|
|
Biography and Memoir September 2026 |
|
|
|
|
|
Cancel Me If You Can
by Dave Portnoy
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER #1 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BESTSELLER In his unfiltered style, Dave Portnoy details the journey of how he built his polarizing media empire, Barstool Sports, while refusing to bend the knee to those who tried to tear him down, staying true to himself and blocking out the haters. Dave Portnoy is a gambler. From his days playing Little League baseball, he has always bet on himself and his future, which is exactly how he built his digital media empire, Barstool Sports. It all started in 2004, when Dave wrote what he knew and passed out a four-page broadsheet newspaper all over Boston. The idea was simple but revolutionary: not everyone wanted their sports takes from SportsCenter anchors in suits. Fans wanted something local, raw, and unapologetic--written in the same language and tone you might hear at your local sports bar. So, Dave gave it to them. More than twenty years later, Barstool has grown into a nine-figure company with over 300 employees and 150 active brands. But the story doesn't end there. Dave continues to expand Barstool and his personal brand, launching into the world of sports betting, giving honest pizza reviews, building generational media stars, and giving back to dog shelters and small businesses with the help of his own famous rescue dog, Miss Peaches. Though he didn't set out to be a political lightning rod, it happened--and he's fully aware that half the internet hates him while the other half loves him. The truth? He doesn't care, as long as people take interest. He's always been brutally honest, and he always will be. Dave's journey hasn't been perfect. He's failed--publicly and personally--and he's constantly willing to risk it all. Why? Because he already knows what it's like to lose everything and start over, time and time again. So why not? In Cancel Me If You Can, Dave lays it all out: the hard work, the timing, the luck, the poisonous relationships behind the curtain, and the balls it took to get to where he is today. This isn't a memoir or a business book--it's another bet on himself. But honestly, would you really want to bet against him? The odds are against it.
|
|
|
|
The Only Thing There Is to Want: A Memoir of Three Loves
by Sarah Hepola
The New York Times bestselling author of Blackout excavates the three romantic entanglements that defined her adulthood--an electrifying examination of the blurry line between affection and obsession revealing the restless wanting that hums in us all. Insightful, original, and hilarious . . . When it comes to memoir, Hepola] is one of the best to ever do it.--Christie Tate, New York Times bestselling author of Group I'm scared I only want what I can't have, I said.Oh baby, he said. It's the only thing there is to want. Sarah Hepola wanted so much: a big career; travel and adventure; deep relationships; passion. Having realized so many of those desires, she also grieved the ways her life was not what she'd always imagined it would be. Did I make the wrong choices? she wondered. Love the wrong people? Is love even a choice? In The Only Thing There Is To Want, she revisits three complicated love affairs from her past, seeking to understand how they might have kept her from the life she'd envisioned, but also made her who she is. Tracing her search for love, she uncovers the myths she once believed could make her whole. This dazzling portrait of modern romance captures the paradox of desire: wanting propels us forward and holds us back. Funny, achingly tender, and fearlessly intimate, The Only Thing There Is to Want is about discovering the beauty in the life you've built.
|
|
|
|
American Alt: A True Story of Madness and Friendship in a Fractured Country
by Chris Lockhart
In 2021, Michael Dodd, a veteran and avid outdoorsman, was committed to a mental hospital for plotting to kidnap the governor of Washington. Dodd, who was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, requested the help of his childhood friend, the author Chris Lockhart, in piecing together his fractured sense of self through narrative therapy. Their talks form the backbone of Lockhart’s haunting “exploration of mental illness and friendship in the wreckage of American decline” (Publishers Weekly).
|
|
|
|
Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith
by J. D. Vance
Narrated by the Vice President himself--an intimate account of why the bestselling author of Hillbilly Elegy JD Vance strayed from the Christianity of his youth and what led him back to faith.Communion is a spiritual exploration of what it means to be a Christian in all the seasons of life JD Vance has experienced--as a child, a young man, a husband, a father, and a leader.Picking up in some ways where Hillbilly Elegy left off, Communion recounts how Vance's pursuit of material privileges ultimately led him into a secular wilderness.Communion reveals how Vance regained his faith and discusses his conversion to Catholicism, how his faith guides his work in public life, and how it shapes his thoughts about the future.
|
|
|
|
Called by the Hills: A Home in the Himalaya
by Anuradha Roy
A book about building a home and a wild garden on the edge of a Himalayan forest, illuminated by the author's own watercolors.When acclaimed novelist Anuradha Roy and her husband stumble upon a derelict cottage in the hill station of Ranikhet, they decide it is where they will now live. Fresh from the neon-lit publishing offices of Delhi, Roy is initially bemused by the gentle pace of life in the mountains but then won over: spellbound by the landscape, taken to the heart of the rural community, and adopted by four mountain dogs and counting.As Roy tries to rebuild the cottage and create a garden, she encounters nature at its most fierce, beautiful, and vulnerable, and over twenty-five years bears witness to the destructive impact of global warming on the alpine ecosystem. What emerges is a tender and intimate portrait of her surroundings in which rugged nature, lovable dogs, and recalcitrant humans come together to captivating effect. Written with unsentimental clarity, humor, and poignancy, this is a story of profound transformations.
|
|
|
|
Scavenging Beauty: A Memoir in Walks
by Angelica Glass
In this beguiling memoir of discovery and transformation, a woman walks every street in Santa Cruz County, California, and finds unexpected healing Angelica Glass spent decades as a social worker helping families struggling with poverty, addiction, abuse and neglect. Needing relief from work-related stress, she turned to walking as an outlet. What began as a way to incorporate more exercise into her busy life transformed into something extraordinary: a years-long odyssey in which Glass drew upon physical exercise, a close observation of the natural world, and long periods of introspection to reconcile with her own past. Between moments of awe as she explored her community and documented what she saw with her camera, she grappled with the turmoil of her early years in a complicated, challenging family, the aging process, long-held insecurities, and grief. Whether wandering through residential neighborhoods, over redwood-strewn mountain passes, or along the seashore, Glass found solace and developed a growing sense of peace. By looking to the natural world to suture old wounds -- by scavenging beauty on her terms -- she came to understand what it means to feel whole.
|
|
Focus on: Hispanic Heritage Month
|
|
| Devout: Losing My Faith to Find Myself by David ArchuletaBy the time David Archuleta was 17, he had become the first runner-up on American Idol and was ready to parlay his newfound fame into a singing career. Except…he experienced persistent feelings of same-sex attraction. David’s long journey toward self-acceptance involved deciding whether he wanted to come out and risk alienating his fans, his Honduran American family, and his Latter-Day Saints church -- a struggle many readers will find relatable. Read-alike: What Mattered Most by Ty Herndon. |
|
| Keeper of My Kin: Memoir of an Immigrant Daughter by Ada FerrerPulitzer Prize-winning historian Ada Ferrer (Cuba: An American History) relates the toll that emigrating from Cuba to the United States took on her family, especially her older half-brother Poly. When 10-month-old Ada and her mother left for New York City in 1963, a dispute with Poly’s father meant the boy had to be left behind, a heartbreaking turn that the author believes cast a shadow over the rest of Poly’s troubled life. For more emotionally intense stories of immigrant families, try Why Didn’t You Tell Me? by Carmen Rita Wong and A Body Across Two Hemispheres by Victoria Buitron. |
|
|
|
Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood
by Danny Trejo
For the first time, the full, fascinating, and inspirational true story of Danny Trejo's journey from crime, prison, addiction, and loss to unexpected fame as Hollywood's favorite bad guy with a heart of gold--
|
|
|
|
Hola Papi: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons
by John Paul Brammer
LGBTQ advice columnist John Paul Brammer writes a wise and charming (David Sedaris) memoir-in-essays chronicling his journey from a queer, mixed-race kid in America's heartland to becoming the Chicano Carrie Bradshaw of his generation. A master class of tone and tenderness. --The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) Should be required reading. --Los Angeles TimesThe first time someone called John Paul (JP) Brammer Papi was on the gay hookup app Grindr. At first, it was flattering; JP took this as white-guy speak for hey, handsome. But then it happened again and again...and again, leaving JP wondering: Who the hell is Papi? Soon, this racialized moniker became the inspiration for his now wildly popular advice column Hola Papi!, launching his career as the Cheryl Strayed for young queer people everywhere--and some straight people too. JP had his doubts at first--what advice could he really offer while he himself stumbled through his early twenties? Sometimes the best advice comes from looking within, which is what JP does in his column and book--and readers have flocked to him for honest, heartfelt wisdom, and more than a few laughs. In this hilarious, tenderhearted book, JP shares his story of growing up biracial and in the closet in America's heartland, while attempting to answer some of life's most challenging questions: How do I let go of the past? How do I become the person I want to be? Is there such a thing as being too gay? Should I hook up with my grade school bully now that he's out of the closet? Questions we've all asked ourselves, surely. Hola Papi! is a warm, witty compendium of hard-won life lessons, (Harper's Bazaar) for anyone--gay, straight, and everything in between--who has ever taken stock of their unique place in the world.
|
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
|
|
|