Helen Plum Library

"For a long time, Lucy Sante felt unsure of her place. Born in Belgium, the only child of conservative working-class Catholic parents who transplanted their little family to the United States, she felt at home only when she moved to New York City in the early 1970s and found her people among a band of fellow bohemians. Some would die young, to drugs and AIDS, and some would become jarringly famous. Sante flirted with both fates, on her way to building...

"The Dead Don't Need Reminding is a braided story of Julian Randall's return from the cliff edge of a harrowing depression and his determination to retrace the hustle of a white-passing grandfather to the Mississippi town from which he was driven amid threats of tar and feather. Alternatively wry, lyrical, and heartfelt, Randall transforms pop culture moments into deeply personal explorations of grief, family, and the American way. He envisions his...

An American icon and famed actor brings us on his uncharted but serendipitous journey to the top in Hollywood, clearing up misconceptions; sharing dozens of never-before-told stories from both his personal and professional lives; and offering a truly fresh perspective on a changing industry and a changing world

"A memoir-in-recipes from the best-selling and award-winning author that looks back at her family and at the long century of Jewish cooking in Europe and America. In her most personal book, Joan Nathan looks back at her own family's history - her family's arrival in America from Germany, Poland, and Slovakia; her childhood in post-war New York and Rhode Island; the influence of her in-laws, who came from Poland after fleeing the Nazis; her years in...

"This final, essential chapter in Rex Ogle's memoir trilogy recounts being forced from his home and living on the streets after his father discovered he was gay. When Rex was outed the summer after he graduated high school, his father gave him a choice: he could stay at home, find a girlfriend, and attend church twice a week, or he could be gay--and leave. Rex left, driving toward the only other gay man he knew and a toxic relationship that would...

"The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration Edited with an Introduction by Frank Abe and Floyd Cheung TARGET CONSUMER: Readers of They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, No No Boy by John Okada, Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown, When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka, and Only What We Could Carry by Lawson Fusao Inada The collective voice of Japanese Americans defined by a specific...

"From the nine-time women's basketball icon and two-time Olympic gold medalist--a raw, revelatory account of her unfathomable detainment in Russia and her journey home. On February 17, 2022, Brittney Griner arrived in Moscow ready to spend the WNBA offseason playing for the Russian women's basketball team where she had been the centerpiece of previous championship seasons. Instead, a security checkpoint became her gateway to hell when she was arrested...

By the Time You Read This is the story former Miss USA Cheslie Kryst was about to publish before her tragic suicide. Her mother, April, wraps up the narrative by exploring the mental illness and depression that took her daughter's life. The text read, "By the time you get this . . ." This is the story of Cheslie Kryst, a former Miss USA, in her own words. When the world awoke on the morning of January 30, 2022, many were shocked to learn of the tragic...

"A Very Private School offers a clear-eyed, first-hand account of a culture of cruelty at the school Charles Spencer attended in his youth and provides important insights into an antiquated boarding system. Drawing on the memories of many of his schoolboy contemporaries, as well as his own letters and diaries from the time, he reflects on the hopelessness and abandonment he felt at aged eight, viscerally describing the intense pain of homesickness...

"A powerful account, by Israeli peace activist Miko Peled, of his transformation from a young man who'd grown up in the heart of Israel's elite and served proudly in its military into a fearless advocate of nonviolent struggle and equal rights for all Palestinians and Israelis. His journey is mirrored in many ways the transformation his father, a much-decorated Israeli general, had undergone three decades earlier. Alice Walker contributed a foreword...