NCW Libraries

"Blanca Blanco is the very definition of self-made; coming from nothing to reach her success, with hard work, tenacity, and intelligence. Her compelling, beautiful, motivational, story told in Breaking the Mold, tells of her background. The woman behind the award-winning actress and fashion model, with graduate degrees in psychology and social work. Blanca reveals the secrets of her past. Born in the U.S., then as a Latina immigrant, from Mexico,...

"For readers of Atul Gawande, Andrew Solomon, and Anne Lamott, a profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir by a young neurosurgeon faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis who attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living? At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the...

In the span of four months in 2012, Tig Notaro was hospitalized for a debilitating intestinal disease called C-diff, her mother unexpectedly died, she went through a breakup, and she was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer. Days after her diagnosis, Tig took her grief onstage, opening an unvarnished set with, "Good evening. Hello. I have cancer." The set went viral instantly and was later released as an album, Live, and was nominated for a Grammy....

A memoir of the author's cursed travels through the woods of Massachusetts and coastal Maine, describing his midlife transformation from an idealistic youth to an eccentric family man.

"From Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen, a long-awaited memoir about home, belonging, inequality, and identity, recounting a singular life devoted to betterment of humanity. The Nobel laureate Amartya Sen is one of a handful of people who may truly be called "a global intellectual" (Financial Times). A towering figure in the field of economics, Sen is perhaps best known for his work on poverty and famine, as inspired by events in his boyhood home of...

"In a tribute to his late father, British historian Mark Mazower traces his family's story from the end of the nineteenth century to today, beginning with his grandfather Mordkhel Mazower's birth in the town of Grodno, part of the Pale of Settlement to which the majority of the Russian Empire's Jews were confined. An activist and member of the Communist Bund, Mordkhel--who later assumed the more European name "Max"--Travelled widely in the years surrounding...

"Born into a polygamist cult in Mexico in 1971, Vera LaRee was one of fifty-seven children her father had with his eleven wives. Constantly told that women were inferior to men and God was to be feared, from an early age she experienced manipulation, brainwashing and sexual violation. Married off to her deceased sister's husband at the age of sixteen, she helped raise her sister's children and gave birth to three of her own--truly believing what she...

The Next Chapter is Jana Kramer's intimate and moving account about setting her life back on the right path after her sudden divorce. Chronicling the year that follows, Jana relives personal stories of early traumas and past relationships, and with raw honesty she shares topics dear to her heart and music, including hearing God, loving oneself, navigating setbacks, female friendships, grief, and motherhood.

"An exploration of the crisis of homeless youth--told through the stories of a woman on the frontlines and the kids themselves."-- Provided by publisher.

"In her hit Netflix comedy special Baby Cobra, an eight-month pregnant Ali Wong resonated so heavily that she became a popular Halloween costume. Wong told the world her remarkably unfiltered thoughts on marriage, sex, Asian culture, working women, and why you never see new mom comics on stage but you sure see plenty of new dads. The sharp insights and humor are even more personal in this completely original collection. She shares the wisdom she's...