Biographies

TITLE & AUTHOR

Almost A Woman

In her new memoir, the author of When I was Puerto Rican continues the chronicle of her emergence from the barrios of Brooklyn to the theaters of Manhattan.

Always Running - La Vida Loca: Gang Days In L.A.

RODRIGUEZ, L

The author discusses his life with gangs in East Los Angeles and in the San Gabriel Valley during the 1960's.

Angela's Ashes

Frank McCourt tells the story of his poverty-stricken childhood years after his family returned to the slums of Limerick, Ireland.

Anne Frank: The Diary Of A Young Girl

FRANK, A

Famous diary of a young Jewish girl hiding from the Nazis with seven others in an attic in Amsterdam during World War II.

Autobiography Of Malcolm X

The absorbing personal story of Malcolm X's rise from hoodlum, dope peddler and pimp to dynamic leader of the black revolution.

Bell Jar

Autobiographical novel about a young woman on the brink of madness and suicide.

Black Boy

Richard Wright's unforgettable story of growing up in the Jim Crow South. The book is told from the perspective of the adult Wright, who was still trying to come to grips with the cruel deprivations and humiliations of his childhood.

Black Elk Speaks: Being The Life Story Of A Holy Man Of The Oglala Sioux

NEIHARD, J

The life story and personal vision of a Sioux Warrior and medicine man who lived through the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the massacre at Wounded Knee and the death of his people.

Black Like Me

GRIFFIN, J

Boy Called "It". One Child's Courage To Survive

Child Called "It". One Child's Courage To Survive

Dave Pelzer shares his unforgettable story of the many abuses he suffered at the hands of his alcoholic mother and the averted eyes of his neglectful father. Someone with no one to turn to, his dreams barely kept him alive.

Chinese Cinderella: The True Story Of An Unwanted Daughter

YEN MAH, A

An authentic portrait of 20^th-century China, as well as the story of the painful childhood of an unwanted daughter.

Colors Of The Mountain

Rich with scenes of rural life in China at the time of Mao Zedung's Cultural Revolution, this memoir of a boyhood full of mischief and love is an exhilarating account of success in the face of adversity.

Depths Of Glory: A Biographical Novel of Camille Pissarro

Edith's Story: The True Story Of A Young Girl's Courage And Survival During World War II

VELMAN, E

Reconstructed from her diaries, journals and family letters, Edith Velman's personal account stands out as a moving eyewitness account of a young teenager in Holland who, by posing as a gentile, is hidden and survives the war.

Education Of Little Tree

The inspirational and autobiographical memories of the author's Indian boyhood, with his Eastern Cherokee Hill Country grandparents in the 1930's.

Girl Interrupted

Committed to a psychiatric ward at age 18, the author spent two years on the ward for teenage girls. A contemporary classic of self-discovery, this memoir tells of her journey through a "parallel universe" of madness.

Go Ask Alice*

True and painful diary of a 15-year-old girl's experience with drugs that eventually leads to her death.

Go Tell It On The Mountain

Autobiographical novel of a family in Harlem composed of an angry father, a stoic mother, a rebellious older son and a sensitive younger one.

Going Where I'm Coming from : Memoirs of American Youth

Multicultural perspective on establishing identity and experiencing life as a young person. Well-known writers recall things from their growing up with perception and poignancy.

Hope In The Unseen: An American Odyssey From The Inner City To The Ivy League

At Ballou Senior High, a crime-infested school in Washington, D.C., honor students know that any special attention in a place this dangerous can make you a target of violence. But Cedric Jennings will not swallow his pride, and studies and strives as if his life depends on it - and it does.

I Have Lived A Thousand Years. Growing Up In The Holocaust

A haunting and inspiring memoir of the Holocaust written by a survivor who was 13 years old when the Nazis invaded Hungary and forced her family on a dark journey that led to Auschwitz.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

The moving and beautiful autobiography of a talented black woman confronting her own life with dignity.

In My Hands, Memories Of A Holocaust Survivor

Irene Gut Opdyke was only 17 when she was stripped her of all she loved - her family, her home, her innocence. Fighting back, she uses her Aryan appearance to glean information and to help smuggle Jews to safety.

Into Thin Air

The tragedy that took the lives of experienced mountain guides and novice climbers in a raging blizzard atop Mt. Everest in 1996 is chronicled with clarity, poignancy and brutal honesty by someone who had witnessed the event first-hand.

Ishi, Last Of His Tribe

The story of Ishi, the last survivor of the Yahi, a small tribe of Californian Indians, who hid from the white invaders in the early 1900's to die a natural death.

Jazz

MORRISON, T

Morrison, in her sixth novel, enters 1926 Harlem, a new black world then (``safe from fays [whites] and the things they think up''), and moves into a love story - with a love that could clear a space from the past, give a life or take one.

Life In Prison

Lost Boy: A Foster Child's Search for the Love of a Family

In the long-awaited sequel to A Child Called "It", Dave Pelzer answers questions and reveals new adventures through the compelling story of his life as an adolescent. Now considered an F-Child (Foster Child), Dave suffers shame and experiences resentment from those who feel that all foster kids are trouble and unworthy of being loved just because they are not part of a "real" family. Tears, laughter, devastation and hope create the journey of this little lost boy who searches desperately for just one thing -- the love of a family.

Lust For Life

This fictionalized biography of the Dutch painter, Vincent Van Gogh, is based on Van Gogh's letters to his brother, Theo. Van Gogh was a violent, clumsy and passionate man who was driven to the extremity of exhaustion by his fervor to get life - the essence of it - into paint.

Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America

A black Washington Post reporter who served time recounts his life and brilliantly shows why prison has become a rite of passage for many young black men.

Man Named Dave: A Story Of Triumph And Forgiveness

The third part in David Pelzer's autobiographical trilogy is an inspiring story of terror, recovery and hope experienced by the author throughout his life. He provides living proof that we can "stop the cycle" and lead fulfilling, rewarding lives.

Miriam’s Song: A Memoir

Mark Mathabane's Kaffir Boy is a story of growing up in South Africa under apartheid. Miriam's Song is the story of Mark's sister, who was left behind in South Africa. It is the gripping tale of a woman who came of age amid the violence and rebellion of the 1980s, and finally saw the destruction of apartheid and the birth of a new, democratic South Africa.

Monster; The Autobiography Of An LA Gang Member

Monster Kody, today known as Sanyika Sakur, spent 16 years as a gangbanger in South Central Los Angeles. His account begins at age eleven, when he was inducted into the ranks of the Crips, and ends (hundreds of bodies later) with Scott serving a seven-year prison term for beating a crack dealer.

Packinghouse Daughter

Compelling story of a small-town, working-class life, and the violence that rocked the community when strike breakers were brought in during the meat packing strike of 1959.

Pedro And Me

A heartfelt memoir about the author's friendship with AIDS educator Pedro Zamora, who died of the disease after appearing on MTV's Real World.

Ryan White: My Own Story

The heartwarming story of Ryan White's life with AIDS and his courageous fight against it.

Shipwreck At The Bottom Of The World

A riveting account of Schackleton's expedition to Antarctica in 1914, the wreck of his ship and the amazing story of his crew's survival after months in the uncharted arctic wasteland.

Stone Song: A Novel Of Crazy Horse

Scorned from childhood for his light hair, a man who spurned the love of finery and honors so characteristic of Lakota Sioux Warriors, Crazy Horse led his people to their greatest victory.

They Cage The Animals At Night

Gripping autobiographical account of a child whose mother abandoned him at the age of eight.

To Be A Slave

Eloquent personal testimony of the men and women who lived through slavery in the USA.

Voices From Vietnam

This high caliber oral history successfully weaves quotations and commentary to tell the story of what it was like in Vietnam.

We Are Witnesses

Five Jewish teenagers kept diaries of their lives under Hitler's twisted rule. Through them unfolds a personal history of the Holocaust and the hope each had in the face of horror and death.

When Heaven And Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman's Journey from War to Peace

When I Was Puerto Rican

Esmeralda Santiago's coming-of-age memoir begins in small rural Puerto Rico and follows her to New York, where the rules and language are bewilderingly different.

Where The Broken Heart Still Beats. The Story Of Cynthia Ann Parker

Within Reach, My Everest Story

In this suspenseful first-person narrative, 16-year-old Mark Pfetzer relates his experiences as the youngest climber to attempt Everest, an unwilling witness to the tragedy documented in Krakauer's Thin Air.

Woman Warrior: Memoirs Of A Girlhood Amongst Ghosts

Vivid and poetic account of what it was like to grow up as the daughter of a traditional Chinese family that found women inferior to men and considered all non-Chinese "ghosts".

Zlata's Diary, A Child's Life In Sarajevo

Zlata Filipovic describes her life in Sarajevo, her experiences as she leaves her protected childhood behind, and begins to live the day-to-day hardship and deprivation of a city under siege. Zlata's Diary is a poignant plea for peace and a testament to the futility and waste of War.