Biography and Memoir
March 2026

Recent Releases
Judy Blume: A Life by Mark Oppenheimer
Judy Blume: A Life
by Mark Oppenheimer

The highly anticipated biography of one of the world's most treasured literary voices, showcasing a life as triumphant and inspiring as the stories she crafted. To know the name Judy Blume is to know and love literature. Her influential novels turned classics--including Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret; Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing; Deenie; and Summer Sisters--touched the lives of tens of millions of readers. 
La Lucci by Susan Lucci
La Lucci
by Susan Lucci

The moving follow-up to Susan Lucci's New York Times bestseller, All My Life, this stunning new memoir includes nearly one hundred never-before-seen photos.The long-running Queen of Daytime television, Susan Lucci--who has gone by the endearment, La Lucci, since her earliest days on the set of All My Children--knows a thing or two about life, love, joy, adventure, and remaking oneself after loss, both personally and professionally.
Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America
by Howard Bryant

Sports journalist Howard Bryant's affecting history details how trailblazing Black actor Paul Robeson and Major League Baseball player Jackie Robinson's differing political ideologies often put them at odds with each other, culminating in Robinson's 1949 appearance at the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), where he testified against Robeson. For fans of: The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. by Peniel E. Joseph. 
 
You with the Sad Eyes: A Memoir by Christina Applegate
You with the Sad Eyes: A Memoir
by Christina Applegate

Unflinchingly honest and darkly funny, You with the Sad Eyes unveils a side of Christina Applegate we've never seen, forever cementing her formidable and iconoclastic legacy. Christina Applegate came of age on sets and stages, expected to be on time, with lines learned, ready for lights-camera-action. What started as a financial necessity soon became an emotional escape from a tumultuous home life in the infamous Laurel Canyon scene of the 70s and 80s. She rocketed to stardom on the sitcom Married...with Children and went on to captivate audiences in classics like Don't Tell Mom the Babysitters Dead..., Anchorman, and Dead to Me in her five-decade long career.
Fly, Wild Swans: My Mother, Myself and China
by Jung Chang

In Fly, Wild Swans, Chinese British memoirist and historian Jung Chang channels harrowing memories of her childhood during China’s Cultural Revolution. Years later she was banished from her native country after publishing an unsparing biography of Mao Zedong, a ruling which prevents her from returning to visit her dying mother. Readers may wish to pair this book with Chang’s previous bestselling memoir Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. 
 
Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! by Liza Minnelli
Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!
by Liza Minnelli

Global icon Liza Minnelli shares her inspiring story: stepping out from the long shadow of a mega-star mother and legendary film director father, fighting a lifetime battle with addiction, and emerging from it all to become a once-in-a-lifetime artist. Kids, Wait Till You Hear This is the autobiography of EGOT icon Liza Minnelli. This fascinating, untold story reveals the intimate truth of the only child born to Hollywood legends Vincente Minnelli and Judy Garland. For the first time, here is Liza up close: Raw, strong, sexy, hilarious and heartbreaking.
The Flower Bearers
by Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Novelist and poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths (Promise) grapples with the twin tragedies of the highly publicized and near-fatal attack on her new husband Salman Rushdie and, less than a year earlier, the sudden death of her closest friend, poet Kamilah Aisha Moon, who ironically passed away on Griffiths’ wedding day. For another emotional memoir about enduring wrenching loss, try Elizabeth Gilbert’s All the Way to the River. 
 
Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind by Jason Zengerle
Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind
by Jason Zengerle

Journalist Jason Zengerle offers a discerning summary of conservative pundit Tucker Carlson’s career to date while sounding a sobering critique of today’s TV news landscape. Always right-leaning but once a proponent of nuanced political debate, Carlson seemed to abandon these ideals after signing on with Fox News, instead flirting with agitprop, conspiracies, and white supremacism. For fans of: Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth by Brian Stelter.
Getting Naked: The Quiet Work of Becoming Perfectly Imperfect by Valerie Bertinelli
Getting Naked: The Quiet Work of Becoming Perfectly Imperfect
by Valerie Bertinelli

From beloved actress and New York Times bestselling author Valerie Bertinelli, her most vulnerable book yet offering wisdom hard-won through divorce, menopause, and generational pain, with a powerful message of self-acceptance and embracing the past with compassion. With her signature warmth and disarming humor, the beloved actress and New York Times bestselling author strips away the polished facade and shares what it's really like to grow older, love harder, and start over. 
A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides by Gisèle Pelicot
A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides
by Gisèle Pelicot
 
A courageous woman's rallying call for shame to change sides. For the very first time, Gisèle Pelicot tells her story. In 2024, Gisèle Pelicot waived her right to anonymity in her legal fight against her ex-husband and the fifty men accused of sexually assaulting her, a courageous decision that inspired millions of people around the world. 
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Book of the Year: An evening with author Susan Straight
Tuesday, April 28, 5-7pm
Cuesta College, SLO
 
National Book Award finalist and California author Susan Straight discusses her latest novel, Sacrament - a captivating new novel about a group of nurses fighting through the first year of a pandemic and the beloved California community they will risk their lives to protect. 
 
Tickets on sale now at Tickets.Cuesta.Edu
 
Book of the Year is an annual literary event and community reads program in partnership with Cuesta College, Paso Robles City Library, and the SLO County Library Foundation.