[bksvol-discuss] Fw: Biography and Memoir June 2009
- From: "Amber Wallenstein" <amber.wallens@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:54:42 -0400
Biography and Memoir June 2009
"Every life deserves a certain amount of dignity, no matter how poor or damaged
the shell that carries it." ~ from memoirist Rick Bragg's All Over But the
Shoutin'
New and Recently Released!
A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy - by Thomas
Buergenthal
Publisher: Little, Brown
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 04/20/2009
ISBN-13: 9780316043403
ISBN-10: 0316043400
At ten years old, Thomas Buergenthal had already survived the Ghetto of Kielce
and two Nazi labor camps before being transported to Auschwitz, where he
was separated from both his parents. As one of the camp's youngest prisoners,
Buergenthal had several near-brushes with death, but fate--or luck, to which
he attributes his survival--always intervened. In this inspiring memoir,
Buergenthal, who is now a judge at the International Court of Justice in The
Hague,
recounts his extraordinary story. If you enjoy this book and want to read
another memoir about children in the Holocaust, don't miss Clara Kramer's
Clara's
War: One Girl's Story of Survival.
Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found - by Allegra Huston
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 04/07/2009
ISBN-13: 9781416551577
ISBN-10: 1416551573
The daughter of ballerina Ricki Soma and filmmaker John Huston, writer Allegra
Huston grew up with wealth, privilege, and fame. But behind the glamorous
facade, things were hardly perfect; Huston's mother died when she was only four
and after that she barely saw her famous father. Then, when Huston was
only 12, she learned from her stepmother that John Huston wasn't actually her
biological father. In Love Child, Huston poignantly discusses her unconventional
childhood, her efforts to reconnect with her biological father, and her
attempts to find her place within the Huston family. "A graceful, surprisingly
tender account," says Kirkus Reviews.
Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting - by Michael Perry
Publisher: Harper
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 05/01/2009
ISBN-13: 9780061240430
ISBN-10: 0061240435
Though writer Michael Perry grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm, he never planned
to follow in his parents' footsteps. But that's exactly what happened when
Perry, his pregnant wife, and his stepdaughter moved to a 37-acre farm and
tried to live off the land for one entire year. Coop is Perry's "dryly humorous,
mildly neurotic and just plain soulful" (Kirkus Reviews) chronicle of their
experience, including his wife's decision to give birth at home and his
encounters
with a pair of backside-biting pigs. Readers who want more city
slicker-gone-rural memoirs should check out Michael Korda's Country Matters:
The Pleasures
and Tribulations of Moving from a Big City to an Old Country Farmhouse.
Not Becoming My Mother: And Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way - by Ruth
Reichl
Publisher: Penguin Press
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 04/21/2009
ISBN-13: 9781594202162
ISBN-10: 1594202168
When Gourmet editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl was young, her mother, Miriam Brudno,
seemed the exact opposite of everything she hoped to become. But unbeknownst
to Reichl, Brudno herself was unhappy in her role as a housewife, a part that
she struggled to play only because "good women didn't work if they didn't
have to." In fact, after Brudno passed on, Reichl discovered a stash of diaries
and letters written by Brudno, which finally allowed Reichl to understand
who her mother really was and the sacrifices that she had made. If you enjoy
this poignant mother-daughter portrait, check out Mary Gordon's Circling My
Mother.
Born in June
American Prince: A Memoir - by Tony Curtis
Publisher: Harmony Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 10/14/2008
ISBN-13: 9780307408495
ISBN-10: 0307408493
June 3, 1925. In this deeply personal memoir, Tony Curtis chronicles his
odyssey from his childhood in the Bronx, New York, to the heights of Hollywood
fame. Incredibly frank, Curtis doesn't hesitate to dish the dirt on his wild
lifestyle as a Tinseltown playboy, his affairs with the likes of Marilyn Monroe
and Natalie Wood, the film industry during Hollywood's Golden Era, and his
relationships with family, friends, and costars. Now in his 80s, Curtis lives
in Las Vegas, where he is an accomplished painter; get the full scoop on his
colorful life in this entertaining memoir.
Table of Contents
Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love, and Leading Roles - by Kathleen
Turner
Publisher: Springboard
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 02/14/2008
ISBN-13: 9780446581127
ISBN-10: 0446581127
June 19, 1954. In 1977, when actress Kathleen Turner completed her studies at
the University of Maryland, she skipped the graduation ceremonies and
drove--with
only $100 in her pocket--straight to New York City, where she planned to make
it big as an actress. And make it she did, achieving stardom with her appearance
in the 1981 movie Body Heat. Send Yourself Roses is Turner's irreverent
self-portrait, in which she discusses her acting career, her struggle with
rheumatoid
arthritis, and her relationships with such fellow celebrities as Jack Nicholson
and Michael Douglas. Pick this one up for a revealing look at life in the
limelight.
First Chapter
Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson -
by Peter Ames Carlin
Publisher: Rodale
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 07/25/2006
ISBN-13: 9781594863202
ISBN-10: 1594863202
June 20, 1942. As the leader of the successful '60s band the Beach Boys, Brian
Wilson created songs that defined the sound and feel of popular American
music. He was also notoriously troubled, spending years struggling with drugs
and depression before finally reigniting his career in 2004. In Catch a Wave,
journalist Peter Carlin uses in-depth interviews with dozens of sources and
hundreds of hours of unreleased recordings to tell the story of Brian Wilson,
the Beach Boys, and their music. "Fans will be picking up excitations aplenty,"
says Entertainment Weekly.
Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone? The Carter Family and Their Legacy in American
Music - by Mark Zwonitzer
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 02/01/2004
ISBN-13: 9780743243827
ISBN-10: 074324382X
June 23, 1929 (June Carter Cash). To fans of country music and anyone who has
seen Walk the Line, the Oscar-winning biographical film about Johnny Cash,
June Carter Cash needs no introduction. But this singer and songwriter was only
one member of a talented family whose influence on American music cannot
be overstated. Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone? is Mark Zwonitzer's portrait of
the Carter family, detailing their journey from the Virginia mountains to
the Grand Ole Opry and beyond. Zwonitzer also traces the family's influence on
singers like Woody Guthrie and Elvis Presley. "One of the best country-music
books ever written," says Booklist.
Table of Contents
First Chapter
Focus on: Fathers and Sons
The Prince of Frogtown - by Rick Bragg
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 05/13/2008
ISBN-13: 9781400040407
ISBN-10: 140004040X
When Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg became the stepfather of a ten-year-old
boy, he was prompted to reexamine the life of his own father, Charlie, who
was known as "The Prince of Frogtown" in his poor Alabama neighborhood. In
alternating chapters, Bragg contrasts Charlie's hardscrabble youth and
hard-drinking
adulthood with his own very different experience as a parent, resulting in a
moving reflection on what it means to be a family, a father, and a son. If
you like this book, don't miss Bragg's two previous family-focused memoirs, All
Over but the Shoutin' and Ava's Man.
First Chapter
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, a Son, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood - by
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 05/20/2008
ISBN-13: 9780385520362
ISBN-10: 0385520360
In the tough and violent world of 1980s West Baltimore, Ta-Nehisi Coates and
his six siblings grew up under the watchful eye of their larger-than-life
father,
Paul Coates, a Vietnam Vet and former Black Panther who started his own
publishing company. The Beautiful Struggle is Ta-Nehisi Coates' account of his
childhood and his father's determination to keep him from giving into the
temptations of the streets; today Ta-Nehisi is a contributing editor for The
Atlantic magazine. "A beautifully written, loving portrait of a strong father
bringing his sons to manhood," notes Booklist.
First Chapter
The Film Club - by David Gilmour
Publisher: Twelve
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 05/06/2008
ISBN-13: 9780446199292
ISBN-10: 044619929X
When Canadian novelist David Gilmour's 15-year-old son, Jesse, began to get
into trouble and came dangerously close to flunking out of school, Gilmour did
something that most parents would gasp at: he let Jesse drop out. However,
there was one condition--that Jesse watch three movies a week with him. Over
the next three years, father and son watched everything from François
Truffaut's The 400 Blows to Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. In the process, they
discussed a range of life issues, from relationships and work to drugs and
culture. Check out Gilmour's account of their father-and-son film club for a
witty and poignant memoir.
First Chapter
Big Russ and Me: Father and Son, Lessons of Life - by Tim Russert
Publisher: Miramax Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 04/01/2004
ISBN-13: 9781401352080
ISBN-10: 1401352081
It's been a year since NBC News journalist Tim Russert passed away, but thanks
to his contributions to the fields of broadcasting and politics, it's unlikely
he will soon be forgotten. Adding to Russert's legacy is this "stupendously
entertaining" (Publishers Weekly) book, in which Russert remembers life with
his father, a proud World War II veteran known as Big Russ, and looks back at
his childhood in 1950s working-class Buffalo, New York. In addition, Russert
shares the lessons that Big Russ taught him about hard work, responsibility,
and patriotism. Readers with a hankering for a feel-good Father's Day read
can't go wrong with this warm and nostalgic tribute.
Table of Contents
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