Back Biographies & Memoirs | December Newsletter

SelectReads News
Simple News Pro
  Biographies & Memoirs  
Experiments with Truth: Gandhi and Images of Nonviolence

Josef Helfenstein · Yale University Press
Pages: 349
Format: Book

This fascinating book introduces and explores the resonance of Gandhi's (1869-1948) ethics of nonviolence in the visual arts. Taking the form of a reader, the texts range across influences on Gandhian philosophy and outgrowths from it. The accompanying images include Gandhi's own iconography,...
Read More check catalog
 
 
Founding Fathers: The Fight for Freedom and the Birth of American Liberty

K. M. Kostyal · National Geographic
Format: Hardcover

Kostyal tells the story of the great American heroes who created the Declaration of Independence, fought the American Revolution, shaped the US Constitution--and changed the world. The eras dramatic events, from the riotous streets in Boston to the unlikely victory at Saratoga, are punctuated...
Read More check catalog
 
 
Charles Williams: The Third Inkling

Grevel Lindop · Oxford University Press
Pages: 493
Format: Print book

This is the first full biography of Charles Williams (1886-1945) , an extraordinary and controversial figure who was a central member of the Inklings--the group of Oxford writers that included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Charles Williams--novelist, poet, theologian, magician and guru--was...
Read More check catalog
 
 
Holding Fast to Dreams: Empowering Youth from the Civil Rights Crusade to STEM Achievement

Freeman A. Hrabowski III · Beacon Press
Format: Hardcover

An education leader relates how his experiences with the civil rights movement led him to develop programs promoting educational success in science and technology for African Americans and others. When Freeman Hrabowski was twelve years old, a civil rights leader visited his Birmingham,...
Read More check catalog
 
 
Louis: The French Prince Who Invaded England

Catherine Hanley · Yale University Press
Pages: 296
Format: Print book

In 1215 a group of English barons, dissatisfied with the weak and despicable King John, decided that they needed a new monarch. They wanted a strong, experienced man, of royal blood, and they found him on the other side of the Channel: astonishingly, the most attractive candidate for the crown...
Read More check catalog
 
 
Antoine Frédéric Ozanam

Raymond L Sickinger · University of Notre Dame Press
Pages: 412
Format: Hardcover

Raymond Sickinger's biography of Antoine Frédéric Ozanam is more than a chronological account of Ozanam's relatively brief but extraordinary life. It is also a comprehensive study of a man who touched so many lives as a teacher, writer, and principal founder of the Society of Saint...
Read More check catalog
 
 
A Sniper's Conflict: An Elite Sharpshooter’s Thrilling Account of Hunting Insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq

Monty B · Skyhorse Publishing
Format: Hardcover

"I could make out the head and shoulders of the insurgent as he was firing in the prone position. I aimed for the centre area . . . emoved the safety catch and held that point of aim. Then I slowly and deliberately operated my trigger squeezing it gently to the rear. The round impacted...
Read More check catalog
 
 
Marrow: A Love Story

Elizabeth Lesser · Harperwave
Pages: 320
Format: Print book

The author of the New York Times bestseller Broken Open returns with a visceral and profound memoir of two sisters who, in the face of a bone marrow transplant - one the donor and one the recipient - begin a quest for acceptance, authenticity, and most of all, love.A mesmerizing and courageous...
Read More check catalog
 
 
The Real Peter Pan: J. M. Barrie and the Boy Who Inspired Him

Piers Dudgeon · Thomas Dunne Books
Pages: 416
Format: Print book

The world has long been captivated by the story of Peter Pan and the countless movies, plays, musicals, and books that retell the story of Peter, Wendy, and the Lost Boys. Now, in this revealing behind-the-scenes book, author Piers Dudgeon examines the fascinating and complex relationships...
Read More check catalog
 
 
Traveling Soul: The Life of Curtis Mayfield

Todd Mayfield · Chicago Review Press
Pages: 384
Format: Print book

Curtis Mayfield was one of the seminal vocalists and most talented guitarists of his era, and his music played a vital role in the civil rights movement. "People Get Ready" is the black anthem of the 1960s. On his Superfly album, rather than glorifying the blaxploitation imagery...
Read More check catalog
 
 
Headache godfather : the story of Dr. Seymour Diamond and how he revolutionized the treatment of headaches

Seymour Diamond; Charlie Morey · Skyhorse Publishing
Format: Hardcover

Learn the story of a man who lived the American dream and improved the quality of life for thousands of headache sufferers. The Headache Godfather traces the life of Seymour Diamond, MD, who was born in 1925, the son of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine and Slovakia, in Chicago, Illinois....
Read More check catalog
 
 
Hissing Cousins: The Untold Story of Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt Longworth

Marc N Peyser · Nan A. Talese / Doubleday
Pages: 332
Format: Print book

A lively and provocative double biography of first cousins Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt Longworth, two extraordinary women whose tangled lives provide a sweeping look at the twentieth century. When Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901, his beautiful and flamboyant daughter...
Read More check catalog
 
 
The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking

Olivia Laing · Picador
Pages: 340
Format: Hardcover

WHY IS IT THAT SOME OF THE GREATEST WORKS OF LITERATURE HAVE BEEN PRODUCED BY WRITERS IN THE GRIP OF ALCOHOLISM, AN ADDICTION THAT COST THEM PERSONAL HAPPINESS AND CAUSED HARM TO THOSE WHO LOVED THEM?In The Trip to Echo Spring, Olivia Laing examines the link between creativity and alcohol...
Read More check catalog
 
 
Wild by Nature: From Siberia to Australia, Three Years Alone in the Wilderness on Foot

Sarah Marquis · Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press
Pages: 259
Format: Print book

One woman 10,000 miles on foot 6 countries 8 pairs of hiking boots 3,000 cups of tea 1,000 days and nights "The only way to survive three years of walking was to embrace the moment of now." -- from Wild by Nature Not since Cheryl Strayed gifted us with her adventure on the Pacific...
Read More check catalog