Biographies, Memoirs and Autobiographies in 2023
Talk Biographies, Memoirs and Autobiographies
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2LynnB
I'm starting 2023 with a memoir: Flora! A Woman in a Man's World by Flora MacDonald and Geoffrey Stevens.
3JulieLill
Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard
Tom Felton
4/5 stars
Tom Felton relates his acting career and the ups and downs of being a child actor, especially being in one of the most popular movie series of all times. Nicely written and very interesting!
Tom Felton
4/5 stars
Tom Felton relates his acting career and the ups and downs of being a child actor, especially being in one of the most popular movie series of all times. Nicely written and very interesting!
4JulieLill
Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir
Ruth Reichl
5/5 stars
I love Ruth Reichl and this book doesn’t disappoint. Ruth relates her life at Gourmet magazine from her beginnings there to when the magazine closed. The funny thing is that I remember when that happened because I was in charge of the magazine department at my library around that time. Gourmet was not the only serial to fold and we have lost a lot of magazines and it continues on as a lot of magazines have reverted to being online only. Reichl is an amazing author and I highly recommend her books!
Ruth Reichl
5/5 stars
I love Ruth Reichl and this book doesn’t disappoint. Ruth relates her life at Gourmet magazine from her beginnings there to when the magazine closed. The funny thing is that I remember when that happened because I was in charge of the magazine department at my library around that time. Gourmet was not the only serial to fold and we have lost a lot of magazines and it continues on as a lot of magazines have reverted to being online only. Reichl is an amazing author and I highly recommend her books!
5rocketjk
Walk With Me: A Biography of Fannie Lou Hamer by Kate Clifford Larson
Kate Clifford Larson has delivered a stirring and extremely readable biography of an extremely important and inspirational--though I expect not well enough known at this point--figure in the American Civil Rights Movement. Fannie Lou Hamer was the children of tenant farmers, and became one herself, in Jim Crow Mississippi. With very little education but with a burning drive to learn and an iron-willed dignity that would not allow her to sit still for the horrific realities of 1950s and 60s Mississippi, Hamer gradually became involved in the grass roots efforts of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to help rural Blacks attain voting rights in the face of furious, violent and often deadly resistance by segregationist whites. The book begins with the story of Hamer's childhood and family life, of necessity intertwined with an in-depth description of the depravities and horror of Jim Crow oppression, which was brutal and ubiquitous. When, as an adult, Hamer went into town to attempt to register to vote, she came home to find that her white landlord was promising to evict Hamer, along with her husband and children, unless she promised to go back to town the next day to rescind her registration. Hamer replied, "I registered to vote for me, not for you," and her landlord followed up on his threat. Later, in a Winona, Mississippi, jail cell, Hamer and four of her companions received vicious beatings, and Hamer was raped, for the crime of trying to integrate a bus stop diner. The beating left Hamer's health compromised for the rest of her life. But Hamer, due to her articulate, passionate speeches, her inspirational singing and her drive and inclusiveness, nevertheless became a powerful figure in the movement, to the extent that she was the keynote speaker before the Democratic National Committee when the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, a Black party organized to fight the seating of the fiercely segregationist Mississippi Democratic contingent at the 1964 Democratic Presidential Convention in Atlantic City in 1964.
In addition to being a wholly compelling biography of a fascinating figure, Larson's book also provides an important "from the inside" history of SNCC that compliments and in many ways expands upon the more global history of that organization, In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s by Clayborne Carson, which I read a year or two back. The biography also provides an effective description of the full deadly fury of Jim Crow. So in some ways the book is hard to get through, especially over the first 50 pages or so, as many of its details are horrific and depressing. Once Hamer moves into adulthood and begins her freedom-building activities, the book becomes a page-turner. This is one of the best, most fascinating, if sometimes depressing, biographies I've read over the past 10 years.
Kate Clifford Larson has delivered a stirring and extremely readable biography of an extremely important and inspirational--though I expect not well enough known at this point--figure in the American Civil Rights Movement. Fannie Lou Hamer was the children of tenant farmers, and became one herself, in Jim Crow Mississippi. With very little education but with a burning drive to learn and an iron-willed dignity that would not allow her to sit still for the horrific realities of 1950s and 60s Mississippi, Hamer gradually became involved in the grass roots efforts of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to help rural Blacks attain voting rights in the face of furious, violent and often deadly resistance by segregationist whites. The book begins with the story of Hamer's childhood and family life, of necessity intertwined with an in-depth description of the depravities and horror of Jim Crow oppression, which was brutal and ubiquitous. When, as an adult, Hamer went into town to attempt to register to vote, she came home to find that her white landlord was promising to evict Hamer, along with her husband and children, unless she promised to go back to town the next day to rescind her registration. Hamer replied, "I registered to vote for me, not for you," and her landlord followed up on his threat. Later, in a Winona, Mississippi, jail cell, Hamer and four of her companions received vicious beatings, and Hamer was raped, for the crime of trying to integrate a bus stop diner. The beating left Hamer's health compromised for the rest of her life. But Hamer, due to her articulate, passionate speeches, her inspirational singing and her drive and inclusiveness, nevertheless became a powerful figure in the movement, to the extent that she was the keynote speaker before the Democratic National Committee when the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, a Black party organized to fight the seating of the fiercely segregationist Mississippi Democratic contingent at the 1964 Democratic Presidential Convention in Atlantic City in 1964.
In addition to being a wholly compelling biography of a fascinating figure, Larson's book also provides an important "from the inside" history of SNCC that compliments and in many ways expands upon the more global history of that organization, In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s by Clayborne Carson, which I read a year or two back. The biography also provides an effective description of the full deadly fury of Jim Crow. So in some ways the book is hard to get through, especially over the first 50 pages or so, as many of its details are horrific and depressing. Once Hamer moves into adulthood and begins her freedom-building activities, the book becomes a page-turner. This is one of the best, most fascinating, if sometimes depressing, biographies I've read over the past 10 years.
6rocketjk
I finished Sketches from Life of Men I Have Known by Dean Acheson. Acheson was a high-ranking U.S. diplomat throughout the WW2 war years and into the years immediately afterwards. He was Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations and International Conferences from December 1944 through August 1945, then Under Secretary of State until June 1947 and finally returned to government service to become Secretary of State in the Truman administration from 1949 through 1953. Acheson was Secretary of State between George Marshall and John Foster Dulles.
This book contains a series of reminiscences/portraits of the diplomats and politicians he worked with (or, in some cases, against) and/or under during his time in the diplomatic corps. The book opens with chapters about Ernest Bevin and Robert Shuman, Acheson's opposite numbers for England and France, respectively, during the years at the end of, and immediately after, the war, when the large Western democracies were figuring out how they wanted to administer Western Europe and how to negotiate with Soviet Russia and create a united front against what they saw as Soviet plans for further expansion. There is a chapter, also, on Acheson's dealing with several Russian diplomats and their negotiating tactics. The chapters cover negotiations around the establishment of the United Nations, the administration of the post-war occupation of Germany and the establishment of the western alliance that became NATO. Of particular interest to me were the deliberations that led to the decision to bring West Germany into the alliance (i.e., to rearm them, a development that was viewed with some alarm, as I've learned from other reading, in many parts of Europe). While there was serious reluctance to take this step in some quarters, in the end the West Germans were seen by the U.S. and the Western European powers as a pivotal member of any alliance that would be able to stand up to Stalin and his successors.
Other politicians Acheson profiles here include Winston Churchill, Arthur Vandeberg (a Republican leader in the Senate whom Acheson describes as a tough opponent of the policies of the Truman administration who could nevertheless come around to support individual initiatives if he saw that the administration was, in fact, on the right track), George Marshall and Conrad Adenauer.
This book contains a series of reminiscences/portraits of the diplomats and politicians he worked with (or, in some cases, against) and/or under during his time in the diplomatic corps. The book opens with chapters about Ernest Bevin and Robert Shuman, Acheson's opposite numbers for England and France, respectively, during the years at the end of, and immediately after, the war, when the large Western democracies were figuring out how they wanted to administer Western Europe and how to negotiate with Soviet Russia and create a united front against what they saw as Soviet plans for further expansion. There is a chapter, also, on Acheson's dealing with several Russian diplomats and their negotiating tactics. The chapters cover negotiations around the establishment of the United Nations, the administration of the post-war occupation of Germany and the establishment of the western alliance that became NATO. Of particular interest to me were the deliberations that led to the decision to bring West Germany into the alliance (i.e., to rearm them, a development that was viewed with some alarm, as I've learned from other reading, in many parts of Europe). While there was serious reluctance to take this step in some quarters, in the end the West Germans were seen by the U.S. and the Western European powers as a pivotal member of any alliance that would be able to stand up to Stalin and his successors.
Other politicians Acheson profiles here include Winston Churchill, Arthur Vandeberg (a Republican leader in the Senate whom Acheson describes as a tough opponent of the policies of the Truman administration who could nevertheless come around to support individual initiatives if he saw that the administration was, in fact, on the right track), George Marshall and Conrad Adenauer.
72wonderY
>4 JulieLill: Yes! I read Reichl’s Garlic and Sapphires and loved it. Thanks for the reminder.
So, these year threads are for what we’ve been reading? I wasn’t sure if y’all wanted just new publications.
I do have one that meets both criteria.
Waxing On isn’t fascinating; but it will give you the same warm feeling you got from the movie. Read by the author.
So, these year threads are for what we’ve been reading? I wasn’t sure if y’all wanted just new publications.
I do have one that meets both criteria.
Waxing On isn’t fascinating; but it will give you the same warm feeling you got from the movie. Read by the author.
8JulieLill
Ghostbuster's Daughter: Life with My Dad, Harold Ramis
Violet Ramis Stiel
4/5 stars
This was a very interesting book on her family and her father Harold Ramis who was probably best known as one of the Ghostbusters but was also involved in writing and directing. She relates her unusual rearing and also talks about her children and partners along with talking about her father’s many films.
Violet Ramis Stiel
4/5 stars
This was a very interesting book on her family and her father Harold Ramis who was probably best known as one of the Ghostbusters but was also involved in writing and directing. She relates her unusual rearing and also talks about her children and partners along with talking about her father’s many films.
10rocketjk
I finished Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America: A Biography by William E. Gienapp. This is a very enjoyable, well written and relatively brief (200 pages) biography of Abraham Lincoln. The title infers that the book describes only Lincoln's term as president, but in fact it is neatly divided, pretty much in half. The first 100 pages provide a description of Lincoln's childhood and then his career in law and politics leading up to his Civil War administration, from his farm-bound childhood through his early adulthood working any odd job to keep afloat, to his apprenticeship in the legal field, his coming into his own as a lawyer and his career in Illinois state politics. It was interesting to learn that the upshot of the famous Lincoln-Douglass debates was that Lincoln lost the subsequent election to Douglas. This was all great, as far as I was concerned, because while I had read several accounts of Lincoln's presidency and handling of the war, my knowledge of Lincoln's pre-White House life was essentially made up of legend and shadow.
The second half of the book covers Lincoln's presidency and the war years. I already mostly knew the details of the progression of the war and Lincoln's struggles to get the commanders of the Army of the Potomac (from McClellan onward) to go on the offensive against the Confederate armies in the east, but Gienapp also did a fine job of filling in the political details of Lincoln's presidency, as he strove just as hard to hold together the coalition of extreme and moderate Republicans and Democrats.
The second half of the book covers Lincoln's presidency and the war years. I already mostly knew the details of the progression of the war and Lincoln's struggles to get the commanders of the Army of the Potomac (from McClellan onward) to go on the offensive against the Confederate armies in the east, but Gienapp also did a fine job of filling in the political details of Lincoln's presidency, as he strove just as hard to hold together the coalition of extreme and moderate Republicans and Democrats.
11JulieLill
In on the Joke: The Original Queens of Standup Comedy
Shawn Levy
4/5 stars
Levy relates the fascinating tales of how these female comedians made it into show business. He includes Moms Mabley of the Black vaudeville circuit, Jean Carrol, Minnie Pearl, Sophie Tucker, Phyllis Diller, Elaine May, Totie Fields and Joan Rivers. He goes fairly in depth about their lives and careers.
Shawn Levy
4/5 stars
Levy relates the fascinating tales of how these female comedians made it into show business. He includes Moms Mabley of the Black vaudeville circuit, Jean Carrol, Minnie Pearl, Sophie Tucker, Phyllis Diller, Elaine May, Totie Fields and Joan Rivers. He goes fairly in depth about their lives and careers.
12JulieLill
Andy and Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show
Daniel de Visé
4/5 stars
Daniel de Vise writes a fascinating book about the relationship between Andy Griffith and Don Knotts as he follows their lives and careers and especially their time on The Andy Griffth Show. Highly recommended!
Daniel de Visé
4/5 stars
Daniel de Vise writes a fascinating book about the relationship between Andy Griffith and Don Knotts as he follows their lives and careers and especially their time on The Andy Griffth Show. Highly recommended!
13rocketjk
>12 JulieLill: Interesting! This would be the kind of book that I'd pick up in a bookstore or thrift shop but probably not buy because I wouldn't trust that it would be well written enough or something other than a "fan book." Good to have such a strong recommendation, so thanks for that. I could see this being a very fun reading exprerience for me.
14benitastrnad
I finished the behemoth biography Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature by Linda Lear
This was a biography of the famous children's author that clocked in at 608 pages. Of course, there were 50 pages of notes and index, but it was a hefty book that consumed hefty amounts of reading time. It was very enlightening and a very well done biography. It made Beatrix Potter into a very interesting person. Which I suspect she would have been even without the biography. She was an independent minded woman who did her duty by her parents, but also managed to live her own life. She was able to do so because she made a huge amount of money from her children's books due to astute business acumen. She invented and created toys, games, wallpaper, etc. using the likeness of her creations that made her a tremendous amount of money. What is astounding is that she used that money to purchase land in the Lake District. She vacationed there for many years and loved the landscape, the people, the farms, and the way of life and wanted to preserve it. Towards that end, she donated over 4,000 acres to the National Trust upon her death. It is an amazing life that she lived. This biography concentrates on her life as a naturalist, so most of the book is devoted to her mycology studies done in the 1890's and then her life on her farms from 1910 to her death. It is not about how or why she wrote the children's books that made her famous. I gave this biography 4.5 stars because it is just short of perfect.
This was a biography of the famous children's author that clocked in at 608 pages. Of course, there were 50 pages of notes and index, but it was a hefty book that consumed hefty amounts of reading time. It was very enlightening and a very well done biography. It made Beatrix Potter into a very interesting person. Which I suspect she would have been even without the biography. She was an independent minded woman who did her duty by her parents, but also managed to live her own life. She was able to do so because she made a huge amount of money from her children's books due to astute business acumen. She invented and created toys, games, wallpaper, etc. using the likeness of her creations that made her a tremendous amount of money. What is astounding is that she used that money to purchase land in the Lake District. She vacationed there for many years and loved the landscape, the people, the farms, and the way of life and wanted to preserve it. Towards that end, she donated over 4,000 acres to the National Trust upon her death. It is an amazing life that she lived. This biography concentrates on her life as a naturalist, so most of the book is devoted to her mycology studies done in the 1890's and then her life on her farms from 1910 to her death. It is not about how or why she wrote the children's books that made her famous. I gave this biography 4.5 stars because it is just short of perfect.
15JulieLill
>13 rocketjk: This was very well written, but I never realized that Andy Griffith, the actor was not at like his character on the show. Griffith had a dark life and Don Knotts had a very rough life growing up.
16rocketjk
I finished An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America by Andrew Young. Young's memoir of his life and, most importantly, his experiences working alongside Martin Luther King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, is extremely detailed and, at 531 pages, takes a while to get through. However, the journey is very much worthwhile for anyone interested in reading a comprehensive history of the Civil Rights Movement in America. As a young Congregationalist minister and Civil Rights worker in the Deep South, Young, through his strong organizational skills and ability to communicate with young workers, eventually rose to a leadership position in the SCLC. Young's blow by blow account of Martin Luther King's growing prominence and the SCLC's growing importance on the national stage is truly fascinating and he recounts in detail the individual campaigns organized and carried out by the SCLC, either on their own or (most frequently) in tandem with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The rise and fall of the SCLC, SNCC and other organizations, and the Civil Rights Movement itself, all placed firmly within the context of a broad range of cultural, historical, political and economic factors, makes for very enlightening reading. Since this is a memoir rather than a straight history, Young is able to provide, also, a personal dimension that frames the events extremely well.
17krazy4katz
>16 rocketjk: Thank you for the review. It sounds really interesting!
18rocketjk
>17 krazy4katz: Thanks. If you're interested, I've got a much longer review on my 50-Book Challenge thread.
19krazy4katz
>18 rocketjk: ok. Thank you!
20JulieLill
All about Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business
Mel Brooks
4/5 stars
What a great book about all the films that Mel Brooks wrote and filmed! He also writes about his life growing up, his time in the military in WWII, how he got into show business and how he met his wife, the lovely Anne Bancroft and their relationship. Definitely for film fans!
Mel Brooks
4/5 stars
What a great book about all the films that Mel Brooks wrote and filmed! He also writes about his life growing up, his time in the military in WWII, how he got into show business and how he met his wife, the lovely Anne Bancroft and their relationship. Definitely for film fans!
21krazy4katz
I am reading Lioness: Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel. It is fascinating! The book was written rather recently and it has all the history laid out and seems very unbiased in a way that helps you understand how one crisis led to another and the differing perspectives among leaders in Israel as well as other countries. However it is very long! Enjoying it so far at the 40% finished mark!
22LynnB
I've recently completed Spare by Prince Harry
23JulieLill
River of Gods – Genius, Courage and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile
By Candice Millard
4/5 stars
Millard relates the tale of English explorers Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke, along with the guide/slave Sidi Mubarak Bombay as they try to find the source of the Nile River in the 19th century and reap the rewards from the Royal Geographical Society who was offering a prize for those who found it first!
By Candice Millard
4/5 stars
Millard relates the tale of English explorers Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke, along with the guide/slave Sidi Mubarak Bombay as they try to find the source of the Nile River in the 19th century and reap the rewards from the Royal Geographical Society who was offering a prize for those who found it first!
24rocketjk
I finished Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics, Parenting, and Everything in Between by Laila M. El-Haddad. The book is a memoir told in blog posts of El-Haddid's experiences, and those of her family and neighbors, living in Gaza during the Israeli occupation (even after the Israeli technical withdrawal) during the 2000s.
25rocketjk
I finished No Cheering in the Press Box an anthology of oral histories from interviews with famous sportswriters (with a very strong emphasis on baseball) of the 1920s through 1960s from interviews conducted by editor (and sportswriter) Jerome Holtzman. Taken together, these oral histories present a fun and interesting picture of a fascinating time in American sports and sportswriting, and of the American newspaper world in general.
26JulieLill
Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century
Roseanne Montillo
4/5 stars
This was the fascinating, true story about the death of a millionaire's wife, Ann Woodward in the 50's and the role Truman Capote figured into her death.
Roseanne Montillo
4/5 stars
This was the fascinating, true story about the death of a millionaire's wife, Ann Woodward in the 50's and the role Truman Capote figured into her death.
27rocketjk
I finished Heroes and Villains: the True Story of The Beach Boys by Steven Gaines. This group bio provides a detailed account of the individuals' troubles with drugs, bad business decisions, bad romances and each other, with special emphasis on the damage wrought by the Wilson Brothers' father, Murray. It's a well-written narrative, but while this book is a good place to go to learn about the group's lives, the discussion of their music and creative processes is cursory.
28JulieLill
The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir
Paul Newman
4/5 stars
Wonderful autobiography written by Newman about his life but in between his chapters, his family and friends also contributed their thoughts. They then were compiled by Stewart Stern. I liked the way they set this up and enjoyed reading about him.
Paul Newman
4/5 stars
Wonderful autobiography written by Newman about his life but in between his chapters, his family and friends also contributed their thoughts. They then were compiled by Stewart Stern. I liked the way they set this up and enjoyed reading about him.
29JulieLill
Last Chain on Billie – How One Extraordinary Elephant Escaped The Big Top
By Carol Bradley
4/5 stars
Bradley relates the tale of the elephant Billie who was captured in Asia and taken to the states to perform in circuses in the most horrible of conditions and who eventually with a lot of help is released into an animal sanctuary. The author also details the cause of animal rights, those who helped and those who tried to rig the system in their favor.
By Carol Bradley
4/5 stars
Bradley relates the tale of the elephant Billie who was captured in Asia and taken to the states to perform in circuses in the most horrible of conditions and who eventually with a lot of help is released into an animal sanctuary. The author also details the cause of animal rights, those who helped and those who tried to rig the system in their favor.
30JulieLill
Battleship A Daring Heiress, A Teenage Jockey, and America's Horse
Dorothy Ours
4/5 stars
This is a fascinating true story, mainly set in the 30's and 40's, that features Marion duPont, a wealthy woman who lived for her horses and the racing industry; Bruce Hobbs, a 17-year-old jockey who was raised by his father who was also a jockey and a horse named Battleship who becomes the unlikely hero of this book. Very interesting!
Dorothy Ours
4/5 stars
This is a fascinating true story, mainly set in the 30's and 40's, that features Marion duPont, a wealthy woman who lived for her horses and the racing industry; Bruce Hobbs, a 17-year-old jockey who was raised by his father who was also a jockey and a horse named Battleship who becomes the unlikely hero of this book. Very interesting!
32JulieLill
The True Tails of Baker and Taylor: The Library Cats Who Left Their Pawprints on a Small Town . . . and the World
Jan Louch
5/5 stars
What a wonderful story about a library who took in two Scottish Fold cats, Baker and Taylor. The library and the patrons embraced them and let them live in their library. After the cats were photographed for a poster they became minor celebrities and their fans traveled to the library to see them or write letters to them.
Jan Louch
5/5 stars
What a wonderful story about a library who took in two Scottish Fold cats, Baker and Taylor. The library and the patrons embraced them and let them live in their library. After the cats were photographed for a poster they became minor celebrities and their fans traveled to the library to see them or write letters to them.
33JulieLill
Becoming
By Michelle Obama
5/5 stars
This is a fascinating look at Michelle Obama’s life from her childhood growing up in Chicago, meeting Barack and through her role as First Lady of the White House. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it will definitely be on top of my favorites list.
By Michelle Obama
5/5 stars
This is a fascinating look at Michelle Obama’s life from her childhood growing up in Chicago, meeting Barack and through her role as First Lady of the White House. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it will definitely be on top of my favorites list.
34varielle
Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman
4/5 Stars
I’m sure it was deeply edited but Rickman’s diaries were just that. It details his day to day life which focused on the business of acting. He didn’t dish and had little to say about the Harry Potter experience which was a disappointment to some of his fans. I found it interesting and informative about his love of acting and stagecraft.
4/5 Stars
I’m sure it was deeply edited but Rickman’s diaries were just that. It details his day to day life which focused on the business of acting. He didn’t dish and had little to say about the Harry Potter experience which was a disappointment to some of his fans. I found it interesting and informative about his love of acting and stagecraft.
35JulieLill
>34 varielle: That is on my list to read!
36JulieLill
A Natural Woman: A Memoir
Carole King
4/5 stars
This is a wonderfully, written memoir by Carole King, who relates her life and family history up to 2012. Included in the book is her rise to fame, her personal life and her collaborations with other artists. Definitely for King fans.
Carole King
4/5 stars
This is a wonderfully, written memoir by Carole King, who relates her life and family history up to 2012. Included in the book is her rise to fame, her personal life and her collaborations with other artists. Definitely for King fans.
37JulieLill
Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole
Susan Cain
3/5 stars
I loved Susan Cain's book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. This new book of hers was very interesting. She discusses the topic that without sadness and yearning that we cannot be a whole person. If you haven't read any of her books, I would start with Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.
Susan Cain
3/5 stars
I loved Susan Cain's book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. This new book of hers was very interesting. She discusses the topic that without sadness and yearning that we cannot be a whole person. If you haven't read any of her books, I would start with Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.
38benitastrnad
I finished listening to the biography Manderley Forever: A Biography of Daphne du Maurier by Tatiana de Rosnay. I will start this by stating that I didn't intend to read/listen to this biography. It wasn't even on my TBR list. However, I needed a book to listen to and didn't have anything ready on my shelves, so while cruising through the public library shelves of recorded books, I found this one. It was interesting enough that I stayed with it - right to the end.
This was a very strange biography. It was written in first person and I found that disconcerting. Even though the hardcopy of the book (which I went back to the library and checked out after I had listened to about a quarter of the biography, just so I could have clarification about some of the points) has extensive notes and citations, I was never sure what was a quote from sources and what was pure conjecture on the part of the author (De Rosnay). This is a real problem for this biography, so in the end I would recommend that only knowledgeable readers read this book. If that is my recommendation why would I encourage anybody to read this biography? It was engaging. It did suck me in and keep me interested in the life of this author. There is no doubt that Du Maurier lived a fascinating life and her literary work is experimental and visionary, in some cases, romantic in others, and suspense/psychological thriller in others. All of this makes her an important 20th Century author, but this biography is not the place to start learning about all the things that made Du Maurier and important 20th Century author. There simply is no way to tell what is interpretation on the part of the author - De Rosnay - and the author - Du Maurier.
Du Maurier's personal life is also very interesting. She was born and raised in the theater world of London, married a war hero, and lived all of her adult life in Cornwall. She loved Cornwall and that area found its way into many of her novels. Clearly this region was important to her work, and her life. Du Maurier was bisexual and her personal life was exciting and so very interesting due to all her sometimes conflicted sexual inclinations.
In the Forward to the book, De Rosnay states that she was approached by her French publisher to write the first biography of Du Maurier in French. That adds another layer to this biography. That of the translator. This biography was written in French and then translated into English. Du Maurier spoke and wrote, very good French, but she did not translate her own novels into that language. This caused problems, because it was discovered later that her French translator had not done a very good job on translating a few of the novels and in at least one case, discovered by Du Maurier herself, got the facts wrong.
I did learn a great deal about the life of this famous author, so the book wasn't a total waste of time, but there are better biographies of Du Maurier, so if you are interested in Du Maurier read one of those instead.
This was a very strange biography. It was written in first person and I found that disconcerting. Even though the hardcopy of the book (which I went back to the library and checked out after I had listened to about a quarter of the biography, just so I could have clarification about some of the points) has extensive notes and citations, I was never sure what was a quote from sources and what was pure conjecture on the part of the author (De Rosnay). This is a real problem for this biography, so in the end I would recommend that only knowledgeable readers read this book. If that is my recommendation why would I encourage anybody to read this biography? It was engaging. It did suck me in and keep me interested in the life of this author. There is no doubt that Du Maurier lived a fascinating life and her literary work is experimental and visionary, in some cases, romantic in others, and suspense/psychological thriller in others. All of this makes her an important 20th Century author, but this biography is not the place to start learning about all the things that made Du Maurier and important 20th Century author. There simply is no way to tell what is interpretation on the part of the author - De Rosnay - and the author - Du Maurier.
Du Maurier's personal life is also very interesting. She was born and raised in the theater world of London, married a war hero, and lived all of her adult life in Cornwall. She loved Cornwall and that area found its way into many of her novels. Clearly this region was important to her work, and her life. Du Maurier was bisexual and her personal life was exciting and so very interesting due to all her sometimes conflicted sexual inclinations.
In the Forward to the book, De Rosnay states that she was approached by her French publisher to write the first biography of Du Maurier in French. That adds another layer to this biography. That of the translator. This biography was written in French and then translated into English. Du Maurier spoke and wrote, very good French, but she did not translate her own novels into that language. This caused problems, because it was discovered later that her French translator had not done a very good job on translating a few of the novels and in at least one case, discovered by Du Maurier herself, got the facts wrong.
I did learn a great deal about the life of this famous author, so the book wasn't a total waste of time, but there are better biographies of Du Maurier, so if you are interested in Du Maurier read one of those instead.
39JulieLill
Cool Dead People: Obituaries of Real Folks We Wish We'd Met a Little Sooner
Jane O'Boyle
4/5 stars
This was such an original book about people we didn't know but still lived unusual lives. O'Boyle gathered these obituaries and compiled them in this book. Not a lengthy read but oh so interesting!
Jane O'Boyle
4/5 stars
This was such an original book about people we didn't know but still lived unusual lives. O'Boyle gathered these obituaries and compiled them in this book. Not a lengthy read but oh so interesting!
40JulieLill
Levi Strauss: The Man Who Gave Blue Jeans to The World
By Lynn Downey
4/5 stars
This is an interesting biography/nonfiction about the life and times of Levi Strauss. Born in Germany, he left for America and ended up in San Francisco in the 1850’s dealing with imported goods. He met Jacob W. Davis, a customer who invented the the riveted denim pants. Davis partnered with Levi in 1871 to produce the blue jeans.
Never married, he supported his family and encouraged his employees to better their lives.
By Lynn Downey
4/5 stars
This is an interesting biography/nonfiction about the life and times of Levi Strauss. Born in Germany, he left for America and ended up in San Francisco in the 1850’s dealing with imported goods. He met Jacob W. Davis, a customer who invented the the riveted denim pants. Davis partnered with Levi in 1871 to produce the blue jeans.
Never married, he supported his family and encouraged his employees to better their lives.
41rocketjk
I finished Mission to Moscow, Joseph E. Davies' memoir, sort of, of his two years (1936 through 1938) as U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union. I say "sort of" because the book is not a narrative but a series of journal and diary entries as well as many of Davies' official reports and correspondences with Secretary of State Cordell Hull, President Roosevelt, and other government officials. There is quite a bit of repetition, as sometimes, for example, a report to Hull is immediately followed by a very similar report to Roosevelt. That said, the accumulation of information and insights that Davies provides ends up being pretty interesting for someone (like me) with an interest in the events of this era. Davies was in Moscow, and part of the inner diplomatic circle, during the purge trials and the run-up to World War Two. Interestingly, this book was published in October 1941, just 6 weeks or so before Pearl Harbor.
Davies was not a career diplomat, but a lawyer and businessman. He'd met Roosevelt when they were both in the Wilson administration, where Davies was first Commissioner of Corporations and then the first Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. Because of his interest in industry, and because he thought it was his job, Davies spent a lot of time touring Soviet Union examining the progress the country had made in the realm of factories, mining and agriculture. He was surprised and extremely impressed with how far they'd come so fast since the Revolution.
Regarding the Purge Trials: The first round of army officers and government officials who were caught up in the Stalin-Era treason trials were accused of collaborating with Germany and Japan to weaken the Soviet Union from within in preparation for possible invasion. Given that Lenin had actually had help from Germany leading up to the Russian Revolution, it seems logical that Stalin and his advisors would be suspicious of similar activities taking place in the 30s. Davies attended several sessions of these trials. He was dismayed by the fact that the accused were not allowed representation and made suspicious by the fact that, in trial after trial, the defendants uniformly confessed. Davies suspected that these confessions had in many cases been obtained either by physical torture or threat of reprisals against family. As the trials progressed, Davies wondered whether the execution of so many high ranking officers would cause the Red Army to turn against Stalin, but concluded in the end that the Stalin administration had instead cemented its power quite effectively. Davies also tells us that many in the Diplomatic Corps (in other words, other countries' ambassadors to Russia) concluded that many of the defendants were probably actually guilty. Davies describes a period of "terror" in which the arrests and executions numbered into the tens of thousands, and reached from the highest levels of military and government down onto the factory floor. In hindsight, in an addendum added in 1941, Davies also observed that Russia had been the only country invaded by Germany that hadn't had a significant problem of fifth columnists creating trouble from within. He concluded that the Purge trials had served to eliminate any potential fifth columnists. I haven't read any more contemporary histories of these trials and their actual purposes and results, so I don't know how accurate Davies observations are now considered.
Davies reports on the Soviet government's increasing frustration with Neville Chamberlain's appeasement politics towards Germany and their eventual outrage when they are left out of the negotiations that led to the infamous Munich Agreement. In fact, according to Davies, the Russians had been prepared to come to the aid of the Czechs militarily (as per the mutual defense treaty the had with Czechoslovakia and France). From the Munich Agreement, says Davies, the Soviets concluded that England and France were willing to give away Eastern Europe to Hitler in order to keep from being attacked themselves, and were probably willing to let Russia have to take on Hitler by themselves. This led them to the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact that would allow them to at least forestall a German attack.
In the book's opening sections, there is much talk of an American loan to Russia that hadn't been paid back, and had become a diplomatic sticking point. The whole thing was evidently a big deal at the time but has been pretty much forgotten now, I mention it here only because it takes up so much of Davies' descriptions. I was surprised to learn that it wasn't until 1933 that the U.S. recognized the Soviet government, but in retrospect I shouldn't have been.
Davies prediction that a post-war Soviet Union would have little interest in trying to expand Communism further into Europe turned out to be short-sighted.
Well, that turned into a long review! But then again, the book is 513 pages plus another hundred or so pages of appendices. It is always of interest to me to read books about this era written before the war has played itself out. In 1936 and 1937, Davies was writing about trying to figure out ways to keep the peace in Europe. By 1938, he was writing about the importance of being prepared for war. The book can be very dry at times, but I did learn a lot about what the perspective of an ambassador in the Soviet Union would have been like during these years.
Davies was not a career diplomat, but a lawyer and businessman. He'd met Roosevelt when they were both in the Wilson administration, where Davies was first Commissioner of Corporations and then the first Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. Because of his interest in industry, and because he thought it was his job, Davies spent a lot of time touring Soviet Union examining the progress the country had made in the realm of factories, mining and agriculture. He was surprised and extremely impressed with how far they'd come so fast since the Revolution.
Regarding the Purge Trials: The first round of army officers and government officials who were caught up in the Stalin-Era treason trials were accused of collaborating with Germany and Japan to weaken the Soviet Union from within in preparation for possible invasion. Given that Lenin had actually had help from Germany leading up to the Russian Revolution, it seems logical that Stalin and his advisors would be suspicious of similar activities taking place in the 30s. Davies attended several sessions of these trials. He was dismayed by the fact that the accused were not allowed representation and made suspicious by the fact that, in trial after trial, the defendants uniformly confessed. Davies suspected that these confessions had in many cases been obtained either by physical torture or threat of reprisals against family. As the trials progressed, Davies wondered whether the execution of so many high ranking officers would cause the Red Army to turn against Stalin, but concluded in the end that the Stalin administration had instead cemented its power quite effectively. Davies also tells us that many in the Diplomatic Corps (in other words, other countries' ambassadors to Russia) concluded that many of the defendants were probably actually guilty. Davies describes a period of "terror" in which the arrests and executions numbered into the tens of thousands, and reached from the highest levels of military and government down onto the factory floor. In hindsight, in an addendum added in 1941, Davies also observed that Russia had been the only country invaded by Germany that hadn't had a significant problem of fifth columnists creating trouble from within. He concluded that the Purge trials had served to eliminate any potential fifth columnists. I haven't read any more contemporary histories of these trials and their actual purposes and results, so I don't know how accurate Davies observations are now considered.
Davies reports on the Soviet government's increasing frustration with Neville Chamberlain's appeasement politics towards Germany and their eventual outrage when they are left out of the negotiations that led to the infamous Munich Agreement. In fact, according to Davies, the Russians had been prepared to come to the aid of the Czechs militarily (as per the mutual defense treaty the had with Czechoslovakia and France). From the Munich Agreement, says Davies, the Soviets concluded that England and France were willing to give away Eastern Europe to Hitler in order to keep from being attacked themselves, and were probably willing to let Russia have to take on Hitler by themselves. This led them to the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact that would allow them to at least forestall a German attack.
In the book's opening sections, there is much talk of an American loan to Russia that hadn't been paid back, and had become a diplomatic sticking point. The whole thing was evidently a big deal at the time but has been pretty much forgotten now, I mention it here only because it takes up so much of Davies' descriptions. I was surprised to learn that it wasn't until 1933 that the U.S. recognized the Soviet government, but in retrospect I shouldn't have been.
Davies prediction that a post-war Soviet Union would have little interest in trying to expand Communism further into Europe turned out to be short-sighted.
Well, that turned into a long review! But then again, the book is 513 pages plus another hundred or so pages of appendices. It is always of interest to me to read books about this era written before the war has played itself out. In 1936 and 1937, Davies was writing about trying to figure out ways to keep the peace in Europe. By 1938, he was writing about the importance of being prepared for war. The book can be very dry at times, but I did learn a lot about what the perspective of an ambassador in the Soviet Union would have been like during these years.
42JulieLill
Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey
Mark Dery
3/5 stars
Interesting biography of Edward Gorey, illustrator and writer. He published and illustrated over a hundred books and influenced other writers and artists. Was known as an eccentric and secretive. Interesting book but at times it dragged on. Authors
Mark Dery
3/5 stars
Interesting biography of Edward Gorey, illustrator and writer. He published and illustrated over a hundred books and influenced other writers and artists. Was known as an eccentric and secretive. Interesting book but at times it dragged on. Authors
43JulieLill
The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman, the Horse That Inspired a Nation
by Elizabeth Letts
4/5 stars
Snowman was a horse that was to be sent to the slaughterhouse if it weren't for Harry de Leyer. He saw this horse and ended up buying him for $80 dollars. Turns out that it was a great decision for Harry, an immigrant and his family, who cleaned him up and entered him in the sport of show jumping. What a wonderful story about their relationship!
by Elizabeth Letts
4/5 stars
Snowman was a horse that was to be sent to the slaughterhouse if it weren't for Harry de Leyer. He saw this horse and ended up buying him for $80 dollars. Turns out that it was a great decision for Harry, an immigrant and his family, who cleaned him up and entered him in the sport of show jumping. What a wonderful story about their relationship!
44rocketjk
I finished Tom Seaver: A Terrific Life by Bill Madden. The author is a sportswriter who had become particularly close to Seaver over the years. He had conducted several lengthy interviews with Seaver after the pitcher's retirement. I wouldn't say there's a whole lot of depth to this biography. It's essentially an (adoring) survey of Seaver's life and, especially, baseball career. Well, when a 70-year life is covered in only 285 pages, you are not going to get much in-depth probing. As such, though, I mostly enjoyed it. It's not the most sharply written book on the bookshelf, and there are some spots where an editor's hand might have been useful, but recounting of Seaver's life was interesting enough for a baseball fan.
I did learn a few things that I either didn't know or had forgotten. One is that Seaver openly criticized the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The other was that Seaver signed first by the Atlanta Braves, and he was looking forward to being teammates with the great Hank Aaron. But due to an entirely accidental breaking of the rule against signing college players while the collegiate season was in progress (two games that everybody thought had been pre-season exhibitions had turned out to be on the official season schedules of the team involved), Seaver ended up the prize in a lottery among any team that was willing to match the Braves' offer, and in that way ended up on the Mets. Seaver's battles with Mets general manager M. Donald Grant are well chronicled, here, as is his up-and-down relationship with his own fame, and certain individual games are highlighted in depth to good effect. Madden is, after all, a sportswriter first and foremost. All in all I'd say this is a good if not great biography, but absolutely for baseball fans only.
I did learn a few things that I either didn't know or had forgotten. One is that Seaver openly criticized the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The other was that Seaver signed first by the Atlanta Braves, and he was looking forward to being teammates with the great Hank Aaron. But due to an entirely accidental breaking of the rule against signing college players while the collegiate season was in progress (two games that everybody thought had been pre-season exhibitions had turned out to be on the official season schedules of the team involved), Seaver ended up the prize in a lottery among any team that was willing to match the Braves' offer, and in that way ended up on the Mets. Seaver's battles with Mets general manager M. Donald Grant are well chronicled, here, as is his up-and-down relationship with his own fame, and certain individual games are highlighted in depth to good effect. Madden is, after all, a sportswriter first and foremost. All in all I'd say this is a good if not great biography, but absolutely for baseball fans only.
46JulieLill
Edward Gorey: His Book Cover Art and Design
3/5 stars
There is not much to say about this book. There is a brief review about his artwork but the book mainly contains his book covers. Definitely, for Gorey fans!
3/5 stars
There is not much to say about this book. There is a brief review about his artwork but the book mainly contains his book covers. Definitely, for Gorey fans!
47PatrickMurtha
New here. Pocket bio: Retired humanities teacher, residing in Tlaxcala, Mexico, with two dogs and six indoor cats. Passionate about literature, history, philosophy, classical music and opera, jazz, cinema, and similar subjects. Nostalgic guy. Politically centrist. BA in American Studies from Yale; MAs in English and Education from Boston University. Born in northern New Jersey. Have lived and worked in San Francisco, Chicago, northern Nevada, northeast Wisconsin, South Korea.
I read too many books at once, also including some biographies, so I’ll trot them out slowly.
The People's Poet: William Barnes of Dorset is a cracking good biography of an oft-overlooked 19th Century writer, with plenty of examples of Barnes’ excellent dialect poetry. Available in a reasonably priced Kindle edition.
I read too many books at once, also including some biographies, so I’ll trot them out slowly.
The People's Poet: William Barnes of Dorset is a cracking good biography of an oft-overlooked 19th Century writer, with plenty of examples of Barnes’ excellent dialect poetry. Available in a reasonably priced Kindle edition.
48LynnB
>47 PatrickMurtha: Welcome! I like biographies, especially of overlooked or less-than-famous people. One of my favourites was The Tender Bar, but I didn't like the movie version so much.
49PatrickMurtha
^ I probably would like that one! I agree about lesser-known figures; I have frequently selected a biography to read on a lark, precisely because I didn’t know much about the subject. This William Barnes biography fits that pattern, and it has been great.
50PatrickMurtha
Reading this morning in Plutarch’s Lives, the Dryden / Clough translation in the old Modern Library Giant edition. Now that’s as classical as it gets. Long sentences with many clauses, you really have to pay attention. I like this quotation about empire: “And indeed there was nothing did more advance the greatness of Rome, than that she did always unite and incorporate those whom she conquered into herself.”
Along with books such as Plutarch, one might take a look at Moses Hadas’s helpful guide Ancilla to Classical Reading.
Along with books such as Plutarch, one might take a look at Moses Hadas’s helpful guide Ancilla to Classical Reading.
52SkateGuard
I've written a biography which is coming out in November but one of the favourite biographies I enjoyed this year was Karina Manta's On Top Of Glass: My Stories as a Queer Girl in Figure Skating. For those of you who are interested in skating, Gracie Gold also has a biography coming out soon... early 2024.
53JulieLill
You Might Remember Me: The Life and Times of Phil Hartman
Mike Thomas
This is a well-written biography of the fabulous and funny Phil Hartman, comedian and actor. Author, Mike Thomas does a great job of chronicling the life and career of Hartman and the tragic outcome of his life.
Mike Thomas
This is a well-written biography of the fabulous and funny Phil Hartman, comedian and actor. Author, Mike Thomas does a great job of chronicling the life and career of Hartman and the tragic outcome of his life.
54PatrickMurtha
The pioneering African-American film-maker Oscar Micheaux (1884-1951) suffered from racism, of course, but he also wanted his own people to be harder on themselves; he had no patience for excuses. This disdain for the unambitious is related to W.E.B. Du Bois’ idea of the “Talented Tenth” (which I have always found attractive, but then I’m an unabashed elitist 🙂 ). Micheaux emerges as a complex and inspiring figure in Patrick McGilligan’s excellent biography Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only. Unlike those who become icons of this or that * , he does lend himself to simplification, and this is probably why he is not famous.
* Icons are not always to blame for their own iconography - some self-promote in that way, some don’t. But something about them allows the public to retain a simple image, which is the only sort of concept the public mind can handle.
* Icons are not always to blame for their own iconography - some self-promote in that way, some don’t. But something about them allows the public to retain a simple image, which is the only sort of concept the public mind can handle.
55PatrickMurtha
I’m currently reading The Diary of John Quincy Adams: 1794-1845, a selected (but long) edition edited by Allan Nevins in 1951. JQA is an interesting case because he appeared to dislike politics and public life, frequently stating his preference for being a reader, writer, and scholar; yet when he had a chance to do that, after his Presidency and in his early 60s, he launched right back into a nine-term career as a US Representative that took him to his death at age 80. It is theorized that he suffered from depression, and he consistently seems to have sought out whatever conditions would make him most miserable. The family mantle always weighed heavily on him * , and although one might find his sense of public service admirable, he was privately quite cynical about political life and constantly frustrated by it. It is not just that he couldn’t achieve what he wanted through politics - that is common - but he took no pleasure in the process, as the more extroverted can. Meeting with supplicants, for example, was profoundly tedious for him.
So the effect of the diaries which he assiduously kept is sad, but also stimulating because he was a man of genuine cultivation and always “in the thick of things”.
* Not just on him. His oldest son committed suicide at 28, and his second son drank himself to death by 31.
So the effect of the diaries which he assiduously kept is sad, but also stimulating because he was a man of genuine cultivation and always “in the thick of things”.
* Not just on him. His oldest son committed suicide at 28, and his second son drank himself to death by 31.
56PatrickMurtha
Years ago I was supposed to read the entirety of Boswell’s Life of Johnson for a course, but I was taking four graduate-level English classes and one education class that semester, plus teaching part-time, so I only managed excerpts. But I promised myself that I would get back to the text, and so I have, now halfway through the Oxford unabridged edition. A complete joy.
I will always be grateful that I got an excellent grounding in 17th and 18th Century British literature as an undergrad at Yale, so I have a head start on Boswell because the context and personalities are familiar.
I will always be grateful that I got an excellent grounding in 17th and 18th Century British literature as an undergrad at Yale, so I have a head start on Boswell because the context and personalities are familiar.
57PatrickMurtha
Recently read and enjoyed Justin Wolff’s excellent biography Thomas Hart Benton, and what strikes me are the same things I noticed while reading Herbert R. Lottman’s Albert Camus: A Biography: An awful lot of writing about “culture” is really just writing about politics, and the insistence that everything is in some sense political (hard to argue with) rapidly becomes an insistence that everything is ONLY political. Those who occupy positions somewhere in the center will be pummeled quite nastily by the hard Right and Left. Critics tried to both enlist Benton and repudiate him, on the basis of interpretations that he himself gave no support to (and which seem flimsy and non-insightful in retrospect). And so it goes.
58LynnB
I'm reading Tastes Like War: A Memoir by Grace M. Cho
59JulieLill
Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig
Jonathan Eig
5/5 stars
What a wonderful book about the life of baseball star Lou Gehrig. I highly recommend this for anyone to read. I also had read Eig's book The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution and loved that book. Looking forward to reading more of his books.
Jonathan Eig
5/5 stars
What a wonderful book about the life of baseball star Lou Gehrig. I highly recommend this for anyone to read. I also had read Eig's book The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution and loved that book. Looking forward to reading more of his books.
60JulieLill
That's Not All Folks!
Mel Blanc
5/5 stars
What a wonderful book about Mel Blanc! He writes about his time voicing cartoon characters Bugs Bunny and many others, also his life on radio, films and on television! He also talks about his wife and son and also how show business affected his life. Highly recommended!
Mel Blanc
5/5 stars
What a wonderful book about Mel Blanc! He writes about his time voicing cartoon characters Bugs Bunny and many others, also his life on radio, films and on television! He also talks about his wife and son and also how show business affected his life. Highly recommended!
62JulieLill
The Old Man and the Gun: And Other Tales of True Crime
David Grann
3/5 stars
Interesting book on true crime! There are three stories of crime in this book. The first one was The Old Man and The Gun which was made into a movie with Robert Redford. True Crime and The Chameleon were next. The second story was just okay but I really enjoyed the The Chameleon and The Old Man and The Gun. Crime
David Grann
3/5 stars
Interesting book on true crime! There are three stories of crime in this book. The first one was The Old Man and The Gun which was made into a movie with Robert Redford. True Crime and The Chameleon were next. The second story was just okay but I really enjoyed the The Chameleon and The Old Man and The Gun. Crime
63varielle
I just finished the best autobiography I’ve ever read Ben Hecht’s A Child of the Century. Nobody remembers him now but good gravy what a dude. Newspaperman, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, propagandist for the future state of Israel, and talk show host in the early days of television. Friends with the high and the low. They don’t make ‘em like that anymore. Back with a review when I’ve digested it a little more. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
64JulieLill
>63 varielle: I am going to add the Ben Hecht's story to my reading list - thanks for the recommendation.
65LynnB
I'm reading Friendly Fire: How Israel Became its Own Worst Enemy and the Hope for its Future by Ami Ayalon, which is subtitled "A Memoir" because I think it follows the author on his journey to formulating his ideas.
66rocketjk
I finished The Good Fight, Shirley Chisholm's campaign memoir about her run for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 1972. It was fascinating and well written, indeed, though it doesn't provide much personal information about Chisholm, the person. Chisholm the politician and activist is quite interesting enough and the book tells of a pivotal time in American history. You can find a longer review on my 50-Book Challenge thread.
Next up for me will be the Vietnam War combat history, Sappers in the Wire: The Life and Death of Firebase Mary Ann by Keith William Nolan.
Next up for me will be the Vietnam War combat history, Sappers in the Wire: The Life and Death of Firebase Mary Ann by Keith William Nolan.
67JulieLill
Desperate Hours: The Epic Rescue of the Andrea Doria
Richard Goldstein
4/5 stars
This is the story of the Andrea Doria ocean liner built in 1951, who was taking passengers on a cruise in 1956 when it was hit by the Swedish ship Stockholm during a dense fog and tells the aftermath of the disaster. Goldstein relates the ship's history, the sinking of the ship and the stories of the passengers on board. The collision killed 51 people—46 from the Andrea Doria and 5 from the Stockholm. Very interesting but sad!
Richard Goldstein
4/5 stars
This is the story of the Andrea Doria ocean liner built in 1951, who was taking passengers on a cruise in 1956 when it was hit by the Swedish ship Stockholm during a dense fog and tells the aftermath of the disaster. Goldstein relates the ship's history, the sinking of the ship and the stories of the passengers on board. The collision killed 51 people—46 from the Andrea Doria and 5 from the Stockholm. Very interesting but sad!
68JulieLill
Barbra Streisand: the Music, the Albums, the Singles
Matt Howe
3/5 stars
This large book details everything that Streisand sang, wrote and her collaborations with other famous musical artists. This was just okay for me. At times it just dragged. I can't recommend it but I am looking forward to reading her new autobiography.
Matt Howe
3/5 stars
This large book details everything that Streisand sang, wrote and her collaborations with other famous musical artists. This was just okay for me. At times it just dragged. I can't recommend it but I am looking forward to reading her new autobiography.
69LynnB
I'm reading In the Form of a Question: The Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life by Amy Schneider. Jeopardy! fans will know she is the most successful woman ever to compete on the show.
70JulieLill
Iceman: My Fighting Life
Chuck Liddell
This is the autobiography of Chuck Liddell who is a mixed martial artist. I am not a big sports fan but I learned a lot about wrestling and being a mixed martial artist! I thought this was very interesting!
Chuck Liddell
This is the autobiography of Chuck Liddell who is a mixed martial artist. I am not a big sports fan but I learned a lot about wrestling and being a mixed martial artist! I thought this was very interesting!
71JulieLill
Vacuuming in the Nude: And Other Ways to Get Attention
Peggy Rowe
4/5 stars
Peggy Rowe is the mother of Mike Rowe host of Dirty Jobs. She is also a talented writer and has written other books. She talks of her life with her family. This was very enjoyable and I look forward to reading her other books.
Peggy Rowe
4/5 stars
Peggy Rowe is the mother of Mike Rowe host of Dirty Jobs. She is also a talented writer and has written other books. She talks of her life with her family. This was very enjoyable and I look forward to reading her other books.
72JulieLill
Born to Run
Bruce Springsteen
3/5 stars
This is Bruce's autobiography about his family and his career as a musician. This was published in 2016. Very interesting but it is a long book.
Bruce Springsteen
3/5 stars
This is Bruce's autobiography about his family and his career as a musician. This was published in 2016. Very interesting but it is a long book.
73JulieLill
Finding Chika: A Little Girls, An Earthquake, and the Making of A Family
Mitch Albom
5/5 stars
What a wonderful but sad story about Mitch Albom who with his wife befriend an orphan girl named Chika in Haiti at their Have Faith Haiti Orphanage. Unfortunately, she becomes quite ill and Albom and his wife try to get her treated medically and hopefully cured of her condition.
Mitch Albom
5/5 stars
What a wonderful but sad story about Mitch Albom who with his wife befriend an orphan girl named Chika in Haiti at their Have Faith Haiti Orphanage. Unfortunately, she becomes quite ill and Albom and his wife try to get her treated medically and hopefully cured of her condition.
74LynnB
I'm reading All the Way: My Life on Ice by Jordin Tootoo, the first Inuit player in the NHL.
75rocketjk
I just finished Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey. You can find a review, etc., on my 50-Book Challenge thread. Here I'll just say that I enjoyed the reading.
76armature
Hunter to Hunted - Surviving Hitler's Wolf Packs
Alex Anderson
4/5 stars
I received this short memoir from the November 2023 Early Reviewers batch. As per my review, I enjoyed it very much.
Alex Anderson
4/5 stars
I received this short memoir from the November 2023 Early Reviewers batch. As per my review, I enjoyed it very much.
77rocketjk
I just finished An Old Guy Who Feels Good by Worden McDonald. Originally published in 1978, this is the memoir of a fellow who had led a very interesting and event-packed life. McDonald was born in 1907 in a small Oklahoma town, the fifth of five siblings (and his father's 10th child, counting McDonald's five older step-siblings from his father's first marriage). His father was a Presbyterian minister. When McDonald was 6, the family moved from town onto a farm his father had purchased. And although McDonald loved farm life when he was a boy (and describes it here glowingly), he left home while still in his teens, riding freight trains and otherwise making his way around the country, working at a wide variety of jobs for greater or lesser periods of time, including, among other pursuits, ranching, mining and factory work. It wasn't until later in life that McDonald married, settled down to raise a family, and went to work, for over a decade, for the phone company in California, and began to develop a left-week political sensibility.
McDonald wrote with an off-the-cuff humorous voice. He seems to have been more or less setting down events and anecdotes as they came to him, and those stories are very entertaining in the telling. We normally think of people "riding the rails" during the Depression, and I found it interesting to read that McDonald was doing so in the mid-20s, years before the Depression began. He has a fun sense of humor, as in these examples:
"We lived in town, if you want to call Sallisaw a town, until I was six. Tom and Dick {a pair of horses} pulled the fire truck. When the bell rang they charged in place and waited for their suspended harness to fall on their backs. They took off in a big gallop--once so fast that they overturned the fire truck and broke the driver's leg. But usually they arrived in time to watch the house burn down."
and
"Sometime later I worked on a railroad in the Feather River Canyon, in Northern California. It wasn't the love of railroad life that made me take the job--I was hungry. They gave us a pick and shovel, and for ten hours we didn't straighten up. When quitting time came, we couldn't. We even slept that way. When we got up in the morning, we were in perfect position for putting on our socks."
and finally, when describing how he lost his job (and his pension) after 17 years with the phone company for not cooperating with the California state version of the McCarthy hearings:
"Some of my buddies, when they were interviewed, answered 'all the questions with refreshing candor and frankness' and were congratulated by the senators, but my testimony was considered so poor that they felt obliged to write a letter to the company suggesting that I be fired. The company was prepared for this since they had given my name to the committee in the first place, but still it was unusual. Telephone men had been fired in the past for refusing to work, stealing equipment and once for making an operator pregnant on company time. But I was the first man in the Bell system to be fired for being unfriendly on his day off."
Folks of a "certain age" who grew up in America in the 60s may be amused to learn that Worden McDonald was the father of Country Joe McDonald of "Country Joe and the Fish" fame. This is a fun, obscure bit of Americana.
This book has been on my shelves since before I first posted my books on LT back in 2008.
McDonald wrote with an off-the-cuff humorous voice. He seems to have been more or less setting down events and anecdotes as they came to him, and those stories are very entertaining in the telling. We normally think of people "riding the rails" during the Depression, and I found it interesting to read that McDonald was doing so in the mid-20s, years before the Depression began. He has a fun sense of humor, as in these examples:
"We lived in town, if you want to call Sallisaw a town, until I was six. Tom and Dick {a pair of horses} pulled the fire truck. When the bell rang they charged in place and waited for their suspended harness to fall on their backs. They took off in a big gallop--once so fast that they overturned the fire truck and broke the driver's leg. But usually they arrived in time to watch the house burn down."
and
"Sometime later I worked on a railroad in the Feather River Canyon, in Northern California. It wasn't the love of railroad life that made me take the job--I was hungry. They gave us a pick and shovel, and for ten hours we didn't straighten up. When quitting time came, we couldn't. We even slept that way. When we got up in the morning, we were in perfect position for putting on our socks."
and finally, when describing how he lost his job (and his pension) after 17 years with the phone company for not cooperating with the California state version of the McCarthy hearings:
"Some of my buddies, when they were interviewed, answered 'all the questions with refreshing candor and frankness' and were congratulated by the senators, but my testimony was considered so poor that they felt obliged to write a letter to the company suggesting that I be fired. The company was prepared for this since they had given my name to the committee in the first place, but still it was unusual. Telephone men had been fired in the past for refusing to work, stealing equipment and once for making an operator pregnant on company time. But I was the first man in the Bell system to be fired for being unfriendly on his day off."
Folks of a "certain age" who grew up in America in the 60s may be amused to learn that Worden McDonald was the father of Country Joe McDonald of "Country Joe and the Fish" fame. This is a fun, obscure bit of Americana.
This book has been on my shelves since before I first posted my books on LT back in 2008.
78wpa5
>76 armature: Very many thanks for reading 'Hunter to Hunted ...', and submitting your review which is greatly appreciated. Glad you enjoyed it. Bill (on behalf of my father).
