of a Century in Chinese History
by Lan Yan
What it's about: how three generations of Lan Yan's well-to-do family navigated the tumultuous changes of 20th-century China, including the Cultural Revolution that led to their persecution.
Reviewers say: "a deeply personal, accessible, and worthy introduction to modern Chinese history" (Booklist).
Try this next: Jung Chang's Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China.
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| Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented... by Charles KingWhat it is: a sweeping group biography of the women who studied cultural anthropology under Franz Boas in the early 20th century.
Why you might like it: This engaging history explores how these trailblazing scientists challenged notions of Western cultural superiority.
On the roster: Ruth Benedict, Ella Cara Deloria, Margaret Mead, and Zora Neale Hurston. |
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| Mind and Matter: A Life in Math and Football by John UrschelWhat it's about: John Urschel's adventures in academia (he's currently pursuing a PhD in mathematics at MIT) and athletics (he was a Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman for three seasons).
Read it for: Urschel's infectious enthusiasm for his passions.
Want a taste? "So often, people want to divide the world into two. Matter and energy. Wave and particle. Athlete and mathematician. Why can't something (or someone) be both?" |
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Mama's boy, preacher's son : a memoir
by Kevin Jennings
What it's about: A compelling, intensely personal memoir recalls growing up poor in the South, the son of a fundamentalist preacher and self-taught mother, describing his mother's determination that he would attend college, his discovery of a world beyond poverty where he could live openly as a gay man, and the need to hide his identity in his career as a high-school teacher.
What the reviewers say: "A refreshingly readable memoir." (Booklist)
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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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