Orange is the new black : my year in a women's prison

by Piper Kerman     (Get the Book)
Just graduated from Smith College, Kerman made the mistake of getting involved with the wrong woman and agreeing to deliver a large cash payment for an international drug ring. Years later, the consequences catch up with her in the form of an indictment on conspiracy drug-smuggling and money-laundering charges. Kerman pleads guilty and is sentenced to 15 months in a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut. Entering prison in 2004 more than 10 years after her crime Kerman finds herself submerged in the unique and sometimes overwhelming culture of prison, where kindness can come in the form of sharing toiletries, and an insult in the cafeteria can lead to an enduring enmity. Kerman quickly learns the rules asking about the length of one's prison stay is expected, but never ask about the crime that led to it and carves a niche for herself even as she witnesses the way the prison system fails those who are condemned to it, many of them nonviolent drug offenders. An absorbing, meditative look at life behind bars. --Booklist

Everybody's got something

by Robin Roberts      (Get the Book)
When Good Morning America cohost Roberts was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007, she mounted a very public battle. Five years after completing treatment, she faced a rare bone-marrow disorder, likely caused by the cancer treatment, that again tested her strength and resolve, again in public. Following her mother's time-honored advice to make your mess your message, Roberts offers an inspiring memoir of her life, from her home base in Mississippi to her home in New York and the glamorous though grueling life of a television reporter. Roberts prevailed through a painful bone-marrow transplant, with her sister as donor; the death of her mother; and her triumphant return to GMA after her medical leave, proudly wearing her bald head on air. With the infectious personality for which she's known, Roberts details the support of family and friends and the people she's met in her life and career who've inspired her by overcoming their own challenges with the something that everybody inevitably faces. --Booklist

There goes gravity : a life in rock and roll

by Lisa Robinson    (Get the Book)
Journalist Robinson, currently a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, has four decades' worth of personal stories about the many rock 'n' roll stars she hung with and wrote about. She knew Mick Jagger before he got his teeth fixed, for example, and she colorfully details her times with rock soon-to-be-superstars David Bowie, Lou Reed, and such before moving on to her many years of interviews and meetings with music luminaries like Michael Jackson, Bono, Eminem, and Lady Gaga. Robinson has an astute memory, reel-to-reel party tapes, and even breakfast-order notes that captured the minutest aspects of her musical journey. The excerpts from her long interviews with, say, John Lennon, are fascinating and worth the price of the book; no worries that Robinson digresses and rambles here and there. Plenty of music fans will be more than ready for this circuitous, genial, and opinionated walk on the wild side. --Booklist

Under magnolia : a Southern memoir

by Frances Mayes    (Get the Book)
Mayes, adored for her famed Tuscany books (Under the Tuscan Sun, 1996; Every Day in Tuscany, 2010), mined the murky depths of her family's history for her first novel, Swan (2002). She now returns to the scene of the crimes in both literal and figurative senses. Her southern memoir is a tale straight out of Faulkner, rife with episodes of dissipation and disillusion, parents who loved and fought with equally wild abandon, and ancestors with names like Big Mama and Daddy Jack. While on a book tour in Oxford, Mississippi, Mayes realized her southern roots ran deeper than she believed or would have liked. But she and her husband were sufficiently compelled to relocate from Northern California to North Carolina, settling in a university town with a far enough remove to allow her an objective distance from which to analyze the signature episodes of her childhood. With her trademark skill for capturing the essence of place and time, Mayes candidly reveals a youth riddled with psychological abuse and parental neglect that, nevertheless, ignited a fiery passion for adventure and self-discovery. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: A best-selling sensation worldwide, Mayes will galvanize readers with this vigorously promoted coming-of-age tale set on her home terrain. --Booklist

You must remember this : life and style in Hollywood's golden age

by Robert Wagner    (Get the Book)
Wagner and Eyman, who coauthored Wagner's 2008 autobiography, Pieces of My Heart, this time tell the story of a place and a time: Hollywood from the 1930s through the '60s. Divided into topical chapters, including Houses and Hotels, Style, and Nightlife, the book follows Hollywood from its early days until Cecil B. DeMille arrived in 1913, Hollywood was just another place outside Los Angeles through its heady decades as the trendsetter in style and popular culture, and ending with the collapse of the studio system, when profits were in steep decline and many of the Golden Age stars were dying or aging out of the spotlight. You can tell that Wagner, whose acting career started when the Golden Age was its most golden, truly misses that time and place; his fondness for it and his distaste for the modern way of moviemaking come through on almost every page. For Wagner, the emblems of Hollywood at its grandest the mansions, the stars, the parties, the watering holes evoke a better world, and his account of how it was then just may leave nostalgic readers similarly affected. --Booklist

They called me god : the best umpire who ever lived

by Doug Harvey    (Get the Book)
Doug Harvey made his Major League umpiring debut in 1962 and retired after 4,673 games in 1992. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010. As one would expect of an umpire, his memoir is confident and sure. Whatever call he made, safe or out, ball or strike, he never backed down and never changed his mind. Along with best-selling coauthor Golenbock (The Bronx Zoo, 1979, and Balls, 1984, among others), Harvey guides readers through his career: his relatively short apprenticeship in the minors, his time as a basketball referee, his early years with a contentious crew chief in the Majors, and his long run as veteran and much-respected ump. And, as readers would hope, there are dozens of anecdotes involving some of baseball's greatest names, including Sandy Koufax, Ted Williams, and Willie Mays. Though he never changed his mind, Harvey prided himself on being a good listener, even to irate managers, and the best tales are those about the behind-the-scenes machinations of such legendary field generals as Leo Durocher, Sparky Anderson, Tommy Lasorda, and Walter Alston. Baseball fans will relish this my-way-or-the-highway memoir. --Booklist

The gardener of Versailles : my life in the world's grandest garden

by Alain Baraton    (Get the Book)
Versailles's gardener in chief aims to share an aspect of the grand landmark palace outside of Paris that is seldom experienced-a simple, intimate side not evident in works such as Michel Baridon's A History of the Gardens of Versailles. An exquisite storyteller who works in and lives among the gardens, Baraton (editor, From Marie Antoinette's Garden: An Eighteenth-Century Horticultural Album) immediately engages readers with a vivid account of a severe storm damaging the gardens. It is an extraordinary place to begin, for it enables Baraton to slip comfortably into reminiscing, beckoning readers back to the beginning of his tenure, 1976, when he was only an apprentice gardener's assistant. A keen observer, he learned quickly and developed a curiosity about the place. Thirty years on, Baraton has filled his book not only with interesting historical details and human stories of the royals who walked the grounds but with insightful, contemporary tales of wise coworkers and eccentric visitors. Whether he's discussing romantic tourists or marveling at bygone gardening techniques, Baraton's eloquence and intelligence shine in this English translation by Murray. --Library Journal