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Showing 1 - 20 of 4832 items
Memoir by the author of The Madonnas of Echo Park (DB 71696). Describes being raised as an American Indian by…
his single mother in Echo Park, California, in the 1970s and 1980s and discovering at the age of twelve or thirteen that he was really Mexican. Strong language. 2014
Explores the last twenty-seven years of the life of writer Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) and describes the solace that he found…
aboard his fishing boat Pilar, which he obtained in 1934. Discusses both Hemingway's literary career and his family, including his cross-dressing youngest son Gregory. Some strong language. 2011
British ceramic artist relates tracing his family's history through the ownership of a collection of netsuke, ornamental Japanese carvings, which…
he inherited in 1994. Describes the wealthy Ephrussi clan's lives in Vienna and Paris and their origins as Jewish merchants from Odessa, Russia. 2010
Essayist explores the life and work of George Orwell (1903-1950), best known as the author of 1984 and Animal Farm.…
Discusses Orwell's political beliefs and the ways they were shaped by the times in which he lived. Challenges Orwell's critics and argues that his ideas remain relevant. 2002
Children's book author/illustrator describes suffering from a brain injury received in a 1999 car accident when she was forty; reuniting…
with her mother, a homeless schizophrenic, in 2006 after a seventeen-year separation; and discovering a storage room filled with family memorabilia. Nat'l Book Critics Circle Award. 2011
Uses extracts from diaries and memoirs to describe Terezín, Czechoslovakia, in 1941-1945, when the Nazis turned the small town into…
a transit camp for imprisoning Jewish people before sending them to the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Relates the prisoners' feelings and their observations about camp events. For grades 5-8. 2011
Compilation of personal stories and essays written by teens--gay and straight--describes their conflicts with the homosexual identity, attempts to establish…
relationships, and struggles for acceptance. For senior high and older readers. 2009
Inspired by her mother Jutta's poesiealbum--an album of poems written by friends--and Jutta's diary, Levy presents a blank-verse recollection of…
the rapidly increased danger for Jews in Nazi Germany, which culminated in Jutta's family moving to the United States before World War II. For grades 5-8. 2010
After the 9/11 attacks three American women--one Jewish, one Christian, and one Muslim--decided to collaborate on an interfaith children's book…
to show the similarities among their religions. They discovered that their own misunderstandings had to be addressed first, leading to candid dialogue as their faith club sought common ground. 2006
Author, born in the 1980s, describes being raised by her Hasidic grandparents in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood after her mother left…
her developmentally disabled father. Discusses being an outcast and her arranged marriage, limited access to reading material, and lack of educational or employment opportunities. Bestseller. 2012
Focuses on the early life of American playwright Arthur Miller (d. 2005), exploring the forces that shaped him and ideas…
he grappled with in his writing. Examines Miller's marriage to Marilyn Monroe and analyzes his principal works, including Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and the film The Misfits. 2009
Columbia history professor places the life of playwright and memoirist Hellman (1905-1984) in the context of twentieth-century upheavals. Chronicles her…
Jewish family's southern background and Hellman's own New York upbringing, marriage, and affairs. Discusses her personality, friends, and political and social beliefs. 2012
Acclaimed British novelist chronicles his 1842 trip to the United States and offers observations about North American society. Includes Dickens's…
celebrated visit with Laura Bridgman at the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind. Introduction and notes by Patricia Ingham. 2004
Collection of essays by Lisa Scottoline, author of Come Home (DB 74517), and her daughter Francesca Serritella, previously published in…
The Philadelphia Inquirer. Topics include Serritella's moving to New York City to live on her own and Scottoline's subsequent empty-nest lifestyle in the Philadelphia suburbs. 2012
Historical background for Jewish festivals and feast days. Uses details of the celebrations to help explain the basic precepts of…
Judaism. Describes the biblical origin of observances and traces the ways they have evolved. Translated from Yiddish by Samuel Jaffe with a 1996 foreword by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner. 1938
English professor examines the life of Henry James, focusing on the period during which the author wrote The Portrait of…
a Lady (DB 51264). Examines James's previous literary successes, his travels through Europe, and the Victorian culture in which he lived. 2012
Chemistry professor and Sherlock Holmes scholar O'Brien analyzes the ways the fictional detective relied on forensic science to solve crimes.…
Details Holmes's use of handwriting analysis, cryptology, and--two years before police did--fingerprinting. Traces the development of these techniques and their application in actual cases. 2013
A man travels to the depths of Hell with the Roman poet Virgil as his guide. This version of Dante's…
fourteenth-century poem incorporates references to modern cultural touchstones such as Bob Dylan, Sigmund Freud, and Eric Cartman from the television show South Park. Translated from Italian. Some strong language. 2012
Twenty essays by popular authors on the reasons behind their pursuit of writing. Sue Grafton, author of A is for…
Alibi (DB 35069), ruminates on the source of "writer's block" and David Baldacci discusses his compulsion for writing. Also includes Isabel Allende, Jodi Picoult, and others. 2013
Autobiography recounts the author's childhood friendship in 1920s Poland with Karol Wojtyla (1920-2005), who became Pope John Paul II in…
1978. Kluger, a Jew, describes surviving World War II and reuniting with his friend after almost thirty years. Translated from Polish. 2011