Biography and Memoir
February 2026

Recent Releases
Ain't Nobody's Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton
by Martha Ackmann

Martha Ackmann’s biography of country music legend Dolly Parton goes beyond the glamour to reveal the grit that propelled her to international stardom. Parton’s phenomenal talent was discovered while she was a teenager. Her business savvy and philanthropic generosity would be discovered later, namely by sexist Nashville executives trying to control her skyrocketing career. For the story of another feminist music star who refused to be put in a box, try Madonna: A Rebel Life by Mary Gabriel.
A Danger to the Minds of Young Girls: Margaret C. Anderson, Book Bans, and the Fight to...
by Adam Morgan

American editor Margaret C. Anderson was a champion of early modernists including Djuna Barnes and James Joyce, giving their experimental works voice in her upstart literary journal The Little Review. Critic Adam Morgan documents her fierce advocacy of the arts, romances with various high-profile women, and independence from the 20th-century status quo. Readers will savor this “enlightening depiction of a[n]…influential figure of both modernism and queer history” (Publishers Weekly).
Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind
by Jason Zengerle

Journalist Jason Zengerle offers a discerning summary of conservative pundit Tucker Carlson’s career to date while sounding a sobering critique of today’s TV news landscape. Always right-leaning but once a proponent of nuanced political debate, Carlson seemed to abandon these ideals after signing on with Fox News, instead flirting with agitprop, conspiracies, and white supremacism. For fans of: Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth by Brian Stelter.
Focus on: Black History Month
The Waterbearers: A Memoir of Mothers and Daughters by Sasha Bonét
The Waterbearers: A Memoir of Mothers and Daughters
by Sasha Bonét

Sasha Bonet grew up in 1990s Houston, worlds removed from the Louisiana cotton plantation that raised her grandmother, Betty Jean, and the Texas bayous that shaped Sasha's mother, Connie. And though each generation did better, materially, than the last, all of them carried the complex legacy of Black American motherhood with its origins in slavery. The Waterbearers is a dazzling and transformative work of American storytelling that reimagines not just how we think of Black women, but how we think of ourselves--as individuals, parents, communities, and a country.
The Essential Dick Gregory
by Dick Gregory; Christian Gregory, editor

Black comedy legend and raconteur Dick Gregory grew up in St. Louis and first received widespread acclaim after successful sets at Chicago’s Playboy Club. As the 1960s progressed, Gregory became increasingly involved in the civil rights movement, eventually becoming just as well-known for his activism as his comedy. This book collects writings and speeches from all phases of his storied career, edited by his son Christian. Try this next: Sidney Poitier: The Great Speeches of an Icon Who Moved Us Forward, compiled by Joanna Poitier.
Becoming Spectacular: The Rhythm of Resilience from the First African American Rockette by Jennifer Jones
Becoming Spectacular: The Rhythm of Resilience from the First African American Rockette
by Jennifer Jones

The first African American Rockette Jennifer Jones charts her journey to one of the world's most celebrated dance troupes in this memoir that, for the first time, goes behind the velvet curtains at Radio City's legendary holiday show.
Harriet Tubman: Military Scout and Tenacious Visionary: From Her Roots in Ghana to Her Legacy on the Eastern Shore by Jean Marie Wiesen
Harriet Tubman: Military Scout and Tenacious Visionary: From Her Roots in Ghana to Her Legacy on the Eastern Shore
by Jean Marie Wiesen

For all Harriet Tubman's accomplishments and the myriad books written about her, many gaps, errors, and misconceptions of her legendary life persist. As recognition and tributes to Tubman's remarkable contributions to American history and civil liberty continue to grow, the time is right for a new biography with the involvement of her family, who have been the caretakers and stewards of her legacy for generations.
Contact your librarian for more great books!