Share in the childhood tales of A Girl Named Zippy. Hear Kenneth Branagh read Samuel Pepys' exuberant 17th-century diary. Be transformed by the extraordinary women of Half the Sky. You'll find these and other remarkable life stories under biography and memoir.
In this vibrant memoir, Deborah Levy employs her characteristic indelible writing, sharp wit, and acute insights to craft a searing examination of womanhood and ownership. Learn More
Explained for the first time in the context of the young United States's tumultuous societal developments, Robert E. Lee's actions reveal a man forced to play a leading role in the formation of the nation at the cost of his private happiness. Learn More
William Styron’s youngest child explores the life of a fascinating and difficult man whose own memoir, Darkness Visible, searingly chronicled his battle with major depression. Learn More
Including interviews with Black women holding political office at the national, state, and local levels, as well as focus group data, The Radical Imagination of Black Women explores how Black women decide to seek political office. Pearl K. Ford Dowe argues that Black women's political ambition often manifests outside formal politics, in activism and community building, a process that is linked to a wider radical vision for a full democracy. Learn More
Xiaolu Guo has been lauded as a "voice . . . speaking with full freedom" (Wall Street Journal), which has made her one of the most acclaimed Chinese-born writers of her generation. Her new memoir, Radical, is an exploration of a city, an electrically honest rendering of what it means to be an outsider, and the sojourn that upended her sense of self as a woman, partner, mother, and artist. Learn More
by Thomas Huening; foreword by Congresswoman Jackie Speier; read by Mike Chamberlain
The authorized biography of John Joseph Kelly—the quintessential Good Samaritan—who changed the lives of thousands of people in need, first as a devoted Catholic priest; then as a champion of the poor and a father figure to troubled minority youth; and finally, as a one-on-one mentor offering hope and guidance to hardcore San Quentin inmates. Learn More
by Phyllis Biffle Elmore; read by Phyllis Biffle Elmore
The Yellow House meets Hidden in Plain View in this multigenerational memoir that celebrates African American quilting, family, and honoring the past. Learn More
This biography evokes the pervasive importance of religion to Queen Victoria's life but also that life's centrality to the religion of Victorians around the globe. The first comprehensive exploration of Victoria's religiosity, it shows how moments in her life—from her accession to her marriage and her successive bereavements—enlarged how she defined and lived her faith. Learn More
The winner of the 2014 Sami Rohr Prize for The Aleppo Codex returns with the gripping true story of a band of young Israeli soldiers, including the author, who in the 1990s were charged with holding an outpost inside Lebanon known as the Pumpkin. Learn More