Publisher: Random House
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/30/2012
ISBN-13: 9780307887993
ISBN-10: 0307887995

Felix Sparks enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1936; by the end of World War II he held the rank of colonel. From July 1943 to the end of the war, Sparks led the 157th Infantry through brutal and bloody fighting in Sicily and Italy -- with devastating losses at Anzio. Among the first Americans to reach Germany, they liberated the Dachau concentration camp. Using interviews with Sparks and letters from him and his men, journalist Alex Kershaw builds a detailed portrait of Sparks' Army career, his inspiring leadership, and the grit and perseverance of his regiment. Publishers Weekly calls The Liberator "a riveting, almost epic tale" of this little-known hero of the War in Europe.

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Publisher: Free Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/06/2012
ISBN-13: 9781451620665
ISBN-10: 1451620667

Biographer Eve LaPlante, distantly related to novelist Louisa May Alcott, found previously unknown Alcott family papers in her mother's attic. Drawing on that trove of information, LaPlante paints a detailed portrait of 19th-century feminist and writer Abigail Alcott and her daughter, Louisa May. LaPlante's account in Marmee & Louisa provides a fresh perspective on Louisa May's life and work and on Abigail's significant accomplishments -- as well as the challenges that she and her family faced as a result of her husband Bronson's neglect. For more on this remarkable woman, read My Heart is Boundless, an edition of Abigail's writings compiled by LaPlante.

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Publisher: Random House
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/13/2012
ISBN-13: 9780307953063
ISBN-10: 0307953068

After novelist and newspaper columnist Brian McGrory's dog, Harry, died, Brian began dating Pam, Harry's veterinarian. When Pam and Brian eventually marry and Brian joins Pam's household, he struggles to be accepted by one family member: a rooster named Buddy. Buddy continuously attacks Brian, apparently believing that he must protect Pam, her two daughters, and the other animals from his invasion. This funny and insightful memoir explains how Brian learns how to belong to a family despite Buddy's hostility and Brian's continuing sadness over the loss of Harry. If Buddy inspires you to read more family memoirs featuring pets, try Steven Wolf's Comet's Tale or Glenn Plaskin's Katie Up and Down the Hall.

Publisher: Gotham Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/08/2012
ISBN-13: 9781592407286
ISBN-10: 1592407285

When 13-year-old Joe Schwartz attempted suicide after telling his school friends he was gay -- and receiving a hostile reaction -- he and his parents discovered there was very little help available for children like him. In Oddly Normal, Joe's father, New York Times correspondent John Schwartz, recounts the story of his son's life, explaining how Joe seemed different even as a small child. For years Joe had seen numerous therapists and received various diagnoses, but nothing helped. After Joe came out, he eventually found help through the Youth Enrichment Services at the Gay Center. For another moving account of a family's relationship to a gay son, read Robb Forman Dew's The Family Heart.

Publisher: Delacorte Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/30/2012
ISBN-13: 9780385343756
ISBN-10: 0385343752

Novelist Kurt Vonnegut survived the bombing of Dresden in World War II while a POW and returned to the U.S. to launch a stellar literary career that lasted until his death in 2007. This collection of his letters, compiled by fellow novelist Dan Wakefield, provides a comprehensive and intimate account of Vonnegut's life. Wakefield includes a general introduction to the book and brief introductions to chronological groups of letters, adding contextual annotations where needed, in this "moving and revelatory portrait" (Publishers Weekly) of Vonnegut's personal and professional life. If you haven't already read Charles Shields' recent biography And So It Goes, you'll want to pick that up as well.

Publisher: Twelve
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/06/2009
ISBN-13: 9780446540940
ISBN-10: 0446540943

Between 2007 and 2008, bestselling author Christopher Buckley (who was 55 years old at the time) buried both of his larger-than-life parents, William F. Buckley, Jr., the father of the modern conservative movement, and Patricia Taylor Buckley, one of New York's most colorful socialites. Losing Mum and Pup is Buckley's account of their deaths and how he learned to cope with his grief, but it is also about family, for Buckley recounts episodes of his parents' 57-year marriage as well as his own relationship with them. "Loving, exasperated and very funny," says The New York Times.

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Publisher: Kodansha International
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/15/1993
ISBN-13: 9781568360102
ISBN-10: 156836010X

The story of Sadie and Bessie Delany, who died in 1999 and 1995 respectively, is remarkable not only because these two sisters both lived to see their 100th birthdays, but also because their lives encapsulate more than a century of African-American history and culture. Daughters of a man who was born into slavery and who later became an Episcopal bishop, the Delany sisters lived through the days of Jim Crow, were prominent Harlem residents, and had successful professional lives as a teacher (Sadie) and a dentist (Bessie). Told with grace, charm, and wisdom, Having Our Say is the Delany sisters' lively dual memoir as well as an amazing historical record. For more from Sadie Delany, read On My Own at 107.

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Publisher: Random House
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/15/2011
ISBN-13: 9781400068784
ISBN-10: 1400068789

Actress Diane Keaton, perhaps best known for her Oscar-winning role as Annie Hall in the Woody Allen movie by that name, thoughtfully explores memories of her own life and that of her mother. Keaton alternates passages that portray her early life, her acting experiences and love affairs, and her adopted children with excerpts from her mother's journals and descriptions of her aging mother's increasing dementia. Then Again weaves an engaging and colorful tapestry depicting Diane's family.

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Publisher: Ecco
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/15/2011
ISBN-13: 9780061825958
ISBN-10: 0061825956

When writer and journalist Roger Rosenblatt's 38-year-old daughter, Amy, died from an undetected heart condition in 2007, Rosenblatt and his wife, Ginny, moved in with their son-in-law to help care for their three young grandchildren, Jessica, Sammy, and James. In Making Toast, Rosenblatt writes tenderly and beautifully about how the mundane tasks of caring for his grandchildren -- making their morning toast, ferrying them to afternoon activities, reading bedtime stories -- helped him cope with Amy's death and move forward with his life. Rosenblatt's follow-up memoir, Kayak Morning, presents his poetic, evocative meditations on grief and the ultimate triumph of love.

Publisher: Back Bay Books/Little, Brown
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/26/2004
ISBN-13: 9780316159418
ISBN-10: 0316159417

In early 2002, just after the collapse of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad lived with an Afghan family for several months. In this eye-opening portrait, she relates the inspiring deeds of the family patriarch (he is a bookseller who has been harassed and jailed under three different regimes for selling officially banned books), but primarily focuses on the family's domestic life and the oppression of women by male family members. The book's fascinating, detailed look at a private world made it a bestseller. For a somewhat different experience of family life under Taliban oppression, read Gayle Tzemach Lemmon's The Dressmaker of Khair Khana.

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