Winston Churchill gets a rather personal look this season, as does Tupac Shakur. Also, watch out for memoirs from two Emmy-winning actors and a journalist, plus a new biography of D.H. Lawrence.
Top 10
The Beauty of Living Twice
Sharon Stone. Knopf, Mar. 30 ($26.95, ISBN 978-0-52565-676-0)
Emmy- and Golden Globe–winner Stone recounts her battle to rebuild her life, career, and family after a life-threatening stroke. 150,000-copy announced first printing.
Brat: An ‘80s Story
Andrew McCarthy. Grand Central, May 11 ($28, ISBN 978-1-53875-427-6)
Actor, director, author, and member of the Brat Pack, McCarthy shares the story of his adolescence and rise to stardom in 1980s New York City. 125,000-copy announced first printing.
Burning Man: The Trials of D.H. Lawrence
Frances Wilson. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, May 25 ($35, ISBN 978-0-37428-225-7)
D.H. Lawrence’s first female biographer delves into the author’s lesser-known middle years, through his personal memoirs, diaries, letters, and stories from friends.
Changes: An Oral History of Tupac Shakur
Sheldon Pearce. Simon & Schuster, June 8 ($28, ISBN 978-1-98217-046-2)
Twenty-five years after Tupac Shakur’s death, Pearce tells the story of the hip-hop legend’s life using interviews with friends, family, activists, and entertainers.
Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom
Carl Bernstein. Holt, May 18 ($28.99, ISBN 978-1-62779-150-2)
Pulitzer-winning journalist Bernstein recalls his early years as a reporter before he made his name with his Watergate reporting for the Washington Post. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
Churchill & Son
Josh Ireland. Dutton, Mar. 30 ($34, ISBN 978-1-52474-445-8)
Ireland digs into the tumultuous relationship between Winston Churchill and his only son, Randolph, in this portrait of two very complicated men.
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019
Edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain. One World, Feb. 2 ($32, ISBN 978-0-59313-404-7)
Kendi and Blain bring together 90 writers whose works cover 400 years of African American history.
Hype: How Scammers, Grifters, and Con Artists Are Taking Over the Internet—and Why We’re Following
Gabrielle Bluestone. Hanover Square, Apr. 6 ($28.99, ISBN 978-1-33501-649-2)
Bluestone, a former Vice journalist and executive producer of the Netflix documentary Fyre, investigates the proliferation of digital scam artists. 250,000-copy announced first printing.
Justice Rising: Robert Kennedy’s America in Black and White
Patricia Sullivan. Belknap, June 1 ($39.95, ISBN 978-0-674-73745-7)
Civil rights historian Sullivan puts Robert Kennedy at the center of the racial justice movement of the 1960s in this biography.
Sunshine Girl: An Unexpected Life
Juliana Margulies. Ballantine, May 4 ($28, ISBN 978-0-525-48025-9)
Margulies, who won Emmys for performances on The Good Wife and ER, describes her unconventional upbringing and how it affected her chosen path and sense of self.
Memoirs & Biographies Listings
A&u New Zealand
Jacinda Ardern: The Story Behind an Extraordinary Leader by Michelle Duffy (Apr. 1, $22.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-988547-57-2). Duffy’s biography of the New Zealand prime minister details her upbringing in a devout Mormon family and subsequent political rise.
Algonquin
Beeswing: Losing My Way and Finding My Voice 1967–1975 by Richard Thompson (Apr. 6, $26.95, ISBN 978-1-61620-895-0). Songwriter Thompson, who shared the stage with such legends as Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix and was named one of the 20 greatest guitarists of all time by Rolling Stone, recalls his formative years.
Amazon Crossing
I’m in Seattle, Where Are You? A Memoir by Mortada Gzar, trans. by William Hutchins (Feb. 1, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-5420-1657-5). Iraqi writer Gzar writes of self-discovery and lost love during the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
Amistad
My Remarkable Journey by Katherine Johnson, with Joylette Hylick, and Katherine Moore (May 18, $25.99, ISBN 978-0-06-289766-4). The protagonist of the blockbuster movie Hidden Figures (based on the bestselling book) shares her journey from being a child math prodigy to working for NASA.
Atria
The Princess Spy: The True Story of World War II Spy Aline Griffith, Countess of Romanones by Larry Loftis (Feb. 9, $28, ISBN 978-1-9821-4386-2). From bestseller author Loftis comes an account of Aline Griffith, a young American woman who became a spy for the OSS during WWII.
Basic
Calhoun: American Heretic by Robert Elder (Feb. 16, $32, ISBN 978-0-465-09644-2) This is the first biography of John C. Calhoun, Southern secessionist, congressman, and seventh vice president of the U.S., in 25 years. Elder argues that Calhoun is crucial to understanding the current political climate.
Bloomsbury
Girlhood by Melissa Febos (Mar. 30, $27, ISBN 978-1-63557-252-0). Memoirist Febos uses investigative reporting, personal anecdotes, and academic scholarship to muse on how American society shapes women. 50,000-copy announced first printing.
Castle Point
Kobe: Life Lessons from a Legend by Nelson Peña (May 4, $19.99, ISBN 978-1-250-27534-9) collects the guiding principles and hard-earned lessons from late basketball legend Kobe Bryant that he picked up during a lengthy career.
Catapult
Love Is an Ex-country: A Memoir by Randa Jarrar (Feb. 2, $26, ISBN 978-1-948226-58-5). Jarrar reflects on being queer, Muslim, Arab American, and fat, and how all of these affect her worldview and relationships.
Chicago Review
Open Skies: My Life as Afghanistan’s First Female Pilot by Niloofar Rahmani, with R.D. Sykes (July 6, $28.99, ISBN 978-1-64160-334-8). Rahmani recounts her upbringing in Afghanistan and how she became the country’s first female pilot.
Columbia Univ.
Philip Payton: The Father of Black Harlem by Kevin McGruder (June 22, $30 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-231-19893-6). McGruder chronicles the life of the man behind the Harlem real estate renaissance that took place from 1918 to the mid-1930s.
Convergent
Justice for Sale: A Wrongful Conviction, a Broken System, and One Lawyer’s Fight for the Truth by Jarrett Adams (Apr. 27, $27, ISBN 978-0-593-13781-9) relates how Adams, an African American man, was sentenced to prison at 17 by an all-white jury for a crime he did not commit, and how he has devoted his life since to fighting injustice in the legal system.
Crown
Slonim Woods 9: A Memoir by Daniel Barban Levin (Mar. 23, $28, ISBN 978-0-593-13885-4) recalls Levin’s experience within a cult led by a convicted felon, who seduced a group of college students in the 2010s into believing he was the only one who could help them “achieve clarity.”
Dey Street
Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story by Julie K. Brown (May 11, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-300058-2) shares the backstory of Brown’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s underage sex trafficking ring and the extensive investigative reporting that exposed his criminal acts.
Duke Univ.
The Life and Times of Louis Lomax: The Art of Deliberate Disunity by Thomas Aiello (Mar. 26, $26.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4780-1180-4). Biographer Aiello brings to life the story of a controversial African American television and radio show host and prominent voice of the civil rights movement.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Let the Record Show: A Political History of Act Up, New York, 1987–1993 by Sarah Schulman (May 18, $40, ISBN 978-0-374-18513-8). Journalist Schulman bases this history of American AIDS activism and Act Up, the coalition of activists who got the movement started, on 20 years of research.
Refugee: A Memoir by Emmanuel Mbolela, trans. by Charlotte Collins (Apr. 20, $28, ISBN 978-0-374-24092-9). Mbolela chronicles the six-year saga of his escape from persecution in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for political reasons and finding asylum in the Netherlands.
Flatiron
Somebody’s Daughter: A Memoir by Ashley C. Ford (June 1, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-250-30597-8) recounts Ford’s emotional recovery after having spent her childhood without a father because he was incarcerated.
Grand Central
Better, Not Bitter: Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice by Yusef Salaam (May 18, $28, ISBN 978-1-5387-0500-1). The prison reform activist encourages readers to help turn the political tide toward racial equality and justice.
Hachette
From the Streets of Shaolin: The Wu-Tang Saga by S.H. Fernando Jr. (July 6, $30, ISBN 978-0-306-87446-8). This biography of the rap supergroup Wu-Tang Clan features never-before-seen material
based on interviews with group members and their friends and associates.
The Great Peace: A Memoir by Mena Suvari (July 6, $28, ISBN 978-0-306-87452-9). Best known for her roles in American Beauty, American Pie, and Six Feet Under, Suvari recounts her adolescence and rise to stardom.
Harper
Sensational: The Hidden History of America’s “Girl Stunt Reporters” by Kim Todd (Apr. 13, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-284361-6) illuminates the lives of the female reporters who went undercover in the late 19th century, often under high risk, to expose corruption and abuse in America, and redefined what it meant to be a female journalist.
HarperOne
Man Enough: Undefining My Masculinity by Justin Baldoni (Apr. 27, $28.99, ISBN 978-0-06-305559-9). Actor, director, and social activist Baldoni’s treatise on masculinity describes his personal journey to becoming a better man.
Hearst Home
Town & Country: The Queen: A Life in Pictures by Victoria Murphy, edited by Town & Country (Apr. 6, $40, ISBN 978-1-950785-09-4). This collection of images celebrates the reign of Queen Elizabeth, from her childhood to today.
Holt
Broken (in the Best Possible Way) by Jenny Lawson (Apr. 6, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-250-07703-5) chronicles Lawson’s experience with an experimental treatment, transcranial magnetic stimulation, that was used to relieve her depression. 350,000-copy announced first printing.
Lorraine Hansberry: The Life Behind a Raisin in the Sun by Charles J. Shields (May 18, $28.99, ISBN 978-1-250-20553-7) explores the life of Lorraine Hansberry, the Raisin in the Sun playwright and first Black woman to have a play on Broadway.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Floating in a Most Peculiar Way: A Memoir by Louis Chude-Sokei (Feb. 2, $27, ISBN 978-1-328-84158-2) is the author’s account of his coming-of-age as an Afro-Jamaican man who navigates being Black in America while not being culturally African American.
Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure by Menachem Kaiser (Mar. 16, $27, ISBN 978-1-328-50803-4). Kaiser recounts his fight to reclaim his family’s apartment building in Poland and his discovery of a web of secrets behind his family’s legacy.
Knopf
Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner (Apr. 20, $26.95, ISBN 978-0-525-65774-3) reveals Zauner’s story of growing up Korean American and forging her own identity after the death of her mother. 60,000-copy announced first printing.
Little a
Black Boy Out of Time: A Memoir by Hari Ziyad (Mar. 1, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-5420-9132-9). Journalist Ziyad reflects on his challenging adolescence, and being queer and Black in America.
MCD
Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Line of California’s Wildfires by Jaime Lowe (July 27, $27, ISBN 978-0-374-11618-7) chronicles the lives and work of the incarcerated female firefighters who risk their lives battling wildfires in California for less than a dollar an hour.
Norton
The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock: An Anatomy of the Master of Suspense by Edward White (Apr. 13, $28.95, ISBN 978-1-324-00239-0) explores the different aspects of Alfred Hitchcock’s life and work through some of his cinematic masterpieces.
Pantheon
My Time Will Come:
A Memoir of Crime, Punishment, Hope, and Redemption by Ian Manuel (Apr. 6, $25.95, ISBN 978-1-5247-4852-4). Manuel recounts being sentenced to life in prison at the age of 14, and his release after 26 years of imprisonment.
Penguin Press
Mike Nichols: A Life by Mark Harris (Feb. 2, $35, ISBN 978-0-399-56224-2). Harris delivers an intimate portrait of director, actor, and producer Mike Nichols in what PW’s review called a “bracingly candid biography.”
Random House
Two Truths and a Lie: Murder, Obsession, and Justice in the Sunshine State by Ellen McGarrahan (Feb. 2, $28, ISBN 978-0-8129-9866-5). Reporter McGarrahan investigates a 1990 execution on Florida’s death row that may have killed an innocent man.
Scribner
Centerstage: My Most Fascinating Interviews—From A-Rod to Jay-Z by Michael Kay (Apr. 13, $28, ISBN 978-1-9821-5203-1). Broadcast journalist Kay compiles a selection of his most memorable interviews with celebrities, musicians, and athletes.
Simon & Schuster
The Lone Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America’s Great Judicial Hero by Peter S. Canellos (June 8, $28, ISBN 978-1-5011-8820-6). The author of Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy turns his attention to Chief Justice John Marshall Harlan, who was pivotal in the fight for civil rights in post–Civil War America.
Simon & Schuster
The Triumph of Nancy Reagan by Karen Tumulty (Apr. 13, $32.50, ISBN 978-1-5011-6519-1). Biographer and political columnist Tumulty profiles first lady Nancy Reagan, charting her life from childhood to the end of the Reagan presidencies in 1989.
St. Martin’s
Buses Are a Comin’: Memoir of a Freedom Rider by Charles Person, with Richard Rooker (Apr. 27, $26.99, ISBN 978-1-250-27419-9). Civil rights pioneer Person elaborates on the symbolic gesture of boarding a bus as an act of civil disobedience in his debut memoir.
Univ. of California
Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue: A Life’s Work Fighting for a More Perfect Union by Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Amanda L. Tyler (Mar. 16, $19.95, ISBN 978-0-52038-192-6). The late justice Ginsberg and Tyler, a law professor who once clerked for her, share details from Ginsberg’s life and career.
Verso
Elegy for Mary Turner: An Illustrated Account of a Lynching by Rachel Marie-Crane Williams (Feb. 2, $24.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-78873-904-7). Through full-color artwork, this depiction of racial violence illuminates the horrors of lynchings.
Viking
In Debt: A Family History by M.H. Miller (June 1, $26, ISBN 978-1-9848-7846-5) takes a look at student loan debt in America through the lens of one family’s economic collapse.
