Biographies and Autobiographies

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Rebecca Skloot
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who
worked the same land as her slae ancestors, !et her cells"taken without her knowledge"became one of the
most important tools in medicine.
Hed!#s $oll!% The Life and Breakthrough Inentions of Hed! Lamarr, the &ost Beautiful 'oman in the 'orld
Richard Rhodes
'hat do Hed! Lamarr, aant(garde composer )eorge Antheil, and !our cell phone hae in common* The
answer is spread(spectrum radio. Scientist and se+! screen star Hed! Lamarr is worth a thorough read.
Stories I ,nl! Tell &! $riends
Rob Lowe
A teen idol at fifteen, an international icon and founder of the Brat -ack at twent!, and one of Holl!wood#s top
stars to this da!, Rob Lowe chronicles his e+periences as a painfull! misunderstood child actor. Lowe grew up in
Southern .alifornia and attended Santa &onica High School where his classmates included actors .harlie
Sheen and Sean -enn.
Is /er!one Hanging ,ut 'ithout &e*
&ind! 0aling
She might be the star of her own T1 show and a respected comedian, actress, writer, and producer, but, if we
are to beliee her debut book, she is also a ictim of chronic low self(esteem, not to mention shopping
compulsions, insecurities with both se+es, and obsession with snack foods. 'ith the help of this book, !ou can
master life(complicating topics including best friends, non(traumatic things that make !ou cr!, wh! not to peak in
high school, and wh! men put on shoes so slowl!.
Boss!pants
Tina $e!
Before Li2 Lemon, before 3'eekend 4pdate,3 before 3Sarah -alin,3 Tina $e! was 5ust a !oung girl with a dream%
a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport b! her middle(school g!m teacher.
She also had a dream that one da! she would be a comedian on T1.
4nbroken
Laura Hillenbrand
,n a &a! afternoon in 6789, an Arm! Air $orces bomber crashed into the -acific ,cean and disappeared,
leaing onl! a spra! of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face
appeared. It was that of a !oung lieutenant, the plane:s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling
himself aboard. So began one of the most e+traordinar! od!sse!s of the Second 'orld 'ar.
,range is the ;ew Black
-iper 0erman
'ith a career, a bo!friend, and a loing famil!, -iper 0erman barel! resembles the reckless !oung woman who
deliered a suitcase of drug mone! ten !ears before. But that past has caught up with her. .onicted and
sentenced to fifteen months at the infamous federal correctional facilit! in <anbur!, .onnecticut, the well(heeled
Smith .ollege alumna is now inmate =666>?@8A8.
Humor
This is 'here I Leae Bou
Conathan Tropper
Like in man! great stories, the catal!st that brings a whole bunch of different people together is the death of a
parent. Cudd $o+man, our protagonist, not onl! loses his father, but also has to deal with his absent wife Dwho
has been haing an affair with Cudd:s bossE. Before he died, Cudd:s father reFuested that his sons and daughters
spend seen da!s together after the funeral, so that:s what happens. ,f course, insanit! ensues because what:s
not to loe about a d!sfunctional famil!*
Let:s /+plore <iabetes with ,wls
<aid Sedaris
GA gu! walks into a bar car and...H
$rom here the stor! could take man! turns. 'hen the gu! is <aid Sedaris, the possibilities are endless, but the
result is alwa!s the same% he will both delight !ou with twists of humor and intelligence and leae !ou deepl!
moed.
)orgeous
-aul Rudnick
'hen Beck! Randle#s mother dies, she#s whisked from her trailer park home to ;ew Bork. There she meets Tom
0ell!, the world#s top designer, who presents Beck! with an impossible offer% He#ll design three dresses to
transform the er! aerage Beck! into the most beautiful woman who eer lied.
The Tenth of <ecember
)eorge Saunders
4nsettling, insightful, and hilarious, the stories in Tenth of <ecember"through their manic energ!, their focus on
what is redeemable in human beings, and their generosit! of spirit"not onl! entertain and delightI the! fulfill
.hekho:s dictum that art should Gprepare us for tenderness.H
,ne Summer% America 67A?
Bill Br!son
4ltimatel!, this is a book about the moment when important things, for good or ill, began happening in the 4S.
'ith a gidd! narratie oice and keen e!e for off(kilter details, Br!son has spun a cleer tale of America:s coming
of age.
<ramas
Salage the Bones
Cesm!n 'ard
/ach character is as alie as an! eer put to a page, from the dog, .hina, and her dog fights, to the father, and
his inabilit! to cope as a widowed father of four. It#s not a prett! stor! filled with flowers and perfumes, but a stor!
of poert! and strength, hope and loe, clima+ing as the winds and waters of 0atrina send the famil! into the
swirling waters and howling winds to find their own salation from the storm.
Sarah:s 0e!
Tatiana de Rosna!
-aris, Cul! 678A% Sarah, a ten !ear(old girl, is brutall! arrested with her famil! b! the $rench police in the 1el:
d:Hi: roundup, but not before she locks her !ounger brother in a cupboard in the famil!#s apartment, thinking
that she will be back within a few hours.
-aris, &a! AJJA% ,n 1el: d:Hi:s KJth anniersar!, 5ournalist Culia Carmond is asked to write an article about this
black da! in $rance#s past.
Hotel on the .orner of Bitter and Sweet
Camie $ord
In the opening pages of Camie $ord:s stunning debut noel, Hotel on the .orner of Bitter and Sweet, Henr! Lee
comes upon a crowd gathered outside the -anama Hotel, once the gatewa! to Seattle:s Capantown. It has been
boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discoer!% the belongings of Capanese
families, left when the! were rounded up and sent to internment camps during 'orld 'ar II. As Henr! looks on,
the owner opens a Capanese parasol.
The Secret Histor!
<onna Tartt
4nder the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of cleer, eccentric misfits at an elite ;ew
/ngland college discoer a wa! of thinking and liing that is a world awa! from the humdrum e+istence of their
contemporaries.
'ater for /lephants
Sara )ruen
Though he ma! not speak of them, the memories still dwell inside Cacob Cankowski#s ninet!(something(!ear(old
mind. &emories of himself as a !oung man, tossed b! fate onto a ricket! train that was home to the Ben2ini
Brothers &ost Spectacular Show on /arth. &emories of a world filled with freaks and clowns, with wonder and
pain and anger and passionI a world with its own narrow, irrational rules, its own wa! of life, and its own wa! of
death. The world of the circus% to Cacob it was both salation and a liing hell.
The 0ite Runner
0haled Hosseini
The unforgettable, heartbreaking stor! of the unlikel! friendship between a wealth! bo! and the son of his
father#s serant, The Kite Runner is a beautifull! crafted noel set in a countr! that is in the process of being
destro!ed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betra!al, and the possibilit! of redemptionI and an
e+ploration of the power of fathers oer sons"their loe, their sacrifices, their lies.
Historical $iction
<eil:s 0not% The True Stor! of the 'est &emphis Three
&ara Leeritt
In AJ66, one of the greatest miscarriages of 5ustice in American legal histor! was set right when <amien /chols,
Cason Baldwin, and Cessie &isskelle! were released after eighteen !ears in prison. Award(winning 5ournalist
&ara Leeritt:s The Devils Knot remains the most comprehensie, insightful reporting eer done on the
inestigation, trials, and conictions of three teenage bo!s who became known as the 'est &emphis Three.
&rs. -oe
L!nn .ullen
;eermore shall !ou wonder what it might hae been like to fall deepl! in loe with /dgar Allan -oe. In 6>8L
&anhattan, the author was the 67th centur! ersion of a rock star, and the poetess who narrates this noel
witnesses the smashing success of The Raen een as -oe#s consumptie child(bride languishes.
The Inention of 'ings
Sue &onk 0idd
Inspired b! the true stor! of earl!(nineteenth(centur! abolitionist and suffragist Sarah )rimkM, 0idd paints a
moing portrait of two women ine+tricabl! linked b! the horrors of slaer!. Sarah, daughter of a wealth! South
.arolina plantation owner, e+hibits an independent spirit and strong belief in the eFualit! of all.
.leopatra
Stac! Schiff
Her palace shimmered with on!+ and gold but was richer still in political and se+ual intrigue. Aboe all else,
.leopatra was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator.
The Bo!s in the Boat
<aniel Cames Brown
Brown:s robust book tells the stor! of the 4niersit! of 'ashington:s 679K eight(oar crew and their epic Fuest for
an ,l!mpic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans.
The sons of loggers, ship!ard workers, and farmers, the bo!s defeated elite rials first from eastern and British
uniersities and finall! the )erman crew rowing for Adolf Hitler in the ,l!mpic games in Berlin, 679K.
&!steries and Thrillers
Last Stand on Nombie Island D)ulf ShoresE
.hristopher /ger
There, in the sands and marshes of the )ulf of &e+ico, the citi2ens of )ulf Shores along with scattered militar!
units, a downed Air $orce pilot, and a lone .oast )uard cutter form the last line of defense against the amassing
horde of the infected marching its wa! toward the sea destro!ing what is left of humanit! along the wa!.
As summer gies wa! to the fall and the cold winds blow off the sea, )ulf Shores draws the line.
A Book of .ommon -ra!er
Joan Didion
A Book of .ommon -ra!er is the stor! of two American women in the derelict .entral American nation of Boca
)rande. )race Strasser(&endana controls much of the countr!#s wealth and knows irtuall! all of its secretsI
.harlotte <ouglas knows far too little. 3Immaculate of histor!, innocent of politics,3 she has come to Boca )rande
aguel! and ainl! hoping to be reunited with her fugitie daughter.
&r. &ercedes
Stephen 0ing
&onths after a cra2ed hit(and(run drier kills seeral attendees at a &idwestern 5ob fair, a depressed retired cop
and two unlikel! allies 5oin forces to find and stop the killer, who has sent a letter threatening another attack
The -aris Architect
.harles Belfoure
In 678A -aris, gifted architect Lucien Bernard accepts a commission that will bring him a great deal of mone! (
and ma!be get him killed. But if he#s cleer enough, he#ll aoid an! trouble. All he has to do is design a secret
hiding place for a wealth! Cewish man, a space so inisible that een the most determined )erman officer won#t
find it.
<efending Cacob
'illiam Landa!
A fast, compelling, and compulsiel! readable courtroom drama, <efending Cacob tells the stor! of a district
attorne!#s son who is accused of killing a classmate. As the father attempts to proe his son#s innocence, Landa!
e+plores uncomfortable territor!.
Abraham Lincoln% 1ampire Hunter
Seth )rahame(Smith
'hile Abraham Lincoln is widel! lauded for saing a 4nion and freeing millions of slaes, his aliant fight against
the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of !ears. That is, until Seth )rahame(Smith
stumbled upon The Secret Cournal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first liing person to la! e!es on it in
more than 68J !ears.
66OAAOK9% A ;oel
Stephen 0ing
'hile grading essa!s b! his )/< students, Cake reads a gruesome, enthralling piece penned b! 5anitor Harr!
<unning% fift! !ears ago, Harr! somehow suried his father:s sledgehammer slaughter of his entire famil!. Cake
is blown awa!...but an een more bi2arre secret comes to light when Cake:s friend Al, owner of the local diner,
enlists Cake to take oer the mission that has become his obsession"to preent the 0enned! assassination.
;onfiction
Bushwacked at the $lora(Bama
.hris 'arner, Coe )ilchrist
It has been called one of the last great American honk! tonk roadhouses, the perfect blend of beer and whiske!,
laid back and wild, where !ou wipe !our feet on the wa! out, an otherwise tattered, white sand! blip on the
teeming gulf coast radar that for more than three decades has sered as a romantic, raunch!, roadside respite
for good music, good times, good iews and most importantl!"great people.
Lean In
Sher!l Sandberg
Thirt! !ears after women became LJ percent of the college graduates in the 4nited States, men still hold the
ast ma5orit! of leadership positions in goernment and industr!. This means that women:s oices are still not
heard eFuall! in the decisions that most affect our lies. In Lean In, Sher!l Sandberg e+amines wh! women:s
progress in achieing leadership roles has stalled, e+plains the root causes, and offers compelling,
commonsense solutions that can empower women to achiee their full potential.
<iing <eeper with )od, $ull! Surrendered
.hantell and Brooke .oole!
here are man! things eer! da!, eer! month, eer! !ear that come our wa! to throw us off the course )od has
for our lies. The ke! to sta!ing focused and on course is to die deep into )od#s 'ord. In <iing <eeper 'ith
)od a mother and daughter team up to talk about how to sta! on course and full! surrender !our life to Him.
The! will challenge !ou to moe forward with god and not settle for aerage.
$reakonomics% Think Like a $reak
Steen Leitt and Stephen <ubner
Leitt and <ubner offer a blueprint for an entirel! new wa! to sole problems, whether !our interest lies in minor
lifehacks or ma5or global reforms. As alwa!s, no topic is off(limits. The! range from business to philanthrop! to
sports to politics, all with the goal of retraining !our brain. Along the wa!, !ou:ll learn the secrets of a Capanese
hot(dog(eating champion, the reason an Australian doctor swallowed a batch of dangerous bacteria, and wh!
;igerian e(mail scammers make a point of sa!ing the!:re from ;igeria.
.iti2en 0eane% The Big Lies Behind the Big /!es
Adam -arfre! and .letus ;elson
Later this !ear, a film called Big /!es will be released. It:ll be the potential ,scar(bait comeback of Tim Burton,
starring Am! Adams and .hristoph 'alt2, telling the stor! behind the big(e!ed American kitsch paintings of the
:KJs. But if !ou want to be ahead of the pack, read this book about the shocking true stor! of 'alter and
&argaret 0eane, a couple who influenced American kitsch with their tragic, shocking lies.
Blue &ind
'allace ;ichols, -h<
In this book for eer!one who marels at the ocean, ;ichols takes a 5ourne! into the science behind wh! we like
water, and what it does for the human race. 4sing neuroscience and reports from a ariet! of water(connected
indiiduals, ;ichols makes an argument for wh! we need the sea.
The <eil in the 'hite .it!% &urder, &agic, and &adness at the $air that .hanged America
b! /rik Larson
Author /rik Larson imbues the incredible eents surrounding the 6>79 .hicago 'orld#s $air with such drama
that readers ma! find themseles checking the book#s categori2ation to be sure that #The <eil in the 'hite .it!#
is not, in fact, a highl! imaginatie noel. Larson tells the stories of two men% <aniel H. Burnham, the architect
responsible for the fair#s construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masFuerading as a charming doctor.
Romance
The &ountain Between 4s
.harles &artin
,n a storm! winter night, two strangers wait for a flight at the Salt Lake .it! airport. Ashle! 0no+ is an attractie,
successful writer, who is fl!ing /ast for her much anticipated wedding. <r. Ben -a!ne has 5ust wrapped up a
medical conference and is also eager to get back /ast for a slate of surgeries he has scheduled for the following
da!. 'hen the last outgoing flight is cancelled due to a broken de(icer and a forthcoming storm, Ben finds a
charter plane that can take him around the storm and drop him in <ener to catch a connection. And when the
pilot sa!s the single engine prop plane can fit one more, if barel!, Ben offers the seat to Ashle! knowing that she
needs to get back 5ust as urgentl!.
Redeeming Loe
$rancis Riers
Riers has rewritten a secular historical romance of the same name DBantam, 6776E for the .hristian market,
and it is a splendid piece of work e+ploring both ph!sical loe and a loe of )od. Angel, a !oung, hardened
prostitute sold into 3the life3 as a child, has no interest in )od or religion. Then she meets &ichael Hosea, a
deout .hristian who tells her it is his mission to sae her. After being badl! beaten, Angel decides to take
&ichael up on his offer of marriage.
&e Before Bou
Co5o &o!es
&o!es introduces us first to 'ill Tra!nor, a formerl! high(fl!ing, thrill(seeking e+ecutie now confined to a
wheelchair as a Fuadriplegic. Twent!something Louisa GLouH .lark has been hired as his caretaker, despite a
total lack of e+perience. As the prickl! 'ill and plainspoken Lou graduall! warm to each other, she learns that
the si+(month length of her contract coincides with the amount of time 'ill has agreed, for his parents: sake, to
postpone his planned assisted suicide, a sub5ect &o!es treats eenhandedl!.
,utlander
<iana )abaldon
In Outlander, a KJJ(page time(trael romance, strong(willed and sensual .laire Randall leads a double life with a
husband in one centur!, and a loer in another. Torn between fidelit! and desire, she struggles to understand the
pure intent of her heart. But don#t let the number of pages and the Scottish dialect scare !ou. It#s one of the
fastest reads !ou#ll hae in !our librar!.
'hile on her second hone!moon in the British Isles, .laire touches a boulder that hurls her back in time to the
forbidden .astle Leoch with the &ac0en2ie clan.
Beautiful Ruins
Cess 'alter
Beautiful Ruins is a glorious read for book loers. $rom the moment !ou pick up the noel, it con5ures a world
that !ou long to enter. The teal(blue Ligurian Sea laps against a 5agged coastline filled with cand!(colored
houses and open windows. At first glance, !ou:re d!ing to get inside those houses and find out what:s going on.
Science $iction and $antas!
<o Androids <ream of /lectric Sheep* DBlade RunnerE
-hilip 0. <ick
B! AJA6, the 'orld 'ar had killed millions, driing entire species into e+tinction and sending mankind off(planet.
Those who remained coeted an! liing creature, and for people who couldn#t afford one, companies built
incredibl! realistic simulacrae% horses, birds, cats, sheep. . . The! een built humans.
4bik
-hilip 0. <ick
.hip works for )len Runciter#s anti(psi securit! agenc!, which hires out its talents to block telepathic snooping
and paranormal dirt! tricks. 'hen its special team tackles a big 5ob on the &oon, something goes terribl! wrong.
Runciter is killed, it seems((but messages from him now appear on toilet walls, traffic tickets, or product labels.
'h! does Runciter#s face appear on 4.S. coins* 'h! the repeated ads for a hard(to(find uniersal panacea
called 4bik D3safe when taken as directed3E*
American /lsewhere
Robert Cackson Bennett
Small towns being plagued b! unnatural eents is a motif familiar in man! works of science fiction. Howeer, the
sheer unnering horror that Bennett deliers in his scenes makes American /lsewhere a must read for those
who remain aerse to moing to the suburbs because the! know their neighbor must be something else.
.aptain 1orpatril:s Alliance
Lois &c&aster Bu5old
Bu5old takes a well(loed comic relief character from the earlier noels and makes him the protagonist but keeps
all his loable character traits intact. The book is a romp in the best possible meaning of the word and Bu5old is a
treasure of the science fiction communit!.
.loud Atlas
<aid &itchell
A postmodern isionar! who is also a master of st!les of genres, <aid &itchell combines flat(out adenture, a
;abokoian lore of pu22les, a keen e!e for character, and a taste for mind(bending philosophical and scientific
speculation in the tradition of 4mberto /co and -hilip 0. <ick. The result is brilliantl! original fiction that reeals
how disparate people connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across
the sk!.
;ew Bork Times Best Sellers or Recommendations
1. I;1ISIBL/, b! Cames -atterson and <aid /llis
2. T,- S/.R/T T'/;TB(,;/, b! Canet /anoich
3. TH/ -R,&IS/, b! Rob!n .arr
4. TH/ SIL0',R&, b! Robert )albraith
5. 'H/; <AB BR/A0S, b! &a!a Banks