Cultural Memoir

As the only African-American soloist dancing with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre, Misty Copeland has made history. But when she first placed her hands on the barre at an after-school community center, no one expected the undersized, anxious 13-year-old to become a ground­breaking ballerina. Life in Motion is a story of passion and grace for anyone who has dared to dream of a different life.

Chez les Rebanks, on est berger depuis dix générations. Très jeune, James reprend la ferme familiale. Quelques années plus tard, il décide de recommencer des études : il entrera même à Oxford ; mais l'appel de la ferme est trop fort, c'est avec ses moutons qu'il est vraiment "l'homme le plus heureux du monde". En mai débute la "lambing season", littéralement la "saison de l'agnelage". En mai, le livre de James paraîtra en France.

Born into the minor aristocracy (as Eugenia Peterson), Devi grew up in the midst of one of the most turbulent times in human history. Forced to flee the Russian Revolution as a teenager, she joined a famous Berlin cabaret troupe, dove into the vibrant prewar spiritualist movement, and, at a time when it was nearly unthinkable for a young European woman to travel alone, followed the charismatic theosophical leader Jiddu Krishnamurti to India.

Twelve Years a Slave is the true story of Solomon Northup: born a free black man in New York State, and sold into slavery after being tricked in 1841. Unable to convince anyone he is not a slave, Solomon spent 12 years in bondage, before finally being set free. Northup’s memoir, recounting details of the slave markets and the harsh life on plantations, was used in the struggle to abolish slavery in the United States.

This cultural biography tells the enthralling story of the high-achieving Black elites who thrived in the nation's capital during Reconstruction. Daniel Murray (1851-1925), an assistant librarian at the Library of Congress, was a prominent member of this glorious class. Murray's life was reflective of those who were well-off at the time. This social circle included African American educators, ministers, lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs, US senators and representatives, and other government officials.

Two-time Grammy-winning rap artist, Lecrae, learned this lesson through more than his share of adversity - childhood abuse, drugs and alcoholism, a stint in rehab, an abortion, and an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Along the way, Lecrae attained an unwavering faith in Jesus and began looking to God for affirmation. Now as a chart-topping industry anomaly, he has learned to ignore the haters and make peace with his craft.

Tu es un garçon de 8 ans. Un dimanche soir, en famille, tu regardes un film qui se moque d’un couple d’hommes. Qu’y a-t-il de si drôle ? Tu deviens un adolescent que l’on insulte : « Sale pédé ! » Tu contemples l’eau noire du canal du Midi, prêt à abandonner. Sur tes épaules, un sac à dos rempli de pierres et ton secret. Te voilà jeune homme, tenant la main de ton amoureux au risque d’être tabassé, puis père à ton tour.

No Longer Human (1948, Ningen Shikkaku / A Shameful Life / Confessions of a Faulty Man) was an attack on the traditions of Japan, capturing the postwar crisis of Japanese cultural identity. Framed by an epilogue and prologue, the story is told in the form three notebooks left by Ōba Yōzō, whose calm exterior hides his tormented soul. Osamu Dazai was a Japanese author who is considered one of the foremost fiction writers of 20th century Japan. A number of his most popular works, such as Shayō (The Setting Sun) and Ningen Shikkaku (No Longer Human), are considered modern-day classics in Japan.

Born in the Philippines, young Grace Talusan moves with her family to a New England suburb in the 1970s. At school, she confronts racism as one of the few kids with a brown face. At home, the confusion is worse: her grandfather's nightly visits to her room leave her hurt and terrified, and she learns to build a protective wall of silence that maps onto the larger silence practiced by her Catholic Filipino family. Later, she learns that her family history is threaded with violence and abuse. Despite all this, she finds love, and success as a teacher.

Shocking, but laced with wry humour, Vladimir Pereverzin’s extraordinary story is of an ordinary man whose comfortable life is upended. Refusing to give false testimony against Yukos owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky, he is plunged into lengthy, brutal incarceration in Russia’s nightmarish prisons and penal colonies, including some in which political prisoner Alexei Navalny has been held.

Pultizer Prize-winner Mirta Ojito offers the intriguing story of her exodus from Cuba. In 1980, 25,000 Cuban immigrants arrived in America, dubbed Marielitos for the port from which they departed. Ojito was 16. This audiobook is both a detailed history of the Mariel boatlift and the touching memoir of an immigrant who struggled to find herself in a new world. Please note: This audiobook is in Spanish.

One of the most important African-American leaders of the 20th century and perhaps the most influential woman in the civil rights movement, Ella Baker (1903-1986) was an activist whose remarkable career spanned 50 years and touched thousands of lives. A gifted grassroots organizer, Baker shunned the spotlight in favor of vital behind-the-scenes work that helped power the Black freedom struggle.

Growing up in Seale, Alabama as a Black Queer kid, then attending the Rhode Island School of Design as an undergraduate, Jon Key hungered to see himself in the fields of Art and Design. But in lectures, critiques, and in the books he read, he struggled to see and learn about people who intersected with his identity or who GOT him. So he started asking himself questions: What did it mean to be a graphic designer with his point of view? What did it mean to be a Black graphic designer?

A Universityのテーマは「複雑な世界で、より善く生きる」タイパ・コスパと言った、いかに効率よく生きるかを競うことばかりに注目が集まる時代。

Jenny’s dad “Grizz” was as large as his boisterous laugh and hailed as his daughter’s hero. High on acid, the father of four girls turned violent, triggering fear and unspeakable misery that sent the girls running. Jenny’s mom was an authentic 70's hippy who grew up on the streets and in the system. She worked her fingers to the bone to keep her family together, but the odds were against her. The idea of her girls living the same life she had lived, sent her mental health spiraling.

On a September night in Montreal in 1993, Curtis Pride got his first Major League hit, prompting a long, emotional standing ovation from the crowd of 45,757 fans. Profoundly deaf since birth, Pride couldn’t hear their thunderous applause. But as the cheers grew louder and more insistent, he realized he was feeling those vibrations within his chest—an undeniable acknowledgment of an extraordinary achievement.

Cairo, 1963: four years before her lone novel is finally published, the writer Enayat al-Zayyat takes her own life at age twenty-seven. For the next three decades, it's as if Enayat never existed at all. Years later, when celebrated Egyptian poet Iman Mersal stumbles upon Enayat's long-forgotten Love and Silence in a Cairo book stall, she embarks on a journey of reflection and rediscovery that leads her ever closer to the world and work of Enayat al-Zayyat.

Beethoven imbibed Enlightenment and revolutionary ideas in his hometown of Bonn, where they were fervently discussed in cafes and at the university. Moving to Vienna at the age of 21 to study with Haydn, he gained renown as a brilliant pianist and innovative composer. In that conservative city, capital of the Hapsburg empire, authorities were ever watchful to curtail and punish overt displays of radical political views. Nevertheless, Beethoven avidly followed the meteoric rise of Napoleon.

»So beginnt meine Geschichte. Als Tochter einer weißen Frau und eines Schwarzen Mannes. Zwischen Sange, Südtansania, und Gera, Thüringen. Zwischen kolonialer Vergangenheit und DDR-Diktatur.«Tupoka Ogette erzählt von der Suche nach Zugehörigkeit, vom Leben in der Gleichzeitigkeit, im Widerspruch, im Dazwischen. Vom Aufwachsen als Schwarzes Kind in der DDR, von Flucht, Verlust, Sexismus und Gewalt – aber auch von Liebe, Mutterschaft, Resilienz und Selbstermächtigung. Von Freundschaften, die sie schließt, und solchen, die sie verliert. Vom Neuanfang in der BRD.

From Reggie “Fieldy” Arvizu, legendary bassist of nu-metal pioneers KORN, comes Got the Life: a no-holds-barred look at his extreme highs, drug- and-booze-fueled lows, and, finally, redemption through a conversion to Christianity. Got the Life is simultaneously an insider’s look at rock...