[bksvol-discuss] Fw: Biography and Memoir November 2008
- From: "Amber Wallenstein" <amber.wallens@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:26:39 -0500
Biography and Memoir November 2008
"Sometimes the briefest moments capture us, force us to take them in, and
demand that we live the rest of our lives in reference to them." ~ Lucy Grealy
(1963-2002), poet and memoirist, Autobiography of a Face
New and Recently Released!
The Legs Are the Last To Go: Aging, Acting, Marrying, Mothering, and Other
Things I Learned Along the Way - by Diahann Carroll
Publisher: Amistad Press
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 10/1/2008
ISBN: 9780060763268
ISBN-10: 0060763264
In The Legs Are the Last To Go, barrier-breaking actress Diahann Carroll--the
first African-American woman to have her own TV show and the first to win
a Tony Award--speaks candidly about her life in and out of the Hollywood
spotlight. Now in her 70s and still a working actress (most recently with a
recurring
role on Grey's Anatomy), Carroll discusses her four marriages, the racial and
sexual politics of show business, and the personal cost of her career. Fans
new and old alike are sure to enjoy this "radiant" autobiography that is
"bubbling over with sincere self-insights" (Publishers Weekly).
Some of It Was Fun: Working with RFK and LBJ - by Nicholas deB. Katzenbach
Publisher: W.W. Norton
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 10/5/2008
ISBN: 9780393067255
ISBN-10: 0393067254
First as a deputy attorney general under Robert Kennedy and then as attorney
general and undersecretary of state for U.S. President Lyndon Johnson, Nicholas
Katzenbach was an eyewitness to some of the 20th century's most historic
events. Some of It Was Fun is his fascinating insider's look at both the Kennedy
and Johnson administrations as well as such hot-button social and political
events as the civil rights movement and the war in Vietnam. Anyone who wants
to better understand America during the 1960s would do well to pick up this
insightful and intelligent memoir.
An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir - by Elizabeth
McCracken
Publisher: Little, Brown
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 9/10/2008
ISBN: 9780316027670
ISBN-10: 0316027677
Novelist Elizabeth McCracken has lived through an event that most of us can
hardly bear to even imagine: the death of her first child, a boy, in utero
during
her ninth month of pregnancy. In An Exact Replica of a Figment of My
Imagination, McCracken discusses that heartwrenching loss, her profound grief,
and,
happily, the birth of her second son a little more than a year later. While you
may be tempted to pass by this memoir because of its somber subject matter,
McCracken's stunning writing makes it an account not to be missed; Publishers
Weekly says that it's a "triumph...a literary gift."
Pieces of My Heart: A Life - by Robert Wagner and Scott Eyman
Publisher: HarperEntertainment
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 10/1/2008
ISBN: 9780061373312
ISBN-10: 0061373311
During his five decades in Hollywood, popular actor Robert Wagner has
experienced numerous personal and professional highs and lows. He's been a
product
of Hollywood's studio system as well as a star on television; he's found
love--and lost it--multiple times, including with actresses Barbara Stanwyck
(they
began a secret four-year affair when he was 22 and she 45) and Natalie Wood,
whose tragic death shocked the world; and he's rubbed elbows with legends
like Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and Tony Curtis. Check out Pieces of My
Heart to get the full scoop on this talented actor's life and relationships.
Born in November
Boone: A Biography - by Robert Morgan
Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 10/16/2007
ISBN: 9781565124554
ISBN-10: 1565124553
November 2, 1734. Born in a log cabin, Daniel Boone went on to become one of
the most famous pioneers in American history and one of its first folk heroes.
This sweeping study of the iconic trailblazer examines his journeys into the
American wilderness, his relations with Native Americans, and his participation
in both the French and Indian and Revolutionary wars. If all you know of Daniel
Boone is that he wore a coonskin cap (which, by the way, he didn't) as
he blazed into what is now Kentucky, check out this book and discover the man
behind the myth. "A welcome re-evaluation of an American legend," says Kirkus
Reviews.
Table of Contents
Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie - by Barbara Goldsmith
Publisher: W.W. Norton
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 10/1/2005
ISBN: 9780393327489
ISBN-10: 0393327485
November 7, 1867. Marie Curie, the first female scientist to win the Nobel
Prize, is remarkable not only for that accomplishment but also for her ability
to balance the needs of her family with the demands of her career. By drawing
on diaries, letters, and family interviews, author Barbara Goldsmith documents
Curie's legendary scientific achievements while also detailing her personal
life and her battles against the sexual inequality of the time. Anyone
interested
in Curie, her work with radium, or the early days of atomic science should grab
this well-researched portrait.
Table of Contents
Southern Daughter: The Life of Margaret Mitchell and the Making of Gone With
the Wind - by Darden Asbury Pyron
Publisher: Hill Street Press
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 11/1/2004
ISBN: 9781588180971
ISBN-10: 1588180972
November 8, 1900. According to author Darden Pyron, Margaret Mitchell--whose
first and only novel, Gone With the Wind, continues to delight readers more
than 70 years after its initial publication--lived a life full of
contradictions. Gutsy but insecure, she worked as an advocate for
African-American causes
well before the civil rights movement but was so lacking in self-confidence
that she kept her work on GWTW a secret for ten years from all but her husband.
First published in 1991, this well-documented and "utterly absorbing"
(Publishers Weekly) book is still the definitive biography of Mitchell.
Table of Contents
American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller,
Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau: Their Lives, Their Loves, Their
Work - by Susan Cheever
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 12/19/2006
ISBN: 9780743264617
ISBN-10: 0743264614
November 29, 1832 (Louisa May Alcott). While you might be tempted to think that
the Transcendentalists were a boring group of 19th-century writers and thinkers,
author Susan Cheever believes that these Concord, Massachusetts, residents were
actually a pretty lively--and at times racy--bunch. In this group portrait,
Cheever illuminates the lives and literary works of Louisa May Alcott, Ralph
Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau.
Find out who loved whom--and who rebuked whom--in this spirited take on these
literary and intellectual icons.
Table of Contents
First Chapter
Focus on: Medical Memoirs
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death - by
Jean-Dominique Bauby; translated from the French by Jeremy Leggatt
Publisher: Vintage International
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 11/20/2007
ISBN: 9780307389251
ISBN-10: 0307389251
On the morning of December 8, 1995, 45-year-old Jean-Dominique Bauby, the
editor of French Elle magazine, suffered a massive stroke that left him in an
almost complete vegetative state, except for the fact that his mind was
completely alert. His only means of communication was blinking his left eyelid,
and in that manner he dictated this compelling and inspirational memoir about
his life before and after becoming trapped in what is known as "locked-in
syndrome." Sadly, Bauby died only ten days after The Diving Bell and the
Butterfly was published in 1997. If you like this book, make a note that it was
made into an Academy Award-nominated film in 2007.
First Chapter
Blindsided: Lifting a Life Above Illness: A Reluctant Memoir - by Richard M.
Cohen
Publisher: Perennial
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 2/1/2005
ISBN: 9780060014100
ISBN-10: 0060014105
Richard Cohen, the husband of Today show co-anchor Meredith Vieira, has had a
successful career in journalism since the 1970s, but he has also battled
multiple
sclerosis (MS) for almost as long. And, as if that weren't enough, Cohen has
had colon cancer twice. Blindsided is Cohen's account of his diagnosis with
MS while in his mid-20s, his career in the news industry, his bouts with
cancer, and relationship with his wife and their three children. Though Cohen
is now legally blind due to MS, his memoir is not about suffering and loss;
rather, it's an uplifting tale of overcoming fear, adversity, and all that
life throws at you.
First Chapter
Autobiography of a Face - by Lucy Grealy; with an afterword by Ann Patchett
Publisher: Perennial
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 3/1/2003
ISBN: 9780060569662
ISBN-10: 0060569662
When the late poet Lucy Grealy was nine years old, she was diagnosed with
Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that has only a five percent survival
rate.
To beat the odds, Grealy endured several years of chemotherapy and underwent
surgery to have half of her jaw removed; over the next two decades, she would
have more than 30 operations in an attempt to reconstruct her jaw and face. In
Autobiography of a Face, Grealy talks unsentimentally and honestly about
her battle with cancer as well as the challenges of living with a disfigured
face. If you enjoy this book and want to know more about Grealy's life, pick
up author Ann Patchett's Truth and Beauty, which details the pair's friendship.
Sick Girl - by Amy Silverstein
Publisher: Grove Press
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 10/10/2007
ISBN: 9780802118547
ISBN-10: 0802118542
While in her early 20s, Amy Silverstein went to see her doctor because of
tightness in her chest; she was relieved to hear that she only needed to keep
her stress levels in check and add more salt to her diet. However, when
terrifying symptoms continued, she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure,
and at the age of 25, she received a heart transplant. Now, 17 years later,
Silverstein shares her story, from her initial misdiagnosis to her struggle
to maintain a high quality of life. Want another memoir about the
transformative power of medicine? Check out Crashing Through, in which author
Robert
Kurson details regaining his vision through corneal-transplant surgery.
First Chapter
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