 Biography and MemoirFebruary 2026 |
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| Ain't Nobody's Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton by Martha AckmannMartha 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. |
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You with the Sad Eyes
by Christina Applegate
Christina Applegate came of age on sets and stages, expected to be on time, with lines learned, ready for lights-camera-action. What started as a financial necessity soon became an emotional escape from a tumultuous home life. A Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis in 2021 confined her to a king-sized bed and the company of memories she'd rather forget. Now, at her most intimate and vulnerable, she unveils a story not even those closest to her fully know.
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| A Danger to the Minds of Young Girls: Margaret C. Anderson, Book Bans, and the Fight to... by Adam MorganAmerican 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). |
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It's Never Too Late
by Marla Gibbs
Now, at ninety-three, Marla Gibbs chronicles her climb from a difficult youth in which she yearned for safety and love, to the high-stakes world of Hollywood where she became a confident powerbroker learning to work behind the scenes for fair pay, access, and more creative control for herself and her colleagues. Told in her forthright voice, It's Never Too Late illuminates Gibbs' daring move to Los Angeles to rebuild her life after an abusive marriage, how she became an actor, and how she eventually learned to balance acting with show running.
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| Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind by Jason ZengerleJournalist 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. |
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Focus on: Black History Month
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| Bring Judgment Day: Reclaiming Lead Belly's Truths from Jim Crow's Lies by Sheila Curran BernardFilmmaker Sheila Curran Bernard’s biography of Black folk and blues musician Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter seeks to right historical wrongs. Curran’s research drawn from original sources details how the musician’s life and career were repeatedly compromised by people trying to punish and exploit him, including his racist managers, folklorists John and Alan Lomax. It’s a shocking and infuriating read about a hugely talented and important interpreter of American song, and long overdue. |
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| Rage: On Being Queer, Black, Brilliant...and Completely Over It by Lester Fabian BrathwaiteEntertainment Weekly writer Lester Fabian Brathwaite debuts with a provocative collection of essays focused on the author’s Black and queer identity. He strikes a tone that veers from funny to frustrated while tackling topics relating to body image, Black masculinity, the white male gaze, and much more in these witty and irreverent monologues. For fans of: the confessional writing of Brontez Purnell. |
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The Kneeling Man: My Father's Life as a Black Spy Who Witnessed the Assassination of...
by Leta McCollough Seletzky
Leta McCullough Seletzky's compelling debut offers a nuanced portrait of her father, undercover police officer Marrell "Mac" McCollough, who was present during the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and who famously appeared in photographs of the event giving aid to King. Try this next: A Spy in Canaan: How the FBI Used a Famous Photographer to Infiltrate the Civil Rights Movement by Marc Perrusquia.
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| Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde by Alexis Pauline GumbsPoet Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ innovative, adventurous biography of Black feminist poet Audre Lorde is a tribute to and legacy of a shared intersectional identity. Gumbs, who, like her subject, is an LGBTQIA+ descendant of Caribbean immigrants, details how Lorde rose from a difficult upbringing to become an inspiring feminist figure whose work never hesitated to call out injustice and oppression in this “scintillating tour de force” (Publishers Weekly). |
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With Her Fist Raised: Dorothy Pitman Hughes and the Transformative Power of Black...
by Laura L. Lovett
University of Pittsburgh history professor Laura L. Lovett celebrates the accomplishments of feminist activist and Ms. magazine and Women's Action Alliance cofounder Dorothy Pittman Hughes in this "well-written biography [that] fills a huge gap in the history of American feminism" (Library Journal). Try this next: 50 Years of Ms.: The Best of the Pathfinding Magazine That Ignited a Revolution, edited by Katherine Spillar.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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