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Biography and Memoir July 2024
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| Rise of a Killah by Ghostface KillahA founding member of iconic hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, Ghostface Killah charts his fraught path to stardom in this free-flowing memoir surveying his life through 15 of his songs. For fans of: Raw: My Journey into the Wu-Tang by Lamont "U-God" Hawkins. |
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Me and Mr Jones: My Life with David Bowie and the Spiders From Mars
by Suzi Ronson
The stylist behind David Bowie's iconic Ziggy Stardust look recalls being the only working woman in David's touring party as she joins The Spiders of Mars as they perform around the world, traversing the absurdities of life in rock & roll in a world on the cusp of cultural transformation.
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The Most Human: Reconciling With My Father, Leonard Nimoy
by Adam Nimoy
The son of Leonard Nimoy recounts their awkward early relationship that blossomed into conflict, and as the resentment toward his father kept building through the years, leading to their estrangement, a letter marked a turning point in their lives, clearing the way for a new relationship between them.
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1974: A Personal History
by Francine Prose
This memoir from the renowned author delves into her connection with activist Anthony Russo, a key figure in the Pentagon Papers leak and explores the transformative year that helped reshape our nation.
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Just Add Water: My Swimming Life
by Katie Ledecky
In this candid and inspiring memoir of a true competitor, a three-time Olympian, a seven-time gold medalist and a world record-holder in individual swimming events charts her life in swimming, from discovering the joy of the pool to developing a champion's mindset that has allowed her to persevere.
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John Quincy Adams: A Man for the Whole People
by Randall Bennett Woods
Deeply researched and brilliantly written, this masterful biography of John Quincy Adams reveals a rich and complicated family saga and a political legacy that transformed the American Republic, including his post-presidency rebirth in Congress as the chamber's most vocal opponent of slavery.
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| The Uptown Local: Joy, Death, and Joan Didion by Cory LeadbeaterCory Leadbeater's moving debut chronicles the transformative decade the author spent working as a personal assistant to writer Joan Didion as she neared the end of her life. Further reading: Joan Didion: The Last Interview and Other Conversations by Joan Didion with an introduction by Patricia Lockwood. |
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| I've Tried Being Nice: Essays by Ann LearyBestselling novelist Ann Leary's (The Foundling) debut essay collection offers a witty and self-deprecating account of the author's attempts to stop being a self-proclaimed "people pleaser," with varying (and relatable) degrees of success. For fans of: Well, This Is Exhausting: Essays by Sophia Benoit. |
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Hell, No, We Didn't Go!: Firsthand Accounts of Vietnam War Protest and Resistance
by Eli Greenbaum
In Hell, No, We Didn’t Go! Eli Greenbaum presents firsthand accounts of men who were driven to resist or dodge the Vietnam draft at all costs. They found ways to defy the draft by leaving the country, going to prison, becoming conscientious objectors, gaming the system, conspiring to fail physicals, and even enlisting- anything to avoid being drafted. These vivid essays and candid oral histories detail events that were often controversial, sometimes volatile, and almost always emotionally charged. Held together by an overarching personal narrative, Greenbaum provides a fifty-year perspective on the men’s decisions to avoid the Vietnam War no matter what.
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| Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People by Tiya MilesNational Book Award-winning author Tiya Miles' (All That She Carried) nuanced and demythologizing biography of abolitionist Harriet Tubman offers fresh insights on her life, particularly how her religious faith and ecological knowledge informed her work as an Underground Railroad conductor. Try this next: Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War by Edda L. Fields-Black. |
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| Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell by Ann PowersNPR music critic Ann Powers plumbs the life and career of legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell in this thoughtful and lyrical portrait named one of Observer's Best New Biographies of 2024. Further reading: Joni: The Anthology edited by Barney Hoskyns. |
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Under a Rock
by Chris Stein
In this rags-to-riches story, the co-founder, songwriter and guitarist of the iconic band Blondie, who reveals himself to be a screw-up and a former heroin addict, takes readers back to the golden age of the East Village in all its creative ferment and the codependent love story between him and Debbie Harry.
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The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir
by Griffin Dunne
Griffin Dunne's memoir of growing up among larger-than-life characters in Hollywood and Manhattan finds wicked humor and glimmers of light in even the most painful of circumstances. At eight, Sean Connery saved him from drowning. At thirteen, desperate to hook up with Janis Joplin, he attended his aunt Joan Didion and uncle John Gregory Dunne's legendary LA launch party for Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. At sixteen, he got kicked out of boarding school, ending his institutional education for good. In his early twenties, he shared an apartment in Manhattan's Hotel Des Artistes with his best friend and soulmate Carrie Fisher while she was filming some sci-fi movie called Star Wars and he was a struggling actor working as a popcorn concessionaire at Radio City Music Hall. A few years later, he produced and starred in the now-iconic film After Hours, directed by Martin Scorsese. In the midst of it all, Griffin's twenty-two-year-old sister, Dominique, a rising star in Hollywood, was brutally strangled to death by her ex-boyfriend, leading to one of the most infamous public trials of the 1980s. The outcome was a travesty of justice that marked the beginning of their father Dominick Dunne's career as a crime reporter for Vanity Fair and a victims' rights activist. And yet, for all its boldface cast of characters and jaw-dropping scenes, The Friday Afternoon Club is no mere celebrity memoir. It is, down to its bones, a family story that embraces the poignant absurdities and best and worst efforts of its loveable, infuriating, funny, and moving characters-its author most of all.
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When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day
by Garrett M. Graff
The New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist for Watergate turns his attention to D-Day, one of history's greatest and most unbelievable military and human triumphs, exploring the full impact of this world-changing event and offering a fitting tribute to the people of the Greatest Generation.
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Books You Might Have Missed
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| The Other Fab Four: The Remarkable True Story of the Liverbirds, Britain's First Female Rockband by Mary McGlory and Sylvia SaundersMary McGlory and Sylvia Saunders co-wrote this upbeat chronicle of their life as members of the Liverbirds, one of the first all-women rock bands in the world, which they co-founded alongside Valerie Gell and Pamela Birch in 1963. The quartet's working-class Liverpudlian origins earned them comparisons to the Beatles, with whom they were briefly acquainted. Try this next: Parachute Women: Marianne Faithfull, Marsha Hunt, Bianca Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, and the Women Behind the Rolling Stones by Elizabeth Winder. |
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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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