Biography and Memoir
August 2025
Recent Releases
A different kind of power : a memoir
by Jacinda Ardern

"What if we could redefine leadership? What if kindness came first? Jacinda Ardern grew up the daughter of a police officer in small-town New Zealand, but as the 40th Prime Minister of her country, she commanded global respect for her empathetic leadership that put people first. This is the remarkable story of how a Mormon girl plagued by self-doubt made political history and changed our assumptions of what a global leader can be. When Jacinda Ardern became Prime Minister at age thirty-seven, the world took notice. But it was her compassionate yet powerful response to the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks, resulting in swift and sweeping gun control laws, that demonstrated her remarkable leadership. She guided her country through unprecedented challenges--a volcanic eruption, a major biosecurity breach, and a global pandemic--while advancing visionary new policies to address climate change, reduce child poverty, and secure historic international trade deals. She did all this while juggling first-time motherhood in the public eye. Ardern exemplifies a new kind of leadership--proving that leaders can be caring, empathetic, and effective. She has become a global icon, and now she is ready to share her story, from the struggles to the surprises, including forthe first time the full details of her decision to step down during her sixth year as Prime Minister"
Kuleana : A Story of Family, Land, and Legacy in Old Hawai'i
by Sara Kehaulani Goo

An award-winning journalist's breathtaking story of unexpected homecomings, familial hardship, and fierce devotion to ancestry creates a refreshingly new narrative about Hawaii, its native people, and their struggle to hold on to their land and culture today. Illustrations.
Life and art : essays
by Richard Russo

In twelve masterful new essays, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Somebody's Fool and The Destiny Thief considers how the twin subjects of Life and Art inform each other and how the stories we tell ourselves about both shape our understanding of the world around us.
The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage That Made...
by Laurie Gwen Shapiro

Journalist and documentary filmmaker Laurie Gwen Shapiro's well-researched and illuminating dual biography of aviator Amelia Earhart and her husband, publisher George Putnam, draws on archival records, diaries, and interviews to reveal how the lesser-known Putnam shaped Earhart's public image and career. For fans of: Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History by Keith O'Brien.
This is your mother : a memoir
by Erika J. Simpson

"Growing up, Erika Simpson's mother loomed large, almost biblical in her life. A daughter of sharecroppers, middle child of ten, her origin story served as a kind of Genesis. Her departure from home and a cheating husband, pursuing higher education along the way a kind of Exodus. Her rules for survival, often repeated like the Ten Commandments, guided Erika's own journey into adulthood. And the most important rule? Throughout her life, Sallie Carol preached the power of a testimony-which often proved useful in talking her way out of a bind with bill collectors. But where does a mother's story end and a daughter's begin? In this brave, illuminating memoir, Erika offers a joint recollection of their lives as they navigate times of poverty and stability, separation and togetherness, illness and remission. Her mother's uncanny ability to endure Job-like trials and manifest New Testament-style miracles made her seem invincible. But while those who raise us may start out as gods in our lives, through her mother's final months and fifth battle with cancer, Erika captures the moment you realize that parents are just people. Weaving together a dual timeline and elements from both scripture and pop culture, Erika explores how the lessons, dreams, and patterns we inherit influence our future, for better and worse. Powerful, moving, and unforgettable, This Is Your Mother is a gorgeously rendered story of a mother's life through a daughter's eyes as she navigates through grief to a place of clarity where she can see who she is without her mom-and because of her"-- Provided by publisher
Careless people : a cautionary tale of power, greed, and lost idealism
by Sarah Wynn-Williams

An insider account charting one woman's career at the heart of one of the most influential companies on the planet, Careless People gives you a front-row seat to Facebook, the decisions that have shaped world events in recent decades, and the people who made them
Contact your librarian for more great books!
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