Biography and Memoir
by Katie Couric
What it's about: former Today co-host and CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric's 40-year journalism career.
Read it for: a vivid and fast-paced behind-the-scenes account of Couric's personal and professional lives, full of candid insights on the challenges she's faced.
Topics include: navigating sexism in the media industry; losing her first husband to colon cancer; battling bulimia; adjusting to fame.
by Ron Howard & Clint Howard; foreword by Bryce Dallas Howard
What it is: a nostalgic and banter-filled coming-of-age memoir by brothers and Hollywood luminaries Ron and Clint Howard, both of whom got their start as child actors in the 1960s.
Who it's for: Fans of the pair will enjoy this charming look back at their storied careers, featuring anecdotes about their work on The Andy Griffith Show, Gentle Ben, Happy Days, and more.
Try this next: For another engaging showbiz memoir by an iconic 1960s child star, read Hayley Mills' Forever Young.
by Bobby Love and Cheryl Love with Lori L. Tharps
How it began: In 2015, the FBI raided the Brooklyn home of Bobby and Cheryl Love and arrested Bobby for an armed robbery committed 40 years earlier in North Carolina.
What happened next: Cheryl learned that her husband of more than 30 years was an escaped convict who'd been living under an assumed identity for decades. While grappling with the truth of Bobby's past and whether to forgive him, she fought tirelessly for his release.
by Sarah Ruhl
What it's about: playwright Sarah Ruhl's battles with long-term Bell's palsy, a condition that causes facial muscle paralysis.
What sets it apart: Ruhl's probing meditations, structured like one-act plays or monologues, explore the intersection of illness and gendered beauty expectations ("Is the self the face?") and include historical examples of women navigating long-term illness.
About the author: MacArthur fellow Ruhl is a two-time Pulitzer finalist and a Tony nominee.
by Laurie Woolever
What it is: a wide-ranging oral history chronicling the life and career of beloved celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, who died by suicide in 2018.
Featuring: interviews with dozens of colleagues, friends, and loved ones offering candid recollections of a complicated man.
Who it's for: Fans of Bourdain will appreciate this engaging and bittersweet tribute to his legacy, written by his longtime assistant and World Travel co-author Laurie Woolever.
by Joy Harjo, editor, with Leanne Howe, Jennifer Elise Foerster, and contributing editors
What it is: a sweeping and comprehensive anthology of Native Nations poetry, edited by U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo.
What's inside: poems from 160 authors representing nearly 100 nations, grouped chronologically by region.
Reviewers say: "If there's one poetry anthology that belongs on every bookshelf in this country called America, it's this one" (Booklist).
by Toni Jensen
What it is: the debut essay collection from Métis writer and University of Arkansas English professor Toni Jensen that explores violence against Indigenous people and their lands.
Topics include: the Dakota Access Pipeline protests; the author's brushes with gun violence; her discomfort at being white passing.
Don't miss: "Dog Days," in which Jensen attempts reconciliation with her abusive and neglectful father.
by Terese Marie Mailhot
What it is: Terese Marie Mailhot's raw and powerfully crafted coming-of-age memoir of life on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation, evocatively told in a series of concise and cogent essays.
Want a taste? "The thing about women from the river is that our currents are endless. We sometimes outrun ourselves."
About the author: First Nation writer Mailhot is a graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts and currently teaches creative writing at Purdue University.
by N. Scott Momaday
What it is: Pulitzer Prize-winning Kiowa novelist and poet N. Scott Momaday's celebration of his relationship to the natural world.
Why you might like it: Though only 65 pages long, Momaday's sincere reflections encourage deeper contemplation of humankind's impact on the earth.
Art alert: Momaday's spare illustrations complement his lyrical prose.
by Jesse Thistle
What it's about: Métis Cree author Jesse Thistle's fraught coming-of-age in 1980s and '90s Saskatchewan, marked by addiction, abandonment, and hard-fought resilience.
Book buzz: Thistle's bestselling debut was a CBC Canada Reads 2020 finalist and the recipient of multiple awards.
Try this next:Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age by Darrel J. McLeod.
68 Calhoun St.
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