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Biography and Memoir November 2018
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| Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. BlightWhat it is: a comprehensive yet accessible biography of Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), the runaway slave-turned-abolitionist orator.
About the author: Award-winning Yale historian David W. Blight is a longtime Douglass scholar and the author of Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory. What sets it apart: Granted access to private sources previously made unavailable to other historians, Blight offers new insights into Douglass' complicated family life. |
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| For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics by Donna Brazile, Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry, and Minyon Moore with Veronica Chambers What it's about: In this eye-opening behind-the-scenes memoir, four influential political strategists and longtime friends share their respective (but often overlapping) journeys working for Democratic campaigns and administrations.
Paying it forward: The group created a "Bank of Justice" to support women and minorities entering political careers. |
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| Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and... by Mary GabrielWhat it is: a sweeping, richly contextualized portrait of five women artists who revolutionized the abstract expressionism movement.
Why it matters: Despite their trailblazing accomplishments (including their participation in the groundbreaking 1951 Ninth Street Show), these women have remained largely overlooked by the modern art scene.
Reviewers say: "an incandescent, engrossing, and paradigm-altering art epic" (Booklist); "superbly written and absorbing" (Library Journal). |
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| The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters: The Tragic and Glamorous Lives of Jackie and Lee by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger What it's about: the close yet contentious relationship between sisters Jacqueline and Lee Bouvier, their privileged East Hampton upbringing, and their roles as America's First Lady and a princess of Poland.
Featuring: candid interviews with Lee about the women's childhood.
Don't miss: surprising, gossipy insights -- Lee was left out of Jackie's 38-page will; Jackie may have helped vet JFK's potential paramours. |
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| Good Friday on the Rez: A Pine Ridge Odyssey by David Hugh BunnellWhat it is: David Hugh Bunnell's 280-mile road trip to visit his longtime friend and "blood brother," Vernell White Thunder, at South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Why you might like it: The author vividly blends reflections of his time as a Pine Ridge schoolteacher with historical context as he passes Lakota landmarks and towns.
Don't miss: Bunnell's account of smuggling food to protesters during the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee. |
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| The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin Who it's about: Oglala Lakota chief Red Cloud (1822-1909), the only Plains Indian to defeat the United States Army in a war.
How'd he do it? A brilliant tactician and politician, Red Cloud formed alliances with Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Sioux warriors to reclaim Powder River Country during Red Cloud's War (1866-1868).
Further reading: Autobiography of Red Cloud: War Leader of the Oglalas, which was lost for over 100 years prior to its publication. |
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| Crazy Brave by Joy HarjoWhat it is: a reflective memoir from Muscogee poet, musician, and Native Writers' Circle Lifetime Achievement Award winner Joy Harjo.
Topics include: the author's fraught family dynamics and single teenage motherhood; her schooling at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe.
What sets it apart: Harjo's candid, lyrical writing conveys the "intricate and metaphorical language of my ancestors." |
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| Heart Berries by Terese Marie MailhotWhat it is: a raw and powerfully crafted coming-of-age memoir of life on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation, evocatively told in a series of concise and cogent essays.
Want a taste? "The thing about women from the river is that our currents are endless. We sometimes outrun ourselves."
About the author: First Nation writer Terese Marie Mailhot is a graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts and is currently the Tecumseh Postdoctoral Fellow at Purdue University. |
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| How the World Moves: The Odyssey of an American Indian Family by Peter NabokovWhat it's about: the tensions and contradictions of cultural assimilation as experienced by Pueblo shaman Edward Proctor Hunt (born Day Break in 1861 New Mexico), who later became a "cultural broker," shopkeeper, and Wild West show performer alongside his family.
Further reading: Hunt's The Origin Myth of Acoma Pueblo, recounted to Smithsonian scholars in 1928 and published in an updated edition as a companion volume to How the World Moves. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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| | Washoe County Library System 301 S Center St, Reno, NV 89501 | |
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