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Cesar Romero: The Joker is Wild
by Samuel Bernstein
Dynamic and debonair, Cesar Romero was best known for creating the role of the Joker in the 1960s Batman television series. As the first actor to play Batman and Robin's villainous nemesis, Romero established the character's giddy, manic tone and the distinctive laugh that subsequent actors like Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger, and Joaquin Phoenix would use as the starting points in their own Oscar-nominated (Nicholson) and Oscar-winning (Ledger and Phoenix) performances.
As a closeted gay man of Latin American descent, Romero gracefully faced many personal challenges while maintaining his suave public image and starring opposite legends ranging from Shirley Temple to Marlene Dietrich, Carmen Miranda to Frank Sinatra, and Kurt Russell to Jane Wyman. The first biography of the consummate entertainer, Cesar Romero: The Joker Is Wild, captures the critical moments of Romero's childhood, adolescence, and accomplishments in Hollywood. Author Samuel Garza Bernstein shares anecdotes regarding Romero's public and personal life, as well as Romero's private disdain for his reputation as the "Latin lover," a discriminatory stereotype he found constrictive both in terms of his range as an actor and as a man who kept his sexuality private.
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| Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas BoggsDrawing on interviews and previously unreleased archival materials, National Humanities Center fellow Nicholas Boggs’ moving and intimate biography of writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin examines how his personal relationships impacted his life and career. Further reading: James Baldwin: Living in Fire by Bill V. Mullen. |
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| Coming Up Short: A Memoir of America by Robert B. ReichFormer United States Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich’s sobering yet hopeful blend of memoir and political analysis incisively explores how the rise of partisanship and tribalism has hindered American economic progress. Try this next: The Theft of a Decade: Baby Boomers, Millennials, and the Distortion of Our Economy by Joseph C. Sternberg. |
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Focus on: Sports Biographies
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LeBron
by Jeff Benedict
What's the story?: The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Tiger Woods turns his attention to basketball, providing the definitive biography of one of the greatest athletes of all time that chronicles not only LeBron James' meteoric rise to fame but also his solid family, political activism and business empire.
Topics include: The particulars of LeBron’s life and career-from his hardscrabble childhood in Akron, where his mother raised him as a single parent, through his storied high-school basketball career at a largely white Catholic school, to his eventual supremacy in the NBA-are thoroughly fleshed out in Benedict’s crisp style and skillfully-set scenes. The author also illustrates the many ways in which LeBron has changed the game both on and off the court, including his role in ushering in a more business-savvy and politically conscious era for NBA players. LeBron, Benedict notes, has navigated free agency and social-justice issues in ways that many previous superstars didn’t. While LeBron has been in the public eye for decades, Benedict provides the most comprehensive profile yet in this biography truly fit for the King.
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Coming Home
by Brittney Griner
From the nine-time women's basketball icon and two-time Olympic gold medalist comes a raw, revelatory account of her unfathomable detainment in Russia and her journey home. Coming Home is more than Brittney's journey from captivity to freedom. In an account as gripping as it is poignant, she shares how her deep love for Cherelle, her college sweetheart and wife of six years, anchored her during their greatest storm; how her family's support pulled her back from the brink; and how hundreds of letters from friends and neighbors lent her resolve to keep fighting. Coming Home is both a story of survival and a testament to love-the bonds that brought Brittney home to her family, and at last, to herself.
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62: Aaron Judge, the New York Yankees, and the Pursuit of Greatness
by Bryan Hoch
What it's about: An inside look at Yankees slugger Aaron Judge's incredible, unparalleled run to break Roger Maris's home run record and the franchise both men called home.
Why you might like it: In this look at one of baseball's wildest and most memorable seasons, veteran Yankees beat reporter Bryan Hoch unravels the remarkable journey of Judge's run to shatter Maris's beloved sixty-one-year-old record. In-depth, inspiring, and with an expert's insight, 62 also investigates the more significant questions raised in a season unlike any other.
Who's the author?: Bryan Hoch has covered New York baseball for the past two decades, working the New York Yankees clubhouse as an MLB.com beat reporter since 2007. Bryan is the author and coauthor of several books, including 62, The Baby Bombers, Mission 27, and The Bronx Zoom.
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| Althea: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson by Sally H. JacobsFormer Boston Globe reporter Sally H. Jacobs' biography of trailblazing tennis player Althea Gibson, the first African American to win a Grand Slam tournament, offers a comprehensive portrait of a complex woman who battled racial and gender discrimination, poverty, and abuse in her journey toward stardom. Further reading: Serving Herself: The Life and Times of Althea Gibson by Ashley Brown. |
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| Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe by David MaranissPulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Maraniss' well-researched and insightful biography of multi-hyphenate athlete Jim Thorpe, the first Indigenous American to win Olympic gold for the United States, looks at the man beyond the myth, exploring how Thorpe grappled with racist treatment, poverty and alcoholism, and fraught family relationships amid his career triumphs. Further reading: Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe by Kate Buford. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Michigan City Public Library
100 E. 4th Street
Michigan City, Indiana 46360
219-873-3044mclib.org/ |
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