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Cohen, Rich. The Adventures of Herbie Cohen: World’s Greatest Negotiator. Farrar. May 2022. 240p. ISBN 9780374169619. $27. MEMOIR

The New York Times best-selling author of Tough Jews and Monsters, cocreator of the HBO series Vinyl, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, and winner of multiple awards, including Chicago Public Library’s 21st Century Award—Cohen is a busy man. Here he writes about another busy man, his father, Herbie Cohen, a Brooklyn-born Jewish wheeler dealer, adviser to presidents and corporations, arms and hostage negotiator, profound seeker of justice, and author of the how-to classic You Can Negotiate Anything. With a 75,000-copy first printing. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Fitzgerald, Isaac. Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional. Bloomsbury. May 2022. 272p. ISBN 9781635573978. $28. MEMOIR

Founding editor of BuzzFeed Books, Fitzgerald grew up in a homeless shelter, once helped smuggle medical supplies into Burma (now Myanmar), and worked as a fireman and on a boat before leaping into New York’s literary world. He’s also written the best-selling children’s book How To Be a Pirate. He proclaims that “life mistakes are my copilot” and here puts his copiloting on display while also recommending a larger view of masculinity than the anger, isolation, and entitlement he’s seen defining his gender. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Hood, Ann. Fly Girl: A Memoir. Norton. May 2022. 288p. ISBN 9781324006237. $26.95. MEMOIR

Before she authored such beloved best sellers as The Book That Matters Most and The Knitting Circle, Hood worked as a flight attendant, enjoying layovers in far-flung places and smiling through the blisters brought on by treading miles of aisles in high heels. Deregulation, an oil crisis, furloughs, a labor strike—she saw them all in a job she acknowledges is shaped by sexism yet for her proved empowering. She sketched out her first novel while sitting in one of her plane’s jump seats.

House, Cindy. Mother Noise: A Memoir. Marysue Rucci: Scribner. May 2022. 224p. ISBN 9781982168759. $26. MEMOIR

Artist, author, and regular opener for David Sedaris on his tours, House is now marking 20 years of recovery after heroin addiction. Here she uses essays and graphic narrative shorts to reflect on the wonders of life and friendship and the responsibilities of parenthood, opening with her trying to figure out how to explain her past to her nine-year-old son. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Liu, Simu. We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story. Morrow. May 2022. 320p. ISBN 9780063046498. $27.99. CD. MEMOIR

The first Chinese star of a Marvel superhero film, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Chinese Canadian actor Liu relates his journey from struggling immigrant child—he lived with grandparents in China until age four, then joined his parents in Canada—to model student starting to question the goals set out for him, to taking some huge risks after being laid off from his first job and winding up a Hollywood star. With a 50,000-copy first printing; originally scheduled for May 2021.

McNamara, Craig. Because Our Fathers Lied: A Memoir of Truth and Family, from Vietnam to Today. Little, Brown. May 2022. 288p. ISBN 9780316282239. $29. MEMOIR

President and owner of Sierra Orchards, McNamara is also the son of Robert McNamara, John F. Kennedy’s secretary of defense and hugely responsible for escalating U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Stanford dropout Craig failed his draft-board physical, took to the road on his motorbike, and eventually participated in antiwar demonstrations. His memoir investigates father-son tensions while capturing the larger tensions in the country at the time. With a 35,000-copy first printing.

Osefo, Wendy. Tears of My Mother: The Legacy of My Nigerian Upbringing. Gallery: S. & S. May 2022. 256p. ISBN 9781982194505. $27. MEMOIR

Nigerian American political commentator Osefo, well known for her star turn on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Potomac, here explains that, however prickly, her relationship with her mother, Susan Okuzu, significantly shaped her life. She describes Okuzu as a kind and loving person and a distant disciplinarian, determined to have herself and her children succeed in the United States, and she became the first Black woman to obtain a PhD in public affairs–community development from Rutgers University, Camden. Ultimately a Valentine to a formidable woman; with a 75,000-copy first printing.

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