Biography and Memoir
October 2025

Recent Releases
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
by Omar El Akkad

In his frank and thought-provoking blend of history and memoir, award-winning novelist Omar El Akkad (American War) examines the West's apathy and inaction toward Israel's ongoing destruction of Gaza. Try this next: The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
A marriage at sea : a true story of love, obsession, and shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst
A marriage at sea : a true story of love, obsession, and shipwreck
by Sophie Elmhirst

A couple seeking escape sells everything to sail the world, but after a whale sinks their boat, they endure months adrift in a raft, battling starvation, inner demons and the ultimate test of their relationship in this true-life survival struggle.
The jailhouse lawyer by Calvin Duncan
The jailhouse lawyer
by Calvin Duncan

An account of Charles Duncan, who became a self-taught jailhouse lawyer after a wrongful conviction at nineteen, spending decades navigating a broken legal system, advocating for fellow prisoners, fighting for his own freedom, and ultimately exposing systemic failures.
The man who would be king : Mohammed bin Salman and the transformation of Saudi Arabia by Karen Elliott House
The man who would be king : Mohammed bin Salman and the transformation of Saudi Arabia
by Karen Elliott House

Draws on decades of reporting and exclusive interviews to offer a nuanced portrait of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, examining his dual role as a reformer modernizing Saudi Arabia and an authoritarian consolidating power through controversial domestic and international strategies.
When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of... by Graydon Carter
When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of...
by Graydon Carter

Journalist and former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter dishes on his 25 years working for the iconic periodical in this gossipy and self-deprecating "paean to the big, glossy, influential magazines of yore" (Booklist). For fans of: Dilettante: True Tales of Excess, Triumph, and Disaster by former Vanity Fair deputy editor Dana Brown.
Mother Mary Comes to Me
by Arundhati Roy

Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy shares vivid memories of growing up poor in India and her complicated relationship with her single mother, Mary. It is a raw account of living with a headstrong, volatile, and sometimes abusive parent, but one who also ignited the author’s dedication to Indian women’s rights, and whose death in 2022 left Arundhati overcome with grief. For fans of: I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy.
Yoko : a biography by David Sheff
Yoko : a biography
by David Sheff

Sheff shows us Yoko's nine decades--one of the most unlikely and remarkable lives ever lived. Yoko is a harrowing, moving, propulsive, and vastly entertaining biography of a woman whose story has never been accurately told. The book not only rehabilitates Yoko Ono's reputation but elevates it to iconic status.
Sister Wife: A Memoir of Faith, Family, and Finding Freedom
by Christine Brown Woolley

Reality TV star Christine Brown Woolley speaks earnestly about her Mormon faith and upbringing and candidly about her choice -- following the conclusion of her TLC show Sister Wives -- to leave the tradition of fundamentalist polygamy in which she was raised. If you like this, be sure to read Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear by Jinger Duggar Vuolo.
Contact your librarian for more great books!
Cobourg Public Library
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Cobourg, Ontario K9A 5P4
905-372-9271

www.cobourg.library.on.ca