Acclaimed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin was married to her late husband, writer and political adviser Dick Goodwin, for 42 years. Her memoir, An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s, takes stock of their relationship and mutual passion for politics and history. As she chronicles the massive project they tackled together—sifting through 300 boxes of Dick’s archival materials—Goodwin delivers a heartfelt tribute to her husband and considers seminal incidents in American history involving Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy and other notables. Her book is at once an intimate memoir and an expansive survey of the 1960s.
Margo Jefferson’s Negroland is an unforgettable account of the author’s upbringing in an affluent Chicago family. The daughter of a prominent doctor and a demanding, socialite mother, Jefferson grew up in the 1950s and ’60s among a group of elite Black intellectuals determined to leave their imprint on the world. A stylish, candid writer, she details the challenges and pressures of striving for success at a time when the Civil Rights Movement was transforming America. Sure to spark lively dialogue among readers, her vivid, lively memoir addresses themes of race, class and feminism.
In Chasing Hope: A Reporter’s Life, Nicholas D. Kristof surveys his extraordinary career and gives readers an inside look at the world of a journalist. As he shares in this wide-ranging book, Kristof got his start in 1984 at the New York Times. Over the years, he reported on the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, the conflict in Darfur, America’s opioid crisis and other pivotal topics, and he frequently performed his job in the face of danger and risk. Spanning roughly four decades, his electrifying memoir is a testament to the power of on-the-ground reporting.
Pulitzer Prize-winner Viet Thanh Nguyen (The Sympathizer, The Committed) looks back on his early years in America in A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial. Nguyen was 4 when his family came to the United States after being forced to leave Vietnam in 1975. They eventually put down roots in San Jose, California, but confusion and violence—his parents were shot during a robbery—made assimilation difficult. Throughout this profound, often funny narrative, Nguyen reflects on the experience of exile and the bonds of family. His sharply realized memoir shines light on a turbulent period in world history and the consequences of war.