Inspiring Biographies

Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King, subtitled Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America, is an account of an important but relatively little-known legal case that paved the way for the advances of the civil rights era. The book begins with the story behind the case: In July 1949, in Groveland, Florida, a 17-year-old girl named Norma Lee Padgett claims a group of four young black men raped her... Read Devil in the Grove Summary

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First published in 1977, Dispatches is Michael Herr’s account of his time spent as a war correspondent in Vietnam. The conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia started on November 1, 1955. President Kennedy escalated U.S. involvement in 1961, followed by President Johnson, who committed even more resources and men in 1963. 58,220 U.S. soldiers and approximately 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers lost their lives during the conflict. Michael Herr was a correspondent for Esquire Magazine... Read Dispatches Summary

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Down These Mean Streets is a 1967 memoir written by Piri Thomas detailing his late childhood through young adulthood. Piri is the eldest son of two Puerto Rican immigrants living in the New York City area with his family. He spends his childhood in the Puerto Rican section of Harlem, though his family later moves to the Italian-American section of Harlem, where Piri gets in fights with the Italian-American kids. One of these fights leads... Read Down These Mean Streets Summary

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance is a memoir by Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. Published in 1995, two years before Obama's run for the Illinois State Senate, the book narrates Obama's attempt to grapple with the legacy of his mostly absent father (hereafter referred to as "Obama Sr.") and to come to terms with his racial identity. The memoir covers Obama's life from his childhood in... Read Dreams From My Father Summary

Dreams in a Time of War was originally published in 2010. This study guide uses the 2011 Anchor Books edition, a division of Random House, Inc. A multilayered and faceted coming-of-age memoir of family, community, and Kenyan society, Dreams in a Time of War details the childhood and early adolescent years of acclaimed writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. Set in mid-twentieth century colonial Kenya, the book offers an intimate portrait of Ngũgĩ’s life as it unfolds... Read Dreams in a Time of War Summary

First published in 1994, Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood is Fatima Mernissi’s memoir of her experience growing up in a harem in Fez, Morocco, in the 1940s. Mernissi, who received her PhD in political science from Brandeis University and won the Prince of Asturias Award and the Erasmus Prize for her feminist writing, was the author of several nonfiction works examining women’s place in the Islamic world.Dreams of Trespass encompasses Fatima’s life... Read Dreams of Trespass Summary

Drinking: A Love Story is Caroline Knapp’s 1997 memoir about her alcoholism and recovery. Knapp examines how her relationship with alcohol turned into a dangerous love affair that threatened to destroy her life. She also explores important aspects of her family life and romantic relationships, both of which contributed to her addiction and were impeded by her drinking.Knapp begins the book with a prologue that helps the reader understand why she quit drinking. She explains... Read Drinking: A Love Story Summary

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Dust Tracks on a Road is the memoir of Harlem-Renaissance-era writer Zora Neale Hurston. Originally published in 1943, the book won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Race Relations in the nonfiction category. This guide is based on the 1996 Harper Perennial edition of her original text. The book offers an account of Hurston’s life up until 1941 and her perspective on race relations, friendship, love, and religion.In Chapter 1, Hurston offers cultural and historical background... Read Dust Tracks on a Road Summary

Eat Pray Love is a 2006 memoir by writer Elizabeth Gilbert whose previous works include the novels Stern Men and The Last American Man. The book’s subtitle is One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, and it chronicles Gilbert’s quest for mental and spiritual healing following a divorce, difficult legal settlement, unhealthy love affair, and period of depression. This guide references the 2016 Penguin Random House edition.SummaryThe author searches for “I” in... Read Eat Pray Love Summary

In the memoir, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, Janisse Ray describes growing up amidst her family’s junkyard in rural south Georgia. She structures the book in a series of short chapters, each of which focuses on a different aspect of her family life. Between these chapters, Ray also writes descriptions of the longleaf pine forests–an ecosystem that once covered the south Georgia landscape and has been largely destroyed by logging.  Ray is born in Baxley... Read Ecology of a Cracker Childhood Summary

Tara Westover’s 2018 memoir, Educated, tells the story of her journey to obtain an education. Westover is the youngest of seven children who grew up in the mountains of southwest Idaho in a radical Mormon family in the late 1980s and 1990s. From an early age, Westover knew that her family was not like other families because hers did not send the children to school, did not visit doctors’ offices or hospitals, and was not... Read Educated Summary