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

Catching Up with Alexander McCall Smith Books

Over the holidays, some people borrowed our television series on DVD to have viewing marathons. Instead of devoting myself night and day to episodes of Dexter, Gilmore Girls, Lost, Mad Men, or Downton Abbey, I borrowed six books or audiobooks written by Scotland's Alexander McCall Smith in December and had my own little read-a-thon.

If you like light serialized fiction and are not familiar with McCall Smith, you should be. He is the prolific author of several series, including No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Sunday Philosophy Club, 44 Scotland Street, Corduroy Mansions, and Portuguese Irregular Verbs series. Each is different. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and the Sunday Philosophy Club series can both be classified as cozy mysteries, but they are set in very different places, Botswana and Scotland. 44 Scotland Street and Corduroy Mansions are domestic comedies (similar to sit-coms) that focus on the residents of apartment buildings. The first is set in Edinburgh and the latter in London. Both were first published in daily installments in British newspapers, in much the way the novels of Charles Dickens were released in the 19th century. Portuguese Irregular Verbs is an academic farce featuring a very silly linguistics professor.

I read three No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books and now have only The Handsome Man's De Luxe Cafe to read to catch up with all the stories of Ma Precious Ramotswe. I listened to two 44 Scotland Street audiobooks and know everything that has happened with entertaining cast, including the painter Angus Lordie, the narcissist Bruce Anderson, and the beleaguered six-year-old Bertie Pollack. I also read A Conspiracy of Friends to finish what I think may stop as a trilogy. The last Corduroy Mansions title came out in 2011 and the author seems to have resolved its story lines. Life goes on, however, so McCall Smith could return to these characters in the future. The latest Portuguese Irregular Verbs title appeared about nine years after the original three. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Sunday Philosophy Club, and 44 Scotland Street come out annually. There are now fifteen books featuring Ma Ramotswe.

I have enjoyed December but am now bringing my McCall Smith marathon to a close. There are so many other books to read.

Books That Mattered in 2014 and Year in Review

2014 was a good year for reading. Here are the books, music, and movies I liked best in the year. As in previous years, it is an eclectic collection of titles, so there are choices for many tastes in reading, listening, and viewing.


Recent Nonfiction

Touching the Wild: Living with the Mule Deer of Deadman Gulch by Joe Hutto

In a Rocket Made of Ice: Among the Children of Wat Opot by Gail Gutradt

Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble by Marilyn Johnson

A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction by Joel Greenberg

The Age of Radiance: The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era by Craig Nelson

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

Field Notes from a Hidden City: An Urban Nature Diary by Esther Woolfson

Splitting an Order by Ted Kooser

Eye to Eye: Photographs by Vivian Maier


Recent Fiction


The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry: A Novel by Gabrielle Zevin

Bark: Stories by Lorrie Moore

Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher


Great Older Books 

Songbird Journeys: Four Seasons in the Lives of Migratory Birds by Miyoko Chu


Children's Books  

Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas by Lynne Cox

Look Up! Bird-Watching in Your Own Back Yard by Annette LeBlanc Cate

On the Wing by David Elliot

Yoko Finds Her Way by Rosemary Wells

Gus and Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar by Keith Richards


Audiobooks 

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink

This Land That I Love: Irving Berlin, Woody Guthrie, and the Story of Two American Anthems by John Shaw

My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead

The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story by Lily Koppel


Films

Tim's Vermeer

The Waiting Room


Music 

Mark Dvorak at Friday at the Ford

Jim Green in Concert at the Library 

American Hornpipe by Dana and Susan Robinson

Why Do Ducks Have Webby Toes? by Mim Eichman and Doug Lofstrom


Library Matters 

The Public Library: A Photographic Essay by Robert Dawson

The Shape of the Reference Desk, A Panel Discussion

Libraries in the Ancient World by Lionel Casson

Public Library in the Marketplace: The Business of Digital Content

Filtering Out Internet Censorship: Advocacy, Professional Ethics, and the Law

Best Biographies and Memoirs of 2013

Here we come to the end of another year, and best of year book lists are being announced. As usual, I have combed through the lists to identify biographies and memoirs. What to include is tricky. Some books hang between biography and history. I am lenient and include most, feeling that they can at least be described as biographical, especially if it was important to include a person's name in the title.

As usual, the experts do not agree, which is actually good. There is a great range of biographical reading from which readers may choice with some assurance that someone deemed it worthy to read. In the end, what matters is whether the readers enjoy the books.

If you are like me, your wish list is getting longer every year. I am hoping many of these will be available in audiobooks to help me make my way through my list.

Enjoy 2014 as a great reading year!

Amazon

Biographies

Between Man and Beast: An Unlikely Explorer, the Evolution Debates, and the African Adventure That Took the Victorian World by Storm by Monte Reel

The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearnes Goodwin

A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert "Believe It or Not!" Ripley by Neal Thompson

Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune by Bill Dedman

Lawrence in Arabia: War Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson

Nilsson: The Life of a Singer-Songwriter by Alyn Shipton

Pilgrim's Wilderness: A True Story of Faith and Madness on the Alaskan Frontier by Tom Kizzia

Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour de France, and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever by Reed Albergotti

Memoirs

After Visiting Friends: A Son's Story by Michael Hainey

Coming Clean by Kimberly Rae Miller

Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff

A Fort of Nine Towers: An Afghan Family Story by Qais Akbar Omar

A House in the Sky: A Memoir by Amanda Lindhout

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg

Mo' Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove by Questlove

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala



Booklist

Biographies

Beethoven: The Man Revealed by John Suchet

Bolivar: American Liberator by Marie Arana

Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore

The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearnes Goodwin

Heir Apparent: A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy Prince by Jane Ridley

Jack London: An American Life by Earle Labor

Jim Henson by Brian Jay Jones

Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson

Wilson by A. Scott Berg

Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan


Memoirs

Darling: A Spiritual Autobiography by Richard Rodriguez


Kirkus

Biographies

The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keyes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order by Benn Steil

Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore

The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War by Stephen Kinzer

The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearnes Goodwin

Dreadful: The Short Life and Gay Times of John Horne Burns by David Margolick

Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington by Terry Teachout

Fosse by Sam Wasson

The Great Dissent: How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed His Mind - And Changed the History of Free Speech in America by Thomas Healy

Hammarskjold: A Life by Roger Lipsey

How to Create the Perfect Wife: Britain's Most Ineligible Bachelor and His Enlightened Quest to Train the Ideal Mate by Wendy Moore

JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President by Thurston Clarke

Johnny Cash: The Life by Robert Hilburn

Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker by Stanley Crouch

The Red Man's Bones: George Catlin, Artist and Showman by Benita Eisler

Robert Oppenheimer: His Life and Mind by Ray Monk

Useful Enemies: John Demjanjuk and America's Open-Door Policy for Nazi War Criminals by Richard Rashke

Memoirs

After Visiting Friends: A Son's Story by Michael Hainey

Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2 by Mark Twain

The Book of My Lives by Aleksandar Hemon

A Fort of Nine Towers: An Afghan Family Story by Qais Akbar Omar

Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir by Eddie Huang

A House in the Sky: A Memoir by Amanda Lindhout

I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp: An Autobiography by Richard Hell

I Hate to Leave This Beautiful Place by Howard Norman

The Joker: A Memoir by Andrew Hudgins

Men We Reaped: A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward

Mo' Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove by Questlove

My Mistake : A Memoir by Daniel Menaker

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala

The Wolf and the Watchman: A Father, a Son, and the CIA by Scott C. Johnson

The World Is Moving Around Me: A Memoir of the Haiti Earthquake by Dany Laferriere



Library Journal (Various lists)

Biographies

Francis: A New World Pope by Michel Cool

How to Create the Perfect Wife: Britain's Most Ineligible Bachelor and His Enlightened Quest to Train the Ideal Mate by Wendy Moore

Jack London: An American Life by Earle Labor

Memoirs

Drinking with Men by Rosie Schaap

Her by Christa Parravani

Holding Silvan: A Brief Life by Monica Wesolowska

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh

I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malal Yousafzai

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg

My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor

My Foreign Cities by Elizabeth Scarboro

Playing House: Notes of a Reluctant Mother by Lauren Slater

Son of a Gun by Justin St. Germain

Unremarried Widow by Artis Henderson

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala


National Public Radio

Biographies

Fosse by Sam Wasson

Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson

Memoirs

After Visiting Friends: A Son's Story by Michael Hainey

Drinking with Men by Rosie Schaap

I Hate to Leave This Beautiful Place by Howard Norman

Men We Reaped: A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward

The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen Year Old Boy with Autism by Naoki Higashida

Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division by Peter Hook

You Don't Know Me But You Don't Like Me: Phish, Insane Clown Posse, and My Misadventures with Two of Music's Most Maligned Tribes by Nathan Rabin

Zen Confidential: Confessions of a Wayward Monk by Shozan Jack Haubner


New York Times: 100 Notable Books

Biographies

The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide by Gary J. Bass

Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore

The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearnes Goodwin

Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House by Peter Baker

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

Heir Apparent: A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy Prince by Jane Ridley

Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World by Leo Damrosch

Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson

Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson by Jeff Guinn

Margaret Fuller: A New American Life by Megan Marshall

Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure by Artemis Cooper

Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941 by Lynne Olsomn

Memoirs

The Boy Detective: A New York Childhood by Roger Rosenblatt

Country Girl: A Memoir by Edna O'Brien

A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg

Men We Reaped: A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward

My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala



Publishers Weekly

Biographies

Fosse by Sam Wasson

Johnny Cash: The Life by Robert Hilburn

Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life by Jonathan Sperber

The Last Cowboy: A Life of Tom Landry by Mark Ribowsky

Memoirs

For a Song and a Hundred Songs: A Poet's Journey Through a Chinese Prison by Liao Yiwu

A House in the Sky: A Memoir by Amanda Lindhout

Italo Calvino: Letter, 1941-1985 by Italo Calvino

Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing by Anya von Bremzen

Men We Reaped: A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward

Shocked: My Mother, Schiaparelli, and Me by Patricia Volk


Washington Post

Biographies

Blackett's War: The Men Who Defeated the Nazi U-Boats and Brought Science to the Art of Warfare by Stephen Budiansky

The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide by Gary J. Bass

Bolivar: American Liberator by Marie Arana

Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore

The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearnes Goodwin

Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House by Peter Baker

The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone

Gabriele D'Annunzio: Poet, Seducer and Preacher of War by Lucy Hughes-Hallett

Margaret Thatcher: From Grantham to Falklands by Charles Moore

Norman Mailer: A Double Life by J. Michael Lennon

The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw

Queen Bee of Tuscany: The Redoubtable Janet Ross by Ben Downing

The Short Strange Life of Herschel Grynszpan: A Boy Avenger, a Nazi Diplomat, and a Murder in Paris by Jonathan Kirsch

Memoirs

The Death of Santini by Pat Conroy

A Fort of Nine Towers: An Afghan Family Story by Qais Akbar Omar

I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malal Yousafzai

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg

My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor

The Spark: A Mother's Story of Nurturing Genius by Kristine Barnett

Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton

The Wolf and the Watchman: A Father, a Son, and the CIA by Scott C. Johnson

The World's Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette's, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family by Josh Hanagarne

The Appeal of Reading True Stories

I will be talking about nonfiction readers' advisory next week at the 2013 Reaching Forward Conference. One of the points that I want to make is that true stories have as much appeal as fiction, and like fiction, certain subgenres of true stories have different primary appeals. Story, character, setting, language , and mood are the categories identified by books in the Read On ... Series of books from Libraries Unlimited.

For the attendees of Reaching Forward and for readers who find their way to this page, here are some book suggestions according to appeal categories.

Story

Historical episode

City of Scoundrels: The Twelve Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago by Gary Krist
Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked the Nation by Deborah Davis
The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and the 82 Days That Inspired America by Thurston Clarke
The Last Innocent Year: America in 1964 by Jon Margolis
The Day the Revolution Ended: 19 October 1781 by William H. Hallahan

Microhistory

The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story Of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret by Kent Hartman
The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways by Earl Swift
Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World by Tom Zoellner
Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories by Simon Winchester

Character

Biography

The President is a Sick Man by Matthew Algeo
Branch Rickey by Jimmy Breslin
The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl's Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster by Tim Crothers
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Memoirs

The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore
The Grace of Silence: A Memoir by Michele Norris
Life Itself: A Memoir by Roger Ebert
Just Kids by Patti Smith
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

Setting

Foreign adventure

A Wedding in Haiti: The Story of a Friendship by Julia Alvarez
Never the Hope Itself: Love and Ghosts in Latin America and Haiti by Gerry Hadden
Instant City by Steve Inskeep
Burma Chronicles by Guy DeLisle
End of the Earth: Voyages to Antarctica by Peter Matthiessen

Language

Nature discovery

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds by Julie Zickefoose
Settled in the Wild: Notes from the Edge of Town by Susan Hand Shetterly
Love, Life, and Elephants: An African Love Story by Dame Daphne Sheldrick

Personal essays

Farther Away by Jonathan Franzen
Off Main Street: Barnstormers, Prophets, & Gatemouth's Gator by Michael Perry
Havanas in Camelot: Personal Essays by William Styron
At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays by Anne Fadiman

Mood

True crime

The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Impostor by Mark Seal
The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago by Douglas Perry
A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale

I have built a preview slideshow for the Reaching Forward Presentation. It shows a lot of true story books that I like.

Read On … Speculative Fiction for Teens: Reading Lists for Every Taste by Jamie Kallio

One of my pleasures during the last year has been seeing my latest book promoted with Jamie Kallio's Read On … Speculative Fiction for Teens: Reading Lists for Every Taste, first on a poster at the Public Library Association Conference in Philadelphia when Jamie's book was a forthcoming title and recently in Libraries Unlimited catalogs that list it for sale. Both are titles in the Read On Series edited by Barry Trott. I am pleased because Jamie was working with us at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library when she started her book, and I like to think that by virtue of our working at a medium-small library and getting published nationally we have made a positive statement to the profession about the work at every size of libraries. She now works for the larger Orland Park Public Library.

Books written for teen readers are hot, especially in the science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal genres, which Jamie addresses in her readers' advisory book. Teens are not the only people reading these books, however. Many adults will recognize some of authors included in her book - Neil Gaiman, Isabel Allende, Terry Pratchett, Orson Scott Card, Ursala K. LeGuin, and J. K. Rowling. The great service of her book is that she goes beyond the familiar to introduce us to other talented authors, their memorable characters, and worlds we can hardly imagine.

Like all Read On Series books, Read On … Speculative Fiction for Teens is divided into five chapters, each of which contains between 11 and 20 lists of books related by reading appeal factors. Chapters focus on story, character, setting, mood, and language. Lists have clever titles which indicate their themes, such as "Look, Ma, I Can Fly! … and Other Experiments," "Falling for You: Immortal Beings," "You're Such a Witch," and "Stranger with My Face: Possession." If you want books with zombies, dragons, robots, vampires, or strong women, you can find them in Jamie's book. You can also find audiobooks, graphic novels, and award winning titles among the entries.

I especially like that Jamie dedicates the book to two of our library's former teen employees, readers with whom Jamie discussed books. How fitting.

Kallio, Jamie. Read On … Speculative Fiction for Teens: Reading Lists for Every Taste. Libraries Unlimited, 2012. 126p.ISBN 9781598846539.

Memoirs That Will Last

My article has been published! In the January issue of Library Journal starting on page 42, you will find "Memoirs That Will Last." It is an installment in the monthly LJ Collection Development Series. In this four page article, I attempt to identify memoirs that will be of interest to readers for years to come and deserve to be in most public libraries, as well as some school and college libraries. Thanks to the editors' encouragement to expand the original draft of the article, I identify 27 books. At the end of the piece, I also name six movies based on memoirs that libraries will want to offer their clients.

After being asked by Library Journal in July, I had about four months to research, contemplate, and write the article. I scanned Read On … Life Stories by Rosalind Reisner and Life Stories: A Guide to Reading Interests in Memoirs, Autobiographies, and Diaries by Maureen O'Connor to create an initial list of titles to consider and then looked through the SWAN catalog of suburban Chicago libraries. I trimmed the list knowing that not all librarians would fully agree, especially with the 21st century choices. It will be interesting to see if the article gets comments once it is available on the LJ website. 

One thing I would change now that I see the article is the subheading "Twenty-First Century Stories." The books were published after 2000, but the stories go back before. I think I may confuse a few readers with that subtitle.

I'd enjoy hearing what memoirs you believe will continue to merit reading for the next couple of decades. Feel free to comment.

Best Biographies and Memoirs of 2012

2012 was another banner year for biographies and memoirs. As in past years, many review journals, newspapers, and book sellers have posted their best books lists, and within those lists their have been many biographical and autobiographical books. This is my fifth extraction from those lists to highlight best biographies and memoirs.

I have drawn from nine lists this year. What I like is that a comparison of any two lists will show little agreement on the top titles (try the New York Times and the Washington Post to see the greatest differences), but if you look at all nine, you find some titles repeated, including Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham, Mortality by Christopher Hitchens, and Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed.

Each list has titles not mentioned in any other. As a result, there should be ideas here for both book discussion groups and very particular readers.

As you may see from reading the list, I define biography rather broadly. If there is a strong biographical component to a book some others might describe as a history, I figure a reader inclined to biography will be interested.


Amazon Best Books of the Year: Top 100 Picks for 2012

Biography

The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, vol. 4 by Robert A. Caro

Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson by Randall Sullivan

Memoirs

Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathom Greatness by Steve Friedman

The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie

The Long Walk: A Story of War and the Life That Follows by Brian Castner

Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

My Heart Is an Idiot: Essays by Davy Rothbart

My Mother Was Nuts: A Memoir by Penny Marshall

No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden by Mark Owen

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

Additional Amazon Editors’ Picks:
To the Last Breath: A Memoir of Going to Extremes by Francis Slakey and Winter Journal by Paul Auster


Booklist's Editor's Choice Adult Books 2012

Biography

American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama by Rachel L. Swarns

And Bid Him Sing: A Biography of Countée Cullen by Charles Molesworth

Barack Obama: The Story by David Maraniss

The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King by Rich Cohen

I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen by Sylvie Simmons

James Joyce: A New Biography by Gordon Bowker

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill; Defender of the Realm, 1940–1965 by William Manchester and Paul Reid

Leonardo and the Last Supper by Ross King

Love Song: The Lives of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya by Ethan Mordden

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A. Caro

Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

Thornton Wilder by Penelope Niven

Memoirs

Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie

Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937–1948 by Madeleine Albright and Bill Woodward


Christian Science Monitor 15 best books of 2012 – nonfiction

Biographies

Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King

Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith

Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West by Blaine Harden

The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Anne-Marie O’Connor

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 4 by Robert A. Caro

Reagan and Thatcher: The Difficult Relationship by Richard Aldous

Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan

Memoirs

The Distance Between Us: A Memoir by Reyna Grande

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed


Kirkus Reviews: Best Nonfiction of 2012

Biography

Cronkite by Douglas Brinkley

Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz

Ernie K-Doe: The R&B Emperor of New Orleans by Ben Sandmel

Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace by D. T. Max

Hello Gorgeous: Becoming Barbara Streisand by William J. Mann

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill; Defender of the Realm, 1940–1965 by William Manchester and Paul Reid

The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen by Stephen R. Bown

Leonardo and the Last Supper by Ross King

Mao: The Real Story by Alexander V. Pantsov

On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson by William Souder

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 4 by Robert A. Caro

The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw

Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece by Michael Gorra

Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America’s Most Perilous Year by David Von Drehle

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

The Voice Is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac by Joyce Johnson

Memoirs

Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation by Rachel Cusk

Are You My Mother: A Comic Drama by Alison Bechdel

Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats by Kristen Iversen

God’s Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine by Victoria Sweet

House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid

How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen by Sylvie Simmons

Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie

Kurt Vonnegut: Letters by Kurt Vonnegut

Life After Death by Damiem Echols

Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me: A Graphic Memoir by Ellen Forney

Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

The Patagonian Hare: A Memoir by Claude Lanzmann

The Tender Hours of Twilight: Paris in the ‘50s, New York in the ‘60s: A Memoir of Publishing’s Golden Age by Richard Seaver

The Voyeurs by Gabrielle Bell

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

Winter Journal by Paul Auster


Library Journal Best Books 2012: Biography and History

Biographies

Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King

Let the People In: The Life and Times of Ann Richards by Jan Reid

Mark Twain and the Colonel: Samuel L. Clemens, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Arrival of a New Century by Philip McFarland

Thomas Jefferson and American Nationhood by Brian D. Steele

Memoirs

Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 by Madeleine Albright with Bill Woodward


Library Journal Best Books 2012: Memoirs

Dust to Dust by Benjamin Busch

Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation by Rachel Cusk

La Petite by Michele Halberstadt

The Scientists: A Family Romance by Marco Roth

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson


Library Journal Best Books 2012: Top 10

Biography

The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Anne-Marie O’Connor

Memoirs

By the Iowa Sea: A Memoir of Disaster and Love by Joe Blair


Library Journal Best Books 2012: More of the Best

Memoirs

In the House of the Interpreter by Ngugi wa Thiongo

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson


New York Times: 100 Notable Books of 2012

Biography

All We Know: Three Lives by Lisa Cohen

American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama by Rachel L. Swarms

American Triumvirate: Sam Sneed, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, and the Modern Age of Golf by James Dodson

Barack Obama: The Story by David Maraniss

Belzoni: The Giant Archaeologists Love to Hate by Ivor Noel Hume

The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss

A Disposition to Be Rich by Geoffrey C. Ward

The Obamas by Jodi Kantor

On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson by William Souder

The One: The Life and Music of James Brown by RJ Smith

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 4 by Robert A. Caro

The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw

Saul Steinberg: A Biography by Deirdre Bair

Shooting Victoria: Madness, Mayhem, and the Rebirth of the British Monarchy by Paul Thomas Murphy

Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

Memoirs

Are You My Mother: A Comic Drama by Alison Bechdel

Memoir of a Debulked Woman: Enduring Ovarian Cancer by Susan Gubar

Oddly Normal: One Family’s Struggle to Help Their Teenage Son Come to Terms with His Sexuality by John Schwartz

Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay: Reflections on Art, Family, and Survival by Christopher Benfey

Sometimes There Is a Void: Memoirs of an Outsider by Zakes Mda

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson


Publishers Weekly Best Books 2012: Nonfiction

Biography

All We Know: Three Lives by Lisa Cohen

The Ice Balloon: S. A. Andree and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration by Alec Wilkinson

Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan

Titian: A Life by Sheila Hale

The Voice Is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac by Joyce Johnson

Memoirs

Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters by Joseph Roth

Louise: Amended by Louise Krug

Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

My Cross to Bear by Gregg Allman

The Patagonian Hare: A Memoir by Claude Lanzmann

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed


Washington Post: Best of 2012: 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction

Biography

Cronkite by Douglas Brinkley

Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz

The Last Pre-Raphaelite: Edward Burne-Jones and the Victorian Imagination by Fiona MacCarthy

The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat: Craig Claiborne and the American Food Renaissance by Thomas McNamee

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 4 by Robert A. Caro

Patriot of Persia: Muhammad Mossadegh and a Tragic Anglo-American Coup by Christopher de Bellaigue

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

Memoirs

The Boy Kings of Texas: A Memoir by Domingo Martinez

Elsewhere: A Memoir by Richard Russo

House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid

Immortal Bird: A Family Memoir by Doron Weber

Interventions: A Life in War and Peace by Kofi Annan

The Little Red Guard: A Family Memoir by Wenguang Huang

Running for My Life: One Lost Boy’s Journey from the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games by Lopez Lomong

The Tender Hours of Twilight: Paris in the ‘50s, New York in the ‘60s: A Memoir of Publishing’s Golden Age by Richard Seaver

Winter Journal by Paul Auster

Books That Mattered in 2012 and Year in Review

Merry Christmas. Maybe you will use the time between now and New Years Day thinking about reading, listening, and viewing for 2013. Here are books, music, and movies I liked best in 2012 and recommend to you. Because I mostly read nonfiction and hardly any fiction, there is little in the fiction category this year, but what there is is very good.

I look forward to more reading, viewing, and listening in 2013. I have a new wish list attached to my library's library catalog as well as one for audiobooks on our downloadables catalog. I also have an old wish list database at Zoho. How will I ever find enough time?

Have a Happy New Year.



Recent Nonfiction 

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds by Julie Zickefoose

Burying the Typewriter: A Memoir by Carmen Bugan

Life Itself: A Memoir by Roger Ebert

Love, Life, and Elephants: An African Love Story by Dame Daphne Sheldrick

The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl's Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster by Tim Crothers

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt

A Wedding in Haiti: The Story of a Friendship by Julia Alvarez

The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Rolls' Best-Kept Secret by Kent Hartman


Recent Fiction 

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson


Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon


Great Older Books 

Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken

A Noble Radiance by Donna Leon

Children's Books 

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales

Grandfather's Journey [and] Tree of Cranes by Allan Say

The Mighty Mars Rovers: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity by Elizabeth Rusch

Minette's Feast: The Delicious Story of Julia Child and Her Cat  by Susanna Reich


Audiobooks 

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend by Susan Orlean

Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey


Films and Television 

Bill Cunningham New York, a film by Richard Press

Karen Cries on the Bus, a film by Gabriel Rojas Vera

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Season One

Skin, a film directed by Anthony Fabian

Terry Jones' Barbarians


 Music 

Ac•Rock at the Library

Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons) by Joseph Haydn

Eaglebone Whistle

Million Dollar Quartet

Summer Side of Life by Gordon Lightfoot


Readers' Advisory 

On Writing Book Reviews for Booklist

Read On ... Audiobooks by Joyce Saricks