Biographies & Memoirs
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Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors?: The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell (Christy Ottaviano Books)
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Tanya Lee Stone
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (2000, Jan 1st).
Pages: 40
In the 1830s, when a brave and curious girl named Elizabeth Blackwell was growing up, women were supposed to be wives and mothers. Some women could be teachers or seamstresses, but career options were few. Certainly no women were doctors. But Elizabeth refused to accept the common beliefs that women weren’t smart enough to be doctors, or that they were too weak for such hard work. And she would not take no for an answer. Although she faced much opposition, she worked hard and finally—when she graduated from medical school and went on to have a brilliant career—proved her detractors wrong. This inspiring story of the first female doctor shows how one strong-willed woman opened the doors for all the female doctors to come. . more
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When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky: Two Artists, Their Ballet, and One Extraordinary Riot
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Lauren Stringer
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books (2013, Mar 5th).
Pages: 32
The Russian artists Igor Stravinsky and Vaslav Nijinsky were popular in their time: Stravinsky for music, Nijinsky for dance. When their radically new ballet, The Rite of Spring, was first performed in Paris on May 29, 1913, the reaction was so polarized, there were fistfights and riots! Brilliant or disastrous, the performance marked the birth of modern music and dance. Stringer’s rhythmic text and gloriously inventive, color-rich paintings capture the wild and imaginative collaboration of composer and choreographer. The fascinating author note includes photos of the dynamic duo and The Rite of Spring dancers. more
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Diego Rivera: An Artist for the People
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Susan Goldman Rubin
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers (2013, Feb 5th).
Pages: 56
Diego Rivera offers young readers unique insight into the life and artwork of the famous Mexican painter and muralist. The book follows Rivera’s career, looking at his influences and tracing the evolution of his style. His work often called attention to the culture and struggles of the Mexican working class. Believing that art should be for the people, he created public murals in both the United States and Mexico, examples of which are included. The book contains a list of museums where you can see Rivera’s art, a historical note, a glossary, and a bibliography. Praise for Diego Rivera: An Artist for the People STARRED REVIEWS "With engaging prose that is beautifully illustrated with Diego Rivera’s paintings and murals, this spacious volume introduces the great Mexican artist to young people. more
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A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Melissa Sweet
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (2013, Jan 8th).
Pages: 40
As a child in the late 1800s, Horace Pippin loved to draw: He loved the feel of the charcoal as it slid across the floor. He loved looking at something in the room and making it come alive again in front of him. He drew pictures for his sisters, his classmates, his co-workers. Even during W.W.I, Horace filled his notebooks with drawings from the trenches . . . until he was shot. Upon his return home, Horace couldn't lift his right arm, and couldn't make any art. Slowly, with lots of practice, he regained use of his arm, until once again, he was able to paint--and paint, and paint! Soon, people—including the famous painter N. C. Wyeth—started noticing Horace's art, and before long, his paintings were displayed in galleries and museums across the country. more
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Master George's People: George Washington, His Slaves, and His Revolutionary Transformation
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Marfe Ferguson Delano
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: National Geographic Children's Books (2013, Jan 8th).
Pages: 64
As the first President of the United States of America and the Commander in Chief who led a rebel army to victory in the Revolutionary War, George Washington was a legendary leader of men. He had high expectations of his soldiers, employees, and associates. At his Virginia plantation, Mount Vernon, his expectations of his workers were no different: “I expect such labor as they ought to render,” he wrote.Except there was a big difference. The workers who kept Mount Vernon operating were enslaved. And although Washington called them “my people,” by law they were his property. The Founders birthed a document celebrating “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” as unalienable rights at the same time people were being bought and sold. more
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The Cynical Idealist: A Spiritual Biography of John Lennon
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Gary Tillery
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Quest Books (2009, Dec 1st).
Pages: 216
A radio playlist could easily follow John Lennon’s "Mind Games" with "Do Ya Think I’m Sexy." But comparing the two, it becomes obvious that Lennon had more in common with the great thinkers of any age than with the songwriters who were his contemporaries. Cynical Idealist reveals, for the first time, the spiritual odyssey of this extraordinary man. Out of a turbulent life, from his troubled, working-class childhood throughout his many roles - Beatle, peace advocate, social activist, househusband - Lennon managed to fashion a philosophy that elevates the human spirit and encourages people to work, individually and collectively, toward a better world. Like Socrates, Lennon wanted to stimulate people to think for themselves. "There ain’t no guru who can see through your eyes," he sings in "I Found Out. more
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How to Create the Perfect Wife: Britain's Most Ineligible Bachelor and his Enlightened Quest to Train the Ideal Mate
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Wendy Moore
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Basic Books (2013, Apr 9th).
Pages: 360
Thomas Day, an 18th-century British writer and radical, knew exactly the sort of woman he wanted to marry. Pure and virginal like an English country maid yet tough and hardy like a Spartan heroine, she would live with him in an isolated cottage, completely subservient to his whims. But after being rejected by a number of spirited young women, Day concluded that the perfect partner he envisioned simply did not exist in frivolous, fashion-obsessed Georgian society. Rather than conceding defeat and giving up his search for the woman of his dreams, however, Day set out to create her.So begins the extraordinary true story at the heart of How to Create the Perfect Wife, prize-winning historian Wendy Moore’s captivating tale of one man’s mission to groom his ideal mate. more
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Country Girl: A Memoir
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Edna O'Brien
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (2013, Apr 30th).
Pages: 384
In 1960, Edna O'Brien published The Country Girls, her first novel, which so scandalized the O'Briens' local parish that the book was burned by its priest. O'Brien, married with two sons, was undeterred and has since created a body of work that bears comparison with the best writing of the twentieth century. Country Girl brings us face to face with a life of high drama and contemplation. It is a rich and heady accounting of the events, people, emotions, and landscape that imprint upon and enliven one lifetime.Starting with O'Brien's birth in a grand but deteriorating house in Ireland, her story moves through convent school to elopement, divorce, single-motherhood, the wild parties of the '60s in London, and encounters with Hollywood giants, pop stars, and literary titans. more
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The Creation of Anne Boleyn: A New Look at England's Most Notorious Queen
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Susan Bordo
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2013, Apr 9th).
Pages: 368
Part biography, part cultural history, The Creation of Anne Boleyn is a fascinating reconstruction of Anne’s life and an illuminating look at her afterlife in the popular imagination. Why is Anne so compelling? Why has she inspired such extreme reactions? What did she really look like? Was she the flaxen-haired martyr of Romantic paintings or the raven-haired seductress of twenty-first-century portrayals? (Answer: neither.) And perhaps the most provocative questions concern Anne’s death more than her life. How could Henry order the execution of a once beloved wife? Drawing on scholarship and critical analysis, Bordo probes the complexities of one of history’s most infamous relationships.Bordo also shows how generations of polemicists, biographers, novelists, and filmmakers imagined and re-imagined Anne: whore, martyr, cautionary tale, proto “mean girl,” feminist icon, and everything in between. more
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Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Michael D'Antonio
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books (2013, Apr 9th).
Pages: 416
An explosive, sweeping account of the scandal that has sent the Catholic Church into a tailspin -- and the brave few who fought for justiceIn the mid-1980s a dynamic young monsignor assigned to the Vatican’s embassy in Washington set out to investigate the problem of sexually abusive priests. He found a scandal in the making, confirmed by secret files revealing complaints that had been hidden from police and covered up by the Church hierarchy. He also understood that the United States judicial system was eager to punish offenders and those who aided them. He presented all of this to the American bishops, warning that the Church could be devastated by negative publicity and bankrupted by its legal liability. They ignored him. more
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