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Biography and MemoirMarch 2015
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"I play tennis for a living, even though I hate tennis, hate it with a dark and secret passion, and always have." ~ from Andre Agassi's Open
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New and Recently Released!
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| Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant by Tracy BormanLord Thomas Cromwell, made more visible to modern readers by Hilary Mantel's novel Wolf Hall, was one of Henry VIII's most trusted advisers, until he was executed for supposedly trying to seize too much power. In this engaging biography, historian Tracy Borman depicts a complex personality -- both a devoted family man and a manipulative power broker. Making use of both primary and secondary sources, Borman relates Cromwell's life and analyzes the reasons for his fall from favor. Thomas Cromwell offers a well researched portrait to accompany the BBC dramatization of Mantel's book, recently aired in the U.K. and soon to appear on PBS. |
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| Resilience: Two Sisters and a Story of Mental Illness by Jessie Close with Pete EarleyIn this candid and moving autobiography, Jessie Close, sister of actress Glenn Close, recounts her life with particular emphasis on her mental illness, which went undiagnosed from her teenage years until she was nearly 50. Resilience depicts Jessie's struggles with mood swings and substance abuse, failed marriages, her son's mental illness, and -- throughout -- the support of her sister Glenn. After bringing her bipolar illness under control, Jessie and Glenn founded Bring Change 2 Mind, an organization devoted to mental health issues. Jessie's memoir is an emotionally intense read, but its conclusion offers hope for the mentally ill. |
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| The Man Who Would Not Be Washington: Robert E. Lee's Civil War and His... by Jonathan HornIn The Man Who Would Not Be Washington, author Jonathan Horn presents a biography of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that portrays his connections to (and admiration for) George Washington and his decision, nevertheless, to lead the rebellion against the Union that Washington helped to found. Providing a portrait of Lee's family, Horn explains why Lee could have followed in Washington's footsteps as an American leader, emphasizing the poignancy of Lee's decision to support Virginia's side in the Civil War. Library Journal, in a starred review, says this interpretation of Lee's life has "significant historiographical value." |
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| Whipping Boy: The Forty-Year Search for My Twelve-Year-Old Bully by Allen KurzweilWhen author Allen Kurzweil was ten years old, he attended an English-style boarding school in Switzerland, where a 12-year-old student systematically humiliated and physically abused him. Thirty years later, after helping his son deal with a school bully, Kurzweil decided to look for his former tormentor. In Whipping Boy, he recounts his worldwide search, which took him to the Philippines and Switzerland, through crates of legal documents, and eventually to a California prison. In this fast-paced, gripping account, Kurzweil reveals that his bully grew up to be a crook whose fraud makes Bernie Madoff's schemes "look positively banal" (Library Journal). |
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| A Fifty-Year Silence: Love, War, and a Ruined House in France by Miranda Richmond MouillotAfter surviving World War II, author Miranda Richmond Mouillot's grandparents, Armand and Anna, moved into a house in southern France, then emigrated to New York. Five years later, they separated and never reconciled. Miranda, born in 1981, grew up with only a vague idea of their wartime ordeals and why they separated. When she learned that the old house in France was being sold, she decided to move into it and do some research in family records, hoping to learn more about her grandparents' estrangement. A Fifty-Year Silence hauntingly depicts what Miranda discovered about them. |
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March and April Birthdays
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| Gabriel García Márquez: A Life by Gerald MartinMarch 6, 1927. In this thorough and easy-to-read biography of Nobel Prize-winning Gabriel García Márquez, author Gerald Martin details his early life, his career in journalism, his political views, and the substance and impact of his acclaimed and popular magical realist works. Anyone interested in Márquez or in 20th-century literature will find this an "exemplary literary biography" (Kirkus Reviews). For more on the author in his own words, read Living to Tell the Tale, which covers his early life from 1927-1950; those who haven't read his fiction might start with One Hundred Years of Solitude. |
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| The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century by Alan BrinkleyApril 3, 1898. Henry Luce was one of the most prominent publishers of the 20th century. Founder of the popular magazines TIME, Life, and Fortune, he became highly influential both in the publishing world and in politics. He achieved great wealth but also had a troubled personal life, including discordant marriages, extramarital affairs, and often contentious professional relationships. Biographer Alan Brinkley explores his career, his public persona, and his private character in this well researched and compelling book, which will appeal to anyone interested in 20th-century American history. |
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| Spencer Tracy: A Biography by James CurtisApril 5, 1900. Spencer Tracy was one of Hollywood's most successful actors, appearing in 73 films, many of them co-starring Katharine Hepburn. Biographer James Curtis illuminates Tracy's life and career, describing his Broadway and movie triumphs, his personal struggles, his affairs with several actresses, and his long professional and intimate relationship with Hepburn. Bringing together details from the public record, information from Tracy's personal papers, and material provided by Tracy's daughter and Hepburn's niece, this is a "monumental, definitive biography," according to Kirkus Reviews. |
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| Da Vinci's Ghost: Genius, Obsession, and How Leonardo Created the World in His... by Toby LesterApril 15, 1452. While most recognize Leonardo da Vinci's drawing of the Vitruvian Man -- a nude, four-armed, four-legged man framed by a circle and a square -- few are familiar with its origins. According to Renaissance European beliefs rooted in classical Roman philosophy, the perfectly proportioned human body represented a microcosm of the universe, and da Vinci's image encapsulates this symbolism. In his engaging, well illustrated biography, historian Toby Lester discusses the history of the Vitruvian Man and da Vinci's keen observations of the physical world while exploring his humble origins and dazzling artistic career. |
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| Open: An Autobiography by Andre AgassiApril 29, 1970. In this "ace of a tale" (Kirkus Reviews), tennis champion Andre Agassi relates his brutal childhood, during which his father forced him to practice endlessly even when he was in pain, and his successful professional career. Because of his father's abuse, he hated tennis and was unhappy even when winning multiple Grand Slams. Open vividly depicts some of his tennis matches, provides a close-up view of a star athlete's life, describes his failed marriage with Brooke Shields, and closes on a happier note with his marriage to Stephanie Graf and retirement from tennis. Agassi's memoir offers a compelling and insightful view of a complex human being. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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