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Biography and Memoir September 2020
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Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery
by Erica C. Barnett
What it is: journalist Erica C. Barnett's memoir of her hard-fought battles with alcohol addiction.
Read it for: the author's clear-eyed and self-deprecating journey toward redemption: "Rock bottom is a lie."
For fans of: candid recovery memoirs like Cat Marnell's How to Murder Your Life.
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Dave Brubeck: A Life in Time
by Philip Clark
Over the course of ten days in 2003, music journalist Philip Clark shadowed the Dave Brubeck Quartet during their extended British tour, recording an epic interview with the bandleader. Brubeck opened up as never before, disclosing his unique approach to jazz; the heady days of his "classic" quartet in the 1950s-60s; hanging out with Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, and Miles Davis; and the many controversies that had dogged his 66-year-long career.
What you'll find: a thoughtful and thorough biography of an extraordinary man whose influence continues to inform and inspire musicians today.
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Black Widow: A Sad-Funny Journey Through Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books With Words Like "Journey" in the Title
by Leslie Gray Streeter
Leslie Gray Streeter is not cut out for widowhood. But, here she is, having lost her soulmate to a sudden heart attack, totally unsure of how to navigate her new widow lifestyle. Looking at widowhood through the prism of race, mixed marriage, and aging, Black Widow redefines the stages of grief, from coffin shopping to day-drinking, to being a grown-ass woman crying for your mommy, to breaking up and making up with God, to facing the fact that life goes on even after the death of the person you were supposed to live it with. While she stumbles toward an uncertain future as a single mother raising a baby with her own widowed mother, Leslie looks back on her love story with Scott.
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The Watergate Girl: My Fight for Truth and Justice Against a Criminal President
by Jill Wine-Banks
It was a time when Americans feared for the future of their democracy and women stood up for equal treatment. At the crossroads of the Watergate scandal and the women's movement stood a young lawyer named Jill Wine Volner (as she was then known), barely thirty years old and in charge of some of the most important prosecutions of high-ranking White House officials. Called "the mini-skirted lawyer" by the press, she fought to receive the respect accorded her male counterparts- and prevailed. In The Watergate Girl, Jill Wine-Banks takes us inside this troubled time in American history. At once a cautionary tale and an inspiration for those who believe in the power of justice and the rule of law, The Watergate Girl is a revelation about our country, our politics, and our society.
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Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock
by David Margolick
In 1957 Little Rock, Arkansas, white residents vehemently opposed the integration of Central High School by the so-called Little Rock Nine. A famous photograph shows a black student, Elizabeth Eckford, being viciously heckled by a white teenager named Hazel Massery. In Elizabeth and Hazel, journalist David Margolick details their family backgrounds and vividly portrays the effects this confrontation had on the two women's lives. Eckford withdrew from society while Massery -- though initially unrepentant -- gradually changed her views. In this complex, thought-provoking story, sometimes hopeful and sometimes disturbing, a snapshot of the integration battles becomes an icon of the Civil Rights movement.
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Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey from East to West and Back
by Janice P. Nimura
In the years after 1853, when Japan opened its harbors to trade with the U.S., the Japanese government realized that its citizens would need to understand Western culture as it pursued commerce with the rest of the world. Since they viewed women as essential to the preparation of future leaders, they decided to send some girls to the U.S. so they could learn American ways and return to Japan as educators. Daughters of the Samurai presents complete biographies of three of the five girls who were chosen, tracing their foreign experiences and following their adult lives in Japan. For a detailed account of one of them, read Barbara Rose's Tsuda Umeko and Women's Education in Japan.
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| Mind and Matter: A Life in Math and Football by John UrschelWhat it's about: John Urschel's adventures in academia (he's currently pursuing a PhD in mathematics at MIT) and athletics (he was a Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman for three seasons).
Read it for: Urschel's infectious enthusiasm for his passions.
Want a taste? "So often, people want to divide the world into two. Matter and energy. Wave and particle. Athlete and mathematician. Why can't something (or someone) be both?" |
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Educated: A Memoir
by Tara Westover
What it's about: Raised in a fundamentalist Mormon family who prepped for the "end of days," Tara Westover grew up without an education. Hungering for knowledge, she began educating herself, eventually pursuing an elite academic career at Harvard and Cambridge.
Why you might like it: "With no real comparison memoir" (Library Journal), Educated stands in a class all its own, though fans of The Glass Castle and Hillbilly Elegy should appreciate it.
Read it for: Westover's wrenching, vivid exploration of her family history, rendered in evocative and unsparing prose.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Michigan City Public Library 100 E. 4th Street Michigan City, Indiana 46360 219-873-3044mclib.org/ |
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