[bksvol-discuss] Fw: Biography and Memoir July 2008
- From: "Amber Wallenstein" <amber.wallens@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:53:11 -0400
New and Recently Released!
All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House - by David Giffels
Publisher: HarperCollins
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 6/1/2008
ISBN: 9780061362866
ISBN-10: 0061362867
In 1996, journalist David Giffels and his wife, Gina, bought a crumbling 1913
Tudor house in Akron, Ohio, and set about renovating the nearly uninhabitable
structure. Over the next 12 years, David recaulked 733 windows, discovered
buried treasure, and eventually managed to evict a stubborn family of squirrels.
Perhaps most remarkably, the Giffelses' finances, marriage, and relationship
with their children survived the never-ending DIY chaos. If you like David
Giffels' "sweet and funny" (The New York Times) account of turning his family's
falling-down house into a home, check out Lawrence LaRose's Gutted: Down
to the Studs in My House, My Marriage, My Entire Life.
Comfort: A Journey Through Grief - by Ann Hood
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 5/1/2008
ISBN: 9780393064568
ISBN-10: 0393064565
On an April morning in 2002, author Ann Hood's five-year-old daughter, Grace,
woke up with a fever that refused to subside; less than 48 hours later, Grace
had died from a virulent form of strep. In the aftermath of this unexpected and
seemingly unbearable loss, Hood was unable to read, write, or make sense
of the world around her. Eventually, she found solace in unexpected ways,
including in learning how to knit, and she began writing again. Comfort: A
Journey
Through Grief is Hood's heartwrenching and deeply personal memoir of her
journey to healing. Readers who liked or found solace in Joan Didion's The Year
of Magical Thinking will enjoy this book, too.
The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of
Music - by Steve Lopez
Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 4/17/2008
ISBN: 9780399155062
ISBN-10: 0399155066
During the 1970s, Nathaniel Ayers was a promising classical bass student at
Juilliard, but 30 years later, he was a homeless schizophrenic--playing a
two-string
violin--on Los Angeles' Skid Row. It was in this state that newspaper columnist
Steve Lopez first encountered Ayers, and during the next two years, the
two formed an unlikely bond as Lopez tried to help Ayers into recovery. Lopez
first wrote about their friendship in his Los Angeles Times column, but in
this heartwarming and inspiring book he gives a full account of their
relationship. Expect to hear more about The Soloist--it's being made into a
motion
picture starring Robert Downey, Jr., and Jamie Foxx.
Easy Company Soldier: The Legendary Battles of a Sergeant from World War II's
"Band of Brothers" - by Don Malarkey and Bob Welch
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 5/13/2008
ISBN: 9780312378493
ISBN-10: 0312378491
If you've read Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers or seen HBO's award-winning
miniseries by the same name, then you are probably familiar with Sgt. Don
Malarkey, a soldier and elite paratrooper in the U.S. Army's "Easy Company"
during World War II. Here, in Easy Company Soldier, Malarkey shares his own
story of fighting in events such as Operation Overlord and the battles of
Normandy and Bastogne. If you like this awe-inspiring memoir and want to know
more about other Easy Company soldiers, don't miss Dick Winters' Beyond Band of
Brothers and William Guarnere's Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends.
Born in July
The Diana Chronicles - by Tina Brown
Publisher: Doubleday
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 6/19/2007
ISBN: 9780385517089
ISBN-10: 0385517084
July 1, 1961. In this fascinating portrait of Diana, Princess of Wales, former
Vanity Fair and New Yorker editor Tina Brown weighs in on the life and death
of the charismatic and beloved people's princess. Brown discusses Diana's early
family life (she hated her stepmother), her whirlwind courtship and marriage,
what palace life was really like, Di's various extra-marital affairs, and her
life after her divorce. The Chicago Tribune says that The Diana Chronicles
is "insanely readable and improbably profound."
First Chapter
Table of Contents
Write It When I'm Gone: Remarkable Off-the-Record Conversations with Gerald R.
Ford - by Thomas M. DeFrank
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 10/30/2007
ISBN: 9780399154508
ISBN-10: 0399154507
July 14, 1913. In 1973, Thomas M. DeFrank, then a young reporter for Newsweek,
struck up a friendship with Gerald Ford, the newly appointed U.S. vice
president.
Years later, after the end of the Watergate scandal and Ford's own term as
president, DeFrank and Ford were still close, prompting Ford to agree to a
series
of no-holds-barred interviews--with the stipulation that they not be released
until after his death. Write It When I'm Gone is the result, and here Ford
is shown in an entirely new light: funny, down-to-earth, reflective, and
strikingly candid. Pick this one up and discover what President Ford was really
like.
Table of Contents
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: A Life - by Donald Spoto
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 10/1/2000
ISBN: 9780312977078
ISBN-10: 0312977077
July 28, 1929. One of the most iconic women of the 20th century, Jacqueline
Bouvier Kennedy Onassis receives a fitting tribute in this well-documented and
masterful biography. Author Donald Spoto (Notorious: The Life of Ingrid
Bergman) details every aspect of Jackie's life, including her unhappy childhood,
marriages to JFK and Aristotle Onassis, and career as a book editor. Spoto also
examines Jackie's complex personality and her relationships with her children.
Fans of the former first lady won't be disappointed by Spoto's respectful and
gracious portrait.
Peter Jennings: A Reporter's Life - edited by Kate Darnton, Kayce Freed
Jennings and Lynn Sherr
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 10/29/2007
ISBN: 9781586485177
ISBN-10: 1586485172
July 29, 1938. At the age of 26, Canadian-born Peter Jennings became America's
youngest network news anchor when he took the helm of ABC's World News Tonight,
which he hosted until his untimely death in 2005 from lung cancer. In this
tribute to the late journalist--who was actually a high-school dropout--friends,
family members, and professional colleagues reflect on Jennings' upbringing,
relationships with family, insatiable curiosity, and groundbreaking career.
"Evocative glimpses of a sorely missed class act," says Kirkus Reviews.
Table of Contents
Books Made into Movies
Catch Me If You Can: The Amazing True Story of the Youngest and Most Daring Con
Man in the History of Fun and Profit - by Frank W. Abagnale, Jr., with Stan
Redding
Publisher: Broadway Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 7/1/2000
ISBN: 9780767905381
ISBN-10: 0767905385
First published in 1980, Catch Me If You Can is the incredible story of con man
Frank Abagnale, Jr., whose list of "achievements" includes masquerading--before
the age of 21--as a pediatrician, attorney, sociology professor, and Pan Am
pilot. Abagnale's exploits weren't limited merely to impersonation, however;
he also defrauded banks and accumulated over $500,000 before finally being
apprehended and imprisoned for four years. This "richly detailed and winning
as the devil" (Kirkus Reviews) book was adapted into a 2002 film starring
Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks.
Table of Contents
First Chapter
Marie Antoinette: The Journey - by Antonia Fraser
Publisher: Anchor Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 11/1/2002
ISBN: 9780385489492
ISBN-10: 0385489498
The life story of Marie Antoinette simply cries out for dramatization on the
big screen, and this portrait by acclaimed biographer Lady Antonia Fraser
provided
the perfect source material for director Sofia Coppola's 2006 film Marie
Antoinette, which features actress Kirsten Dunst as the ill-fated queen. In
Fraser's
book, Marie's life is illuminated in vivid fashion, from her 1755 birth in
Austria to her marriage to France's Louis XVI to her execution in 1793. The
Wall Street Journal says that this biography is "colorful, fluently
narrated.... A touching, psychologically believable portrait."
First Chapter
Angela's Ashes: A Memoir - by Frank McCourt
Publisher: Scribner
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 9/1/1996
ISBN: 9780684874357
ISBN-10: 0684874350
Frank McCourt recounts his grim childhood in this Pulitzer Prize-winning
memoir, which The New York Times calls "stunning." Born in Depression-era
Brooklyn
to recent Irish immigrants, McCourt and his family returned to Ireland after
the death of his young sister. There things quickly went from bad to worse,
as his mother was often depressed and his father rarely worked--and when he
did, he spent all of his earnings on drink. McCourt's destitute family was
forced to move from one deplorable situation to another, but somehow he managed
to survive. Angela's Ashes was adapted into a 1999 movie starring Emily
Watson and Robert Carlyle.
First Chapter
A Beautiful Mind: A Biography of John Forbes Nash, Jr., Winner of the Nobel
Prize in Economics, 1994 - by Sylvia Nasar
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 12/1/2001
ISBN: 9780743226370
ISBN-10: 0743226372
In A Beautiful Mind, biographer Sylvia Nasar presents the story of John Forbes
Nash, Jr., the brilliant mathematician who battled paranoid schizophrenia
for decades but ultimately won a Nobel Prize. Nasar recounts all aspects of
Nash's life, including his graduate education at Princeton University, marriage
to MIT student Alicia Larde, descent into madness at age 30, attempts at
recovery, and contributions to the fields of game theory and differential
geometry.
This highly acclaimed book was the basis for the 2001 Oscar-winning film
featuring Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly.
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