|
Biography and Memoir August 2019
|
|
|
|
|
Yellow house
by Sarah M. Broom
What it's about: Sarah M. Broom’s mother, Ivey Mae, the shotgun house she purchased in the then-promising neighborhood of New Orleans East in 1961, and the world she built inside of it with her twelve children. This is the story of a mother’s struggle against a house's entropy, and that of a prodigal daughter who left home only to reckon with the pull that home exerts, even after the Yellow House was wiped off the map after Hurricane Katrina.
Book Buzz: Jami Attenberg, author of All Grown Up says this book is "Gorgeously written, intimate and wise, Sarah M. Broom’s The Yellow House is an astonishing memoir of family, love, and survival."
|
|
|
Consent : a memoir of unwanted attention
by Donna Freitas
What it's about: The university lecturer and author of The Body Market chronicles her toxic relationship with her mentor, an acclaimed professor whose unwanted abusive attentions transformed her life and compelled her advocacy work.
Why you should read it: It's relevance with the #MeToo movement and the issues it discusses about consent and boundaries.
Book Buzz: "Consent is compelling and disturbing and a welcome expansion of our urgent conversation." - Rebecca Traister, New York Times bestselling author of Good and Mad
|
|
|
Travel light, move fast
by Alexandra Fuller
What it's about: The unforgettable story of Tim Fuller, a self-exiled black sheep who moved to Africa to fight in the Rhodesian Bush War before settling as a banana farmer in Zambia. A man who preferred chaos to predictability, to revel in promise rather than wallow in regret, and who was more afraid of becoming bored than of getting lost, he taught his daughters to live as if everything needed to happen all together, all at once—or not at all. This is the story of his family remembering his life after his passing, and how they honored his life.
Book Buzz: “Travel Light, Move Fast is a sensitive, meticulously wrought portrait of one family’s sometimes-challenging dynamics, set against an unforgiving African backdrop. Fuller’s beautiful prose juxtaposes the grieving process with the lessons she learned from the man whose adventures shaped her.” - BookPage
|
|
|
Natural Rivals : John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and the Creation of America's Public Lands
by John Clayton
What it is: A dynamic examination that traces the lives of two of the most influential figures, John Muir and Gifford Pinchot —and their dueling approaches—on America's natural landscape.
Did you know? Muir was known as the "Father of the National Parks," and Gifford Pinchot served as the first Chief of the United States Forest Service!
Why you should read it: With our ever growing concerns of climate change, it's important to know the history of early nature conservation and preservation.
|
|
|
When I was white : A Memoir
by Sarah Valentine
What it is: A coming-of-age memoir tracing the author's childhood as a white girl in the suburbs of Pittsburgh before she discovered that her father was a black man, a revelation that transformed her sense of identity and raised questions about family choices.
Book Buzz: "We feel every step of Valentine's struggle, from feeling physically broken to becoming emotionally stronger as she reaches for self-acceptance and self-definition." - Booklist
What to read next: If you liked this, check out Black Lotus: A Woman's Search for Racial Identity by Sil Lai Abrams!
|
|
|
The reckonings : essays
by Lacy M. Johnson
What it's about: In 2014, Lacy Johnson was giving a reading from The Other Side, her memoir of kidnapping and rape, when a woman asked her what she would like to happen to her rapist. These essays present the author's thoughts on the nature of justice and how the justice system could be expanded beyond vengeance and retribution to include acts of compassion and mercy.
Book Buzz: “Unflinching and honest…both timely and timeless.” - Houston Chronicle
Check Out: Johnson's classic memoir, The Other Side!
|
|
| Mothers of Sparta: A Memoir in Pieces by Dawn DaviesWhat it is: a humorous, moving, and non-linear glimpse into essayist Dawn Davies' life that touches on topics like her troubled childhood, parenting three children, postpartum depression, and divorce.
Don't miss: the title essay, which explores Davies' complicated feelings about parenting a son with autism.
Reviewers say: "Readers will laugh and cry, probably at the same time." - Booklist |
|
|
Calypso
by David Sedaris
What it is: A collection of personal essays by the best-selling author of Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls and Me Talk Pretty One Day shares even more revealing and intimate memories from his upbringing and family life.
Book Buzz: "Laugh-out-loud funny, true and introspective." - Holly Silva, St Louis Post-Dispatch
Who it's for: This is beach reading for people who detest beaches, required reading for those who loathe small talk and love a good tumor joke.
|
|
|
Strangers Assume My Girlfriend Is My Nurse
by Shane Burcaw
What it's about: Burcaw presents a latest collection of evocative and humor-infused essays about living with disability caused by a degenerative disease in an uncomprehending, able-bodied world.
Book Buzz: "Equal parts humorous, tender, and insightful, the pieces give an unfettered look at Burcaw’s life and the assumptions others make about living with a disability." - School Library Journal
Also by this author: Laughing at My Nightmare and the picture book Not So Different.
|
|
|
South and West : from a notebook
by Joan Didion
What it is: Two excerpts from never-before-seen notebooks by the National Book Award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking offer insights into her literary mind and process and includes notes on her Sacramento upbringing, her life in the Gulf states, her views on prominent locals and her experiences during a formative Rolling Stone assignment.
Book Buzz: “Vintage Didion. . . . Remind[s] us of her brilliance as a stylist, social commentator and observer.” - The Washington Post
|
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
|
|
|