Brand New Biographies

Cedar Mill’s latest book order included tons of new biographies and memoirs. With topics ranging from a middle-aged Olympic wannabe to an anatomy student with a strange connection to the cadaver she’s dissecting, there’s something for everyone. Here are the ones I’m most excited to read:

Assisted Loving: True Tales of Double Dating With My Dad by Bob Morris
Morris shares the year he spent taking charge of his 80-yr-old father’s dating life, and what it taught him.

Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab by Christine Montross
Dissects the relationship between a cadaver name Eve and the first-year medical student who cuts her open.

Doris Day: The Untold Story of the Girl Next Door by David Kaufman
A compelling new biography of the film favorite reveals that in many ways she was the opposite of her image as “the girl next door.”

The Girl I Left Behind: A Narrative History of the Sixties by Judith Nies
An exacting evaluation of the outcome of the 1960s feminist movement on the women who made it happen.

The Film Club by David Gilmour
Gilmour offers his son an unconventional deal: Jesse could drop out of school, not work, not pay rent – but he must watch three movies a week of his father’s choosing.

House of Wits: An Intimate Portrait of the James Family by Paul Fisher
In his chronicle of this memorable and unusual family who could be called the Royal Tenenbaums of the 19th Century, Fisher relates the formative years of novelist Henry, philosopher William, and feminist icon Alice.

The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death: Reflections on Revenge, Germophopia, and Laser Hair Removal by Laurie Notaro
Hilarious personal essays of ineptitude that reads a bit like David Sedaris’s geekier cousin.

The Legend of Colton H. Bryant by Alexandra Fuller
From the bestselling author of Don’t Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight comes a tale of a boy’s coming of age in the oil fields and open plains of Wyoming that will appeal to fans of Annie Proulx’s Wyoming stories or recent Oscar-winning movie There Will Be Blood.

Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity by Kerry Cohen
An excruciatingly honest memoir of a young girl’s lost childhood and descent into promiscuity.

Mr. Gatling’s Terrible Marvel: The Gun That Changed Everything and the Misunderstood Genius Who Invented It by Julia Keller
Examines the life of the misunderstood inventor of the Gatling gun and his invention’s impact on American and world events.

Off the Deep End: The Probably Insane Idea That I Could Swim My Way Through a Mid-Life Crisis and Qualify for the Olympics by W. Hodding Carter
In a humorously self-deprecating memoir, Carter tells of his mid-life crisis inspired race to make it to the Olympics.

Petite Anglaise: A True Story by Catherine Sanderson
In fresh twist on the classic story of reinvention abroad, Sanderson finds freedom in expressing herself to an anonymous audience when she starts an online diary.

The Poet of Baghdad: A True Story of Love and Defiance by Jo Tatchell
In 1979, Iraq’s most famous young poet, Nabeel Yasin, fled the country with his wife and son to escape certain death after he was declared an enemy of the state by the ruling Ba’athist party.

That Summer in Sicily: A Love Story by Marlena De Blasi
The author of bestsellers A Thousand Days in Venice, and A Thousand Days in Tuscany returns with a new memoir of life, love, and the magic of Sicily.

A Thousand Hills: Rwanda’s Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It by Stephen Kinzer
This uplifting tale of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who defied the odds the lift himself and his country out of misery toward a more promising future will appeal to fans of recent biographies Long Way Gone and  Three Cups of Tea.

Turtle Feet: The Making and Unmaking of a Buddhist Monk by Nikolai Grozni
This colorful memoir of becoming a monk details a young man’s spiritual (and not so spiritual) journey in India.

The Unlikely Lavender Queen: A Memoir of Unexpected Blossoming by Jeannie Ralston
Ralston gave up flourishing career in New York to build a new life in small-town Texas with the man she loves.

Warm Springs: Traces of a Childhood at FDR’s Polio Haven by Susan Richards Shreve
Novelist Shreve shares the story of the two years she spent as a rebellious 11 to 13-year old at the famous sanitarium during the height of the polio epidemic.

We’ve Always Had Paris … and Provence: A Scrapbook of Our Life in France by Patricia Wells and Walter Wells
The acclaimed food writer and her husband capture the tastes, sounds, and soul of France in this memoir which includes 30 recipes.