Discoveries in the Stacks is the Westover Branch Library’s occasional exploration of our collection, delving into areas that you may not have visited.

This month we stroll down the Biography aisle. Fascinating stories await you…where often truth is more daring than fiction.

March is women’s history month, so we start with amazing women:

• Nightingales: The Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Miss Florence Nightingale, by Gillian Gill. Florence Nightingale is a woman who very well might have been one of the first reformers of Britain’s health-care, and most of us know her as a “saint” in the early delivery of medicine. Gill delivers a comprehensive look at this Victorian-era icon.B NIGHTIN F
  
• Cherie Blair: Speaking for myself, by Cherie Blair. An accomplished woman in her own right as a successful lawyer, Blair recounts her life in the limelight along side Prime Minister Tony Blair while navigating family life with young children in 10 Downing Street, and her own career. B BLAIR C
• Rage for Fame: The Ascent of Clare Booth Luce, by Sylvia Jukes Morris. A rags to riches story full of ambition and intelligence. Luce is at once a politician, playwright and social seductress. B LUCE
• Paula Deen: It Ain’t All About the Cookin’, Paula Deen. Cooking wizard, Paula Deen, tells all…from her charmed southern childhood, through a rough marriage and on to The Lady & Sons restaurant, and her own television show. B DEEN P
• Wishful Drinking, by Carrie Fisher. Taking her one-woman show, of the same name, Fisher recounts her life with wit and humor…from Hollywood celebrity parents to Princess Leia and being a cultural icon at the age of 19 through mental illness and a scattered life. B FISHER C
  

• In Spite of Myself: a Memoir, by Christopher Plummer. Plummer delivers a cleverly-written and witty account of his days as a stage and screen actor. B PLUMMER C
• Alfred Hitchcock: a Life in Darkness and Light, by Patrick McGilligan. This definitive biography details Hitchcock as a comprehensive film craftsman, dedicated romantic, constant trickster and devoted husband. B HITCHCO A

We’ll see you next time in another part of the stacks!