biographies

  • Straight from the Horse’s Mouth: Audiobook Memoirs Read by the Author

    I unabashedly love audiobooks. They are not cheating. Audiobooks are simply a different way to take in and make sense of information, and to enjoy stories. Audiobooks have an inherent performance value that can be done well with multi-person cast productions or simply great individual narrators. My personal favorite is the particular insight and authenticity… Continue reading

  • Celebrity Biographies for Fall

    This is a bountiful fall for celebrity biographies and memoirs! Here are some of the most anticipated titles to look for in the coming months. Continue reading

  • Follow the leader – retracing other folks journeys

    It’s hard to imagine how the original explorers got the nerve to do what they did and go where they went. Would you be brave enough to cast off into the great unknown, most likely in search of a dream? Check out these books by people who re-created the voyages of some pioneers, in the… Continue reading

  • Life Stories: Memoirs of Remarkable Lives.

    The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson While some accounts of life in the 1950s can make that decade seem sterile and flat, Bryson’s account is alive with action, fondness and vivid detail about his imagination-filled childhood and quirky parents. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers… Continue reading

  • Life Stories: Biographies of Famous People

    My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme   The iconic chef of television and cookbook fame recounts her surprisingly saucy adventures with the French and their cuisine, from World War II onward.  The descriptions of food and place are mouth-watering.   The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown Our enduring fascination with the life of… Continue reading

  • Life Stories: Biographies of Challenging Lives

    Running with Scissors: A Memoir, by Augusten Burroughs Part madcap adventure, part coming-of-age story and part intense reflection on a difficult childhood, Burroughs’ memoir relates his years in an eccentric foster home where nothing is out of bounds. Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s, by John Elder Robison Robinson, brother of Augusten… Continue reading

  • Life Stories: Biographies of Remarkable Women

    Pacific Lady: The First Woman to Sail Solo Across the Pacific Ocean by Sharon Sites Adams, with Karen J. Coates Coates recounts the ocean crossing and stormy personal life of a brave pioneer, Oregon native Sharon Sites Adams, who in 1965 was the first woman to sail alone from the mainland U.S. to Hawaii. The… Continue reading

  • Life Stories: Biographies of Great Americans

    The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard After a disastrous political defeat, the intrepid Roosevelt and his son undertake a treacherous Amazonian voyage, complete with cannibals.  Surmounting all obstacles, they survive to tell the tale. John Adams by David McCullough McCullough masterfully describes the complex life of one of the most… Continue reading