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Biography and Memoir February 2026 |
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| Ain't Nobody's Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton by Martha AckmannMartha Ackmann’s biography of country music legend Dolly Parton goes beyond the glamour to reveal the grit that propelled her to international stardom. Parton’s phenomenal talent was discovered while she was a teenager. Her business savvy and philanthropic generosity would be discovered later, namely by sexist Nashville executives trying to control her skyrocketing career. For the story of another feminist music star who refused to be put in a box, try Madonna: A Rebel Life by Mary Gabriel. |
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| One Aladdin, Two Lamps by Jeanette WintersonProlific novelist and essayist Jeanette Winterson considers the richness of storytelling traditions using One Thousand and One Nights as a guide. Amidst examples of tales spun by Shahrazad that draw parallels with the author’s experiences and the real world, Winterson holds out hope for humanity, expressed through our seemingly inexhaustible imagination. This is an original, thought-provoking work in the vein of Jane Hirshfield’s Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World. |
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Anonymous Male: A Life Among Spies
by Christopher Whitcomb
In September 2001, Christopher Whitcomb was the most visible FBI agent in the world. His best-selling memoir, Cold Zero, had led to novels, articles in GQ, and op-eds in the New York Times. He appeared on Imus in the Morning, Larry King, and Meet the Press; he was nominated for a Peabody reporting for CNBC. Then one day in 2006, without warning, Whitcomb packed a bag, flew into Somalia and dropped off the face of the earth. For 15 years, he waged a mercenary war on himself, traveling the world with aliases, cash, and guns. He built a private army in the jungles of Timor-Leste, working contracts for intelligence agencies.
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The Boys in the Light: An Extraordinary World War II Story of Survival, Faith, and Brotherhood
by Nina Willner
The extraordinary and inspiring true story of a band of young U.S. soldiers who fought together in World War II and, in the throes of combat, rescued two survivors-one of them the author's father-from Hitler's plot to exterminate the Jews of Europe. The Boys in the Light follows the parallel journeys of Company D and Eddie Willner, the author's father, as they experience two sides of World War II.
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Enough: Climbing Toward a True Self on Mount Everest
by Melissa Arnot Reid
A searching, uplifting memoir by the celebrated, groundbreaking climber: a journey of overcoming where the mountain's highest peaks can only be reached by traversing the dark crevasses of the soul--
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Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife
by Francesca Wade
Gertrude Stein's salon at 27 rue de Fleurus in the 6th arrondissement of Paris is the stuff of literary legend. Many have tried to capture the spirit and glamour of the place that once entertained and fostered the likes of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse, but perhaps none as determinedly, and self-consciously, as Stein herself. In this ... biography of the polarizing, trailblazing author, collector, salonniáere, and tastemaker, Francesca Wade rescues Stein from the tangle of contradictions that has characterized her legacy, ... presenting us with this towering literary figure as we've never seen her before. ... Pushing beyond the conventions of literary biography, [this book] is a bold, innovative examination of the nature of legacy and memory itself, in which Wade uncovers the origins of Stein's radical writing and reveals new depths to the storied relationship that made it possible--
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Holocaust Hero: The Life and Times of Rudolf Vrba
by Alan Twigg
At long last a worthy biography of one of the most fascinating and important figures in Holocaust History -- Rudi Vrba. Alan Twigg not only pulls together many new sources to illuminate Vrba's life before and after his escape from Auschwitz-Birkenau. He also guides the reader through the thicket of fictional and semifictional accounts of Vrba's remarkable escape that have obscured the historical truth until now. -- Christopher R. Browning, historian Holocaust scholar Raul Hilberg declared there were only two great Holocaust heroes -- the leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Mordechai Anielewicz) and Rudolf Vrba. After he escaped from Auschwitz-Birkenau in April of 1944, Vrba and his co-escapee Alfréd Wetzler co-authored the Vrba-Wetzler Report, credited with saving 200,000 Hungarian Jews. No other single act in the Second World War, according to World War II historian Sir Martin Gilbert, saved so many Jews from the fate that Hitler and the SS had determined for them.
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It Must Be Beautiful to Be Finished: A Memoir of My Body
by Kate Gies
A raw, beautiful memoir of a girl born missing an ear, a medical system insistent on saving her from herself, and our culture's desire to fix bodies. When Kate Gies was four years old, a plastic surgeon pressed a synthetic ear to the right side of her head and pulled out a mirror. He told her he could make her whole--could make her right--and she believed him. From the age of four to thirteen, she underwent fourteen surgeries, including skin and bone grafts, to craft the appearance of an outer ear. Many of the surgeries failed, leaving permanent damage to her body.
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The Look
by Michelle Obama
The Look is Michelle Obama's inspiring reflection on how fashion has shaped her public and personal journey. Featuring over 200 beautiful photos, she shares the stories behind her most memorable outfits--from the campaign trail to the White House and beyond--along with insights from her trusted stylists and designers. More than a celebration of style, the book explores how clothing can express confidence, purpose, and authenticity.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Côte Saint-Luc Public Library
5851 Cavendish Blvd.
Côte Saint-Luc, Quebec H4W 2X8
514-485-6900csllibrary.org/ |
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