New Biographies: Tuesday, December 10

Biographies and autobiographies can be a nice change of pace and educational as well. The library is constantly receiving new biography books, including the items below. Why not stop by and check out a book, CD, movie, or other material that you find interesting. We will continue to offer “Grab and Go” services for those who prefer to place their books on hold online and then pick them up in the cabinet inside the library.

Here are a few of the new autobiographies and biographies that have arrived at the library recently. We invite you to check them out!

Carson the Magnificant

In 2002, Bill Zehme landed an interview with Johnny Carson—the only one he’d granted since retiring from hosting The Tonight Show a decade earlier. After Carson’s death in 2005, Zehme signed a contract to do an expansive biography. He toiled on the book for nearly a decade before a cancer diagnosis halted his progress. The hundreds of pages Zehme managed to complete are astounding both for the caliber of their writing and how they illuminate one of the most inscrutable figures in entertainment history. Completed with help from Zehme’s former research assistant Mike Thomas, Carson the Magnificent offers an honest assessment of who Johnny Carson really was.

Heartbreak is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music

There’s no parallel to Taylor Swift in history: a teenage girl who turns into the world’s favorite pop star, songwriter, storyteller, guitar hero, live performer, changing how music is made and heard. At once one of the most beloved music figures of the past two decades and one of the most criticized, Taylor Swift is known as much for her life beyond her music as she is for her hits—the most public of stars, yet also the most mysterious. Heartbreak Is the National Anthem will inform and delight a legion of fans who hang on every word from Taylor.

Citizen: My Life After the White House

On January 20, 2001, after nearly thirty years in politics,Bill Clinton was suddenly a private citizen. Only 54 years old, full of energy and ideas, he wanted to make meaningful use of his skills, his relationships with world leaders, and all he’d learned in a lifetime of politics, but how? Just days after leaving the White House, the call came to aid victims of a devastating earthquake in India, and Clinton hit the ground running. Over the next two decades, he would create an enduring legacy of public service and advocacy work, from Indonesia to Louisiana, and in the process reimagine philanthropy and redefine the impact a former president could have on the world. Citizen is Clinton’s front-row, first-person chronicle of his post-presidential years and the most significant events of the twenty-first century.