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Ain't Nobody's Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton
by Martha Ackmann
A larger-than-life ... biography of country music legend and philanthropist Dolly Parton, [in which] Martha Ackmann chronicles the life of an American original. From her impoverished childhood in the Smoky Mountains to international stardom as a singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman, and philanthropist, Dolly Parton has exceeded everyone's expectations--except her own. ... Ain't Nobody's Fool is a deep dive into the social, historical, and personal forces that made Dolly Parton one of the most beloved and unifying figures in public life and includes interviews with friends, family members, school mates, Nashville neighbors, members of her band, studio musicians, producers, and many others. It also features never before seen photographs and unearthed documents shedding light on her family's hardscrabble life.
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In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man: A Memoir
by Tom Junod
Big Lou Junod dominated every room he entered. He had countless affairs and didn't do much to hide them. Lou could be cruel to his wife, but he loved his youngest son—a skin-and-bones, nervous boy, devoted to his mother—but Lou sought to turn him into a version of himself. He showered him with advice about how to dress, how to be an alpha male, and especially, how to attract and bed women. Tom wrestled with Lou's imposing presence all his life. After his passing, Tom set off to learn the facts of his father's life, and why he was the way he was. The stunning secrets he uncovered—about his father, his father's lovers, and deceptions going back generations—staggered Tom, but in the process allowed him, at last, to become his own man, by his own lights.
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Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage
by Belle Burden
It was a great love story, one for the ages. The speed of our beginning and the speed of our ending felt like matching bookends. They both came out of nowhere. He wanted it, he wanted me. And then he didn't. In March 2020, Belle Burden was safe and secure with her family at their house on Martha's Vineyard, navigating the early days of the pandemic together—building fires in the late afternoons, drinking whisky sours, making roast chicken. Then, with no warning or explanation, her husband of twenty years announced that he was leaving her. Overnight, her caring, steady partner became a man she hardly recognized. He exited his life with her like an actor shrugging off a costume. In Strangers, Burden revisits her marriage, searching for clues that her husband was not who she always thought he was. As she examines her relationship through a new lens, she reckons with her own family history and the lessons she intuited about how a woman is expected to behave in the face of betrayal. Through all of it, she is transformed.
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A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides
by Gisèle Pelicot
In 2024, Gisèle Pelicot waived her right to anonymity in her legal fight against her ex-husband and the fifty men accused of sexually assaulting her, a courageous decision that inspired millions of people around the world. Only four years prior, Gisèle had made the shattering discovery that her partner, Dominique Pelicot, had been secretly drugging and raping her, and inviting strangers to also abuse her in their home for nearly a decade. "Shame must change sides," Gisèle bravely declared at the opening of the trial in Avignon, France, and the dictum soon became an international rallying cry to radically transform public sentiment and legislation surrounding cases of sexual violence. By the time Dominique and the dozens of men accused were found guilty three and a half months later, Gisèle had become a global figure, and her message—that she and other victims of sexual abuse have no reason to feel ashamed—galvanized a movement that triggered protests and demonstrations around the world. Part memoir, part act of defiance, A Hymn to Life is a moving story of survival, testimony, and courage, and an unforgettable portrait of a woman who broke her silence, reclaimed her voice, and forced a reckoning.
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The End of My Life Is Killing Me: The Unexpected Joys of a Cancer Slacker
by Annabelle Gurwitch
A book of small rescues against despair. In this deftly comedic and deeply contemplative memoir, the New York Times bestselling author faces life's biggest curveball only to find resilience in the most unlikely places. After Annabelle Gurwitch received an out-of-the blue diagnosis of Stage 4 lung cancer, an existential dread set in. Precision medicine offered a temporary reprieve--but instead of turning into a cancer warrior, Annabelle declared herself a cancer slacker. Her motto: no runs, no ribbons, no religion. Told with her signature wit, warmth, and gimlet eye, Gurwitch draws inspiration from Greek mythology and TV comedies, Kermit the Frog and Samuel Beckett. She accidentally acquires an angel, embraces being in it just for the sex, and finds herself on a European van tour selling merch for a heavy metal band. In this hilariously and deeply affecting meditation on mortality, the actress and activist illuminates life with chronic disease, inequities in care, and celebrates tiny victories, the crusty ends of baguettes, the discreet pleasure of sucking at a hobby, and the unshakable bond of female friendship. She upends the notion of living each day as if it were your last, as she discovers you can carpe too much diem, embracing, instead, the extraordinariness of the ordinary.
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Who Needs Friends: An Unscientific Examination of Male Friendship Across America
by Andrew McCarthy
"You don't really have any friends, do you, Dad?" A seemingly innocuous, if direct, question from Andrew McCarthy's son eventually demanded a reckoning. Who Needs Friends charts McCarthy's journey over nearly ten thousand miles behind the wheel, following him on often-unexpected travels through Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, the Chihuahuan Desert, the Rocky Mountains with one driving purpose: to reconnect. Along the way he talks to countless men about their male friendships, from cowboys and blues musicians to preachers and rootless teens. What began as a simple desire to catch up with a few friends turned into a deep exploration of the challenges and rewards that men experience in forming bonds with each other. In McCarthy's own words, It turns out that guys have a difficult time with friendship. But that's not the way it needs to be.
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| Moses and the Doctor: Two Men, One Championship, and the Birth of Modern... by Luke EpplinReaders who love “smart sports history” (Kirkus Reviews) will devour sportswriter Luke Epplin’s dual life story of pro basketball legends Julius “Dr. J” Erving and Moses Malone, whose combined talents helped win a national championship for the Philadelphia ‘76ers in 1983. While the two men were a study in contrasts on and off the court, both the high-flying Erving and the all-business Malone were trailblazers for the modern game. |
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| Everybody's Fly: A Life of Art, Music, and Changing the Culture by Fab 5 Freddy with Mark RozzoWhen hip-hop luminary Fab 5 Freddy (aka Fred Brathwaite) puts the words “Changing the Culture” in the title of his immersive memoir, he means it. Freddy grew up in an environment that taught appreciation of art both highbrow and low, and was on a mission to merge the two. He acted as a social catalyst between musicians, DJs, promoters, and visual artists who all helped give birth to new forms of expression in late ‘70s and early ‘80s New York. For fans of: Mark Ronson’s Night People: How to Be a DJ in ‘90s New York City. |
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| The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg, and the Battle for the Soul of American Cinema by Paul FischerDocumentarian Paul Fischer’s collective biography charts the early careers of Hollywood titans Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg, whose rise coincided with the fall of the old studio system and ushered in the era of the blockbuster. Though each director has his own style and vision, Fischer’s gossipy, novelistic narrative shows the influence they had on each other as friends, competitors, and co-conspirators while changing the way movies are made. |
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| The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief by Richard HolmesBefore Alfred Lord Tennyson became a famous Victorian poet, he was a young intellectual suffering through a long, dark night of the soul. Richard Holmes examines Tennyson in his twenties, when the poet’s depressive personality, the sudden death of a close friend, and the ideas sparked by fresh scientific discoveries combined to produce in the young man a desperate existential terror that found its way into some of his most profound work. Holmes’ brilliant analysis is a “must for poetry readers” (Kirkus Reviews). For fans of: The Turning Point: 1851 -- A Year that Changed Charles Dickens and the World by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst. |
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| Defiance: A Memoir of Awakening, Rebellion, and Survival in Syria by Loubna MrieWhen Syrian photojournalist Loubna Mrie joined the Arab Spring protests as a teenager in 2011, her father, an intelligence official for the Assad regime, cut her off. This started her career documenting the ensuing civil war, and her powerful debut details the personal toll it took -- both from the horrors she witnessed and the implosion of her family -- as political and sectarian violence engulfed the country. For a gripping fictional account of the Arab Spring’s aftermath, try The Republic of False Truths by Alaa Al Aswany. |
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| Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery by Gavin NewsomCalifornia governor and potential 2028 presidential candidate Gavin Newsom’s book briskly lays out his rise in the Democratic party, reveals some of the struggles early in his life that propelled him into politics, and talks about some key achievements of his tenure, including overseeing California’s legalization of same-sex marriage seven years prior to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Try this next: The Deeper the Roots by Michael Tubbs. |
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| Freedom Lost, Freedom Won: A Personal History of America by Eugene RobinsonJournalist Eugene Robinson, who spent COVID-imposed downtime unearthing documentation of his Black family’s history, relates the two centuries of struggle that family endured to simply be American. Though the stories of Robinson’s ancestors’ accomplishments inspire, his impressively researched book reveals a sobering theme: throughout its history, the United States has repeatedly found insidious ways to claw back hard-won African American liberties. Read-alike: The Stained Glass Window by David Levering Lewis. |
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| Bonfire of the Murdochs: How the Epic Fight to Control the Last Great Media Dynasty Broke a Family and the World by Gabriel ShermanIn media tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s winner-takes-all worldview, his four children -- Lachlan, Liz, James, and Prudence -- become little more than negotiators across the conference table vying for control of his mega-corporation. Biographer Gabriel Sherman documents the family drama, cynicism, and ruthlessness of all concerned in Bonfire of the Murdochs. For fans of: Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy by James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams; the HBO dramedy series Succession. |
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Our next discussion:
Thursday, Thursday, May 14, 5:00pm
Meeting Room on Library Lower Level
If you're a regular memoir reader, consider joining our Memoir Book Club! The club usually meets on the second Thursday of the month at 5:00, but we do recommend confirming details on our events calendar in case of changes. Copies of our next book will be reserve at the Circulation Desk. We hope to see you there!
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I'll Show Myself Out: Essays on Midlife and Motherhood
by Jessi Klein
Sometimes I think about how much bad news there is to tell my kid, the endlessly long, looping CVS receipt scroll of truly terrible things that have happened, and I want to get under the bed and never come out. How do we tell them about all this? Can we just play Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire and then brace for questions? The first of which should be, how is this a song that played on the radio?In New York Times bestselling author and Emmy Award-winning writer and producer Jessi Klein's second collection, she hilariously explodes the cultural myths and impossible expectations around motherhood and explore the humiliations, poignancies, and possibilities of midlife. In interconnected essays like Listening to Beyoncé in the Parking Lot of Party City, Your Husband Will Remarry Five Minutes After You Die, Eulogy for My Feet, and An Open Love Letter to Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent, Klein explores this stage of life in all its cruel ironies, joyous moments, and bittersweetness.
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