Category Archives: Biography

Master Slave Husband Wife: an Epic journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo

26 Friday May 2023

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This book presents the remarkable true story of Ellen and William Craft, who escaped slavery through daring, determination, and disguise, with Ellen passing as a wealthy, disabled white man and William posing as “his” slave.

“Master Slave Husband Wife, like all of the truly great American stories, spent over a century lying in wait, desperate to be told. Enter Ilyon Woo.  Ellen and WIlliam Craft loved each other, but also loved freedom, and knew one was impossible without the other.  And so they embarked on one of the most daring feats ever attempted in American history, a breathless story captured with breathless prose, and we readers gasp in amazement and wonder at the tragedy and triumph.” — Marlon James, winner of the 2015 Booker Prize

“A gripping adventure. . . . suspenseful and wonderfully told.  A captivating tale that ably captures the determination and courage of a remarkable couple.” ― Kirkus Reviews (starred review

“For those of us who already were familiar with Ellen and William Craft, we’re so grateful for this reconsideration of this courageous couple’s story. Ilyon Woo has accomplished a phenomenal feat, presenting previously unpublished archival excavations. Certainly, this is an essential addition to early African American studies—but more than research, Woo offers the Crafts’ travels with such grace, such tenderness. Here is a necessary rendering of Black love, Black resilience, and Black humanity during one of our nation’s most fraught times.” — Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, author of The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois)

“A narrative of such courage and resourcefulness it seems too dashing to be true. But it is. . . . The story is so richly dramatic, and Ms. Woo so skilled at spinning it out, that at times it’s a genuine nail-biter.” — Priscilla M. Jensen ― The Wall Street Journal

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The Girl Who Taught Herself to Fly: a Memoir by Kwan Kew Lai

13 Saturday May 2023

Posted by in Biography, memoir, Non-fiction

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The author will talk IN-PERSON at the Weston Public Library May 25, 2023 7 pm.

“Kwan Kew and I trained together in infectious disease in Boston, and although I knew she was an extraordinary physician I had no idea how far she had come from her impoverished and incredibly difficulty childhood in Malaysia. This poignant memoir, beautifully written and filled with humor and pathos, portrays a world few of us can imagine. That such an incredible doctor and writer could emerge from such challenging beginnings is a testament to the human spirit, or perhaps to her unique spirit. I could not put this memoir down.” Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone

“A graphic testimony to Malaysian colonial/postcolonial communal differences, resistance to Chinese gender inequities, and U.S. immigrant opportunities-Kwan Kew Lai offers us a triumphalist survivor’s memoir.” Shirley Geok-lin Lim, author of Among the White Moon Faces, recipient of the American Book Award

“An evocative story of Kwan Kew Lai’s childhood in post-World War II Penang. She so beautifully shows how her background gave her the drive to soar to new heights and gain entry into one of the most prestigious colleges in the US. A must-read!” Susan Blumberg-Kason, author of Good Chinese Wife, co-editor of Hong Kong Noir

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All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley 

12 Wednesday Apr 2023

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A beautifully written memoir about a man who goes to work as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art after the death of his brother to help deal with his grief. The book is also full of his observations on the museum’s amazing art collection, and the interesting people he meets and works with.

“Exquisite… A beautiful tale about beauty. It is also a tale about grief, balancing solitude and comradeship, and finding joy in both the exalted and the mundane.” —The Washington Post

“An empathic chronicle of one museum, the works collected there and the people who keep it running — all recounted by an especially patient observer.” —The New York Times Book Review

“As rich in moving insights as the Met is in treasures, All the Beauty in the World reminds us of the importance of learning not “about art, but from it.” This is art appreciation at a profound level.”—NPR


“This absorbing memoir is also a beautifully written manual on how to appreciate art, and life. It’s a must-read for art lovers” —Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with a Pearl Earring

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Stolen : Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home by Richard Bell

01 Wednesday Feb 2023

Posted by in Biography, History, Non-fiction, Uncategorized, United States

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“A well-told story… A deep dive into the extraordinary risks faced by free blacks in the antebellum era.”–Kirkus Reviews

“Opening an unknown world from an unsung tragedy that started in early national Philadelphia and stretched grimly South, Stolen offers a worm’s eye view of the leviathan of American slavery, and of some of its most dastardly perpetrators and its most remarkable survivors. Richard Bell has researched inventively and mastered a vast body of scholarship, as we would expect from so distinguished a historian. But he also imbues his tale with the deep humanity of a great novelist. Both riveting and heartrending, Stolen joins the great literature of America’s founding tragedy, earning a place alongside the work of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edward P. Jones, and Toni Morrison.” – Jane Kamensky, Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History, Harvard University

“Stolen is historical storytelling at its best. Bell makes brilliant detective work come alive with vivid, powerful writing. The saga of these five boys, kidnapped and smuggled from Philadelphia to Mississippi in the 1820s, captures both the powerful undertow of slavery in the free black communities of the North and the urgent dawning of the abolitionist movement. There’s been nothing like it since Northup.” –Adam Rothman, author of Beyond Freedom’s Reach: A Kidnapping in the Twilight of Slavery

“Rigorously researched, heartfelt, and dramatically concise, Bell’s investigation illuminates the role slavery played in the systemic inequalities that still confront Black Americans” (Booklist)

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Chasing Me To My Grave: An artist’s memoir of the Jim Crow South by Erin Kelly

07 Wednesday Dec 2022

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WINNER OF THE 2022 PULITZER PRIZE IN BIOGRAPHY

On January 18, 2023 at 7 PM, the author Erin Kelly and Lillian Rembert one of Mr Rembert’s daughters, will come to Weston for a program celebrating Winfred Rembert’s life and art. 

This memoir describes the incredible life and art of Winfred Rembert, an African American man who survived a lynching attempt in Georgia during the civil rights movement. He later became an artist who created stories of his youth using leather tooling skills. While the memoir does include chapters describing the violence he survived, the book is also full of love, laughter, stories, art, and humanity.

“This is a book like no other, from Winfred Rembert’s unique and uniquely powerful autobiographical paintings to his disturbing and courageous life story . . . Rembert recounts diabolical abuse and violence with rare candor and precision . . . By using carved, tooled, and dyed leather as the medium for vibrantly patterned scenes from his life, Rembert turned the scars on his body and soul into artworks of clarion witness and reckoning. With a foreword by Bryan Stevenson and superb color reproductions, Rembert’s self-portrait in word and image belongs in every library.” – Donna Seaman, Booklist, starred review, “Best Books of the Year”

“Frank and compelling . . . An ultimately uplifting journey from the ugliness of virulent racism to the beauty of art.” – Kirkus, starred review

“Visually and narratively stunning . . . Rembert’s artistic talent was a gift; his use of that talent to create memorable images―of an era before modern cameras were ubiquitous―is a gift to history.” – Library Journal

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Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? : a Memoir by Séamas O’Reilly 

19 Friday Aug 2022

Posted by in 20th century, Biography, memoir

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This memoir is narrated by Séamas O’Reilly, who was five when his mother died and left behind a husband and eleven children. While this tragic event is the focus of the book, it is also a really funny, uplifting story about how the siblings and their dad carried on, living in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. 

“I laughed out loud reading Did Ye Hear Mammy Died, especially at the bits that recalled for me the way my own family laughs to keep from crying…It’s rare to read about good fathers in memoirs, and O’Reilly’s portrait…is hilarious and moving….It is this thread of refusal to be pitied, to have what happened to his family reduced to ‘a tawdry bit of sentimental fluff for people to tut along to and say how sad,’ that makes Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? so rousing. That it is also deadly funny is an extra treat.”―NPR

“Northern Ireland in the time of the Troubles is often cast into a narrative that doesn’t allow room for joy or delight…O’Reilly’s recollection is a splendid paradox, both cheery and heartbreaking.”―Booklist, Starred

“In this joyous, wildly unconventional memoir, Séamas O’Reilly tells the story of losing his mother as a child and growing up with ten siblings in Northern Ireland during the final years of the Troubles as a raucous comedy, a grand caper that is absolutely bursting with life.”―Patrick Radden Keefe, NYT bestselling author of Say Nothing and Empire of Pain

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The Nazis Knew My Name: A Remarkable Story of Survival and Courage in Auschwitz by Magda Hellinger and Maya Lee

06 Saturday Aug 2022

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Having heard this author on NPR describing an excerpt from the book where her mother slapped a prisoner and yanked her off a wagon – what was criticized as harsh – but , there and then, actually saved that prisoner’s life as well as hundreds of other prisoners’ lives. I was intrigued to discover how she herself managed to survive having been one of the first Jews to be sent to Auschwitz.

“For too long, the stories of people like Magda, who were forced to make unthinkable choices, have remained untold. Unsentimental and filled with detail of her courageous dealings with notorious Nazis this is an important book that provides a rare insight into everyday life in the hellish structure of concentration camps. This thought-provoking book is a must-read for anyone interested in the Holocaust.” —Ariana Neumann, New York Times bestselling author of When Time Stopped

“[A] compelling and seamless portrait of a young woman who managed to sur­vive and save others through cunning bravery and compassionate leadership… an extraordinary portrait of one woman who fought for others in the midst of unimaginable horror.” —BookPage (starred review)

“Hellinger has written an important perspective of the Holocaust, of a kind that we rarely see. A standout memoir that will draw the interest of readers of World War II history and women’s memoirs or biographies.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“Magda’s own words, completed by her daughter’s copious research, create an unputdownable account of resilience and the power of compassion.” —Booklist

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Crying in H Mart: a Memoir  by Michelle Zauner

01 Wednesday Jun 2022

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“Michelle Zauner has written a book you experience with all of your senses: sentences you can taste, paragraphs that sound like music. She seamlessly blends stories of food and memory, sumptuousness and grief, to weave a complex narrative of loyalty and loss.” —Rachel Syme

“I read Crying in H Mart with my heart in my throat. In this beautifully written memoir, Michelle Zauner has created a gripping, sensuous portrait of an indelible mother-daughter bond that hits all the notes: love, friction, loyalty, grief. All mothers and daughters will recognize themselves—and each other—in these pages.” —Dani Shapiro, author of Inheritance

“Crying in H Mart is a wonder: A beautiful, deeply moving coming-of-age story about mothers and daughters, love and grief, food and identity. It blew me away, even as it broke my heart.” –Adrienne Brodeur, author of Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me

“Poignant . . . A tender, well-rendered, heart-wrenching account of the way food ties us to those who have passed. The author delivers mouthwatering descriptions of dishes like pajeon, jatjuk, and gimbap, and her storytelling is fluid, honest, and intimate. When a loved one dies, we search all of our senses for signs of their presence. Zauner’s ability to let us in through taste makes her book stand out—she makes us feel like we are in her mother’s kitchen, singing her praises.”  —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

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Going There by Katie Couric    

21 Monday Mar 2022

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For more than forty years, Katie Couric has been an iconic presence in the media world  This novel has laugh out loud moments and the short chapters race by.  It’s also a trip through our recent history from the sixties to the present and she was mostly at the heart of each event.  I for one learned a lot about the inside world of media rife with sexism and misogyny from someone who seemed to want to share it all. Funny and heartbreaking.

“Fast-paced and riveting, Going There is an intimate memoir that chronicles the once magical world of TV news.  Every young woman should read this book to understand what ambition really feels like and the work it takes to fulfill it.”―Tina Brown

“The secret to Katie Couric’s success is that there are no secrets. While the dogged determination she has called upon her whole life is  an invaluable asset, there are other ingredients in Katie’s not-so-secret sauce: humor, concern, sincerity, steadfastness, and devotion to her daughters, family, and friends. If Katie is “going there,” no matter where “there” is, we’re along for the ride.”―Michael J. Fox, bestselling author of No Time Like the Future

“Longtime ‘Today’ co-anchor Couric, once known as ‘America’s Sweetheart,’ shows that she’s really ‘America’s Role Model’ in a frank, funny memoir about her journey from Arlington, Va., high school cheerleader to a leading voice for cancer research as well as first-rank investigative journalist. Some superstar books can be skipped; this one shouldn’t be.”―Bethanne Patrick, The Washington Post

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All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days by Rebecca Donner

14 Monday Mar 2022

Posted by in 20th century, Biography, History, Non-fiction

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This work of nonfiction examines the life of Mildred Harnack, an American woman who married a German man; living in Berlin in the 1930s, she and her husband joined others to secretly work in the German resistance. This engaging book follows their efforts while also describing what life was like for Germans as Hitler seized power.

“[Donner is] a meticulous researcher and master of narrative suspense… Here is a historical biography that reads like a literary thriller.”―Wall Street Journal (Best Books of the Year)

“Highly evocative, deeply moving, a stunning literary achievement. Rebecca Donner forges a new kind of biography—almost novelistic in style and tone, this scholarly work resurrects the courageous life Mildred Harnack, an unsung American hero who led part of the German resistance to the Nazi regime. A relentless sleuth in the archives, Donner has written a page-turner story of espionage, love, and betrayal.”―Kai Bird, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography

“A stunning biography… Donner’s research is impeccable, and her fluid prose and vivid character sketches keep the pages turning…This standout history isn’t to be missed.”―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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