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Biography and Memoir May 2025 |
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Dancing with Diana : a memoir
by Anne Allan
"Dancing makes you feel heaps better" - Diana. In 1981, after the wedding of the century, Anne Allan, a dancer, and ballet mistress with the London City Ballet, was offered an unusual assignment. Her Royal Highness Diana, the Princess of Wales, wanted dance lessons. Would Anne be her teacher? Anne and her royal pupil were soon meeting at a private studio for the first of hundreds of secret weekly one-hour lessons that were never on the princess's official schedule and never be discovered by the ever-lurking press. Under Anne's direction, Diana mounted her spectacular debut on the stage of Covent Garden, videotaped a solo performance at Her Majesty's Theatre, and made clandestine backstage visits to ballets and West End shows for the Princess to get as close as she could to the lives and work of real dancers. Over the course of nine years, teacher and pupil became close friends. Diana appreciated having an outsider to whom she could speak candidly about her personal challenges and her place in the royal world. They would talk, laugh, cry, and--always--dance. Most importantly, Diana learned to express her true self in physical movement. By her last class, the Princess had learned to carry herself with confidence, poise, and grace, both inside and outside the studio. Dance, says Anne, had "nourished and renewed her soul"
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The stained glass window : a family history as the American story, 1790-1958
by David Levering Lewis
The historian embarks on a personal journey to uncover his ancestry, revealing the intertwined narratives of his family's history, which includes both slaveholding white families and an up-from-slavery Black lineage, illuminating the complexities of race, equity and legacy in America.
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I'll have what she's having
by Chelsea Handler
"At ten years old, Chelsea opened a lemonade stand and realized she'd make more money if the drinks were spiked. So she added vodka to her recipe and used her earnings to upgrade herself to first-class on a family vacation-leaving her parents and siblings in coach. At nineteen, she moved to Los Angeles and got fired from her temp job when she admitted she didn't know how to transfer calls. She played pickleball with the scions of an American dynasty. She sexted a governor. She shared psychedelics with strangers in Spain. When she accidentally ended up at dinner with Woody Allen, she decided she wouldn't leave the table without asking him a very pointed personal question. She went on national television and talked about having threesomes. Chelsea Handler has never been one to hold back. But this life of adventure and absurdity is only part of her story. Chelsea's truest calling is showing up for her family-canine and human, biological and chosen. She's come to embrace spending time with herself, meditating, remaining open to love, and ending relationships with grace when that's what's called for. She is a sister to the many women who rely on her"
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The house of my mother : a daughter's quest for freedom
by Shari Franke
Exposes the hidden abuse the author endured from her mother, Ruby Franke, behind the scenes of the popular 8 Passengers YouTube channel, detailing Ruby's strict control, influence from relationship coach Jodi Hildebrandt, and Shari's path to healing after her mother's 2023 arrest for child abuse.
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One in Six Million : The Baby by the Roadside and the Man Who Retraced a Holocaust Survivor's Lost Identity
by Amy Fish
"Maria was eight months old in 1942 when a childless couple found her, wrapped in a blanket, at the side of a road near Krosno, Poland. A note pinned to the blanket stated only her first name and her date of birth. The couple picked up Maria and raised her, but she grew up longing for identity and connection. Who was she, and what had happened to her family? Years later, Maria’s story came to the attention of Stanley Diamond. Diamond was the founder of Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, one of the largest databases of Jewish vital records and a crucial tool in researching the stories of the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. In this engrossing story, Amy Fish shows how Diamond and an intrepid band of international volunteers compared photographs with genealogical records and smuggled DNA tests to provide Maria with family ties that she thought were lost to her forever."
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The lost and the found : a true story of homelessness, found family, and second chances
by Kevin Fagan
An empathetic exploration of homelessness in San Francisco through the stories of Rita and Tyson, two individuals battling addiction and striving to escape their circumstances, as well as a commentary on the broader societal issues of housing inequality and addiction, shaped by the author's personal experiences and journalistic background.
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Rebel Queen : The Cold War, Misogyny, and the Making of a Grandmaster
by Susan Polgar
This captivating memoir tells the story of how one of the most renowned women in chess history took on a sexist establishment, stood up to an authoritarian empire and rewrote the rules of what women could achieve against the oppressive backdrop of Cold War Eastern Europe.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Côte Saint-Luc Public Library
5851 Cavendish Blvd.
Côte Saint-Luc, Quebec H4W 2X8
514-485-6900csllibrary.org/ |
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