Biography

  1. The Name Above the Title

    Staff Pick Review:
    Wed, Apr 24, 2013
    The Name Above the Title
    Link to this book

    In my opinion, this is the best book ever written about Hollywood and the making of movies.  It’s the autobiography of Frank Capra, the director of such classic films as It Happened One Night, Mr.

  2. The Price of Freedom:

    Staff Pick Review:
    Fri, Apr 5, 2013
    The Price of Freedom:
    Link to this book

     

    This superb factual tale of John Price is fascinating.  John Price escaped from slavery in January 1856.  After crossing the frozen Ohio River, he was in Ohio, was slavery was not allowed.  He wasn't completely safe though, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 allowed slave owners to capture their runaway slaves anywhere in the United States, even in states where slavery was against the law, like Ohio.  Canada was Price's destination; slavery was completely outlawed there.  Price stopped for the winter in Oberlin, Ohio.

  3. The Redgraves: A Family Epic

    Staff Pick Review:
    Mon, Mar 11, 2013
    Link to this book

    Donald Spoto’s account of the Redgraves has the feel of a readable “intellectual” soap opera, for the talented Redgraves were well known for their work in the theatre and film world but their private lives were anything but conventional. There are many instances of infidelity, divorce, dysfunctional parenting, and the insecurities that resulted from these issues.

  4. The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill

    Staff Pick Review:
    Wed, Feb 27, 2013
    The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill - Visions of Glory, 1874-1932 (1983)
    The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill - Alone, 1932-1940 (1988)
    Link to this book

    Dozens, if not hundreds, of biographies have been written about Winston Churchill, but none are as insightful, or as gracefully written, as this brilliant work by William Manchester. The book is in two parts: Visions of Glory, which covers the first 58 years of Churchill’s life; and Alone, detailing the 1930s, when Churchill was out of government.

  5. Stay

    Staff Pick Review:
    Wed, Feb 13, 2013
    Stay: The Story of Ten Dogs
    Link to this book

    “Why do it?” I asked myself.  “Just months ago, you reviewed a book about a dog with a second chance at a happy life (Saving Audie by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent), so why do another so soon?”  “I can’t help it!” was my reply.  “I’ve fallen in love, and people in love can do foolish things.  So there!”

  6. Team of Rivals

    Staff Pick Review:
    Wed, Jan 2, 2013
    Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (2005)
    Link to this book

    In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was a former one-term congressman and two-time failed senate candidate from Illinois. Despite this feeble resume, he managed to outmaneuver the top leaders of the Republican party—all far more experienced and better known than Lincoln—and win the nomination for president. Once elected, and as the southern states began pulling out of the Union, Lincoln selected these same political rivals as the members of his new cabinet.

  7. Aaron Rodgers

    Staff Pick Review:
    Wed, Dec 12, 2012
    Aaron Rodgers
    Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers Super Bowl XLV
    Link to this book

    The state legislature has declared 12/12/12 “Aaron Rodgers Day” in Wisconsin, in honor of the Green Bay Packers star quarterback with the uniform number 12.  Young readers can celebrate the success of this remarkable athlete with two books added to the library’s collections this past year.

  9. George Gershwin

    Mon, Sep 10, 2012
    George Gershwin: An Intimate Biography (2009)
    Link to this book

    When informed that George Gershwin had died, the novelist John O’Hara wrote, “I don’t have to believe it if I don’t want to.” Gershwin was only 38 at the time of his death, and had been widely seen as the future of American music.

  10. Minette's Feast

    Wed, Sep 5, 2012
    Link to this book

    Young children will delight in this charming story of the famous American cook Julia Child living in Paris with her husband Paul and her mischievous tortoiseshell cat, Minette. Julia Child learns to cook with passion and endless energy. Minette inhales the delicious aromas and dines on the most scrumptious meals, yet being a cat, still prefers a good fresh mouse.

  11. Balloons Over Broadway

    Wed, May 2, 2012
    Balloons Over Broadway
    Link to this book

    Tony Sarg (1880 – 1942) was the master puppeteer who invented the first huge animal puppets that floated in the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. This is the story of a creative little boy who wondered at how things moved and worked, and who grew up to become the puppeteer of Macy’s parade.

  12. The House Baba Built

    Wed, Jun 13, 2012
    The House Baba Built
    Link to this book

    Illustrator Ed Young, winner of the Caldecott Medal for his book Lon Po Po, tells the unique story of his childhood in wartime China through award-winning author Libby Koponen. Young’s father, Baba, an engineer, devises a way of protecting his wife and five children and numerous other relatives and friends by constructing a bomb-proof house that becomes a playground for the children complete with a swimming pool.

  13. Avi

    Tue, Jun 19, 2012
    Avi
    Link to this book

    An inspirational and engaging biography of award-winning author, Avi.  The story of how he became fondly known as only “Avi”, which is not his real name, is revealed. It describes his poor childhood in New York during the war years and how he learned to survive. He fights a lifelong battle with dysgraphia. (“Dysgraphic people have trouble writing. They mix up or invert letters and misspell words.” p.

  15. Listening Is an Act of Love

    Mon, Aug 27, 2012
    Link to this book

    If you listen to NPR on Friday mornings, you may be familiar with the interviews from David Isay’s StoryCorps Project.  Shortly after 9/11, David Isay decided he wanted to record an oral history of America.  Not just any history, mind you, he set out to capture the lives of everyday Americans --- your average John & Jane Doe, not the elite upper-crust celebrities that traditionally dominate the media.  He set up a recording booth in Grand Central Station in New York City where family members and friends can record interviews with each other.  It became so popular tha

  16. The Bolter

    Wed, Feb 8, 2012
    The Bolter
    Link to this book
    In the Edwardian age women were beginning to break down stereotypes. Suffragettes, women workers, and bolters—women who fled from their families to get freedom—were in the spotlight.
     

  17. Destiny of the Republic

    Wed, Jul 11, 2012
    Destiny of the Republic
    Link to this book

    The author was inspired to write this book when she was reading a biography of Alexander Graham Bell. This famous inventor, courted by people from around the world due to his invention of the telephone five years before, set aside all his other projects to try to create an instrument that would help heal President Garfield by locating the assassin’s bullet. Her research led her to discover the character of this “minor” President, shot four months into his tenure.

  18. To Timbuktu

    Mon, Aug 1, 2011
    Link to this book
    Casey, daughter of children’s book author/illustrator Jon Scieszka, and Steven met while studying abroad in Morocco during their junior year of college. They fell in love, and after their return to the US started a long-distance relationship. After graduation they decided to pursue their joint goals for nearly two years: 1) living abroad, 2) pursuing their creative interests, and 3) being together. The first six months were spent teaching English to children in Beijing. From China they toured south-east Asia including Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.

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