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Biography and Memoir January 2021
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| Girl Gurl Grrrl: On Womanhood and Belonging in the Age of Black Girl Magic by Kenya HuntWhat is it: A conversational essay collection from Grazia UK fashion director and London-based American expat Kenya Hunt.
What's inside: Thought-provoking musings on religion, motherhood, police brutality, the limitations of #BlackGirlMagic, and more.
Featuring: Guest essays from a handful of contributors (including Queenie author Candice Carty-Williams and fashion blogger Freddie Harrel) offering insights on their own experiences of Black womanhood. |
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| How to Make a Slave and Other Essays by Jerald WalkerWhat it is: A darkly humorous essay collection from Emerson College creative writing professor and Street Shadows author Jerald Walker.
Why you might like it: This wide-ranging National Book Award Finalist offers personal reflections on Black identity and culture, life in academia, parenting, disability, and more.
Try this next: For another incisive essay collection by a Black academic, read Kiese Laymon's How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America. |
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Spotlight on: Healthcare Professionals
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| In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope by Dr. Rana AwdishWhat it's about: How critical care physician Rana Awdish coped after an unknown illness hospitalized her seven months into her first pregnancy.
Is it for you? The author's heartwrenching account chronicles her miscarriage, near-death experiences, and the years it took to recover from her maladies.
What sets it apart: Awdish's patient experience prompted her to reflect on how physicians should be more empathetic while providing care. |
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| The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Dr. Edith Eva Eger; foreword by Philip Zimbardo, PhDWhat it is: Clinical psychologist and Holocaust survivor Edith Eva Eger's moving memoir detailing how she learned to live with her traumatic past.
Read it for: The author's poignant and hopeful exploration of how her own experiences have helped her in her work with survivors of trauma.
For fans of: Man's Search for Meaning, written by psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl, a friend of Eger's and fellow Holocaust survivor. |
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| The Beauty in Breaking by Michele HarperWhat it's about: Emergency room physician Michele Harper's encounters with the patients who changed her life.
Why you might like it: Peppered with anecdotes about her own trials (an abusive father, a painful divorce, being a Black woman in a white male-dominated profession), Harper's candid memoir offers a hopeful, much-needed message of how to heal in times of adversity.
Book buzz: The Beauty in Breaking was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2020. |
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| Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery by Henry MarshWhat it is: British neurosurgeon Henry Marsh's affecting and occasionally gruesome account of his three decades in the field.
Who it's for: Readers who prefer their bedside manner with a dose of brutal honesty will appreciate Marsh's blunt and darkly humorous debut.
Want a taste? "I often have to cut into the brain and it is something I hate doing." |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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