[bksvol-discuss] Fw: Biography and Memoir January 2010
- From: "Amber Wallenstein" <amber.wallens@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:26:53 -0500
New and Recently Released!
Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog: The Amazing Adventures of an Ordinary Woman
- by Lisa Scottoline
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 11/24/2009
ISBN-13: 9780312587482
ISBN-10: 0312587481
If you read thrillers or the Philadelphia Inquirer, then you no doubt recognize
the name Lisa Scottoline: she's the bestselling author behind such hits
as Daddy's Girl and Lady Killer, and she also writes a weekly column for the
Inquirer. This anthology of previously published columns captures her experience
as a middle-aged woman today. Scottoline talks about everything from her two
divorces (she refers to her exes as Thing One and Thing Two) to her relationship
with her Ivy League-educated daughter. And of course--if the title doesn't tip
you off--she also speaks of her great love for the dogs in her life. If
you're in the mood for laughs, don't miss this witty collection.
Abigail Adams: A Life - by Woody Holton
Publisher: Free Press
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 11/03/2009
ISBN-13: 9781416546801
ISBN-10: 1416546804
In this lively portrait of Abigail Adams, award-winning historian Woody Holton
uses previously unmined documents to show that Adams was a much more colorful
and opinionated woman, First Lady, and proto-feminist than previously thought.
For instance, Holton states that the Founding Mother was perfectly willing
to disagree with her husband (and countermand his orders), shrewd when it came
to investing the family fortune, and eager to speak about men's subjugation
of women. If you want to know more about this bold early American, check out
Edith Gelles's recent Abigail and John: Portrait of a Marriage.
First Chapter
The Last Empress: Madame Chiang Kai-Shek and the Birth of Modern China - by
Hannah Pakula
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 11/03/2009
ISBN-13: 9781439148938
ISBN-10: 1439148937
Born to a Methodist minister father in 1897 Shanghai, Soong May-ling--known as
Madame Chiang Kai-Shek after her marriage to Chinese President Chiang
Kai-Shek--grew
up to become one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. In The
Last Empress, biographer Hannah Pakula details how May-ling was educated in
the U .S.; how she fell in love with her husband, who was already married when
they met; and the central role she played in some of history's greatest
international dramas. Not just a richly detailed biography, The Last Empress is
also the story of modern China itself, making it a "must-read for
political-science
junkies" (Booklist).
First Chapter
High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly - by Donald Spoto
Publisher: Harmony Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 11/03/2009
ISBN-13: 9780307395610
ISBN-10: 0307395618
Having already tackled the likes of Audrey Hepburn, Princess Diana, and
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, biographer Donald Spoto now turns to another
20th-century
icon: Grace Kelly, the Hollywood-actress-turned-European-princess. Drawing on
exclusive and previously unpublished interviews that Spoto conducted with
Kelly before her death, High Society covers topics such as Kelly's privileged
upbringing, her brief but dazzling career in Tinseltown, her relationship
with Alfred Hitchcock, and her life as a wife, mother, and princess. For more
on Kelly, check out J. Randy Taraborrelli's Once Upon a Time: Behind the
Fairy Tale of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier.
Shakespeare - Bryson, Bill
Publisher: Atlas Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 11/03/2009
ISBN-13: 9780061965326
ISBN-10: 0061965324
An illustrated, updated edition of the author's best-selling biography of
William Shakespeare takes the reader on an enthralling tour through Elizabethan
England and the eccentricities of Shakespearean scholarship, in a book with
more than 100 color and black-and-white illustrations.
Table of Contents
Born in January
Along Martin Luther King : travels on Black America's main street - Tilove,
Jonathan
Publisher: Random House
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 11/01/2003
ISBN-13: 9781400060801
ISBN-10: 140006080X
January 15, 1929. There are many good biographies of Martin Luther King, Jr.
but this title provides a unique perspective on the influence of the great
leader. Award-winning journalist Tilove and Falco, a commercial photographer,
have created an episodic view as they travelled for two years in search
of streets named after Martin Luther King, including 125th Street in Harlem,
first for a newspaper series and then for this book. The tour starts in Belle
Glade, FL (pop. 15,000), whose high school has produced 21 pro athletes and,
during the 1980s, the world's highest rate of AIDS. Succeeding chapters take
in King's Atlanta; Selma, where MLK intersects with Jeff Davis Street; Dallas,
Galveston, Jasper, and other Texas towns; Chicago; Oakland; and more. In
place after place, MLK streets "lay bare the racial fault lines"; they are
places where "white America seldom goes and Black America can be itself." We
meet people striving to create a black nation, sponsoring a Black History
competition and the Algebra Project, and creating Afrocentric schools. There
are ministers, funeral directors, journalists, professors, poets, politicians,
and artists, all living their lives in the vicinity of streets named for
Martin Luther King Jr. There are ordinary people and people like poet Haki
Madhubuti, influential in black America but invisible elsewhere. This book
serves
as a testament that the dream still lives.
First Chapter
Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise - by Ruth Reichl
Publisher: Penguin Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 03/28/2006
ISBN-13: 9780143036616
ISBN-10: 0143036610
January 16, 1948. In the 1990s, Gourmet magazine editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl
made her living as the restaurant critic for The New York Times, a job for
which she adopted full disguises for undercover visits to some of the world's
most acclaimed restaurants. Between recipes, reproduced reviews, and snippets
of Times gossip, Reichl shows how each of these borrowed personalities taught
her something about herself as well as the restaurants she was reviewing:
dowdy "Molly Hollis" was snubbed by wait staff; traffic-stopping "Chloe" got a
date. If you're still hungry for more after finishing Garlic and Sapphires,
you're in luck--Reichl has two more memoirs; start with Tender at the Bone.
Michelle: A Biography - by Liza Mundy
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 10/07/2008
ISBN-13: 9781416599432
ISBN-10: 1416599436
January 17, 1964. Without a doubt, U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama is one of the
most talked about and reported-on women in the world today--but who is the
real woman behind the public persona? Published just before the 2008 election,
this intimate portrait uses interviews with Obama's friends and family to
pull back the curtain on the woman who would become America's first
African-American first lady. Washington Post reporter Liza Mundy covers
everything
from Obama's youth in Chicago to her time at Harvard Law to her relationship
with her husband. Readers who finish this book and want to know more about
the Obamas should check out Barack's Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and
Inheritance.
First Chapter
Benjamin Franklin : an American life - Isaacson, Walter
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 07/01/2003
ISBN-13: 9780684807614
ISBN-10: 0684807610
January 17, 1706. Chronicles the founding father's life and his multiple
careers as a shopkeeper, writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat,
business
strategist, and political leader, while showing how his faith in the wisdom of
the common citizen helped to forge an American national identity based on
the virtues of its middle class.
First Chapter
Table of Contents
Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame - Eisler, Benita
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 04/01/1999
ISBN-13: 9780679412991
ISBN-10: 0679412999
January 22, 1788. An absorbing analysis of the life and poetry of Lord Byron
draws on previously unavailable materials to examine Byron's rise to fame,
the women in his life, the tragic scandal that drove him into exile, and his
acclaimed poetic works.
First Chapter
Table of Contents
Focus on: Books into Movies
Running with Scissors: A Memoir - by Augusten Burroughs
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 07/10/2002
ISBN-13: 9780312283704
ISBN-10: 0312283709
Imagine that your parents divorce and your mother, an unstable poet, sends you
off to live with her shrink...and only then do things really start to get
strange. The Northampton, Massachusetts, psychiatrist has a laissez-faire
attitude with his family and home, so anything goes--including tearing a hole
in the roof, skipping school, and playing with an electroshock-therapy machine.
Augusten Burroughs's unforgettable coming-of-age years also include coming
to terms with his homosexuality as a teenager and having a sexual relationship
with his adoptive adult brother. This bestselling memoir was made into a
2006 Golden Globe-nominated film.
First Chapter
Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog - by John Grogan
Publisher: Morrow
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 11/01/2005
ISBN-13: 9780060817084
ISBN-10: 0060817089
Philadelphia Inquirer columnist John Grogan and his wife had been married a
little more than a year when they decided to adopt a dog. Despite being unable
to keep a houseplant alive, the Grogans opened their hearts and home to a
yellow Lab puppy named Marley...who proceeded to turn their lives upside down.
From being kicked out of obedience school to chewing through walls, Marley
became a 100-pound furry menace--and, surprisingly, a loyal, lovable friend.
Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson star in the film adaptation of this
pawsitively delightful memoir.
First Chapter
Table of Contents
Girl, Interrupted - by Susanna Kaysen
Publisher: Vintage Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 06/01/1994
ISBN-13: 9780679746041
ISBN-10: 0679746048
In 1967, 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen was admitted to the famous McLean
Psychiatric Hospital--thanks to a psychiatrist whom she had only seen one time.
At
McLean, where celebrities like Sylvia Plath and Ray Charles had previously been
patients, Kaysen was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, and
she went on to spend close to two years in the facility. During that time, she
befriended several of her fellow patients, whom she vividly portrays--alongside
the "keepers" who worked there--in this mesmerizing memoir. Actress Angelina
Jolie received an Oscar for her appearance in the 1999 film version of Girl,
Interrupted.
First Chapter
Under the Tuscan sun : at home in Italy - Mayes, Frances
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 09/01/1996
ISBN-13: 9780811808422
ISBN-10: 0811808424
In a carefully written story, poet and travel writer Mayes recounts the
purchase and renovation of an abandoned Tuscan villa. She begins with the 1990
search
with her companion, Ed, for a summer home to take the place of the rented
farmhouses of past years. They finally decide on Bramasole ("Yearning for the
Sun"), a villa with 17 rooms and a garden that has been standing empty for 30
years. There is the ordeal of getting money transferred via the tangled Italian
banking system, as well as bringing together the owner, builders, and
government officials to get the necessary work done. The daunting process
requires
several years. Meanwhile, Mayes finds Italian country life a healthy antidote
to hectic San Francisco, enjoying, for example, the fruits of her own garden,
friends in the village, and the first olive harvest. This is an unusual memoir
of one woman's challenge to herself and its successful transformation into
a satisfying opportunity to improve the quality of her life. Diane Lane was
nominated for a Golden Globe award for her performance in the 2003 film version.
First Chapter
__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature
database 4786 (20100119) __________
The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
http://www.eset.com
Other related posts:
- » [bksvol-discuss] Fw: Biography and Memoir January 2010 - Amber Wallenstein
