One lives in the hope of becoming a memory - Antonio Porchia.
Given the burgeoning popularity of social media on the Internet, it is not surprising that biographies and memoirs are among the most popular reading choices of Kindle readers. Whether you enjoy reading of exemplary lives or living vicariously through celebrity memoirs, now you can spend less time searching and more time reading, as I watch for new biographies and memoirs in the Kindle Store so you don't have to.
My Seinfeld Year, by Fred Stoller. Kindle Single, 2012. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (8 reviews). Kindle edition $1.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled. Lending: Enabled.
"You'd know Fred Stoller if you saw him. He has appeared on practically every great sitcom you've ever seen -
Everybody Loves Raymond,
Friends, and
Murphy Brown just to name a few. But he has never been a regular on a series, always the guest star. He longs to find a showbiz home. Instead, he is a television foster child, shuttling from show to show in the vain hope that one will finally agree to keep him.
My Seinfeld Year tells the hysterical and bittersweet story of what happened when Stoller finally got a shot at the showbiz stability he'd always dreamed of - as a staff writer on one of the biggest television shows in history." - Publisher.
Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid's Memoir That Inspired "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Downton Abbey", by Margaret Powell. St. Martin's Press, 2012. Print length: 221 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (32 reviews). Kindle edition $10.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Margaret Powell’s classic memoir of her time in service...is the remarkable true story of an indomitable woman who, though she served in the great houses of England, never stopped aiming high. Powell first arrived at the servants' entrance of one of those great houses in the 1920s. As a kitchen maid - the lowest of the low – she entered an entirely new world; one of stoves to be blacked, vegetables to be scrubbed, mistresses to be appeased, and bootlaces to be ironed. Work started at 5.30am and went on until after dark. It was a far cry from her childhood on the beaches of Hove, where money and food were scarce, but warmth and laughter never were. Yet from the gentleman with a penchant for stroking the housemaids’ curlers, to raucous tea-dances with errand boys, to the heartbreaking story of Agnes the pregnant under-parlormaid, fired for being seduced by her mistress’s nephew, Margaret’s tales of her time in service are told with wit, warmth, and a sharp eye for the prejudices of her situation." - Publisher.
Tyndale: The Man Who Gave God an English Voice, by David Teems. Thomas Nelson, 2012. Print length: 336 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (29 reviews). Kindle edition $8.79. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"The English Bible was born in defiance. It was also born in exile, in flight, in a kind of exodus. And these are the very elements that empowered William Tyndale in his bid to bring the English Scripture to the common citizen. Being 'a stranger in a strange land,' the very homesickness he struggled with, gave life to the words of Jesus, Paul, and to the wandering Moses. Tyndale's efforts ultimately cost him his life, a price he was certain he would have to pay. But his contribution to English spirituality is measureless. Even five centuries after his death at the stake, Tyndale's presence looms wherever English is spoken. His single word innovations, such as 'Passover,' 'beautiful,' and 'atonement' allowed the common man to more fully understand God's blessings and promises. His natural lyricism shines in phrases like 'Let not your hearts be troubled,' and 'for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.' Although Tyndale has been somewhat elusive to his biographers, Teems brings wit and wisdom to the story of the man known as the 'architect of the English language,' the English Paul who defied a kingdom and a tyrannical church to introduce God to the plowboy." - Publisher.
The Rescuer, by Dara Horn. Tablet Magazine, 2012. Kindle Single. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (2 reviews). Kindle edition $1.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled. Lending: Enabled.
"In 1941, a young Harvard-educated classicist named Varian Fry arrived in occupied France on a daring mission to rescue more than 2,000 of Europe's leading writers, artists, and intellectuals from the Nazis. Hounded by the Gestapo, he smuggled Marchel Duchamp, Marc Chagall, Hannah Arendt and dozens of other 20th century cultural luminaries out of France and brought them to America. So why did even the people Fry saved want to forget him? In this fascinating psychological profile, acclaimed novelist Dara Horn, chosen by Granta magazine as one of the 25 best young novelists in America, follows the peculiar life and legacy of an American Oskar Schindler. In the process, she reveals the secrets of a man who risked his life when others were silent — and the unforeseen consequences, personal and cultural, of his bravery." - Publisher.
Betrayal: Whitey Bulger and the FBI Agent Who Fought to Bring Him Down, by Robert Fitzpatrick, with Jon Land. Forge Books, 2012. Print length: 336 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (7 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"The Jack Nicholson film
The Departed didn’t tell half of their story. A poor kid from the slums, Robert Fitzpatrick grew up to become a stellar FBI agent and challenge the country’s deadliest gangsters. Relentless in his desire to catch, prosecute, and convict Whitey Bulger, Fitzpatrick fought the nation’s most determined cop-gangster battle since Melvin Purvis hunted, confronted, and killed John Dillinger. In his crusade to bring Bulger to justice, Fitzpatrick faced not only Whitey but also corrupt FBI agents, along with political cronies and enablers from Boston to Washington who, in one way or another, blocked his efforts at every step. Even when Fitzpatrick discovered the very organization to which he had sworn allegiance was his biggest obstacle, the agent continued to pursue Whitey and his gang...knowing that they were prepared to murder anyone who got in their way." - Publisher.
William Henry Harrison, by Gail Collins. The American Presidents Series: The 9th President, 1841. Times Books, 2012. Print length: 176 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (2 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"William Henry Harrison died just thirty-one days after taking the oath of office in 1841. Today he is a curiosity in American history, but as Gail Collins shows in this entertaining and revelatory biography, he and his career are worth a closer look. The son of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Harrison was a celebrated general whose exploits at the Battle of Tippecanoe and in the War of 1812 propelled him into politics, and in time he became a leader of the new Whig Party, alongside Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. But it was his presidential campaign of 1840 that made an indelible mark on American political history. Collins takes us back to that pivotal year, when Harrison's 'Log Cabin and Hard Cider campaign transformed the way candidates pursued the presidency." - Publisher.
As Good as She Imagined: The Redeeming Story of the Angel of Tucson, Christina-Taylor Green, by Roxanna Green, with Jerry B. Jenkins. Worthy Publishing, 2012. Print length: 265 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (15 reviews). Kindle edition $7.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Christina-Taylor Green was beautiful, precocious, and popular, a member of her elementary school’s student council and the only girl on her Little League team. Born on 9/11/2001, it was perhaps no surprise that she harbored aspirations of becoming a politician - thus her presence at the political rally that fateful day in Tucson last January. Congressman Gabrielle Giffords was severely wounded in the gunman’s splay of bullets; six others were killed, including Christina, the youngest of the victims. But this inspirational book recounts far more than the events of 'the tragedy of Tucson.' Written by Christina’s mother (with New York Times best-selling biographer Jerry Jenkins),
As Good as She Imagined celebrates this little girl’s life, along with the hope that has been born out of a nation’s loss and a family’s grief." - Publisher.
The Moment: Wild, Poignant, Life-Changing Stories from 125 Writers and Artists Famous & Obscure, by Larry Smith. Harper Perennial, 2012. Print length: 368 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (5 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"The turning points, revelations, epiphanies, dramatic changes, the opening or closing of a door - in a life, a career, a love - can occur in a single glorious, terrible, unpredictable, serendipitous, crucial, calamitous, chaotic, amazing...Moment. The creators of the enormously popular
Not Quite What I Was Planning and
Six-Word Memoir series now offer stories of the Moment - the one-time chances, unexpected coincidences, and sudden catastrophes that made all the difference in the story of one life. The results are triumphant, outrageous, heartwarming, heartbreaking, embarrassing, illuminating, and inspiring - life-changing moments from contributors Dave Eggers, Diane Ackerman, Elizabeth Gilbert, Bill Ayers, Jennifer Egan, A. J. Jacobs, Judy Collins, and many more." - Publisher.
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Note to readers: The book prices quoted here are the Amazon.com prices in effect at the time of the blog posting. Please follow the links to the individual book to check the current price.
"At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over brainstorming in teams. Although they are often labeled 'quiet,' it is to introverts that we owe many of the great contributions to society - from van Gogh’s sunflowers to the invention of the personal computer. Passionately argued, impressively researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet shows how dramatically we undervalue introverts, and how much we lose in doing so. Taking the reader on a journey from Dale Carnegie’s birthplace to Harvard Business School, from a Tony Robbins seminar to an evangelical megachurch, Susan Cain charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal in the twentieth century and explores its far-reaching effects. Passionately argued, impressively researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people...Perhaps most inspiring, she introduces us to successful introverts - from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. " - from the hardcover edition. 
"We all know bad manners when we see them, NPR and Vanity Fair contributor Henry Alford observes at the beginning of his new book. But what, he asks, do good manners look like in our day and age? When someone answers their cell phone in the middle of dining with you, or runs you off the sidewalk with their doublewide stroller, or you enter a post-apocalyptic public restroom, the long-revered wisdom of Emily Post can seem downright prehistoric. Troubled by the absence of good manners in his day-to-day life - by the people who clip their toenails on the subway or give three-letter replies to one's laboriously crafted missives - Alford embarks on a journey to find out how things might look if people were on their best behavior a tad more often. He travels to Japan (the 'Fort Knox Reserve' of good manners) to observe its culture of collective politesse. He interviews etiquette experts both likely (Judith Martin, Tim Gunn) and unlikely (a former prisoner, an army sergeant). He plays a game called Touch the Waiter. And he volunteers himself as a tour guide to foreigners visiting New York City in order to do ground-level reconnaissance on cultural manners divides. Along the way (in typical Alford style) he also finds time to teach Miss Manners how to steal a cab; designates the World's Most Annoying Bride; and tosses his own hat into the ring, volunteering as an online etiquette coach." - Publisher.
