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Biography and Memoir May 2019
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| Southern Lady Code: Essays by Helen EllisWhat it is: uproarious insights on Southern womanhood, life, and culture, written by the Alabama-raised author of American Housewife.
For fans of: Southern pop culture staples Designing Women and Fried Green Tomatoes.
Book buzz: Cristina Alger (The Banker's Wife) says "Reading this feels like settling into a comfy couch and having a martini (or three) with your most hilarious friend." |
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| Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen by Mary NorrisWhat it's about: New Yorker copy editor Mary Norris' passion for Greek language, history, and culture, which began in unlikely earnest after she saw the science fiction film Time Bandits, partially set in ancient Greece.
Immersive study: Norris traveled solo to remote Mediterranean locales, performed in Greek-language productions of Elektra and The Trojan Women, and convinced her employers to subsidize Greek language courses to aid her in her copy editing work.
Read it for: a lively and upbeat blend of memoir and travelogue. |
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| Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy by Eric O'NeillWhat it is: a white-knuckle account of rookie FBI agent Eric O'Neill's 2001 undercover mission to capture fellow agent Robert Hanssen, a longtime Russian mole.
Want a taste? "Hanssen was a veteran agent, schooled in the tyranny of secrets. I was a pawn."
Try this next: Ben Macintyre's similarly suspenseful A Spy Among Friends spotlights MI6 operative Kim Philby, a double agent who defected to the Soviet Union in 1963. |
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| A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win WWII by Sonia PurnellWho it's about: undeterred American Virginia Hall, who didn't let workplace sexism and the loss of her leg in a hunting accident stop her from serving as a Special Operations Executive (SOE) spy in occupied France, where she established an underground resistance network.
Why you might like it: Offering breakneck pacing and plenty of wartime intrigue, this celebration of a little-known hero is "a joy to read" (Booklist).
Movie buzz: Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley is set to play Hall in a forthcoming film adaptation. |
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| What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays by Damon YoungWhat it is: a candid collection of humorous and bittersweet musings on contemporary black manhood.
Topics include: gentrification's impact on author Damon Young's Pittsburgh neighborhood; the relationships forged in barbershops and on basketball courts; the use (and misuse) of racial epithets.
Author alert: Debut author Young is the co-founder of the website Very Smart Brothas and a senior editor at The Root. |
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An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth
by Chris Hadfield
After watching the Apollo 11 moon landing on television, nine-year-old Chris Hadfield knew absolutely that he wanted to be an astronaut. It was a lofty dream -- for one thing, his native Canada had no space program. Nevertheless, Hadfield achieved his goal, becoming one of his country's few military test pilots before launching a distinguished career at NASA. His inspiring memoir is packed with fascinating details about the International Space Station and everyday life as an astronaut.
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| Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches by John HodgmanWhat it's about: humorist John Hodgman's neurotic attempts to maintain summer homes in Massachusetts and Maine, which he does with middling degrees of success.
Read it for: droll, hard-earned wisdom on topics as varied as male privilege, dumpster etiquette, and regional humor.
Want a taste? "Here is some homeowner's advice. Do not put even a single box of stale Cheerios down the garbage disposal, never mind three." |
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Heart Berries
by Terese Marie Mailhot
What 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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| In Other Words by Jhumpa LahiriWhat it is: Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri's bilingual memoir of how her love of Italian prompted her to move her family to Rome, where she made surprising discoveries about her identity as a writer.
Want a taste? "Writing in another language represents an act of demolition, a new beginning."
Did you know? A national bestseller, In Other Words is Lahiri's first foray into nonfiction and was originally published in Italian. |
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Call Me American
by Abdi Nor Iftin
What it is: the stirring chronicle of Abdi Nor Iftin's remarkable immigrant success story, beginning with his impoverished childhood in war-torn Somalia, his painstaking self-education in English (which he learned through consuming American pop culture), and his flight from religious extremism in Mogadishu -- first to a refugee camp in Kenya, and eventually to the U.S. as a recipient of the Green Card Lottery.
Read it for: Iftin's clear prose and inspiring perseverance in the face of adversity.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Richmond Public Library 101 East Franklin Street Richmond, Virginia 23219 (804) 646-7223rvalibrary.org/ |
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