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Biography and Memoir April 2026 |
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| The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg, and the Battle for the Soul of... by Paul FischerDocumentarian Paul Fischer’s collective biography charts the early careers of Hollywood titans Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg, whose rise coincided with the fall of the old studio system and ushered in the era of the blockbuster. Though each director has his own style and vision, Fischer’s gossipy, novelistic narrative shows the influence they had on each other as friends, competitors, and co-conspirators while changing the way movies are made. |
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| La Lucci by Susan Lucci with Laura MortonActress Susan Lucci opens up in her “vivid and engaging” (Kirkus Reviews) second memoir about her life and career highs and lows. With unsentimental candor, the soap icon recounts continuing to work in film and Broadway in her late seventies and goes deep into her inspirations, disappointments, and her motivation to keep going despite some painful losses, notably the death of her husband of 53 years, Helmut Huber, of a stroke in 2022. |
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| Defiance: A Memoir of Awakening, Rebellion, and Survival in Syria by Loubna MrieWhen Syrian photojournalist Loubna Mrie joined the Arab Spring protests as a teenager in 2011, her father, an intelligence official for the Assad regime, cut her off. This started her career documenting the ensuing civil war, and her powerful debut details the personal toll it took -- both from the horrors she witnessed and the implosion of her family -- as political and sectarian violence engulfed the country. For a gripping fictional account of the Arab Spring’s aftermath, try The Republic of False Truths by Alaa Al Aswany. |
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| Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery by Gavin NewsomCalifornia governor and potential 2028 presidential candidate Gavin Newsom’s book briskly lays out his rise in the Democratic party, reveals some of the struggles early in his life that propelled him into politics, and talks about some key achievements of his tenure, including overseeing California’s legalization of same-sex marriage seven years prior to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Try this next: The Deeper the Roots by Michael Tubbs. |
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| Judy Blume: A Life by Mark OppenheimerHistorian and journalist Mark Oppenheimer’s “fitting tribute” (Booklist) to author Judy Blume provides a detailed, chronological view of an ambitious, talented woman seeking something beyond the strictures of her early marriage and motherhood. Though her work was sometimes controversial, Oppenheimer pinpoints the secret of Blume’s success: she was able to produce children’s stories with a keen sense of realism in which young readers could actually see themselves. |
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A Danger to the Minds of Young Girls: Margaret C. Anderson, Book Bans, and the Fight to...
by Adam Morgan
American 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).
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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