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Gift Idea
Citing costly memory-related inconveniences suffered by average individuals, a science journalist...
Category: Biography
Visible Man
University of Georgia Press |
June 26, 2019 |
195 pages
Henry Dumas (1934–1968) was a writer who did not live to see most of his fiction and poetry in print. A son of Sweet Home, Arkansas, and Harlem, he devoted himself to the creation of a black literary cosmos, one in which black literature and culture were windows into the human condition. While he... More Info
The Nearness of Others
June 26, 2019 |
336 pages
“Funny how a gay man's hand resting heavily on your shoulder used to say let's fuck but now means let's not. Funny how ostensible nearness really betrays distance sometimes.” —from The Nearness of Others In this radical, genre-bending narrative, David Caron tells the story of his 2006 HIV... More Info
Wasted Updated Edition
Harper Perennial |
May 27, 2014 |
336 pages
A reissue of the highly acclaimed, bestselling memoir--a classic of the genre--with an important, and perhaps controversial, new Afterword by the author. Why would a talented young woman enter into a torrid affair with hunger, drugs, sex, and death? Through five lengthy hospital stays, endless... More Info
Tibetan Peach Pie
Ecco |
May 27, 2014 |
28 pages
Legendary novelist, American icon, and author of the international bestseller Even Cowgirls Get the Blues Tom Robbins's zany romp through his wild life and times. Tom Robbins is an American institution. For over forty years, his warm, wise, and wonderfully weird novels such as Even Cowgirls Get the... More Info
The Faraway Nearby
Penguin Group USA |
April 29, 2014 |
272 pages
This personal, lyrical narrative about storytelling and empathy from award winner Rebecca Solnit is a fitting companion to her beloved A Field Guide for Getting Lost In this exquisitely written new book by the author of A Paradise Built in Hell, Rebecca Solnit explores the ways we make our lives... More Info
How to Catch a Frog
Stewart, Tabori, & Chang |
May 20, 2014 |
176 pages
Much of Heather Ross’s creative work has been inspired by her being born into an eccentric family of artists and idealists in a rural corner of Vermont during the 1970s. According to Heather, that environment was defined by stunning natural beauty, creative and innovative living, and daily... More Info
Hold Tight Gently
June 26, 2019 |
368 pages
Meticulously researched and evocatively told, The Battlefield of AIDS is historian Martin Duberman's poignant memorial to those lost to AIDS and to two of the great unsung heroes of the early years of the epidemic. Composer Michael Callen became a leading figure in the movement to increase... More Info
The Liars' Club
Penguin (Non-Classics) |
June 26, 2019 |
320 pages
The author, a poet, recounts her difficult childhood growing up in a Texas oil town.
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Sculptor's Daughter
William Morrow Paperbacks |
January 28, 2014 |
192 pages
Tove Jansson’s memoirs of her early years, filled with joy, exuberance, and the satisfaction of being—with an abundance of photographic illustrations. The excitement of being alive and savoring the good things that are life pervades all the writing of Tove Jansson. The beloved nine volumes of... More Info
One Hour in Paris
Broadview Press |
April 22, 2014 |
208 pages
In this powerful memoir, philosopher Karyn L. Freedman travels back to a Paris night in 1990 when she was twenty-two and, in one violent hour, her life was changed forever by a brutal rape. At once deeply intimate and terrifyingly universal, One Hour in Paris takes the reader on a harrowing yet... More Info
Eating Wildly
May 13, 2014 |
256 pages
In this touching and informative memoir about foraging for food in New York City, Ava Chin finds sustenance…and so much more. Urban foraging is the new frontier of foraging for foods, and it’s all about eating better, healthier, and more sustainably, no matter where you live. Time named... More Info
Country Girl
Back Bay Books |
May 6, 2014 |
384 pages
"Country Girl is Edna O'Brien's exquisite account of her dashing, barrier-busting, up-and-down life."--National Public Radio When Edna O'Brien's first novel, The Country Girls, was published in 1960, it so scandalized the O'Briens' local parish that the book was burned by its priest. O'Brien was... More Info
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Pray Standing
July 1, 2013 |
332 pages
A fascinating account of a life begun in Hong Kong, rooted in a family influenced equally by ancient Chinese tradition and modern Western perspective. Frank Ling survived the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, went on to flirt with a career in show business, overcame college and career challenges in... More Info
The Broken Road
New York Review of Books |
June 26, 2019 |
384 pages
A prize-winning biographer pieces together the unfinished manuscript of the last leg of the trip taken by Patrick Leigh Fermor as he traveled on foot across Europe in 1933, completing the trilogy that began with A Time of Gifts.
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North of Normal
April 29, 2014 |
256 pages
Sex, drugs and . . . bug stew? An utterly compelling tale of survivalâe"of nature, family and genetics In the late 1960s, riding the crest of the counterculture movement, Ceaâe(tm)s family left a comfortable existence in California to live off the land in northern Alberta. But unlike most commune... More Info
Birding with Yeats
May 3, 2014 |
288 pages
A delicately rendered memoir on motherhood, family, and the beauty of the natural world. In fall 2007, Lynn Thomson experiences a huge life shift. Her teenage son, Yeats, is just beginning high school. Yeats has always struggled against the system, against the pressure to conform. He is a poet at... More Info
In the Slender Margin
Patrick Crean Books |
April 22, 2014 |
200 pages
A journey into the land of death and dying seen through the lens of art and the imagination Part memoir, part meditation on death itself, In the Slender Margin is an exploration of death from an âeoeinsiderâe(tm)sâe point of view. Using the threads of her brotherâe(tm)s early death and her... More Info
Devil in Deerskins
April 1, 2014 |
216 pages
Anahareo (1906-1985) was a Mohawk writer, environmentalist, and activist. She was also the wife of Grey Owl, aka Archie Belaney, the internationally celebrated writer and speaker who claimed to be of Scottish and Apache descent, but whose true ancestry as a white Englishman only became known after... More Info
Gandhi Before India
Random House Canada |
April 15, 2014 |
528 pages
The first volume of a magisterial biography: the definitive portrait of the life and work of one of the most abidingly influential--and controversial--men in modern history. Here is a revelatory work of biography that takes us from Gandhi's birth in 1869 through his upbringing in Gujarat, his 2... More Info
The Danger Tree
HarperPerennial |
April 15, 2014 |
320 pages
âeoeAbout the best prose to ever come out of this country, for my money.âe âe"ALICE MUNRO Emulating the circuitous tales told by his motherâe(tm)s relatives, the Goodyears of Newfoundland, David Macfarlane weaves the major events of the islandâe(tm)s twentieth centuryâe"the ravages of... More Info
Shining Star
Viking Adult |
June 26, 2019 |
256 pages
A revealing personal account by the Grammy Award-winning music artist and lead singer of Earth, Wind & Fire traces his professional and spiritual journey against a backdrop of the group's meteoric rise to stardom, describing the diverse influences that shaped the band's style and the author's... More Info
A Broken Hallelujah
W W Norton & Company Incorporated |
June 26, 2019 |
256 pages
This meditation on the life of the Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist discusses his performing career, which began despite his crippling stage fright, to his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 13,000 first printing.
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Living with a Wild God
Twelve |
April 8, 2014 |
256 pages
Part memoir, part philosophical and spiritual inquiry, a staunch atheist and rationalist, after coming across the journal she kept during her tumultuous adolescence, sets out to answer a young girl's uninhibited musings on the questions that, at one point or another, torment us all. 50,000 first... More Info
Eating Fire
June 26, 2019 |
256 pages
When Kelly Cogswell plunged into New York's East Village in 1992, she had just come out. An ex–Southern Baptist born in Kentucky, she was camping in an Avenue B loft, scribbling poems, and playing in an underground band, trying to figure out her next move. A couple of months later she was... More Info
Things I Should Have Told My Daughter
April 8, 2014 |
320 pages
The award-winning author of What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day reminisces on the art of balancing family, politics and a writing career during her pre-fame years in the 1970s and 1980s, tracing her rise from a small-time columnist and her friendships with such notables as Richard Pryor, Avery... More Info
Carrie and Me
April 8, 2014 |
224 pages
The celebrated comedienne and six-time Emmy Award-winning actress draws on diary entries, correspondence and family memories to present a tribute to her late daughter that traces Carrie's struggles with self-esteem and addiction before her cancer-related death, in an account that also shares the... More Info
Writing with Grace
Douglas & McIntyre Limited |
October 14, 2014 |
208 pages
When Judy McFarlane is asked if she will help Grace, a woman with Down syndrome who dreams of becoming a famous writer, she realizes she holds deep, unacknowledged fears — that Grace will be a dull-eyed young woman who can’t read, let alone write, or that she might become agitated, even lash... More Info
The Four Walls of My Freedom
December 19, 2013 |
262 pages
A riveting and redemptive family memoir, The Four Walls of My Freedom is Donna Thomson’s account of raising a son with cerebral palsy and a passionate appeal to change the way we think about “the good life.” Donna Thomson’s life was forever changed when her son Nicholas was born with... More Info
Nothin' to Lose
It Books |
April 1, 2014 |
560 pages
Including original interviews with Paul, Gene, Ace and Peter, as well as producers, management, costume, stage and art designers, rock photographers and many others, this oral history of the legendary rock band offers a behind-the-scenes look at KISS's formative years. 100,000 first printing.
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The Crusades of Cesar Chavez
Bloomsbury Press |
March 25, 2014 |
560 pages
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Union of Their Dreams draws on thousands of documents and interviews to examine the myths and achievements marking the life of the iconic labor leader and civil rights activist, portraying him as a flawed but brilliant strategist who was often at odds with... More Info
Box Girl
Soft Skull Press |
June 26, 2019 |
256 pages
When 22-year-old Lilibet Snellings moved to Los Angeles on a whim, she unintentionally became a “slash” to keep her head above water—a writer/waitress/actress/Box Girl. One night each week, Lilibet would go to The Standard Hotel in West Hollywood, don a pair of white boy shorts with a... More Info
A Man Called Destruction
Viking Adult |
June 26, 2019 |
384 pages
Drawing on interviews with more than 100 close associates, a revelatory account of the late music artist's career traces his fame as a teen rock star in the 1960s and descent to humble jobs before his comeback as a solo artist, producer and innovator in the indie-rock genre.
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Harley Loco
Penguin Group USA |
March 25, 2014 |
320 pages
Documents the experiences of a Syrian immigrant who spent her formative years in Detroit, where she struggled with school bullies and her family traditions before becoming a New York City hair stylist at the height of the punk movement, succumbing to drug addiction and eventually embracing a clean... More Info
Ghostbelly
Feminist Press |
February 11, 2014 |
320 pages
"What an amazing story. . . . I applaud you for staying honest with yourself and listening to your feelings and what you needed to do to love and grieve and remember your son."—comment on Elizabeth Heineman's Salon article, "My Stillborn Child's Life after Death" In our mother-blaming culture,... More Info
I Forgot to Remember
Simon and Schuster |
February 4, 2014 |
288 pages
Documents the story of an amnesia survivor who permanently lost all of her memories after a traumatic brain injury and who endured a more than 25-year effort to relearn basic skills and reclaim her life.
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If Only You People Could Follow Directions
Counterpoint |
December 31, 2013 |
256 pages
If Only You People Could Follow Directions is a spellbinding debut by Jessica Hendry Nelson. In linked autobiographical essays, Nelson has reimagined the memoir with her thoroughly original voice, fearless writing, and hypnotic storytelling. At its center, the book is the story of three people:... More Info
Call Me Burroughs
Twelve |
January 28, 2014 |
736 pages
Fifty years ago, Norman Mailer asserted, "William Burroughs is the only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius." Few since have taken such literary risks, developed such individual political or spiritual ideas, or spanned such a wide range of media. Burroughs... More Info
I'll Take You There
Scribner |
January 21, 2014 |
320 pages
The untold story of living legend Mavis Staples—lead singer of The Staple Singers and a major figure in the music that shaped the Civil Rights era—researched and written by acclaimed music journalist and author Greg Kot. Now in her seventies, Mavis Staples has been a fixture in the music world... More Info
Let the People In
University of Texas Press |
September 1, 2013 |
495 pages
When Ann Richards delivered the keynote of the 1988 Democratic National Convention and mocked President George H. W. Bush—"Poor George, he can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth"—she instantly became a media celebrity and triggered a rivalry that would alter the course of... More Info
Body Counts
Scribner |
January 14, 2014 |
368 pages
Sean Strub, founder of the groundbreaking POZ magazine, producer of the hit play “The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me,” and the first openly HIV-positive candidate for US Congress, charts his remarkable life—a story of politics and AIDS and a powerful testament to loss, hope, and survival. As a... More Info
Promise Land
Simon & Schuster |
January 7, 2014 |
256 pages
A witty, original tour of the billion-dollar self-help industry that explores our uniquely American devotion to self-improvement—even as the author attempts some deeply personal improvements of her own. As Jessica Lamb-Shapiro points out in this powerful blend of memoir, journalism, and social... More Info
Fists Upon a Star
U of R Press |
May 1, 2013 |
410 pages
At once heartbreaking and inspiring, this memoir of Florence James (1892-1988),is a snapshot of early twentieth-century American theatre that remains remarkably relevant in the twenty-first century.
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Walter Benjamin
Belknap Press |
January 20, 2014 |
704 pages
Walter Benjamin was perhaps the twentieth century's most elusive intellectual. His writings defy categorization, and his improvised existence has proven irresistible to mythologizers. In a major new biography, Howard Eiland and Michael Jennings present a comprehensive portrait of the man and his... More Info
Weeds
Bison Books |
September 1, 2013 |
336 pages
In Thomas Jefferson's day, 90 percent of the population worked on family farms. Today, in a world dominated by agribusiness, less than 1 percent of Americans claim farm-related occupations. What was lost along the way is something that Evelyn I. Funda experienced firsthand when, in 2001, her... More Info
Mandela
HarperPress |
June 26, 2019 |
708 pages
Over a decade after his presidency of South Africa, Nelson Mandela remains an inspirational figure to millions of people - both in his homeland and far beyond her borders. He is, without doubt, one of the most important figures in global history. Mandela's opposition to apartheid and his 27 year... More Info
Five Days in November
Simon and Schuster |
November 19, 2013 |
256 pages
Marking the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination, the retired United States Secret Service agent who will forever be remembered for his courageous actions in the presidential motorcade after JFK was shot shares his memories of the five days leading up to, and after, that tragic day in November... More Info
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