New Biographies – April 2011

Against All Odds: My Life of Hardship, Fast Breaks and Second Chances
Scott Brown
B BROWN
The extraordinary life journey of the current U.S. Senator from Massachusetts.

All That Is Bitter and Sweet
Ashley Judd
B JUDD
The author explains why she opted out of a successful Hollywood career to find her true calling: as a humanitarian and advocate for those suffering in neglected parts of the world.

Amelia Earhart: The Turbulent Life of an American Icon
Kathleen C. Winters
B WINTERS
When Amelia Earhart vanished over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 during an attempted around the world flight, she was at the height of her fame.  A fascinating portrait of a complex woman.

American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare, The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee
Karen Abbott
B LEE
The extraordinary life of Gypsy Rose Lee and the world she survived and conquered.

And Furthermore
Judi Dench
B DENCH
The life story of the famed British actress, Dame Dench, in her own words.

And I Shall Have Some Peace There: Trading in the Fast Lane for My Own Dirt Road
Margaret Roach
B ROACH
The author left her big-city life, including her work as an editorial director for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, to seek an entirely different reward.

Bird Cloud
Annie Proulx
B PROULX
Bird Cloud is the name Annie Proulx gave to the 640 acres of Wyoming wetlands and prairie that she calls home.

Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef
Gabrielle Hamilton
B HAMILTON
Before the author opened her acclaimed New York restaurant Prune, she spent twenty hard-living years trying to find purpose and meaning in her life.

A Box of Darkness: The Story of a Marriage
Sally Ryder Brady
B BRADY
Upton and Sally Brady were cultivated and elegant, living a life of literary glamour and high expectations. The author looks back on her marriage of forty-six years and the discoveries that she made following her husband’s death.

Branch Rickey
Jimmy Breslin
B BRESLIN
In 1947, as president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey defied racism on and off the field to bring Jackie Robinson into the major leagues.

Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love and War
Annia Ciezadlo
B CIEZADLO
In the fall of 2003, the author spent her honeymoon in Baghdad.  Over the next six years, while living in Baghdad and Beirut, she finds the rituals of food and friendship sustaining in a time of war.

The Elephant to Hollywood
Michael Caine
B CAINE
The acclaimed actor tells the story of his transformation from Maurice Micklewhite to Sir Michael Caine.

The Foremost Good Fortune
Susan Conley
B CONLEY
When her family says good-bye to family and friends in Maine for two-years in Beijing, China, that have little concept of just how much their lives will change.

Galileo
J.L. Heilbron
B GALILEO
The hero and martyr of science is captured through a wide-angled lens that takes in the wide spectrum of culture, religion, science, theology and politics of late Renaissance Italy.

I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to The Blind Side and Beyond
Michael Oher
B OHER
An account of the  Baltimore Ravens football player who is at the center of the book and the movie, The Blind Side. Here’s his own story.

I Love a Broad Margin to My Life
Maxine Hong Kingston
B KINGSTON
Reflections related in flowing verse lines explore the author’s thoughts as she turns sixty-five.

I’m Over All That: and Other Confessions
Shirley MacLaine
B MACLAINE
The author has reached the time in her life when she realizes what is truly important and what just doesn’t matter any more.

Jackie as Editor: The Literary Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Greg Lawrence
B ONASSIS
A chronicle of an important part of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s life—her nineteen-year editorial career.

J.D. Salinger: A Life
Kenneth Slawenski
B SALINGER
The mysterious and reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye is revealed in this examination of his life.

Known and Unknown: A Memoir
Donald Rumsfeld
B RUMSFELD
A memoir of the controversial Secretary of Defense and his half-century career in public service.

The Memory Palace: A Memoir
B BARTOK
Mira Bartók
“A disturbing, mesmerizing personal narrative about growing up with a brilliant but schizophrenic mother…. Richly textured, compassionate, and heartbreaking.” Kirkus Reviews.

My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth that Led to an American Tragedy
Nora Titone
B BOOTH
A penetrating look a the personal stories of the Booth family and the background rivalry that was integral to the assassin’s motivation.

Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses
Claire Dederer
B DEDERER
After throwing out her back ten years ago, the author turned to yoga and soon fell in love with the practice, both physically and spiritually.

Tough Without a Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart
Stefan Kanfer
B BOGART
A look at one of the great movie icons of the 20th century and an appraisal of the actor’s singular legacy.

Townie: A Memoir
Andre Dubus III
B DUBUS
After their parents divorced in the 1970s, the author and his three siblings grew up with their working mother in a town where drugs and violence were an everyday occurrence. On Sundays his father, a college professor, took the kids to a totally different world.

Wait for Me! Memoirs
Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire
B DEVONSHIRE
The remarkable life story of the youngest of the famous Mitford family, from her eccentric childhood to her residence at the noted historic home of Chatsworth.

A Widow’s Story: A Memoir
Joyce Carol Oates
B OATES
The noted author unveils a poignant memoir about the unexpected death of her husband of forty-six years and its wrenching aftermath.