iTunes Store: Top Paid Books in Biographies & Memoirs

Strangers - Belle Burden

Strangers
A Memoir of Marriage
Belle Burden
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $13.99
Publish Date: January 13, 2026
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Burden’s searing, probing memoir explores . . . what she learned about intimacy and her own spirit.”— People “A beautifully written instant classic. Strangers is gripping and heartbreaking and a must-read for every wife—and husband.”—Graydon Carter “Asks us to examine life’s most perplexing questions: Can we see the invisible fault lines in a marriage or truly know the people closest to us?”—Lori Gottlieb It was a great love story, one for the ages. The speed of our beginning and the speed of our ending felt like matching bookends. They both came out of nowhere. He wanted it, he wanted me. And then he didn’t. In March 2020, Belle Burden was safe and secure with her family at their house on Martha’s Vineyard, navigating the early days of the pandemic together—building fires in the late afternoons, drinking whisky sours, making roast chicken. Then, with no warning or explanation, her husband of twenty years announced that he was leaving her. Overnight, her caring, steady partner became a man she hardly recognized. He exited his life with her like an actor shrugging off a costume. In Strangers, Burden revisits her marriage, searching for clues that her husband was not who she always thought he was. As she examines her relationship through a new lens, she reckons with her own family history and the lessons she intuited about how a woman is expected to behave in the face of betrayal. Through all of it, she is transformed. The discreet, compliant woman she once was—someone nicknamed “Belle the Good”—gives way to someone braver, someone determined to use her voice. With unflinching honesty and profound grace, Burden charts a path through heartbreak to show the power of a woman who refuses to give up on love. Strangers is a stunning, deeply moving, compulsively readable memoir heralding the arrival of a thrilling new literary talent.

Famesick - Lena Dunham

Famesick
A Memoir
Lena Dunham
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $13.99
Publish Date: April 14, 2026
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this rowdy, frank reflection on illness, fame, sex, and everything in between, the remarkable mind behind the hit series Girls and the bestselling author of Not That Kind of Girl asks whether fulfilling her creative ambitions has been worth the pain. For the last decade, as she’s spent countless hours in doctor’s waiting rooms searching for diagnoses, treatments, and relief, being the owner and operator of Lena Dunham’s body has felt, as she puts it, “like towing a wrecked car across town at midnight.” It’s not easy dragging a wrecked car anywhere, much less to the Met Gala while sewn into a gold lamé corset. Or to the set of the hit show that you—as a twenty-five-year-old—are writing, directing, producing, and starring in. Or to the White House, the Golden Globes, or your publicist’s office to discuss the latest internet disaster. But Dunham does it—even if it means interminable hospital stays, vomiting in the bathroom when she’s meant to be meeting Oprah, or terrifying those closest to her—because she can no longer tell the difference between fighting to do what she loves and being a servant to her own ambition. All the while, she is holding out for a love that can withstand her personal and public challenges and, more than anything, yearning to feel like herself again—if only she could remember who that self was. As Dunham takes us through her journey, tracking her rise to fame—from selling the pilot of Girls to the present—in three acts, it becomes clear that the spotlight casts long shadows, distorting the relationships she once held dear and isolating everyone in its glare. When an endless supply of drugs can’t protect you from pain—and begins to control your every move—being famous doesn’t stand a chance against the darker corners of the human experience. In Famesick , Dunham asks herself what the cost of fulfilling her dreams has really been, and whether it was worth it. What she finds is deeper than physical relief, and more lasting, as she learns to live with what she can’t change and turn her regrets into wisdom that can carry her forward, as she reconnects to what, and who, she loves.

What Remains - Carole Radziwill

What Remains
A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love
Carole Radziwill
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $2.99
Publish Date: October 7, 2005
Publisher: Scribner
Seller: Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC

A stunning, tragic memoir about John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy , and his cousin Anthony Radziwill, by Radziwill’s widow. What Remains is a vivid and haunting memoir about a girl from a working-class town who becomes an award-winning television producer and marries a prince, Anthony Radziwill. Carole grew up in a small suburb with a large, eccentric cast of characters. At nineteen, she struck out for New York City to find a different life. Her career at ABC News led her to the refugee camps of Cambodia, to a bunker in Tel Aviv, and to the scene of the Menendez murders. Her marriage led her into the old world of European nobility and the newer world of American aristocracy. What Remains begins with loss and returns to loss. A small plane plunges into the ocean carrying John F. Kennedy Jr., Anthony’s cousin, and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, Carole’s closest friend. Three weeks later Anthony dies of cancer. With unflinching honesty and a journalist’s keen eye, Carole Radziwill explores the enduring ties of family, the complexities of marriage, the importance of friendship, and the challenges of self-invention. Beautifully written, What Remains “gets at the essence of what matters,” wrote Oprah Winfrey. “Friendship, compassion, destiny.”

Queens at War - Alison Weir

Queens at War
England's Medieval Queens Book Four
Alison Weir
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $2.99
Publish Date: December 2, 2025
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

The tumultuous period in English history that marked the end of the medieval era and the rise of the Tudors comes to stunning life in the final volume of Alison Weir’s four-part Medieval Queens series, filled with dramatic true stories chronicling the turbulent reigns of the last five Plantagenet queens. The fifteenth century was a violent age. In Queens at War, Alison Weir chronicles the five queens who got caught up in wars that changed the courses of their lives: the Hundred Years’ War between England and France, and the Wars of the Roses between the royal Houses of Lancaster and York. Against this tempestuous backdrop, Weir describes the lives of five Plantagenet queens, who occupied the consort’s throne from 1403 to 1485. Joan of Navarre was happily married to King Henry IV but was accused of witchcraft by Henry’s heir and imprisoned. Paris-born Katherine of Valois ’s political marriage to Henry V was meant to bring peace between England and France. It didn’t, and Henry died during the Hundred Years’ War without ever seeing his newborn heir, Henry VI, who was wed to another French princess, Margaret of Anjou, in 1445. In the Wars of the Roses, Margaret staunchly supported her husband and son. Henry’s successor, Edward IV, became embroiled in scandal after he fell in love with and married Elizabeth Widville, mother of the tragic Princes in the Tower. The notorious Richard III usurped Edward’s throne and married Anne Neville, who died after losing her only child, forsaken by her husband. “Underpinned by extensive reading of original sources” ( The Washington Post ), Weir’s Medieval Queens series strips away centuries of historical mythologizing to shed light on the genuine accomplishments and bravery of these fascinating female monarchs. Queens at War brings the series to an action-packed close.

The Rolling Stones - Bob Spitz

The Rolling Stones
The Biography
Bob Spitz
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $15.99
Publish Date: April 21, 2026
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

“A magisterial work that charts the 60-year journey of ‘the greatest rock and roll band in the world.’ . . . Hundreds of books have been written about the Rolling Stones, but few sparkle quite like Spitz’s. For anyone who loves or even likes the Stones, it’s indispensable.” — Los Angeles Times All great music is a threat. What left is there to say about The Rolling Stones? A hell of a lot, it turns out. Bob Spitz has brought his indefatigable energy and five decades of experiences in the fields and hollows of rock 'n’ roll to bear on his five-year journey to reexamine one of popular music’s greatest stories. There are myriad revisions to the conventional narrative which underscore just how in control of that narrative the band has been up to now—small example: no, Muddy Waters was not mopping the floors at Chess Records when the Stones showed up. But in a larger sense, as with the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, Spitz’s greatest gift is for the big picture. He knows where the magic is, and why it is. He is as clear-eyed a connoisseur of the show business, the spectacle and the collateral damage of this whirlwind as anyone alive, and that lucid gaze pierces a lot of incrusted b******t, but the ultimate goal is to connect with a creative force whose power shows no signs of fading, over sixty years on. At its heart the story is about two boys, Mick and Keith, and their unique, fraught, alchemical bond, often tested, never sundered. The Glimmer Twins. The bandmates, like Charlie Watts, who found their groove in relation to this double star made the trip intact, while those who struggled, like Brian Jones and Mick Taylor, were chewed up and spit out. This is a story with many dark corners, including a surprising number of deaths. But whether Jagger and Richards sold their souls to the devil is at the crossroads for blues greatness or just squeezed their heroes for every drop of inspiration, in the end their connection to their music and to each other put them in a category of one, where they very much remain.

Douglas M. Kelley 22 Cells in Nuremberg - Douglas M. Kelly

Douglas M. Kelley 22 Cells in Nuremberg
In the Nazi Mind
Douglas M. Kelly
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $9.99
Publish Date: April 23, 2026
Publisher: Douglas M. Kelly
Seller: Nina Romance

“WHY MY FATHER’S BOOK STILL MATTERS? BECAUSE HISTORY CAN REPEAT ITSELF” — Douglas M. Kelley, Jr. WHAT KIND OF MEN WERE THESE NAZI OVERLORDS? HOW DID THEY BECOME MONSTERS? WHY DID AN ENTIRE NATION EMBRACE EVIL? In the 22 cells of Nuremberg Prison, the architects of the Holocaust waited for their fate. Only one man walked freely among them: American psychiatrist Dr. Douglas M. Kelley. Through months of raw psychological interviews, he uncovered a truth more terrifying than madness: these were not demons. They were ordinary, brilliant, ambitious men who had willingly sold their souls to evil. Hitler was not in a cell — but his spirit haunted every single one. This is how Kelley reconstructed the inner personality and hidden world of Adolf Hitler himself. “ONE OF THE THREE OR FOUR MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS EVER PUBLISHED ON WORLD WAR II” — Lewis M. Terman Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Stanford University

An unforgettable, illuminating story of how men live and how they survive, from Abraham Verghese, the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of Cutting for Stone and The Covenant of Water , an Oprah's Book Club Pick. “Heartbreaking. . . . Indelible and haunting, [ The Tennis Partner ] is an elegy to friendship found, and an ode to a good friend lost.” — The Boston Globe In this powerful physician's memoir, Abraham Verghese, a doctor whose marriage is unraveling, relocates to El Paso, Texas, hoping to make a fresh start as a staff member at the county hospital. There he meets David Smith, a medical student navigating a fragile recovery from drug addiction, and the two men begin a tennis ritual that allows them to shed their inhibitions and find security in the sport they love and with each other. This friendship between doctor and intern grows increasingly rich and complex, more intimate than two men usually allow. Just when it seems nothing can go wrong, the dark beast from David’s past emerges once again—and almost everything Verghese has come to trust and believe in is threatened as David spirals out of control. An Unforgettable Male Friendship: A physician starting over and a medical student with a dark past form an unlikely bond on the tennis courts of El Paso, a relationship that becomes more intimate and complex than either man expects. A Gut-Wrenching Story of Addiction: Witness the devastating cycle of relapse as David Smith, a brilliant medical intern and former tennis pro, fights the beast of his addiction, threatening to destroy his career, his friendship, and himself. The Healing Power of Sport: For two men constrained by their professional roles, the tennis court becomes a sanctuary—a place to find security, shed inhibitions, and build a trust that transcends the lines. Literary Memoir: From the beloved author of Cutting for Stone comes a luminous, heartbreaking, and unflinchingly honest exploration of how men live, how they connect, and how they survive.

Robin - Dave Itzkoff

Robin
Dave Itzkoff
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: May 15, 2018
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Seller: Macmillan

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.

When We See You Again - Rachel Goldberg-Polin & Jon Polin

When We See You Again
Rachel Goldberg-Polin & Jon Polin
Genre: Religious Bios & Memoirs
Price: $12.99
Publish Date: April 21, 2026
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

A searing portrait of a mother’s grief and strength in the wake of unthinkable tragedy. Once upon a time, I was meandering down the road of life with my husband, Jon. It was a regular and beige life, and it worked. It was a warm beige. We felt, and were, blessed and lucky. Normal. On the morning of October 7th, 2023, Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s beloved twenty-three-year-old son, Hersh, was stolen from a music festival billed as a celebration of unity and love—and, in that moment, her life was forever separated into The Before and The After. Over the next eleven months, she and her husband, Jon, would work tirelessly—in public and behind the scenes—to secure the hostages’ release, to breathe some humanity into the situation while they were experiencing relentless emotional and psychological torment. The power of her raw and fervent pleas soon made her the face of the hostage crisis. And when Hersh and five other captives were executed after surviving 328 days of violence and cruelty, she would also become the face of its ultimate cost. In When We See You Again, Rachel pours her pain, love, and longing onto paper, giving voice to the broken among us, and reminding us that even when the world feels choked with darkness, light exists in a different way. How do we find it? Her own experience has been extreme, but at its essence, this is a universal story of trying to live with grief. It is a story of how we remember and how we persevere, of how we suffer and how we love. “There are days when I break completely,” she writes. “I have cried for an entire day straight. I didn’t think it was physically possible, but the weeping never let up. That is a very long time to cry. I kept hoping I would run out of tears. And then there are days when there is a whisper of sun. Not out there in the sky. In me. In us.”

Moonwalk - Michael Jackson

Moonwalk
A Memoir
Michael Jackson
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $8.99
Publish Date: May 1, 1988
Publisher: Crown
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this remarkably candid and courageous memoir, the King of Pop tells the story of his life in his own words—complete with exclusive photographs and drawings. “ Moonwalk provides a startling glimpse of the artist at work and the artist in reflection.”—Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Megastar Michael Jackson’s singularly brilliant career and intensely reserved lifestyle have been a magnificent obsession for millions of rock fans and celebrity watchers throughout the world. In Moonwalk , he breaks through the wild rumors and widespread intrigue to present an intimate and moving account of his public and private life. Michael recalls a childhood that was both harsh and joyful but always formidable. He and his brothers played amateur music shows and seedy Chicago strip joints until Motown’s corporate image makers turned the Jackson 5 into worldwide superstars. He talks about the happy prankster days of his youth, traveling with his brothers, and his sometimes difficult relationships with his family over the years. He speaks candidly about the inspiration behind his music, his mesmerizing dance moves, and the compulsive drive to create that made him one of the biggest stars in the music business and a legend in his own time. Michael also shares his personal feelings about some of his most public friends . . . including Diana Ross, Berry Gordy, Quincy Jones, Paul McCartney, Fred Astaire, Marlon Brando, and Katharine Hepburn. He talks openly about the crushing isolation of his fame, of his first love, of his plastic surgery, and of his wholly exceptional career and the often bizarre and unfair rumors that have surrounded it. Illustrated with photos from the Jackson photo albums and Michael’s personal photographic archives, as well as drawings done by Michael exclusively for this book, Moonwalk is a memorable journey to the very heart and soul of a musical genius.

Fire Shut Up in My Bones - Charles M. Blow

Fire Shut Up in My Bones
Charles M. Blow
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: September 23, 2014
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Seller: OpenRoad Integrated Media, LLC

The New York Times columnist recounts growing up in rural Louisiana in this "brave and powerful memoir" of poverty, abuse, sexuality, and perseverance ( Publishers Weekly ). Charles M. Blow's mother was a fiercely driven woman with five sons, brass knuckles in her glove box, and a job plucking poultry at a factory near their segregated Louisiana town, where slavery's legacy felt close. When her philandering husband finally pushed her over the edge, she fired a pistol at his fleeing back, missing every shot, thanks to "love that blurred her vision and bent the barrel." As the baby of the family, Charles was deeply attached to his "do-right" mother. Until one day that divided his life into Before and After—the day an older cousin sexually abused the young boy. The story of how Charles escaped that world to become one of America's most innovative and respected public figures is a stirring, redemptive journey that works its way into the deepest chambers of the heart.

You with the Sad Eyes - Christina Applegate

You with the Sad Eyes
A Memoir
Christina Applegate
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: March 3, 2026
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Seller: Hachette Digital, Inc.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES  BESTSELLER "Funny, furious, and profane." — The New York Times “Not your typical celebrity memoir.” —Jimmy Kimmel Unflinchingly honest and darkly funny,  You with the Sad Eyes  unveils a side of Christina Applegate we’ve never seen, forever cementing her formidable and iconoclastic legacy.  Christina Applegate came of age on sets and stages, expected to be on time, with lines learned, ready for lights-camera-action. What started as a financial necessity soon became an emotional escape from a tumultuous home life in the infamous Laurel Canyon scene of the 70s and 80s. She rocketed to stardom on the sitcom  Married...with Children  and went on to captivate audiences in classics like  Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitters Dead…, Anchorman , and  Dead to Me  in her five-decade long career. Then it all stopped. A Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis in 2021 confined her to a king-sized bed and the company of memories she’d rather forget: memories of the self-doubt and body dysmorphia that stalked her meteoric rise, of her mother’s fight against addiction and abuse after her father left, and of the tax life had taken on her body and mind that was suddenly coming due. Now, at her most intimate and vulnerable, she unveils a story not even those closest to her fully know. She returns to the diaries she kept her whole life, finding the pain matched by joy, the losses mitigated by the extraordinary, and the weight of life lifted by her unrelenting belief that something greater lay ahead. No longer willing to lock herself away and with the perspective only our own mortality can bring, she knew it was imperative to tell it all. You with the Sad Eyes  presents a remarkable woman and her legacy. In her own words, “I truly believe that books can make people feel less alone. That’s why I’m doing this.  You with the Sad Eyes  won’t be some big violin scratching for my life. But it will be real. It will be filled with the ups and downs, the humor and grief of life. So here I am. Real me. Lots to say.”

MICHAEL JACKSON: - J. Randy Taraborrelli

MICHAEL JACKSON:
THE MAGIC, THE MADNESS, THE WHOLE STORY, 1958-2009
J. Randy Taraborrelli
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $2.99
Publish Date: July 15, 2009
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Seller: Hachette Digital, Inc.

This major biography includes the behind-the-scenes story to many of the landmarks in Jackson's life: his legal and commercial battles, his marriages to Lisa Marie Presley and Debbie Rowe, his passions and addictions, his children; objective and revealing, it carries the hallmarks of all of Taraborrelli's best-sellers: impeccable research, brilliant storytelling and definitive documentation. So much has how been said and written about the life and career of Michael Jackson that it has become almost impossible to disentangle the man from the myth. This book is the fruit of over 30 years of research and hundreds of exclusive interviews with a remarkable level of access to the very closest circles of the Jackson family - including Michael himself. Cutting through tabloid rumours, J. Randy Taraborrelli traces the real story behind Michael Jackson, from his drilling as a child star through the blooming of his talent to his ever-changing personal appearance and bizarre publicity stunts.

Born On A Blue Day - Daniel Tammet

Born On A Blue Day
Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant
Daniel Tammet
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: January 9, 2007
Publisher: Free Press
Seller: Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC

From autistic savant Daniel Tammet, a remarkable memoir that delves into his fascinating mind and “inspires even as it astonishes” ( Entertainment Weekly ). Daniel Tammet sees numbers as shapes, colors, and textures, and he can perform extraordinary calculations in his head. He can learn to speak new languages fluently, from scratch, in a week. In 2004, he memorized and recited more than 22,000 digits of pi, setting a record. He has savant syndrome, an extremely rare condition that gives him the most unimaginable mental powers, much like those portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the film Rain Man . Fascinating and inspiring, Born on a Blue Day explores what it’s like to be special and gives us an insight into what makes us all human—our minds.

Where the Music Had to Go - Jim Windolf

Where the Music Had to Go
How Bob Dylan and the Beatles Changed Each Other—and the World
Jim Windolf
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: April 14, 2026
Publisher: Scribner
Seller: Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC

Persuasive, captivating, and bursting with insight, this dual biography by acclaimed New York Times journalist Jim Windolf dives into the surprisingly supportive, occasionally rivalrous, and always fertile relationship between Bob Dylan and the Beatles, uncovering how they inspired and transformed each other as songwriters, recording artists, and cultural icons. From Dylan’s initial dismissal of the Beatles as being for “teenyboppers” to his realization that they were “pointing the direction where music had to go”—and from the Beatles’ obsessive spinning of early Dylan records to their impromptu renditions of fifteen Dylan songs during the 1969 Get Back sessions—the book captures the moments that pushed Dylan to “go electric” and inspired the Beatles to deepen their lyrics. Highly entertaining and packed with backstage anecdotes, Where the Music Had to Go is a deep-focus portrait of a heretofore unexamined relationship, one full of camaraderie, competition, and mutual evolution. More than a music biography , this is a front-row seat to the forces that shaped an era—an unmissable experience for music lovers, pop-culture buffs, and anyone curious about the magic that happens when legends collide.

West with the Night - Beryl Markham

West with the Night
Beryl Markham
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $0.99
Publish Date: March 12, 2024
Publisher: Rare Treasure Editions
Seller: De Marque, Inc.

West With the Night is the 1942 memoir by Beryl Markham, chronicling her experiences growing up in Kenya in the early 1900s, leading to a career as a bush pilot there. The author describes growing up in an Africa that no longer exists, training and breeding race horses, flying mail to Sudan, and being the first woman to fly the Atlantic from east to west. When Markham decided to take on the Atlantic crossing, no pilot had yet flown it non-stop. Markham became the first woman to cross the Atlantic east-to-west solo, and the first person to make it from England to North America non-stop. She was celebrated as an aviation pioneer. Markham chronicled her many adventures in this memoir. After living for many years in the United States, Markham moved back to Kenya in 1952, becoming for a time the most successful horse trainer in the country.

Can't Hurt Me - David Goggins

Can't Hurt Me
Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds
David Goggins
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $12.99
Publish Date: November 15, 2018
Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing
Seller: DIY Media Group DBA BookBaby

New York Times Best Seller Over 5 million copies sold For David Goggins, childhood was a nightmare - poverty, prejudice, and physical abuse colored his days and haunted his nights. But through self-discipline, mental toughness, and hard work, Goggins transformed himself from a depressed, overweight young man with no future into a U.S. Armed Forces icon and one of the world's top endurance athletes. The only man in history to complete elite training as a Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, and Air Force Tactical Air Controller, he went on to set records in numerous endurance events, inspiring Outside magazine to name him The Fittest (Real) Man in America. In Can't Hurt Me, he shares his astonishing life story and reveals that most of us tap into only 40% of our capabilities. Goggins calls this The 40% Rule, and his story illuminates a path that anyone can follow to push past pain, demolish fear, and reach their full potential.

When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi & Lucy Kalanithi

When Breath Becomes Air
Pulitzer Prize Finalist
Paul Kalanithi & Lucy Kalanithi
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $9.99
Publish Date: January 12, 2016
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD This inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question, What makes a life worth living? “Unmissable . . . Finishing this book and then forgetting about it is simply not an option.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, People, NPR , The Washington Post, Slate, Harper’s Bazaar, Time Out New York, Publishers Weekly, BookPage An Oprah Daily Best Nonfiction Book of the Past Two Decades • A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality. What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir. Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both. Finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Books for a Better Life Award in Inspirational Memoir

Nobody's Girl - Virginia Roberts Giuffre

Nobody's Girl
A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Virginia Roberts Giuffre
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: October 21, 2025
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The unforgettable memoir by the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre, the woman who dared to take on Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell “Make no mistake: this is a book about power, corruption, industrial-scale sex abuse and the way in which institutions sided with the perpetrator over his victims. . . . But it is also a book about how a young woman becomes a hero. . . . Important [and] courageous.” — The Guardian The world knows Virginia Roberts Giuffre as Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s most outspoken victim: the woman whose decision to speak out helped send both serial abusers to prison, whose photograph with Prince Andrew catalyzed his fall from grace. But her story has never been told in full, in her own words—until now. In April 2025, Giuffre took her own life. She left behind a memoir written in the years preceding her death and stated unequivocally that she wanted it published. Nobody’s Girl is the riveting and powerful story of an ordinary girl who would grow up to confront extraordinary adversity. Here, Giuffre offers an unsparing and definitive account of her time with Epstein and Maxwell, who trafficked her and others to numerous prominent men. She also details the molestation she suffered as a child, as well as her daring escape from Epstein and Maxwell’s grasp at nineteen. Giuffre remade her life from scratch and summoned the courage to not only hold her abusers to account but also advocate for other victims. The pages of Nobody’s Girl preserve her voice—and her legacy—forever. Nobody’s Girl is an astonishing affirmation of Giuffre’s unshakable will—first, to claw her way out of victimhood, and then to shine light on wrongdoing and fight for a safer, fairer world. Equal parts intimate and fierce, it is a remarkable narrative of fortitude in the face of depravity and despair.

The Diary of Anne Frank (The Definitive Edition) - Anne Frank

The Diary of Anne Frank (The Definitive Edition)
Anne Frank
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $0.99
Publish Date: February 1, 2018
Publisher: The House of Books
Seller: Angelo Miguel dos Santos Pereira

Among the most powerful accounts of the Nazi occupation, "The Diary of Anne Frank" chronicles the life of Anne Frank, a thirteen-year old girl fleeing her home in Amsterdam to go into hiding. Anne reveals the relationships between eight people living under miserable conditions: facing hunger, threat of discovery and the worst horrors the modern world had seen. In these pages, she grows up to be a young woman and a wise observer of human nature. She shares an unparalleled bond with her diary, which holds a detailed account of Anne's close relationship with her father, the lack of daughterly love for her mother, admiration for her sister's intelligence and closeness with her friend Peter. Anne Frank's account offers a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman who turns thoughtful and learns of the many terrors of the world.

I Choose Me - Jennie Garth

I Choose Me
Chasing Joy, Finding Purpose & Embracing Reinvention
Jennie Garth
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: April 14, 2026
Publisher: Park Row Books
Seller: Harlequin Digital Sales Corporation

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! Audiobook narrated by Jennie Garth Beloved actress, designer, and entrepreneur Jennie Garth opens up in this fiercely honest book about pursuing happiness, aging with confidence, and learning to love and prioritize yourself. Jennie Garth is best known for playing the iconic role of Kelly Taylor in the hit television series “Beverly Hills, 90210.” Now in her 50s, she invites readers into the real story of growing up on screen, facing Hollywood’s impossible beauty standards, and losing—and finding—herself through heartbreak, loss, and the challenge of motherhood. She shares the raw truths of the moments that broke her open and shows the resilience it takes to walk through grief and begin again. Jennie writes with warmth and candor about learning to quiet the voice that says “not enough,” rediscovering her strength after loss, and daring to take up space, speak her truth, and want more. She opens up about the unglamorous, deeply human moments and finally letting go of the need for perfection and other people’s approval. Through personal stories, practical advice, and the wisdom earned through her own hard lessons, Jennie lights a path back to self-love and clarity. I Choose Me is for anyone who’s ever felt lost in their roles, struggling to give themselves permission to ask, “What do I want now?” It’s an invitation to honor your own journey, embrace self-care, and believe with compassion that choosing yourself is the bravest, kindest thing you can do. "An inspiring roadmap to navigating life's challenges with grace, grit, and a refusal to settle for anything less than your worth." –Chelsea Handler, comedian and #1 bestselling author 

The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams - Stacy Schiff

The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams
Stacy Schiff
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: October 25, 2022
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Seller: Hachette Digital, Inc.

This revelatory biography from a Pulitzer Prize-winning author explores the story of the most essential Founding Father—the one who stood behind the change that sparked the American Revolution. “A glorious book that is as entertaining as it is vitally important.” —Ron Chernow, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Alexander Hamilton Thomas Jefferson asserted that if there was any leader of the Revolution, “Samuel Adams was the man.” With high-minded ideals and bare-knuckle tactics, Adams led what could be called the greatest campaign of civil resistance in American history. Stacy Schiff returns Adams to his seat of glory, introducing us to the shrewd and eloquent man who supplied the moral backbone of the American Revolution. A singular figure at a singular moment, Adams amplified the Boston Massacre. He helped to mastermind the Boston Tea Party. He employed every tool available to rally a town, a colony, and eventually a band of colonies behind him, creating the cause that created a country. For his efforts he became the most wanted man in America—when Paul Revere rode to Lexington in 1775, it was to warn Samuel Adams that he was about to be arrested for treason. In The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams, Schiff brings her masterful skills to Adams’ improbable life, illuminating his transformation from aimless son of a well-off family to tireless, beguiling radical who mobilized the colonies. Arresting, original, and deliriously dramatic, this is a long-overdue chapter in the history of our nation. “A beautifully crafted, invaluable biography ... Schiff ingeniously connects the past to our present and future, underscoring the lessons of Adams while reclaiming our nation’s self-evident truths at a moment when we seemed to have forgotten them.” — Oprah Daily One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2022 One of The Wall Street Journal ’s “10 BEST BOOKS OF 2022” One of The Los Angeles Times ’ “Top 5 Nonfiction Books of 2022” One of The New York Times ’ “Most Notable Books of 2022” And named one of the “Best Books of 2022” by  The New Yorker , TIME ,  Oprah Daily ,  USA Today ,  New York Magazine ,  Air Mail , Boston Globe , and more!

I'm Glad My Mom Died - Jennette McCurdy

I'm Glad My Mom Died
Jennette McCurdy
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: August 9, 2022
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Seller: Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC

* #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * MORE THAN 3 MILLION COPIES SOLD! A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor—including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother—and how she retook control of her life. Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,” eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?” She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income. In I’m Glad My Mom Died , Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly , she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!”), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants. Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.

Alito - Mollie Hemingway

Alito
The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution
Mollie Hemingway
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $19.99
Publish Date: April 21, 2026
Publisher: Basic Books
Seller: Hachette Digital, Inc.

From an award-winning journalist, the authoritative—and explosive—inside story of Justice Samuel Alito and his powerful role in shaping the Supreme Court “Riveting.” —Mike Lee, U.S. Senator  Justice Samuel Alito, the unflinching author of the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade , is so influential that many now refer to the “Alito Court.” But his powerful role, long overlooked, has aroused the ire of activists outraged by the emergence of a cohesive conservative majority on the court.   In this first comprehensive study of Alito, Mollie Hemingway explains how his common sense and prosecutorial experience, combined with fearless intellectual rigor, have shaped the man and the jurist. Through the lens of Alito’s judicial career, Hemingway provides a fresh perspective on the political, social, and legal battles that have unsettled the Supreme Court and the nation.   From menacing mobs encamped outside the justices’ homes to senators bellowing violent threats on the steps of the court itself, Alito offers a captivating insider account of the Supreme Court under unprecedented attack in a polarized age.   Few would have predicted that the modest and reserved judge who joined the high court with little fanfare two decades ago would lead the originalists to their astonishing ascendancy, but Hemingway’s compelling portrait reveals an intellect and character that make such leadership seem inevitable.

Betrayal - Tom Bower

Betrayal
Power, Deceit and the Fight for the Future of the Royal Family - The No.1 Sunday Times Bestseller
Tom Bower
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: March 26, 2026
Publisher: Bonnier Books UK
Seller: Hot Key Books Limited

*THE SENSATIONAL NEW ROYAL BIOGRAPHY FROM THE NO.1 BESTSELLING INVESTIGATIVE BIOGRAPHER, TOM BOWER* 'Juicy... A Bower news bomb is always something of a publishing event' T ina Brown, Observer 'Explosive' - The Times 'A fascinating read' - Evening Standard 'Sensational... A brutal, forensic takedown of the House of Sussex at its most fragile moment yet' The Daily Beast, The Royalist Podcast with Tom Sykes 'The Royal Family's vulnerability was exposed... Treachery in the family was rarely rewarded - as Harry and Meghan realised. The Palace chose silence as its only option... Few could anticipate the endgame.' The British Crown is in crisis, with constitutional threats at home and abroad. Since their infamous 'Megxit' split from the Royal Family, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have dominated global headlines. Ferociously controversial, not least for demanding privacy while seeking the spotlight, the Sussexes have remained a subject of gripping fascination for both supporters and cynics alike. Both camps are united on one platform: what is the endgame? Fighting to preserve their royal titles and privileges, In their attempts to create a Sussex brand the couple have fuelled bitter hostility. Accusations of disloyalty have been trumped by recriminations about dishonesty. Amid High Court battles with the government and the media, and the infamous publication of Spare , the Sussexes have reeled after successive Netflix flops and their doomed collaboration with Spotify - only to be ridiculed for Meghan's self-invention as a domestic goddess. At a landmark moment in royal history, the Sussexes' challenge to the British monarchy echoes worldwide. The fallout always threatens to be catastrophic. Just five years on from 'Megxit', can King Charles overcome the scandals that blight the family and limit the Sussexes' threat to the monarchy? Can the broken bonds between the Houses of Sussex and Windsor ever be repaired or will the King choose to strip them of their titles and banish them forever? The Sussexes are in a race against time to solve their predicament. With inimitable research and exclusive interviews from insiders, Britain's leading investigative biographer Tom Bower exposes the latest contortions in the explosive Royal saga of power and betrayal. 'Tom Bower is the Inspector Morse of investigative biographers, a fluent, phlegmatic story-teller and a master of intricacies.' Sunday Times

Born a Crime - Trevor Noah

Born a Crime
Stories from a South African Childhood
Trevor Noah
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $9.99
Publish Date: November 15, 2016
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • More than one million copies sold! A “brilliant” (Lupita Nyong’o, Time ), “poignant” ( Entertainment Weekly ), “soul-nourishing” ( USA Today ) memoir about coming of age during the twilight of apartheid   “Noah’s childhood stories are told with all the hilarity and intellect that characterizes his comedy, while illuminating a dark and brutal period in South Africa’s history that must never be forgotten.”— Esquire   Winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor and an NAACP Image Award • Named one of the best books of the year by The New York Time, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, Esquire, Newsday, and Booklist Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle. Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life. The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love.

The Royal Insider - Paul Burrell

The Royal Insider
My Life with the Queen, the King and Princess Diana - The Instant Sunday Times Bestselling Royal Autobiography
Paul Burrell
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: September 11, 2025
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Seller: Hachette Digital, Inc.

THE BRAND NEW REVELATORY ROYAL MEMOIR FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR PAUL BURRELL. 'A moving and at times jaw-dropping account - not just of his two decades when he had a ringside seat at the heart of the Royal Family, but also of the years since,' Richard Kay, DAILY MAIL 'For twenty-one years I was in a privileged position and shared the lives of the Queen and Princess Diana. Now that neither of these two wonderful women are here, that duty continues for me in the need to protect their legacy.' For over two decades, Paul Burrell was a silent witness to the making of history - first as footman to Queen Elizabeth II, then as butler to King Charles III (then Prince of Wales), and, most famously, as a confidante of the late Princess Diana. Now, with a unique perspective shaped by time and change, he's ready to share his own story alongside theirs. His bestselling memoir, A Royal Duty, about his friendship with Diana, sent shockwaves around the world, selling over two million copies. But it is only, in the wake of the Queen's passing and the commencement of a new royal era, Burrell feels he can finally tell his story in full. In this deeply personal and intimate memoir, Burrell shares many untold stories of his life at home and abroad with the Royals. With warmth, candour, and rare insight, he recounts unexpected moments of intimacy with the Queen, who gently guided a fresh-faced, 18-year-old Burrell through palace life. He speaks candidly about the tensions that simmered during those years - including the breakdown of Charles and Diana's marriage and his own complex relationship with Princes William and Harry. He also reveals his heartache at parting with three of the most significant women in his life - the Queen, Diana and his wife Maria - all while navigating his own personal journey to happiness as well as a battle with prostate cancer. Heartfelt, sincere and rich in detail, this is the memoir of a man who has lived and learned in the most extraordinary of ways.

Uptown Girl - Christie Brinkley

Uptown Girl
A Memoir
Christie Brinkley
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: April 29, 2025
Publisher: Harper Influence
Seller: HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS

"A thoroughly engaging glimpse into a colorful life well lived." – Kirkus Reviews "A bighearted new memoir . . . Uptown Girl tells the story of a glamorous, resilient, and beloved All-American icon."— Woman’s World Magazine In 1974, a twenty-year-old Christie Brinkley was "discovered" outside a Paris phone booth, which set off a meteoric modeling career that would land her on the covers of hundreds of magazines and cement her legacy as an All-American icon. Although she’s lived more than fifty years in the public eye, the full story of her roller-coaster life has never been told. Now, for the first time, Christie shares what life has been like, both in front of and behind the cameras, considering the girl she was alongside the woman she has become. Her stories are as heartening as they are eye-opening, as she recounts her most formative chapters, including the betrayal by her biological father as a child, her lifelong passion for art, her four tumultuous marriages—including her heartbreaking divorce from Billy Joel—and the harrowing experiences that almost cut her life short, including a helicopter crash she miraculously survived. Through it all, Christie’s unwavering belief in the magic and mystery of life has been her guiding light, even during her darkest times. It is with this grace and gratitude that she tenderly chronicles the unexpected, unexplainable ways her life has unfolded, embracing every adventure and twist of fate along the way: traveling the world as a supermodel at the height of the model wars, living life on the road with her rock-star husband and their baby, starring in blockbuster movies and hit sitcoms, riding horses with cowboys, training with world-champion boxers, and even stepping into the spotlight on Broadway. A bighearted, beautifully crafted supermodel biography and memoir of resilience and self-discovery, featuring more than 100 photographs and never-before-seen pieces of Christie’s original artwork, Uptown Girl is the brave account of a life in the public eye lived at full throttle and on full display. What is it really like to live a life in the spotlight, where every triumph and heartbreak is public news? From Paris to Supermodel: The true story of being discovered by chance outside a Paris phone booth and rising to the top of the modeling world during the height of the model wars. A Rock and Roll Love Story: An inside look at her whirlwind marriage to music icon Billy Joel, from life on the road with their baby to the heartbreaking divorce that played out in the headlines. Survival Against the Odds: A harrowing, first-hand account of the helicopter crash that nearly claimed her life and the unwavering resilience that saw her through her darkest times. Unflinching Honesty: Christie holds nothing back, sharing the full story of her four tumultuous marriages, the childhood betrayal that shaped her, and her journey of self-discovery.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - Bill Bryson

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
A Memoir
Bill Bryson
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: October 17, 2006
Publisher: Crown
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

From one of the world's most beloved writers and New York Times bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods and The Body , a vivid, nostalgic, and utterly hilarious memoir of growing up in the 1950s. Bill Bryson was born in the middle of the American century—1951—in the middle of the United States—Des Moines, Iowa—in the middle of the largest generation in American history—the baby boomers. As one of the best and funniest writers alive, he is perfectly positioned to mine his memories of a totally all-American childhood for 24-carat memoir gold. Like millions of his generational peers, Bill Bryson grew up with a rich fantasy life as a superhero. In his case, he ran around his house and neighborhood with an old football jersey with a thunderbolt on it and a towel about his neck that served as his cape, leaping tall buildings in a single bound and vanquishing awful evildoers (and morons)—in his head—as "The Thunderbolt Kid." Using this persona as a springboard, Bill Bryson re-creates the life of his family and his native city in the 1950s in all its transcendent normality—a life at once completely familiar to us all and as far away and unreachable as another galaxy. It was, he reminds us, a happy time, when automobiles and televisions and appliances (not to mention nuclear weapons) grew larger and more numerous with each passing year, and DDT, cigarettes, and the fallout from atmospheric testing were considered harmless or even good for you. He brings us into the life of his loving but eccentric family, including affectionate portraits of his father, a gifted sportswriter for the local paper and dedicated practitioner of isometric exercises, and of his mother, whose job as the home furnishing editor for the same paper left her little time for practicing the domestic arts at home. The many readers of Bill Bryson’s earlier classic, A Walk in the Woods, will greet the reappearance in these pages of the immortal Stephen Katz, seen hijacking literally boxcar loads of beer. He is joined in the Bryson gallery of immortal characters by the demonically clever Willoughby brothers, who apply their scientific skills and can-do attitude to gleefully destructive ends. Warm and laugh-out-loud funny, and full of his inimitable, pitch-perfect observations, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is as wondrous a book as Bill Bryson has ever written. It will enchant anyone who has ever been young.

House of Hilton - Jerry Oppenheimer

House of Hilton
Jerry Oppenheimer
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $11.99
Publish Date: November 7, 2006
Publisher: Crown
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

This intimate, shocking—and thoroughly unauthorized—portrait of the Hiltons chronicles the family’s amazing odyssey from poverty and obscurity to glory and glamour. From Conrad Hilton, the eccentric “innkeeper to the world” who built a global empire beginning with a fleabag in a dusty Texas backwater, to Paris Hilton, his great-granddaughter, whose fame took off with a sex video, House of Hilton is the unauthorized, eye-popping portrait of one of America’s most outrageous dynasties. If you want to know how Paris Hilton became who she is, you have to know where she came from. From scores of candid and exclusive interviews, from private documents and public records, New York Times bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer has dug deeply into her paternal and maternal family roots to reveal the often shocking, tragic, and comic lives that helped shape the world’s most famous and fabulous “celebutante.” The cast of characters includes Paris’s maternal grandmother, a materialistic “stage mother from hell.” There is Paris’s maternal grandfather, who became an alcoholic housepainter. The life of Paris’s mother, Kathy Hilton, groomed by her mother to be a star and marry rich, is candidly revealed, too, as is that of Paris’s father, Rick, Conrad’s grandson. Paris’s tabloid antics are truly in the Hilton tradition. Set against a glittery Hollywood backdrop—with appearances by stars like Elizabeth Taylor, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Natalie Wood, and Joan Collins—House of Hilton brings to light a cornucopia of closely held Hilton family secrets and sexual peccadilloes, such as the many affairs and the nightclub-brawling, boozing, and pill-popping life of Paris’s great-uncle, Nick Hilton. The story of his hellish marriage to Liz Taylor alone rivals any of today’s Hollywood breakups. Behind it all was Conrad Hilton, who built his worldwide empire through the Great Depression while others were jumping out of windows. A devout Catholic publicly, his personal life was that of an unrepentant sinner. His first marriage was to Mary Barron Hilton, a sexy, hard-drinking, gambling Kentucky teenager half Conrad’s age. Wife number two was the gorgeous Zsa Zsa, who, like Paris, was famous for being famous. Their tumultuous marriage and headline-making divorce are revealed here in all their juicy glory. In all, House of Hilton is a gripping American saga, from the fire and passions that built a business empire to the debauchery and amorality passed on from one generation to the next.

Elon Musk - Walter Isaacson

Elon Musk
Walter Isaacson
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $16.99
Publish Date: September 12, 2023
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Seller: Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC

The #1 New York Times and global bestseller from Walter Isaacson—the acclaimed author of Steve Jobs , Einstein: His Life and World , Benjamin Franklin , and Leonardo da Vinci— is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating, controversial innovator of modern times. For two years, Isaacson shadowed Elon Musk as he executed his vision for electric vehicles at Tesla, space exploration with SpaceX, the AI revolution, and the takeover of Twitter and its conversion to X. The result is the definitive portrait of the mercurial pioneer that offers clues to his political instincts, future ambitions, and overall worldview. When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist. His father’s impact on his psyche would linger. He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child, prone to abrupt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive. At the beginning of 2022—after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and him becoming the richest man on earth—Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas. “I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life,” he said. It was a wistful comment, not a New Year’s resolution. Even as he said it, he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter, the world’s ultimate playground. Over the years, whenever he was in a dark place, his mind went back to being bullied on the playground. Now he had the chance to own the playground. For two years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the question: are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?

The Art Thief - Michael Finkel

The Art Thief
A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession
Michael Finkel
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $10.99
Publish Date: June 27, 2023
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first century • “ The Art Thief , like its title character, has confidence, élan, and a great sense of timing." — The New Yorker A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Lit Hub "Enthralling." — The Wall Street Journal Stéphane Bréitwieser is the most prolific art thief of all time. He pulled off more than 200 heists, often in crowded museums in broad daylight. His girlfriend served as his accomplice. His collection was worth an estimated $2 billion. He never sold a piece, displaying his stolen art in his attic bedroom. He felt like a king. Until everything came to a shocking end. In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, Michael Finkel gives us one of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of our times, a riveting story of art, theft, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.

Once Upon a Time - Elizabeth Beller

Once Upon a Time
The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy
Elizabeth Beller
Genre: Arts & Entertainment
Price: $11.99
Publish Date: May 21, 2024
Publisher: Gallery Books
Seller: Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC

The inspiration for the FX series Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette A NEW YORK TIMES , LOS ANGELES TIMES , AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER This “intimate and sympathetic portrait of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy that is as enthralling as she was” (Dana Thomas, New York Times bestselling author) reexamines her life and legacy as never before. Perfect for fans of My Travels with Mrs. Kennedy , What Remains , and Fairy Tale Interrupted . A quarter of a century after the plane crash that claimed the lives of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn, and her sister Lauren, the magnitude of this tragedy remains fresh. Yet, Carolyn is still an enigmatic figure, a woman whose short life in the spotlight was besieged with misogyny and cruelty. Amidst today’s cultural reckoning about the way our media treats women, Elizabeth Beller “reveals the true woman behind the mystery, and what a woman she turns out to be: fabulous, fierce, fashionable, flawed…formidable” (J. Randy Taraborrelli, New York Times bestselling author). When she began dating America’s prince, Carolyn was thrust into an overwhelming spotlight filled with cruelly relentless paparazzi who reacted to her reserve with a campaign of harassment and vilification. To this day, she is still depicted as a privileged princess—icy, vapid, and drug-addicted. She has even been accused of being responsible for their untimely death, allegedly delaying take-off until she finished her pedicure. But now, the truth is finally unveiled. A fiercely independent woman devoted to her adopted city and career, Carolyn relied on her impeccable eye and drive to fly up the ranks at Calvin Klein in the glossy, high-stakes fashion world of the 1990s. When Carolyn met her future husband, John was immediately drawn to her strong-willed personality, effortless charm, and high intelligence. Their relationship would change her life and catapult her to dizzying fame, but it was her vibrant life before their marriage and then hidden afterwards, that is truly fascinating. Based on in-depth research and exclusive interviews with friends, family members, teachers, roommates, and colleagues, and featuring never-before-seen family photos, this comprehensive biography reveals a multifaceted woman worthy of our attention regardless of her husband and untimely death.

American Pope - Daniel Burke & Scott Detrow

American Pope
Leo XIV's Road from the South Side of Chicago to Vatican City
Daniel Burke & Scott Detrow
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $15.99
Expected Publish Date: November 17, 2026
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Seller: Macmillan

From the co-host of NPR’s All Things Considered and NPR’s Senior Editor of Religion and Spirituality, a deeply reported, revelatory biography of Robert Prevost, now known as Pope Leo XIV, that offers rare and exciting new insight into the life and times of the man who would come to lead the Catholic Church. On May 8, 2025, eighteen days after the death of Pope Francis, Cardinal Dominique Mamberti stepped out on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to share the name of the new leader of the Catholic Church. “Eminentissimum ac reverendissimum Dominum, Robertum Franciscum Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem Prevost—qui sibi nomen imposuit Leo XIV.” For the first time in its 2,000 year history, the Catholic Church would be led by an American. NPR’s Daniel Burke and Scott Detrow, who were in St. Peter’s Square that day leading the network’s coverage, were among those shocked by the selection. Growing up in the faith as kids and reporting on it as adults, they had been told it was an article of faith, a given, that the Catholic Church would never elect an American pope. And yet, there was Prevost—now Leo XIV—smiling, waving, and declaring to the crowd in Italian, “Peace be with you.” Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who grew up just outside Chicago but had spent much of his adult life in Peru, had been a dark horse candidate to say the least–an unassuming Augustinian who had only recently been promoted to the top levels of Church leadership. His elevation to the most prominent religious seat in the world prompted unprecedented enthusiasm—a surge of “Da Pope” memes and American tourists flocking to Rome with gifts of deep dish pizza and hats from Villanova (his alma mater)—but despite international media coverage and fascination, the scope of Prevost’s journey has yet to be told in full, intimate detail. Now, in American Pope , Burke and Detrow present the first comprehensive, impressively sourced biography of the new pontiff. The two journalists spent the year after Leo’s election reporting in Peru, Chicago, and Rome. They tracked down Leo’s close confidants, childhood friends, family members, classmates, fellow clergy, and Vatican insiders. They gained unprecedented access to archival documents, letters, emails, and other personal correspondence that provide key insights into Prevost’s experiences and views. As a result, readers are introduced to a man at varying stages of his destiny: Robert, a quiet young boy from a working-class parish straddling Chicago’s southern border, coming into his faith in Kennedy-era America; Bob, a serious student who writes for his high school paper and spends time in the seminary leading family interventions for alcoholics; Padre and Monsignor Roberto, a stabilizing and hopeful presence in impoverished and terrorized communities of Peru, and who would help lead his diocese through the COVID-19 pandemic; Father Bob, the leader of the Augustinian order at a time of crisis for the Catholic Church; Cardinal Prevost, the unassuming ally of Pope Francis; and, finally, Leo, whose ascension will forever change the Church he serves and loves. Enlightening, engrossing, and undeniably human, American Pope is the key to understanding one of the most consequential figures of our time.

Stripped Down - Bunnie Xo

Stripped Down
Unfiltered and Unapologetic
Bunnie Xo
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: February 17, 2026
Publisher: Dey Street Books
Seller: HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS

***The INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!*** From the trailer parks of Vegas to the mansions of Nashville, Bunnie Xo has lived a lot of lives and seen the darkest sides of humanity. Her memoir, Stripped Down: Unfiltered and Unapologetic , is cold, clear evidence that no one is irredeemable. With a heavy dose of humor and a refreshing sense of self-awareness, Bunnie pulls no punches as she shares her journey of redemption while offering some homespun wisdom to those who need a little saving themselves. Alisa DeFord, known to her millions of fans as Bunnie Xo, started at the bottom and spent the first part of her life falling even deeper. Now, Bunnie Xo is one of today’s most successful podcasters and has paved her way through the entertainment industry as the owner of Dumb Blonde Productions, building an empire with heart and personality at the forefront. Stripped Down is the story of how Bunnie Xo rose to the top, how she used her own wiles to reach her goals, how she knew redemption was up to her—and that no one could hand it to her—and a message to anyone who needs advice on breaking their own cycles. Hilarious, earnest, thought-provoking, and occasionally downright shocking, Stripped Down is a modern-day rag-to-riches story and a message of hope to anyone struggling to redeem themselves.

Phases - Brandy

Phases
A Memoir
Brandy
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: March 31, 2026
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Seller: Harlequin Digital Sales Corporation

• INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! • The iconic, multiplatinum, Grammy Award®–winning performer Brandy brings us a raw, intimate portrait of her life, charting her journey from Mississippi churches to Hollywood spotlights From the moment she first sang at church in McComb, Mississippi, Brandy knew her voice was special. At fourteen she landed her first record deal. At fifteen her first  album went platinum. At sixteen she was starring in the hit sitcom Moesha and became the first Black actress to play Cinderella on screen alongside fairy godmother, Whitney Houston.   Yet as the accolades piled up, so too did the pressure to maintain a flawless image. To onlookers, she had crafted the blueprint for the teenage “it” girl. But behind closed doors “The Vocal Bible” as she was known, was struggling.   In this piercing, revelatory memoir, Brandy shares: the inside stories behind her most iconic songs and albums; her star-studded connections with Whitney Houston and Diana Ross; the affirmation of friends and family, including her brother Ray J, that helped her through challenging times; and so much more. Delving into the humble roots of her decades-spanning career, her early struggles with bullies and insecurities as a high schooler, and finally her inspirational journey to reclaim her sense of self and her autonomy as a woman in Hollywood and in music, this memoir is an insightful meditation on Brandy's life and how she rose to become the woman she is today. Told through a series of breathtaking vignettes and never-before-seen family photographs in a full-color insert, Phases is a fearless and remarkable story of hope, resilience and the strength it takes to make peace with the past.

Hedy's Folly - Richard Rhodes

Hedy's Folly
The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World
Richard Rhodes
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $10.99
Publish Date: November 29, 2011
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes delivers a remarkable story of science history: how a ravishing film star and an avant-garde composer invented spread-spectrum radio, the technology that made wireless phones, GPS systems, and many other devices possible.   Beginning at a Hollywood dinner table, Hedy's Folly tells a wild story of innovation that culminates in U.S. patent number 2,292,387 for a "secret communication system." Along the way Rhodes weaves together Hollywood’s golden era, the history of Vienna, 1920s Paris, weapons design, music, a tutorial on patent law and a brief treatise on transmission technology. Narrated with the rigor and charisma we've come to expect of Rhodes, it is a remarkable narrative adventure about spread-spectrum radio's genesis and unlikely amateur inventors collaborating to change the world.

The Uncool - Cameron Crowe

The Uncool
A Memoir
Cameron Crowe
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $16.99
Publish Date: October 28, 2025
Publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Seller: Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Cameron has written a book that feels like music, an intimate souvenir, like a song you can’t stop listening to.” —Stevie Nicks • “A delicious tale of a devotee who worships at the altar of rock and roll….It’s a love letter to fandom, sealed with Cameron’s trademark sincerity and heart.” —Maggie Rogers • “Such a joy and so well written…My favorite book in a long, long time.” —Anderson Cooper The long-awaited memoir by Cameron Crowe—one of America’s most iconic journalists and filmmakers— The Uncool is a joyful dispatch from a lost world, a chronicle of the real-life events that became Almost Famous , and a coming-of-age journey filled with music legends as you’ve never seen them before.

U. S. Grant: The Civil War Years - Bruce Catton

U. S. Grant: The Civil War Years
Grant Moves South and Grant Takes Command
Bruce Catton
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $2.99
Publish Date: June 28, 2016
Publisher: Open Road Media
Seller: OpenRoad Integrated Media, LLC

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Bruce Catton's acclaimed two-book biography of complex and controversial Union commander Ulysses S. Grant. New York Times Bestsellers In these two comprehensive and engaging volumes, preeminent Civil War historian Bruce Catton follows the wartime movements of Ulysses S. Grant, detailing the Union commander's bold tactics and his relentless dedication to achieving the North's victory in the nation's bloodiest conflict. Grant Moves South details how Grant, as commander of the Twenty-First Illinois Volunteer Infantry, though unskilled in military power politics and disregarded by his peers, was proving to be an unstoppable force. He won victory after victory at Belmont, Fort Henry, and Fort Donelson, while sagaciously avoiding near-catastrophe and ultimately triumphing at Shiloh. His decisive victory at Vicksburg would cost the Confederacy its invaluable lifeline: the Mississippi River. Grant Takes Command picks up in the summer of 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln promoted Grant to the head of the Army of the Potomac. Grant's acute strategic thinking and unshakeable tenacity led to the crushing defeat of the Confederacy in the Overland Campaign in Virginia and the Siege of Petersburg. In the spring of 1865, Grant finally forced Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, ending the brutal conflict. Although tragedy struck only days later when Lincoln was assassinated, Grant's triumphs on the battlefield ensured that the president's principles of unity and freedom would endure. Based in large part on military communiqués, personal eyewitness accounts, and Grant's own writings, this engrossing two-part biography offers readers an in-depth portrait of the extraordinary warrior and unparalleled strategist whose battlefield brilliance clinched the downfall of the Confederacy in the Civil War.

Mother Mary Comes to Me - Arundhati Roy

Mother Mary Comes to Me
Arundhati Roy
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: September 2, 2025
Publisher: Scribner
Seller: Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC

Named One of The New York Times Book Review ’s Top Ten Books of the Year Winner of the the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography | Finalist for the Kirkus Prize | Nominated for the Women's Prize for Nonfiction One of the best-reviewed books of the year, a raw and deeply moving memoir that “pulses with compassion and moral outrage” ( The Wall Street Journal ) from the legendary author of The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness that traces her complex relationship with her mother, Mary Roy, a fierce and formidable force who shaped Arundhati’s life both as a woman and a writer. In this, her first work of memoir, Arundhati Roy writes, “Perhaps even more than a daughter mourning the passing of her mother, I mourn her as a writer who has lost her most enthralling subject.” Mother Mary Comes to Me , is an intimate chronicle, “full of precise imagery and blistering emotional intelligence” ( The Washington Post ), of the relationship between two women, a school teacher and a writer, who happen to be mother and daughter. Roy writes with a novelist’s unsettling ability to be inside her own story as well as outside it, simultaneously child and adult, attached and detached, protagonist and narrator. She describes how she came to be the writer she is, shaped by circumstance, but above all by her relationship to her extraordinary, singular mother Mary, who she describes as “my shelter and my storm.” “Heart-smashed” by Mary’s death, yet puzzled and “more than a little ashamed” by the intensity of her response, Roy began to write, to make sense of her feelings about the mother she ran from at age eighteen, “not because I didn’t love her, but in order to be able to continue to love her.” With the scale, sweep, and depth of her novels and the passion, political clarity, and warmth of her essays, Mother Mary Comes to Me “builds worlds that are revolutionary, made from the darkness that she spins into purpose” ( The New Republic ). An ode to freedom, a tribute to thorny love and savage grace— Mother Mary Comes to Me is a memoir like no other.

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West - Stephen E. Ambrose

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West
Stephen E. Ambrose
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $9.99
Publish Date: October 12, 2020
Publisher: Lulu.com
Seller: Lulu Enterprises, Inc.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Band of Brothers and D-Day, the definitive book on Lewis and Clark’s exploration of the Louisiana Purchase, the most momentous expedition in American history and one of the great adventure stories of all time. In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson selected his personal secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, to lead a voyage up the Missouri River to the Rockies, over the mountains, down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, and back. Lewis and his partner, Captain William Clark, made the first map of the trans-Mississippi West, provided invaluable scientific data on the flora and fauna of the Louisiana Purchase territory, and established the American claim to Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Ambrose has pieced together previously unknown information about weather, terrain, and medical knowledge at the time to provide a vivid backdrop for the expedition. Lewis is supported by a rich variety of colorful characters, first of all Jefferson himself, whose interest in exploring and acquiring the American West went back thirty years. Next comes Clark, a rugged frontiersman whose love for Lewis matched Jefferson’s. There are numerous Indian chiefs, and Sacagawea, the Indian girl who accompanied the expedition, along with the French-Indian hunter Drouillard, the great naturalists of Philadelphia, the French and Spanish fur traders of St. Louis, John Quincy Adams, and many more leading political, scientific, and military figures of the turn of the century. High adventure, high politics, suspense, drama, and diplomacy combine with high romance and personal tragedy to make this outstanding work of scholarship as readable as a novel.

Educated - Tara Westover

Educated
A Memoir
Tara Westover
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $9.99
Publish Date: February 20, 2018
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

#1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER • One of the most acclaimed books of our time: an unforgettable memoir about a young woman who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University “Extraordinary . . . an act of courage and self-invention.”— The New York Times NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE CENTURY • FINALIST: National Book Critics Circle’s Award In Autobiography and John Leonard Prize For Best First Book • PEN/Jean Stein Book Award • Los Angeles Times Book Prize Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home. “Beautiful and propulsive . . . Despite the singularity of [Westover’s] childhood, the questions her book poses are universal: How much of ourselves should we give to those we love? And how much must we betray them to grow up?”— Vogue ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, O: The Oprah Magazine, Time, NPR, Good Morning America, San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian, The Economist, Financial Times , Newsday, New York Post, theSkimm, Refinery29, Bloomberg, Self, Real Simple, Town & Country, Bustle, Paste, Publishers Weekly , Library Journal, LibraryReads, Book Riot, Pamela Paul, KQED, New York Public Library

The Black Count - Tom Reiss

The Black Count
Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo (Pulitzer Prize for Biography)
Tom Reiss
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $9.99
Publish Date: September 18, 2012
Publisher: Crown
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “richly imagined biography” ( The New York Times Book Review ) of General Alex Dumas, who rose from slavery to command vast armies in the French Revolutionary Wars—and whose exploits were immortalized in his son’s novels The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers “Fascinating [and] entertaining.”— The Wall Street Journal “Remarkable.”— The Boston Globe “A truly amazing story.”—NPR A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, The New Republic, NPR, Salon, Essence General Alex Dumas is a man almost unknown today, yet his story is strikingly familiar—because his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, used his larger-than-life feats as inspiration for such classics as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers . But hidden behind General Dumas’s swashbuckling adventures was an even more incredible secret: he was the son of a black slave—who rose higher in the white world than any man of his race would before our own time. Born in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), Alex Dumas made his way to Paris, where he rose to command armies of more than 50,000 men at the height of the Revolution. No matter how high he soared, Dumas continued to live by his blade and his boldness in the face of overwhelming odds. Yet, because of his unwavering principles, he ultimately became a threat to Napoleon himself. Time magazine called The Black Count “one of those quintessentially human stories of strength and courage that sheds light on the historical moment that made it possible.” It is also a window into the modern world’s first multiracial society and a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of love between a father and son. FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD

Bits and Pieces - Whoopi Goldberg

Bits and Pieces
My Mother, My Brother, and Me
Whoopi Goldberg
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: May 7, 2024
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Seller: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

From multi-award winner Whoopi Goldberg comes a new and unique memoir of her family and their influence on her early life. If it weren’t for Emma Johnson, Caryn Johnson would have never become Whoopi Goldberg. Emma gave her children the loving care and wisdom they needed to succeed in life, always encouraging them to be true to themselves. When Whoopi lost her mother in 2010—and then her older brother, Clyde, five years later—she felt deeply alone; the only people who truly knew her were gone. Emma raised her children not just to survive, but to thrive. In this intimate and heartfelt memoir, Whoopi shares many of the deeply personal stories of their lives together for the first time. Growing up in the projects in New York City, there were trips to Coney Island, the Ice Capades, and museums, and every Christmas was a magical experience. To this day, she doesn’t know how her mother was able to give them such an enriching childhood, despite the struggles they faced—and it wasn’t until she was well into adulthood that Whoopi learned just how traumatic some of those struggles were. Fans of personal memoirs such as Finding Me by Viola Davis and In Pieces by Sally Field will be touched by Bits and Pieces: a moving tribute from a daughter to her mother, and beautiful portrait of three people who loved each other deeply. Whoopi writes, “Not everybody gets to walk this earth with folks who let you be exactly who you are and who give you the confidence to become exactly who you want to be. So, I thought I’d share mine with you.”

Raising Hare - Chloe Dalton

Raising Hare
A Memoir
Chloe Dalton
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $13.99
Publish Date: March 4, 2025
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • FINALIST FOR THE 2025 WOMEN'S PRIZE • A fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, loss, and our relationship with the natural world, explored through the story of one woman’s unlikely friendship with a wild hare. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, TIME , The Boston Globe, The Economist, Scientific American, Slate “Moving. . . . Impart[s] valuable lessons about slowing down and the beauty in the unexpected.” —USA Today “ A perfect testimony to the transformative power of love.”—Margaret Renkl, author of The Comfort of Crows Imagine you could hold a baby hare and bottle-feed it. Imagine that it lived under your roof and bounded around your bedroom at night, drumming on the duvet cover when it wanted your attention. Imagine that, more than two years later, it still ran in from the fields when you called it and slept in your house for hours on end. For political advisor and speechwriter Chloe Dalton, who spent lockdown deep in the English countryside, far away from her usual busy London life, this became her unexpected reality. In February 2021, Dalton stumbles upon a newborn hare—a leveret—that had been chased by a dog. Fearing for its life, she brings it home, only to discover how difficult it is to rear a wild hare, most of whom perish in captivity from either shock or starvation. Through trial and error, she learns to feed and care for the leveret with every intention of returning it to the wilderness. Instead, it becomes her constant companion, wandering the fields and woods at night and returning to Dalton’s house by day. Though Dalton feared that the hare would be preyed upon by foxes, weasels, feral cats, raptors, or even people, she never tried to restrict it to the house. Each time the hare leaves, Chloe knows she may never see it again. Yet she also understands that to confine it would be its own kind of death. Raising Hare chronicles their journey together while also taking a deep dive into the lives and nature of hares, and the way they have been viewed historically in art, literature, and folklore. We witness firsthand the joy at this extraordinary relationship between human and animal, which serves as a reminder that the best things, and most beautiful experiences, arise when we least expect them.

Here, There and Everywhere - Geoff Emerick & Howard Massey

Here, There and Everywhere
My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles
Geoff Emerick & Howard Massey
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $6.99
Publish Date: March 16, 2006
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

An all-access, firsthand account of the life and music of the Beatles through their legendary recording sessions, from their creative process to the infighting that ultimately brought them down—by an original mastering engineer at Abbey Road Studios “[ Here, There and Everywhere ] provides the kind of day-to-day experience of what it was like working with the world’s most famous rock group.”— The Washington Post Geoff Emerick became an assistant engineer at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in 1962 at age fifteen, and was present as a new band called the Beatles recorded their first songs. He later worked with the Beatles as they recorded their singles “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” the songs that would propel them to international superstardom. In 1964 he would witness the transformation of this young and playful group from Liverpool into professional, polished musicians as they put to tape classic songs such as “Eight Days A Week” and “I Feel Fine.” Then, in 1966, at age nineteen, Geoff Emerick became the Beatles’ chief engineer, the man responsible for their distinctive sound as they recorded the classic album Revolver , in which they pioneered innovative recording techniques that changed the course of rock history. Emerick would also engineer the monumental Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road albums, considered by many the greatest rock recordings of all time. In Here, There and Everywhere he reveals the creative process of the band in the studio, and describes how he achieved the sounds on their most famous songs. Emerick also brings to light the personal dynamics of the band, from the relentless (and increasingly mean-spirited) competition between Lennon and McCartney to the infighting and frustration that eventually brought a bitter end to the greatest rock band the world has ever known.

Fairy Tale Interrupted - RoseMarie Terenzio

Fairy Tale Interrupted
A Memoir of Life, Love, and Loss
RoseMarie Terenzio
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: January 24, 2012
Publisher: Gallery Books
Seller: Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC

Working Girl meets What Remains in this New York Times bestselling, behind-the-scenes story of an unlikely friendship between America’s favorite First Son, John F. Kennedy Jr. and his personal assistant, a blue-collar girl from the Bronx. From the moment RoseMarie Terenzio unleashed her Italian temper on the entitled nuisance commandeering her office in a downtown New York PR firm, an unlikely friendship bloomed between the blue-collar girl from the Bronx and John F. Kennedy Jr. Many books have sought to capture John F. Kennedy Jr.’s life. None has been as intimate or as honest as Fairy Tale Interrupted . Recalling the adventure of working as his executive assistant for five years, RoseMarie portrays the man behind the icon—patient, protective, surprisingly goofy, occasionally thoughtless and self-involved, yet capable of extraordinary generosity and kindness. She reveals how he dealt with dating, politics, and the paparazzi, and describes life behind the scenes at George magazine. Captured here are her memories of Carolyn Bessette, how she orchestrated the ultra-secretive planning of John and Carolyn’s wedding on Cumberland Island—and the heartbreak of their deaths on July 16, 1999, after which RoseMarie’s whole world came crashing down around her. Only now does she feel she can tell her story in a book that stands as “a fitting personal tribute to a unique boss . . . deliriously fun and entertaining” ( Kirkus Reviews ).

Be Ready When the Luck Happens - Ina Garten

Be Ready When the Luck Happens
A Memoir
Ina Garten
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $12.99
Publish Date: October 1, 2024
Publisher: Crown
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In her long-awaited memoir, Ina Garten—aka the Barefoot Contessa, author of thirteen bestselling cookbooks, beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation, and cultural icon—shares her personal story with readers hungry for a seat at her table. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review , Time, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Town & Country Here, for the first time, Ina Garten presents an intimate, entertaining, and inspiring account of her remarkable journey. Ina’s gift is to make everything look easy, yet all her accomplishments have been the result of hard work, audacious choices, and exquisite attention to detail. In her unmistakable voice (no one tells a story like Ina), she brings her past and her process to life in a high-spirited and no-holds-barred memoir that chronicles decades of personal challenges, adventures (and misadventures) and unexpected career twists, all delivered with her signature combination of playfulness and purpose. From a difficult childhood to meeting the love of her life, Jeffrey, and marrying him while still in college, from a boring bureaucratic job in Washington, D.C., to answering an ad for a specialty food store in the Hamptons, from the owner of one Barefoot Contessa shop to author of bestselling cookbooks and celebrated television host, Ina has blazed her own trail and, in the meantime, taught millions of people how to cook and entertain. Now, she invites them to come closer to experience her story in vivid detail and to share the important life lessons she learned along the way: do what you love because if you love it you’ll be really good at it, swing for the fences, and always Be Ready When the Luck Happens .

Kingmaker - Sonia Purnell

Kingmaker
Pamela Harriman's Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue
Sonia Purnell
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: September 17, 2024
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

“A thorough account of Harriman’s rise which also manages to be a brisk, twisty read … riveting and revelatory.” — The New Yorker “Rigorous but rollicking.” — The New York Times Named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by The New Yorker , Apple Books, The Economist , Politico , Town & Country , The Guardian, Financial Times , The Spectator , The Telegraph , The Oldie , Irish Examiner , Mail on Sunday , Daily Express , London Standard , and The Times Literary Supplement and a Must-Read Book of Fall 2024 by People Magazine A Los Angeles Times Bestseller From the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE, an electrifying re-examination of one of the 20th century’s greatest unsung power players When Pamela Churchill Harriman died in 1997, the obituaries that followed were predictably scathing – and many were downright sexist. Written off as a mere courtesan and social climber, her true legacy was overshadowed by a glamorous social life and her infamous erotic adventures. Much of what she did behind the scenes – on both sides of the Atlantic - remained invisible and secret. That is, until now: with a wealth of fresh research, interviews and newly discovered sources, Sonia Purnell unveils for the first time the full, spectacular story of how she left an indelible mark on the world today. At age 20 Churchill’s beloved daughter-in-law became a “secret weapon” during World War II, strategically wining, dining, and seducing diplomats and generals to help win over American sentiment (and secrets) to the British cause against Hitler. After the war, she helped to transform Fiat heir Gianni Agnelli into Italy’s ‘uncrowned king’ on the international stage and after moving to the US brought a struggling Democratic party back to life, hand-picking Bill Clinton from obscurity and vaulting him to the presidency. Picked as Ambassador to France, she deployed her legendary subtle powers to charm world leaders and help efforts to bring peace to Bosnia, playing her part in what was arguably the high-water mark of American global supremacy. There are few at any time who have operated as close to the center of power over five decades and two continents, and there is practically no one in 20th Century politics, culture, and fashion whose lives she did not touch, including the Kennedys, Truman Capote, Aly Khan, Kay Graham, Gloria Steinem, Ed Murrow, and Frank Sinatra. Written with the novelistic richness and investigative rigor that only Sonia Purnell could bring to this story full of sex, politics, yachts, palaces and fabulous clothes, KINGMAKER re-asserts Harriman’s rightful place at the heart of history.

Checkmate - Ben Mezrich

Checkmate
Genius, Lies, Ambition, and the Biggest Scandal in Chess
Ben Mezrich
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: April 7, 2026
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Seller: Hachette Digital, Inc.

"The best black-and-white drama this side of  Chess  on Broadway." - Vanity Fair From the bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires and Bringing Down the House comes the cinematic true story about the biggest scandal in modern chess. In September 2022, the unthinkable happened: nineteen-year-old American chess prodigy Hans Niemann defeated world champion Magnus Carlsen in a stunning face-to-face match. Within days, Carlsen accused Niemann of cheating—a bombshell allegation that rocked the chess world. As the scandal spiraled, Chess.com—the dominant force in online chess—launched a high-stakes investigation igniting a global media firestorm. But Checkmate is about more than a cheating scandal. It’s the story of a teenager willing to risk everything to rise to the top; a reclusive genius suddenly fighting to protect his legacy;  and a centuries-old game transforming into a billion-dollar industry fueled by streaming, sponsorships, and Silicon Valley power players. With exclusive access to the central figures, Ben Mezrich takes readers deep inside the weird, wild, and cutthroat world of competitive chess—where genius meets ambition, and every move could be your last.

Stalin - Stephen Kotkin

Stalin
Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941
Stephen Kotkin
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: October 31, 2017
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

“Monumental.” — The New York Times Book Review Pulitzer Prize-finalist Stephen Kotkin has written the definitive biography of Joseph Stalin, from collectivization and the Great Terror to the conflict with Hitler's Germany that is the signal event of modern world history   In 1929, Joseph Stalin, having already achieved dictatorial power over the vast Soviet Empire, formally ordered the systematic conversion of the world’s largest peasant economy into “socialist modernity,” otherwise known as collectivization, regardless of the cost.   What it cost, and what Stalin ruthlessly enacted, transformed the country and its ruler in profound and enduring ways. Building and running a dictatorship, with life and death power over hundreds of millions, made Stalin into the uncanny figure he became. Stephen Kotkin’s Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941 is the story of how a political system forged an unparalleled personality and vice versa .   The wholesale collectivization of some 120 million peasants necessitated levels of coercion that were extreme even for Russia, and the resulting mass starvation elicited criticism inside the party even from those Communists committed to the eradication of capitalism. But Stalin did not flinch. By 1934, when the Soviet Union had stabilized and socialism had been implanted in the countryside, praise for his stunning anti-capitalist success came from all quarters. Stalin, however, never forgave and never forgot, with shocking consequences as he strove to consolidate the state with a brand new elite of young strivers like himself. Stalin’s obsessions drove him to execute nearly a million people, including the military leadership, diplomatic and intelligence officials, and innumerable leading lights in culture.   While Stalin revived a great power, building a formidable industrialized military, the Soviet Union was effectively alone and surrounded by perceived enemies. The quest for security would bring Soviet Communism to a shocking and improbable pact with Nazi Germany. But that bargain would not unfold as envisioned. The lives of Stalin and Hitler, and the fates of their respective dictatorships, drew ever closer to collision, as the world hung in the balance.   Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941 is a history of the world during the build-up to its most fateful hour, from the vantage point of Stalin’s seat of power. It is a landmark achievement in the annals of historical scholarship, and in the art of biography.

Elizabeth & Margaret - Andrew Morton

Elizabeth & Margaret
The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters
Andrew Morton
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: March 30, 2021
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Seller: Hachette Digital, Inc.

Perfect for fans of The Crown , this captivating biography from a New York Times bestselling author follows Queen Elizabeth II and her sister Margaret as they navigate life in the royal spotlight. They were the closest of sisters and the best of friends. But when, in a quixotic twist of fate, their uncle Edward Vlll decided to abdicate the throne, the dynamic between Elizabeth and Margaret was dramatically altered. Forever more Margaret would have to curtsey to the sister she called 'Lillibet.' And bow to her wishes. Elizabeth would always look upon her younger sister's antics with a kind of stoical amusement, but Margaret's struggle to find a place and position inside the royal system—and her fraught relationship with its expectations—was often a source of tension. Famously, the Queen had to inform Margaret that the Church and government would not countenance her marrying a divorcee, Group Captain Peter Townsend, forcing Margaret to choose between keeping her title and royal allowances or her divorcee lover. From the idyll of their cloistered early life, through their hidden war-time lives, into the divergent paths they took following their father's death and Elizabeth's ascension to the throne, this book explores their relationship over the years. Andrew Morton's latest biography offers unique insight into these two drastically different sisters—one resigned to duty and responsibility, the other resistant to it—and the lasting impact they have had on the Crown, the royal family, and the ways it adapted to the changing mores of the 20th century.

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone - Lori Gottlieb

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
Lori Gottlieb
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: April 2, 2019
Publisher: Harper
Seller: HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! “Rarely have I read a book that challenged me to see myself in an entirely new light, and was at the same time laugh-out-loud funny and utterly absorbing.”—Katie Couric “This is a daring, delightful, and transformative book.”—Arianna Huffington, Founder, Huffington Post and Founder & CEO, Thrive Global “Wise, warm, smart, and funny. You must read this book.”—Susan Cain, New York Times best-selling author of Quiet From a New York Times best-selling author, psychotherapist, and national advice columnist, comes a hilarious, thought-provoking, and surprising new psychotherapist memoir that takes us behind the scenes of a therapist’s world—where her patients are looking for answers (and so is she). One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis of love and loss causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose office she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but. As Gottlieb explores the inner chambers of her patients’ lives — a self-absorbed Hollywood producer, a young newlywed diagnosed with a terminal illness, a senior citizen threatening to end her life on her birthday if nothing gets better, and a twenty-something who can’t stop hooking up with the wrong guys — she finds that the questions they are struggling with are the very ones she is now bringing to Wendell on her own path of self-discovery. With startling wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world of psychology as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change. One of the most compelling personal memoirs of our time, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is revolutionary in its candor, offering a deeply personal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds and providing the rarest of gifts: a boldly revealing portrait of what it means to be human, and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them. This unforgettable memoir is a guide to the perplexing mysteries of being human, revealing: A Therapist Goes to Therapy: When a crisis sends psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb’s world crashing down, she lands on the couch of a quirky therapist named Wendell and discovers she has just as much to learn as her patients. Behind the Scenes of Therapy: Step into the therapy room and meet a cast of unforgettable patients—from a self-absorbed Hollywood producer to a young newlywed facing a terminal illness—who are all searching for answers. Profound Human Connection: Explore the universal truths and fictions we tell ourselves about love, desire, meaning, and mortality in this deeply personal tour of our hearts and minds. Funny and Heartwarming Storytelling: Discover a book that is at once laugh-out-loud funny and profoundly moving, a rare portrait of what it means to be human and our power to change.

Washington - Ron Chernow

Washington
A Life (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
Ron Chernow
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $16.99
Publish Date: October 5, 2010
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

From the author of  Alexander Hamilton , the New York Times bestselling biography that inspired the musical, comes a  gripping portrait of the first president of the United States. Winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Biography “Truly magnificent . . . [a] well-researched, well-written and absolutely definitive biography”  —Andrew Roberts,  The Wall Street Journal “Until recently, I’d never believed that there could be such a thing as a truly gripping biography of George Washington . . . Well, I was wrong. I can’t recommend it highly enough—as history, as epic, and, not least, as entertainment.”  —Hendrik Hertzberg,  The New Yorker Celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation and the first president of the United States. With a breadth and depth matched by no other one volume biography of George Washington, this crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his adventurous early years, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America's first president. In this groundbreaking work, based on massive research, Chernow shatters forever the stereotype of George Washington as a stolid, unemotional figure and brings to vivid life a dashing, passionate man of fiery opinions and many moods. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s smash Broadway musical  Hamilton  has sparked new interest in the Revolutionary War and the Founding Fathers. In addition to Alexander Hamilton, the production also features George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Aaron Burr, Lafayette, and many more.

Shoe Dog - Phil Knight

Shoe Dog
A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
Phil Knight
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: April 26, 2016
Publisher: Scribner
Seller: Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC

In this instant and tenacious New York Times bestseller, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight “offers a rare and revealing look at the notoriously media-shy man behind the swoosh” ( Booklist , starred review), illuminating his company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. Bill Gates named Shoe Dog one of his five favorite books of the year and called it “an amazing tale, a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like. It’s a messy, perilous, and chaotic journey, riddled with mistakes, endless struggles, and sacrifice. Phil Knight opens up in ways few CEOs are willing to do.” Fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his car in 1963, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In this age of start-ups, Knight’s Nike is the gold standard, and its swoosh is one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always been a mystery. In Shoe Dog , he tells his story at last. At twenty-four, Knight decides that rather than work for a big corporation, he will create something all his own, new, dynamic, different. He details the many risks he encountered, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors and hostile bankers—as well as his many thrilling triumphs. Above all, he recalls the relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers. Together, harnessing the electrifying power of a bold vision and a shared belief in the transformative power of sports, they created a brand—and a culture—that changed everything.

Elizabeth II - Robert Hardman

Elizabeth II
In Private. In Public. Her Story.
Robert Hardman
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $19.99
Publish Date: April 21, 2026
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Seller: Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC

A celebration of the life of Queen Elizabeth II on the centenary of her birth, by the bestselling author of The Making of a King and Queen of Our Times. Elizabeth II was not born to reign. Like that other great queen in modern history, Victoria, the throne came to her by indirect means. Yet she would become one of the most beloved monarchs in history, surpassing almost every entry in the royal record book. As a child, her idyllic life on the royal fringe was transformed first by the scandalous love life of her wayward uncle and then by war. Despite multiple attacks on the family home, she watched and learned from her father has he led his nation through much suffering to victory, falling in love along the way. At the age of just twenty-five—a young wife and mother of two—she suddenly found herself head of state of much of the Earth, with the greatest statesman of the age as her senior adviser. Her coronation was a moment of national rejuvenation, though swiftly followed by the first of many challenges and crises – personal, political, and global - which would test her over seven decades. The highs and lows of ordinary family life, for her, would be mercilessly scrutinised and magnified through the lens of the world’s media. Unlike Shakespeare’s monarchs, the dramatists would set to work in her own lifetime. Yet she also managed to remain an endlessly fascinating mystery to the end, revered and mourned worldwide. No one has written more authoritatively on the life of Elizabeth II than Robert Hardman, the only biographer to have interviewed the entire Royal Family. On the centenary of her birth, amid all the commemorating and celebrating, it is time to bring the whole extraordinary story of her life to a new audience in a fresh, accessible, concise portrait—one which will enthrall those who have now come to realize that Elizabeth II was not merely the most famous woman in the world, captured on banknotes, coins, and The Crown . She was one of history’s all-time greats, and this finely-written and original narrative reveals why.

Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I’ve Cried About - Isabel Klee

Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I’ve Cried About
A Memoir
Isabel Klee
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Expected Publish Date: April 28, 2026
Publisher: William Morrow
Seller: HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS

From the social media superstar behind @SimonSits, Isabel Klee—known for her heartwarming tales of dog rescue—comes an utterly winning memoir about a twentysomething woman’s search for true love in New York City and the dogs who helped her find it. A Jersey girl by birth, Isabel Klee had always wanted to live in New York City. At age 20, she got her chance, ditching her college upstate and moving into a grungy basement apartment in Manhattan. Dog-obsessed since childhood, her first post-grad job was becoming an assistant to a dog photographer, and something clicked into place: a career focused on helping dogs was the new dream. Isabel quickly found a passion for rehabilitating rescue dogs and helping them get adopted. At the same time, she was caught up in a whirlwind of friendships, parties, fickle boyfriends and grand romances, which she recounts in honest, tender, and sometimes devastating chapters about the search for love and belonging. Isabel’s first true love, though, was Simon, a fluffy puppy who’d been saved from the meat trade. As the highs and lows of her twenties hit Isabel in wave after wave, it was Simon who kept her grounded. Together, Isabel and Simon created a community of dog-lovers and a tight-knit group of friends pursuing their dreams. In this honest and moving memoir, Isabel weaves together the stories of her foster dogs—and the challenges she helped them overcome—with tales of complicated relationships, hard decisions, and great loves in New York City, all leading to a happy ending not only for the rescue pups, but for Isabel herself.

Memorial Days - Geraldine Brooks

Memorial Days
A Memoir
Geraldine Brooks
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $12.99
Publish Date: February 4, 2025
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER · A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist A New York Times Notable Book of 2025 · A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2025 · A Time Best Memoir of 2025 · Named a Best Book of 2025 by NPR, People , Air Mail , Bookreporter , and Publishers Weekly “Brooks tracks the geography of grief with patience and grace as she comes to terms with the ongoing nature of outliving the ones you love most. ... Her memoir is certainly a testament to her own unique loss, but it’s moreover a lifeline to others who will find themselves in this familiar, shattered landscape of grief.” — Los Angeles Times “A rich account of marriage and mourning.” — Washington Post A heartrending and beautiful memoir of sudden loss and a journey towards peace, from the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of  Horse Many cultural and religious traditions expect those who are grieving to step away from the world. In contemporary life, we are more often met with red tape and to-do lists. This is exactly what happened to Geraldine Brooks when her partner of more than three decades, Tony Horwitz – just sixty years old and, to her knowledge, vigorous and healthy – collapsed and died on a Washington, D. C. sidewalk. After spending their early years together in conflict zones as foreign correspondents, Geraldine and Tony settled down to raise two boys on Martha’s Vineyard. The life they built was one of meaningful work, good humor, and tenderness, as they spent their days writing and their evenings cooking family dinners or watching the sun set with friends at the beach. But all of this ended abruptly when, on Memorial Day 2019, Geraldine received the phone call we all dread. The demands were immediate and many. Without space to grieve, the sudden loss became a yawning gulf. Three years later, she booked a flight to a remote island off the coast of Australia with the intention of finally giving herself the time to mourn. In a shack on a pristine, rugged coast she often went days without seeing another person. There, she pondered the various ways in which cultures grieve and what rituals of her own might help to rebuild a life around the void of Tony’s death. A spare and profoundly moving memoir that joins the classics of the genre, Memorial Days is a portrait of a larger-than-life man and a timeless love between souls that exquisitely captures the joy, agony, and mystery of life.

Lovely One - Ketanji Brown Jackson

Lovely One
A Memoir
Ketanji Brown Jackson
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: September 3, 2024
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In her “vulnerable, tender, and infinitely inspirational” ( Oprah Daily ) memoir, the first Black woman to ever be appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States chronicles her extraordinary life story. “A billowingly triumphant American tale.”— The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR With this unflinching account, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson invites readers into her life and world, tracing her family’s ascent from segregation to her confirmation on America’s highest court within the span of one generation.   Named “Ketanji Onyika,” meaning “Lovely One,” based on a suggestion from her aunt, a Peace Corps worker stationed in West Africa, Justice Jackson learned from her educator parents to take pride in her heritage since birth. She describes her resolve as a young girl to honor this legacy and realize her dreams: from hearing stories of her grandparents and parents breaking barriers in the segregated South, to honing her voice in high school as an oratory champion and student body president, to graduating magna cum laude from Harvard, where she performed in musical theater and improv and participated in pivotal student organizations.   Here, Justice Jackson pulls back the curtain, marrying the public record of her life with what is less known. She reveals what it takes to advance in the legal profession when most people in power don’t look like you, and to reconcile a demanding career with the joys and sacrifices of marriage and motherhood.   Through trials and triumphs, Justice Jackson’s journey will resonate with dreamers everywhere, especially those who nourish outsized ambitions and refuse to be turned aside. This moving, openhearted tale will spread hope for a more just world, for generations to come.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
Hunter S. Thompson
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $8.99
Publish Date: July 17, 1989
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

A fiftieth-anniversary edition of the cult classic of gonzo journalism, hailed as “the best book on the dope decade” ( The New York Times Book Review ), featuring Ralph Steadman’s original drawings and an introduction by Caity Weaver The inspiration for the major motion picture directed by Terry Gilliam, starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro “A scorching epochal sensation!”—Tom Wolfe First published in Rolling Stone magazine in 1971, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever experienced. The writer’s account of an assignment he undertook with his attorney to visit Las Vegas and “check it out,” the book stands as the final word on the highs and lows of the 1960s, one of the defining works of our time and a stylistic and journalistic tour de force.

Lit - Mary Karr

Lit
A Memoir
Mary Karr
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: November 3, 2009
Publisher: Harper
Seller: HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR New York Times Book Review • The New Yorker • Entertainment Weekly • Time • Washington Post • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • Christian Science Monitor • Slate • St. Louise Post-Dispatch • Cleveland Plain Dealer • Seattle Times • NBCC Award Finalist Mary Karr’s unforgettable sequel to her beloved and bestselling memoirs The Liars’ Club and Cherry "lassos you, hogties your emotions and won’t let you go" (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times ). Lit is a riveting story of addiction and recovery about getting drunk and getting sober; becoming a mother by letting go of a mother; learning to write by learning to live. Written with Karr's relentless honesty, unflinching self-scrutiny, and irreverent, lacerating humor, this literary memoir is a truly electrifying story of how to grow up—as only Mary Karr can tell it. The Boston Globe calls Lit a book that "reminds us not only how compelling personal stories can be, but how, in the hands of a master, they can transmute into the highest art." The New York Times Book Review calls it "a master class on the art of the memoir" and Susan Cheever states, simply, that Lit is "the best book about being a woman in America I have read in years." A landmark memoir about motherhood, faith, and the writer’s life, Lit explores: Journey to Sobriety: From drunken nights on a back porch to the church basement meeting that changes everything, Karr chronicles her escape from alcoholism with unflinching candor. Memoir about Motherhood: The story of becoming a mother by letting go of a mother—a powerful look at breaking the cycle of family dysfunction and finding a new way to love. A Writer’s Life: A poet’s transformation, this is a master class on how learning to live—and get sober—is essential to learning how to write. Finding Faith: The raw, unexpected, and often hilarious story of a reluctant convert finding her way from the Ivy League to a Catholic church, discovering a spiritual life she never thought possible.

Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! - Liza Minnelli

Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!
Liza Minnelli
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $16.99
Publish Date: March 10, 2026
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Seller: Hachette Digital, Inc.

“A bombshell, jaw-dropping memoir” —People Magazine  #1 New York Times Bestseller  Global icon Liza Minnelli shares her inspiring story: stepping out from the long shadow of a mega-star mother and legendary film director father, fighting a lifetime battle with addiction , and emerging from it all to become a once-in-a-lifetime artist. Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! is the autobiography of EGOT icon Liza Minnelli. This fascinating, untold story reveals the intimate truth of the only child born to Hollywood legends Vincente Minnelli and Judy Garland. For the first time, here is Liza up close: Raw, strong, sexy, hilarious and heartbreaking. Liza decided at the age of 16  that “sympathy is my mother’s business. I give people joy.” That veil of joy, however, masks a lifelong struggle with Substance Use Disorder ("SUD," which Liza inherited from her mother's branch of her family), boundless love to give and an equal need to receive it, broken marriages, multiple miscarriages, and hospitalizations—the highs and lows of unparalleled artistic success and lifelong friendships, as well as chronic anxiety and the threat of financial ruin.   Despite every challenge, Liza’s is a life wrapped in laughter and her tremendous capacity to give and receive love. Today at nearly 80, she opens her heart, mind and memories, sharing secrets we never knew. Liza’s book celebrates supreme artistry and, more importantly, her human rights activism. “It’s time to tell the truth," Liza says, “and help people heal, as I have, one day at a time.”   

The Last Castle - Denise Kiernan

The Last Castle
The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home
Denise Kiernan
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: September 26, 2017
Publisher: Atria Books
Seller: Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC

A New York Times bestseller with an “engaging narrative and array of detail” ( The Wall Street Journal ), the “intimate and sweeping” ( Raleigh News & Observer ) untold true story of the Biltmore Estate—the largest private home in America—and the remarkable woman who helped ensure its survival. The story of Biltmore spans World Wars, the Jazz Age, the Depression, and generations of the famous Vanderbilt family, and features a captivating cast of real-life characters including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Teddy Roosevelt, John Singer Sargent, James Whistler, Henry James, and Edith Wharton. Orphaned at a young age, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser claimed lineage from one of New York’s best known families. She grew up in Newport and Paris, and her engagement and marriage to George Vanderbilt was one of the most watched events of Gilded Age society. But none of this prepared her to be mistress of Biltmore House. Before their marriage, the wealthy and bookish Vanderbilt had dedicated his life to creating a spectacular European-style estate on 125,000 acres of North Carolina wilderness. He summoned the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to tame the grounds, collaborated with celebrated architect Richard Morris Hunt to build a 175,000-square-foot chateau, filled it with priceless art and antiques, and erected a charming village beyond the gates. Newlywed Edith was now mistress of an estate nearly three times the size of Washington, DC and benefactress of the village and surrounding rural area. When fortunes shifted and changing times threatened her family, her home, and her community, it was up to Edith to save Biltmore—and secure the future of the region and her husband’s legacy. This is the fascinating, “soaring and gorgeous” (Karen Abbott) story of how the largest house in America flourished, faltered, and ultimately endured to this day.

Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom

Tuesdays with Morrie
An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson, 25th Anniversary Edition
Mitch Albom
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $9.99
Publish Date: August 18, 1997
Publisher: Crown
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A special 25th anniversary edition of the beloved book that has changed millions of lives with the story of an unforgettable friendship, the timeless wisdom of older generations, and healing lessons on loss and grief—featuring a new afterword by the author   “A wonderful book, a story of the heart told by a writer with soul.”— Los Angeles Times   “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”   Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it.   For Mitch Albom, that person was his college professor Morrie Schwartz. Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder. Wouldn’t you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you, receive wisdom for your busy life today the way you once did when you were younger? Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man’s life. Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final “class”: lessons in how to live. “The truth is, Mitch,” he said, “once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.” Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie’s lasting gift with the world.

Pistol - Mark Kriegel

Pistol
A Biography of Pete Maravich
Mark Kriegel
Genre: Sports Bios & Memoirs
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: February 6, 2007
Publisher: Free Press
Seller: Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC

Pistol is more than the biography of a ballplayer. It's the stuff of classic novels: the story of a boy transformed by his father's dream -- and the cost of that dream. Even as Pete Maravich became Pistol Pete -- a basketball icon for baby boomers -- all the Maraviches paid a price. Now acclaimed author Mark Kriegel has brilliantly captured the saga of an American family: its rise, its apparent ruin, and, finally, its redemption. Almost four decades have passed since Maravich entered the national consciousness as basketball's boy wizard. No one had ever played the game like the kid with the floppy socks and shaggy hair. And all these years later, no one else ever has. The idea of Pistol Pete continues to resonate with young people today just as powerfully as it did with their fathers. In averaging 44.2 points a game at Louisiana State University, he established records that will never be broken. But even more enduring than the numbers was the sense of ecstasy and artistry with which he played. With the ball in his hands, Maravich had a singular power to inspire awe, inflict embarrassment, or even tell a joke. But he wasn't merely a mesmerizing showman. He was basketball's answer to Elvis, a white Southerner who sold Middle America on a black man's game. Like Elvis, he paid a terrible price, becoming a prisoner of his own fame. Set largely in the South, Kriegel's Pistol, a tale of obsession and basketball, fathers and sons, merges several archetypal characters. Maravich was a child prodigy, a prodigal son, his father's ransom in a Faustian bargain, and a Great White Hope. But he was also a creature of contradictions: always the outsider but a virtuoso in a team sport, an exuberant showman who wouldn't look you in the eye, a vegetarian boozer, an athlete who lived like a rock star, a suicidal genius saved by Jesus Christ. A renowned biographer -- People magazine called him "a master" -- Kriegel renders his subject with a style that is, by turns, heartbreaking, lyrical, and electric. The narrative begins in 1929, the year a missionary gave Pete's father a basketball. Press Maravich had been a neglected child trapped in a hellish industrial town, but the game enabled him to blossom. It also caused him to confuse basketball with salvation. The intensity of Press's obsession initiates a journey across three generations of Maraviches. Pistol Pete, a ballplayer unlike any other, was a product of his father's vanity and vision. But that dream continues to exact a price on Pete's own sons. Now in their twenties -- and fatherless for most of their lives -- they have waged their own struggles with the game and its ghosts. Pistol is an unforgettable biography. By telling one family's history, Kriegel has traced the history of the game and a large slice of the American narrative.

I Regret Almost Everything - Keith McNally

I Regret Almost Everything
A Memoir
Keith McNally
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: May 6, 2025
Publisher: Gallery Books
Seller: Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC

New York Times Bestseller The entertaining, irreverent, and surprisingly moving memoir by the visionary restaurateur behind such iconic New York institutions as Balthazar and Pastis. A memoir by the legendary proprietor of Balthazar, Pastis, Minetta Tavern, and Morandi, taking us from his gritty London childhood in the fifties to his serendipitous arrival in New York, where he founded the era-defining establishments the Odeon, Cafe Luxembourg, and Nell’s. Eloquent and opinionated, Keith McNally writes about the angst of being a child actor, his lack of insights from traveling overland to Kathmandu at nineteen, the instability of his two marriages and family relationships, his devastating stroke, and his Instagram notoriety.

Acid for the Children - Flea & Patti Smith

Acid for the Children
A Memoir
Flea & Patti Smith
Genre: Arts & Entertainment
Price: $2.99
Publish Date: November 5, 2019
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Seller: Hachette Digital, Inc.

With "virtuosic vulnerability" ( The Atlantic ), the iconic bassist and Red Hot Chili peppers co-founder pens a love letter to a youth spent wild in Los Angeles in his raw and riveting coming-of-age memoir. In Acid for the Children , Flea takes readers on a deeply personal and revealing tour of his formative years, spanning from Australia to the New York City suburbs to, finally, Los Angeles. Through hilarious anecdotes, poetical meditations, and occasional flights of fantasy, Flea deftly chronicles the experiences that forged him as an artist, a musician, and a young man. His dreamy, jazz-inflected prose makes the Los Angeles of the 1970s and 80s come to gritty, glorious life, including the potential for fun, danger, mayhem, or inspiration that lurked around every corner. It is here that young Flea, looking to escape a turbulent home, found family in a community of musicians, artists, and junkies who also lived on the fringe. He spent most of his time partying and committing petty crimes. But it was in music where he found a higher meaning, a place to channel his frustration, loneliness, and love. This left him open to the life-changing moment when he and his best friends, soul brothers, and partners-in-mischief came up with the idea to start their own band, which became the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Acid for the Children is the debut of a stunning new literary voice, whose prose is as witty, entertaining, and wildly unpredictable as the author himself. It's a tenderly evocative coming-of-age story and a raucous love letter to the power of music and creativity from one of the most renowned musicians of our time. New York Times Bestseller A #1 LA Times Bestseller A USA Today Bestseller One of NPR's "Favorite Books of 2019"

Autobiography of a Yogi (Complete Edition) - Paramahansa Yogananda

Autobiography of a Yogi (Complete Edition)
Paramahansa Yogananda
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $2.99
Publish Date: May 8, 2014
Publisher: Self-Realization Fellowship
Seller: Self-Realization Fellowship Church

Autobiography of a Yogi  is at once a beautifully written account of an exceptional life and a profound introduction to the ancient science of Yoga and its time-honored tradition of meditation. Profoundly inspiring, it is at the same time vastly entertaining, warmly humorous and filled with extraordinary personages. With engaging candor, eloquence, and wit, Paramahansa Yogananda tells the inspiring chronicle of his life: the experiences of his remarkable childhood, encounters with many saints and sages during his youthful search throughout India for an illumined teacher, ten years of training in the hermitage of a revered yoga master, and the thirty years that he lived and taught in America. Also recorded here are his meetings with Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Luther Burbank, the Catholic stigmatist Therese Neumann, and other celebrated spiritual personalities of East and West. The author clearly explains the subtle but definite laws behind both the ordinary events of everyday life and the extraordinary events commonly termed miracles. His absorbing life story becomes the background for a penetrating and unforgettable look at the ultimate mysteries of human existence.  Selected as "One of the 100 Best Spiritual Books of the Twentieth Century", Autobiography of a Yogi has been translated into more than 30 languages, and is regarded worldwide as a classic of religious literature. Several million copies have been sold, and it continues to appear on best-seller lists after more than sixty consecutive years in print. Self-Realization Fellowship's  editions, and none others, include extensive material added by the author after the first edition was published, including a final chapter on the closing years of his life.

From Here to the Great Unknown: Oprah's Book Club - Lisa Marie Presley & Riley Keough

From Here to the Great Unknown: Oprah's Book Club
A Memoir
Lisa Marie Presley & Riley Keough
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $12.99
Publish Date: October 8, 2024
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • Born to an American myth and raised in the wilds of Graceland, Lisa Marie Presley tells her whole story for the first time in this raw, riveting, one-of-a-kind memoir faithfully completed by her daughter, Riley Keough. A PEOPLE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR In 2022, Lisa Marie Presley asked her daughter to help finally finish her long-gestating memoir. A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words, never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and now grieved.   Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, lay in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland, about the unconditional love she felt from her father, about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran toward his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble. About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, about being married to Michael Jackson, what they had in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world.   To make her mother known.   This extraordinary book is written in both Lisa Marie’s and Riley’s voices, a mother and daughter communicating—from this world to the one beyond—as they try to heal each other. Profoundly moving and deeply revealing, From Here to the Great Unknown is a book like no other—the last words of the only child of an American icon.

I'm Staying with My Boys - Jim Proser & Jerry Cutler

I'm Staying with My Boys
The Heroic Life of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC
Jim Proser & Jerry Cutler
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $2.99
Publish Date: February 2, 2010
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Seller: OpenRoad Integrated Media, LLC

The authorized biography of the legendary Marine featured in HBO'S The Pacific , a true American hero who gave his life in service during World War II. I'm Staying with My Boys is a firsthand look inside the life of one of the greatest heroes of the Greatest Generation. Sgt. John Basilone held off three thousand Japanese troops at Guadalcanal after his fifteen-member unit was reduced to three men. At Iwo Jima he single-handedly destroyed an enemy blockhouse, allowing his unit to capture an airfield. Minutes later he was killed by an enemy artillery round. He was the only Marine in World War II to have received the Medal of Honor, the Navy Cross, and a Purple Heart, and is arguably the most famous Marine of all time. I'm Staying with My Boys is the only family-authorized biography of Basilone, and it features photographs never before published. Distinctive among military biographies, the story is told in first person, allowing readers to experience his transformation, forged in the horrors of battle, from aimless youth to war hero known as "Manila John." Praise for I'm Staying with My Boys "Everyone should read this book, the story of a true American hero. I served with John Basilone and I can hear his voice on every page." —Thomas O. Nass, 5th Marine Division, World War II "This book about the legendary John Basilone is presented in such a personal style that one would believe that "Manila John" is still alive. Not since William Manchester authored his memoir Goodbye, Darkness twenty-five years ago has a book been written about one man that seems so authentic." —Col. Ken Jordan, USMC (Ret.)

Solito: A Read with Jenna Pick - Javier Zamora

Solito: A Read with Jenna Pick
A Memoir
Javier Zamora
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $9.99
Publish Date: September 6, 2022
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

New York Times Bestseller • Read With Jenna Book Club Pick as seen on Today • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiography • Winner of the American Library Association Alex Award • A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century A young poet tells the inspiring story of his migration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine in this “gripping memoir” (NPR) of bravery, hope, and finding family. Finalist for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction • One of the New York Public Library’s Ten Best Books of the Year Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence and the PEN/Open Book Award “ I read Solito with my heart in my throat and did not burst into tears until the last sentence. What a person, what a writer, what a book. ” —Emma Straub “A riveting tale of perseverance and the lengths humans will go to help each other in times of struggle.”—Dave Eggers ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Vulture, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews Trip. My parents started using that word about a year ago—“one day, you’ll take a trip to be with us. Like an adventure.” Javier Zamora’s adventure is a three-thousand-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the U.S. border. He will leave behind his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with a mother who left four years ago and a father he barely remembers. Traveling alone amid a group of strangers and a “coyote” hired to lead them to safety, Javier expects his trip to last two short weeks. At nine years old, all Javier can imagine is rushing into his parents’ arms, snuggling in bed between them, and living under the same roof again. He cannot foresee the perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, pointed guns, arrests and deceptions that await him; nor can he know that those two weeks will expand into two life-altering months alongside fellow migrants who will come to encircle him like an unexpected family. A memoir as gripping as it is moving, Solito provides an immediate and intimate account not only of a treacherous and near-impossible journey, but also of the miraculous kindness and love delivered at the most unexpected moments. Solito is Javier Zamora’s story, but it’s also the story of millions of others who had no choice but to leave home.

Come As You Are - Michael Azerrad

Come As You Are
The Story of Nirvana
Michael Azerrad
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $11.99
Publish Date: September 1, 1993
Publisher: Crown
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

The definitive biography of the revolutionary band Nirvana and its star-crossed frontman Kurt Cobain, hailed by Rolling Stone as “the first [book] to comprehensively tell the band’s tale from Aberdeen, Wash., to world domination”   “Amazingly raw and candid . . . an unsparing and extremely honest depiction of the group’s highly tumultuous history . . . Come As You Are is as good as rock bios get.”— Billboard “Just tell the truth. That’ll be better than anything else that’s been written about me.”—Kurt Cobain Nirvana came out of nowhere in 1991 to sell nearly five million copies of their landmark album Nevermind , whose thunderous sound and indelible melodies embodied all the confusion, frustration, and passion of the emerging Generation X. Come As You Are is the close-up, intimate story of Nirvana—the only book with exclusive in-depth interviews with bandmembers Kurt Cobain, Krist Noveselic, and Dave Grohl, as well as friends, relatives, former bandmembers, and associates—now updated to include a final chapter detailing the last year of Kurt Cobain's life, before his tragic suicide in April 1994.   Vivid, evocative, and thought-provoking, Come As You Are is an essential document not just for Nirvana fans but for anyone interested in the cultural legacy of the 1990s.

The Salt Path - Raynor Winn

The Salt Path
A Memoir
Raynor Winn
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: March 5, 2019
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

THE MULTI-MILLION COPY INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING GILLIAN ANDERSON AND JASON ISAACS "Polished, poignant... an inspiring story of true love ." — Entertainment Weekly A BEST BOOK OF 2019, NPR's Book Concierge SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BOOK AWARD The true story of a couple who lost everything and embarked on a transformative journey walking the South West Coast Path in England Just days after Raynor Winn learns that Moth, her husband of thirty-two years, is terminally ill, their house and farm are taken away, along with their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, through Devon and Cornwall. Carrying only the essentials for survival on their backs, they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea, and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter, and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable and life-affirming journey. Powerfully written and unflinchingly honest, The Salt Path is ultimately a portrayal of home—how it can be lost, rebuilt, and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways.

Beauty in the Broken Places - Allison Pataki & David Levy

Beauty in the Broken Places
A Memoir of Love, Faith, and Resilience
Allison Pataki & David Levy
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $12.99
Publish Date: May 1, 2018
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

“An inspiring, intimate memoir about faith, resilience and the tenacity of love.”— People “In this emotional tale, a young couple see their lives changed in the blink of an eye—and learn to find love again.”— US Weekly Five months pregnant, on a flight to their “babymoon,” Allison Pataki turned to her husband when he asked if his eye looked strange and watched him suddenly lose consciousness. After an emergency landing, she discovered that Dave—a healthy thirty-year-old athlete and surgical resident—had suffered a rare and life-threatening stroke. Next thing Allison knew, she was sitting alone in the ER in Fargo, North Dakota, waiting to hear if her husband would survive the night. When Dave woke up, he could not carry memories from hour to hour, much less from one day to the next. Allison had lost the Dave she knew and loved when he lost consciousness on the plane. Within a few months, she found herself caring for both a newborn and a sick husband, struggling with the fear of what was to come. As a way to make sense of the pain and chaos of their new reality, Allison started to write daily letters to Dave. Not only would she work to make sense of the unfathomable experiences unfolding around her, but her letters would provide Dave with the memories he could not make on his own. She was writing to preserve their past, protect their present, and fight for their future. Those letters became the foundation of this beautiful, intimate memoir. And in the process, she fell in love with her husband all over again. This is a manifesto for living, an ultimately uplifting story about the transformative power of faith and resilience. It’s a tale of a man’s turbulent road to recovery, the shifting nature of marriage, and the struggle of loving through pain and finding joy in the broken places. Praise for Beauty in the Broken Places “Bold and commendable . . . A strength of this memoir is [Allison Pataki’s] scrupulous honesty.” — USA Today “A memoir about . . . determination and gratitude, and the value of putting one foot in front of another during a crisis.” — The Washington Post “Heart-wrenching.” — Women’s Health “Powerful and immersive . . . Pataki delivers an insightful look at how two people faced a life-altering test as a team ‘fighting to make the dreams of our future possible.’”— Publishers Weekly   (starred review)

Have I Told You This Already? - Lauren Graham

Have I Told You This Already?
Stories I Don't Want to Forget to Remember
Lauren Graham
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $12.99
Publish Date: November 15, 2022
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the beloved star of Gilmore Girls and the New York Times bestselling author of Talking as Fast as I Can comes an “insightful, honest, funny, and moving collection of captivating stories” ( BuzzFeed ). “Graham is fast and furiously funny. . . . Where Graham leads, we will definitely follow.”— E! Online Lauren Graham has graced countless television screens with her quick-witted characters and hilarious talk show appearances, earning a reputation as a pop culture icon who always has something to say. In her latest book, Have I Told You This Already?, Graham combines her signature sense of humor with down-to-earth storytelling. Graham shares personal stories about her life and career—from her early days spent pounding the pavement while waitressing in New York City, to living on her aunt’s couch during her first Los Angeles pilot season, to thoughts on aging gracefully in Hollywood. In “R.I.P. Barneys New York” Graham writes about an early job as a salesperson at the legendary department store (and the time she inadvertently shoplifted from it); in “Ryan Gosling Cannot Confirm,” she attempts to navigate the unspoken rules of Hollywood hierarchies; in “Boobs of the ’90s” she worries her bras haven’t kept up with the times; and in “Actor-y Factory” she recounts what a day in the life of an actor looks like (unless you’re Brad Pitt).  Filled with surprising anecdotes, sage advice, and laugh-out-loud observations, these all-new, original essays showcase the winning charm and wry humor that have delighted Graham’s millions of fans.

Rogers Hornsby - Charles C. Alexander

Rogers Hornsby
A Biography
Charles C. Alexander
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $2.99
Publish Date: November 5, 2013
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Seller: OpenRoad Integrated Media, LLC

The true life story of one of early twentieth century's baseball legends—a Most Valuable Player and Hall of Famer who was as difficult as he was talented. A relentless competitor, Rogers Hornsby—arguably the finest right-handed hitter in baseball's history—was supremely successful on the baseball field but, in many ways, a failure off it. In this biography, Charles Alexander turns his skilled eye to this complex individual, weaving the stories of his personal and professional life with a lively history of the sport. "Destined to occupy prominent shelf space in baseball's essential library." — The Sporting News "The author delves into Hornsby's professional and personal life: his relationship with managers Miller Huggins, Branch Rickey and John McGraw; his scandalous affair and subsequent 20-year marriage to a 'flapper'; his personal prohibition on drinking and smoking; his reluctance to watch movies because they might impinge on his eyesight; and his obsession with horse racing-although he never learned to read a racing form. Alexander reviews Hornsby's successful tenure as player-manager of the Cardinals; his subsequent stints with the Giants, Braves, Cubs and Browns; and his career as manager and coach." — Publishers Weekly

Small Town Girls - Jayne Anne Phillips

Small Town Girls
a writer's memoir
Jayne Anne Phillips
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: April 21, 2026
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

OPRAH'S #1 MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2026 • A luminous memoir in essays from the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer, who reflects on her origins and the mysteries of memory. “A brilliant, wide-ranging book, nostalgic and tough-minded at the same time. Like Willa Cather and Stephen Crane, Jayne Anne Phillips writes prose that reads like plainspoken poetry, full of startling and vivid images that bring a vanished world back to life before our eyes.” —Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers “The painful thing about adolescence is that everything seems absolute, and the painful thing about adulthood is that nothing does.” Jayne Anne Phillips grew up in the small town of Buckhannon, West Virginia. The distinctly American landscape of Appalachia—dense with forests and small churches, rich in history and misunderstandings—has been the great setting for her fiction, even as she and her boundless imagination have traveled to other times and places. In her distinctive first-person voice, Phillips brings us into her childhood and family, most movingly her closeness with her mother. She re-creates the place she calls home, its foundational truths and the densely woven ties among the women of the town. She traces her journeys across the country and her discovery of writing and reading as tools for both survival and revelation, offering insights into the fellow writers and touchstones that moved and influenced her. From the local beauty salon to the legendary Hatfield–McCoy feud, from Jean Shrimpton and Barbara Stanwyck to Stephen Crane and Breece D’J Pancake, Phillips ponders her relationship with inspiration, spirituality, culture, and the troubled annals of the last American centuries. Tender, inviting, sparkling with wisdom and openheartedness, Small Town Girls is part coming-of-age story, part social history, and Jayne Anne Phillips’s most personal, most accessible book yet—a love letter to the place and the people who have shaped her perceptions and her writing.

Society of the Snow - Pablo Vierci & Jennie Erikson

Society of the Snow
The Definitive Account of the World’s Greatest Survival Story
Pablo Vierci & Jennie Erikson
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: December 14, 2023
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Seller: Hachette Digital, Inc.

It was 13 October 1972. Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, carrying a team of young rugby players, their families and friends, took off for the very last time. A deadly miscalculation saw F571 crash directly into the Andean mountains to devastating consequences: the body of the plane broke violently into two, its floor torn to smithereens; seats flew out of the air taking passengers with them. In the weeks that followed, the remaining people who were on board - the society of the snow - emerged to fight a dire, gruelling battle for survival. Waiting for a rescue team that didn't arrive, the survivors became fewer and fewer in numbers. Stranded alone on a glacier, they had to face brutal temperatures, lethal avalanches and the loss of friends and family with no access to supplies, food or water. In order to survive, they had to do the unthinkable . . . It wasn't until seventy-two days later that they were able to reach safety. Alarmingly gritty, moving and powerfully told, journalist Pablo Vierci recounts the unsettling stories of the sixteen survivors in intimate detail. Drawing on exclusive interviews, Society of the Snow delves into the tragedy of the crash and how it radically redefined the rest of the survivors' lives. Ultimately, however, the book is a touching testament to the strength of faith, friendship, and the resilience of the human spirit.

Shrill - Lindy West

Shrill
Notes from a Loud Woman
Lindy West
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $2.99
Publish Date: May 17, 2016
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Seller: Hachette Digital, Inc.

Shrill is an uproarious memoir, a feminist rallying cry in a world that thinks gender politics are tedious and that women, especially feminists, can't be funny. Coming of age in a culture that demands women be as small, quiet, and compliant as possible -- like a porcelain dove that will also have sex with you -- writer and humoristLindy West quickly discovered that she was anything but. From a painfully shy childhood in which she tried, unsuccessfully, to hide her big body and even bigger opinions; to her public war with stand-up comedians over rape jokes; to her struggle to convince herself, and then the world, that fat people have value; to her accidental activism and never-ending battle royale with Internet trolls, Lindy narrates her life with a blend of humor and pathos that manages to make a trip to the abortion clinic funny and wring tears out of a story about diarrhea. With inimitable good humor, vulnerability, and boundless charm, Lindy boldly shares how to survive in a world where not all stories are created equal and not all bodies are treated with equal respect, and how to weather hatred, loneliness, harassment, and loss, and walk away laughing. Shrill provocatively dissects what it means to become self-aware the hard way, to go from wanting to be silent and invisible to earning a living defending the silenced in all caps.

All the Beauty in the World - Patrick Bringley

All the Beauty in the World
The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me
Patrick Bringley
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $13.99
Publish Date: February 14, 2023
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Seller: Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC

New York Times bestseller Named one of the best books of the year by the New York Public Library, the Financial Times , the New York Post , Book Riot , and The Sunday Times (London). An “exquisite” ( The Washington Post ) “hauntingly beautiful” (Associated Press) portrait of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its treasures by a former New Yorker staffer who spent a decade as a museum guard. Millions of people climb the grand marble staircase to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art every year. But only a select few have unrestricted access to every nook and cranny. They’re the guards who roam unobtrusively in dark blue suits, keeping a watchful eye on the two million square foot treasure house. Caught up in his glamourous fledgling career at The New Yorker , Patrick Bringley never thought that he’d be one of them. Then his older brother was diagnosed with fatal cancer and he found himself needing to escape the mundane clamor of daily life. So he quit The New Yorker and sought solace in the most beautiful place he knew. To his surprise and your delight, this temporary refuge becomes Bringley’s home away from home for a decade. We follow him as he guards delicate treasures from Egypt to Rome, strolls the labyrinths beneath the galleries, wears out nine pairs of company shoes, and marvels at the beautiful works in his care. Bringley enters the museum as a ghost, silent and almost invisible, but soon finds his voice and his tribe: the artworks and their creators and the lively subculture of museum guards—a gorgeous mosaic of artists, musicians, blue-collar stalwarts, immigrants, cutups, and dreamers. As his bonds with his colleagues and the art grow, he comes to understand how fortunate he is to be walled off in this little world, and how much it resembles the best aspects of the larger world to which he gradually, gratefully returns. In the tradition of classic workplace memoirs like Lab Girl and Working Stiff , All the Beauty in the World is an “empathic” ( The New York Times Book Review ), “moving” (NPR), “consoling, and beautiful” ( The Guardian ) portrait of a great museum, its hidden treasures, and the people who make it tick, by one of its most intimate observers.

In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man - Tom Junod

In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man
A Memoir
Tom Junod
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: March 10, 2026
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE • From two-time National Magazine Award winner Tom Junod, a searching, brilliantly stylized memoir about a charismatic, philandering father who tried to mold his son in his image, the many secrets he hid, the son’s obsessive quest to uncover them, and ultimately, the true meaning of manhood “Affecting. . . . Moves like a song, drawing you in with its melody before delivering an emotional wallop.” — The New York Times Big Lou Junod dominated every room he entered. He worshipped the sun and the sea, his own bronzed body, Frank Sinatra, and beautiful women. He was a successful traveling handbag salesman who carried himself like a celebrity. He’d return from the road with stories of going to nightclubs where the stars—Ava Gardner, maybe Liz Taylor—“couldn’t keep their eyes off . . . your father .” He had countless affairs and didn’t do much to hide them. Lou could be cruel to Fran, his wife of fifty-nine years, but he loved his youngest son. Tom was a skin-and-bones, nervous boy, devoted to his mother, but Lou sought to turn him into a version of himself. He showered him with advice about how to dress (“A turtleneck is the most flattering thing a man can wear”), how to be an alpha male, and especially, how to attract and bed women. His parting speech when Tom went to college was: “Do yourself a favor and date a Jewish girl. They’re all nymphos.”  Tom wrestled with Lou’s imposing presence all his life. When one of Lou’s mistresses stood up at his funeral and announced, “Can we all . . . just agree . . . that this . . . was a man ,” Tom set off to learn the facts of his father’s life, and why he was the way he was. The stunning secrets he uncovered—about his father, his father’s lovers, and deceptions going back generations—staggered Tom, but in the process allowed him, at last, to become his own man, by his own lights. In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man is an intensely emotional detective story powered by a series of cascading revelations. The book is a triumph of bravura writing; it is a tale of a son reckoning with the consequences of his father’s life, and in the end, the story of the son’s redemption.

The House of My Mother - Shari Franke

The House of My Mother
A Daughter's Quest for Freedom
Shari Franke
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: January 7, 2025
Publisher: Gallery Books
Seller: Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC

INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Heart-wrenchingly personal…dizzying.” — Rolling Stone From eldest daughter Shari Franke, the shocking true story behind the viral 8 Passengers family vlog —now the subject of a Hulu docuseries— and the hidden abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother, and how, in the face of unimaginable pain, she found freedom and healing. Shari Franke’s childhood was a constant battle for survival. Her mother, Ruby Franke, enforced a severe moral code while maintaining a façade of a picture-perfect family for their wildly popular YouTube channel 8 Passengers , which documented the day-to-day life of raising six children for a staggering 2.5 million subscribers. But a darker truth lurked beneath the surface—Ruby’s wholesome online persona masked a more tyrannical parenting style than anyone could have imagined. As the family’s YouTube notoriety grew, so too did Ruby’s delusions of righteousness. Fueled by the sadistic influence of relationship coach Jodi Hildebrandt, together they implemented an inhumane and merciless disciplinary regime. Ruby and Jodi were arrested in Utah in 2023 on multiple charges of aggravated child abuse. On that fateful day, Shari shared a photo online of a police car outside their home. Her caption had one word: “Finally.” For the first time, Shari will reveal the disturbing truth behind 8 Passengers and her family’s devastating involvement with Jodi Hildebrandt’s cultish life coaching program, “ConneXions.” No stone is left unturned as Shari exposes the perils of influencer culture and shares for the first time her battle for truth and survival in the face of her mother’s cruelty.

Indignity - Lea Ypi

Indignity
A Life Reimagined
Lea Ypi
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $3.99
Publish Date: November 4, 2025
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Seller: Macmillan

The author of Free returns with an extraordinary inquiry into historical injustice, dignity, truth, and imagination. When Lea Ypi discovers a photo of her grandmother Leman honeymooning in the Alps in 1941, posted by a stranger on social media, she is faced with unsettling questions. Growing up, she was told all records of her grandmother’s youth were destroyed in the early days of communism in Albania. But there Leman was with her husband, Asllan: glamorous newlyweds, celebrating while World War II raged. What follows Ypi’s discovery is a thrilling reimagining of the past, spanning the vanished world of Ottoman aristocracy, the making of modern Greece and Albania, a global financial crisis, and the horrors of war and the dawn of communism in the Balkans. While investigating the truth about her family, Ypi grapples with uncertainty. Who was the real Leman Ypi? What made her move to Tirana as a young woman, where she met a socialist who sympathized with the Popular Front while his father led a collaborationist government? And what prompted her enigmatic smile in the winter of 1941, one of the darkest periods of World War II? By turns epic and intimate, profound and gripping, Indignity shows what it is like to make choices against the tide of history—and reveals the fragility of truth, collective and personal. Through secret police reports on communist spies, court depositions, and Ypi’s memories of her grandmother, we move between present and past, archive and imagination. With what moral authority do we judge the acts of previous generations? And what do we really know about the people closest to us?

Empire of Pain - Patrick Radden Keefe

Empire of Pain
The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
Patrick Radden Keefe
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $10.99
Publish Date: April 13, 2021
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • A grand, devastating portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, famed for their philanthropy, whose fortune was built by Valium and whose reputation was destroyed by OxyContin. From the prize-winning and bestselling author of Say Nothing. "A real-life version of the HBO series Succession with a lethal sting in its tail…a masterful work of narrative reportage.” – Laura Miller, Slate The history of the Sackler dynasty is rife with drama—baroque personal lives; bitter disputes over estates; fistfights in boardrooms; glittering art collections; Machiavellian courtroom maneuvers; and the calculated use of money to burnish reputations and crush the less powerful. The Sackler name has adorned the walls of many storied institutions—Harvard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oxford, the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, but the source of the family fortune was vague—until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing a blockbuster painkiller that was the catalyst for the opioid crisis. Empire of Pain is the saga of three generations of a single family and the mark they would leave on the world, a tale that moves from the bustling streets of early twentieth-century Brooklyn to the seaside palaces of Greenwich, Connecticut, and Cap d’Antibes to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C. It follows the family’s early success with Valium to the much more potent OxyContin, marketed with a ruthless technique of co-opting doctors, influencing the FDA, downplaying the drug’s addictiveness. Empire of Pain chronicles the multiple investigations of the Sacklers and their company, and the scorched-earth legal tactics that the family has used to evade accountability. A masterpiece of narrative reporting, Empire of Pain is a ferociously compelling portrait of America’s second Gilded Age, a study of impunity among the super-elite and a relentless investigation of the naked greed that built one of the world’s great fortunes.

TMI - Jane Wiedlin

TMI
Memoirs of a Go-Go
Jane Wiedlin
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $15.99
Expected Publish Date: November 10, 2026
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Seller: Hachette Digital, Inc.

An intimate, behind-the-scenes glimpse into life as the rhythm guitarist, songwriter, and co-founder of the all-female, multi-platinum-selling band the Go-Go’s—both onstage and off   The Go-Go’s were the first all-woman rock group to write their own songs, play their own instruments, and hit number one on the Billboard charts. As guitarist and lyricist, Jane Wiedlin helped define that revolution. In her memoir, she shares the raw, unvarnished journey of an artist who overcame it all. From the early L.A. punk scene, Jane’s song “Our Lips Are Sealed” catapulted the band to fame. The Go-Go’s hit dizzying heights, only to splinter apart in a whirlwind of touring, tension, and chaos rivaling any band of the era. Yet Jane’s story goes far beyond the stage. TMI is a vivid account of rock excess and Hollywood drama. Jane opens up about childhood tragedy, mental health struggles, shattered relationships, and her own relentless reinvention. She tells how she taught herself music from scratch, worked as a “slave” in a world-famous BDSM dungeon, and became the world’s first atheist minister. Through it all, Jane Wiedlin’s story is as candid, defiant, and unforgettable as the music that defined a generation.

Told You So - Mayci Neeley

Told You So
Mayci Neeley
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: October 7, 2025
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Seller: Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From TikTok and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Mayci Neeley, a deeply personal story of love, grief, motherhood, and resilience. Mayci Neeley and the women of MomTok burst into the center of pop culture when Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives took the world by storm. But the show barely scratched the surface of Mayci’s personal story. From becoming a mom at twenty, to losing her son’s father in a tragic car accident, to going back to college as a single mother, she’s only ever given us glimpses of the challenging things she’s been through. Now, finally, she’s ready to tell us everything. In this inspiring and darkly funny memoir, Mayci lifts the veil for readers on what growing up Mormon is really like and how it’s strict standards completely blow up for many young people when they get to college. When Mayci arrived at BYU on a tennis scholarship, she was unprepared to manage the temptations she’d been taught were sins. She found herself drinking too much, stuck in an abusive relationship, and on the verge of falling down a dark and dangerous path. Suddenly, she was pregnant at nineteen and mourning a boyfriend she’d been building a future with. Mayci captures the period from college to adulthood with brutal honesty, grace, and humor, offering up a heartfelt portrait of a woman finding her voice and her strength. All of these trials led to her current love story, her journey with IVF, and of course the inside story of MomTok. Fans looking for a juicy play-by-play on the friend group drama will get everything they want—and then some—but more than anything, readers will walk away with a sense of confidence in themselves and an ability to wear their scars proudly.

You Better Believe I'm Gonna Talk About It - Lisa Rinna

You Better Believe I'm Gonna Talk About It
Lisa Rinna
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: February 24, 2026
Publisher: Dey Street Books
Seller: HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS

***The INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!*** From the New York Times bestselling author and breakout star of The Traitors comes the first memoir from beloved actress, Housewife, and pop culture icon, Lisa Rinna. From her career, to her personal life, she's spilling ALL the tea! If she’s experienced it... you better believe she’s gonna talk about it! “This mouth has gotten me in so much trouble.” —Lisa Rinna For decades, Lisa Rinna has been captivating audiences—whether as a soap opera icon, reality TV powerhouse, fearless social media provocateur or slaying in haute couture down the catwalks of Paris. But even though she’s always said it like she means it, there’s still so much more to the woman whose lips launched a thousand memes. In You Better Believe I’m Gonna Talk About It , Lisa peels back the curtain on her rollercoaster career and her unapologetic approach to life, dishing on the highs, the lows, and the “did-she-really-just-say-that?” moments that made her a household name. Yes, she’s spilling all the tea from the soundstages of Days of Our Lives to the drama of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills , but she’s also opening up about what it means to grow older in an industry obsessed with youth, the lessons she’s learned about reinvention, parenting a daughter with a chronic illness, keeping her well-documented marriage alive and healthy, and being forced to grieve in public after the loss of her mother and beloved Beverly Hills fan favorite, Lois. Bold, brash, refreshingly honest, and told with her signature wit and candor, You Better Believe I’m Gonna Talk About It is the story of a woman who understands that you go the furthest by playing by your own rules. It’s the story of a woman who realizes aging is just a chance at a new chapter. It’s the story of a Hollywood icon who refuses to let the world script her story for her. And she’s owning every bit of it, baby!

The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion

The Year of Magical Thinking
National Book Award Winner
Joan Didion
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $8.99
Publish Date: October 4, 2005
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • A landmark work about grief, love, and survival from one of America’s most iconic writers One of The New York Times ’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • One of The Guardian ’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century Joan Didion delivers a searing portrait of a marriage and a life – in good times and bad – that will speak to anyone who has ever loved and lost a husband or wife or child. In a work of electric honesty and passion, Didion explores how we all, somehow, will ourselves to survive. “An utterly shattering portrait of loss and grief.” –The New York Times S everal days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana Roo, fall ill with septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later, the Dunnes were sitting down to dinner after visiting their daughter in the hospital when John suffered a fatal heart attack. In that one moment, their partnership of forty years came to an end. This powerful narrative is Didion's “attempt to make sense of the weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness…about marriage and children and memory…about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself.” “Didion has transformed grief into literature.” —The Guardian

Adult Braces - Lindy West

Adult Braces
Driving Myself Sane
Lindy West
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $15.99
Publish Date: March 10, 2026
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Seller: Hachette Digital, Inc.

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER In New York Times bestselling author Lindy West’s ambitious memoir, she brings readers along on an uproarious cross-country road trip as she unpacks her last few tumultuous years, rediscovers herself, and reinvents her marriage in the process.   Through Shrill— the book and then the Hulu series—Lindy West became an inspiration. To this day she is stopped on the street and hailed as a beacon of empowerment by women who felt badly for not conforming to a narrow set of societal norms—thin, straight, compliant. But behind the scenes, Lindy never felt like she was the self-actualized woman fans made her out to be. When she found herself in the throes of a deep depression, with her marriage and sense of self-worth hanging in the balance, she knew she needed to make a change.     In Adult Braces , Lindy shares the story of her rock bottom, and of the journey she took to claw her way out of it. With her trademark candor and sense of humor, she examines her post- Shrill emotional implosion, her shifting feelings about traditional marriage, and her search for her long-lost self. She also tracks the highs and lows of her journey, from eye-opening natural wonders and kitschy roadside attractions to lackluster tourist traps and campground epiphanies.   The result is an engaging and laugh-out-loud narrative of becoming as Lindy transforms from a passenger into the active navigator of her own life.    

The Soundtrack of My Life - Clive Davis

The Soundtrack of My Life
Clive Davis
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: February 19, 2013
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Seller: Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC

Music legend Clive Davis recounts an extraordinary five-decade career in the music business, while also telling a remarkable personal story of encounters with some of the greatest musical artists of our time, including Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Simon & Garfunkel, Barry Manilow, the Grateful Dead, Patti Smith, Whitney Houston, Carlos Santana, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, and Alicia Keys. Orphaned in his teens, Davis earned a full scholarship to New York University and another to Harvard Law School. He served as General Counsel of Columbia Records and, in a totally unexpected stroke of fate, became head of the company overnight. More surprisingly, he learned he had “ears,” a rare ability to spot special talent and hit records. Those ears contributed to the success of three companies—Columbia, Arista, and J—where Davis discovered and developed more unique artists than anyone in the history of the music industry. What began on the grass at the Monterey Pop Festival with the signing of Janis Joplin has evolved into a lifelong passion and calling, spanning genres, including rock, pop, R&B, country, jazz fusion, and hip-hop. His is the imprimatur that has helped shape contemporary music and, over the years, our popular culture. The Soundtrack of My Life is an essential book for anyone interested in the story of popular music, the fascinating ups and downs of the music business, the alchemy of hits, and the dramatic life of a brilliant leader...and listener. It is a riveting read from beginning to end.

Weird Al - Nathan Rabin & Al Yankovic

Weird Al
The Book
Nathan Rabin & Al Yankovic
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: October 1, 2012
Publisher: ABRAMS Image
Seller: OpenRoad Integrated Media, LLC

A "fun and colorful" biography of the accordion-toting comedy legend—with rare photos, lyrics, lists, tweets, and more from Al himself ( Publishers Weekly ).   The undisputed king of pop-culture parody, "Weird Al" Yankovic has sold more comedy recordings than any other artist in history, receiving three Grammy Awards (and fourteen nominations) in the process.   This is a comprehensive illustrated tribute to this icon of the American humor landscape, the man behind such classics as "Eat It," "Amish Paradise," and "White & Nerdy." Covering more than three decades of hilarious songs, videos, and concert performances, and his life story in words and pictures—and featuring an introduction, lists, tweets, and photo captions from Yankovic himself— Weird Al: The Book is the ultimate companion piece to an extraordinary career.   "Part biography and part pop culture museum . . . a treat." — Huffington Post

RFK Jr. - Isabel Vincent

RFK Jr.
The Fall and Rise
Isabel Vincent
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: April 14, 2026
Publisher: William Morrow
Seller: HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS

"A bombshell new biography." — People Magazine A revelatory portrait of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., chronicling his battles with addiction and his astonishing journey from entitled scion to environmental activist to a prominent member of the president's cabinet, based on RFK Jr.’s secret journals and the author ’s interviews with dozens of sources close to him. Born into one of the most storied families in American history, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was fourteen years old when his father was assassinated. He has since spent his life grappling with the weight of his family’s legacy. Like his martyred father, RFK Jr. longs to be a hero, but he has struggled with his demons. “I knew daddy was watching me, and that he loved me,” he wrote in a diary entry, “But I also felt I was disappointing him.” Those thoughts were set down in his diary when he was serving out a monthlong prison term in Puerto Rico for civil disobedience. The experience changed his life. Alone in his cell, he was forced to grapple with his personal conflicts—his addictions to drugs and women—but also to question everything that he and his family once held sacred, including their allegiance to the Democratic Party, which had sustained the Kennedy family for generations. RFK Jr. became disillusioned with many of the party’s leaders even as he committed himself to carving out a distinct identity as a public servant. He would vow to step up his environmental crusade, later establishing himself as a public health critic with controversial views on vaccines. He became a political maverick. But even now, in his seventies, and after an unexpected pivot into the national spotlight as a political and cultural figure at odds with both the Democratic Party and his family, RFK Jr. is still fighting to live up to the legacy of his father. Award-winning journalist Isabel Vincent draws on exclusive access to RFK Jr.’s personal diaries, candid interviews, and previously unreleased material, providing an unparalleled view of the life and mind of one of the most divisive individuals in America today, a deeply flawed man whose public life has often been in conflict with his private battles.

Getting Naked - Valerie Bertinelli

Getting Naked
The Quiet Work of Becoming Perfectly Imperfect
Valerie Bertinelli
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $14.99
Publish Date: March 10, 2026
Publisher: Harper Wave
Seller: HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS

New York Times bestseller! From beloved actress and New York Times bestselling author Valerie Bertinelli, her most vulnerable book yet offering wisdom hard-won through divorce, menopause, and generational pain, with a powerful message of self-acceptance and embracing the past with compassion. With her signature warmth and disarming humor, the beloved actress and New York Times bestselling author strips away the polished façade and shares what it’s really like to grow older, love harder, and start over. Now in her mid-sixties, Valerie reflects on the hard-won lessons of aging, self-worth, and letting go. From her experiences with menopause, relationships, and family trauma, she writes with clarity and compassion about the insecurities that have haunted her for decades: shame and anxiety about her body, and the false belief that her value depended on perfection. Through it all, Valerie reflects on the quiet, daily work of self-acceptance—the kind that doesn’t make headlines but changes lives. Getting Naked isn’t just a story of survival. It’s a reckoning—with her past, her family history, and the generational pain that shaped her. It’s about the myths we believe when we’re young—about beauty, love, success—and how we carry them until they break us open. It’s about unlearning the script that says women must please, endure, and stay silent. The result is a deeply personal, unexpectedly funny, and profoundly uplifting look at the inner journey we all share. Getting Naked isn’t about vulnerability for vulnerability’s sake. It’s about finally letting go of the need to be perfect, quieting the harsh inner critic, and choosing compassion over judgment. After all, it’s never too late to make peace with yourself—and to fall madly in love with the perfectly imperfect person you already are.

This Much is True - Miriam Margolyes

This Much is True
'There's never been a memoir so packed with eye-popping, hilarious and candid stories' DAILY MAIL
Miriam Margolyes
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: September 16, 2021
Publisher: John Murray Press
Seller: Hachette Digital, Inc.

'There is no one on earth quite so wonderful' STEPHEN FRY 'As outrageously entertaining as you'd expect' Daily Express BAFTA-winning actor, voice of everything from Monkey to the Cadbury's Caramel Rabbit, creator of a myriad of unforgettable characters from Lady Whiteadder to Professor Sprout, MIRIAM MARGOLYES, OBE, is the nation's favourite (and naughtiest) treasure. Now, at the age of 80, she has finally decided to tell her extraordinary life story - and it's well worth the wait. Find out how being conceived in an air-raid gave her curly hair; what pranks led to her being known as the naughtiest girl Oxford High School ever had; how she ended up posing nude for Augustus John as a teenager; why Bob Monkhouse was the best (male) kiss she's ever had; and what happened next after Warren Beatty asked 'Do you f**k?' From declaring her love to Vanessa Redgrave to being told to be quiet by the Queen, this book is packed with brilliant, hilarious stories. With a cast list stretching from Scorsese to Streisand, a cross-dressing Leonardo di Caprio to Isaiah Berlin, This Much Is True is as warm and honest, as full of life and surprises, as its inimitable author.

Alexander Hamilton - Ron Chernow

Alexander Hamilton
Ron Chernow
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $11.99
Publish Date: April 26, 2004
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

The #1 New York Times bestseller, and the inspiration for the hit Broadway musical Hamilton ! Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow presents a landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father who galvanized, inspired, scandalized, and shaped the newborn nation. "Grand-scale biography at its best—thorough, insightful, consistently fair, and superbly written . . . A genuinely great book." —David McCullough “A robust full-length portrait, in my view the best ever written, of the most brilliant, charismatic and dangerous founder of them all." —Joseph Ellis Few figures in American history have been more hotly debated or more grossly misunderstood than Alexander Hamilton. Chernow’s biography gives Hamilton his due and sets the record straight, deftly illustrating that the political and economic greatness of today’s America is the result of Hamilton’s countless sacrifices to champion ideas that were often wildly disputed during his time. “To repudiate his legacy,” Chernow writes, “is, in many ways, to repudiate the modern world.” Chernow here recounts Hamilton’s turbulent life: an illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean, he came out of nowhere to take America by storm, rising to become George Washington’s aide-de-camp in the Continental Army, coauthoring The Federalist Papers, founding the Bank of New York, leading the Federalist Party, and becoming the first Treasury Secretary of the United States.Historians have long told the story of America’s birth as the triumph of Jefferson’s democratic ideals over the aristocratic intentions of Hamilton. Chernow presents an entirely different man, whose legendary ambitions were motivated not merely by self-interest but by passionate patriotism and a stubborn will to build the foundations of American prosperity and power. His is a Hamilton far more human than we’ve encountered before—from his shame about his birth to his fiery aspirations, from his intimate relationships with childhood friends to his titanic feuds with Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Monroe, and Burr, and from his highly public affair with Maria Reynolds to his loving marriage to his loyal wife Eliza. And never before has there been a more vivid account of Hamilton’s famous and mysterious death in a duel with Aaron Burr in July of 1804. Chernow’s biography is not just a portrait of Hamilton, but the story of America’s birth seen through its most central figure. At a critical time to look back to our roots, Alexander Hamilton will remind readers of the purpose of our institutions and our heritage as Americans.

The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls

The Glass Castle
A Memoir
Jeannette Walls
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $13.99
Publish Date: December 15, 2006
Publisher: Scribner
Seller: Simon & Schuster Digital Sales LLC

THE BELOVED #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER— FROM THE AUTHOR OF HANG THE MOON The extraordinary, one-of-a-kind, “nothing short of spectacular” ( Entertainment Weekly ) memoir from one of the world’s most gifted storytellers. The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette’s brilliant and charismatic father captured his children’s imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn’t want the responsibility of raising a family. The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered. The Glass Castle is truly astonishing—a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family. The memoir was also made into a major motion picture from Lionsgate in 2017 starring Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, and Naomi Watts.

Bring It On Home - Mark Blake

Bring It On Home
Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin, and Beyond—The Story of Rock's Greatest Manager
Mark Blake
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $2.99
Publish Date: November 27, 2018
Publisher: Da Capo
Seller: OpenRoad Integrated Media, LLC

The authorized biography of the most notorious rock manager of all time, Peter Grant, best known for his work with Led Zeppelin Peter Grant is the most famous music manager of all time. Often acknowledged as the "fifth member of Led Zeppelin," Grant's story has appeared in fragments across countless Zeppelin biographies, but none has explored who this brilliant and intuitive manager yet flawed and sometimes dangerous man truly was. No one has successfully captured the scope of his personality or his long-lasting impact on the music business. Acclaimed author and journalist Mark Blake seeks to rectify that. Bring It On Home is the first book to tell the complete uncensored story of this industry giant. With support from Grant's family interviews with Led Zeppelin's surviving band members, and access to Grant's extensive archive and scores of unpublished material, including his never-before-published final interview, Blake sheds new light on the history of Led Zeppelin and on the wider story of rock music in the 1960s and '70s. Full of new insights into Grant's early life as an actor, wrestler, and road manager for rock 'n' roll pioneers Chuck Berry and Little Richard; the formation of Led Zeppelin; his seclusion following the demise of the band; and his recovery from substance abuse, Bring It On Home reveals a man who, after the extraordinary highs and lows of a career in rock 'n' roll, found peace and happiness in a more ordinary life. It is a celebration, a cautionary tale, and a compelling human drama.

Lorne - Susan Morrison

Lorne
The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live
Susan Morrison
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $4.99
Publish Date: February 18, 2025
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The definitive biography of Lorne Michaels, the man behind America’s most beloved comedy show “The kind of biographical monument usually consecrated to founding fathers, canonical authors and world-historical scientific geniuses.”— The New York Times (Editors’ Choice) “Readers are treated to the Holy Grail for any journalist hoping to crack the show: a warts-and-all week in the life of SNL, where Morrison gets to see the real process of putting the thing together.”— Variety LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/JACQUELINE BOGRAD WELD AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, The New Yorker, Elle, Kirkus Reviews , Denver Public Library Over the fifty years that Lorne Michaels has been at the helm of Saturday Night Live, he has become a revered and inimitable presence in the entertainment world. He’s a tastemaker, a mogul, a withholding father figure, a genius spotter of talent, a shrewd businessman, a name-dropper, a raconteur, the inspiration for Dr. Evil, the winner of more than a hundred Emmys—and, essentially, a mystery. Generations of writers and performers have spent their lives trying to figure him out, by turns demonizing and lionizing him. He’s “Obi-Wan Kenobi” (Tracy Morgan), the “great and powerful Oz” (Kate McKinnon), “some kind of very distant, strange comedy god” (Bob Odenkirk). Lorne will introduce you to him, in full, for the first time. With unprecedented access to Michaels and the entire SNL apparatus, Susan Morrison takes readers behind the curtain for the lively, up-and-down, definitive story of how Michaels created and maintained the institution that changed comedy forever. Drawn from hundreds of interviews—with Michaels, his friends, and SNL’s iconic stars and writers, from Will Ferrell to Tina Fey to John Mulaney to Chris Rock to Dan Aykroyd— Lorne is a deeply reported, wildly entertaining account of a man singularly obsessed with the show that would define his life and have a profound impact on American culture.

Mark Twain - Ron Chernow

Mark Twain
Ron Chernow
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $17.99
Publish Date: May 13, 2025
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

The #1 New York Times Bestseller • One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2025• A Washington Post and New York Times Notable Book • Named a Best Book of 2025 by TIME , The Guardian, Bloomberg , The Christian Science Monitor , and Kirkus Reviews “Comprehensive, enthralling . . . Mark Twain flows like the Mississippi River, its prose propelled by Mark Twain’s own exuberance.” — The Boston Globe “Chernow writes with such ease and clarity . . . For all its length and detail, [ Mark Twain ] is deeply absorbing throughout.” — The Washington Post Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow illuminates the full, fascinating, and complex life of the writer long celebrated as the father of American literature, Mark Twain Before he was Mark Twain, he was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Born in 1835, the man who would become America’s first, and most influential, literary celebrity spent his childhood dreaming of piloting steamboats on the Mississippi. But when the Civil War interrupted his career on the river, the young Twain went west to the Nevada Territory and accepted a job at a local newspaper, writing dispatches that attracted attention for their brashness and humor. It wasn’t long before the former steamboat pilot from Missouri was recognized across the country for his literary brilliance, writing under a pen name that he would immortalize. In this richly nuanced portrait of Mark Twain, acclaimed biographer Ron Chernow brings his considerable powers to bear on a man who shamelessly sought fame and fortune, and crafted his persona with meticulous care. After establishing himself as a journalist, satirist, and lecturer, he eventually settled in Hartford with his wife and three daughters, where he went on to write The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . He threw himself into the hurly-burly of American culture, and emerged as the nation’s most notable political pundit. At the same time, his madcap business ventures eventually bankrupted him; to economize, Twain and his family spent nine eventful years in exile in Europe. He suffered the death of his wife and two daughters, and the last stage of his life was marked by heartache, political crusades, and eccentric behavior that sometimes obscured darker forces at play. Drawing on Twain’s bountiful archives, including thousands of letters and hundreds of unpublished manuscripts, Chernow masterfully captures the man whose career reflected the country’s westward expansion, industrialization, and foreign wars, and who was the most important white author of his generation to grapple so fully with the legacy of slavery. Today, more than one hundred years after his death, Twain’s writing continues to be read, debated, and quoted. In this brilliant work of scholarship, a moving tribute to the writer’s talent and humanity, Chernow reveals the magnificent and often maddening life of one of the most original characters in American history.

The Other Wes Moore - Wes Moore

The Other Wes Moore
One Name, Two Fates
Wes Moore
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Price: $7.99
Publish Date: April 27, 2010
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Random House LLC

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the governor of Maryland, the “compassionate” ( People ), “startling” (Baltimore Sun ), “moving” ( Chicago Tribune ) true story of two kids with the same name: One went on to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison. The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his. In December 2000, the Baltimore Sun ran a small piece about Wes Moore, a local student who had just received a Rhodes Scholarship. The same paper also ran a series of articles about four young men who had allegedly killed a police officer in a spectacularly botched armed robbery. The police were still hunting for two of the suspects who had gone on the lam, a pair of brothers. One was named Wes Moore.  Wes just couldn’t shake off the unsettling coincidence, or the inkling that the two shared much more than space in the same newspaper. After following the story of the robbery, the manhunt, and the trial to its conclusion, he wrote a letter to the other Wes, now a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. His letter tentatively asked the questions that had been haunting him: Who are you? How did this happen? That letter led to a correspondence and relationship that have lasted for several years. Over dozens of letters and prison visits, Wes discovered that the other Wes had had a life not unlike his own: Both had had difficult childhoods, both were fatherless; they’d hung out on similar corners with similar crews, and both had run into trouble with the police. At each stage of their young lives they had come across similar moments of decision, yet their choices would lead them to astonishingly different destinies. Told in alternating dramatic narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.