What’s your favorite biography?
I don’t read a lot of biographies and I’m not sure why that is. In looking back over my preferences, I think the book has to feature an older subject - someone whose fame has stood the test of time - or someone completely unknown. I also think I need a healthy dose of history along with information about the person themselves.
The last one I read that I really enjoyed was Flee North by Scott Shane. To quote the jacket:
Born into slavery, by the 1840s Thomas Smallwood was free, self-educated, and working as a shoemaker a short walk from the U.S. Capitol. He recruited a young white activist, Charles Torrey, and together they began to organize mass escapes from Washington, Baltimore, and surrounding counties to freedom in the north.
One of the most memorable biographies I’ve read, though, was Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott. It’s about four women (“a socialite, a farmgirl, an abolitionist, and a widow”) who were spies during the Civil War.
I’m a sucker for Ron Chernow’s biographies - I appreciated Hamilton but I think Grant was my favorite simply because he was borderline destitute when the Civil War started, and he was 38 at the time. It also illuminated the challenges of the Reconstruction era, which was largely overlooked in the history / social studies classes I took.
While not really biographies I also like Erik Larson’s books, while The Devil in the White City is more well known I really liked The Splendid and the Vile because again it focused on a part of history I hadn’t been much exposed to, pre-US involvement WWII.
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I read The Devil in the White City — very grisly and psychotic. For obvious reasons the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893 is not well publicized.
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My favorite biography is an autobiography, Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt. Set in Limerick, Ireland during the Great Depression, the author recounts growing up in poverty within the confines of Irish culture and society and the Catholic Church. Narrated by the author, it was the first audiobook I had listened to. After listening to close to a thousand audiobooks it remains my favorite and my number one book recommendation. The author’s narration breaks your heart as well as making it sing.
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My book club read The River of Doubt by Candice Millard earlier this year. It’s an “adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait of Theodore Roosevelt.” None of us knew very much about his presidency or personal life initially which is why we chose it. The book received a unanimous 5-star rating for being an extremely exciting read, an informative read, and the best biographical story we can ever remember.
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I don’t read many Biographies, but a stand out was The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The book was recommended by a reliable source, my brother, and a few weeks after he read it I read it in one of my Book Clubs. It was a riveting discussion! Everyone agreed it is a really interesting story and chock full of emotions.
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John Adams by David McCullough.
I agree John Adam’s by McCullough was excellent. I also enjoyed David McCuough”s book about Truman. Truman had to take office after a very popular president and had to make the excruciating decision to drop the A-bomb in order to save millions of allied lives.