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Biography and Memoir October 2022 |
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| California Soul: An American Epic of Cooking and Survival by Keith Corbin with Kevin AlexanderWhat it is: an engaging memoir from former Crips member and revered Alta Adams chef Keith Corbin, who perfected his culinary skills while serving a ten-year stretch in prison.
Read it for: a no-holds-barred account of perseverance and redemption.
Don't miss: Corbin's tributes to the Watts neighborhood where he grew up and the grandmother who inspired him to become a chef. |
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| A Visible Man by Edward EnninfulWhat it's about: Edward Enninful's life as a gay Ghanaian refugee in England and the first Black editor-in-chief of British Vogue.
Topics include: navigating racism and imposter syndrome in an exclusionary industry; redefining beauty standards; how he champions his fellow Black creatives; working with Anna Wintour.
Try this next: Elaine Welteroth's inspiring memoir More Than Enough, which chronicles her tenure as Teen Vogue's first Black editor-in-chief. |
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| Dinners With Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships by Nina TotenbergWhat it's about: the five-decade friendship between NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who bonded over shared hardships in their male-dominated fields.
Why you might like it: Totenberg's compelling account offers revealing insights on Ginsburg's life beyond her work (she officiated Totenberg's wedding; the pair once skipped a work function to go shopping). |
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| Solito by Javier ZamoraWhat it's about: In 1999, nine-year-old Javier Zamora migrated unaccompanied from El Salvador to the United States, a journey that spanned over two months and three thousand miles.
Book buzz: This Read with Jenna Book Club pick offers a heart-wrenching account of found family, second chances, and survival.
For fans of: Children of the Land, written by Zamora's fellow Undocupoets Campaign founder Marcelo Castillo Hernandez. |
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Books You Might Have Missed
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| My Life: Growing Up Asian in America by Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (editor); with an introduction by SuChin PakWhat it is: a thought-provoking and intimate anthology offering 30 diverse firsthand accounts of the Asian American experience.
Featuring: poetry, comics, essays, monologues, and more.
Further reading: Asian American Histories of the United States by Catherine Ceniza Choy; Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now by Jeff Yang, Phil Yu, and Philip Wang. |
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| Dinner for One: How Cooking in Paris Saved Me by Sutanya DacresLove in a Manhattan bar: New Yorker Sutanya Dacres hit it off with a handsome Frenchman and eventually moved to Paris and married him.
Alone in Paris: The marriage ended after three years, leaving Dacres adrift. At a breaking point, she started cooking simple dishes, such as pasta salad and leek risotto (recipes included), as she rebuilt her life.
For fans of: the author's podcast, Dinner for One; David Lebovitz's Paris books, which mix memoir and recipes; Julie Powell's Julie & Julia. |
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| Muddy People: A Muslim Coming-of-Age by Sara El SayedWhat it's about: the flight of author Sara El Sayed's family from Egypt to Australia, where she grew up caught between anti-Muslim attitudes in her new country and rules enforced by her parents.
Read it for: the author's moving, nuanced perspective on her family and faith; occasional moments of dark humor.
Reviewers say: "El Sayed's coming-of-age memoir about resiliency, family, and identity will delight readers as a study of making sense of a world where rules can often help along the way" (Library Journal). |
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| This Body I Wore by Diana GoetschWhat it is: poet Diana Goetsch's lyrical memoir chronicling her late-in-life coming out and transition: "How can you spend your life face-to-face with an essential fact about yourself and still not see it?"
What's inside: candid reflections on the evolution of the trans community from the 1980s to the present.
Try this next: For another moving memoir written by an author who transitioned in their 50s, read P. Carl's Becoming a Man. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Atlantic County Library System | 40 Farragut Avenue, Mays Landing, NJ 08330
Phone: (609) 625-2776 | www.atlanticlibrary.org
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|  | Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson
Atlantic County Board of Commissioners, Maureen Kern, Chairwoman |
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