Biography and Memoirs

Buck
A Memoir

M.K. Asante

Spiegel & Grau, $25

A young filmmaker, academic and author of “It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop,” Asante traces his self-education as he makes his way from Zimbabwe to the streets of North Philadelphia and emerges through the power of language. (August)

A Matter of Life

Jeffrey Brown

Top Shelf, $14.95

The author of the Star Wars parenting parody “Darth Vader and Son” presents an autobiographical tale of fatherhood in graphic novel form, focusing on Brown’s relationships with his minister father and young son. (July)

The Art of Sleeping Alone
Why One French Woman Gave Up Sex

Sophie Fontanel

Scribner. $19.99

An editor of French Elle writes of her decision to remain single and celibate — and its profoundly liberating effect on her life. (August)

A Million Years with You
A Memoir of Life Observed

Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $25

The octagenarian naturalist and author looks at how her wisdom and insights were influenced by her early expeditions to Africa. (June)

The Spy Who Loved
The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville

Clare Mulley

St. Martin’s/Dunne, $26.99

The little known story of Britian’s first female special agent, whose top secret missions — parachuting behind enemy lines, skiing over mountains into occupied Poland — contributed to Allied victory in WWII. (June)

I Hate To Leave This Beautiful Place

Howard Norman

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $26

The acclaimed novelist weaves together life experiences, including working at a bookmobile, dealing with a grifter father and working in the arctic, to lyrical effect. (July)

Rose Kennedy
The Life and Times of a Political Matriarch

Barbara A. Perry

W.W. Norton, $27.95

Drawing on newly released diaries and letters, this biography offers a more complete portrait of the matriarch of America’s eminent political family dynasties. (July)

Son of a Gun
A Memoir

Justin St. Germain

Random House, $26

The author returns to his hometown of Tombstone, Arizona where his mother was murdered in 2001 by her fifth husband, hoping to make sense of her life and death. (August)

Highs in the Low Fifties
How I Stumbled Through the Joys of Single Living

Marion Winik

Globe Pequot/Skirt!, $21.95

Attempting to rebuild her life as a widowed divorcee, the NPR commentator chronicles her series of outlandish dating misadventures. (June)