Biography and Memoir
May 2025
Recent Releases
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.
The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward
by Melinda French Gates

In her bestselling blend of memoir and self-help, Melinda French Gates candidly reflects on some of the major transitions in her life (including becoming a parent and leaving the Gates Foundation) and offers guidance on how readers can navigate change and thrive. For fans of: What I Know For Sure by Oprah Winfrey.
Fahrenheit-182 : a memoir
by Mark Hoppus

"This is the story of an angst-filled kid from the desert, navigating the chaos of his parents' bitter divorce and searching for his place in the world. Each move across the country was a chance to reinvent himself, switching identities from dork to gothto skate punk, and eventually meeting his best friend who just so happens to be his musical soulmate. With sharp humor and raw honesty, Fahrenheit-182 takes readers through Mark's formative years as a latchkey kid in the 1980s, hooked on punk rock, skateboards, and MTV. Along the way, Mark reflects on his lifelong battle with anxiety, his celebrated career with blink-182, and his public fight with cancer, in a voice that's both relatable and unmistakably his own"
We tell ourselves stories : Joan Didion and the American dream machine
by Alissa Wilkinson

Chronicles the iconic writer's journey from journalist to Hollywood screenwriter, examining how her fascination with American mythmaking and cinematic motifs shaped her work and her critique of Hollywood's role in sensationalizing the nation's fears and dreams.
Yoko
by David Sheff

David Sheff (Beautiful Boy) draws on decades' worth of his interviews with Yoko Ono, including a 1980 interview for Playboy conducted shortly before John Lennon's murder, to deliver a nuanced portrait of the often misunderstood artist and activist. Further reading: We All Shine On: John, Yoko, and Me by Elliot Mintz.
Focus on: Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month
My Life: Growing Up Asian in America
by Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (editor); with an introduction by SuChin Pak

What it is: a thought-provoking and intimate anthology offering 30 diverse firsthand accounts of the Asian American experience.

Featuring: poetry, comics, essays, monologues, and more.

Further reading: Asian American Histories of the United States by Catherine Ceniza Choy; Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now by Jeff Yang, Phil Yu, and Philip Wang.
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning
by Cathy Park Hong

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, Korean American poet Cathy Park Hong's candid and thought-provoking essay collection blends memoir with cultural criticism and explores her complicated relationship with her identity. Try this next: Docile: Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl by Hyeseung Song; I'm Laughing Because I'm Crying by Youngmi Mayer.
Sigh, Gone: A Misfit's Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit in
by Phuc Tran

After the fall of Saigon in 1975, author Phuc Tran and his family immigrated to America, winding up in a predominantly white small town in Pennsylvania. An outsider among his classmates, Tran found solace in punk music, classic literature, and skateboarding. Equal parts funny and affecting, Tran's coming-of-age memoir will resonate with fans of The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere by James Spooner, and anyone who has ever struggled to fit in.
Contact your librarian for more great books!
Auburn Public Library
49 Spring St.
Auburn, Maine 04210
207-333-6640

www.auburnpubliclibrary.org/