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New Biographies & MemoirsAugust 2026 |
Our Librarians have selected some of the newest biographies in the collection. |
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Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed by Quinn Slobodian Presenting Elon Musk less as an individual than as a product of his era, Slobodian traces how his companies and public persona embody a broader “Muskism”, a technology‑driven vision of freedom that depends on state support and deep user dependence - in this examination of electric cars, rockets, satellites and social platforms as tools that expand private influence over infrastructure, markets and geopolitics while promising autonomy for some and reinforcing exclusion and hierarchy for others.
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Hunger Like a Thirst: From Food Stamps to Fine Dining, a Restaurant Critic Finds Her Place at the Table by Besha RodellOne of the world's last anonymous restaurant critics recounts her journey from Australia to the American restaurant world, immersing herself in the lifestyle and community while struggling with the industry's shortcomings to make a career - from the streets of Brooklyn to lush Atlanta to sunny L.A. to traveling and eating around the world, while exploring the history of criticism and dining and the cultural shifts that have turned us all into food obsessives.
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Tonight the Music Seems So Loud: The Meaning of George Michael by Sathnam Sanghera A songwriter whose bedroom demo became a major hit, a performer who bleached his hair and wore tiny shorts while sharply interrogating his own image, and an artist who came out during the AIDS crisis and a deeply homophobic era with remarkable boldness, George Michael moved from Wham!’s boundary‑breaking pop to a solo career that helped define modern British music.
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The Village on the Edge of the World: Writing and Surviving in Ceausescu's Romania by Herta Müller Growing up in a tiny Romanian village “on the edge of the world” and later living in exile in Germany, the writer looks back on daily life under Ceausescu - friendships strained by surveillance, interrogations and constant suspicion, the mix of fear and dull routine that defined the dictatorship - and considers how those experiences of fascism and Soviet influence shaped her work, her memories and enduring questions about power and freedom.
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The Danger to Be Sane: Creativity and the Eccentric Mind by Rosa Montero Blending personal reflection with literary and scientific insight, Montero considers how creativity and mental vulnerability intersect, drawing on psychology, neuroscience and the lives of writers such as Kafka, Woolf, Plath, Dickinson and Proust to examine how unusual ways of thinking both challenge conventional ideas of sanity and shape lasting art, and to suggest different ways of understanding what we call normal.
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Better Do It Now Before You Die Later: Sonny Simmons with Marc Chaloin by Sonny Simmons From a childhood in rural Louisiana to nights on New York’s free‑jazz stages, the saxophonist replays his early gigs in the Bay Area, creative breakthroughs and deep struggles with addiction and homelessness, and traces his unlikely return to recording and wider recognition in the 1990s, offering a candid, digressive account of a life spent chasing sound across changing jazz worlds.
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The Accidental Vineyard: An Old House, New Vines, and a Changed Life in Wine Country by Richard A. Moran On a late‑night drive meant to soothe a crying child, a corporate executive and his family take a wrong turn into Sonoma County and are drawn to a rundown nineteenth‑century Victorian house with a failing porch and roof; as they slowly restore the building, accept a neighbor’s gift of grapevines and learn to tend a small vineyard, their city‑centered routines give way to country rhythms, new neighbors and a more grounded way of living.
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Dog Days: A Memoir by Emily Labarge Beginning with a Christmas 2009 home invasion in which she and her family were held hostage, the author moves between memoir, essay, poetry and dreamlike sequences to follow how trauma reverberates long after a single event, drawing on artists and writers such as Sylvia Plath, Dora Maar and David Lynch as she examines the limits of neat storytelling and offers a raw, sensory account of survival, memory and the body’s response to violence.
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Casa Kahlo: Frida Kahlo's Home and Sanctuary by Mara Romeo Kahlo Opened to visitors for the first time in nearly a century, Frida Kahlo’s Mexico City family house is presented here through memories, documents and images preserved by her great‑nieces, tracing how this quieter home served as refuge from a turbulent marriage, a place for teaching and political debate and a setting for everyday life that left its mark on her clothes, keepsakes and early artwork.
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The Killer and Frank Lloyd Wright: The True Story of Mass Murder in Paradise by Casey Sherman At the Wisconsin estate Taliesin, built as a private retreat for himself and Mamah Borthwick after the public breakdown of his marriage to Kitty, Frank Lloyd Wright’s personal life spilled further into headlines when a 1914 attack there left multiple residents dead, here revisited in the scandal, the crime and its aftermath to explore how ambition, unconventional relationships and profound loss shaped the architect behind some of America’s most recognizable buildings.
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Have Questions? Get in touch. |
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