Biography

The Lonely City (Staff Pick)

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The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone By Olivia Laing Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9781250118035
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Picador - June 6th, 2017

"You can be lonely anywhere, but there is a particular flavour to the loneliness that comes from living in a city, surrounded by millions of people.” By exploring the private lives of prolific artists who used loneliness as a lens through which to view the world and art as a vehicle to express this confusing, complicated, and paradoxical emotion, Olivia Laing takes a closer look into the meaningful ways in which loneliness shapes our understanding of humanity.

- Cindy


Anaïs Nin: A Sea of Lies (Staff Pick)

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Anaïs Nin: A Sea of Lies By Léonie Bischoff, Jenna Allen (Translated by) Cover Image
By Léonie Bischoff, Jenna Allen (Translated by)
$29.99
ISBN: 9781683967590
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Fantagraphics - June 6th, 2023

A Sea of Lies evokes the spirit and mystique of writer Anais Nin with beautiful, rainbow-infused pencil drawings. Nin is well-known for her journals and erotic writings, none of which need to be read first to appreciate this depiction of her life. Fellow introverts especially will find her commitment to her pleasure, self-knowledge, and art utterly mesmerizing.

-Manasa


Another Appalachia (Staff Pick)

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Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place By Neema Avashia Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9781952271427
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: West Virginia University Press - March 1st, 2022

Avashia's writing is a gentle reminder of the beautiful nuance that exists within each person's identity, even as it can be fraught with complication. She writes with raw honesty about what it means to have grown up queer, Indian, Hindu, and a woman in the mountains of West Virginia. If you identify with her story, you will delight in the camaraderie of shared experience as well as her unique style. And if you don't identify, you will delight in her insight, wit, and defiant resilience.

- Meghan: Writer in Residence


Goodbye to Clocks Ticking (Staff Pick)

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Goodbye to Clocks Ticking: How We Live While Dying By Joseph Monninger Cover Image
$25.00
ISBN: 9781586423605
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Steerforth - March 14th, 2023

“Call it a postcard from somewhere you will one day visit” is Monniger’s own apt description of this memoir of living with a terminal cancer diagnosis. Given a reprieve due to a new drug, with courage Monniger takes us through the range of emotions as he tries to understand what it means to live in his new reality.

- Dale


You Could Make This Place Beautiful (Staff Pick)

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You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir By Maggie Smith Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9781982185855
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Atria/One Signal Publishers - April 11th, 2023

This book is a lifeline. In a series of vignettes about her marriage and divorce, poet Maggie Smith beautifully captures the conflicting emotions, personal transformation, and opportunities for creativity that come with loss, change, and starting over. I'll read anything Maggie Smith writes (currently reading Goldenrod, and I have never been a poetry person).

- Katie


Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré

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Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré By Anika Aldamuy Denise, Paola Escobar (Illustrator) Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780062748683
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: HarperCollins - January 15th, 2019

Love comes in many forms, and Pura Belpré exemplies the love for storytelling and community. This wonderful book illustrates the life's work and mission of NYC's first Latina librarian and continues planting the seeds her stories began sowing so many decades ago.

Manasa


The Palace Papers

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The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor--the Truth and the Turmoil By Tina Brown Cover Image
$35.00
It's Complicated--Contact Us for More Information
ISBN: 9780593138090
Published: Crown - April 26th, 2022

Author and editor extraordinary Tina Brown (The Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker) takes on the British Royal Family in this absorbing chronicle of life at the palace. Well-researched and filled with insider knowledge, with great skill Brown tells this captivating story with all its glorious traditions (think QE2), and shocking scandals (think Prince Andrew).

Nathan


A Perfect Fit

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A Perfect Fit: How Lena “Lane” Bryant Changed the Shape of Fashion By Mara Rockliff, Juana Martinez-Neal (Illustrator) Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780358125433
Availability: Available to Order from Supplier: Arrives at Store in a Week(ish)
Published: Clarion Books - April 12th, 2022

It's easy to forget sometimes that there was a real person behind a name. Thankfully, there are picture books like this one to tell the stories of amazing people who struggled and persevered like Lena Bryant. An absolute beauty of a book that is a perfect fit for the subject matter, with such a great message for those of us who always feel like we're sewing without a pattern.
Stacey
 


Levon

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Levon: From Down in the Delta to the Birth of the Band and Beyond By Sandra B. Tooze Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9781635769135
Availability: Available to Order from Supplier: Arrives at Store in a Week(ish)
Published: Diversion Books - August 31st, 2021

I loved the way Tooze describes the sultry musical landscape of Levon Helm’s formative years in the Mississippi Delta and his life beyond The Band. A well-researched account of Helm’s musical style and personal journey for both new and die-hard fans.

Kate M


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