Want to Read

Books I want to Read

Showing 1 - 20 of 21  There are a total of 60 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "The best minds"
Star rating for The best minds
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
"When the Rosens moved to New Rochelle in 1973, Jonathan Rosen and Michael Laudor seemed destined to become inseparable. The boys, both children of college professors, grew up on the same street in intellectually vibrant homes shaped by ideas, liberal Jewish culture, the trauma of the Holocaust, and a shared love of basketball and standup comedy. But the two best friends were also keen competitors bearing the same great expectations, and when Michael...
Book cover for "The big fella"
Star rating for The big fella
Author:
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
A portrait of Babe Ruth and his partnership with business manager Christy Walsh traces how their strategies, achievements and notoriety established a blueprint for modern athletic stardom.
Book cover for "Born standing up"
Star rating for Born standing up
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
Steve Martin reflects on his over 30 years in the comedy business, from writing to performing and everywhere in between.
Book cover for "Burning down the house"
Star rating for Burning down the house
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"The story of how Newt Gingrich and his allies tainted American politics, launching an enduring era of brutal partisan warfare. When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, President Obama observed that Trump "is not an outlier; he is a culmination, a logical conclusion of the rhetoric and tactics of the Republican Party for the past ten, fifteen, twenty years." In Burning Down the House, historian Julian Zelizer pinpoints the moment when our...
Book cover for "The color of law"
Star rating for The color of law
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Description:
Rothstein examines the idea "that America's cities came to be racially divided through de facto segregation--that is, through individual prejudices, income differences, or the actions of private institutions like banks and real estate agencies. Rather, [he argues] that it was de jure segregation--the laws and policy decisions passed by local, state, and federal governments--that actually promoted the discriminatory patterns that continue to this day"--Amazon.com....
Book cover for "Down and out in paradise"
Star rating for Down and out in paradise
Description:
Based on extensive interviews with those who knew him intimately, this biography of the late celebrity chef and TV star examines his battles with childhood trauma and addiction and his eventual rise to international fame.
Book cover for "Fun home"
Star rating for Fun home
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
A memoir done in the form of a graphic novel by a cult favorite comic artist offers a darkly funny family portrait that details her relationship with her father--a funeral home director, high school English teacher, and closeted homosexual.
Book cover for "Hitler's American gamble"
Star rating for Hitler's American gamble
Description:
"By early December 1941, war and genocide had changed Europe beyond recognition. Nazi Germany had occupied most of the continent and opened concentration camps, while millions of soldiers had died on the front. In Asia, the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War had turned mainland China into a battleground and the Pacific Islands into an armed camp. Still, these far-off conflicts were not yet inextricably linked, and the greatest power the world...
Book cover for "In the shadow of the mountain"
Star rating for In the shadow of the mountain
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"When Silvia's mother called her home to Peru, she knew something finally had to give. A Latinx hero in the elite macho tech world of Silicon Valley, privately, she was hanging by a thread. She was deep in the throes of alcoholism, hiding her sexuality from her family, and repressing the abuse she'd suffered as a child. Her visit to Peru would become a turning point in her life. Silvia started climbing. Something about the brute force required for...
Book cover for "Independence lost"
Star rating for Independence lost
Description:
"In an entirely new, global perspective on the Revolutionary period, Kathleen DuVal reveals personal stories such as that of Irish trader Oliver Pollock, Scottish plantation owners James and Isabella Bruce, and Creek leader Alexander McGillivray for whom the American Revolution was more complicated than the issue of colonial independence. These individuals, their communities, and nations weighed their options, deciding based on personal interests...
Book cover for "The mother of Black Hollywood"
Star rating for The mother of Black Hollywood
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Description:
The star of "Black-ish" traces her journey from poverty to fame, sharing insights into her battles with undiagnosed mental illness and sex addiction while citing the support of loving friends and her philosophy about self-acceptance that enabled her success.
Book cover for "Notes on a silencing"
Star rating for Notes on a silencing
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Traces the author's healing journey after a traumatizing sexual assault at the infamous St. Paul's boarding school, describing how she helped police uncover proof of the school's institutionalized mandate of silence.
Book cover for "Pageboy"
Star rating for Pageboy
Average Rating:
3.6 stars
Description:
"The Oscar-nominated star who captivated the world with his performance in Juno finally shares his truth. "Can I kiss you?" It was two months before the world premiere of Juno, and Elliot Page was in his first ever queer bar. The hot summer air hung heavy around him as he looked at her. And then it happened. In front of everyone. A previously unfathomable experience. Here he was on the precipice of discovering himself as a queer person, as a trans...
Book cover for "Rogues"
Star rating for Rogues
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
"[T]welve enthralling stories of skulduggery and intrigue by one of the most decorated journalists of our time ... Patrick Radden Keefe has garnered prizes ranging from the National Magazine Award to the Orwell Prize to the National Book Critics Circle Award for his meticulously-reported, hypnotically-engaging work on the many ways people behave badly. [This work] brings together a dozen of his most celebrated articles from The New Yorker ... Keefe...
Book cover for "Sticky fingers"
Star rating for Sticky fingers
Average Rating:
5 stars
Book cover for "Token Black girl"
Star rating for Token Black girl
Description:
"Token Black Girl unpacks the adverse effects of insidious white supremacy in the media--both unconscious and strategic--to tell a personal story about recovery from damaging concepts of perfection, celebrating identity, and demolishing social conditioning"--Book jacket flap.
Book cover for "Too fat, too slutty, too loud"
Star rating for Too fat, too slutty, too loud
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"You know the type: the woman who won't shut up, who's too brazen, too opinionated--too much. She's the unruly woman, and she embodies one of the most provocative and powerful forms of womanhood today. In [this book], Anne Helen Petersen uses the lens of 'unruliness' to explore the ascension of pop culture powerhouses like Lena Dunham, Nicki Minaj, and Kim Kardashian, exploring why the public loves to love (and hate) these controversial figures"--Amazon.com....
Book cover for "Traffic"
Star rating for Traffic
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"The candid inside tale of two online media rivals, Jonah Peretti of HuffPost and Buzzfeed and Nick Denton of Gawker Media, whose delirious pursuit of attention at scale in the first two decades of the 21st century helped release the dark forces that would overtake the Internet and American society... The curtain opens in Soho in the early 2000's, in that brief moment after the first dotcom crash and before Google, Apple, and Facebook exploded, when...
Book cover for "Walking in my joy"
Star rating for Walking in my joy
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"A self-described 'traveling fool and nature freak,' [the actress, activist, and mental health advocate] Jenifer [Lewis] takes readers with her all over the world, from Cape Town to Bali; Washington, DC, to the Serengeti; Mongolia to St. Petersburg; and Argentina to Antarctica to demonstrate how she walks in her joy by seeking pleasure in everyday encounters. [Follow along] as she faints at the Obamas' holiday party; awakens to a swollen face and...
Book cover for "We keep the dead close"
Star rating for We keep the dead close
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"A former New Yorker editorial staff member, now Senior Fellow at Brandeis's Schuster Institute for Investigative Reporting, Cooper was a Harvard undergrad when she first heard stories about the 1969 murder of graduate student Jane Britton, daughter of Radcliffe's vice president, four decades earlier. Here she unwinds a story that has nothing to do with the love-gone-wrong rumors and maybe even the 2018 case-closed ruling, instead focusing on Harvard's...