|
|
Biography and Memoir April 2025 |
|
|
|
|
| One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El AkkadIn his frank and thought-provoking blend of history and memoir, award-winning novelist Omar El Akkad (American War) examines the West's apathy and inaction toward Israel's ongoing destruction of Gaza. Try this next: The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates. |
|
| Becoming Spectacular: The Rhythm of Resilience from the First African American... by Jennifer JonesIn her moving and inspiring debut, trailblazing dancer Jennifer Jones reveals the triumphs and trials of her 15-year career as a Radio City Rockette, becoming the troupe's first Black dancer in 1987. For fans of: The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History by Karen Valby. |
|
| Daughter of Daring: The Trick-Riding, Train-Leaping, Road-Racing Life of Helen Gibson... by Mallory O'MearaMallory O'Meara's (The Lady from the Black Lagoon) engaging latest chronicles the life and career of Helen Gibson, Hollywood's first professional stunt woman, whose start in silent films included appearances in the long-running adventure serial The Hazards of Helen, from which she took her stage name. Further reading: Nobody's Girl Friday: The Women Who Ran Hollywood by J.E. Smyth. |
|
|
|
Daredevil at the Wheel: The Climb and Crash of Joan LaCosta
by Tony St. Clair
The thrilling story of Joan LaCosta's wild life behind the wheel and escape into anonymity was untold, until now, and sits at a compelling intersection of auto racing history, gender equity in sports, and true crime, all set against the backdrop of the Roaring Twenties.
|
|
Focus on: National Poetry Month
|
|
| Punch Me Up to the Gods by Brian BroomeIn his Kirkus Prize-winning debut, poet and screenwriter Brian Broome recounts coming of age Black and gay in 1980s Ohio, detailing his struggles with identity, addiction, and generational trauma. Try this next: No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black & Free in America by Darnell L. Moore. |
|
|
|
Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair
by Christian Wiman
Zero at the Bone begins with Wiman’s preoccupation with despair, and through fifty brief pieces, he unravels its seductive appeal. The book is studded with the poetry and prose of writers who inhabit Wiman’s thoughts, and the voices of Wallace Stevens, Lucille Clifton, Emily Dickinson, and others join his own. At its heart and Wiman’s, however, are his family―his young children (who ask their own invaluable questions, like “Why are you a poet? I mean why ?”), his wife, and those he grew up with in West Texas.
|
|
| Poet Warrior by Joy HarjoFormer United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo's engaging follow-up to her 2012 memoir Crazy Brave explores her Muscogee upbringing with a poetry-loving mother, who encouraged the author's interest in words, and how she survived abuse from her father and stepfather to find communion with fellow Indigenous writers as a University of New Mexico student in the 1970s. Further reading: When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: An Anthology of Native Nations Poetry edited by Harjo. |
|
|
|
Ten Bridges I've Burnt
by Brontez Purnell
In Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt, Brontez Purnell—the bard of the underloved and overlooked—turns his gaze inward. A storyteller with a musical eye for the absurdity of his own existence, he is peerless in his ability to find the levity within the stormiest of crises. Here, in his first collection of genre-defying verse, Purnell reflects on his peripatetic life, whose ups and downs have nothing on the turmoil within. “The most high-risk homosexual behavior I engage in,” Purnell writes, “is simply existing.”.
|
|
|
|
Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir in Love Poems, Letters, Recipes, and Remembrances
by Kwame Alexander
In a powerfully intimate and non-traditional (or "new-fashioned") memoir, Kwame Alexander shares snapshots of a man learning how to love. He attempts to deal with the unravelling of his marriage and the grief of his mother's recent passing while sharing the solace he found in learning how to perfect her famous fried chicken dish. With an open heart, Alexander weaves together memories of his past to try and understand his greatest love: his daughters. Why Fathers Cry at Night inspires bravery and vulnerability in every reader who has experienced the reckless passion, heartbreak, failure, and joy that define the whirlwind woes and wonders of love.
|
|
|
411 South Main Street Lombard, IL 60148 Phone: (630) 627-0316
Library Hours: Mon-Fri 9am-9pm • Sat 9am-5pm • Sun 1-5pm |
|
|