Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart / Candace Fleming
Tells the story of Amelia Earhart’s life–as a child, a woman, and a pilot–and describes the search for her missing plane. (J 921 EARHART)
The Burn Journals / Brent Runyon
The author recounts the year he spent in a burn unit following his suicide attempt at fourteen, describing the painful treatments, skin-grafting procedures, rehabilitation, and psychotherapy. (YA 921 RUNYON)
Charles and Emma: The Darwin’s Leap of Faith / Deborah Heiligman
Charles Darwin published ‘The origin of species,’ his revolutionary treatise on evolution, in 1859. Even today, the theory of evolution creates tension between the scientific and religious communities. This same debate raged within Darwin himself and played an important part in his marriage: Emma’s faith gave Charles a lot to think about as he worked on his controversial theory. His wife’s religious convictions made him rethink how the world would receive his ideas. (920 HEI)
The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P.T. Barnum / Candace Fleming
Biography of P.T. Barnum, showman and founder of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. Readers can visit Barnum’s American Museum; meet Tom Thumb, the miniature man (only 39 in. tall) and his tinier bride (32 in.); experience the thrill Barnum must have felt when,at age 60, he joined the circus; and discover Barnum’s legacy. (YA 921 BARNUM)
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius / Dave Eggers
A respected magazine editor and founder, a onetime spokesman for Generation X, offers a satiric, eloquent, and thoroughly tradition shattering memoir that discusses deaths of his parents from cancer, his raising of his younger brother, and more. (921 Eggers)
Hole in My Life / Jack Gantos
The author relates how, as a young adult, he became a drug user and smuggler, was arrested, did time in prison, and eventually got out and went to college, all the while hoping to become a writer. (YA 921 GANTOS)
Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing / Ann Angel
This book examines the life and musical career of Janis Joplin. Young music buffs will gain an understanding of Joplin’s place in pop culture and how, even with her career cut short, she paved the way for today’s female rock musicians. (YA 921 JOPLIN)
John Lennon: All I Want is the Truth: A Photographic Biography / Elizabeth Partridge
Presents the life of the British musician, from his childhood in London to his rock-n-roll career writing and performing music with the Beatles, revealing how he struggled to come to terms with fame, marriage, and his artistic mind. (921 LENNON)
Just Kids / Patti Smith
An artist and musician recounts her romance, lifetime friendship, and shared love of art with Robert Mapplethorpe, in a memoir that includes such influential artists as Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol, and William Burroughs. (781.66092 SMI)
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir / Bill Bryson
The author describes his all-American childhood growing up as a member of the baby boom generation in the heart of Iowa, detailing his rich fantasy life as a superhero known as the Thunderbolt Kid and his remarkably normal 1950s family life. (921 BRYSON)
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier / Ishmael Beah
In a heart-wrenching, candid autobiography, a human rights activist offers a firsthand account of war from the perspective of a former child soldier, detailing the violent civil war that wracked his native Sierra Leone and the government forces that transformed a gentle young boy into a killer as a member of the army. (966.404 BEA)
Me Talk Pretty One Day / David Sedaris
In a collection of essays, observations, and commentaries, the humorist describes his recent move to Paris, life as an American in Paris, his struggle to learn French, his family, and restaurant meals. (814.54 SED)
Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein / Susan Goldman Rubin
Describes the musician’s childhood and education, his relationship with his family, and his career as a composer and conductor. (YA 921 BERNSTEIN)
The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism and Treachery / Steve Sheinkin
Provides a biography of America’s first traitor–Benedict Arnold–that reads like an adventure tale, full of heroism, treachery, battle scenes, and surprising twists. (YA 921 ARNOLD)
Running with Scissors: A Memoir / Augusten Burroughs
The author describes his bizarre coming-of-age years after his adoption by his mother’s psychiatrist, during which he witnessed such misadventures as a fake suicide attempt and front-lawn family/patient sleepovers. (921 BURROUGHS)
Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board / Bethany Hamilton
The teenage surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack in 2003 describes how she has coped with this life-altering event with the help of her faith, the changes in her life, and her return to the sport she loves. (J 797.32092 HAM)
Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different: A Biography / Karen Blumenthal
From the start, his path was never predictable. Steve Jobs was given up for adoption at birth, dropped out of college after one semester, and at the age of twenty, created Apple in his parents’ garage with his friend Steve Wozniack. Then came the core and hallmark of his genius–his exacting moderation for perfection, his counterculture life approach, and his level of taste and style that pushed all boundaries. A devoted husband, father, and Buddhist, he battled cancer for over a decade, became the ultimate CEO, and made the world want every product he touched. (921 JOBS)
Stitches: A Memoir / David Small
The author recounts in graphic novel format his troubled childhood with a radiologist father who subjected him to repeated x-rays and a withholding and tormented mother, an environment he fled at the age of sixteen in the hopes of becoming an artist. (921 SMALL)
We Should Hang Out Sometime: Embarassingly, a True Story / Josh Sundquist
The Paralympic ski racer, YouTube star, and motivational speaker documents his coming of age as an amputee cancer survivor and his efforts to investigate past dates gone wrong to discover why he was still single. (TEEN FIC SUNDQUIST)
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