Biographies

I keep trying to catch his eye : a memoir of loss, grief, and love book cover

I keep trying to catch his eye : a memoir of loss, grief, and love

Ivan Maisel

155.937 /Maisel
Biographies, Memoir

"In February 2015, Ivan Maisel received a call that would alter his life forever: his son Max's car was found abandoned in a parking next to Lake Ontario. Two months later, Max's body would be found in the lake. I Keep Trying to Catch His Eye is the story of Maisel's love for a son who was so different from him, but who he loved so deeply, and how he came to learn that grief for Max was nothing more than a last, ultimate expression of love. Navigating the moments of their complicated relationship, as well as their love each other, Maisel explores the bridges he tried to build to his son and the grief that engulfed him and his family after Max's death by suicide. Taking its title from Max's love of photography--and his tendency to only love the camera when he was behind it, looking away whenever his picture was taken--I Keep Trying to Catch His Eye delves into the tragically transformative reality of losing a child, all with grace, depth, and refinement. But by humanizing Max and humanizing his grief, Maisel evokes understanding instead of sorrow, appreciation instead of anxiety--and love instead of fear"--

Amanda's picture

This is a heartbreaking memoir, but I found it so beautiful and comforting as well. We get to learn about a close and loving family and the their talented son who was gone too soon. It's a heavy read, but a transformative one as well. -Amanda

Twilight man : love and ruin in the shadows of Hollywood and the Clark empire book cover

Twilight man : love and ruin in the shadows of Hollywood and the Clark empire

Liz Brown

306.766092 /Post
History, Biographies

"The unbelievable true story of Harrison Post--the enigmatic lover of one of the richest men in 1920s Hollywood--and the battle for a family fortune. In the booming 1920s, William Andrews Clark Jr. was one of the richest, most respected men in Los Angeles. The son of the mining tycoon known as "The Copper King of Montana," Clark launched the Los Angeles Philharmonic and helped create the Hollywood Bowl. He was also a man with secrets, including a lover named Harrison Post. A former salesclerk, Post enjoyed a lavish existence among Hollywood elites, but the men's money--and their homosexuality--made them targets, for the district attorney, their employees and, in Post's case, his own family. When Clark died suddenly, Harrison Post inherited a substantial fortune--and a wealth of trouble. From Prohibition-era Hollywood to Nazi prison camps to Mexico City nightclubs, Twilight Man tells the story of an illicit love and the battle over a family estate that would destroy one man's life. Harrison Post was forgotten for decades, but after a chance encounter with his portrait, Liz Brown, Clark's great-grandniece, set out to learn his story. Twilight Man is more than just a biography. It is an exploration of how families shape their own legacies, and the lengths they will go in order to do so"--

Amanda's picture

I was mesmerized by this story, and loved hearing all the scandals and gossip from Old Hollywood. It's a sad and engaging story that will keep you on the edge of your seat. -Amanda

Capone : the man and the era book cover

Capone : the man and the era

Laurence Bergreen

BIOGRAPHY Capone, Al
Biographies, History

Bergreen shows the seedy and glamorous sides of the age, the rise of Prohibition, the illicit liquor trade, the battlefield that was Chicago. Delving beyond the Capone mythology. Bergreen finds a paradox: a coldblooded killer, thief, pimp, and racketeer who was also a devoted son and father; a self-styled Robin Hood who rose to the top of organized crime. Capone is a masterful portrait of an extraordinary time and of the one man who reigned supreme over it all, Al Capone.

Hanna's picture

This is a well-structured, narrative account of Al Capone's career. It's not my usual kind of book, but I picked it up while in the hospital and it got me through some bad days. The small moments about a daughter's first date are just as engrossing as the descriptions of well-known and historical shootouts between the mob and the cops in downtown Chicago. This book was a surprisingly good read. -Hanna

Smalltime : a story of my family and the mob book cover

Smalltime : a story of my family and the mob

Russell Shorto

364.1092 /Shorto
Nonfiction, Literary Nonfiction, True Crime, Biographies

"Family secrets emerge as a best-selling author dives into the history of the mob in small-town America. Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a city "in its brawny postwar prime," is where "Little Joe" Regino and Russ Shorto build a local gambling empire on the earnings of factory workers for whom placing a bet--on a horse or pool game, pinball or "tip seal"--is their best shot at the American dream. Decades later, Russell Shorto grew up knowing that his grandfather was a small-town mobster, but never thought to write about him, in keeping with an unspoken family vow of silence. Then a distant cousin prodded him: You gotta write about it. Smalltime, the story of Shorto's search for his namesake, delves into the world of the small-town mob, an intricate web that spanned midcentury America, stitching together cities from Yonkers to Fresno. A riveting immigrant story, Smalltime is also deeply personal, as the author's ailing father, Tony, becomes his partner in piecing together their patriarch's troubled past. Moving, wryly funny, and richly detailed, Smalltime is an irresistible memoir by a masterful writer of historical narrative"--

Anne M's picture

Shorto takes a deep dive into his own family history, uncovering its origins in Sicily, why Pennsylvania attracted his own great-grandfather to sail across the Atlantic, and why the mob? He unearths family secret after family secret and paints a picture of an American experience. -Anne M

Relish: my life in the kitchen book cover

Relish: my life in the kitchen

Lucy Knisley

641.5092 /Knisley
Cookbooks, Biographies

Lucy Knisley loves food. The daughter of a chef and a gourmet, this talented young cartoonist comes by her obsession honestly. In her forthright, thoughtful, and funny memoir, Lucy traces key episodes in her life thus far, framed by what she was eating at the time and lessons learned about food, cooking, and life. Each chapter is bookended with an illustrated recipe-- many of them treasured family dishes, and a few of them Lucy's original inventions.

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Garlic and sapphires - the secret life of a critic in disguise book cover

Garlic and sapphires - the secret life of a critic in disguise

Ruth Reichl

BIOGRAPHY Reichl, Ruth
Biographies

The editor-in-chief of "Gourmet," a former restaurant critic at the The New York times, recounts her visits to some of the world's most acclaimed restaurants, both as herself and as an anonymous diner in disguise, to offer insight into the differences in her dining experiences.

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Dearie : the remarkable life of Julia Child book cover

Dearie : the remarkable life of Julia Child

Bob Spitz

BIOGRAPHY Child, Julia
Biographies

Draws on the iconic culinary figure's personal diaries and letters to present a one-hundredth birthday commemoration that offers insight into her role in shaping women's views and influencing American approaches to cooking.

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Can't we talk about something more pleasant? book cover

Can't we talk about something more pleasant?

Roz Chast

BIOGRAPHY Chast, Roz
Nonfiction, Biographies

A graphic memoir by a long-time New Yorker cartoonist celebrates the final years of her aging parents' lives through four-color cartoons, family photos and documents that reflect the artist's struggles with caregiver challenges.

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Born a Crime - stories from a South African childhood book cover

Born a Crime - stories from a South African childhood

Trevor Noah

791.45028092/Noah
Nonfiction, Biographies

The book details Trevor Noah growing up in his native South Africa during the apartheid era. As the mixed-race son of a white father and a black mother, Noah himself was classified as a "coloured" in accordance to the apartheid system of racial classification. According to Noah, he stated that even under apartheid, he felt trouble fitting in because it was a crime "for [him] to be born as a mixed-race baby", hence the title of his book.[

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The diary of a bookseller book cover

The diary of a bookseller

Shaun Bythell

BIOGRAPHY Bythell, Shaun
Humor, Biographies

When Bythell first thought of taking over the bookstore in the remote Scottish village of Wigtown, it seemed like a book-lover's paradise. Here he details his experiences at the helm of The Book Shop, Scotland's largest second hand bookstore: the delightfully unusual staff members, eccentric customers, odd townsfolk and surreal buying trips to old estates and auctions. As he struggled to build his business-- and be polite-- he is seduced by the charm of small-town life, and the peculiar characters he meets. -- adapted from jacket

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