|
|
Biography and Memoir October 2025 |
|
|
|
|
|
Hurdles in the dark / : My Story of Survival, Resilience, and Triumph
by Elvira K. Gonzalez
"In this inspiring story of grit, tenacity and hope, a Mexican American track star shares how she found freedom from poverty, violence and an inappropriate coach-student relationship by becoming one of the top ranked hurdlers in the U.S. and the first in her family to attend college. Simultaneous eBook. Illustrations."
|
|
|
|
The darkest white : a mountain legend and the avalanche that took him
by Eric Blehm
The award-winning author of the New York Times best-sellers Fearless and The Only Thing Worth Dying For tells the life story of legendary snowboarder Craig Kelly who died in the 2003 Durrand Glacier Avalanche and also offers a definitive, immersive account of snowboarding and the cultural movement that exploded around it. Illustrations.
|
|
|
|
Somehow : thoughts on love
by Anne Lamott
""Love is our only hope," Anne Lamott writes in this perceptive new book. "It is not always the easiest choice, but it is always the right one, the noble path, the way home to safety, no matter how bleak the future looks." In Somehow: Thoughts on Love, Lamott explores the transformative power that love has in our lives: how it surprises us, forces us to confront uncomfortable truths, reminds us of our humanity, and guides us forward. "Love just won't be pinned down," she says. "It is in our very atmosphere" and lies at the heart of who we are. We are, Lamott says, creatures of love. In each chapter of Somehow, Lamott refracts all the colors of the spectrum. She explores the unexpected love for a partner later in life. The bruised (and bruising) love for a child who disappoints, even frightens. The sustaining love among a group of sinners, for a community in transition, in the wider world. The lessons she underscores are that love enlightens as it educates, comforts as it energizes, sustains as it surprises. Somehow is Anne Lamott's twentieth book, and in it she draws from her own life and experience to delineate the intimate and elemental ways that love buttresses us in the face of despair as it galvanizes us to believe that tomorrow will be better than today. Full of the compassion and humanity that have made Lamott beloved by millions of readers, Somehow is classic Anne Lamott: funny, warm, and wise"
|
|
| Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley with Mary Jane RossMore than 50 years after her divorce from the King of Rock and Roll, Priscilla Beaulieu Presley candidly recalls finding her independence after her relationship with Elvis, which had dominated her life since she was 14. Presley is frank about her triumphs (success as an actor) and tragedies (the deaths of her daughter and grandson), as well as the grief she felt after her ex-husband’s death. Try this next: Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story by Leslie Jamison. |
|
|
|
Never saw me coming : how I outsmarted the FBI and the entire banking system--and pocketed $40 million
by Tanya Smith
"In Never Saw Me Coming, Tanya Smith shares her deeply personal and remarkable story of how she went from a precocious young girl to a money-grabbing, computer-savvy wiz. It starts out as a keen interest in technology and innocently acquiring phone numbers to Michael Jackson, as well as other celebrities, and moves to her successfully stealing and depositing $5,000 into her grandmother's banking account. By the time she is 18, the risk taker has confiscated millions in cash. The FBI is hot on her tail and hauls her in for an interview, demanding Smith let them know who she's working for, ''as these are not the kind of crimes Black people are smart enough to commit.'' Their words, indicating that intelligence was determined by race, severely offended Smith. Up for the challenge, she proves the FBI wrong and over time steals $40 million dollars, while securing diamonds, gold bars, and other commodities. Her lifestyle attracts the wrong kind of people, even those who set out to kill her. Law enforcement persisted, ultimately dubbing Smith "one of the single biggest threats to the entire United States banking system." She receives an outrageous prison sentence--the longest for a white-collar offense--and is eventually released by mounting her own brilliant defense''
|
|
|
|
I've tried being nice : essays
by Ann Leary
"Having arrived at a certain age (her prime), Ann Leary casts a wry backward glance at a life spent trying--and often failing--to be nice. With wit and surprising candor, Leary recounts the bedlam of home bat invasions, an obsession with online personality tests, and the mortification of taking ballroom dance lessons with her actor husband. She describes hilarious red-carpet fiascos and other observations from the sidelines of fame, while also touching upon her more poignant struggles with alcoholism, her love for her family, her dogs, and so much more. Prepare to laugh, cry, cringe and revel in the comically relatable chaos of Ann Leary's life as revealed in this delightful collection of essays"
|
|
|
|
Wild life : finding my purpose in an untamed world
by Rae Wynn-Grant
In this personal story of resilience and adaptation, a renowned wildlife ecologist, exploring the ever-shifting relationship between humans, animals and the earth, while carving a niche for herself as one of very few Black scientists, argues for a more connected, more socially and ecologically conscious world.
|
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|