by Fay Cunningham (2011)
When Amy agrees to help famous cosmetic surgeon Ethan Stopes write his memoirs, she is expecting a few quiet days in the country. Instead she spends an eventful Christmas trapped in a lonely manor with Ethan, his ex-wife, and his two children - and falls in love ... Amy discovers Ethan's secret, and passions flare as the snow deepens. Somehow, she must help the enigmatic surgeon finish his book before it is too late ...
Phillip Lopate
A long-awaited new book on personal writing from Lopate--the celebrated essayist and the director of Columbia University's nonfiction program. He provides the nuts and bolts, offering a refreshing new master class on the craft of the personal narrative, including the personal essay and memoir.
Elinor Burkett
The first female head of state in the Western world and one of the most influential women in modern history, Golda Meir was a member of the tiny coterie of founders of the State of Israel, the architect of its socialist infrastructure, and its most tenacious international defender. Her uncompromising devotion to shaping and defending a Jewish homeland against dogged enemies and skittish allies stunned political contemporaries skeptical about the stamina of an elderly leader, and transformed Middle Eastern politics for decades to follow.A blend of Emma Goldman and Martin Luther King Jr. in the guise of a cookie-serving grandmother, Meir was a tough-as-nails politician who issued the first prescient warnings about the rise of international terrorism, out-maneuvered Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger at their own game of realpolitik, and led Israel through a bloody war even as she eloquently pleaded for peace. A prodigious fundraiser and persuasive international voice, Golda carried the nation through its most perilous hours while she herself battled cancer.In this masterful biography, critically acclaimed author and Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist Elinor Burkett looks beyond Meir's well-known accomplishments to the complex motivations and ideals, personal victories and disappointments, of her charismatic public persona. Beginning with Meir's childhood in virulently anti-Semitic Russia and her family's subsequent relocation to the United States, Burkett places Meir within the framework of the American immigrant experience, the Holocaust, and the single-mindedness of a generation that carved a nation out of its own nightmares and dreams. She paints a vivid portrait of a legendary woman defined by contradictions: an iron resolve coupled with magnetic charm, an utter ordinariness of appearance matched to extraordinary achievements, a kindly demeanor that disguised a stunning hard-heartedness, and a complete dedication to her country that often overwhelmed her personal relationships.To produce this definitive account of Meir's life, Burkett mined historical records never before examined by any researcher, and interviewed members of Meir's inner circle, many going on record for the first time. The result is an astounding portrait of one of the most commanding political presences of the twentieth century—a woman whose uncompromising commitment to the creation and preservation of a Jewish state fueled and framed the ideological conflicts that still define Middle Eastern relations today.
Karrine Steffans with Karen Hunter
An instant bestseller upon publication, Confessions of a Video Vixen is the page-turning memoir of Karrine Steffans: dancer, actress, and companion to many a celebrity. But more than a glimpse at what happens in the boardrooms and bedrooms of hip hop's A list, Confessions of a Video Vixen is also the first true account of how women are treated in the music industry, and its honest, direct revelations have generated debates and controversy across the country.By sharing her story, Steffans hopes to shed light on an otherwise romanticized industry and help young women avoid the same pitfalls she encountered—and if they're already in danger, she hopes to inspire them to find a way to pull themselves out of what she knows firsthand to be a cycle of hopelessness and despair.
Wynonna Judd with Patsi Bale Cox
From the heart of one of the world's most beloved entertainers comes an engaging memoir of professional triumph, private heartbreak, and personal victory. From Wynonna Judd's beginnings as part of the celebrated, multiple-award-winning, platinum-selling duo with her mother Naomi to an equally triumphant solo career to the dramatic turning point that forced the country music superstar to reevaluate her life, her priorities, and her past, this is a memoir as dynamic as the woman herself-a story of survival, strength, family, and forgiveness.