Friday, November 8, 2019

New Biographies













Becoming Dr. Seuss by Brian Jay Jones
“Dr. Seuss is a classic American icon. Theodor Geisel, however, had a second, more radical side. It is there that the allure and fascination of his Dr. Seuss alter ego begins. He had a successful career as an advertising man and then as a political cartoonist, his personal convictions appearing, not always subtly, throughout his books. Geisel was a complicated man on an important mission. He introduced generations to the wonders of reading while teaching young people about empathy and how to treat others well.” –WorldCat

Brave Face: A Memoir by Shaun David Hutchinson
“At nineteen, Hutchinson was struggling to find the vocabulary to understand and accept who he was and how he fit into a community in which he couldn't see himself. Convinced that he couldn't keep going, that he had no future, Hutchinson followed through on trying to make that a reality -- an attempted suicide. Over time, he came to embrace life, and to find self-acceptance. In his deeply honest memoir, he takes readers through the journey of what brought him to the edge, and what has helped him truly believe that it does get better.” –WorldCat

Formation: A Woman’s Memoir of Stepping Out of Line by Ryan Leigh Dostie
“Raised by powerful women in a restrictive, sheltered Christian community in New England, Ryan Dostie never imagined herself on the front lines of a war halfway around the world. But then a conversation with an Army recruiter in her high-school cafeteria changes the course of her life. Hired as a linguist, she quickly has to find a space for herself in the testosterone-filled world of the Army barracks, and has been holding her own until the unthinkable happens: she is raped by a fellow soldier. Struggling with PTSD and commanders who don't trust her story, Dostie finds herself fighting through the isolation of trauma amid the challenges of an unexpected war. What follows is a riveting story of one woman's extraordinary journey to prove her worth, physically and mentally, in a world where the odds are stacked against her.” –WorldCat

Mary’s Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley created Frankenstein by Lita Judge
“Pairing free verse with over three hundred pages of black-and-white watercolor illustrations, Mary’s Monster is a unique and stunning biography of Mary Shelley, the pregnant teenage runaway who became one of the greatest authors of all time.” –Amazon

Member of the Family by Dianne Lake
"In late 1967, fourteen-year-old Dianne Lake became one of ‘Charlie's girls,’ a devoted acolyte of cult leader Charles Manson and member of his Family. Joining the group with little more than an old note from her hippie parents granting her permission to leave them, the two years that followed were a mixture of sexual manipulation, psychological control, and physical abuse, as the harsh realities and looming darkness of Charles Manson's true nature revealed themselves to the impressionable teenager.” –WorldCat

Permanent Record by Edward Snowden
“In 2013, twenty-nine-year-old Edward Snowden shocked the world when he broke with the American intelligence establishment and revealed that the United States government was secretly pursuing the means to collect every single phone call, text message, and email. The result would be an unprecedented system of mass surveillance with the ability to pry into the private lives of every person on earth. Six years later, Snowden reveals for the very first time how he helped to build this system and why he was moved to expose it.” –WorldCat

Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson
"Bestselling author Laurie Halse Anderson is known for the unflinching way she writes about, and advocates for, survivors of sexual assault. Now, inspired by her fans and enraged by how little in our culture has changed since her groundbreaking novel Speak was first published twenty years ago, she has written a poetry memoir that is as vulnerable as it is rallying, as timely as it is timeless.” –WorldCat

Stephen Hawking: An Unfettered Mind by Kitty Ferguson
“With rare access to Hawking, including childhood photos and in-depth research, Ferguson creates a rich and comprehensive picture of his life: his childhood; the heartbreaking ALS diagnosis when he was a first-year graduate student; his long personal battle for survival in pursuit of a scientific understanding of the universe; and his rise to international fame. She also uses her gift for translating the language of theoretical physics into the language of the rest of us to make Hawking’s scientific work accessible.” –Amazon

The Life and Death of Anna Mae Aquash by Johanna Brand
“Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota, 1976. It took two autopsies and demands from family and friends to uncover that Canadian Indian activist Anna Mae Aquash had been killed by a bullet, fired execution-style into the back of her head. Was she murdered by the FBI, or by colleagues in the American Indian Movement? No serious investigation has ever been undertaken to determine the identities of her murderers.” –WorldCat

Unfiltered by Lily Collins
“For the first time ever, actress Lily Collins shares her life and her own deepest secrets, underlining that every single one of us experiences pain and heartbreak. We all understand what it's like to live in the light and in the dark. For Lily, it's about making it through to the other side, where you love what you see in the mirror and where you embrace yourself just as you are. She's learned that all it takes is one person standing up and saying something for everyone else to realize they're not alone. By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Lily's honest voice will inspire you to be who you are and say what you feel. It's time to claim your voice! It's time to live your life unfiltered.” –WorldCat