Friday, September 12, 2014

New Biographies



Dancing Under The Red Star by Karl Tobien
Between 1930 and 1932, Henry Ford sent over one hundred of his Detroit employees and their families to live in Gorky, Russia, to operate a new manufacturing facility. This is the true story of one of those families--Carl and Elisabeth Werner and their young daughter Margaret--and their terrifying life in Russia under brutal dictator Joseph Stalin. –Summary

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana is an incredible true account of Kamila Sidiqi who, when her father and brother were forced to flee Kabul, became the sole breadwinner for her five siblings. Armed only with grit and determination, she picked up a needle and thread and created a thriving business of her own and held her family together. –Summary

No One Here Gets Out Alive by Jerry Hopkins and Daniel Sugerman
No One Here Gets Out Alive recounts the life and tragic death of singer-songwriter Morrison, examining his recordings and performances with the Doors, as well as his poetry. –Summary

The Sleeping Buddha by Hamida Ghafour
“As Hamida is drawn deeper into her country's present, other members of her family come to life for us – her great-grandfather the Sufi mystic, her poetess grandmother who urged women to unveil, her great-uncle who wrote the first democratic constitution, her brace cousin Bahodine who paid for his views with his life. In her family's past she finds the story of Afghanistan itself. She finds its future in people like the American Beautician teaching women a new kind of independence and the archaeologist digging for his country's lost civilization – in the form of a giant Sleeping Buddha.” –Amazon

Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe
A teen idol at fifteen, an international icon and founder of the Brat Pack at twenty, and one of Hollywood's top stars, Stories I Only Tell My Friends chronicles Rob Lowe’s experiences. The actor, political activist and now writer looks back on his travails as a fledgling and misunderstood child actor in Ohio, his transition to the rough, counter-culture free-for-all that was Malibu in the mid-1970s, his wild ride from as teen idol to movie star to his current status as one of Hollywood's top actors. –Summary