Biography and Memoir
June 2026

Recent Releases
Labor: One Woman's Work
by Dr. Mary Fariba Afsari

Mary Farib Afsari is an Iranian American OB/GYN physician who practices out of an RV, partly so that she can bring her services to transgender patients and others who have justified fears of coming to hospitals and medical offices. Afsari movingly tells the story of her Iranian grandmother, whose preventable death during pregnancy played a major role in motivating Mary to go into reproductive care. For another impassioned physician-authored book, try Renegade M.D.: A Doctor’s Stories from the Streets by Susan Partovi, M.D.
Rasputin: The Downfall of the Romanovs
by Antony Beevor

Russian peasant turned mystic Grigori Rasputin was surrounded by dark rumors while serving the court of Nicholas II and Alexandra in pre-revolution St. Petersburg. People whispered that he had superhuman healing powers and conducted orgies with women of the court. Historian Antony Beevor separates myth from fact, concluding that Rasputin’s abuse of the Tsar’s trust coupled with his well-known corruption and lechery likely helped undermine public faith in the Russian royal house, eventually leading to his murder.
American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed
by Isaac Fitzgerald

Memoirist Isaac Fitzgerald (Dirtbag, Massachusetts) combines a love of walking and a fascination with pioneer Johnny Appleseed (aka John Chapman) in his traveling tale, in which he attempts to walk along Chapman’s historic route from Massachusetts to Indiana. Along his journey, Fitzgerald shares his curiosity about the Appleseed legend, myth-making, his own history, and small-town America in a “stirring, singular” (Publishers Weekly) memoir. Read-alike: This Land Is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History by Beverly Gage.
Selling Opportunity: The Story of Mary Kay
by Mary Lisa Gavenas

Mary Kay Ash, born Mary Kathlyn Wagner, was married with children by age sixteen, and began selling goods to housewives door-to-door to help make ends meet in Depression-era Texas. Decades later, she founded Mary Kay Cosmetics and recruited a sales army of her own. Former Glamour editor Mary Lisa Gavenas reveals the key to Ash’s success: selling the idea of financial independence to ambitious American women like herself. Read-alike: Becoming Elizabeth Arden: The Woman Behind the Global Beauty Empire by Stacy A. Cordery.
This Dark Night: Emily Brontë, a Life
by Deborah Lutz

English professor Deborah Lutz has taken what little is known of Wuthering Heights author Emily Brontë and created a richly imagined extrapolation of her inner world. Famously reclusive and resistant to the expectations imposed upon Victorian women, Emily was most inspired by her fantasy life, nourished by her wanderings in the moors surrounding her family home in Yorkshire, where she spent most of her tragically short life. Lush, atmospheric, and “rigorously researched” (Publishers Weekly), Lutz’s book shines new light on a beloved literary figure.
Say It in Letters
While collections of personal letters aren’t technically biographies, letters written by (and to) famous people can be a wellspring of primary source material that biographers use to study their subjects. Indeed, people often reveal sides of themselves in the letters they write that they wouldn’t to the rest of the world! Enjoy these titles that feature interesting people’s collections of correspondence.
 
 
Lucy & Desi: The Love Letters by Lucie Arnaz
Lucy & Desi: The Love Letters
by Lucie Arnaz

A treasure trove of previously unseen love letters between Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, spanning their courtship through I Love Lucy fame and beyond, tells the couple's real-life love story in their own words, alongside rare photos from the family scrapbooks. This volume is a revelatory look at a complicated and captivating love story that will amaze even longtime fans who think they have seen it all.
Notes to John
by Joan Didion

After author Joan Didion died in 2021, a journal was found among her papers addressed to her husband John Gregory Dunne, written in the early 2000s and concerning psychotherapy treatment that she received at the behest of her daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne. Readers will empathize with Didion as she gives a detailed account of these intimate but painful talk-therapy sessions, which cover fraught family dynamics, alcoholism, guilt, and emotional distance. Recommended for people who were moved by I Will Do Better by Charles Bock.
Joyce Carol Oates: Letters to a Biographer by Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates: Letters to a Biographer
by Joyce Carol Oates

This rich compilation of Joyce Carol Oates's letters across four decades displays her warmth and generosity, her droll and sometimes wicked sense of humor, her phenomenal energy, and most of all, her mastery of the lost art of letter writing.
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Letters to a Young Poet
by Rainer Maria Rilke

At the start of the twentieth century, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote a series of letters to a young officer cadet, advising him on writing, love, sex, suffering, and the nature of advice itself. These profound and lyrical letters have since become hugely influential for generations of writers and artists of all kinds, including Lady Gaga and Patti Smith. With honesty, elegance, and a deep understanding of the loneliness that often comes with being an artist, Rilke's letters are an endless source of inspiration and comfort. 
Letters from an Astrophysicist by Neil Degrasse Tyson
Letters from an Astrophysicist
by Neil Degrasse Tyson

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has attracted one of the world's largest online followings with his fascinating, widely accessible insights into science and our universe. Now, Tyson invites us to go behind the scenes of his public fame by unveiling his candid correspondence with people across the globe who have sought him out in search of answers. In this hand-picked collection of 100 letters, Tyson draws upon cosmic perspectives to address a vast array of questions about science, faith, philosophy, life, and of course, Pluto. 
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