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Biography and Memoir January 2026 |
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| Lucy & Desi: The Love Letters by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz; Lucie Arnaz, compilerLucie Arnaz, daughter of America’s premier midcentury TV couple, has curated a selection of her parents’ letters to each other during the blossoming years of their relationship. The young lovers’ missives, many written during Arnaz's military service, intimately reveal their longing and affection while occasionally giving a glimpse of their quarrels and jealousies. For more candid couples' communication, try Kirk and Anne: Letters of Love, Laughter, and a Lifetime in Hollywood by Kirk and Anne Douglas. |
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| Simply More: A Book for Anyone Who Has Been Told They're Too Much by Cynthia ErivoTheater, music, and film star Cynthia Erivo reflects on how far she has come while encouraging her readers to consider their own unrealized potential. Confident from an early age that she had a lot to offer the world, Erivo nevertheless had her share of detractors and setbacks, and she inspires readers to persist in their dreams, seek balance, and keep moving forward. For another stirring memoir of succeeding through struggle, try Leslie F*cking Jones by Leslie Jones. |
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The Other Girl
by Annie Ernaux
WINNER OF THE 2022 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE Annie Ernaux's profound investigation into the life of her mysterious older sister, who died at six, two years before Annie was born. In the summer of 1950, when Annie Ernaux is ten, she inadvertently learns she had a sister who died at six, two years before her own birth. Having believed she was an only child, she learns that she has replaced another daughter--the little saint, the absent one in every conversation, who lives on in Annie's parents' wordless grief. Taking the form of a letter to the unknown sister, The Other Girl was published in French in 2011 as part of the Affranchis collection (published by les éditions du Nil), which invited writers to compose the letter they'd never written, inspired by Kafka's Letter to His Father. I had to come to terms with this mysterious inconsistency: you, the good girl, were not saved, but I, the demon, survived. More than survived, was miraculously saved. So you had to die at six for me to come into the world and be saved. The Other Girl by the 2022 Nobel Laureate appears now for the first time in an English language version, adding a necessary and wondrous piece to the great and ongoing puzzle that is the oeuvre of one of our greatest living writers, Annie Ernaux.
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| Joan Crawford: A Woman's Face by Scott EymanFilm historian Scott Eyman unveils a comprehensive and evenhanded biography of Joan Crawford, an original “femme fatale” of Hollywood’s golden age. Noted for her unfaltering work ethic over a five-decade career, Crawford was closely guarded about her private life. Eyman unearths sources that highlight her impoverished upbringing, multiple marriages, and the allegations of abuse of her adopted children in this “juicy Hollywood saga” (Library Journal). |
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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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Hotshot: A Life on Fire
by River Selby
A beautiful reflection on justice, the environment, the self, and much more.--George SaundersThe fierce debut memoir of a female firefighter, Hotshot navigates the personal and environmental dangers of wildland firefightingFrom 2000 to 2010, River Selby was a wildland firefighter whose given name was Anastasia. This is a memoir of that time in their life--of Ana, the struggles she encountered, and the constraints of what it means to be female-bodied in a male-dominated industry. An illuminating debut from a fierce new voice, Hotshot is a timely reckoning with both the personal and environmental dangers of wildland firefighting.By the time they were nineteen, Selby had been homeless, addicted to drugs, and sexually assaulted more than once. In a last-ditch effort to find direction, they applied to be a wildland firefighter. Two years later, they joined an elite class of specially trained wildland firefighters known as hotshots. Over the course of five fire seasons, Selby delves into the world of the people--almost entirely men--who risk their lives to fight and sometimes prevent wildfires. Simultaneously hyper visible and invisible, Selby navigated an odd mix of camaraderie and rampant sexism on the job and, when they challenged it, a violent closing of ranks that excluded them from the work they'd come to love.Drawing on years of firsthand experience on the frontlines of fire and years of research, Selby examines how the collision of fire suppression policy, colonization, and climate change has led to fire seasons of unprecedented duration and severity. A work of rare intimacy, Hotshot provides new insight into fire, the people who fight it, and the diversity of ecosystems dependent on this elemental force.
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| Bread of Angels by Patti SmithPoet, musician, author, and all-around artist Patti Smith impresses with a life-spanning memoir. Smith’s writing is always lyrical, dreamlike, and filled with literary references, but here she uses it to reveal snippets of her restless, sickly childhood and intimate fragments of her marriage to the late Fred “Sonic” Smith. Somewhat of a return to form from her recent work, Bread of Angels is highly recommended for fans of Smith’s National Book Award-winning autobiography Just Kids. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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