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Biography and Memoir March 2026 |
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Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle BurdenIt was a great love story, one for the ages. The speed of our beginning and the speed of our ending felt like matching bookends. They both came out of nowhere. He wanted it, he wanted me. And then he didn't. In March 2020, Belle Burden was safe and secure with her family at their house on Martha's Vineyard, navigating the early days of the pandemic together--building fires in the late afternoons, drinking whiskey sours, making roast chicken. Then, with no warning or explanation, her husband of twenty years announced that he was leaving her. Overnight, her caring, steady partner became a man she hardly recognized. He exited his life with her like an actor shrugging off a costume. In Strangers, Burden revisits her marriage, searching for clues that her husband was not who she always thought he was. As she examines her relationship through a new lens, she reckons with her own family history and the lessons she intuited about how a woman is expected to behave in the face of betrayal. Through all of it, she is transformed. The discreet, compliant woman she once was--someone nicknamed 'Belle the Good'--gives way to someone braver, someone determined to use her voice. With unflinching honesty and profound grace, Burden charts a path through heartbreak to show the power of a woman who refuses to give up on love. Strangers is a stunning, deeply moving, compulsively readable memoir heralding the arrival of a thrilling new literary talent.
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| Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America by Howard BryantKings and Pawns is the untold story of sports and fame, Black America and the promise of integration through the Cold War lens of two transformative events. The first occurred July 18, 1949 in Washington, D.C., when a reluctant Jackie Robinson, the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball star who integrated the game and at the time was the most famous Black man in America, appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee to discredit Paul Robeson, the legendary athlete, baritone, and actor -- himself once the most famous Black man in America. The testimony would be a defining moment in Robinson's life and contribute heavily to the destruction of Robeson's iconic reputation in the eyes of America. The second occurred June 12, 1956, in the midst of the last, demagogic roar of McCarthyism, when a battered, defiant Robeson -- prohibited from leaving the United States -- faced off in a final showdown with HUAC in the same setting Robinson appeared in seven years earlier. These two moments would epitomize the ongoing Black American conflict between patriotism and protest. On the cusp of a nascent civil rights movement, Robinson and Robeson would represent two poles of a people pitted against itself by forces that demanded loyalty without equality in return -- one man testifying in conflicted service to and the other in ferocious critique of a country that would ultimately and decisively wound both. In a time of great division, with America in the midst of a new era of retrenchment and Black athletes again chilled into silence advocating for civil rights, the story of these two titans reverberates today within and beyond Black America. From the revival of government overreach to curb civil liberties to the Cold War-era rhetoric of "the enemy within" levied against fellow citizens, Kings and Pawns is a story of a moment that remains hauntingly present. |
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| Fly, Wild Swans: My Mother, Myself and China by Jung ChangIn this follow-up to Chang's Wild Swans, "Deng Xiaoping opened the door of Communist China, and Jung--twenty-six years old and unstoppably curious, despite years of brainwashing--seized the propitious moment and became one of the first Chinese to leave the tightly sealed country and come to the West. [This memoir] chronicles her journey and that of her family, along with that of China, as it rose from a decrepit and isolated state to a world power challenging American dominance. During those decades, although she lives in the West, Jung's life intertwines with her native land in unexpected ways, a rare relationship made more complex because all her books are banned there. Her family story mirrors the ups and downs of China's transformation, right up to today, as it enters another watershed. Chairman Xi Jinping's attempt to return China to the anti-American Maoist past has a devastating impact on Jung's life: she is unable to go to her mother's deathbed. |
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Homeschooled: A Memoirby Stefan Merrill BlockStefan Merrill Block was nine when his mother pulled him from school, certain that his teachers were “stifling his creativity.” Hungry for more time with her boy who was growing up too quickly, she began to instruct Stefan in the family’s living room. Beyond his formal lessons in math, however, Stefan was largely left to his own devices and his mother’s erratic whims, such as her project to recapture her twelve-year-old son's early years by bleaching his hair and putting him on a crawling regimen. Years before homeschooling would become a massive nationwide movement, at a time when it had just become legal in his home state of Texas, Stefan vanished into that unseen space and into his mother’s increasingly eccentric theories and projects. But when, after five years away from the outside world, Stefan reentered the public school system in Plano as a freshman, he was in for a jarring awakening.
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Attention Seeker: A Neurodivergent Comedian's Guide to Thriving with ADHD by Darcy MichaelWhat if ADHD isn't a disorder to overcome, but a superpower that makes you funnier, more creative, and more resilient? In Attention Seeker, comedian and card-carrying adult with ADHD Darcy Michael offers a fresh perspective on getting through the daily struggles that confront those on the neurofabulous end of the spectrum. Darcy takes readers on a humorous-yet-heartfelt journey as he relates stories of growing up gay, getting married, and finding a career in comedy, all while navigating life with an attention-addled brain. From his early acting days on Spun Out to finding fame (and love) on the internet, Darcy shares all the dirty details (it’s NSFW, folks!) of how ADHD has shaped his identity, his relationships, and his work.
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Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs Baldwin: A Love Story, the first major biography of James Baldwin in three decades, reveals how profoundly the writer’s personal relationships shaped his life and work. Drawing on newly uncovered archival material and original research and interviews, this spellbinding book tells the overlapping stories of Baldwin’s most sustaining intimate and artistic relationships: with his mentor, the Black American painter Beauford Delaney; with his lover and muse, the Swiss painter Lucien Happersberger; and with his collaborators, the famed Turkish actor Engin Cezzar and the iconoclastic French artist Yoran Cazac, whose long-overlooked significance as Baldwin’s last great love is explored in these pages for the first time. Nicholas Boggs shows how Baldwin drew on all the complex forces within these relationships―geographical, cultural, political, artistic, and erotic― and alchemized them into novels, essays, and plays that speak truth to power and had an indelible impact on the civil rights movement and on Black and queer literary history. Richly immersive, Baldwin: A Love Story follows the writer’s creative journey between Harlem, Paris, Switzerland, the southern United States, Istanbul, Africa, the South of France, and beyond. In so doing, it magnifies our understanding of the public and private lives of one of the major literary figures of the twentieth century, whose contributions only continue to grow in influence.
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| Black Dahlia: Murder, Monsters, and Madness in Midcentury Hollywood by William J. Mannhe brutal murder of Elizabeth Short—better known as the Black Dahlia—in 1947 has been in the public consciousness for nearly eighty years, yet no serious study of the crime has ever been published. Short has been mischaracterized as a wayward sex worker or vagabond, and—like the seductive femme fatales of film noir—responsible for and perhaps deserving of her fate. William J. Mann, however, is interested in the truth. His extensive research reveals her as a young woman with curiosity and drive, who leveraged what little agency postwar society gave her to explore the world, defying draconian postwar gender expectations to settle down, marry, and have children. It’s time to reexamine the woman who became known as the Black Dahlia. Using a 21st-century lens, Mann connects Short’s story to the anxious era after World War II, when the nation was grappling with new ideas, new demographics, new technologies, and old fears dressed up as new ones. Only by situating the Black Dahlia case within this changing world can we understand the tragedy of this young woman, whose life and death offer surprising mirrors on today. Mann has strong opinions on who might’ve killed her, and even stronger ones on who did not. He spent five years sifting through the evidence and has found unknown connections by cross-referencing police reports, District Attorney investigations, FBI files, court documents, military records, and more, using the deep, intense research skills that have become his trademark. He also spoke with the families of the original detectives, of Short’s friends, and even of suspects, and relied on advice from experienced physicians and homicide detectives. Mann deftly sifts through the sensationalized journalism, preconceived notions, myths, and misunderstandings surrounding the case to uncover the truth about Elizabeth Short like no book before. The Black Dahlia promises to be the definitive study about the most famous unsolved case in American history. |
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Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America by Robert B. ReichA thought-provoking, principled, clear-eyed chronicle of the culture, politics, and economic choices that have landed us where we are today—with irresponsible economic bullies and corporations with immense wealth and lobbying power on top, demagogues on the rise, and increasing inequality fueling anger and hatred across the country. Nine months after World War II, Robert Reich was born into a united America with a bright future—which went unrealized for so many as big money took over our democracy. His encounter with school bullies on account of his height—4'11" as an adult—set him on a determined path to spend his life fighting American bullies of every sort. He recounts the death of a friend in the civil rights movement; his political coming of age witnessing the Berkeley free speech movement; working for Bobby Kennedy and Senator Eugene McCarthy; experiencing a country torn apart by the Vietnam War; meeting Hillary Rodham in college, Bill Clinton at Oxford, and Clarence Thomas at Yale Law. He details his friendship with John Kenneth Galbraith during his time teaching at Harvard, and subsequent friendships with Bernie Sanders and Ted Kennedy; and his efforts as labor secretary for Clinton and economic advisor to Barack Obama. Ultimately, Reich asks: What did his generation accomplish? Did they make America better, more inclusive, more tolerant? Did they strengthen democracy? Or did they come up short? Reich hardly abandons us to despair over a doomed democracy. With characteristic spirit and humor, he lays out how we can reclaim a sense of community and a democratic capitalism based on the American ideals we still have the power to salvage.
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Cudi: The Memoir by Scott Kid Cudi MescudiCudi: The Memoir is Scott Mescudi’s most personal work yet. Across a trailblazing career, he’s turned pain into poetry with anthems like “Day ’N’ Nite,” “Pursuit of Happiness,” and “Mr. Rager.” His music gave voice to the unheard and hope to the unseen. But while he was ascending to cultural dominance, he was quietly unraveling. Written during a time of deep self-discovery, Cudi is a story of survival—through depression, addiction, isolation, and doubt. In his own words, Scott charts the journey back to himself, offering hard-earned lessons on vulnerability, reinvention, and the courage to keep going.
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Unseen: How I Lost My Vision But Found My Voice by Molly BurkeWhen Molly Burke was four years old, she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare degenerative eye disease that leads to eventual blindness, forcing her to see the world through new eyes—literally. Growing up disabled didn’t stop her from playing sports, becoming a rock-climbing instructor, or winning a beauty pageant, but other people’s narrow perceptions of her held her back. Years of relentless bullying, toxic work environments, a rodent-infested apartment, and life’s lowest moments were juxtaposed with red carpets, first-class flights, and personal and professional achievements. Throughout her life, Molly has learned to appreciate the duality, and, most importantly, she’s learned the beauty of being unapologetically yourself and standing up for what you truly believe in. In Unseen, Molly chronicles her journey as a disabled woman, entrepreneur, and entertainer, illuminating what her experiences have taught her and what she hopes others can learn from her hardship and successes. Part memoir, part rallying cry for a more compassionate and empathetic world, Unseen recounts Molly’s life and experiences fighting against the expectations society set for her and, in doing so, helps readers find their own voice, inner strength, and self-acceptance.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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The Public Library
501 Copper NW
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87102
505-768-5141abqlibrary.org |
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