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Biography and Memoir December 2025 |
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| Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret AtwoodIn Book of Lives, Canadian author Margaret Atwood brings readers a long-awaited, “marvelously witty” (Kirkus Reviews) memoir. Writing as much about her craft as her life story, Atwood reveals how both have influenced one another, for instance explaining how the dystopian setting for The Handmaid’s Tale was in part inspired by a stint in 1980s Berlin. For another memoir that ruminates on the writing life, try Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami. |
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The Accidental Vineyard: An Old House, New Vines, and a Changed Life in Wine Country
by Richard A. Moran
In a story reminiscent of A Year in Provence and We Bought a Zoo, a spontaneous drive from San Francisco to wine country leads a harried corporate executive and his family to a dilapidated 19th century Victorian home. They set out to return the house to its former grandeur--a journey that yields much more, ultimately restoring their hope for a well-rounded life. Consulting with internationally known CEOs and participating in high-stakes projects with millions of dollars and thousands of jobs on the line, Rich Moran knew the rule: there's no room for error--no fumbling, misgivings, or delays. While attempting to lull a crying son to sleep, a wrong turn on a drive through Sonoma County sets him and his family on a life-changing adventure. They can't resist a promise-laden 19th century home, looking past its rotting wraparound porch and leaky roof. When a good neighbor shows up with grapevines, the transformation of the property grows to include planting a vineyard and making wine. Before long, the family of city slickers morphs into country mice and joins an unexpected menagerie of people and critters in the shadow of Mount Saint Helena. Filled to the brim with all the eccentric follies you expect from a chance undertaking turned passion project, The Accidental Vineyard is a raucous, tender-hearted tale of planting the seeds of your passions and cultivating the life you want.
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Bread of Angels: A Memoir
by Patti Smith
The most intimate of Smith's memoirs, Bread of Angels takes us through her teenage years when the first glimmers of art and romance take hold. Arthur Rimbaud and Bob Dylan emerge as creative heroes and role models as Smith starts to write poetry, then lyrics, merging both into the iconic recordings and songs such as Horses and Easter, 'Dancing Barefoot' and 'Because the Night.' She leaves it all behind to marry her one true love, Fred 'Sonic' Smith, with whom she creates a life of devotion and adventure on a canal in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. ... She builds a room of her own, furnished with a pillow of Moroccan silk, a Persian cup, inkwell and fountain pen. The couple spend nights in their landlocked Chris-Craft studying nautical maps and charting new adventures as they start their family. As Smith suffers profound losses, grief and gratitude are braided through years of caring for her children, rebuilding her life, and, finally, writing again--
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Hunger Like a Thirst: From Food Stamps to Fine Dining, a Restaurant Critic Finds Her Place at the Table
by Besha Rodell
When Besha Rodell moved from Australia to the United States with her mother at fourteen, she was a foreigner in a new land, missing her friends, her father, and the food she grew up eating. In the years that followed, Besha began waitressing and discovered the buzz of the restaurant world, immersing herself in the thrilling lifestyle and community while noting the industry's shortcomings. As she built a family, Besha realized her dream, though only a handful of women before her had done it: to make a career as a restaurant critic. From the bustling streets of Brooklyn to lush Atlanta to sunny Los Angeles to traveling and eating around the world, and finally, home to Australia, Besha Rodell takes us on a ... journey through her life and career, as well as exploring the history of criticism and dining and the cultural shifts that have turned us all into food obsessives--
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Peace Is a Shy Thing: The Life and Art of Tim O'Brien
by Alex Vernon
Featuring over one hundred interviews with family, friends, peers, and others--not to mention countless exchanges with Tim O'Brien himself--[this book] provides a nearly day-by-day ... account of O'Brien's thirteen months as an infantryman in Vietnam and gives equal diligence to reconstructing O'Brien's writing process. [It] explores the life and journey that turned O'Brien into a literary icon and a household name. It includes an unpublished short story about O'Brien from a college girlfriend, documentation of his comical involvement with the Washington Post's coverage of Watergate, and a 1989 attic exchange between American and Vietnamese writers on the eve of the publication of O'Brien's most beloved book, The Things They Carried, years before the two countries normalized relations--
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| The Man of Many Fathers: Life Lessons Disguised as a Memoir by Roy Wood, Jr.Comedian and television personality Roy Wood, Jr.’s memoir is filled with lessons he learned the hard way from various “father” figures, including his real father, who played a peripatetic but influential role in his son’s life. Some of these figures offered Wood wisdom and advice, while others gave him examples not to follow, but they all made enough of an impression to become comedy gold in a debut that is also “refreshingly earnest” (Kirkus Reviews). If you like this, check out Being Henry: The Fonz…and Beyond by Henry Winkler. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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