Biographies & Memoirs
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Pops: The Willie Stargell Story
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Richard "Pete" Peterson
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Triumph Books (2013, May 1st).
Pages: 256
A touching biography of the beloved Pittsburgh Pirate Willie “Pops” Stargell, this life story documents the 21-year, Hall of Fame career of one of the most celebrated and revered players in the history of Major League Baseball. Beginning with his difficult childhood and revealing his encounters with fierce racial hostility while playing minor league ball in the south, this book goes on to show how Stargell became one of the most feared hitters in baseball, a perennial All Star and MVP candidate, and World Series hero. More than a slugging star, Stargell—a clubhouse leader who was revered for his bursting personality and joie de vivre—earned the affectionate nickname “Pops” during the 1979 season when he began handing out stars to teammates following a good play or game. more
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Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And all the Brilliant Minds Who Made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (2013, May 7th).
Pages: 320
When writer-producers James L. Brooks and Allan Burns dreamed up an edgy show about a divorced woman with a career, the CBS executives they pitched replied: “American audiences won’t tolerate divorce in a series’ lead any more than they will tolerate Jews, people with mustaches, and people who live in New York.” Forty years later, The Mary Tyler Moore Show is one of the most beloved and recognizable television shows of all time. It was an inspiration to a generation of women who wanted to have it all in an era when everything seemed possible. Jennifer Keishin Armstrong’s Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted tells the stories behind the making of this popular classic, introducing the groundbreaking female writers who lent real-life stories to their TV scripts; the men who created the indelible characters; the lone woman network executive who cast the legendary ensemble—and advocated for this provocative show—and the colorful cast of actors who made it all work. more
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Fighting for Common Ground: How We Can Fix the Stalemate in Congress
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Olympia Snowe
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Weinstein Books (2013, May 14th).
Pages: 328
An outspoken centrist, Senator Snowe stunned Washington in February 2012 when she announced she would not seek a fourth term and offered a sharp rebuke to the Senate, citing the dispiriting gridlock and polarization. After serving in the legislative branch at the state and federal levels for 40 years, including 18 years in the U.S. Senate, she explained that Washington wasn’t solving the big problems anymore.In this timely call to action, she explores the roots of her belief in principled policy-making and bipartisan compromise. A leading moderate with a reputation for crossing the aisle, Senator Snowe will propose solutions for bridging the partisan divide in Washington, most notably through a citizens’ movement to hold elected officials accountable. more
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Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: M.E. Thomas
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown (2013, May 14th).
Pages: 288
As M.E. Thomas says of her fellow sociopaths, we are your neighbors, co-workers, and quite possibly the people closest to you: lovers, family, friends. Our risk-seeking behavior and general fearlessness are thrilling, our glibness and charm alluring. Our often quick wit and outside-the-box thinking make us appear intelligent—even brilliant. We climb the corporate ladder faster than the rest, and appear to have limitless self-confidence. Who are we? We are highly successful, non-criminal sociopaths and we comprise 4% of the American population (that’s 1 in 25 people!). Confessions of a Sociopath takes readers on a journey into the mind of a sociopath, revealing what makes the tick and what that means for the rest of humanity. more
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101 Changemakers: Rebels and Radicals Who Changed U.S. History
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Dao X Tran
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Haymarket Books (2012, Nov 6th).
Pages: 210
In the great tradition of Howard Zinn, 101 Changemakers offers a “peoples’ history” version of the individuals who have shaped our country for middle school students. In the place of founding fathers, presidents, and titans of industry, are profiles of those who courageously fought for social justice in America: Tecumseh, Harriet Tubman, Mark Twain, César Chávez, Rachel Carson, Harvey Milk, Henry Wallace, and many more. 101 Changemakers aims to provide young students with new ways of understanding how history is written and made. more
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Cronkite's War: His World War II Letters Home
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Tom Brokaw
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: National Geographic (2013, May 7th).
Pages: 352
A giant in American journalism in the vanguard of "The Greatest Generation" reveals his World War II experiences in this National Geographic book. Walter Cronkite, an obscure 23-year-old United Press wire service reporter, married Betsy Maxwell on March 30, 1940, following a four-year courtship. She proved to be the love of his life, and their marriage lasted happily until her death in 2005. But before Walter and Betsy Cronkite celebrated their second anniversary, he became a credentialed war correspondent, preparing to leave her behind to go overseas. The couple spent months apart in the summer and fall of 1942, as Cronkite sailed on convoys to England and North Africa across the submarine-infested waters of the North Atlantic. After a brief December leave in New York City spent with his young wife, Cronkite left again on assignment for England. more
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The World's Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette's, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Josh Hanagarne
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Gotham (2013, May 2nd).
Pages: 288
An inspiring story of how a Mormon kid with Tourette’s found salvation in books and weight-lifting Josh Hanagarne couldn’t be invisible if he tried. Although he wouldn’t officially be diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome until his freshman year of high school, Josh was six years old and onstage in a school Thanksgiving play when he first began exhibiting symptoms. By the time he was twenty, the young Mormon had reached his towering adult height of 6’7” when—while serving on a mission for the Church of Latter Day Saints—his Tourette’s tics escalated to nightmarish levels. Determined to conquer his affliction, Josh underwent everything from quack remedies to lethargy-inducing drug regimes to Botox injections that paralyzed his vocal cords and left him voiceless for three years. more
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Read My Lips: Stories of a Hollywood Life
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Sally Kellerman
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Weinstein Books (2013, Apr 30th).
Pages: 272
Sally Kellerman’s portrayal of Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H remains a landmark performance. Throughout her long career Kellerman has been a real dame—honest, down-to-earth, sultry, funny, and unfiltered. In READ MY LIPS, Kellerman shares colorful tales of her years as an up-and-coming actress in the early 60s, when Hollywood was a small neighborhood full of chance encounters. To pay for acting classes (ten dollars each, alongside the likes of Jack Nicholson) she waited tables at a coffee house on the Sunset Strip that was a hangout for Marlon Brando, Steve McQueen, and Warren Beatty. While she watered her lawn one morning in her bathrobe, Ringo Starr stopped in his convertible to say he’d just moved into the neighborhood and she should drop by; during the Vietnam War, she dated Henry Kissinger. more
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The Price of Justice: A True Story of Greed and Corruption
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Laurence Leamer
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Times Books (2013, May 7th).
Pages: 448
A nonfiction legal thriller that traces the fourteen-year struggle of two lawyers to bring the most powerful coal baron in American history, Don Blankenship, to justiceDon Blankenship, head of Massey Energy since the early 1990s, ran an industry that provides nearly half of America’s electric power. But wealth and influence weren’t enough for Blankenship and his company, as they set about destroying corporate and personal rivals, challenging the Constitution, purchasing the West Virginia judiciary, and willfully disregarding safety standards in the company’s mines—in which scores died unnecessarily.As Blankenship hobnobbed with a West Virginia Supreme Court justice in France, his company polluted the drinking water of hundreds of citizens while he himself fostered baroque vendettas against anyone who dared challenge his sovereignty over coal country. more
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Obsessed: America's Food Addiction--and My Own
Author/Actors/Director/etc.: Mika Brzezinski
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Weinstein Books (2013, May 7th).
Pages: 256
Mika Brzezinski is at war against obesity. On Morning Joe, she is often so adamant about improving America’s eating habits that some people have dubbed her “the food Nazi.” What they don’t know is that Mika wages a personal fight against unhealthy eating habits every day, and in this book she describes her history of food obsession and distorted body image, and her lifelong struggle to be thin. She believes it’s time we all learned to stop blaming ourselves, and each other, and look at the real culprits—the food we eat and our addiction to it. Mika feels the only way to do this is to break through the walls of silence and shame we’ve built around obesity and food obsessions. She believes we need to talk openly about how our country became overweight, and what we can do to turn the corner and step firmly onto the path of health. more
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