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Biography and Memoir August 2017
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| Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens by Eddie IzzardBritish comedian Eddie Izzard, who finds accessible humor in a wide range of erudite subjects (including linguistic history, sexual politics, mad kings, and chickens with guns), wittily and candidly recounts his life in this "more rueful than boastful" (Kirkus Reviews) memoir. Izzard's fans will be intrigued by the challenges in his life, while those unfamiliar with his career may be delighted to discover a new source of television and film entertainment. |
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Jane Austen at home
by Lucy Worsley
A profile of the life and times of Jane Austen by the best-selling author of Courtiers tours the classic author's childhood home, schools, holiday accommodations and grand and small family estates to reveal lesser-known aspects of Austen's character and inspirations.
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Being a dad is weird : lessons in fatherhood from my family to yours
by Ben Falcone
A lighthearted and intimate look at fatherhood from the director, writer and actor from The Boss and Tammy combines stories about his own larger-than-life dad and how his experiences raising two daughters with wife Melissa McCarthy have been shaped by his childhood. 75,000 first printing.
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Rescued from ISIS : the gripping true story of how a father saved his son
by Dimitri Bontinck
Documents the gripping true story of how the author rescued his son from a radical mosque that brainwashed him into becoming a jihadist soldier, describing the months of unassisted work that were required and how his success reverberated throughout the world, triggering pleas from other families whose children were similarly indoctrinated.
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The Kelloggs : the battling brothers of Battle Creek
by Howard Markel
The author of An Anatomy of Addiction traces the story of brothers Harvey and Will Kellogg, one of whom became a revered doctor and founder of the famous Battle Creek Sanitarium, the other of whom founded the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, which eventually became General Mills.
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Rabbit : the autobiography of Ms. Pat
by Patricia Williams
The popular comedian traces her youth in Atlanta's most troubled neighborhood at the height of the crack epidemic, discussing the experiences with an alcoholic mother, four siblings, petty crime and prostitution that led to her becoming a mother at age 13 before resolving to secure a better life for her children. 100,000 first printing.
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| Be Free or Die: The Amazing Story of Robert Smalls' Escape from Slavery to Union Hero by Cate LineberryIn 1862, Robert Smalls, an enslaved steersman on a Charleston-based Confederate steamer, hijacked the ship and delivered it to the Union Navy's blockaders, bringing with him the other enslaved crew members and his own family. After this feat, he was acclaimed a Union hero, introduced to President Lincoln, and achieved a remarkable post-war career that included election to Congress. Be Free or Die places Smalls' achievements in the wider context of the Civil War and Reconstruction, illuminating a little-known aspect of African American history. |
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| Daring to Drive: A Saudi Woman's Awakening by Manal Al-SharifThough author Manal Al-Sharif grew up as a devoutly fundamentalist Muslim in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, she later received a technical education that led to a job as a computer security engineer. In Daring to Drive, she relates how she publicized a protest movement, the Women2Drive campaign, with a video recording of herself driving a car. This eye-opening memoir vividly portrays the customary restrictions on girls and women in her country as well as the difficulties of pushing for social change. For additional insight into women's lives in Saudi Arabia, try Jean Sasson's Princess or Carmen bin Ladin's Inside the Kingdom. |
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| A Beautiful, Terrible Thing: A Memoir of Marriage and Betrayal by Jen WaiteIn A Beautiful, Terrible Thing, author Jen Waite movingly reveals the disintegration of her relationship with her husband, which began when she confronted him about a disturbing email from another woman. In alternating chapters that either depict her idyllic life with him before she realized he wasn't the person he claimed to be, or portray the anguish of her gradual discoveries about his personality, Waite's memoir offers a "frank and visceral" (Kirkus Reviews) warning to others who may have a tendency to dismiss potential red flags. |
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| A Cool and Lonely Courage: The Untold Story of Sister Spies in Occupied France by Susan OttawayBritish citizens Eileen and Jacqueline Nearne grew up mainly in France, but they returned to Britain to help the Allied war effort after the Nazis occupied Paris. After training with the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), both went to work with the French Resistance, collecting information and transmitting it within the Resistance and back to England. In this gripping account, author Susan Ottaway, who interviewed Eileen late in her life, describes each sister's war experience while detailing the SOE's efforts in France. Ottaway's Violette Szabo offers additional insight into women's intelligence work during World War II. |
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| The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government by David TalbotIn The Devil's Chessboard, author David Talbot, founding editor-in-chief of Salon, provides chilling details of 1950s CIA Director Allen Dulles' secret influence during and after World War II. With deep connections to powerful business interests, attorney Dulles planned to fight Communism after the war -- in cooperation with German capitalists. Later, he went well beyond intelligence gathering to promote covert actions around the world, including a coup in Iran and the Bay of Pigs debacle in Cuba. For additional recent studies of Dulles, check out Scott Miller's Agent 110 and Stephen Kinzer's The Brothers. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Harford County Public Library
1221-A Brass Mill Rd Belcamp, Maryland 21017 410-273-5600 hcplonline.org
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