Cardington-Lincoln Public Library: Biography and Memoir: February 2026

Now available on our shelves or on the Libby app...

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.

Googoosh: A Sinful Voice
by Googoosh, with Tara Dehlavi

Iranian pop superstar Googoosh tells her life story in an emotional and lyrical memoir. After emerging as a teen celebrity in her home country in the 1960s, her haunting voice catapulted her to stardom throughout Europe and the Middle East. Then came the Islamic Revolution, leading to her imprisonment and torture. She was eventually released, escaped Iran, and became an advocate for women’s rights. This timely memoir will resonate with fans of Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters by Allyson McCabe.

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).

One Aladdin, Two Lamps
by Jeanette Winterson

Prolific novelist and essayist Jeanette Winterson considers the richness of storytelling traditions using One Thousand and One Nights as a guide. Amidst examples of tales spun by Shahrazad that draw parallels with the author’s experiences and the real world, Winterson holds out hope for humanity, expressed through our seemingly inexhaustible imagination. This is an original, thought-provoking work in the vein of Jane Hirshfield’s Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World.

Focus on: Black History Month

Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde
by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Poet 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).

Contact your librarian for more great books!