I’m excited to share some of the new nonfiction titles that will be released in November. All of the titles are available to put on hold in our catalog and will also be made available via the library’s Overdrive service on the day of publication. For a more extensive list of new nonfiction books coming out this month, check our online catalog.
Top Picks
“This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing” by Jacqueline Winspear (Nov 10)
The New York Times bestselling author of the Maisie Dobbs series offers a deeply personal memoir of her family’s resilience in the face of war and privation. After sixteen novels, Jacqueline Winspear has taken the bold step of turning to memoir, revealing the hardships and joys of her family history. Both shockingly frank and deftly restrained, her memoir tackles such difficult, poignant, and fascinating family memories as her paternal grandfather’s shellshock, her mother’s evacuation from London during the Blitz; her soft-spoken animal-loving father’s torturous assignment to an explosives team during WWII; her parents’ years living with Romani Gypsies; and Jacqueline’s own childhood working on farms in rural Kent, capturing her ties to the land and her dream of being a writer at its very inception. An eye-opening and heartfelt portrayal of a post-War England we rarely see, “This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing” is the story of a childhood in the English countryside, of working class indomitability and family secrets, of artistic inspiration and the price of memory.
“A Promised Land” by Barack Obama (Nov 17)
In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency—a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil. Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office. Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune’s Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden. “A Promised Land” is extraordinarily intimate and introspective—the story of one man’s bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of “hope and change,” and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible. This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama’s conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.
“Frontier Follies: Adventures in Marriage & Motherhood in the Middle of Nowhere” by Ree Drummond (Nov 17)
From her beginnings as an early blogger, Ree Drummond has become a household name with a passionate following of devoted fans. On her blog, in her magazine and on her cooking show, Ree shares recipes, tales of her adventures in the country, and stories of everyday life with her four children and cowboy/rancher husband. In this down-to-earth and charming book, Ree shares real-life anecdotes about parenting from her own unique vantage point. While her busy life is constantly full of new surprises, what’s most important to her is family. Over the years she’s learned a few things about balancing motherhood with a million other things, and now she offers the wisdom of her experiences—the ups, the downs, the bumps in the road, the laughter and the tears—in stories brimming with the relatable wit and humor found in her cookbooks and her bestselling love story, “The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels.”
More Notable Releases for November
- “Clanlands: Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other” by Sam Heughan, Graham McTavish (Nov 5)
- “7 Ways: Easy Ideas for Every Day of the Week” by Jamie Oliver (Nov 10)
- “Fossil Men: The Quest for the Oldest Skeleton and the Origins of Humankind” by Kermit Pattison (Nov 10)
- “Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics” by Dolly Parton, Robert K. Oermann (Nov 17)
