By Melissa Chapman

Cataloging Supervisor

Biographies and autobiographies are some of the most fascinating books written. Thousands are written every year. Below are some of the newest titles about some world-renowned charismatic people.

“Me” by Elton John is his first and only official autobiography. He reveals the truth about his extraordinary life. Reginald Dwight was a shy boy with Buddy Holly glasses who grew up in the London suburb of Pinner and dreamed of becoming a pop star. By the age of 23, he was performing his first gig in America, facing an astonished audience in his bright yellow dungarees, a star-spangled T-shirt and boots with wings. Elton had arrived and the music world would never be the same.

“The Girls” by Abigail Pesta is the inside story of how serial predator Larry Nassar got away with abusing hundreds of gymnasts for decades and how a team of brave women banded together to bring him down. It is a profound exploration of trust, ambition, betrayal and self-discovery.

“They Called Us Enemy” by George Takei is a stunning graphic memoir recounting the author’s childhood imprisoned within American Internment camps during World War II. Long before he braved new frontiers in Star Trek, he woke up as a 4-year-old boy to find his own birth country at war with his father’s — and their entire family forced from their home into an uncertain future.

“Beautiful Ones” by Prince, begun prior to his death in 2016, is the first-person account of a Minnesota kid who created some of the most visionary pop and funk ever recorded, cultivating a mystique very different from what his upbringing would have suggested. Though sadly shortened, this is an essential portrait of The Artist: Prince sought to retell his own story as a mythic and funky adventure and succeeded.

“Homework” by Julie Andrews is surprisingly her first memoir. It chronicles her difficult childhood and emergence as a singer and stage performer. Co-written with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, Andrews not only dives into stories behind roles in films like “Mary Poppins,” “The Sound of Music” and “Victor/Victoria,” but deals with her own transition into worldwide superstardom, and the effect it had on her marriages and children.

Warsaw Community Public Library has numerous biographies and autobiographies in its collection. Come in and check out one of these titles or another title if you prefer.