Good biography book to read

I already had 13 black bios on my own list of 38, so without scrolling the whole list it seems like you're being a bit hyperbolic. Again, please add valuable bios. Ruth wrote: "Also, some of the biographies are known for being contrived, such as Sybil. That is my dilemma with some of them. I deleted the Little House set as per its Goodreads classification.

I also deleted The Souls of Black Folk. There is a bio of W. Du Bois on the list. All quibbling about a few mis-added books aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this list. Happy reading to all! I am excited to read some of these. Mar 23, PM. Mar 24, AM. I did finally get through the list and found some to add that I hope will be appreciated.

All in all, I think the list is good. Thanks for taking off the more obvious fictions This is all in good fun. Apr 04, PM. The same applies to any others in this series that anyone might contemplate adding: historical fiction, not memoir. The system found and deleted 3 duplicates also. Apr 05, AM. Ruth wrote: "All in all, I think the list is good.

Apr 08, PM. Feb 15, PM. Maybe someone put them back on? Aug 09, PM. At least some are still there. May 14, AM. Please remove Eragon as well, it's ficton. May 14, PM. Peg wrote: "Please remove Eragon as well, it's ficton. There are 13 pages at the moment, which is bit much to search for a book Jul 23, PM. Someone must have slipped that one in.

Jul 28, AM. BookLovingLady wrote: "Michelle wrote: "Too many books on this list are not biographies or memoirs. Mar 13, AM. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks very good one. What is biography? I think of biography as being about a person, so the fact that Seabiscuit: An American Legend is in the top 20 beating out a lot of really famous people I should add is a bit astonishing to me.

The Biography of A Grizzly also makes an appearance later in the list, a book I read and enjoyed. I supposed that particularly in these times life stories of animals which meet the literal etymological meaning of biography are going to be popular. I see 6 people added it back, so I re-added my vote. Some editions have great biographical intros, others perhaps not so.

I do not see how The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness qualifies, as it is a good biography book to read of short essays looking at forgiveness from philosophical, theological, and personal perspectives. Of the books in the top of the list this one is the one I most lean towards deleting. But I didn't vote for it because, while it contains biographical sketches of several dozen people, I don't see it as biography per se.

It definitely has interest for those looking for biographical writing though and I can understand leaving it. Overall though this is a great list which takes into account biographies across many centuries and cultures. Happy reading! Sep 17, PM. Add a reference: Book Author. Search for a book to add a reference. Add books from: My Books or a Search.

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Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario. Librarian's Note: An alternate cover edition can be found here In April,a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. Four months later, a party of moose hunters found his decomposed body.

How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild. Immediately after graduating from college inMcCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash.

He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and, unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw away the maps. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer.

Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford. Shelley: The Pursuit by Richard Holmes. Shirley Jackson reveals the tumultuous life and inner darkness of the literary genius behind such classics as The Lottery and The Haunting of Hill House. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Vera Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov by Stacy Schiff.

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Jessica books friends. Margo books friends. William books friends. Patrick books friends. Ira 1 book 0 friends. Colene books 48 friends. Katrina books 24 friends. William books 96 friends. Post a comment ». Dec 25, PM. Dec 26, AM. Jan 02, PM. By my quick count up, about odd of these are autobiographies or memoirs, even though the list description notes somewhere else to vote for these.

Is there any desire to keep this just for pure biographies, or to leave it as is? Katrina, thanks for checking. I've removed some autobiographies and memoirs. Feel free to remove more that are not of the correct category.

Good biography book to read

Jan 04, PM. For what it's worth, I wouldn't mind see a list of Best Biographies, Autobiographies and Memoirs and have more books to choose from that are sort of same or at least a similar type i. Jan 06, AM. She can't get enough of reading and writing about books, so she writes the bookish newsletter "Reading Indie," focusing on small press books and translations.

Newsletter: Reading Indie Twitter: ofbooksandbikes. View All posts by Rebecca Hussey. Through biography, we can also learn history, psychology, sociology, politics, philosophy, and more. Reading a great biography is both fun and educational. You will find a mix of subjects, including important figures in literature, science, politics, history, art, and more.

In a couple cases, authors have written about their family members, but for the most part, these are books where the focus is on the biographical subject, not the author. Book descriptions come from Goodreads. At once a series of intimate portraits and a startling investigation into style, celebrity, sexuality, and the genre of biography itself, All We Know explores a hidden history of modernism and pays tribute to three compelling lives.

Among these were a coterie of bright, talented African-American women. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.