In compiling this list I have been inclusive in my definition of biography. What some readers might consider a history with biographical parts, I usually called a biography.
I find it curious that the hot genre of memoirs did not get many titles on some of the lists this year. The editors at Amazon, Library Journal, and the Washington Post added many memoirs to their lists, but the other four publishers gave much more attention to biographies than memoirs.
Have a Happy New Year and enjoy lots of books.
Amazon Top 100
Biographies
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful tribe in American History by S. C. Gwynne
How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine by George Dohrmann
Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade by Justin Spring
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
Memoirs
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1 by Mark Twain
Decoded by Jay-Z
Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball
Half a Life by Darin Strauss
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Let’s Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship by Gail Caldwell
Life by Keith Richards
Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Anthony Bourdain
Memory Chalet by Tony Judt
Booklist
Biographies
Alice Neel: The Art of Not Sitting Pretty by Phoebe Hoban
Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
Fab: The Life of Paul McCartney
Galileo by John Heilbron
Grant Wood by R. Tripp Evans
George, Nicholas, and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I by Miranda Carter
Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family’s Century of Art and Loss by Edmund de Waal
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow
Memoirs
Grace of Silence by Michele Norris
Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens
Junior Officers’ Reading Club: Killing Time and Fighting Wars by Patrick Hennessey
Kirkus Reviews
Biographies
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas
Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang
Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Madison and Jefferson by Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg
Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine by George Dohrmann
Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century by Alan Brinkley
Memoirs
Composed by Rosanna Cash
Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Mentor by Tom Grimes
Soul Mining: A Musical Life by Dennis Lanois
Library Journal
Biographies
How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Mark Twain: Man in White by Michael Shelden
Tasting Freedom: Octavius Catto and the Battle for Equality in Civil War America by Daniel R. Biddle and Murray Dubin
Memoirs
Breath: A Lifetime in the Rhythm of an Iron Lung by Martha Mason
Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated by Alison Arngrim
Eating Pomegranates: A Memoir of Mothers, Daughters, and the BRCA Gene by Sarah Gabriel
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Sleep in Me by Jon Pineda
Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
There’s a Road to Everywhere Except Where You Came From by Bryan Charles
New York Times 100 Notable Books
Biographies
Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang
Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful tribe in American History by S. C. Gwynne
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic by Michael Scammell
Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood
Last Hero: The Life of Henry Aaron by Howard Bryant
Pearl Buck in China: Journey to “The Good Earth” by Hilary Spurling
Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong by Terry Teachout
Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century by Alan Brinkley
Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade by Justin Spring
Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith by Joan Schenkar
Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow
Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend by James S. Hirsch
Memoirs
Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens
Life by Keith Richards
Publishers Weekly
Biographies
Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
Memoirs
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1 by Mark Twain
Grace of Silence by Michele Norris
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Washington Post
Biographies
Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior: The Intersecting Lives of da Vinci, Machiavelli, and Borgia and the World That Shaped Them by Paul Strathern
Betsy Ross and the Making of America by Marla R. Miller
Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama
Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South by Alex Heard
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion by Seth Stern and Stephen Wermiel
Kingdom Under Glass: A Tale of Obsession, Adventure, and One Man’s Quest to Preserve the World’s Great Animals by Jay Kirk
Last Hero: The Life of Henry Aaron by Howard Bryant
Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family’s Feuds by Lyndall Gordon
Pearl Buck in China: Journey to “The Good Earth” by Hilary Spurling
Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson, and the Rise of Washington’s Scandal Culture by Mark Feldstein
Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl by Donald Sturrock
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
William Golding by John Carey
Memoirs
Denial: A Memoir of Terror by Jessica Stern
Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Let’s Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship by Gail Caldwell
Life by Keith Richards
Mentor by Tom Grimes
My Nine Lives: A Memoir of Many Careers in Music by Leon Fleisher and Anne Midgette
Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sid by David Rohde and Kristen Mulvihill
Amazon Top 100
Biographies
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful tribe in American History by S. C. Gwynne
How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine by George Dohrmann
Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade by Justin Spring
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
Memoirs
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1 by Mark Twain
Decoded by Jay-Z
Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball
Half a Life by Darin Strauss
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Let’s Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship by Gail Caldwell
Life by Keith Richards
Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Anthony Bourdain
Memory Chalet by Tony Judt
Booklist
Biographies
Alice Neel: The Art of Not Sitting Pretty by Phoebe Hoban
Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
Fab: The Life of Paul McCartney
Galileo by John Heilbron
Grant Wood by R. Tripp Evans
George, Nicholas, and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I by Miranda Carter
Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family’s Century of Art and Loss by Edmund de Waal
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow
Memoirs
Grace of Silence by Michele Norris
Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens
Junior Officers’ Reading Club: Killing Time and Fighting Wars by Patrick Hennessey
Kirkus Reviews
Biographies
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas
Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang
Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Madison and Jefferson by Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg
Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine by George Dohrmann
Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century by Alan Brinkley
Memoirs
Composed by Rosanna Cash
Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Mentor by Tom Grimes
Soul Mining: A Musical Life by Dennis Lanois
Library Journal
Biographies
How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Mark Twain: Man in White by Michael Shelden
Tasting Freedom: Octavius Catto and the Battle for Equality in Civil War America by Daniel R. Biddle and Murray Dubin
Memoirs
Breath: A Lifetime in the Rhythm of an Iron Lung by Martha Mason
Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated by Alison Arngrim
Eating Pomegranates: A Memoir of Mothers, Daughters, and the BRCA Gene by Sarah Gabriel
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Sleep in Me by Jon Pineda
Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
There’s a Road to Everywhere Except Where You Came From by Bryan Charles
New York Times 100 Notable Books
Biographies
Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang
Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful tribe in American History by S. C. Gwynne
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic by Michael Scammell
Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood
Last Hero: The Life of Henry Aaron by Howard Bryant
Pearl Buck in China: Journey to “The Good Earth” by Hilary Spurling
Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong by Terry Teachout
Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century by Alan Brinkley
Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade by Justin Spring
Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith by Joan Schenkar
Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow
Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend by James S. Hirsch
Memoirs
Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens
Life by Keith Richards
Publishers Weekly
Biographies
Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
Memoirs
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1 by Mark Twain
Grace of Silence by Michele Norris
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Washington Post
Biographies
Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior: The Intersecting Lives of da Vinci, Machiavelli, and Borgia and the World That Shaped Them by Paul Strathern
Betsy Ross and the Making of America by Marla R. Miller
Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama
Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South by Alex Heard
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion by Seth Stern and Stephen Wermiel
Kingdom Under Glass: A Tale of Obsession, Adventure, and One Man’s Quest to Preserve the World’s Great Animals by Jay Kirk
Last Hero: The Life of Henry Aaron by Howard Bryant
Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family’s Feuds by Lyndall Gordon
Pearl Buck in China: Journey to “The Good Earth” by Hilary Spurling
Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson, and the Rise of Washington’s Scandal Culture by Mark Feldstein
Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl by Donald Sturrock
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
William Golding by John Carey
Memoirs
Denial: A Memoir of Terror by Jessica Stern
Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Let’s Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship by Gail Caldwell
Life by Keith Richards
Mentor by Tom Grimes
My Nine Lives: A Memoir of Many Careers in Music by Leon Fleisher and Anne Midgette
Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sid by David Rohde and Kristen Mulvihill
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