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Biography and Memoir January 2019
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Mango Languages
Learn one of over five dozen languages, including over a dozen ESL courses, using real-life situations and conversations with Mango. This program is self-paced and helps you to learn by first listening to, and then repeating, words and phrases.
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Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center
Offers detailed how-to instructions and creative ideas to meet the interests of virtually every hobby enthusiast. Topics include beer and wine making, model building, scrapbooking, gardening, genealogy, and much more. Full text is provided from leading hobby and craft magazines, including Bead & Button, Creative Knitting, FineScale Modeler, Quilter's World, and more.
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Are you interested in learning more about your family history? The Metropolitan Library System is offering a number of upcoming programs to help you map your family's roots. Check one out in your neighborhood!
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Black History Month Programming Multiple times and library locations Celebrate Black History Month 2019 by attending this diverse array of commemorative programming!
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| Digital editions: available as an Overdrive ebook. What it is: the classic 1885 autobiography of America's 18th president, freshly updated with vivid footnotes, maps, and illustrations.
About the editor: Elizabeth D. Samet is a Professor of English at The United States Military Academy.
What sets it apart: Samet's insightful introduction discusses Grant's literary influences, including Washington Irving and John Wesley. |
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| Late-Life Love by Susan GubarWhat it's about: the bittersweet realities of aging as faced by self-described "antique lovers" and retired English professors, New York Times columnist Susan Gubar (70) and her husband Don Gray (87).
Topics include: the couple's difficult decision to downsize; their reduced mobility and health issues; Gubar's "resounding retort" to ageism.
Want a taste? "Late-life love may heat at a lower temperature, but it bubbles and rises." |
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| What it is: an evocative account of American reporter and London Sunday Times correspondent Marie Colvin's courageous life and heartbreaking death that is as intense as it is inspiring.
Who it's for: "everyone, including journalism junkies, history buffs, and casual readers" (Publishers Weekly).
Did you know? Colvin lost her left eye in a Sri Lankan battlefield in 1999 and wore an eye patch until her 2012 death in Syria.
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| Digital editions: available as an Overdrive ebook. What it is: a moving and amusing essay collection from bestselling author Ann Hood (The Knitting Circle) that chronicles her love of food in times of both celebration and catharsis.
Recipes include: lemon meringue pie, "doctored" ramen, Italian meatballs, and Indiana fried chicken.
Try this next: For another food memoir by a prolific author, check out Rick Bragg's The Best Cook in the World: Tales from My Momma's Table.
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| Digital editions: available as an Overdrive ebook and audiobook. What it's about: In this intimate and sincere memoir, Pakistani education rights activist Ziauddin Yousafzai shares his life story and the lessons he has learned from his daughter, Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai (who wrote the book's foreword).
Want a taste? "I come from a family in which my gender made me special. But I did not want to be special for this reason."
What sets it apart: Rather than recounting his life story chronologically, Yousafzai does so based on the most important relationships in his life. |
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| Digital editions: available as an Overdrive ebook. What it is: London musician James Bowen's engaging sequel to his bestselling memoir A Street Cat Named Bob.
What happens: After the publication of his first book, Bowen grapples with overnight celebrity and his ongoing struggles with homelessness and addiction. Luckily, his quirky feline companion is by his side to help him get through tough times.
Series alert: Bowen's third memoir, A Gift from Bob, completes the Bob the Cat trilogy.
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| The Boy Who Runs: The Odyssey of Julius Achon by John BrantWhat it's about: At 12, Julius Achon was abducted from his Ugandan village by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and forced to become a child soldier. After his quick feet helped him escape the LRA, he honed his competitive running skills and eventually became an Olympic athlete.
Why you might like it: John Brant expertly balances the fast-paced, white-knuckle suspense of Achon's remarkable escape with his uplifting journey toward sports stardom and humanitarianism. |
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| Digital editions: available as an Overdrive audiobook and always available as a hoopla audiobook. What it's about: After leaving her abusive husband, Cara Brookins set out to create a new home for her family.
What happened next: Brookins and her four children built the home -- from the ground up -- by themselves. Though the process was not without its challenges, it gave the family a healing start to a life free of violence and trauma.
For fans of: inspiring, can-do memoirs such as Cheryl Strayed's Wild. |
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| Digital editions: available as an Overdrive ebook and always available as a hoopla audiobook. What it is: Guardian columnist Stella Grey's hilarious adventures in online dating following her unexpected divorce at age 50.
Why you might like it: Brimming with practical tips and insights, Grey's frank yet optimistic memoir is "an unforgettable glimpse into the search for love in the twenty-first century" (Booklist).
Who it's for: singletons of any age contemplating online dating. |
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| Digital editions: available as an Overdrive ebook and always available as a hoopla audiobook. What it's about: In 2015, neuroscientist Barbara K. Lipska was diagnosed with melanoma that spread to her brain and led to dementia and schizophrenia-like symptoms. After her treatment plan gave her a miraculous "second chance at sanity," she began a long road to recovery, grappling with the memories -- and irony -- of her illness.
Want a taste? "I am living through some of the processes of a disease that I've spent my life studying and trying to cure." |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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