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Biography and Memoir January 2026 |
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It Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin
by Marisa Meltzer
NATIONAL BESTSELLER A Most Anticipated Book of 2025: Town & Country - Harper's Bazaar - W Magazine - Bustle - LitHub - Women's Wear Daily The first comprehensive biography of Jane Birkin--actress, singer, and legendary style icon--and her profound cultural impact, from the acerbic, culturally astute, and genuine (The New York Times) author of the instant New York Times bestseller Glossy. Jane Birkin was synonymous with chic. Her effortless style and artistic legacy have been immortalized through her music and film career. And, of course, she was the inspiration behind one of the world's most coveted bags, the Herm s Birkin. But who was the real woman behind the it girl? Now, New York Times bestselling author Marisa Meltzer sheds new light on Birkin's enigmatic life and explores her profound influence on generations in a rigorously reported biography unlike any other. It Girl paints a vivid portrait of Birkin and her profound legacy, from her early years in 1960s London to her rise as a beloved celebrity in France, detailing personal challenges, her relationships with creative powerhouses, and the duality of her public and private selves. Based on interviews and deep archival research, Meltzer reveals the nuances of Birkin's character: her famously tempestuous romantic relationships, life with her three famous daughters, and the creative energy that drove her. It Girl tells the story of her indelible impact on femininity and style, and how what we think of as French girl style grew from her. Far from being just a muse, Birkin is at last given her well-deserved due.
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Children Like Us: A Métis Woman's Memoir of Family, Identity and Walking Herself Home
by Brittany Penner
A Métis girl is adopted by a Mennonite family in this breathtaking memoir about family lost and found. By the time Brittany Penner is seven years old, she has loved and lost twenty-one foster siblings who have come into her family and left--all of them Indigenous like her. When will it be my turn? she asks her mother time and time again. When will I be taken away? You won't be, she is told. You're adopted. You're here to stay. You're the lucky one. On the day of her birth in 1989, near the end of the Sixties Scoop, Brittany was relinquished into the care of the government and adopted by a white Mennonite family in a small prairie town. Her name and where she came from are hidden from her; all she is told is that she is Métis. Her childhood is shaped by church, family, service and silence. Her family is continuously shifting as siblings arrive and depart, one by one. She knows that to stay, she has to force herself into the mold created for her. She must be obedient. Quiet. Good. No matter what. Whenever she looks in the mirror, she searches her features, wondering if they've been passed down to her by her biological mother. She thinks, if she can find her mother, she'll find all the answers she's looking for. As Brittany moves into adulthood, she will uncover answers--but they will be more tangled than she could have imagined. Children Like Us asks difficult questions about family, identity, belonging and cultural continuity. What happens when you find what you're looking for, but it can't offer you everything you need? How do you reckon with the truth of your own story when you've always been told you're lucky and should be grateful? What does it mean to belong when you feel torn between cultures? And how does a person learn to hold the pain and the grief, as well as the triumphs, the joys and the beauty, allowing none to eclipse the others?
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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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If You Don't Like This, I Will Die: An Influencer Memoir
by Lee Tilghman
A powerful and illuminating memoir that exposes the stark and rarely-seen reality of influencing as a career. Lee Tilghman--also known as @LeeFromAmerica--was one of the very first wellness influencers. To her nearly 400,000 followers, she shared daily updates and advice on everything from skincare and sleep hacks to smoothie bowls, travel tips, and workout routines. She embodied #SelfCare. Her sponsorships with such brands as Madewell and Subaru netted an income of over $300,000 a year. On the grid, her life seemed perfect. But behind her carefully curated posts, Tilghman was in crisis, suffocating from the unrelenting demand of keeping up her online facade. Her friendships frayed from an inability to enjoy any activity, even a simple dinner, without taking hundreds of photos. She found herself viewing everything she did as potential content for Instagram. The more she shared, the more her followers craved. Her romantic relationships suffered from the pressure to hard launch. Her job's focus on food led her to develop a severe fixation on healthy eating. At her lowest point, she looked around her apartment to realize every item she owned had been given to her by brands in exchange for posting. After a stay in a mental health facility to address her disordered eating and psychological decline, Tilghman quit influencing as her primary career and set out to discover who she really was. If You Don't Like This, I Will Die is a sharp, self-aware look at life inside the influencer economy and a relatable story for anyone who has struggled with the unreasonableness of online expectations. With over half of Gen Z aspiring to be influencers, nearly three out of five teen girls experiencing persistent sadness and hopelessness, and the US Surgeon General calling for a social media warning label, Tilghman's memoir couldn't be more timely and necessary.
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Pieces you'll never get back : a memoir of unlikely survival
by Samina Ali
The author nearly died at twenty-nine, falling into a coma while giving birth, waking up with no memories of her husband or baby, only able to speak her native Urdu, and took years to piece herself together and reconnect with her identity as author, wife, and mother.
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| Insomnia by Robbie RobertsonIn a posthumous autobiography, musician and songwriter Robbie Robertson relates a rapid-fire, impressionistic collection of anecdotes surrounding an extended lost weekend in 1970s Los Angeles with film director Martin Scorsese. Exiled from their family home by his wife for bad behavior, Robertson moved in with Scorsese, dove into a pile of cocaine, and partied with the stars while the pair assembled the raw footage of The Last Waltz concert film. This is perfect for fans of high-octane music memoirs like Under a Rock by Blondie’s Chris Stein. |
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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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