April CATWoman: Biography, Autobiography, Memoir

This is a very broad subject area since biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs about women can be written about girls and women in practically any field.

Biographies – I’m assuming that since we are celebrating women that biographies about women should also be written by women although anyone is free to make their own rules.

Here are a few suggestions for biographies about individual women:
Cleopatra: a Life by Stacy Schift
Frida: a Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera
Manchu Princess, Japanese Spy by Phyllis Birmbaum
Marie Antoinette: the Journey by Antonia Fraser
Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953 by Elizabeth Winder
Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis

Collective biography – more than one woman:
Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation by Judith Mackrill
Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan
Hidden Figures by Margaret Lee Shetterly
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott
Marie Curie and Her Daughters by Shelly Emling

Autobiography and Memoir – probably difference people have different understandings of these terms. Possibly autobiography is more a straight account of a person’s life and memoir is centered on a certain aspect of it or a person’s memories without so much research.

Autobiography:
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hursten
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs

Memoir – memories, or centered on a certain aspect of a person’s life:
Danger Close by Amber Smith
Dimestore: a Writer’s Life by Lee Smith
Under Magnolia by Frances Mayes
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Biographical fiction – fiction based on a person:
The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin (Anne Morrow Lindbergh)
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd (Sarah Grimke and her slave)
A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline (Christina Olson pictured in Andrew Wyeth’s painting)
Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory
(Katherine of Aragon, Queen of England; Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots; Mary Tudor, Queen of France)

In addition to my own reading, I got suggestions from the following sources:
https://www.dailyworth.com/posts/3575-22-powerful-biographies-of-women

http://flavorwire.com/508243/50-great-books-about-50-inspiring-women/view-all

Sorry that this list is so American centered.

I'm planning to read Fireweed: a Political Autobiography by Gerda Lerner, a Jew who escaped from the Nazis and was a political activist in the United States prior to becoming a scholar and early women's historian.

Ooh, hadn't considered the fictional aspect. I do have The Invention of Wings to read. Might also read Extraordinary, Ordinary People.

>3 LittleTaiko: Some people read debut nonfiction during the debut month even though you were suggesting debut novels. I thought people could read biographical fiction for the biography challenge. Let's make celebrating women in CATWoman as broad as possible.

I am planning on reading The Mystery of Princess Louise by Lucinda Hawksley.

I think I will read Wild Swans. I wanted to read this a couple of years ago, but I think I was juggling a lot of library books at the time.

I have Anna Kendrick's Scrappy Little Nobody on hold at the library...hopefully it will arrive in time for this CAT!

>6 lsh63: I loved Wild Swans - it's not always an easy read, but I was absolutely gripped by it. I must reread it some time.

I have quite a few books that would fit this challenge, but top of my list is The Outrun. I've heard so much about it, I can't wait to read it.

(there's a review here, if anyone's interested: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/amy-liptrot-the-ou... )

My possibilities are Trying Neaira by Debra Hamel and Aristocrats by Stella Tillyard.

For fiction, I've got I Am Livia by Phyllis T. Smith

As my real life bookclub is reading The Danish Girl in April, I might re-read Conundrum by Jan Morris to go with it.

I recently picked up Rosemary by Kate Clifford Larson. That should fit perfectly.

I am changing my mind about what I am going to read in April as I found a biographical novel in my own stacks so instead of the Lucinda Hawksley book about Princess Louise, I will be reading The Wild Princess by Mary Hart Perry.

I am not surprised that I have lots of possibilities for this. :-)
Some options include:

Her Little Majesty / Carolly Erickson
Prairie Tale / Melissa Gilbert
Catherine de Medici / Leonie Frieda
The Romanov Sisters / Helen Rappaport
Arabella, England's Lost Queen / Sarah Gristwood

I'm planning to read My Life in France by Julia Child

>7 christina_reads: If Scrappy Little Nobody doesn't arrive in time for the April CATWoman it will also fit the May CATWoman, Women in the Arts.

>13 VioletBramble: Good point!

For fiction I have I am Livia by Phyllis T. Smith but I also have Désirée by Annemarie Selinko
Might I suggest Oranges are Not the Only Fruit semi autobiographical of Jeannette Wintersen.
Another suggestion Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen by Mary Sharratt
Pope Joan would be good too.

For fiction I'm looking at The Spy (no touchstone) by Paulo Coelho, about the life of Mata Hari.

>15 Kristelh: I didn't have anything jumping out at me for April - thanks for the suggestion of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit! I've been meaning to read that for a while.

Edited to add that I might read Little X: Growing Up in the Nation of Islam in addition to or instead of Oranges... looks like it would fit the CultureCAT for April.

Oranges are Not the Only Fruit might fit the culture cat as well. The author was raised in a conservative Christian missionary type family and addresses that in the book.

>18 Kristelh: Thanks! And it's a 1001 book, so there's that...

Stories of women's lives are among my very favorite genres. I have several dozen to pick from living on MT TBR, but I think I'll join >13 VioletBramble: in reading My Life in France by Julia Child.

I finished my read for April's CATWoman, Amy Liptrot's The Outrun, which more than lived up to my keenness to read it (see post >8 Jackie_K: ). I can't rave enough about this wonderful book. It is a memoir of her return to her childhood home of Orkney after a decade of alcoholism and drifting in London, and deals with her reaction to the landscape and nature in Orkney, and the various experiences she has, as well as her ongoing experience of addiction while sober, and reflections about her life. Insightful, stark, beautiful, extraordinary - everyone should read it! I am pretty sure this is going to be my book of the year, it's going to take an absolutely exceptional book to beat it. 5/5.

I'm planning to read Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life by Frances Mayes.

>21 Jackie_K: That bullet hit! It's not in the library here, but I've added it to my watch list.

I am planning to read Common People: In Pursuit of My Ancestors by Alison Light.

I finished Habsburgs verkaufte Töchter. It portrays six Habsburg women who were married off by their fathers or brothers for political reasons, ranging from the 15th to the 19th century, and five of them actually ruled. The two regents of the Netherlands and Anne d'Autriche are comparatively well known, the others less so. Maria Karolina was queen of Naples-Sicily and a fierce opponent of Napoleon, Leopoldine was Empress of Brazil. Kunigunde, who was married to a Duke of Bavaria, remains unknown, there is simply not enough documentary evidence about her. The others have been much maligned by (male) historians, and the author sets out to rectify this. Since she doesn't cite her sources, her book is of limited use in this respect, but it gives a useful overview of who was related to whom and who feuded with whom over which territory, which could be quite useful for my next book.

I've read A Piece of the World, a novel about Christina Olson, --- the Christina in Andrew Wyeth's painting, "Christina's World --- by Christina Baker Kline. Christina, who was handicapped, lived a very difficult life, isolated in the house which had been in her family for generations. Andrew Wyeth was among the few people who understood her. I recognized many of the events in the story, especially pertaining to the Wyeths, as probably being true. However, I'm disappointed that this is fiction instead of being a biography. I would like to know if Christina ever had a lover, for example. I think the problem is that very littl is known about Christina Olson.

Earlier this month I read A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold which could be considered a memoir.

I'm reading Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal -- excellent so far. Winterson talks about how she became a writer so she could tell her story.

I just finished Die Herrinnen der Loire-Schlösser about the Valois kings who lived in the castles in the Loire Valley, their queens and mistresses. Aimed at the popular market and therefore too simplistic for me, too many colloquialisms and exclamation marks.

ETC

I ended up reading In Such Good Company by Carol Burnett about her time on her variety show that ran for 11 years. Very funny and charming book.

I read Eleanor and Hick for this month's challenge. I've posted my review on the book's page.

I finished Scrappy Little Nobody and enjoyed it. It's not as good as some of the other recent memoirs by female celebrities/comedians, but it's a fun read for Anna Kendrick fans.

I changed plans for this one and read Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson that proved to be a good choice.

I loved Brown Girl Dreaming.

I finished Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit today. This novel which has been described as semi-autobiographical (Winterson says in the Introduction, "Is Oranges an autobiographical novel? No not at all and yes of course."), tells the story of young Jeanette who is adopted by an English Pentecostal family. Jeanette believes she will grow up to become a missionary and writes sermons and preaches. She also falls in love with a young girl and her mother and other members of the church pray to get the demons out.

This novel had an interesting structure - each chapter was named from a book of the old testament, in order starting from Genesis. There were also two other stories being told within the main story of Jeanette - one about Sir Perceval as he searched for the holy grail and another about a young woman who became a wizard's apprentice.

A 1001 book, I thought it was well done.

I read The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew-- Three Women Search for Understanding by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver and Priscilla Warner for this month's CultureCAT, but as a group memoir it also fits in here. I enjoyed it very much - 4/5.

I've finished reading the book I planned to read for this CAT, Fireweed: a Political Autobiography by Gerda Lerner about her life prior to going to college and becoming a leading women's historian.

The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra / Helen Rappaport
4 stars

This book focuses on the lives of the four Romanov sisters, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia – the daughters of the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, and his wife, Alexandra.

Though the author did try to focus on the four girls, I found that there was a lot of other information, as well, that (at times) overshadowed the girls. I suspect there isn’t as much info out there about the girls, specifically, but the author did find letters and diary entries. Much of the start of the book focused on Nicholas and Alexandra; of course, there was also a good amount of information on their son, Alexei. It did focus a lot on the family, as a whole. And, historical events were also prominent (but there’s no way around that!). I think most of the information about the girls was as they got older, especially the older two, who acted as nurses during WWI before the family was imprisoned. It was very interesting – I did enjoy the book. I listened to the audio – the narrator was good, though I did, on occasion, lose focus.

I read Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, about the author's time in a psychiatric hospital when she was a teenager.

>33 LisaMorr:, I see that you got it read, glad you enjoyed it.

>38 Kristelh: Thanks for steering me in that direction!

Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France / Leonie Frieda
3.75 stars

In the 16th century, Catherine de Medici came to France from Italy to marry the future king of France, Henri II. She loved him, but had to share him with a mistress, the woman he loved, Diane de Poitiers. Over the years, Catherine and Henri had ten children and Catherine outlived all except two of them. Three of her sons became kings of France, and Catherine was always there to help them rule. There were a number of religious wars in France over the years she ruled.

I’ve only read a little bit of fiction about Catherine (this is nonfiction). It was good. Being nonfiction, though, there were dry parts to it, but there were plenty of interesting things going on, as well. It’s funny, from the fiction I read, I remember the rivalry between Catherine and Diane more than anything else, yet she is apparently best remembered for her part in a massacre pitting Protestants against Catholics (which I don’t recall from the fiction at all, though it must have been there!). I did feel particularly bad for her when Henri was alive and she had Diane de Poitiers to contend with, but she did have a ruthless side, particularly when it came to protecting the crown for her sons.

I completed my read of The Wild Princess by Mary Hart Perry which was about the life of Princess Louise. The book was a fast read and the author did her research, but there was a little too much romance for me.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the CAT. I hope that you enjoyed your reading.

>42 sallylou61: - Thanks for hosting. Thank you too for recommending The Invention of Wings. I knew absolutely nothing about the two sisters and found their story to be fascinating. Definitely want to read some other books about them.

>43 LittleTaiko: An excellent biography of the Grimke sisters is The Grimke Sisters from South Carolina by Gerda Lerner. I was amazed to learn that it was originally Lerner's doctoral dissertation; it does not read as if it was one. If I remember correctly, the hardback and paperback have different subtitles. I think that there are also many biographies of one of the sisters. It would be hard to write about one without talking about the other.

Lift Up Thy Voice by Mark Perry discusses the sisters and also their two black nephews, sons of one of their brothers, whom they learned about when the men were attending Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Both the men were civil rights leaders. I wrote a review of this book at
http://www.librarything.com/work/714850/reviews/93496464

I finished The Princess Diarist, Carrie Fisher's memoirs about the early Star Wars days. I don't often read celebrity memoirs, but this one was short and it's one of the current Hugo Best Related Work nominees. Unfortunately, I found it disappointing. I'd hoped for a behind-the-scenes view of the making of Star Wars but a large part of the book was devoted to Fisher's affair with Harrison Ford. These late-teen years of Fisher don't seem particularly happy ones, though they were certainly exciting.

>45 mathgirl40: Ah that's disappointing - The Princess Diarist was one of my acquisitions last month and I had high hopes for it!

>46 Jackie_K: Well, don't be too discouraged. The reviews for it are mixed, and clearly, some people liked it very much. I guess I was just expecting something very different.