Collection: Biography & Memoir

A rare, documented account of the life of a Crow medicine woman, drawn from interviews conducted by legendary writer and ethnographer Frank Bird Linderman and told in her own words.

In the spring of 1931, Pretty-shield, a grandmother and medicine healer in the Crow tribe, met Frank Linderman for a series of interviews. When Linderman asked Pretty-shield about her life, the old woman relaxed and laughed. "We shall be here until we die."

In this rich account, Linderman, using sign language and an interpreter, pieces together the story of Pretty-shield's extraordinary life, from her youth migrating across the High Plains with her people to their forced settlement on the reservation, to how she became a medicine woman. Pretty-shield vividly recalls the centuries-long traditions of the Crow people, bringing into focus the many complex facets of Crow womanhood and the ways in which Indigenous communities care for each other.

Pretty-shield: Medicine Woman of the Crows reveals the everyday concerns and deep-rooted customs of tribal life for a new generation coming to terms with the violence and racism of America's past, and offers a fascinating and authentic portrait of the Crow, their customs and traditions, their relationship to nature and healing, and the timeless insights of their lived experiences. As Pretty-shield reminds us, "Listen to the old ones. . . keep their wisdom within your heart, and understand that wisdom in your mind."

An essential contribution to the American experience, Pretty-shield illuminates a segment of our society which has for too long been relegated to the shadows of history, and celebrates Crow life and its contributions to our rich culture.

When Lucy Walsh was seventeen, she was given sixty-three of the love letters her Grandfather Dale wrote her Grandmother Wanda while he was overseas in World War II. A dozen years later, life changing events compelled Lucy to fly from Los Angeles to tiny Newman, Illinois, to spend three days talking with Wanda for what would be their final conversations. What began for Lucy as asking about the letters, became an unexpected master class in truly living.

This is the story, much of it conveyed in Wanda's inimitable voice, of Wanda's ninety-seven-year-long life, encompassing everything from her English ancestors to the residents in her nursing home. Through Lucy's candid questions and Wanda's soulful stories, we are swept up into one family's legacy that transports readers right into their own experiences and memories of family.

When Lucy isn't talking with Wanda, she visits other relatives and her own memories: the many trips over the years to Illinois and her mother's family; growing up in Los Angeles with two fathers, one a rock star; becoming a performer herself. Inevitably, in her effort to understand where and who she comes from, it becomes the story of Lucy's life as well, to which all readers can relate to in their own search for Self.

We fall in love with the unforgettable Grandma Wanda Mae, as she shares insights and confessions with plenty of comedic relief amongst the pain; making us laugh so hard we cry, and cry so hard we come back around to laughter. This book is a treasure trove of all Wanda has to teach us about what it truly means to be deeply, imperfectly, gloriously human, at every age.

A life worth living is lived at the edges where it is wild

At the beginning of his memoir Life Lived Wild, Adventures at the Edge of the Map, Rick Ridgeway tells us that if you add up all his many expeditions, he's spent over five years of his life sleeping in tents: "And most of that in small tents pitched in the world's most remote regions." It's not a boast so much as an explanation. Whether at elevation or raising a family back at sea level, those years taught him, he writes, "to distinguish matters of consequence from matters of inconsequence." He leaves it to his readers, though, to do the final sort of which is which.

Some of his travels made, and remain, news: the first American ascent of K2; the first direct coast-to-coast traverse of Borneo; the first crossing on foot of a 300-mile corner of Tibet so remote no outsider had ever seen it. Big as these trips were, Rick keeps an eye out for the quiet surprises, like the butterflies he encounters at 23,000 feet on K2 or the furtive silhouettes of wild-eared pheasants in Tibet.

What really comes through best in Life Lived Wild, though, are his fellow travelers. There's Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, and Doug Tompkins, best known for cofounding The North Face but better remembered for his conservation throughout South America. Some companions don't make the return journey. Rick treats them all with candor and straightforward tenderness. And through their commitments to protecting the wild places they shared, he discovers his own.

A master storyteller, this long-awaited memoir is the book end to Ridgeway's impressive list of publications, including Seven Summits (Grand Central Publishing, 1988), The Shadow of Kilmanjaro (Holt, 1999), and The Big Open (National Geographic, 2005).

Experience the riveting, powerful story of the Native American civil rights movement and the resulting struggle for identity told through the high-flying career of West Coast rock 'n' roll pioneers Redbone.

You've heard the hit song "Come and Get Your Love" in the movie Guardians of the Galaxy, but the story of the band behind it is one of cultural, political, and social importance.

Brothers Pat and Lolly Vegas were talented Native American rock musicians that took the 1960s Sunset Strip by storm. They influenced The Doors and jammed with Jimmy Hendrix before he was "Jimi," and the idea of a band made up of all Native Americans soon followed. Determined to control their creative vision and maintain their cultural identity, they eventually signed a deal with Epic Records in 1969. But as the American Indian Movement gained momentum the band took a stand, choosing pride in their ancestry over continued commercial reward.

Created in cooperation of the Vegas family, authors Christian Staebler and Sonia Paoloni with artist Thibault Balahy take painstaking steps to ensure the historical accuracy of this important and often overlooked story of America's past. Part biography and part research journalism, Redbone tells a vivid story about this neglected chapter of American history.

Pirouette across the stage and get to know Misty Copeland--the first African-American woman to become a principal ballerina with the American Ballet Theater--in this fascinating, nonfiction Level 3 Ready-to-Read, part of a new series of biographies about people "you should meet."

Misty Copeland had always dreamed of becoming a dancer, but she had many obstacles to overcome before she could reach her dream. Although she was always challenged by the things that set her apart from other dancers, with a lot of hard work, dedication, and exceptional talent, Misty has become one of the most well-known dancers in America.

On June 30, 2015 Misty stepped on stage as the first female African-American principal dancer for the American Ballet Theater and made history!

A special section at the back of the book includes extras on subjects like history and math, plus a fun timeline filled with interesting trivia facts about dance. With the You Should Meet series, learning about historical figures has never been so fascinating!

FEATURED ON THE COVER OF TIME MAGAZINE AS A 2021 NEXT GENERATION LEADER

"A once-in-a-generation voice." - Vulture

"One of our greatest living writers." - Shondaland

A full-throated and provocative memoir in letters from the New York Times bestselling author, "a dazzling literary talent whose works cut to the quick of the spiritual self" (Esquire)

In three critically acclaimed novels, Akwaeke Emezi has introduced readers to a landscape marked by familial tensions, Igbo belief systems, and a boundless search for what it means to be free. Now, in this extraordinary memoir, the bestselling author of The Death of Vivek Oji reveals the harrowing yet resolute truths of their own life. Through candid, intimate correspondence with friends, lovers, and family, Emezi traces the unfolding of a self and the unforgettable journey of a creative spirit stepping into power in the human world. Their story weaves through transformative decisions about their gender and body, their precipitous path to success as a writer, and the turmoil of relationships on an emotional, romantic, and spiritual plane, culminating in a book that is as tender as it is brutal.

Electrifying and inspiring, animated by the same voracious intelligence that distinguishes Emezi's fiction, Dear Senthuran is a revelatory account of storytelling, self, and survival.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR'S CHOICE
A SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A VULTURE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

"A generous, appreciative biography of Robin Williams by a New York Times culture reporter. The author, who had access to Williams and members of the comedian's family, is an unabashed fan but doesn't shy away from the abundant messiness in his subject's personal life."--The New York Times Book Review

From New York Times culture reporter Dave Itzkoff, the definitive biography of Robin Williams - a compelling portrait of one of America's most beloved and misunderstood entertainers.

From his rapid-fire stand-up comedy riffs to his breakout role in Mork & Mindy and his Academy Award-winning performance in Good Will Hunting, Robin Williams was a singularly innovative and beloved entertainer. He often came across as a man possessed, holding forth on culture and politics while mixing in personal revelations - all with mercurial, tongue-twisting intensity as he inhabited and shed one character after another with lightning speed.

But as Dave Itzkoff shows in this revelatory biography, Williams's comic brilliance masked a deep well of conflicting emotions and self-doubt, which he drew upon in his comedy and in celebrated films like Dead Poets Society; Good Morning, Vietnam; The Fisher King; Aladdin; and Mrs. Doubtfire, where he showcased his limitless gift for improvisation to bring to life a wide range of characters. And in Good Will Hunting he gave an intense and controlled performance that revealed the true range of his talent.

Itzkoff also shows how Williams struggled mightily with addiction and depression - topics he discussed openly while performing and during interviews - and with a debilitating condition at the end of his life that affected him in ways his fans never knew. Drawing on more than a hundred original interviews with family, friends, and colleagues, as well as extensive archival research, Robin is a fresh and original look at a man whose work touched so many lives.

"bell hooks's brave memoir of struggling to find her own work, love, and independence." --Gloria Steinem
With her customary boldness and insight, brilliant social critic and public intellectual bell hooks traces her writer's journey in Wounds of Passion. She shares the difficulties and triumphs, the pleasures and the dangers, of a life devoted to writing. hooks lets readers see the ways one woman writer can find her own voice while forging relationships of love in keeping with her feminist thinking. With unflinching courage and hard-won wisdom, hooks reveals the intimate details and provocative ideas of the life path she carved out of words, lighting the way for all writers who would tread in her wake.
This memoir is an illuminating vision of a writer's life from one of America's treasured authors.
"I love this book. Each offering from bell hooks is a major event, as she has so much to give us." --Maya Angelou

Born into a close knit family in Chicago, Michelle Robinson was a star student who graduated from Princeton and Harvard Law. Then in 1992, she married another promising young lawyer and the rest, as they say, is history. It is undeniable that President Barack Obama has changed the United States but so has Michelle Obama, the self proclaimed "Mom in Chief." This compelling, easy-to-read biography is illustrated by New Yorker artist John O'Brien.

Kurt Cobain burst into American consciousness with a vengeance with the release of Nevermind, an instant classic that defined a sound and a generation. Three years later, he was dead of suicide, leaving a meteoric career and a cultural influence that would never wane.

As the lead singer and guitarist of Nirvana, Kurt Cobain changed American music as few musicians ever have. His instantly identifiable raspy croon, his slash-and-burn guitar playing, and his corrosive and poetic lyrics made him a hero to a generation of lost souls. In interviews Cobain was funny, thoughtful, sarcastic, impassioned, and even kind. This collection of interviews provides a look at a man who was too often misunderstood.

A clever, quirky, and highly entertaining biography of the leading contemporary artist, Banks

Banksy is a world-famous graffiti artist who secretly spray paints pictures on streets and walls while no one is watching. His works are often about politics, war, and other important things, but he also likes to paint rats.

Rats scurry around and hide, often creating a bit of a stir, just like he does! Millions of people know his work but no one really knows who Bansky is - his true identity is a secret.

Fausto Gilberti brings life, intrigue, and whimsy to the mysterious story of one of the most important contemporary artists of our time.

Ages 4-7

On Valentine's Day 1985, biologist Stacey O'Brien adopted Wesley, a baby barn owl with an injured wing who could not have survived in the wild. Over the next nineteen years, O'Brien studied Wesley's strange habits with both a tender heart and a scientist's eye--and provided a mice-only diet that required her to buy the rodents in bulk (28,000 over the owl's lifetime). She watched him turn from a helpless fluff ball into an avid com-municator with whom she developed a language all their own. Eventually he became a gorgeous, gold-and-white macho adult with a heart-shaped face who preened in the mir-ror and objected to visits by any other males to "his" house. O'Brien also brings us inside Caltech's prestigious research community, a kind of scientific Hogwarts where resident owls sometimes flew freely from office to office and eccentric, brilliant scientists were extraordinarily committed to studying and helping animals; all of them were changed by the animals they loved. As O'Brien gets close to Wesley, she makes astonishing discoveries about owl behavior, intelligence, and communication, coining the term "The Way of the Owl" to describe his noble behavior. When O'Brien develops her own life-threatening ill-ness, the biologist who saved the life of a helpless baby bird is herself rescued from death by the insistent love and courage of this wild animal.

Enhanced by wonderful photographs, Wesley the Owl is a thoroughly engaging, heart-warming, often funny story of a complex, emotional, non-human being capable of reason, play, and, most important, love and loyalty. Translated into eight languages and named an Audubon Magazine Editor's Choice, Wesley the Owl is sure to be cherished by animal lovers everywhere.

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea comes "a bold exploration of womanhood, feminism, parenting, aging, love and more" (Associated Press).

"The Soul of a Woman is Isabel Allende's most liberating book yet."--Elle

"When I say that I was a feminist in kindergarten, I am not exaggerating," begins Isabel Allende. As a child, she watched her mother, abandoned by her husband, provide for her three small children without "resources or voice." Isabel became a fierce and defiant little girl, determined to fight for the life her mother couldn't have.

As a young woman coming of age in the late 1960s, she rode the second wave of feminism. Among a tribe of like-minded female journalists, Allende for the first time felt comfortable in her own skin, as they wrote "with a knife between our teeth" about women's issues. She has seen what the movement has accomplished in the course of her lifetime. And over the course of three passionate marriages, she has learned how to grow as a woman while having a partner, when to step away, and the rewards of embracing one's sexuality.

So what feeds the soul of feminists--and all women--today? To be safe, to be valued, to live in peace, to have their own resources, to be connected, to have control over our bodies and lives, and above all, to be loved. On all these fronts, there is much work yet to be done, and this book, Allende hopes, will "light the torches of our daughters and granddaughters with mine. They will have to live for us, as we lived for our mothers, and carry on with the work still left to be finished."

Video games set the world on fire, and Atari lit the match. This is an intimate view into the dramatic rise and fall of the early video game industry, as seen through the eyes of one of its most iconic pioneers. This book offers eye-opening details and insights, laying bare the issues and dynamics still taking place in modern software companies. A must read for anyone in high tech production, delivered in a compelling narrative, with a fresh voice and unorthodox style.

How much fun can you have inventing video games in a creative paradise? What behind-the-scenes corporate intrigue went on while making billions of dollars and launching a new medium? What really caused the video game crash of 1983? ONCE UPON ATARI is the inside story of how it all happened, and how it upended the life of one of its key players. An innovative work from one of the industry's original innovators, delivered in a creative style that mirrors the industry it reveals. It is a compelling tale of innocence, joy, greed, devastation and ultimately redemption.

For years, Rob Brezsny has written "Free Will Astrology," a syndicated weekly column that appears in over 100 publications in North America, as well as in translation in Italy, France, and Japan. He is also author of the best-selling book Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.

Now, for the first time, Brezsny is publishing an astrology book: Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle.

It's a blend of a memoir, oracles for readers, and essays about the art of astrology and mythopoetic intelligence. The eclectic tone ranges from pop to literary; from lyrical to philosophical; from searing critiques of hyper-rational, machine-style thinking to a celebration of the scientific method and soulful thinking.

And it's all undergirded by his essential passion: the I THOU relationship he cultivates with his readers. The book extols the gifts and education he has received through their generous responses to his work.

Astrology Is Real is a book you don't necessarily have to read sequentially straight through from beginning to end. You can start anywhere in the book and read here and there, trusting your intuition to find exactly what you need, exactly when you need it.

Saint Cecilia is among the first female Christian saints, being born in the Roman Empire during the early 3^rd century AD. This is the story of her life, the discovery of her remains, and her veneration.

This biography recounts the various tales surrounding Cecilia and her life in Ancient Rome. At a young age she found her calling: unceasing devotion to the Christian Lord. However Roman society was unsympathetic to her beliefs and piety, and she was betrothed against her will to a pagan. After her death at a young age, Cecilia's remains went undiscovered until the early 9^th century. Their discovery, in pristine condition, was a cause for great celebration in Rome with Pope Paschal I leading the jubilations.

Prosper Guéranger's account of St. Cecilia is thorough, with plentiful context given to the history of Rome and the church. A frequent subject of paintings throughout the Medieval and Renaissance and eras, Saint Cecilia's name is commonly given to churches or educational establishments. Her story is still taught to this day, and the greatest monument to her life is in Rome: the Basilica di Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, now a museum open to the public.