Reading a biography or memoir is a path to discovery. Borrow a book from the Lititz Public Library and discover someone new and fascinating or perhaps something new and fascinating about someone you thought you knew.
My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff
In 1996, after leaving graduate school with dreams of becoming a poet, the author took a job as assistant to Catcher In the Rye author J.D. Salinger’s literary agent where she read candid and heart-wrenching letters from the author’s devotees.
Love Nina: A Nanny Writes Home by Nina Stibbe
In 1982, the twenty-year-old author moved to London and wrote letters home to her sister describing the trials and triumphs of working as a nanny for two opinionated and lively young boys.
A Funny Thing Happened on My Way to a Career by Bill Saylor
WGAL television personality shares the story of his childhood, career in the Navy, life as a broadcaster and interest in politics.
Stand Up Straight and Sing! By Jessye Norman
Growing up in Georgia during the Civil Rights era, the young future opera diva never dreamed of a career in music until she saw a documentary about legendary African-American singer Marion Anderson.
JFK Jr., George & Me by Matt Berman
Hired as George magazine’s creative director in 1995, the author offers a look at the early days of the publication and the professional and personal relationships he had with John Kennedy, Jr.
Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P.L. Travers by Valerie Lawson
Australian journalist Pamela Lyndon Travers arrived in London in 1924 and traveled in the literary circles of W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot, becoming a household name after the publication of her children’s classic.
The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames by Kai Bird
Drawing on extensive interviews with Ames’ widow and quotes from his private letters, the author presents a narrative of the making of America’s most effective intelligence officer in the Middle East.
There Goes Gravity: A Life in Rock and Roll by Lisa Robinson
An influential music columnist presents an insider’s assessment of major rock-and-roll personalities like Michael Jackson, Bono, Eminem and Lady Gaga while tracing her career throughout the past four decades.
Everybody’s Got Something by Robin Roberts
The Good Morning America anchor shares the story of her life so far and the lessons she learned along the way as struggled with breast cancer, a rare blood disorder and the death of her mother.
Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty by Diane Keaton
The film star describes the ups and downs of living in a beauty-obsessed world, recounting stories about a makeup artist’s embarrassing advice, her trip to Victoria’s Secret with her teen daughter and more.
Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Charles Marsh
New research covers Bonhoeffer’s 1930 visit to America that shaped his perspectives on faith and moral responsibility, his achievements as an anti-Nazi activist and the plot against Hitler that would result in his execution.
Shards: A Young Vice Cop Investigates Her Darkest Case of Meth Addiction – Her Own by Allison Moore
Hawaii vice cop became addicted to methamphetamine, deceived her entire police department and fell into a life of prostitution, prison and ultimately, rehabilitation and redemption.
The Little Girl Who Fought the Great Depression: Shirley Temple and 1930s America by John F. Kasson
Rivaling FDR and Edward VIII as the most photographed person in the world, Temple was the box-office champion who radiated plucky optimism amid the deprivation and despair of the Great Depression.
Originally published on July 18, 2014 in the Lititz Record Express.