by Tamara Chalabi (2011)
Relates the author's entrance into Iraq in 2003, ten days after the fall of Baghdad, to investigate the rich history of her family, who held a privileged place in Iraqi society until the 1950s, when they were forced to flee.
Susanna Sonnenberg
Sonnenberg's memoir illuminates her resolve to forge her independence, to become a woman capable of trust and to be a good mother to her own children after being raised by a mother who was a compulsive liar and a drug user.
Jane C. Beck
"A daughter of freed African American slaves, Daisy Turner became a living repository of history. The family narrative entrusted to her--'a well-polished artifact, an heirloom that had been carefully preserved'--began among the Yoruba in West Africa and continued with her own long lifetime. In 1983, folklorist Jane Beck began to interview Turner, then one hundred years old and still relating four generations of oral history. In her book Daisy Turner's Kin, Beck uses Turner's storytelling to build the Turner family saga, using as its foundation the oft-repeated touchstone stories at the heart of their experiences: the abduction into slavery of Turner's African ancestors; Daisy's father learning to read; his return as a soldier to his former plantation to kill the overseer; Daisy's childhood stand against racism; and her family's life in Vermont. Beck weaves in historical research and offers a folklorist's perspective on oral history and the hazards and uses of memory."--Page 4 of cover.
Joel Rose
"When Uncle John DeVoe and a man only known as Lozier sit down in the old Centre Market to discuss the impending doom threatening New York City, those around can't help but eavesdrop. Overdevelopment of its southern tip has put the island in jeopardy and unless something can be done to stop it, the city will sink into the harbor. DeVoe and Lozier claim to have been sent to avert disaster and tell the eager listeners of their plan to save their great city. Who were Uncle John DeVoe and the mysterious Lozier? What may have instigated their grand deception and why was it blindly embraced?". "Trailing historical documents that lead him in a direction he never could have anticipated, novelist Rose weaves together a tale of skullduggery against an atmospheric recreation of urban street life in the early nineteenth century. With an eye toward the political and cultural climate of the period, New York Sawed in Half is a playful meditation on the nature of the hoax."--BOOK JACKET.
E. Ethelbert Miller
"Moving beyond the loss of both his father and brother, E. Ethelbert Miller tells the story of how love survived in his family. When Miller was about ten years old, his father told him how he could have left his mother. Years later, now a writer and a father, Miller looks back on that simple remark and how it shaped him. In Fathering Words, Miller explores his development as an African American writer, the responsibility of his chosen career, and his ambitions to raise the consciousness of black people." "Miller's poetry often relies on the voices of women. Here in Fathering Words, he has chosen to write his memoir in two voices. He places his sister's voice on the page next to his own. The result is a duet that tells two stories woven together as one."--BOOK JACKET.