Books – Detail

Click on a genre link to see the matching books; click again to return to the full Athenaeum Bookshelf.

The Allure of Elsewhere: A Memoir of Going Solo
Karen Babine

One woman’s cross-country journey to explore the hold family history has on our lives, and the power of new stories to shape what lies ahead.

257 pp. - Biography

Angelica: For Love and Country in a Time of Revolution
Molly Beer

A women-centric view of revolution through the life of Angelica Schuyler Church, Alexander Hamilton’s influential sister-in-law.

320 pp. - Biography

The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland
Michelle Young

A riveting and stylish saga set in Paris during World War II, The Art Spy uncovers how an unlikely heroine infiltrated the Nazi leadership to save the world's most treasured masterpieces.

390 pp. - Biography

A Beginner's Guide to Dying
Simon Boas

Lessons for all of us in how to approach life—from someone in the process of dying.

141 pp. - Biography

The Black Family Who Built America: The McKissacks, Two Centuries of Daring Pioneers
Cheryl McKissack Daniel

The riveting story of the McKissack family—the founders of the leading Black design and construction firm in the United States, from its beginnings in the mid-1800s to its thriving status today—in a moving celebration of resilience and innovation.

263 pp. - Biography

Desi Arnaz: The Man Who Invented Television
Todd S Purdum

An illuminating biography of Desi Arnaz, the visionary, trailblazing Cuban American who revolutionized television and brought laughter to millions as Lucille Ball’s beloved husband on I Love Lucy, leaving a remarkable legacy that continues to influence American culture today.

355 pp. - Biography

I Regret Almost Everything
Keith McNally

The entertaining, irreverent, and surprisingly moving memoir by the visionary restaurateur behind such iconic New York institutions as Balthazar and Pastis.

New York Times Bestseller

303 pp. - Biography

I Seek a Kind Person: My Father, Seven Children, and the Adverts that Helped Them Escape the Holocaust
Julian Borger

This gripping family memoir of grief, courage, and hope tells the hidden stories of children who escaped the Holocaust, building connections across generations and continents.

285 pp. - Biography

I'm Not Your Muse: Uncovering the Overshadowed Brilliance of Women Artists & Visionaries
Lori Zimmer

An illuminating exploration of 31 incredible women—across art, architecture, dance, literature, and more—whose culture-defining contributions have, until now, been overshadowed by their role as "muses" to history's better-known men.

188 pp. - Biography

Lost Found Kept: A Memoir
Deborah Derrickson Kossmann

How does a psychologist fail to recognize that her intelligent, sensitive, and book-loving mother has created "the worst hoarder house ever seen?" After making the horrifying discovery that her mother had no water in her house for at least two years, Deborah Derrickson Kossmann begins the otherworldly excavation of a childhood home she hasn't been inside for three decades. Moving back and forth in time, from this surreal nightmare of an archaeological dig to recollecting her past and long buried family secrets, Kossmann seeks to untangle a web of complicated familial relationships. In her lyrical and unflinching quest, she comes to understand what's been lost, what's been found and what's been kept in both her own and her mother's life.

275 pp. - Biography

The Man Who Would Be King: Mohammed bin Salman and the Transformation of Saudi Arabia
Karen Elliott House

Based on exclusive interviews, an eye-opening biography of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), head of the House of Saud, the calculating ruler of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and a central Middle East power broker.

289 pp. - Biography

Mark Twain
Ron Chernow

Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow illuminates the full, fascinating, and complex life of the writer long celebrated as the father of American literature, Mark Twain

#1 New York Times Bestseller!

1,174 pp. - Biography

No Offense: A Memoir in Essays
Jackie Domenus

When Jackie "came out" in 2014, right as the Trump era was revving up, she began paying closer attention to the inappropriate questions, uncomfortable reactions, and pointed assumptions about sexuality and gender she was witnessing and now experiencing firsthand. NO OFFENSE takes a magnifying glass to subtle moments that many people don't recognize as homophobic or transphobic, exploring the impact of microaggressions on LGBTQ+ folks. Blending personal essay and cultural critique, the collection confronts society's reactions to queerness at poignant moments in Jackie's life, from wedding planning to OBGYN appointments to the Pulse Nightclub Massacre, and beyond. Revealing the complex and tender moments that sculpted their identity from a tomboy adolescence to gender exploration as an adult, NO OFFENSE analyzes the loaded conversations queer and trans folks face every day on topics like labels, haircuts, Halloween costumes, and more.

184 pp. - Biography

Parallel Lives: A Love Story from a Lost Continent
Iain Pears

Best-selling novelist and art historian Iain Pears enchants readers with the real-life romance between Larissa Salmina, a Russian art curator, and Francis Haskell, a British art historian. His fabulous book brings into sharp focus the strange world of the Soviet Union, and the even stranger world of a certain variety of the English elite. It seeks to show how leaving the Soviet Union was a sacrifice for her and how it was the English man, not the Russian woman, who was set free because of their meeting. An extraordinary love story of two unlikely figures played out against the backdrop of the Cold War.

 

271 pp. - Biography

Promised Lands: Hadassah Kaplan and the Legacy of American Jewish Women in Early Twentieth-Century Palestine
Sharon Ann Musher

Promised Lands provides a window into the lives of American Jewish women in both New York City’s Upper West Side and Palestine during the interwar period.

263 pp. - Biography

The Sisterhood of Ravensbrück: How an Intrepid Band of Frenchwomen Resisted the Nazis in Hitler's All-Female Concentration Camp
Lynne Olson

The extraordinary true story of a small group of Frenchwomen, all Resistance members, who banded together in a notorious concentration camp to defy the Nazis—from the New York Times bestselling author of Madame Fourcade’s Secret War

367 pp. - Biography

The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty
John Seabrook

The riveting saga of the Seabrook Family, by one of The New Yorkers most acclaimed storytellers.

346 pp. - Biography

The Widow's Guide to Dead Bastards
Jessica Waite

A lyrical exploration of mental health, single parenthood, and betrayal that demonstrates that the most moving love stories aren’t perfect—they’re flawed and poignantly real.

309 pp. - Biography

Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin
Sue Prideaux

An original and revealing portrait of the misunderstood French Post-Impressionist artist.

Shortlisted for the 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize

401 pp. - Biography

Yet Here I Am: Lessons from a Black Man's Search for Home
Jonathan Capehart

Pulitzer Prize winning writer, editor and TV host Jonathan Capehart recounts powerful stories from his life about embracing identity, picking battles, seizing opportunity and finding his voice.

New York Times Bestseller

259 pp. - Biography

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