{"id":382,"date":"2023-01-25T16:04:42","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T16:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/positivelyus.rate.com\/?p=382"},"modified":"2023-01-25T16:04:42","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T16:04:42","slug":"inspiring-people-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/positivity.rate.com\/?p=382","title":{"rendered":"Inspiring People You Need To Know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Uphill: A Memoir
<\/strong>by Jemele Hill<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An empowering, unabashedly bold memoir by the Atlantic journalist and former ESPN SportsCenter coanchor about overcoming a legacy of pain and forging a new path, no matter how uphill life\u2019s battles might be.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home
<\/strong>by Jami Attenberg<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From New York Times bestselling author Jami Attenberg comes a dazzling memoir about unlocking and embracing her creativity–and how it saved her life.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Solito
<\/strong>by Javier Zamora<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A young poet tells the unforgettable story of his harrowing migration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine in this moving, page-turning memoir hailed as \u201cthe mythic journey of our era\u201d (Sandra Cisneros).<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman
<\/strong>by Lucy Worsley<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not many authors sell a billion books, but Christie\u2019s nearly 70 mysteries helped her do just that. Born in 1890, she introduced the world to two detectives still going strong in film adaptations and elsewhere: Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Her life even included its own mystery, when she vanished for 11 days in 1926. Worsley, a historian, offers a full-dress biography.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A Visible Man
<\/strong>by Edward Enninful<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first Black editor in chief of British Vogue reflects on his life, including his early years as a gay, working-class immigrant from Ghana, and his path to becoming one of the most influential tastemakers in media.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I Have Something to Tell You: A Memoir
<\/strong>by Chasten Buttigieg<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A moving, hopeful, and refreshingly candid memoir by the husband of former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg about growing up gay in his small Midwestern town, his relationship with Pete, and his hope for America\u2019s future.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dirt – Growing Strong Roots in What Makes the Broken Beautiful
<\/strong>by Mary Marantz<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mixed with warmth, wit, and the bittersweet, sometimes achingly heartbreaking places we go when we dig in instead of giving up, Dirt is a story of healing. With gut-wrenching honesty and hard-won wisdom, Mary shares her story for anyone who has ever walked into the world and felt like their scars were still on display, showing that we are braver, better, and more empathetic for what we have endured. Because God does his best work in the muddy, messy, and broken–if we’ll only learn to dig in.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Enough Already – Learning to Love the Way I Am Today
<\/strong>by Valerie Bertinelli<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With an intimate look into her insecurities, heartbreaks, losses, triumphs, and revelations, Enough Already is the story of Valerie\u2019s sometimes humorous, sometimes raw, but always honest journey to love herself and find joy in the everyday, in family, and in the food and memories we share.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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When Breath Becomes Air
<\/strong>by Paul Kalanithi<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living?<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir
<\/strong>by Paul Newman<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What began in 1986 as a collaboration between Paul Newman and his friend, the screenwriter Stewart Stern, as an oral history of Newman’s life and work finally sees the light of day as a memoir. The brutally honest, charming, funny, and uncommonly revealing book gets to the heart of who Newman was on and off camera, and helps explain why his legacy continues to loom so large.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Token Black Girl
<\/strong>by Danielle Prescod<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fashion and beauty industry veteran Danielle Prescod turns her lens to her own life in this memoir, which dissects the forces that led her to work in fields that proved to be more complicated than they appeared and considers the way in which the author contorted herself to fit into a mostly-white world that didn’t always appreciate what she had to offer. More than just another media memoir, Token Black Girl also explores how Prescod broke her own destructive cycles and found ways to heal from not just toxic work experiences, but a toxic culture at large.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Catching the Light
<\/strong>by Joy Harjo<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joy Harjo has enjoyed a long and storied career as a poet, from becoming the first Native American to serve as the U.S. Poet Laureate to being elected as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets\u2014not to mention publishing her own nine books of poetry. Now, 50 years into her career, she has written something of a memoir\u2014part of Yale University Press\u2019 \u201cWhy I Write\u201d series\u2014about the \u201cwhy\u201d of writing poetry. In 50 vignettes, Harjo recalls the moments that shaped her own journey and how Indigenous people have been treated by history. \u201cTo write,\u201d she asserts, \u201cis to make a mark in the world, to assert \u2018I am.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I’m Glad My Mom Died
<\/strong>by Jennette McCurdy<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor\u2014including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother\u2014and how she retook control of her life.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir
<\/strong>by Matthew Perry<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The beloved star of Friends takes us behind the scenes of the hit sitcom and his struggles with addiction in this candid, funny, and revelatory memoir that delivers a powerful message of hope and persistence.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Finding Me: A Memoir
<\/strong>by Viola Davis<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In my book, you will meet a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life-changing decision to stop running forever. This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose but also my voice in a world that didn\u2019t always see me. Finding Me is a deep reflection, a promise, and a love letter of sorts to self. My hope is that my story will inspire you to light up your own life with creative expression and rediscover who you were before the world put a label on you.”<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Deaf Utopia: A Memoir – And a Love Letter to a Way of Life
<\/strong>by Nyle DiMarco, Robert Siebert<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A heartfelt and inspiring memoir and Deaf culture anthem by Nyle DiMarco, actor, producer, two-time reality show winner, and cultural icon of the international Deaf community.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today
<\/strong>by Valerie Bertinelli<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beloved actress and New York Times best-selling author Valerie Bertinelli returns with a heartfelt look at turning sixty, the futility of finding happiness in numbers on a scale, learning to love herself the way she is today, and tips for a healthier outlook on life.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir
<\/strong>by Akwaeke Emezi<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Name a writer more essential to the recent landscape of contemporary fiction\u2014and more prolific\u2014than Akwaeke Emezi has been over the last five years. (Seriously, I\u2019ll wait.) Now, the author of Freshwater and The Death of Vivek Oji is coming out with a sure-to-stun memoir, subtitled A Black Spirit Memoir, about navigating success, gender, and self. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me
<\/strong>by Ada Calhoun<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A staggering memoir from New York Times bestselling author Ada Calhoun tracing her fraught relationship with her father and their shared obsession with a great poet.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Blood in the Garden: The Flagrant History of the 1990s New York Knicks
<\/strong>by Chris Herring<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir The definitive history of the 1990s New York Knicks, illustrating how Pat Riley, Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Charles Oakley, and Anthony Mason resurrected the iconic franchise through oppressive physicality and unmatched grit.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Impossible City
<\/strong>by Karen Cheung<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir is a 2022 memoir by Karen Cheung, published by Random House. The book documents her growing up in Hong Kong and her familial relationships, as well the beginning of her interest in politics during the Umbrella Movement and scenes of counterculture.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Burn The Page
<\/strong>by Danica Roem<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danica Roem, the first openly transgender person elected to U.S. state legislature, takes readers inside her political journey and the challenges she\u2019s overcome.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Happy People Are Annoying
<\/strong>by Josh Peck<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where are my Drake and Josh fans at?! Josh Peck is set to release Happy People Are Annoying that explores his coming of age story\u2014the good, the bad, and the ugly\u2014and how he\u2019s finally living the life he\u2019s always wanted.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Miss Me With That
<\/strong>by Rachel Lindsay<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Miss Me With That, Rachel Lindsay shares her full story for the first time, letting readers inside her world both inside and outside of The Bachelor franchise.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Fairest
<\/strong>by Meredith Talusan<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fairest is a memoir about a precocious boy with albinism, a \u201csun child\u201d from a rural Philippine village, who would grow up to become a woman in America. Throughout her journey, Talusan shares poignant and powerful episodes of desirability and love that will remind readers of works such as Call Me By Your Name and Giovanni\u2019s Room. Her evocative reflections will shift our own perceptions of love, identity, gender, and the fairness of life.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
<\/strong>by Audre Lord<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde: This is a can\u2019t-miss collection of 15 stories and essays by the acclaimed Audre Lourde, a black feminist poet and writer, who was celebrated for her unapologetic and lyrical celebration of black queer life in prose and beyond.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Save Yourself
<\/strong>by Cameron Esposito<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esposito\u2019s memoir is as funny as her stand-up (which is really funny), but readers will benefit even further from the narrative arc of a life well lived. After being raised Catholic, Esposito recounts her bumpy and honest queer journey with an uplifting message about being yourself even when there\u2019s no life blueprint for you to follow, and even when the weight of “yourself” sometimes feels too much to bear.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Art of Showing Up
<\/strong>by Rachel Miller<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rachel Miller is a black queer journalist who currently serves as VICE\u2019s Life section deputy editor. The Art of Showing Up is as pragmatic as it is inspirational, and the perfect follow-up to her first book, Dot Journaling: A Practical Guide. As the threats of coronavirus persist, stylish and accessible guides to showing up as our best are more appreciated than ever.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Burn the Place
<\/strong>by Iliana Regan<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burn the Place is a galvanizing memoir that chronicles Iliana Regan\u2019s journey from foraging on the family farm to running her Michelin-starred restaurant, Elizabeth. Her story is raw like that first bite of wild onion, alive with startling imagery, and told with uncommon emotional power.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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How We Fight For Our Lives
<\/strong>by Saeed Jones<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The urgency of Saeed Jones\u2019s poetry is present in his unsparing memoir, in which, from his perspective as a queer black man, he critiques (while championing) the the autonomy required to own the the personal narrative.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Signs: The Secret Language of the Universe
<\/strong>by Laura Lynne Jackson<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Signs, Jackson is able to bring the mystical into the everyday. She relates stories of people who have experienced uncanny revelations and instances of unexplained synchronicity, as well as others drawn from her own experience. There\u2019s the lost child who appears to his mother as a deer that approaches her unhesitatingly at a highway rest stop; the name written on a dollar bill that lets a terrified wife know that her husband will be okay; the Elvis Presley song that arrives at the exact moment of Jackson\u2019s own father\u2019s passing; and many others. This is a book that is inspiring and practical, deeply comforting and wonderfully motivational, in asking us to see beyond ourselves to a more magnificent universal design.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Crying in H Mart
<\/strong>by Michelle Zauner<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the indie rockstar of Japanese Breakfast fame, and author of the viral 2018 New Yorker essay that shares the title of this book, an unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity. Vivacious and plainspoken, lyrical and honest, Zauner’s voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, and complete with family photos, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Rat Girl
<\/strong>by Kristin Hersh<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rat Girl chronicles the unraveling of a young woman’s personality, culminating in a suicide attempt; and then her arduous yet inspiring recovery, her unplanned pregnancy at the age of 19, and the birth of her first son. Playful, vivid, and wonderfully warm, this is a visceral and brave memoir by a truly original performer, told in a truly original voice.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future
<\/strong>by Indra Nooyi<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a dozen years as one of the world\u2019s most admired CEOs, Indra Nooyi redefined what it means to be an exceptional leader. The first woman of color and immigrant to run a Fortune 50 company \u2014 and one of the foremost strategic thinkers of our time \u2014 she transformed PepsiCo with a unique vision, a vigorous pursuit of excellence, and a deep sense of purpose. Now, in a rich memoir brimming with grace, grit, and good humor, My Life in Full offers a firsthand view of Nooyi\u2019s legendary career and the sacrifices it so often demanded.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A Piece of Cake: A Memoir
<\/strong>by Cupcake Brown<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Orphaned by the death of her mother and left in the hands of a sadistic foster parent, young Cupcake Brown learned to survive by turning tricks, downing hard liquor, and ingesting every drug she could find while hitchhiking up and down the California coast. She stumbled into gangbanging, drug dealing, hustling, prostitution, theft, and, eventually, the best scam of all: a series of 9-to-5 jobs. A Piece of Cake is unlike any memoir you\u2019ll ever read. Moving in its frankness, this is the most satisfying, startlingly funny, and genuinely affecting tour through hell you\u2019ll ever take.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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May I Be Happy : A Memoir of Love, Yoga, and Changing My Mind
<\/strong>by Cyndi Lee<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all her wisdom as a teacher, Cyndi Lee understood intuitively that she still had a lot to learn. In spite of her success in physically demanding professions – dancer, choreographer, and yoga teacher – Lee was caught in a lifelong cycle of repetitive self-judgment about her body. Instead of the radical contentment expected in international yoga teachers, she realised that hating her body was a form of suffering, which was infecting her closest relationships – including her relationship to herself. Inspired by the honesty and vulnerability of her students, Lee embarked on a journey of self-discovery that led her outward – from the sacred sites of the parched Indian countryside to the center of the 2011 earthquake in Japan – and inward, to seek the counsel of wise women, friends and strangers both. Applying the ancient Buddhist practice of loving-kindness meditation to herself, Lee learned that compassion is the only antidote to hatred, thereby healing her heart and changing her mind. With prose as agile as the yoga sequences she creates, May I Be Happy gives voice to Lee’s belief that every life arises, abides, and ultimately dissolves. By becoming her own best student, Lee internalizes the strength, stability, and clarity she imparts in her Buddhist-inspired yoga classes.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Joy Enough
<\/strong>by Sarah McColl<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lipsticks applied, novels read, imperfect cakes baked\u2014such memories are recalled with \u201ccrystalline perfection\u201d (J.C. Hallmann, Brooklyn Rail) in Sarah McColl\u2019s breathtaking testimonial to the joy and pain of loving well. When her mother, Allison, was diagnosed with cancer, McColl dropped everything\u2014including her on-the-rocks marriage\u2014to return to the family farmhouse and fix elaborate meals in the hope of nourishing her back to health. In \u201cthoughtful and finely crafted prose\u201d (Martha Anne Toll, NPR.org) McColl reveals Allison to be an extraordinary woman of infinite love for her unruly brood of children. Mining her dual losses \u201cwith humor and charm\u201d (Rachel Kong, New York Times Book Review) to confront her identity as a woman, McColl walks lightly in the footsteps of the woman who came before her. \u201cA gorgeous, painful, exhilarating debut\u201d (Kirstin Valdez-Quade), Joy Enough is an essential guide to clinging fast to the joy left behind, for readers of Ann Hood and Jenny Offill.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Thing Around Your Neck
<\/strong>by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In these twelve riveting stories, the award-winning Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explores the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, Africa and the United States. Searing and profound, suffused with beauty, sorrow, and longing, these stories map, with Adichie’s signature emotional wisdom, the collision of two cultures and the deeply human struggle to reconcile them.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Educated: A Memoir
<\/strong>by Tara Westover<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara\u2019s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she\u2019d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Last Black Unicorn
<\/strong>by Tiffany Haddish<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From stand-up comedian, actress, and breakout star of Girls Trip, Tiffany Haddish, comes The Last Black Unicorn, a sidesplitting, hysterical, edgy, and unflinching collection of (extremely) personal essays, as fearless as the author herself.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Young Gifted and Black: Meet 52 Black Heroes from Past and Present
<\/strong>by Jamia Wilson<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meet figureheads, leaders and pioneers such as Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Rosa Parks, as well as cultural trailblazers and sporting heroes, including Stevie Wonder, Oprah Winfrey and Serena Williams.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Eddie Olyczyk: Beating the Odds in Hockey and in Life
<\/strong>by Eddie Olczyk and Perry Lefko<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest names in American hockey has written an inspiring and entertaining memoir of his life both on and off the ice. From shooting hundreds of tennis balls at a goal in his childhood living room to the ups and downs of his improbable hockey career to rollicking stories from the booth and the backstretch, Olczyk guides readers on his journey toward his ultimate test: a battle against Stage 3 colon cancer.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I Am a Girl from Africa
<\/strong>by Elizabeth Nyamayaro<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elizabeth Nyamayaro’s I Am a Girl from Africa tells the story of the former United Nations senior advisor’s inspiring full-circle journey after a UN aid worker saved her life when she was eight years old. Later in her life, she would go on to launch the HeForShe campaign and help bring change across the globe.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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One Life<\/strong>
by Megan Rapinoe<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only four years old when she kicked her first soccer ball, Megan Rapinoe developed a love \u2013 and clear talent \u2013 for the game at a young age. But it was her parents who taught her that winning was much less important than how she lived her life. From childhood on, Rapinoe always did what she could to stand up for what was right\u2014even if it meant going up against people who disagreed.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Today I Made a Difference: A Collection of Inspirational Stories from America\u2019s Top Educators<\/strong>
by Joseph W. Underwood<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This collection of inspiration stories from America\u2019s top educators is sure to inspire, celebrate, and motivate the people who make the biggest difference in everyone\u2019s life.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A Life on Our Planet
<\/strong>by David Attenborough<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am 94. I’ve had an extraordinary life. It’s only now that I appreciate how extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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App Kid
<\/strong>by Michael Sayman<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discover the inspiring and deeply personal coming of age memoir from one of Silicon Valley\u2019s youngest entrepreneurs\u2014a second-generation Latino immigrant who taught himself how to code as a thirteen-year-old and went on to claim his share of the American dream.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Unfinished
<\/strong>by Priyanka Chopra Jonas<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A remarkable life story rooted in two different worlds, Unfinished<\/em> offers insights into Priyanka Chopra Jonas\u2019s childhood in India; her formative teenage years in the United States; and her return to India, where against all odds as a newcomer to the pageant world, she won the national and international beauty competitions that launched her global acting career. Whether reflecting on her nomadic early years or the challenges she has faced as she has doggedly pursued her calling, Priyanka shares her challenges and triumphs with warmth and honesty.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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All In
<\/strong>by Billie Jean King<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this inspiring and intimate account, Billie Jean King details her life\u2019s journey to find her true self. She recounts her groundbreaking tennis career and the myriad challenges she\u2019s hurdled on her path to publicly acknowledging her sexual identity at the age of fifty-one. Hers is the story of a pathbreaking feminist, a world-class athlete, and an indomitable spirit whose impact has transcended even her spectacular achievements in sports.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Beneath the Surface: My Story<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Michael Phelps<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this candid memoir, Phelps talks openly about his battle with attention deficit disorder, the trauma of his parent’s divorce, and the challenges that come with being thrust into the limelight.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Sheryl Sandberg<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg reignited the conversation around women in the workplace. Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Facebook and coauthor of Option B with Adam Grant.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Chasing Perfection: A Journey to Healing, Fitness, and Self-Love<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Rachel Brooks<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chasing Perfection reveals the life-changing steps fitness and lifestyle expert Rachel Brooks took to overcome depression, negative body image, and eating disorders, to break free of the past, and start living a fulfilling purpose-driven life.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Taste: My Life Through Food<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Stanley Tucci<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Stanley Tucci became a household name with The Devil Wears Prada, The Hunger Games, <\/em>and the perfect Negroni, he grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around the table. He shared the magic of those meals with us in The Tucci Cookbook <\/em>and The Tucci Table<\/em>, and now he takes us beyond the recipes and into the stories behind them.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Art of Happiness<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by 14th<\/sup> Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through conversations, stories, and meditations, the Dalai Lama shows us how to defeat day-to-day anxiety, insecurity, anger, and discouragement. Together with Dr. Cutler, he explores many facets of everyday life, including relationships, loss, and the pursuit of wealth, to illustrate how to ride through life’s obstacles on a deep and abiding source of inner peace.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Karamo: My Story of Embracing Purpose, Healing, and Hope<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em>Karamo Brown<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An insightful, inspiring, \u201ccandid and warm\u201d memoir from Karamo Brown\u2014beloved culture expert from Netflix\u2019s Queer Eye\u2014as he shares his story for the first time, exploring how the challenges in his own life have allowed him to forever transform the lives of those in need.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A true (as told be me) story<\/strong> <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Bess Kalb <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recounting both family lore and family secrets, Bobby brings us four generations of indomitable women and the men who loved them. There\u2019s Bobby\u2019s mother, who traveled solo from Belarus to America in the 1880s to escape the pogroms, and Bess\u2019s mother, a 1970s rebel who always fought against convention. But it was Bobby and Bess who always had the most powerful bond: Bobby her granddaughter\u2019s fiercest supporter, giving Bess unequivocal love, even if sometimes of the toughest kind.\u202fNobody Will Tell You This But Me<\/em>\u202fmarks the creation of a totally new, virtuosic form of memoir: a reconstruction of a beloved grandmother\u2019s words and wisdom to tell her family\u2019s story with equal parts poignancy and hilarity. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Year of Magical Thinking<\/strong> <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Joan Didion <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion, is an account of the year following the death of the author’s husband John Gregory Dunne. Published by Knopf in October 2005, The Year of Magical Thinking was immediately acclaimed as a classic book about mourning. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Happiness Project<\/strong> <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Gretchen Rubin <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another (slightly) oldie but still goodie: Gretchen Rubin shakes out the cobwebs of her life and figures out how to channel her days toward happiness in a larger sense. If you’re feeling blue, this is a practical how-to for shaking things up. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Year of Yes<\/strong> <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Shonda Rhimes<\/em> <\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Um, what advice wouldn’t we take from the powerhouse of network TV? Rhimes is basically a genius in our book \u2014 and in her book, she proves that by giving badass and totally applicable advice about how to silence self-doubt and channel the person you are truly meant to be. There is a reason that this one is a bestseller many-times over, and you’ll find it in the pages.  <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Wild<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Cheryl Strayed<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s time to indoctrinate yourself into the Cheryl Strayed fan club. At the age of 22, Cheryl Strayed’s life was at a low point: she’d just lost her mother, was getting divorced, and was hooked on heroine. Four years later, she decided to reboot her life with a solitary trek up the Pacific Crest Trail, stretching from the Mojave Desert to Washington State. You don’t have to take the hike to be bettered by the wisdom Strayed picked up along the way. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Not That Kind of Girl<\/strong> <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Lena Dunham<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yep, we’re counting this one as inspirational. Dunham is one of our favorite (literal) lady bosses; she accomplished a lot during the wild twentysomething years, and she definitely has wisdom to deliver, with wit to boot. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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My Beloved World<\/strong> <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Sonia Sotomayor<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long before she became a Supreme Court justice, Sonia Sotomayor was a little girl living in a housing project in the Bronx. Her father was an alcoholic, and her loving mother was busy working. So, when she was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at the age of seven, no one was there to sterilize the needles and give her the injections. From then on, she was self-reliant. This book tracks Sotomayor’s incredible career, from the day she was a little girl with a grave responsibility all the way to Princeton, to the Federal District Court, and finally, to the highest court of them all. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Redefining Realness<\/strong> <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Janet Mock<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janet Mock’s memoir\u202fcame out in 2014, a year after Laverne Cox made her debut as trans inmate Sophia Burset on\u202fOrange is the New Black.\u202fThe memoir emerged just as\u202fmedia representation of trans individuals\u202fwas changing \u2014 for the better. You will travel with Mock between the ages of 19 and 25. She mixes pop culture, social justice, personal narrative, and wry perspective for a reading experience that will leave you enlightened and empathetic. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly<\/strong> <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Anthony Bourdain<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The memoir that made him famous; will make you miss him all over again, but you\u2019ll also laugh and smile for what he once gave us. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History<\/strong> <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
By Vashti Harrison<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not just a picture book, illuminating text paired with irresistible illustrations bring to life both iconic and lesser-known female figures of Black history such as abolitionist Sojourner Truth, pilot Bessie Coleman, chemist Alice Ball, politician Shirley Chisholm, mathematician Katherine Johnson, poet Maya Angelou, and filmmaker Julie Dash. Among these biographies, readers will find heroes, role models, and everyday women who did extraordinary things – bold women whose actions and beliefs contributed to making the world better for generations of girls and women to come. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Little Leaders: Bold Men in Black History<\/strong> <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
By Vashti Harrison<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An important book for readers of all ages, this beautifully illustrated and engagingly written volume brings to life true stories of black men in history. Among these biographies, readers will find aviators and artists, politicians and pop stars, athletes and activists. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Huddle<\/strong> <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Brooke Baldwin<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin explores what happens when women\u202fcome\u202ftogether and harness their collective power through a\u202fblend of journalism and personal narrative. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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On Earth We\u2019re Briefly Gorgeous<\/strong> <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Ocean Vuong<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this Vietnamese-American poet\u2019s debut novel, Vuong weaves a story of family, his first love and being caught in between cultures. The T.S Eliot prize-winning poet gives a sensitive portrayal of his world and the relationships within it, ultimately asking the reader never to give up on themselves. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Once a Girl, Always a Boy<\/strong> <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Jo Ivester<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Jeremy Ivester was born, his parents thought they had a daughter. But over the years, it became clear they had a son. This intimate portrait (written by his mother) charts Jeremy\u2019s journey from childhood through transition to his emergence as an advocate for the transgender community. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Fairest<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Meredith Talusan<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fairest\u202fis a memoir about a precocious boy with albinism, a \u201csun child\u201d from a rural Philippine village, who would grow up to become a woman in America. Throughout her journey, Talusan shares poignant and powerful episodes of desirability and love that will remind readers of works such as\u202fCall Me By Your Name\u202fand\u202fGiovanni\u2019s Room. Her evocative reflections will shift our own perceptions of love, identity, gender, and the fairness of life.  <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
By Maya Angelou<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The autobiography of Maya Angelou: poetic and powerful,\u202fI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings<\/em>\u202fwill touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Long Walk to Freedom <\/strong><\/strong>
by Nelson Mandela<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nelson Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Spacewalker: My Journey in Space and Faith as NASA\u2019s Record-Setting Frequent Flyer <\/strong>
by Jerry L. Ross<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This autobiography tells the story of how Jerry Ross came not only to achieve the goal to become the most-launched astronaut in history, as well as a NASA veteran whose career spanned the entire US Space Shuttle program. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Shoe Dog: A Memoir<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by the Creator of Nike, Phil Knight<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company\u2019s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world\u2019s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Vaccinated<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Paul A. Offit<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

His goal\u2014to prevent every disease that commonly attacked children\u2014was unattainable. But Maurice Hilleman came close. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Eighty Days<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Matthew Goodman<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dramatic race that ensued would span twenty-eight thousand miles, captivate the nation, and change both competitors\u2019 lives forever. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Becoming <\/strong> <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Michele Obama<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2014from 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\u2019s most famous address.  <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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How To Lead: Wisdom from the World\u2019s Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers <\/strong> <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by David M. Rubenstein<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The essential leadership playbook. Learn the principles and guiding philosophies of Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, and many others through illuminating conversations about their remarkable lives and careers. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Beyond the Finis<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>h
by Brent Pease, Kyle Pease, and Todd Civin<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a child, Kyle Pease had grown up supporting his athlete brothers Brent and Evan from the sidelines. While his condition limited his ability to play sports, it didn’t dampen Kyle’s passion for them, nor did it stop the Pease family from including Kyle in various excursions. From rolling his wheelchair up Bridal Veil Falls in Yosemite National Park to zipping down Colorado snow slopes, there was never a dull moment with the Pease brothers. Where there was a wheel, there was a way to adventure. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Black Like Me<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by John Howard Griffin<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Deep South of the 1950s, a color line was etched in blood across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. Journalist John Howard Griffin decided to cross that line. Using medication that darkened his skin to deep brown, he exchanged his privileged life as a Southern white man for the disenfranchised world of an unemployed black man. What happened to John Howard Griffin\u2014from the outside and within himself\u2014as he made his way through the segregated Deep South is recorded in this searing work of nonfiction. His audacious, still chillingly relevant eyewitness history is a work about race and humanity every American must read.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by David Eggers<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A book that redefines both family and narrative for the twenty-first century. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius<\/em> is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Ishmael Beah<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In A Long Way Gone<\/em>, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Mortality<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Christopher Hitchens<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On June 8, 2010, while on a book tour for a bestselling memoir, Christopher Hitchens was stricken in his New York hotel room with excruciating pain in his chest. In this telling of his ordeal with esophageal cancer, Hitchens poignantly describes the torments of illness, discusses its taboos, and explores how disease transforms experience and changes our relationship to the world around us. By turns personal and philosophical, Hitchens embraces the full panoply of human emotions as cancer invades his body and compels him to grapple with the enigma of death.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Timothy Egan<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edward Curtis was charismatic, handsome, a passionate mountaineer, and a famous portrait photographer, the Annie Leibovitz of his time. He moved in rarefied circles, a friend to presidents, vaudeville stars, leading thinkers. But when he was thirty-two years old, in 1900, he gave it all up to pursue his Great Idea: to capture on film North America\u2019s original inhabitants before the old ways disappeared. Curtis would amass more than 40,000 photographs and 10,000 audio recordings, and he is credited with making the first narrative documentary film. In the process, the charming rogue with the grade school education created the most definitive archive of the American Indian.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Rebecca Skloot<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells\u2014taken without her knowledge\u2014became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first \u201cimmortal\u201d human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb\u2019s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. The story of the Lacks family\u2014past and present\u2014is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Color of Water:  A Black Man\u2019s Tribute to His White Mother<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by James McBride<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white, James McBride grew up in “orchestrated chaos” with his eleven siblings in the poor, all-black projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn. As a young man, McBride saw his mother as a source of embarrassment, worry, and confusion\u2014and reached thirty before he began to discover the truth about her early life and long-buried pain. Interspersed throughout his mother’s compelling narrative, McBride shares candid recollections of his own experiences as a mixed-race child of poverty, his flirtations with drugs and violence, and his eventual self- realization and professional success. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Notes of a Native Son<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by James Baldwin<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written during the 1940s and early 1950s, when Baldwin was only in his twenties, the essays collected in Notes of a Native Son <\/em>capture a view of black life and black thought at the dawn of the civil rights movement and as the movement slowly gained strength through the words of one of the most captivating essayists and foremost intellectuals of that era. Writing as an artist, activist, and social critic, Baldwin probes the complex condition of being black in America. With a keen eye, he examines everything from the significance of the protest novel to the motives and circumstances of the many black expatriates of the time, from his home in \u201cThe Harlem Ghetto\u201d to a sobering \u201cJourney to Atlanta.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Frederick Douglass<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former slave, impassioned abolitionist, brilliant writer, newspaper editor and eloquent orator whose speeches fired the abolitionist cause, Frederick Douglass (1818\u20131895) led an astounding life. Physical abuse, deprivation and tragedy plagued his early years, yet through sheer force of character he was able to overcome these obstacles to become a leading spokesman for his people.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Travels With Charley In Search of America<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by John Steinbeck<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the trees, to see the colors and the light\u2014these were John Steinbeck’s goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had been writing about for so many years. With Charley, his French poodle, Steinbeck drives the interstates and the country roads, dines with truckers, encounters bears at Yellowstone and old friends in San Francisco. Along the way he reflects on the American character, racial hostility, the particular form of American loneliness he finds almost everywhere, and  the unexpected kindness of strangers.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Eat, Pray, Love<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Elizabeth Gilbert<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. By turns rapturous and rueful, this wise and funny author (whom Booklist<\/em> calls \u201cAnne Lamott\u2019s hip, yoga- practicing, footloose younger sister\u201d) is poised to garner yet more adoring fans.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Woman Warrior<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Maxine Hong Kingston<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a girl, Kingston lives in two confounding worlds: the California to which her parents have immigrated and the China of her mother\u2019s \u201ctalk stories.\u201d The fierce and wily women warriors of her mother\u2019s tales clash jarringly with the harsh reality of female oppression out of which they come. Kingston\u2019s sense of self emerges in the mystifying gaps in these stories, which she learns to fill with stories of her own. A warrior of words, she forges fractured myths and memories into an incandescent whole, achieving a new understanding of her family\u2019s past and her own present.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Meditations<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Marcus Aurelius<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the world’s most famous and influential books, Meditations,<\/em> by the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 121\u2013180), incorporates the stoic precepts he used to cope with his life as a warrior and administrator of an empire. Ascending to the imperial throne in A.D. 161, Aurelius found his reign beset by natural disasters and war. In the wake of these challenges, he set down a series of private reflections, outlining a philosophy of commitment to virtue above pleasure and tranquility above happiness.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Claudette Colvin<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Phillip Hoose<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On March 2, 1955, an impassioned teenager, fed up with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation, refused to give her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found herself shunned by her classmates and dismissed by community leaders. Undaunted, a year later she dared to challenge segregation again as a key plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle<\/em>, the landmark case that struck down the segregation laws of Montgomery and swept away the legal underpinnings of the Jim Crow South. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Born Standing Up<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Steve Martin<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At age 10, Martin started his career at Disneyland, selling guidebooks in the newly opened theme park. In the decade that followed, he worked in the Disney magic shop and the Bird Cage Theatre at Knott’s Berry Farm, performing his first magic\/comedy act a dozen times a week. The story of these years, during which he practiced and honed his craft, is moving and revelatory.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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My Life in France<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Julia Child<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although she would later singlehandedly create a new approach to American cuisine with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking<\/em> and her television show The French Chef<\/em>, Julia Child was not always a master chef. Indeed, when she first arrived in France in 1948 with her husband, Paul, who was to work for the USIS, she spoke no French and knew nothing about the country itself. But as she dove into French culture, buying food at local markets and taking classes at the Cordon Bleu, her life changed forever with her newfound passion for cooking and teaching. Julia\u2019s unforgettable story\u2014struggles with the head of the Cordon Bleu, rejections from publishers to whom she sent her now-famous cookbook, a wonderful, nearly fifty-year long marriage that took the Childs across the globe\u2014unfolds with the spirit so key to Julia\u2019s success as a chef and a writer, brilliantly capturing one of America\u2019s most endearing personalities.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Under the Tuscan Sun<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Frances Mayes<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty years ago, Frances Mayes\u2014widely published poet, gourmet cook, and travel writer\u2014introduced readers to a wondrous new world when she bought and restored an abandoned villa called Bramasole in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. Under the Tuscan inspired generations to embark on their own journeys\u2014whether that be flying to a foreign country in search of themselves, savoring one of the book’s dozens of delicious seasonal recipes, or simply being transported by Mayes’s signature evocative, sensory language. Now, with a new afterword from the Bard of Tuscany herself, the 20th anniversary edition of Under the Tuscan Sun brings us up-to-date with the book’s most beloved characters.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Running with Scissors<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Augusten Burroughs<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running with Scissors<\/em> is the true story of a boy whose mother gave him away to be raised by her unorthodox psychiatrist who bore a striking resemblance to Santa Claus. So at the age of twelve, Burroughs found himself amidst Victorian squalor living with the doctor’s bizarre family, and befriending a pedophile who resided in the backyard shed. The story of an outlaw childhood where rules were unheard of, and the Christmas tree stayed up all year round, where Valium was consumed like candy, and if things got dull an electroshock- therapy machine could provide entertainment. The funny, harrowing and bestselling account of an ordinary boy’s survival under the most extraordinary circumstances.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I Am <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>Malala<\/strong>
by Malala Yousafzai<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala’s miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she became a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Touching the Void<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Joe Simpson<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, had just reached the top of a 21,000-foot peak in the Andes when disaster struck. Simpson plunged off the vertical face of an ice ledge, breaking his leg. In the hours that followed, darkness fell and a blizzard raged as Yates tried to lower his friend to safety. Finally, Yates was forced to cut the rope, moments before he would have been pulled to his own death. The next three days were an impossibly grueling ordeal for both men. Yates, certain that Simpson was dead, returned to base camp consumed with grief and guilt over abandoning him. Miraculously, Simpson had survived the fall. How both men overcame the torments of those harrowing days is an epic tale of fear, suffering, and survival, and a poignant testament to unshakable courage and friendship.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Don\u2019t Let\u2019s Go to the Dogs Tonight<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Alexandra Fuller<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 1972 to 1990, Alexandra Fuller\u2014known to friends and family as Bobo\u2014grew up on several farms in southern and central Africa. Her father joined up on the side of the white government in the Rhodesian civil war, and was often away fighting against the powerful black guerilla factions. Her mother, in turn, flung herself at their African life and its rugged farm work with the same passion and maniacal energy she brought to everything else. She instilled in Bobo, particularly, a love of reading and of storytelling that proved to be her salvation. This is the story of one woman\u2019s unbreakable bond with a continent and the people who inhabit it, a portrait lovingly realized and deeply felt.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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This Boy\u2019s Life: A Memoir<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Tobias Wolff<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Boy\u2019s Life <\/em>is the story of the young, tough-on-the-outside but vulnerable Toby Wolff. Separated by divorce from his father and brother, Toby and his mother travel from Florida to Utah to a small village in Washington state, with many stops along the way. As each place doesn\u2019t quite work out, they pick up to find somewhere new. In the story of their journey, Wolff masterfully recreates the frustrations, cruelties, and joys of adolescence and presents a deeply poignant exploration of memory, dreams, and how we create a self.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Autobiography of a Face<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Lucy Grealy<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This powerful memoir is about the premium we put on beauty and on a woman’s face in particular. It took Lucy Grealy twenty years of living with a distorted self-image and more than thirty reconstructive procedures before she could come to terms with her appearance after childhood cancer and surgery that left her jaw disfigured. As a young girl, she absorbed the searing pain of peer rejection and the paralyzing fear of never being loved.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Totto-Chan: The Little Girl At The Window<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This engaging series of childhood recollections tells about an ideal school in Tokyo during World War II that combined learning with fun, freedom, and love. This unusual school had old railroad cars for classrooms, and it was run by an extraordinary man-its founder and headmaster, Sosaku Kobayashi–who was a firm believer in freedom of expression and activity.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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My Bondage and My Freedom<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Frederick Douglass<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born into slavery in 1818, Frederick Douglass escaped to freedom and became a passionate advocate for abolition and social change and the foremost spokesperson for the nation\u2019s enslaved African American population in the years preceding the Civil War. My Bondage and My Freedom<\/em> is Douglass\u2019s masterful recounting of his remarkable life and a fiery condemnation of a political and social system that would reduce people to property and keep an entire race in chains.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Lives of the Artists<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Giorgio Vasari<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These biographies of the great quattrocento artists have long been considered among the most important of contemporary sources on Italian Renaissance art. Vasari, who invented the term “Renaissance,” was the first to outline the influential theory of Renaissance art that traces a progression through Giotto, Brunelleschi, and finally the titanic figures of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, and Raphael.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Persepolis<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Marjane Satrapi<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A life story in graphic novel form. Here, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah\u2019s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran\u2019s last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Naked At The Feast: A Biography of Josephine Baker<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Lynn Haney<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While known primarily as a vaudevillian and muse to the likes of Pablo Picasso, the fabulous Josephine Baker also stood up for Civil Rights and La Resistance and smashed glass ceilings for women of African descent in Europe and America.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Harriet Jacobs<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The true story of an individual’s struggle for self-identity, self-preservation, and freedom, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl<\/em> remains among the few extant slave narratives written by a woman. This autobiographical account chronicles the remarkable odyssey of Harriet Jacobs (1813\u20131897) whose dauntless spirit and faith carried her from a life of servitude and degradation in North Carolina to liberty and reunion with her children in the North.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Confessions<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Saint Augustine<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Augustine undertook his greatest piece of writing with the conviction that God wanted him to make this confession. The book in fact is an extended poetic, passionate and intimate prayer. The Confessions is considered to be the greatest Christian classic. Augustine’s notorious life before his baptism raised questions about the genuineness of his conversion. It is his honest struggle with the faith which has given The Confessions such timeless appeal over the last sixteen centuries. “Augustine’s Confessions has been much translated: but it is no exaggeration to say that Sister Maria Boulding’s version is of different level of excellence from practically anything else on the market.” (Rowan Williams – Archbishop of Canterbury)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Empire of the Summer Moon<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by S.C. Gwynne<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Empire of the Summer Moon<\/em> spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son, Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Cod: A Biography Of The Fish That Changed The World<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Mark Kurlansky<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know what you\u2019re thinking: it\u2019s a fish. Big deal. But, this biography shows how the most humble of creatures can affect civilization. Cod, it turns out, is the reason Europeans set sail across the Atlantic, and it is the only reason they could. What did the Vikings eat in icy Greenland and on the five expeditions to America recorded in the Icelandic sagas? Cod, frozen and dried in the frosty air, then broken into pieces and eaten like hardtack. What was the staple of the medieval diet? Cod. In this lovely, thoughtful history, Mark Kurlansky, winner of a 1999 James Beard Award, ponders the question: Is the fish that changed the world forever changed by the world’s folly?<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Jeanette Winterson<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? <\/em>is a memoir about a life\u2019s work to find happiness. It is a book full of stories: about a girl locked out of her home, sitting on the doorstep all night; about a religious zealot disguised as a mother who has two sets of false teeth and a revolver in the dresser, waiting for Armageddon; about growing up in a north England industrial town now changed beyond recognition; about the universe as a cosmic dustbin. It is the story of how a painful past, which Winterson thought she had written over and repainted, rose to haunt her later in life, sending her on a journey into madness and out again, in search of her biological mother. It is also a book about other people\u2019s literature, one that shows how fiction and poetry can form a string of guiding lights, a life raft that supports us when we are sinking.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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What I Talk About When I Talk About Running<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Haruki Murakami<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While training for the New York City Marathon, Haruki Murakami decided to keep a journal of his progress. The result is a memoir about his intertwined obsessions with running and writing, full of vivid recollections and insights, including the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer. By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical, here is a rich and revelatory work that elevates the human need for motion to an art form.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Barbara Jordan: American Hero<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Mary Beth Rogers<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barbara Jordan was the first African American to serve in the Texas Senate since Reconstruction, the first black woman elected to Congress from the South, and the first to deliver the keynote address at a national party convention. Yet Jordan herself remained a mystery, a woman so private that even her close friends did not know the name of the illness that debilitated her for two decades until it struck her down at the age of fifty-nine.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Hidden Figures<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Margot Lee Shetterly<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as \u201chuman computers\u201d used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. Among these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching math in the South\u2019s segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America\u2019s aeronautics industry was in dire need of anyone who had the right stuff.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Life You Save May Be Your Own<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Paul Elie<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the mid-twentieth century four American Catholics came to believe that the best way to explore the questions of religious faith was to write about them-in works that readers of all kinds could admire. The Life You Save May Be Your Own<\/em> is their story-a vivid and enthralling account of great writers and their power over us. Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk in Kentucky; Dorothy Day the founder of the Catholic Worker in New York; Flannery O’Connor a “Christ-haunted” literary prodigy in Georgia; Walker Percy a doctor in New Orleans who quit medicine to write fiction and philosophy. A friend came up with a name for them-the School of the Holy Ghost-and for three decades they exchanged letters, ardently read one another’s books, and grappled with what one of them called a “predicament shared in common.”<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Wives of Henry VIII<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Antonia Fraser<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may know the old rhyme:  \u201cDivorce. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived. But there is far more to the story of Henry VIII\u2019s six wives. From Catherine of Aragon, the scholar-queen who steadfastly refused to grant a divorce to her royal husband; to Anne Boleyn, absolved of everything but a sharp tongue and an inability to produce a male heir; to Catherine Parr, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, and the youthful naivete that led to Katherine Howard’s fatal indiscretions. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when theater comes back, be sure to catch the hip-hop story of the wives of Henry VIII in, \u201cSix.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A Hope More Powerful Than The Sea<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Melissa Fleming<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adrift in a frigid sea, no land in sight\u2015just debris from the ship’s wreckage and floating corpses all around\u2015nineteen-year-old Doaa Al Zamel floats with a small inflatable water ring around her waist and clutches two children, barely toddlers, to her body. The children had been thrust into Doaa’s arms by their drowning relatives, all refugees who boarded a dangerously overcrowded ship bound for Sweden and a new life. For days, Doaa floats, prays, and sings to the babies in her arms. She must stay alive for these children. She must not lose hope.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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John Brown<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by W.E.B. DuBois<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A moving cultural biography of abolitionist martyr John Brown, by one of the most important African-American intellectuals of the twentieth century. In the history of slavery and its legacy, John Brown looms large as a hero whose deeds partly precipitated the Civil War. As Frederick Douglass wrote: “When John Brown stretched forth his arm … the clash of arms was at hand.” DuBois’s biography brings Brown stirringly to life and is a neglected classic.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Invisible:  The Forgotten Story of The Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America\u2019s Most Powerful Gangster<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Stephen L. Carter<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was black and a woman and a prosecutor, a graduate of Smith College and the granddaughter of slaves, as dazzlingly unlikely a combination as one could imagine in New York of the 1930s\u2015and without the strategy she devised, Lucky Luciano, the most powerful Mafia boss in history, would never have been convicted. When special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey selected twenty lawyers to help him clean up the city\u2019s underworld, she was the only member of his team who was not a white male.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Lost City of Z<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by David Grann<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1925, the legendary British explorer Percy Fawcett ventured into the Amazon jungle, in search of a fabled civilization. He never returned. Over the years countless perished trying to find evidence of his party and the place he called \u201cThe Lost City of Z.\u201d In this masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, journalist David Grann interweaves the spellbinding stories of Fawcett\u2019s quest for \u201cZ\u201d and his own journey into the deadly jungle, as he unravels the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Enrique\u2019s Journey<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Sonia Nazario<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enrique\u2019s Journey<\/em> recounts the unforgettable quest of a Honduran boy looking for his mother, eleven years after she is forced to leave her starving family to find work in the United States. Braving unimaginable peril, often clinging to the sides and tops of freight trains, Enrique travels through hostile worlds full of thugs, bandits, and corrupt cops. But he pushes forward, relying on his wit, courage, hope, and the kindness of strangers.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Wrapped In Rainbows:  The Life of Zora Neal Hurston<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Valerie Boyd<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A woman of enormous talent and remarkable drive, Zora Neale Hurston published seven books, many short stories, and several articles and plays over a career that spanned more than thirty years. Today, nearly every black woman writer of significance\u2014including Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker\u2014acknowledges Hurston as a literary foremother, and her 1937 masterpiece Their Eyes Were Watching God <\/em>has become a crucial part of the modern literary canon.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Stranger In The Woods<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Michael Finkel<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think a few weeks of social distancing takes its toll? Check out this story of a man who became a hermit and didn\u2019t speak to another human\u2026for decades! Many people dream of escaping modern life. Most will never act on it\u2014but in 1986, twenty-year-old Christopher Knight did just that when he left his home in Massachusetts, drove to Maine, and disappeared into the woods. He would not have a conversation with another person for the next twenty-seven years.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Barracoon: The Story of the Last \u201cBlack Cargo:<\/strong><\/strong>
by Zora Neal Hurston<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation\u2019s history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo\u2019s firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States. Based on those interviews, Barracoon masterfully illustrates the tragedy of slavery and of one life forever defined by it.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Empire State Of Mind<\/strong>
by Zack O\u2019Malley Greenburg<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forbes<\/em> senior editor Zack O\u2019Malley Greenburg reveals the story of Jay Z\u2019s legendary rise from the Marcy Projects of Brooklyn to stages and corner offices worldwide. He draws on over 100 interviews with those who knew Jay Z from the beginning: his classmates at George Westinghouse High School; the childhood friend who got him into the drug trade; and the DJ who convinced him to stop dealing and focus on the music. Also bearing witness are the artists who worked alongside him, including J. Cole and Alicia Keys.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Where Men Win Glory<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
by Jon Krakauer<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pat Tillman walked away from a multimillion-dollar NFL contract to join the Army and became an icon of post-9\/11 patriotism. When he was killed in Afghanistan two years later, a legend was born. But the real Pat Tillman was much more remarkable, and considerably more complicated than the public knew.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Washington: A Life<\/strong><\/strong>
by Ron Chernow<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation and the first president of the United States. With a breadth and depth matched by no other one volume biography of George Washington, this crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his adventurous early years, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America’s first president. In this groundbreaking work, based on massive research, Chernow shatters forever the stereotype of George Washington as a stolid, unemotional figure and brings to vivid life a dashing, passionate man of fiery opinions and many moods.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Boys in the Boat<\/strong>
by Daniel James Brown<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington\u2019s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Sacred Hoops<\/strong>
by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Not only is there more to life than basketball, there’s a lot more to basketball than basketball.”<\/em> –Phil Jackson. In his thought-provoking memoir, the Chicago Bulls\u2019 and L.A. Lakers\u2019 coach reveals how he directs his players to act with a clear mind–not thinking, just doing; to respect the enemy and be aggressive without anger or violence; to live in the moment and stay calmly focused in the midst of chaos; to put the “me” in service of the “we”–all lessons applicable to any person’s life, not just a professional basketball player’s.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Endurance<\/strong>
by Alfred Lansing<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August 1914, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton boarded the Endurance and set sail for Antarctica, where he planned to cross the last uncharted continent on foot. In January 1915, after battling its way through a thousand miles of pack ice and only a day’s sail short of its destination, the Endurance became locked in an island of ice.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Ball Four<\/strong>
By Jim Bouton<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Ball Four<\/em> was published in 1970, it created a firestorm. Bouton, a major league pitcher who told the truth about what it was like to be a professional pitcher was called a Judas, a Benedict Arnold, and a \u201csocial leper\u201d for having violated the \u201csanctity of the clubhouse.\u201d Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to force Bouton to sign a statement saying the book wasn\u2019t true. Ballplayers, most of whom hadn\u2019t read it, denounced the book. It was even banned by a few libraries. And it\u2019s one of the best baseball books ever written.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Catcher in the Wry<\/strong>
by Bob Uecker<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, not the book you\u2019re thinking of. This is the story of a barely-staying-on-the-roster big-league-back-up catcher who tells the what it\u2019s like to be the 25th<\/sup> most popular person on a baseball team. One of the funniest sports nooks you\u2019ll ever read. And an inspiration, considering he spent six years in the majors and decades as an announcer while barely (literally) even hitting his weight.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Help<\/strong>
by Kathryn Stockett   <\/em>                                                      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aibileen is a black maid in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, who\u2019s always taken orders quietly, but lately she\u2019s unable to hold her bitterness back. Her friend Minny has never held her tongue but now must somehow keep secrets about her employer that leave her speechless. White socialite Skeeter just graduated college. She\u2019s full of ambition, but without a husband, she\u2019s considered a failure.

Together, these seemingly different women join together to write a tell-all book about work as a black maid in the South, that could forever alter their destinies and the life of a small town…<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Breaking Through<\/strong>
by Francisco Jim\u00e9nez<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the age of fourteen, Francisco Jim\u00e9nez, together with his older brother Roberto and his mother, are caught by la migra.<\/em> Forced to leave their home in California, the entire family travels all night for twenty hours by bus, arriving at the U.S. and Mexican border in Nogales, Arizona. In the months and years that follow during the late 1950s-early 1960s, Francisco, his mother and father, and his seven brothers and sister not only struggle to keep their family together, but also face crushing poverty, long hours of labor, and blatant prejudice.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The House of Mango Street<\/strong>
by Sandra Cisneros<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Told in a series of vignettes \u2013 sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous \u2013 it is the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become. Few other books in our time have touched so many readers.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Last Lecture<\/strong>
by Randy Pausch <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give a lecture on legacy, he didn’t have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave, ‘Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams’, wasn’t about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because time is all you have and you may find one day that you have less than you think). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
<\/strong>by Christopher McDougall<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isolated by Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons, the blissful Tarahumara Indians have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. In a riveting narrative, award-winning journalist and often-injured runner Christopher McDougall sets out to discover their secrets. In the process, he takes his readers from science labs at Harvard to the sunbaked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultra-runners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to a climactic race in the Copper Canyons that pits America\u2019s best ultra-runners against the tribe.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
<\/strong>by Maya Angelou<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local \u201cpowhitetrash.\u201d At eight years old and back at her mother\u2019s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age\u2014and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (\u201cI met and fell in love with William Shakespeare\u201d) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life
<\/strong>by Alice Schroeder<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a personally revealing and complete biography of the man known everywhere as \u201cThe Oracle of Omaha.\u201d Warren Buffett is one of the most respected businesspeople of our time, but his life has been a mix of strengths and frailties. As revealed in this book, Buffett\u2019s legacy will not be his ranking on the scorecard of wealth \u2014 it will be his principles and ideas.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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I Love Capitalism
<\/strong>by Ken Langone<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nlife of Home Depot co-founder Ken\nLangone is a perfect portrayal of the American Dream. He recounts how a poor\nboy from Long Island became one of the most successful businessmen in America.\nIn this memoir, Langone walks readers through how he struggled to get an\neducation, broke into Wall Street, and scrambled for an MBA.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Steve Jobs
<\/strong>by Walter Isaacson<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on more than forty\ninterviews with Jobs conducted over two years\u2014as well as interviews with more\nthan a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and\ncolleagues\u2014Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster\nlife and incredibly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose\npassion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries:\npersonal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and\ndigital publishing.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Creativity, Inc
<\/strong>by Ed Catmull<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a young man, Ed\nCatmull had a dream: to make the first computer-animated movie. He nurtured\nthat dream as a Ph.D. student at the University of Utah, where many computer\nscience pioneers got their start, and then forged a partnership with George\nLucas that led, indirectly, to his co-founding Pixar in 1986. Nine years later, Toy Story<\/em> was released, changing animation forever. The\nessential ingredient in that movie\u2019s success\u2014and in the thirteen movies that\nfollowed\u2014was the unique environment that Catmull and his colleagues built at\nPixar, based on leadership and management philosophies that protect the\ncreative process and defy convention<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Bossypants
<\/strong>by Tina Fey<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From\nher youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live<\/em>; from her\npassionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother\neating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly\nfatal honeymoon this is the often hysterical story of one of America\u2019s favorite\nTV comedians. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg:  A Life
<\/strong>by Jane Sherron de Hart<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This book covers it all, from Ruth\u2019s days as a baton twirler at Brooklyn\u2019s James Madison High School, to Cornell University, Harvard and Columbia Law Schools (first in her class), to being a law professor at Rutgers University (one of the few women in the field and fighting pay discrimination), hiding her second pregnancy so as not to risk losing her job; founding the Women’s Rights Law<\/em> Reporter<\/em>, writing the brief for the first case that persuaded the Supreme Court to strike down a sex-discriminatory state law, then at Columbia (the law school\u2019s first tenured female professor); becoming the director of the women\u2019s rights project of the ACLU, persuading the Supreme Court in a series of decisions to ban laws that denied women full citizenship status with men.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A Well-Read Woman
<\/strong>by Kate Stewart<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up under Fascist\ncensorship in Nazi Germany, Ruth Rappaport absorbed a forbidden community of\nideas in banned books. After fleeing her home in Leipzig at fifteen and losing\nboth parents to the Holocaust, Ruth drifted between vocations, relationships,\nand countries, searching for belonging and purpose. When she found her calling\nin librarianship, Ruth became not only a witness to history but an agent for\nchange as well.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Indira:  The Life of Indira Nehru Ghandi
<\/strong>by Katherine Frank<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indira Gandhi’s life,\nfrom her birth in 1917, through partition and up to her assassination in 1984,\nwas dominated by the politics of her country. Always directly involved in\nIndia’s turbulent 20th-century history, once she accepted the mantle of power,\nshe became one of the world’s most powerful and significant women. This\nbiography focuses on Gandhi’s role as a female leader of men in one of the most\nchauvinistic, complex and politicized cultures in the world. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Autobiography of a Yogi
<\/strong>by Paramahansa Yogananda<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this book, Yogananda\noffers a stunning account of the ‘cosmic consciousness’ reached on the upper\nlevels of yogic practice, and numerous interesting perspectives on human nature\nfrom the yogic and Vedantic points of view.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers
<\/strong>by Maxwell King<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on original\ninterviews, oral histories, and archival documents, The Good Neighbor<\/em> traces Rogers\u2019s personal, professional, and\nartistic life through decades of work. It includes his surprising decision to\nwalk away from the show in 1976 to make television for adults, only to return\nto the neighborhood to help children face complex issues such as divorce,\ndiscipline, mistakes, anger, and competition. The Good Neighbor<\/em> is the definitive portrait of a beloved\nfigure. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Story of my Life
<\/strong>by Helen Keller<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helen Keller\u2019s triumph\nover blindness and deafness has inspired people for more than a century. And\nwhile this book was first published in 1903, it is still a monument to the\nhuman spirit. This autobiography details Helen\u2019s early life, especially her experiences\nwith Anne Sullivan. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Whiskey in a Teacup: What Growing Up In the South Taught Me About Life, Love, and Baking Biscuits
<\/strong>by Reese Witherspoon<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reese\u2019s southern\nheritage informs her whole life, and she loves sharing the joys of southern\nliving with practically everyone she meets. It\u2019s reflected in how she\nentertains, decorates her home, and makes holidays special for her kids\u2014not to\nmention how she talks, dances, and does her hair. Reese loves sharing her\ngrandmother Dorothea\u2019s most delicious recipes as well as her favorite southern\ntraditions, from midnight barn parties to backyard bridal showers, magical\nChristmas mornings to rollicking honky-tonks.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business
<\/strong>by Barbara Corcoran<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After failing at twenty-two<\/em><\/strong>\njobs, Barbara Corcoran borrowed $1,000 from a boyfriend, quit her job as a\ndiner waitress, and started a tiny real estate office in New York City. Using\nthe unconventional lessons she learned from her homemaker mom, she gradually\nbuilt it into a $6 billion dollar business. Now Barbara’s even more famous for\nthe no-nonsense wisdom she offers to entrepreneurs on Shark Tank, ABC’s hit\nreality TV show. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These life stories just might change yours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":2477,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-books","has-excerpt"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/positivity.rate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/collage-2-1.jpg?fit=796%2C483&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/positivity.rate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/positivity.rate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/positivity.rate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/positivity.rate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/positivity.rate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/positivity.rate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/positivity.rate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/positivity.rate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/positivity.rate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/positivity.rate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}