Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Biographical and Autobiographical: Best Biographies and Memoirs of 2015

If best books lists are used as evidence, 2014 was a big year for biographical and autobiographical books. When I examined the lists from the eight review sources that I used last year, I found a surprisingly larger number of titles. In 2013, Amazon's editors named 16 biographical titles to their top 100 books. This year the number is 22. Booklist included 11 such titles in 2013 and 16 in 2014. If I kept counting, I suspect I would find similar results in most cases.

What I also noticed this year is the lack of agreement among the book reviewing editors. Most of the titles were chosen only once. Only one biography made seven of the lists: The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs. Another biography made five of the lists: Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright. One memoir made five lists: Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart.

As you scan the lists below, you may wonder at some of the inclusions, such as Thirteen Days in September, which many readers would consider a history instead of a biography. I think it is both, representing the category of collective biography. Someone interested in any of the three figures named in the title would enjoy reading this book.

The result of the long and diverse lists is there are many excellent titles from which readers may choose. Kirkus offers 53 biographical titles! Enjoy and have a happy new reading year.


Amazon

Biographies

Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival by Peter Stark

Cosby: His Life and Times by Mark Whitaker

A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention by Matt Richtel

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott

Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts

No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U. S. Surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald

Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art by Carl Hoffman

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre

Untamed: The Wildest Woman in America and the Fight for Cumberland Island by Will Harlan

Updike by Adam Begley

War of the Whales: A True Story by Joshua Horwitz

Memoirs

Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay

Badluck Way: A Year on the Ragged Edge of the West by Bryce Andrews

Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade by Walter Kirn

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir by Roz Chast

I'll Drink to That: A Life in Style, with a Twist by Betty Halbreich

Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned" by Lena Dunham

Sous Chef: 24 Hours on the Line by Michael Gibney

Tibetan Peach Pie: A True Account of an Imaginative Life by Tom Robbins

Yes, Please by Amy Poehler


Booklist

Biographies

The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution by Jonathan Eig

Brando's Smile: His Life, Thought and Work by Susan L. Mizruchi

Charlie Chaplin: A Brief Life by Peter Ackroyd

The Crusades of Cesar Chavez by Miriam Pawel

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson

John Quincy Adams: American Visionary by Fred Kaplan

Lines of Descent: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Emergency of Identity by Kwame Anthony Appiah

Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces by Miles J. Unger

No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U. S. Surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald

A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III by Janice Hadlow

Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space by Lynn Sherr

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs

Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright

The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War by Tim Butcher

Victoria by A. N. Wilson

Memoirs

The Ogallala Road: A Memoir of Love and Reckoning by Julene Bair


Kirkus

Biographies

Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival by Peter Stark

Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard by John Branch

Careless People: Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of The Great Gatsby by Sarah Churchill

A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention by Matt Richtel

The Double Life of Paul De Man by Evelyn Barish

Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local - And Helped Save an American Town by Beth Macy

Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War by Mark Harris

Hope: Entertainer of the Century by Richard Zoglin

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson

The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein

Isabella: The Warrior Queen by Kristin Downey

The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science by Armand Marie Leroi

Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion by Harold Holzer

A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton, from the Box Tops to Big Star to Backdoor Man
 by Holly George-Warren

The Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941-1942 by Nigel Hamilton

On His Own Terms: A Life of Nelson Rockefeller by Richard Norton Smith

One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band by Alan Paul

Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin by David Ritz

Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art by Carl Hoffman

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs

The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man by Luke Harding

Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War by Helen Thorpe

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre

Stalin: Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 by Stephen Kotkin

The Tastemaker: Carl Van Vechten and the Birth of Modern America by Edward White

Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr

Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright

The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War by Tim Butcher

Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution by Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz

War of the Whales: A True Story by Josshua Horwitz

William Wells Brown: An African-American Life by Ezra Greenspan

Memoirs

The Answer to the Riddle Is Me: A Memoir of Amnesia by David Stuart MacLean

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir by Roz Chast

A Cup of Water Under My Bed: A Memoir by Daisy Hernandez

Dear Leader: A Poet, Spy, Escapee - A Look Inside North Korea by Jang Jin-Sung

Getting Schooled: The Reeducation of an American Teacher by Garret Keizer

The Great Floodgates of Wonderworld by Justin Hocking

History Lessons: A Memoir of Madness, Memory, and the Brain by Clifton Crais

If Only You People Could Follow Directions: A Memoir by Jessica Hendry Nelson

Internal Medicine: A Doctor's Stories by Terrence Holt

Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart

Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness, and Becoming a Man by Thomas Page McBee

My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind by Scott Stossel

My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead

The Other Side by Lacy Johnson

Out of the Woods: A Memoir of Wayfinding by Lynn Darling

Pandora's DNA: Tracing the Breast Cancer Genes Through History, Science, and One Family Tree by Lizzie Stark

Perfectly Miserable: Guilt, God, and Real Estate in a Small Town by Sarah Payne Stuart

The Sea Inside by Philip Hoare

Take This Man: A Memoir by Brando Skyhorse

There Was and There Was Not: A Journey Through Hate and Possibility in Turkey, Armenia, and Beyond by Meline Toumani

Trespassing on Einstein's Lawn: A Father, a Daughter, the Meaning of Nothing, and the Beginning of Everything by Amanda Gefter

Unremarried Widow: A Memoir by Artis Henderson


Library Journal

Biographies

An American Cardinal: The Biography of Cardinal Timothy Dolan by Christina Boyle

Dr. Mutter's Marvels: A True Story of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz

Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War by Mark Harris

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott

No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U. S. Surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald

Memoirs

Bulletproof Vest: The Ballad of an Outlaw and His Daughter by Maria Venegas

Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War by Robert M. Gates

Eating Wildly: Foraging for Life, Love, and the Perfect Meal by Ava Chin

The End of Eve by Ariel Gore

Gone Feral: Tracking My Dad Through the Wild by Novella Carpenter

The Great Floodgates of Wonderworld by Justin Hocking

History Lessons: A Memoir of Madness, Memory, and the Brain by Clifton Crais

Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth About Everything by Barbara Ehrenreich

My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead

Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned" by Lena Dunham

The Other Side by Lacy Johnson

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

So We Read On: How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures by Maureen Corrigan

Things I've Learned from Dying: A Book About Life by David R. Dow

Weightless: My Life as a Fat Man and How I Escaped by Gregg McBride


National Public Radio

Biographies

Another Man's War: The Story of a Burma Boy in Britain's Forgotten Army by Barnaby Phillips

Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph by Jan Swafford

Bolano: A Biography in Conversations by Monica Maristain

Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang

Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS by Martin Duberman

Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell and Christian Robinson

A Long Way Home: A Memoir by Saroo Brierley

The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News - And Divided a Country by Gabriel Sherman

The Map Thief: The Gripping Story of an Esteemed Rare-Map Dealer Who Made Millions Stealing Priceless Maps by Michael Blanding

Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love by James Booth

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs

Memoirs

Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay

Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade by Walter Kirn

The Broken Road: From the Iron Gates to Mouth Athos by Patrick Leigh Fermor

Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard on You? A Memoir by George Clinton

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jaqueline Woodson

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir by Roz Chast

Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage by Molly Wizenberg

Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War by Robert M. Gates

El Deafo by Cece Bell

Fresh from the Farm: A Year of Recipes and Stories by Susie Middleton

Geek Sublime: The Beauty of Code, The Code of Beauty by Vikram Chandra

The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames by Kai Bird

How I Discover Poetry by Marilyn Nelson

How the World Was: A California Childhood by Emmanuel Guibert

Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart

Loitering: New and Collected Essays by Charles D'Ambrosio

Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness, and Becoming a Man by Thomas Page McBee

The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky, and Death by Colson Whitehead

A Painter's Progress: A Portrait of Lucian Freud by David Dawson

Showa 1944-1953: A History of Japan by Shigeru Mizuki

The Splendid Things We Planned: A Family Portrait by Blake Bailey

Things I've Learned from Dying: A Book About Life by David R. Dow

Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film by Glenn Kurtz

Thrown by Kerry Howley

The Universal Tone: Bringing My Story to Light by Carlos Santana


New York Times

Biographies

American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell by Deborah Solomon

Demon Camp: A Soldier's Exorcism by Jennifer Percy

Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero by James S. Romm

Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer by Bettina Stangneth

Elephant Company:The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II by Vicki Constantine Croke

Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis as Commander in Chief by James M. McPherson

Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local - And Helped Save an American Town by Beth Macy

Gandhi Before India by Ramachandra Guha

Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill

The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein

The Invisible Front: Love and Loss in an Era of Endless War by Yochi Dreazen

Limonov by Emmanuel Carrere

Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts

Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life by Hermione Lee

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre

Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright

The Trip to Echo Springs: On Writers and Drinking by Olivia Laing

True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas by Anand Giridharadas

Memoirs

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir by Roz Chast

Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War by Robert M. Gates

Fire Shut Up in My Bones by Charles M. Blow

Geek Sublime: The Beauty of Code, The Code of Beauty by Vikram Chandra

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart

The Madwoman in the Volvo: My Year of Raging Hormones by Sandra Tsing Loh

Not I: Memoirs of a German Childhood by Joachim Fest

On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss

Thrown by Kerry Howley


Publishers Weekly

Biographies

Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard by John Branch

Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local - And Helped Save an American Town by Beth Macy

The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein

Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story by Rick Bragg

John Wayne: The Life and Legend by Scott Eyman

Limonov by Emmanuel Carrere

Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life by Hermione Lee

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs

Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War by Helen Thorpe

Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr

Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright

True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas by Anand Giridharadas

Memoirs

A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren

Fire Shut Up in My Bones by Charles M. Blow

Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart

Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness, and Becoming a Man by Thomas Page McBee

On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss


Washington Post

Biographies

The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution by Jonathan Eig

The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames by Kai Bird

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson

The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein

John Quincy Adams: American Visionary by Fred Kaplan

Limonov by Emmanuel Carrere

Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion by Harold Holzer

Little Demon in the City of Light: A True Story of Murder and Mesmerism in Belle Epoque Paris by Steven Levingston

The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It by John W. Dean

Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space by Lynn Sherr

Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art by Carl Hoffman

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs

Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War by Helen Thorpe

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre

Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr

Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright

Unreasonable Men: Theodore Roosevelt and the Republican Rebels Who Created Progressive Politics by Michael Wolraich

Updike by Adam Begley

War of the Whales: A True Story by Josshua Horwitz


Memoirs

Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War by Robert M. Gates

Hard Choices by Hillary Rodham Clinton

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart

My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind by Scott Stossel

S Street Rising: Crack, Murder, and Redemption in D. C. by Ruben Castaneda

Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace by Leon Panetta

Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book by Peter Finn

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