by Nina Stibbe (Get the Book)
With a who's who at the beginning that ranges from film director Stephen Frears to Maxwell, the author's ex-pony, you might guess this is not your typical memoir. Not only that, but it comprises the tuneful, descriptive letters Nina wrote in the 1980s, while she tried her hand at nannying in London, to her sister, Vic, who stayed basically at home, near Leicestershire, England. The nannied children were young Sam and Will Frears their arty, daffy children's conversations fill the pages living with their sharp, blunt mother, Mary-Kay Wilmers, deputy editor of the London Review of Books. Nina herself, then just 20 and new to the task of being a nanny, was a lover of London and quite the observer, documenting for her sister back home the who, the when, and her full-blown, clever, open-eyed take on the what of life at the Wilmers-Frears. Stibbe notes that nannying is not like a job really, just like living in someone else's life, but what a funny, artist-filled life she lived, and how well she watched and participated. This is an offbeat paean to families, real and cobbled-together, to sisters and siblings, and to communicating with love. It's also a rare and wholly delectable epistolary slice of life. --Booklist
by Stepen E. Ambrose (Get the Book)
Stephen E. Ambrose draws upon extensive sources, an unprecedented degree of scholarship, and numerous interviews with Eisenhower himself to offer the fullest, richest, most objective rendering yet of the soldier who became president. He gives us a masterly account of the European war theater and Eisenhower's magnificent leadership as Allied Supreme Commander. Ambrose's recounting of Eisenhower's presidency, the first of the Cold War, brings to life a man and a country struggling with issues as diverse as civil rights, atomic weapons, communism, and a new global role. Along the way, Ambrose follows the 34th President's relations with the people closest to him, most of all Mamie, his son John, and Kay Summersby, as well as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Harry Truman, Nixon, Dulles, Khrushchev, Joe McCarthy, and indeed, all the American and world leaders of his time. This superb interpretation of Eisenhower's life confirms Stephen Ambrose's position as one of our finest historians. (Publisher)
by Carols Santana (Get the Book)
Although Santana first captivated the world at his Woodstock performance, his intimate relationship with his guitar had long sustained him. Now, for the first time, the elusive guitarist tells his story in prose that is by turns ragged and sparkling. As he does with his music, Santana uses words to paint pictures, describing the streets of his Mexican hometown of AutlĂ¡n, his earliest gigs at the El Convoy bar in Tijuana, and his move to San Francisco as a teenager, where his career first took off, with the help of, among others, famous rock promoter Bill Graham. Santana also discusses the sexual abuse he suffered as a child, perpetrated by a neighbor, and his parents' efforts to downplay the incident. He strikes the perfect chord when he traces his ongoing spiritual evolution, attributing his success and the beauty of his music to what he calls the "universal tone": "The story behind the stories, the music behind the music.... With it you realize you are not alone; you are connected to everyone." For him, it all comes back to the music: "It's the fastest way of getting away from the darkness of ego.... It's a blessing to be able to play from your soul and to reach many people." --Publisher's Weekly
by Claire H. Blatchford (Get the Book)
Having lost most of her hearing suddenly at age six after suffering from the mumps-"Imagine your hearing being switched off with one quick flick of fate"-former teacher Blatchford (Clarks School for Hearing and Speech, Northampton, Mass.) soldiered on for 60 years before sound returned after she underwent a cochlear implant in 2011. In this measured, useful work, Blatchford explains her careful decision to have the implant after being told by her audiologist that her condition was degenerating ("I thought she was kidding," Blatchford writes in an accompanying poem, "but her face was serious"). Married since 1968, with two grown daughters and several grandchildren, Blatchford recognized how much she was missing and how quickly technology had advanced since she grew up. Having been mainstreamed in school, taught to "speechread" rather than sign, and only fitted with her first hearing aid at age 12, Blatchford writes without a trace of self-pity about her vast loneliness as a child and how she became a master of "bluffing": pretending she understood "was a lot less jarring and less tiring than having to ask people to repeat what they'd said." With her implant, sounds became tactile, with texture and colors she describes lyrically, and she presents amazing revelations regarding her newfound hearing of music, birds, and voices-especially her own voice. With an appendix featuring a technical explanation of the cochlear implant by audiologist Jeanne Coburn, this is a wonderfully inspiring work. --Library journal
by John Byrne Cooke (Get the Book)
Singer Janis Joplin (1943-70) may have only lived to the age of 27, but she packed an awful lot of living into that short span. In the last five years of her life, she played in three different bands, recorded nearly 200 songs, and performed all over the world, most famously at Woodstock. At her side was Cooke (The Snowblind Moon), her road manager through most of that period. Cooke provides an intimate, affectionate look back at his time with Janis in his newest book. Joplin is a legend and it is all too easy to forget that legends are also people of their times and environments. Cooke's book is a valuable insight into the performer as a living, breathing person, with her own all-too-human strengths and vulnerabilities. The author may be one of the few people left in the world with that kind of perspective on her, so it's a good thing that he is a gifted writer, letting Joplin's vivaciousness and intensity shine throughout the work. VERDICT Rock music fans will love reading this up-close view of Joplin. The end of the book feels like losing her all over again. --Janis Joplin
by Patrick Modiano (Get the Book)
Acclaimed French novelist Modiano weaves an oddly compelling blend of true-life mystery tale and family memoir against the backdrop of the Holocaust. While scanning a World War II-era Paris newspaper in 1988, Modiano finds a personal advertisement concerning a missing 15-year-old Jewish girl, Dora Bruder. Compelled by familiarity with the neighborhood mentioned in the advertisement and by personal curiosity, Modiano begins to painstakingly trace the history of the missing girl from her birth to the convent school from which she ran away in 1941 to her deportation to Auschwitz in 1942. Along the way, his investigation brings him face-to-face with reminders of his earlier life, as well as with memories of his father, who, like Dora, was rounded up by the Jewish Affairs police in Paris in 1942. Although at times the progress of events seems somewhat arbitrary, Modiano's short book ends strongly and leaves the reader thankful for the power of memory and imagination to combat loss.
by James Gavin (Get the Book)
Peggy Lee developed her soft and sultry sound from the influences of black singers and her early days of singing in dinner clubs, where she deliberately softened her voice to force the audience to listen. When she purred, audiences would lean in. That softness and an equally hard-edged sexiness set her apart from others, from her beginning as a singer in the swing era to her voice-over work with Disney to her inspiring of the Muppet character, Miss Piggy. Lee, born Norma Deloris Egstrom, had a hardscrabble childhood in desolate North Dakota but an outsize talent and personality that eventually drove her to a career in Hollywood. Gavin (Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne, 2009) offers a penetrating portrait of a woman embittered by childhood memories and failed marriages, struggling with alcohol and drugs, yet determined to have a career worthy of her voice. Best known for her songs Fever and Is That All There Is?, Lee sang with legendary musicians Benny Goodman, Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong. Old and new fans will appreciate this revealing portrait of troubled and talented woman. --Booklist
