SJPL Picks: Women's Memoirs & BiographiesLike this list

50 items

• Articulate

  a Deaf Memoir of Voice

  Kolb, Rachel,

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  Rachel Kolb was born profoundly deaf the same year that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed, and she grew up as part of the first generation of deaf people with legal rights to accessibility services. Still, from a young age, she…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Accidental Shepherd

  How a California Girl Rescued An Ancient Mountain Farm in Norway

  Greensfelder, Liese,

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  A summer job turns serious when a young woman takes the reins on a remote farm--and learns far more than how to herd sheep. In May 1972, Liese Greensfelder arrived in the small Norwegian town of Øystese to startling news: Johannes, the farmer who…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• This Beautiful, Ridiculous City

  a Graphic Memoir

  Sohini, Kay,

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  On her first night in New York City, Kay Sohini sits on the tarmac of JFK Airport making an inventory of everything she's left behind in India: her family, friends, home, and gaslighting ex-boyfriend. In the wake of that untethering she realizes two…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Acid Queen

  the Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary

  Cahalan, Susannah,

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  Rosemary Woodruff Leary has been known only as the wife of Timothy Leary, the Harvard professor-turned-psychedelic high priest, whose jailbreak captivated the counterculture and whose life on the run with Rosemary inflamed the government. But…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Uncanny Valley Girls

  Essays on Horror, Survival, and Love /

  Lisowski, Zefyr, 1994-

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  At twenty-seven, poet Zefyr Lisowski found herself in the place she feared a locked psych ward. While inside, she turned to horror movies—her deepest, most constant comfort. In these wide-ranging essays, Lisowski weaves theory and memoir into…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Claire McCardell

  the Designer Who Set Women Free

  Dickinson, Elizabeth Evitts,

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  Claire McCardell forever changed American fashion. In fact, much of what we wear today can be traced back to ballet flats, mix-and-match separates, wrap dresses, hoodies, leggings, denim in womenswear, and more. ... After World War II, McCardell…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Paper Doll

  Notes From a Late Bloomer

  Mulvaney, Dylan,

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  In her memoir, Paper Doll, Dylan pulls back the curtain of her "it girl" lifestyle with an honest, witty, and intimate reflection of her life post-transitioning. She covers everything from her first big break in theater to the first time her dad…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Positive Obsession

  the Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler /

  Morris, Susana M., 1980-

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  A magnificent cultural biography that charts the life of one of our greatest writers, situating her alongside the key historical and social moments that shaped her work.

• How to Share An Egg

  a True Story of Hunger, Love, and Plenty

  Reichert, Bonny,

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  Bonny Reichert avoided engaging with her family's Holocaust history until, in midlife, she unexpectedly confronted it while writing an article. Her father's survival in Auschwitz-Birkenau was a backdrop to her upbringing, but a transformative…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• One Aladdin Two Lamps

  Winterson, Jeanette, 1959-

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  A woman is filibustering for her life. Every night she tells a story. Every morning she lives one more day. One Aladdin Two Lamps cracks open the legendary story of Shahrazad in One Thousand and One Nights to explore new and ancient questions: Whom…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Art Spy

  the Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland

  Young, Michelle (Michelle T.),

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  On August 25, 1944, Rose Valland, a woman of quiet daring, found herself in a desperate position. From the windows of her beloved Jeu de Paume museum, where she had worked and ultimately spied, she could see the battle to liberate Paris thundering…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Woman With Fifty Faces

  Maria Lani & the Greatest Art Heist That Never Was

  Lackman, Jon,

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  On April 7, 1928, Maria Lani blew into Paris claiming to be a famous German actress and proceeded to seduce the cultural elite with her undeniable charisma and strangely enticing enigmatic aura. She persuaded fifty artists to immortalize her in…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Boat Baby

  a Memoir

  Nguyen, Vicky,

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  In a memoir where heroism meets humor, NBC News anchor and correspondent Vicky Nguyen tells the story of her family's daring escape from communist Vietnam and her unlikely journey from refugee to reporter with laughter and fierce love.

• The Cost of Being Undocumented

  One Woman's Reckoning With America's Inhumane Math

  Dick, Alix

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  More than a decade ago, Alix's family found themselves in the crosshairs of cartel violence in their home state of Sinaloa, Mexico. When they were targeted by assassins, Alix and her siblings fled to the United States, where they were safe from the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Dirty Kitchen

  a Memoir of Food and Family

  Damatac, Jill,

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  In this memoir a former undocumented immigrant reflects on her Filipino roots, family struggles and search for identity while cooking traditional recipes as she explores themes of immigration, belonging and the power of food to heal and reconnect.

• Destroy This House

  a Memoir

  Uhle, Amanda,

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  This poignant and humorous memoir details the complexities of navigating childhood with a hoarding mother and a scheming father, highlighting the bizarre lifestyle, constant deceptions and eventual journey toward personal independence amidst…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Becoming Spectacular

  the Rhythm of Resilience From the First African American Rockette

  Jones, Jennifer, 1967-

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  In 1987, the 63-year color barrier at Radio City was finally broken by one brave and tenacious woman. When she arrived, Jennifer Jones was met with a fierce resistance that she details in this memoir. Becoming Spectacular allows us to walk in Jones’…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Bread of Angels

  A Memoir

  Smith, Patti

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  God whispers through a crease in the wallpaper, writes Patti Smith in this indelible account of her life as an artist. A post-World War II childhood unfolds in a condemned housing complex described in Dickensian detail: consumptive children,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Call Me Emma

  Makee,

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  Yixuan Liu, a 16-year-old Chinese girl, just moved from China to America with her family. To try to fit in to a new school, a new city, and a new culture, Yixuan chooses an English name, Emma. As she works to succeed in school and make friends,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Enough

  Climbing Toward a True Self on Mount Everest

  Reid, Melissa Arnot,

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  At twenty-seven, when Melissa Arnot Reid accepted a tank of oxygen just short of the summit of Mount Everest, she felt ravaged by defeat. Driven by a relentless, lifelong quest to prove to herself, her family, and the world that she was enough, she…Read moreRead more of this annotation