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Biography and Memoir May 2018
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| The Best Cook in the World: Tales from My Momma's Table by Rick BraggWhat it's about: In this heartfelt and nostalgic tribute to the cuisine of his Alabama childhood, author Rick Bragg (All Over but the Shoutin') shares the stories behind his family's recipes.
Recipes include: pinto beans and ham bone, baked possum.
Want a taste? "She cooks in dabs, and smidgens, and tads, and a measurement she mysteriously refers to as 'you know, hon, just some.'" |
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| The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s by William I. HitchcockWhat it is: a measured reevaluation of the "do-nothing" president that demonstrates the extent of his accomplishments in office.
About the author: William I. Hitchcock is a history professor at the University of Virginia and the author of The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe, for which he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Further reading: Jean Edward Smith's Eisenhower: In War and Peace. |
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| The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath by Leslie JamisonWhat it is: a candid and galvanizing memoir of Leslie Jamison's recovery from the alcohol addiction that dominated her 20s.
What's inside: perceptive profiles of famous alcoholics throughout history -- including writer Raymond Carver and singer Billie Holiday -- that explore the link between addiction and creativity.
Try this next: Olivia Laing's The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking. |
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| The Duchess: Camilla Parker Bowles and the Love Affair That Rocked the Crown by Penny JunorWhat it's about: Royal biographer Penny Junor sympathetically delves into the life of "the other woman" deemed responsible for the dissolution of Prince Charles and Princess Diana's marriage.
Topics include: Camilla's romance with Charles prior to his marriage; how she handled her highly publicized vilification once their extramarital affair was revealed.
Is it for you? This persuasive portrait recasts Camilla from reviled to redeemed, arguing that her support of the royal family strengthens their standing. |
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| Publishing: A Writer's Memoir by Gail GodwinWhat it's about: novelist Gail Godwin's 50-year career as a writer, during which she navigated the evolving corporatization of the publishing industry.
What's inside: Black and white line drawings by architect Frances Halsband complement Godwin's illuminating prose.
Further reading: Godwin previously published her journals from 1961-1969 in the two-volume The Making of a Writer.
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What it is : dramatically illustrated with more than color pictures
by Lynda Barry
Presented as a series of lined-notebook cartoon collages, a visual testament to the creator's life-long quest for creative excellence explores such questions as the capacity of material objects for summoning memories and the tangible qualities of images.
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Light the dark : writers on creativity, inspiration, and the artistic process
by Joe Fassler
Here is a stunning guide to creative living and writing in the vein of Bird by Bird, Big Magic, and Daily Rituals for anyone who wants to learn how great writers find inspiration and how to find some of your own. Writer Joe Fassler has been collecting these lessons in his beloved "By Heart" series for The Atlantic, spinning conversations with hundreds of authors intomotivating essays paired with striking illustrations. Light the Dark collects the best of "By Heart" and adds brand new pieces from award-winning writers like Marilynne Robinson, Junot Diaz, and Neil Gaiman"
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| Where the Past Begins: A Writer's Memoir by Amy TanWhat it is: a captivating, nonlinear chronicle of the forces that have shaped Amy Tan's writing, including her tumultuous upbringing and her love of music and drawing.
Featuring: Tan's difficult mother, in whom her fiction fans will recognize a familiar character type.
For fans of: reflective literary memoirs like Richard Ford's Between Them. |
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Upstream : select essays
by Mary Oliver
A collection of essays with a new piece on Provincetown, follows the author as she contemplates the pleasure of artistic labor; her boundless curiosity for the flora and fauna that surround her; and the responsibility she has inherited from the great thinkers and writers of the past, to live thoughtfully, intelligently and to observe with passion
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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San Mateo Public Library 55 West 3rd Avenue San Mateo, California 94402 (650) 522-7802www.smplibrary.org |
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