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Biographies and autobiographies

  • Author:
    Stroh, Frances
    Summary:

    Established in Detroit in 1850, by 1984 the Stroh Brewing Company was the largest private beer fortune in America. But when Detroit's economy collapsed, the Stroh family found their wealth and legacy disappearing. They could not anticipate that a far greater tragedy lay in store.

  • Author:
    Popoff, Martin
    Summary:

    "MotOrhead, remember me now, MotOrhead, alright!" Lemmy, Phil, Fast Eddie and the Rise of MotOrhead is the first book to celebrate the classic-era MotOrhead lineup of Lemmy Kilmister, "Fast" Eddie Clarke, and Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor. Through interviews with all of the principal troublemakers, Martin Popoff celebrates the formation of the band and the records that made them legends: MotOrhead, Overkill, Bomber, Ace of Spades, No Sleep 'til Hammersmith, and Iron Fist. An in-depth coda brings the story up to date with the shocking recent deaths of Taylor and Kilmister. MotOrhead comes to life in this book as bad-luck bad boys-doused in drink and drugs, most notably speed-incapable of running their lives right, save for Fast Eddie, who is charged with holding things together. Popoff also examines the heady climate of music through the band's rise to prominence during the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, with detailed reflection on MotOrhead's unique position in the scene as both originators and embattled survivors who carried on the renegade spirit of those times.

  • Author:
    Straczynski, J. Michael
    Summary:

    With an introduction by Neil Gaiman! In this dazzling memoir, the acclaimed writer behind Babylon 5, Sense8, Clint Eastwood's Changeling and Marvel's Thor reveals how the power of creativity and imagination enabled him to overcome the horrors of his youth and a dysfunctional family haunted by madness, murder and a terrible secret. For four decades, J. Michael Straczynski has been one of the most successful writers in Hollywood, one of the few to forge multiple careers in movies, television and comics. Yet there's one story he's never told before: his own. Joe's early life nearly defies belief. Raised by damaged adults-a con-man grandfather and a manipulative grandmother, a violent, drunken father and a mother who was repeatedly institutionalized-Joe grew up in abject poverty, living in slums and projects when not on the road, crisscrossing the country in his father's desperate attempts to escape the consequences of his past. To survive his abusive environment Joe found refuge in his beloved comics and his dreams, immersing himself in imaginary worlds populated by superheroes whose amazing powers allowed them to overcome any adversity. The deeper he read, the more he came to realize that he, too, had a superpower: the ability to tell stories and make everything come out the way he wanted it. But even as he found success, he could not escape a dark and shocking secret that hung over his family's past, a violent truth that he uncovered over the course of decades involving mass murder. Straczynski's personal history has always been shrouded in mystery. Becoming Superman lays bare the facts of his life: a story of creation and darkness, hope and success, a larger-than-life villain and a little boy who became the hero of his own life. It is also a compelling behind-the-scenes look at some of the most successful TV series and movies recognized around the world.

  • Author:
    Nutt, Amy Ellis
    Summary:

    NEW YORK TIMES  BESTSELLER - The inspiring true story of transgender actor and activist Nicole Maines, whose identical twin brother, Jonas, and ordinary American family join her on an extraordinary journey to understand, nurture, and celebrate the uniqueness in us all. Nicole appears as TV's first transgender superhero on CW's  Supergirl When Wayne and Kelly Maines adopted identical twin boys, they thought their lives were complete. But by the time Jonas and Wyatt were toddlers, confusion over Wyatt's insistence that he was female began to tear the family apart. In the years that followed, the Maineses came to question their long-held views on gender and identity, to accept Wyatt's transition to Nicole, and to undergo a wrenching transformation of their own, the effects of which would reverberate through their entire community. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Amy Ellis Nutt spent almost four years reporting this story and tells it with unflinching honesty, intimacy, and empathy. In her hands,  Becoming Nicole  is more than an account of a courageous girl and her extraordinary family. It's a powerful portrait of a slowly but surely changing nation, and one that will inspire all of us to see the world with a little more humanity and understanding. Named One of the Ten Best Books of the Year by  People  - One of the Best Books of the Year by  The New York Times Book Review  and  Men's Journal  - A Stonewall Honor Book in Nonfiction - Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction "Fascinating and enlightening." -Cheryl Strayed "If you aren't moved by  Becoming Nicole,  I'd suggest there's a lump of dark matter where your heart should be." - The New York Times "Exceptional . . . 'Stories move the walls that need to be moved,' Nicole told her father last year. In telling Nicole's story and those of her brother and parents luminously, and with great compassion and intelligence, that is exactly what Amy Ellis Nutt has done here." - The Washington Post "A profoundly moving true story about one remarkable family's evolution." - People " Becoming Nicole  is a miracle. It's the story of a family struggling with-and embracing-a transgender child. But more than that, it's about accepting one another, and ourselves, in all our messy, contradictory glory." -Jennifer Finney Boylan, former co-chair of GLAAD and author of  She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders

  • Author:
    Yalom, Irvin D.
    Summary:

    Bestselling writer and psychotherapist Irvin D. Yalom has made a career of investigating the lives of others. In this memoir, he turns his writing and his therapeutic eye on himself. Not simply a man's life story, this is Yalom's reflections on his life and development and an invitation for us to reflect on our origins and the meanings of our lives.

  • Author:
    Krawec, Patty
    Summary:

    The invented history of the Western world is crumbling fast, Anishinaabe writer Patty Krawec says, but we can still honor the bonds between us. Settlers dominated and divided, but Indigenous peoples won't just send them all 'home.' Weaving her own story with the story of her ancestors and with the broader themes of creation, replacement, and disappearance, Krawec helps readers see settler colonialism through the eyes of an Indigenous writer. Settler colonialism tried to force us into one particular way of living, but the old ways of kinship can help us imagine a different future. Krawec asks, What would it look like to remember that we are all related? How might we become better relatives to the land, to one another, and to Indigenous movements for solidarity? Braiding together historical, scientific, and cultural analysis, Indigenous ways of knowing, and the vivid threads of communal memory, Krawec crafts a stunning, forceful call to 'unforget' our history. This remarkable sojourn through Native and settler history, myth, identity, and spirituality helps us retrace our steps and pick up what was lost along the way: chances to honor rather than violate treaties, to see the land as a relative rather than a resource, and to unravel the history we have been taught.

  • Author:
    Haff, Stephen, Sierra, Sarah
    Summary:

    At an after-school program, a teacher named Stephen and a group of kids push together tables piled high with books so they can reimagine Don Quixote, the story of an idealistic dreamer from Spain who traveled around trying to right the world's wrongs, as the story of a group of modern-day kids from immigrant families in Brooklyn. The stories the kids write in class become a musical play, expressing the plight of today's immigrants and using Quixote as inspiration. And Sarah Sierra, once very shy, soon will play the leading role as Kid Quixote.

  • Author:
    Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem, Obstfeld, Raymond
    Summary:

    Like many kids, Kareem, known then as Lew Alcindor, struggled to fit in, please a strict father, and deal with severe shyness. Unlike most, he had to grapple with a growth spurt that shot him up taller than everyone else. Also, the country's social unrest and the civil-rights movement tugged at his conscience. Here he tells of his life and career.

  • Author:
    Stein, Abby
    Summary:

    Abby Stein was born as the first son in a dynastic rabbinical family, poised to become a leader of the next generation of Hasidic Jews. But Abby felt certain at a young age that she was a girl. She made a personal exodus from ultra-Orthodox manhood to mainstream femininity-a choice that forced her to leave her home, her family, her way of life.

  • Author:
    Knott, Helen
    Summary:

    #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER. When matriarchs begin to disappear, there is a choice to either step into the places they left behind, or to craft a new space. Helen Knott's debut memoir, In My Own Moccasins, wowed reviewers, award juries, and readers alike with its profoundly honest and moving account of addiction, intergenerational trauma, resilience, and survival. Now, in her highly anticipated second book, Knott returns with a chronicle of grief, love, and legacy. Having lost both her mom and grandmother in just over six months, forced to navigate the fine lines between matriarchy, martyrdom, and codependency, Knott realizes she must let go, not just of the women who raised her, but of the woman she thought she was. Woven into the pages are themes of mourning, sobriety through loss, and generational dreaming. Becoming a Matriarch is charted with poetic insights, sass, humour, and heart, taking the reader over the rivers and mountains of Dane Zaa territory in Northeastern British Columbia, along the cobbled streets of Antigua, Guatemala, and straight to the heart of what matriarchy truly means. This is a journey through pain, on the way to becoming.

  • Author:
    Obama, Michelle
    Summary:

    An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America-the first African American to serve in that role-she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare. In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her-from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it-in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations-and whose story inspires us to do the same.

  • Author:
    Taylor, Sylvia
    Summary:

    A rich and diverse tapestry weaving together the many voices, narratives, skills, and talents of women up and down the coastal Pacific Northwest who devote their lives and careers to the sea. Beckoned by the Sea celebrates coastal women from northern BC to northern California who work on or with the sea. The twenty-four women featured in this inspiring and fascinating book represent a variety of industries—from conservation, commercial fishing, and marine biology to safety and rescue, tourism, and the arts. Weaving together elements of social history, culture, geography, and environmentalism, author Sylvia Taylor draws on in-depth interviews, meticulous research, and her own experience as a deckhand on a commercial fishing boat. Beckoned by the Sea investigates the myriad ways in which women have contributed to the marine industries that sustain the people and shape the culture of North America’s west coast—and reveals how the sea itself has touched the lives of these women by giving them not just a livelihood but an infinite source of inspiration and personal fulfillment.

  • Author:
    Gabriel, Brigitte
    Summary:

    Brigitte Gabriel lost her childhood to militant Islam. In 1975 she was ten years old and living in Southern Lebanon when militant Muslims from throughout the Middle East poured into her country and declared jihad against the Lebanese Christians. Lebanon was the only Christian influenced country in the Middle East, and the Lebanese Civil War was the first front in what has become the worldwide jihad of fundamentalist Islam against non-Muslim peoples. For seven years, Brigitte and her parents lived in an underground bomb shelter. They had no running water or electricity and very little food; at times they were reduced to boiling grass to survive. Because They Hate is a political wake-up call told through a very personal memoir frame. Brigitte warns that the US is threatened by fundamentalist Islamic theology in the same way Lebanon was— radical Islam will stop at nothing short of domination of all non-Muslim countries. Gabriel saw this mission start in Lebanon, and she refuses to stand silently by while it happens here. Gabriel sees in the West a lack of understanding and a blatant ignorance of the ways and thinking of the Middle East. She also points out mistakes the West has made in consistently underestimating the single-mindedness with which fundamentalist Islam has pursued its goals over the past thirty years. Fiercely articulate and passionately committed, Gabriel tells her own story as well as outlines the history, social movements, and religious divisions that have led to this critical historical conflict.

  • Author:
    McNamara, Craig
    Summary:

    Craig McNamara came of age in the political tumult and upheaval of the late 60s. While Craig McNamara would grow up to take part in anti-war demonstrations, his father, Robert McNamara, served as John F. Kennedy's Secretary of Defense and the architect of the Vietnam War. This memoir offers an intimate picture of one father and son at pivotal periods in American history.

  • Author:
    Wilson, Andrew
    Summary:

    During her life, she felt uncomfortable about discussing the source of her fiction and refused to answer questions about her private life. Yet after her death in February 1995, Patricia Highsmith left behind a vast archive of personal documents, diaries, notebooks, and letters which detail the links between her life and her work. Drawing on these intimate papers, together with material gleaned from her closest friends and lovers, Andrew Wilson illuminates the dark corners of Highsmith's life, casts light on mysteries of the creative process, and reveals the secrets that the writer chose to keep hidden until after her death.

  • Author:
    Blake, Melissa
    Summary:

    Well-known disability activist and social media influencer, Melissa Blake, offers a frank, illuminating memoir and a call to action for disabled people and allies. In the summer of 2019, journalist Melissa Blake penned an op-ed for CNN Opinion. A conservative pundit caught wind of it, mentioning Blake's work in a YouTube video. What happened next is equal parts a searing view into society, how we collectively view and treat disabled people, and the making of an advocate. After a troll said that Blake should be banned from posting pictures of herself, she took to Twitter and defiantly posted three smiling selfies, all taken during a lovely vacation in the Big Apple: I wanted desperately to clap back at these vile trolls in a way that would make a statement, not only about how our society views disabilities, but also about the toxicity of our strict and unrealistic beauty standards. Of course I knew that posting those selfies wasn't going to erase the nasty names I'd been called and, the chances were, they would never even see my tweet, but that didn't matter. I wasn't doing it for them; I was doing it for me and every single disabled person who has been bullied before, online and in real life. When people mock how I look, they're not just insulting me. They're insulting all disabled people. We're constantly told that we're repulsive and ugly and not good enough to be seen. This was me pushing back against that toxic, ableist narrative. For the first time, I felt like I was doing something empowering, taking back my power and changing the story. Her tweet went viral, attracting worldwide media attention and interviews with the BBC, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, PEOPLE magazine, Good Morning America and E! News. Now, in her manifesto, Beautiful People, Blake shares her truths about disability, writing about (among other things): the language we use to describe disabled people ableism, microaggressions, and their pernicious effects what it's like to live in a society that not only isn't designed for you, but actively operates to render you invisible her struggles with self-image and self-acceptance the absence of disabled people in popular culture why disabled people aren't tragic heroes Blake also tells the stories of some of the heroes of the disability rights movement in America, in doing so rescuing their incredible achievements from near total obscurity. Highlighting other disabled activists and influencers, Blake's work is the calling card of a powerful voice - one that has sparked new, different, better conversations about disability.

  • Author:
    Wang, Qian Julie
    Summary:

    An incandescent memoir from an astonishing new talent, Beautiful Country puts readers in the shoes of an undocumented child living in poverty in the richest country in the world. "Extraordinary - Consider this remarkable memoir a new classic."- Publishers Weekly , *Starred Review* In Chinese, the word for America, Mei Guo, translates directly to "beautiful country." Yet when seven-year-old Qian arrives in New York City in 1994 full of curiosity, she is overwhelmed by crushing fear and scarcity. In China, Qian's parents were professors; in America, her family is "illegal" and it will require all the determination and small joys they can muster to survive. In Chinatown, Qian's parents labor in sweatshops. Instead of laughing at her jokes, they fight constantly, taking out the stress of their new life on one another. Shunned by her classmates and teachers for her limited English, Qian takes refuge in the library and masters the language through books, coming to think of The Berenstain Bears as her first American friends. And where there is delight to be found, Qian relishes it: her first bite of gloriously greasy pizza, weekly "shopping days," when Qian finds small treasures in the trash lining Brooklyn's streets, and a magical Christmas visit to Rockefeller Center-confirmation that the New York City she saw in movies does exist after all. But then Qian's headstrong Ma Ma collapses, revealing an illness that she has kept secret for months for fear of the cost and scrutiny of a doctor's visit. As Ba Ba retreats further inward, Qian has little to hold onto beyond his constant refrain: Whatever happens, say that you were born here, that you've always lived here. Inhabiting her childhood perspective with exquisite lyric clarity and unforgettable charm and strength, Qian Julie Wang has penned an essential American story about a family fracturing under the weight of invisibility, and a girl coming of age in the shadows, who never stops seeking the light. Cover photograph © Bud Glick

  • Author:
    Turner, Steve
    Summary:

    Music journalist and Beatles expert Steve Turner investigates in detail the enormous changes that took place in the Beatles' lives and work during 1966. He looks at the historical events that had an impact on the group, the music they made that in turn profoundly affected the culture around them, and the vision that allowed four young men from Liverpool to transform popular music and serve as pioneers for artists from Coldplay to David Bowie, Jay-Z to U2.

  • Author:
    Bockris, Victor
    Summary:

    The "poet laureate of the New York underground scene" chronicles three decades of electrifying artistic expression Once dominated by Beat Generation writers like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, by the 1970s and '80s, New York City's creative scene had given way to a punk rock-era defined by figures like Debbie Harry and Richard Hell. While the aesthetics of these two movements seem different on the surface, author and prolific interviewer Victor Bockris-who witnessed it all-argues that the punks borrowed from the ideology and style of the beats, and that the beats were reenergized by the emergence of punk. In intimate conversation, Bockris's close friends-including celebrities from both periods, such as William Burroughs, Andy Warhol, Joey Ramone, and Patti Smith-reveal more about themselves and their art to him than to any other interviewer. Along with dozens of rare photos, Bockris's interviews and essays capture the energy of this unique time.

  • Author:
    Diamond, Michael, Horovitz, Adam
    Summary:

    A panoramic experience that tells the story of Beastie Boys, an audiobook as unique as the band itself. Formed as a New York City hardcore band in 1981, Beastie Boys struck an unlikely path to global hip hop superstardom. Here is their story, told for the first time in the words of the band. Adam "ADROCK" Horovitz and Michael "Mike D" Diamond offer revealing and very funny accounts of their transition from teenage punks to budding rappers. For more than thirty years, this band has had an inescapable and indelible influence on popular culture. With a style as distinctive and eclectic as a Beastie Boys album, Beastie Boys Book upends the typical music memoir, featuring a collection of voices reminiscent of your favorite mixtape. Photo Credit ' 1987 Lynn Goldsmith Audiobook Cast Includes: Steve Buscemi Ada Calhoun Bobby Cannavale Exene Cervenka Roy Choi Jarvis Cocker Elvis Costello Chuck D Nadia Dajani Michael Diamond Snoop Dogg Will Ferrell Crosby Fitzgerald Randy Gardner Kim Gordon Josh Hamilton Adam Horovitz LL Cool J Spike Jonze Pat Kiernan Talib Kweli Dave Macklovitch Rachel Maddow Tim Meadows Bette Midler Mix Master Mike Nas Yoshimi O Rosie Perez Amy Poehler Kelly Reichardt John C. Reilly Ian Rogers Maya Rudolph Rev Run Luc Sante Kate Schellenbach MC Serch Chloe Sevigny Jon Stewart Ben Stiller Wanda Sykes Jeff Tweedy Philippe Zdar Advance praise for Beastie Boys Book "This entertaining look at Beastie Boys history is as innovative and raucous as the band's music."-Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Beastie Boys fans will devour this book, as will anyone interested in the early days of hip-hop, the art/music/street life of New York City in the 1980s, and the alternative-nation zeitgeist of the '90s."-Kirkus Reviews

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