MOTHER'S DAY SPECIALS! SHOW ME MORE
Dorothy Lazard was born in St. Louis and grew up in San Francisco and Oakland. A librarian for nearly forty years, she joined the staff of the Oakland Public Library in 2000. From 2009 until her retirement in 2021, she was the head librarian of OPL's Oakland History Center, where she encouraged people of all ages and backgrounds to explore local history. Lazard is the 2023 recipient of the Oscar Lewis Award in Western History from the Book Club of California. She lives in Oakland.
Lazard refers to her narrative as 'my recovery mission to retrieve a time in my life that marked me more deeply than any other,' and she succeeds handily, thanks to rigorous scene-building and memorable characterizations of her family. This is a powerful account. -Publishers Weekly A coming-of-age memoir takes readers to the Bay Area of the late 1960s and '70s. [...] Lazard's story may exemplify a cultural awakening experienced by many of her Black peers, but it is also intensely individual, shaped as much by her own family circumstances as by the world around her. [...] Compelling and memorable. -Kirkus Reviews Themes of self-discovery and finding one's place are a text constant in What You Don't Know Will Make a Whole New World, a moving memoir about the enduring power of words. -Foreword Lazard's journey to becoming an empowered Black woman with 'a place in this country' is a distinguished, uplifting story. -East Bay Express I've rarely encountered such an endearing authorial voice. Wry and observant, Dorothy Lazard's writing evokes such distinctive neighbors and family members in a time, place, and culture truly worth cherishing. -Susan D. Anderson, History Curator, California African American Museum
