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Biography and Memoir February 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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Finding My Way: A Memoir
by Malala Yousafzai
"This is not the story you think you know. It's the one I've been waiting to tell." Thrust onto the public stage at fifteen years old after the Taliban's brutal attack on her life, Malala Yousafzai quickly became an international icon known for bravery and resilience. But away from the cameras and crowds, she spent years struggling to find her place in an unfamiliar world. Now, for the first time ever, Malala takes us beyond the headlines in Finding My Way--a vulnerable, surprising memoir that buzzes with authenticity, sharp humor, and tenderness. Through candid, often messy moments, Malala reminds us that real role models aren't perfect--they're human. Finding My Way is an intimate look at the life of a young woman taking charge of her destiny--and a deeply personal testament to the strength it takes to be unapologetically yourself.
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Dear New York
by Brandon Stanton
Dear New York is a love letter to the streets, stories, and souls that define the heart of the city and its people. In a world of turmoil and isolation, the thing missing most right now is authentic human connection. Dear New York reminds us that the answer is closer than we think. Featuring 500 portraits and stories in the signature style of Humans of New York, each page will make you think, laugh, cry, and connect. Whether you live in New York, once called it home, or simply feel its pull from afar, these pages offer a deeply human portrait of a city defined by its people.
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Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis
by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley with Mary Jane Ross
More 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.
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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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Queens at War
by Alison Weir
British historian and novelist Alison Weir makes the final volume of her England’s Medieval Queens series about the last five Plantagenet consorts: Joan of Navarre, Catherine of Valois, Margaret of Anjou, Elizabeth Woodville, and Anne Neville: women who ruled against the bloody backdrop of the Hundred Years’ War and the War of the Roses, and were thus witnesses to (and sometimes participants in) the intrigue, betrayal, and violence of the age.
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Nothing Compares to You: What Sinead O'Connor Means to Us
by Sonya Huber
More than thirty years ago, Sinead O'Connor shocked the world by tearing up a photo of Pope John Paul II in an act of protest against the violence perpetrated by the Catholic Church. This single act cemented O'Connor's place as a fearless voice and activist that would later push even further as Sinead became an advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness, the LGBTQ+ community, and abortion rights. In Nothing Compares to You, a renowned and multi-generational group of authors come together to pay tribute to O'Connor's impact on our world and in their own lives. Exploring themes such as gender identity, spirituality, artistic expression, and personal transformation, this collection shows that Sinead's voice continues to ring on even after her death and brilliantly illustrates the power of creative expression to inspire far beyond any presumed lines of age, culture, or class.
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Focus on: Black History Month
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Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song
by Judith Tick
Historian Judith Tick offers a sublime portrait of this ambitious risk-taker whose exceptional musical spontaneity made her a transformational artist. Archival research and in-depth family interviews shed new light on the singer's difficult childhood, the tragic death of her mother, and the year she spent in a girls' reformatory school. Ella reached audiences around the world, electrifying concert halls and selling millions of records. This book describes a powerful woman who set a standard for American excellence nearly unmatched in the twentieth century.
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King: A Life (Young Adult Edition)
by Jonathan Eig
Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig's King: A Life is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.--and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. Eig gives us an MLK for our times: a deep thinker, a brilliant strategist, and a committed radical who led one of history's greatest movements, and whose demands for racial and economic justice remain as urgent today as they were in his lifetime.
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The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
by Isabel Wilkerson
In this beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson presents a definitive and dramatic account of one of the great untold stories of American history: the Great Migration of six million Black citizens who fled the South for the North and West in search of a better life, from World War I to 1970. The Warmth of Other Suns is a bold, remarkable, and riveting work, a superb account of an unrecognized immigration within our own land. Through the breadth of its narrative, the beauty of the writing, the depth of its research, and the fullness of the people and lives portrayed herein, this book is a modern classic.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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