Biography books set in United States of America (31)
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1.
2.
A Monk Swimming : A Memoir by Malachy McCourt EN
Country: North America / 
United States of America
United States of America
Description:
The memoirs of Malachy McCourt who left a childhood of poverty in Ireland to live in New York where he carved out a colourful career as a writer and actor - The story of his early life was told in Angela's ashes, by his brother Frank McCourt.
3.
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
Born to survivalists in Idaho, Tara Westover didn't go to school. As she grew older, her father became more radical and her brother more violent. At sixteen, Tara knew she had to leave home. In doing so she discovered both the transformative power of education, and the price she had to pay for it.
4.
Brave the Wild River : The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon by Melissa L. Sevigny EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
The riveting tale of two pioneering botanists and their historic boat trip down the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon. In the summer of 1938, botanists Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter set off to run the Colorado River, accompanied by an ambitious and entrepreneurial expedition leader, a zoologist, and two amateur boatmen. With its churning waters and treacherous boulders, the Colorado was famed as the most dangerous river in the world. Journalists and veteran river runners boldly proclaimed that the motley crew would never make it out alive. But for Clover and Jotter, the expedition he... continue
5.
Mountains Beyond Mountains : The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 20th Anniversary Edition, with a new foreword by the author • “[A] masterpiece . . . an astonishing book that will leave you questioning your own life and political views.”—USA Today “If any one person can be given credit for transforming the medical establishment’s thinking about health care for the destitute, it is Paul Farmer. . . . [Mountains Beyond Mountains] inspires, discomforts, and provokes.”—The New York Times (Best Books of the Year) In medical school, Paul Farmer found his life’s calling: to cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of m... continue
6.
Maid : Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Evicted meets Nickel and Dimed in Stephanie Land's memoir about working as a maid, a beautiful and gritty exploration of poverty in America. Includes a foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich. At 28, Stephanie Land's plans of breaking free from the roots of her hometown in the Pacific Northwest to chase her dreams of attending a university and becoming a writer, were cut short when a summer fling turned into an unexpected pregnancy. She turned to housekeeping to make ends meet, and with a tenacious grip on her dream to provide her daughter the very best life possible, Stephani... continue
7.
Hidden Valley Road : Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOKS OF THE YEAR ONE OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL TOP TEN BOOKS OF THE YEAR PEOPLE'S #1 BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR ONE OF GQ's TOP 50 BOOKS OF LITERARY JOURNALISM IN THE 21st CENTURY Named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, TIME, Slate, Smithsonian, The New York Post, and Amazon The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease. Don and Mi... continue
8.
Conversations with Tom Petty (Expanded Edition) by Paul Zollo EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
This expanded edition of the first authorized book on Tom Petty, and the only one in his own words, includes additional interviews, articles and reviews.
9.
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
“In Britney Spears’s memoir, she’s stronger than ever.” —The New York Times The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope. In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history. Written with remarkable candor and humor,... continue
10.
The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
This last book from beloved Hollywood icon Carrie Fisher is the crown jewel of ideal Star Wars gifts. The Princess Diarist is an intimate, hilarious, and revealing recollection of what happened behind the scenes on one of the most famous film sets of all time. When Carrie Fisher discovered the journals she kept during the filming of the first Star Wars movie, she was astonished to see what they had preserved—plaintive love poems, unbridled musings with youthful naiveté, and a vulnerability that she barely recognized. Before her passing, her fame as an author, actress, and pop-culture icon was ... continue
11.
A Book of Days by Patti Smith EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
A deeply moving and brilliantly idiosyncratic visual book of days by the National Book Award–winning author of Just Kids and M Train, featuring more than 365 images and reflections that chart Smith’s singular aesthetic—inspired by her wildly popular Instagram. In 2018, without any plan or agenda for what might happen next, Patti Smith posted her first Instagram photo: her hand with the simple message “Hello Everybody!” Known for shooting with her beloved Land Camera 250, Smith started posting images from her phone including portraits of her kids, her radiator, her boots, and her Abyssinian cat... continue
12.
Finding Me : A Memoir by Viola Davis EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
"Much-anticipated, emotionally-charged debut memoir from award-winning actor and icon Viola Davis"--
13.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Her life story is told in the documentary film And Still I Rise, as seen on PBS’s American Masters. Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, M... continue
14.
From Here to Eternity : Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
A New York Times and Los Angeles Times Bestseller “Doughty chronicles [death] practices with tenderheartedness, a technician’s fascination, and an unsentimental respect for grief.” —Jill Lepore, The New Yorker Fascinated by our pervasive fear of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty embarks on a global expedition to discover how other cultures care for the dead. From Zoroastrian sky burials to wish-granting Bolivian skulls, she investigates the world’s funerary customs and expands our sense of what it means to treat the dead with dignity. Her account questions the rituals of the American fune... continue
15.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The story of modern medicine and bioethics—and, indeed, race relations—is refracted beautifully, and movingly.”—Entertainment Weekly NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM HBO® STARRING OPRAH WINFREY AND ROSE BYRNE • ONE OF THE “MOST INFLUENTIAL” (CNN), “DEFINING” (LITHUB), AND “BEST” (THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER) BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS • WINNER OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE HEARTLAND PRIZE FOR NONFICTION NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Entertainment Weekly • O: The Op... continue
16.
The Mango Tree : A Memoir of Fruit, Florida, and Felony by Annabelle Tometich EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
Rows of orange people sit handcuffed in a beige room. One of them is my mother. When journalist Annabelle Tometich picks up the phone one June morning, she isn't expecting a collect call from an inmate at the Lee County Jail. And when she accepts, she certainly isn't prepared to hear her mother's voice on the other end of the line. However, explaining the situation to her younger siblings afterwards was easy; all she had to say was, "Mom shot at some guy. He was messing with her mangoes." They immediately understood. Answering the questions of the breaking-news reporter--at the same newspaper ... continue
17.
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
New York Times Bestseller! A stunning graphic memoir recounting actor/author/activist George Takei's childhood imprisoned within American concentration camps during World War II. Experience the forces that shaped an American icon -- and America itself -- in this gripping tale of courage, country, loyalty, and love. George Takei has captured hearts and minds worldwide with his captivating stage presence and outspoken commitment to equal rights. But long before he braved new frontiers in Star Trek, he woke up as a four-year-old boy to find his own birth country at war with his father's -- and th... continue
18.
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone) NAMED ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY • NA... continue
19.
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
In April 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhikes to Alaska and walks alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. Four months later, his decomposed body is found by a moose hunter. How Chris McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.
20.
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
An intimate journey across and in search of America, as told by one of its most beloved writers, in a deluxe centennial edition In September 1960, John Steinbeck embarked on a journey across America. He felt that he might have lost touch with the country, with its speech, the smell of its grass and trees, its color and quality of light, the pulse of its people. To reassure himself, he set out on a voyage of rediscovery of the American identity, accompanied by a distinguished French poodle named Charley; and riding in a three-quarter-ton pickup truck named Rocinante. His course took him through... continue
21.
A Peculiar Treasure : An Autobiography by Edna Ferber EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
Pulitzer Prize winner Edna Ferber's stunning first autobiography, in which she recounts her small-town Midwestern childhood and rise to literary fame, all amidst the backdrop of America around the turn of the 20th century. A modest girl growing up one of the only Jewish children in her Midwestern town, Edna Ferber started overcoming the odds at a young age. Pursuing work at the local newspaper as an innocent 17-year-old, she was assigned the night court shift, reporting on drugs and violence, and gradually finding her own voice in standing up to what she witnessed. As she continued to pursue w... continue
22.
Hidden Figures : The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
The #1 New York Times bestseller The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America’s greatest achievements in space. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner. Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. Among these problem... continue
23.
Shoe Dog : A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his lime green Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed $8,000 his first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In a... continue
24.
Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty Cats by Courtney Gustafson EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An intimate memoir about the importance of community and care in a world that can feel impossibly broken—and a story about accidentally going viral while tending to a colony of feral cats. When Courtney Gustafson moved into a rental house in the Poets Square neighborhood of Tucson, Arizona, she didn’t know that the property came with thirty feral cats. Focused only on her own survival—in a new relationship, during a pandemic, with poor mental health and a job that didn’t pay enough—Courtney was reluctant to spend any of her own time or money caring for the wayward a... continue
25.
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Lucid and wrenching...Forward puts [Wambach's] achievement in context with painful and beautiful candor." —NPR "Forward is the powerful story of an athlete who has inspired girls all over the world to believe in themselves." —Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO, New York Times Bestselling author of Lean In “This is the best memoir I’ve read by an athlete since Andre Agassi’s Open.” —Adam Grant, Wharton professor and New York Times bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take Abby Wambach has always pushed the limits of what is possible. At age seven she was put on the... continue
26.
Abigail Adams : Witness to a Revolution by Natalie S. Bober EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
Abigail Adams is often referred to as the wife of one president and the mother of another. Rarely is she described as a woman in her own right. Although her primary focus and concerns were in her role as wife and mother, she lives in history because of her extraordinary letters to her family and to her friends. She was a witness to the gathering storm of the Revolutionary War. She saw the Battle of Bunker Hill from a hilltop near her home, and soldiers marching past her door frequently stopped for a drink of water. Because she was so close to the scene, she was able to give firsthand reports o... continue
27.
Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
A Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book Winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction When eleven-year-old Langston's father moves them from their home in Alabama to Chicago's Bronzeville district, it feels like he's giving up everything he loves. It's 1946. Langston's mother has just died, and now they're leaving the rest of his family and friends. He misses everything-- Grandma's Sunday suppers, the red dirt roads, and the magnolia trees his mother loved. In the city, they live in a small apartment surrounded by noise and chaos. It doesn't feel like a new start, or a better life. At... continue
28.
Before She was Harriet by Lesa Cline-Ransome EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
Who was Harriet Tubman before she was Harriet? We know her today as Harriet Tubman, but in her lifetime she was called by many names. As General Tubman she was a Union spy. As Moses she led hundreds to freedom on the Underground Railroad. As Minty she was a slave whose spirit could not be broken. As Araminta she was a young girl whose father showed her the stars and the first steps on the path to freedom. An evocative poem and stunning watercolors come together to honor a woman of humble origins whose courage and compassion make her a larger than life hero. A lush and lyrical biography of Harr... continue
29.
Children of Crisis Volume 1: A Study of Courage and Fear by Robert Coles EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
An analysis of the impact of a social revolution. Illustrated with a collection of drawings by negro & white children.
30.
Poor Richard by James Daugherty EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
A biography of Benjamin Franklin from his birth in Boston in 1706 through his years as printer, statesman, inventor, author, and reformer.
31.
The Lost Continent : Travels in Small Town America by Bill Bryson EN
Country: North America / United States of America
United States of America
Description:
Bill Bryson drove 14,000 miles in search of the mythical small town of his youth. Instead he found a lookalike strip of gas stations, motels and hamburger joints; a continent lost to itself through greed, pollution and television, and lost to him because he had become a foreigner in his own country. A funny and serious view of smalltown America.