"In the tradition of the modern classics The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer and The Liars' Club by Mary Karr, Blaine Lourd's Born on the Bayou is a powerful gothic memoir set in the bayous and oil towns of 1970s Louisiana. Coonass: [koon-as] (noun, slang, from the French conasse), a term of endearment and an expression of cultural and ethnic pride. So echoes this all-important definition throughout this good-humored memoir of growing up in the South....

"The cofounder of BET and first African American woman billionaire shares her deeply personal journey through love and loss, tragedy and triumph--an inspiring story of overcoming toxic influences, discovering her true self, and at last finding happiness in her work and life. From humble beginnings as a schoolgirl and young violinist in Maywood, Illinois, Sheila Johnson rose to become one of the most accomplished businesswomen in America. A cofounder...

"When literary biographer and memoirist Louise DeSalvo embarked upon a journey to learn why her father came home from World War II a changed man, she didn't realize her quest would take ten years, and that it would yield more revelations about the man--and herself--and the effect of his military service upon their family than she'd ever imagined. During his last years, as he told her about his life, DeSalvo began to understand that her obsession with...

"Erin Hosier and her family belonged to a strict evangelical church in Bainbridge, Ohio, for the first fourteen years of her life. But Erin was a rebel of the eighties who dyed her hair with cherry Kool-Aid while loudly defending liberal causes. Behind closed doors, she and her family were "five mentally ill people at different stages of development, screaming and flailing hysterically like hyenas." At the heart of the family was her father, Jack,...

Contrasts two coming-of-age narratives: that of Lucia, the daughter of James Joyce, and that of author Mary Talbot, daughter of the eminent Joycean scholar James S. Atherton.