New Biography Books | September 2021

09 Sep 2021

New Biography Books | September 2021

Don’t miss out on this week’s biographies, histories, and memoirs from Pulitzer Prize-winning, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post writers! There’s something for everyone this week by bestselling authors Anne Michaud, Craig Whitlock, Joseph Pfeifer, Sandy Gall, Susan H. Kamei, Erin I. Kelly, and Winfred Rembert. Enjoy your new non-fiction reads!

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Why They Stay: Sex Scandals, Deals, and Hidden Agendas of Eight Political Wives

by Anne Michaud

Release Date: June 24, 2021

Veteran political journalist Anne Michaud knows the hidden agendas women employ to gain and cling to power…Working as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and awarded “Columnist of the Year” by the New York News Publishers Association, Anne has researched the women behind some of the most notorious men in the public eye. She discovered a surprising pattern as old as the dynastic maneuverings of England’s medieval queens. Today, women married to the “royalty” of our times–politicians–make bold decisions to keep their “thrones” and their family’s history-making potential. Why They Stay reveals the inner lives of eight political wives as they fight to maintain a grip on power and pursue personal ambition.

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The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War

by Craig Whitlock

Release Date: August 31, 2021

From The Washington Post Reporter, Craig Whitlock, comes a shocking true story…The groundbreaking investigative story of how three successive presidents and their military commanders deceived the public year after year about America’s longest war, foreshadowing the Taliban’s recapture of Afghanistan, by Washington Post reporter and three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Craig Whitlock. The Afghanistan Papers is a shocking account that will supercharge a long-overdue reckoning over what went wrong and forever change the way the conflict is remembered.

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Ordinary Heroes: A Memoir of 9/11

by Joseph Pfeifer

Release Date: September 7, 2021

From the first FDNY chief to respond to the 9/11 attacks, an intimate memoir and a tribute to those who died that others might live…This gripping narrative gives way to resiliency and a determination that permanently reshapes Pfeifer, his fellow firefighters, NYC, and America. Ordinary Heroes takes us on a journey that turns traumatic memories into hope, so we can make good on our promise to never forget 9/11.

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Afghan Napoleon: The Life of Ahmad Shah Massoud

by Sandy Gall

Release Date: September 7, 2021

The first biography in a decade of Afghan resistance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud…When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the forces of resistance were disparate. Many groups were caught up in fighting each other and competing for Western arms. The exception were those commanded by Ahmad Shah Massoud, the military strategist and political operator who solidified the resistance and undermined the Russian occupation, leading resistance members to a series of defensive victories.

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When Can We Go Back to America?

by Susan H. Kamei

Release Date: September 7, 2021

A collection of true narratives about Japanese-Americans during their wrongful incarceration during World War II…In this dramatic and page-turning narrative history of Japanese Americans before, during, and after their World War II incarceration, Susan H. Kamei weaves the voices of over 130 individuals who lived through this tragic episode, most of them as young adults. Now more than ever, their words will resonate with readers who are confronting questions about racial identity, immigration, and citizenship, and what it means to be an American.

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Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South

by Erin I. Kelly & Winfred Rembert

Release Date: September 7, 2021

Chasing Me to My Grave presents Rembert’s breathtaking body of work alongside his story, as told to Tufts Philosopher Erin I. Kelly…Vivid, confrontational, revelatory, and complex, Chasing Me to My Grave is a searing memoir in prose and painted leather that celebrates Black life and summons readers to confront painful and urgent realities at the heart of American history and society. “A compelling and important history that this nation desperately needs to hear.” – Bryan Stevenson, New York Times bestselling author of Just Mercy and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative.

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