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Biography and Memoir July 2018
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Paul Simon : The Life
by Robert Hilburn
What it is: An intimate, candid, and definitive biography written with Simon’s full participation—but without his editorial control—by acclaimed biographer and music writer Robert Hilburn.
Why you might like it: Paul Simon is an intimate and inspiring narrative that helps us finally understand Paul Simon the person and the artist. “With train-wreck moments and tender interludes alike, it delivers a sharply detailed Kodachrome of a brilliant musician”
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| There Are No Grown-Ups: A Midlife Coming-of-Age Story by Pamela DruckermanWhat it is: part memoir, part self-help guide, this witty and lighthearted collection of 25 essays explores American expat life in Paris, the realities of aging, and family relationships.
Want a taste? "You know you're a fortysomething parent when you've decided that swimming counts as a shower."
Chapters include: "How to Have a Midlife Crisis;" "How to Plan a Ménage à Trois;" and "How to Think in French." |
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A Spy Named Orphan : The Enigma of Donald Maclean
by Roland Philipps
What it is: The first full biography of one of the twentieth century’s most notorious spies.
Why you might like it: Roland Philipps unravels Maclean’s character and contradictions, informed by a domineering father in a childhood at once liberal and austere
Includes: 8 pages of photographs
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Robin
by Dave Itzkoff
What it is: A compelling portrait of one of America’s most beloved and misunderstood entertainers.
Why you might like it: Robin Williams was a singularly innovative and beloved entertainer. He often came across as a man possessed, holding forth on culture and politics while mixing in personal revelations – all with mercurial, tongue-twisting intensity as he inhabited and shed one character after another with lightning speed.
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| Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America's Founding Father by Peter StarkWhat it is: a lively chronicle of how George Washington's early career exploits during the French and Indian War shaped him from a volatile young man into an empathetic and respected military leader.
Read it for: adventure writer Peter Stark's thrilling, vivid narrative, supplemented with letters, journal entries, and military documents.
Reviewers say: "a discerning history of pre-Revolutionary America and the man who shaped its future" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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Focus on: Prison and Captivity
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| A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout and Sara CorbettWhat it's about: In 2008, 25-year-old Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout was captured by Somali rebels in Mogadishu and held for ransom for 15 months.
Don't miss: the urgent and evocative prose.
Is it for you? Though the memoir has an upbeat ending, Lindhout's harrowing descriptions of the violence she endured may be too disturbing for some readers. |
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| The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State by Nadia MuradWhat it is: the raw yet inspiring story of Nadia Murad's escape from captivity by the Islamic State, for whom she was forced to serve as a "sabiya" (or sex slave) after her Yazidi village in Iraq was destroyed in 2014.
About the author: Nadia Murad is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking. |
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Beyond the Call : Four Women on the Front Lines in Iraq and Afghanistan
by Eileen Rivers
What it is: This inspiring true story of veteran Air Force bomber pilot Robert Trimble, who laid his life on the line to rescue World War II POWs on the Eastern Front.
What it's about: In total secrecy, the OSS chose an obscure American air force detachment stationed at a Ukrainian airfield. The man they picked to undertake it was veteran 8th Air Force bomber pilot Captain Robert Trimble.
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A Stolen Life : a Memoir
by Jaycee Lee Dugard
What it is: Jaycee Dugard’s raw and powerful memoir, her own story of being kidnapped in 1991 and held captive for more than eighteen years.
Want a taste? In the summer of June of 1991, I was a normal kid. I did normal things. I had friends and a mother that loved me. I was just like you. Until the day my life was stolen. For eighteen years I was a prisoner. I was an object for someone to use and abuse. For eighteen years I was not allowed to speak my own name. I became a mother and was forced to be a sister. For eighteen years I survived an impossible situation.
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Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison : the Making of a Masterpiece
by Michael Streissguth
What it's about: The legendary concert and the live album that came from it, now a part of the folklore of American music, is examined in depth, with an eye toward dispelling myths and placing the event in the larger context of both Cash's career and the music of the time.
Read it for: The scrupulous research, the richness with the author's unprecedented access to Folsom Prison and Columbia Records' archives, and the 100 photos (many never before published),
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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