|
|
|
|
Biography and Memoir February 2026 |
|
|
|
| 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. |
|
|
|
Leaving Home: A Memoir in Full Colour
by Mark Haddon
An unflinching, brilliantly written, darkly funny, lavishly illustrated memoir by the acclaimed author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time; a chronicle of a miserable childhood and a life riven by mental and physical ailments, but ultimately a ringing testament about how one artist sees the world and how his experiences have shaped his vision.
|
|
| A Danger to the Minds of Young Girls: Margaret C. Anderson, Book Bans, and the Fight to... by Adam MorganAmerican 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 WintersonProlific 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
|
|
|
|
In the Light of Dawn: The History and Legacy of a Black Canadian Community
by Marie Carter
Illuminating two hundred years of lost Black history through the lens of an iconic abolitionist settlement. In the Light of Dawn shares the compelling story of how the iconic Dawn Settlement -- now largely within the boundaries of Dresden, Ontario -- shaped (and was shaped by) a broader course of international events along a 200-year continuum of resistance and contribution.
|
|
|
|
A Footnote to Freedom: Reclaiming the Life and Legacy of a Black Battalion Soldier
by Lance B. Dixon
One family's story of racism, redemption, and the legacy of the No. 2 Black Construction Battalion. In A Footnote to Freedom, through intimate conversations with his father, Dixon grapples with the effects of racism across three generations. He also brings to light the painful irony of the Black battalion’s that these men had to fight their own country to fight for the freedom of others in a distant land. This is the tale of his grandfather’s redemption and the legacy he leaves behind.
|
|
|
|
Driving the Green Book: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance
by Alvin Hall
Join award-winning broadcaster Alvin Hall on a journey through America’s haunted racial past, with the legendary Green Book as your guide. Along the way, they gathered memories from some of the last living witnesses for whom the Green Book meant survival—remarkable people who not only endured but rose above the hate, building vibrant Black communities against incredible odds. Driving the Green Book is a vital work of national history as well as a hopeful chronicle of Black resilience and resistance.
|
|
| Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde by Alexis Pauline GumbsPoet 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). |
|
|
|
Freedom Lost, Freedom Won: A Personal History of America
by Eugene Robinson
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Eugene Robinson traces American racial history through his family's lineage, beginning with his great-grandfather's emancipation from slavery and culminating in the present-day racial justice movements.
|
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
|
|
|