Biographies

[tanyachrs]

I used to enjoy reading biographies, especially when I was a kid reading stories about Amelia Earhart and Florence Nightingale, but lately it seems like they're all so dry and weighted down with facts they forget to tell an interesting story. I'm not a scholar. I'm tired of little footnotes and every other word being in single quotes. Biographers these days seem to be in a one-up-man-ship mode to see who can be most accurate as though they were all writing for each other. I just want to read a nice story that's reasonably accurate about someone interesting and what made them interesting. Even the most interesting people have largely mundane lives, as 400 page biographies have made me realize.

Anyone read any good biographies lately? I love a little dramatization, maybe some dialogue. I know it's being made up but they make it up for movies and plays. Why do books have to be so boring?

 

[3113]

Anyone read any good biographies lately? I love a little dramatization, maybe some dialogue. I know it's being made up but they make it up for movies and plays. Why do books have to be so boring?

Try this one: The Devil in the White City By Erik Larson.

Fantastic book which is both factual biography but contains plenty of drama. Some "recreated" scenes of what might have happened. A "truth is stranger than fiction" type book that tells the story of the World's Fair in Chicago.

Is that what you're looking for, or do you need it to be even more fictionalized? Like a novel about a person's life?

I haven't read this one: Marie Antoinette, but Fraser is queen of that sort of almost-fiction biography.

 

[HeyNonnyNonny]

It isn't a particularly recent book, but I adored Rocket Boys, which is an autobiography/memoir by Homer Hickham. Wonderfully honest, humourous and moving (true) story about coming of age in a West Virginian mining town, and winning the National Science Fair in the process.

 

[rgraham666]

I recently read Panzer Commander.

An interesting memoir of the Second World War from the Axis side. The book seems a little stilted at times but I put that down to the Prussian sensibilities of the authour.

I especially liked that he did not hate, indeed had a lot of sympathy for the people he fought against. And it's interesting to read about the conflict between his duty as a soldier and his feeling as a person.

 

[deliciously_naughty]

I used to enjoy reading biographies, especially when I was a kid reading stories about Amelia Earhart and Florence Nightingale, but lately it seems like they're all so dry and weighted down with facts they forget to tell an interesting story. I'm not a scholar. I'm tired of little footnotes and every other word being in single quotes. Biographers these days seem to be in a one-up-man-ship mode to see who can be most accurate as though they were all writing for each other. I just want to read a nice story that's reasonably accurate about someone interesting and what made them interesting. Even the most interesting people have largely mundane lives, as 400 page biographies have made me realize.

Anyone read any good biographies lately? I love a little dramatization, maybe some dialogue. I know it's being made up but they make it up for movies and plays. Why do books have to be so boring?

Candy Girl by Diablo Cody just came out in paperback and it's awesome.

How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale by Jenna Jameson is also good-I'm reading this right now.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Ben Franklin is much better than the biographies written about him.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Bruce Campbell's If Chins Could Kill, Memiors of a B Movie Actor is a great autobiography. It's totally hilarious, and provides some great insight as to how the B movie industry works. I found it completely entertaining from cover to cover, and learned quite a bit too.

 

[past_perfect]

I enjoyed that one very much:

Darwin

Not as dry as one would expect.

 

[Guest]

Another vote for Rocket Boys. Movie is good too.

 

[Dr_Strabismus]

Pretty much all I read is biographies, and I tend to agree with you, tanyachrs, about the "scholarliness" sometimes getting in the way of my enjoyment.

The more entertaining biographies have their place, and if they're really good, have led me on to get into the more heavyweight ones -- but only because the entertaing biography piqued my curiosity about the person in the first place.

My ten-year fascination with the atsronomer Kepler began with Arthur Koestler's The Sleepwalkers.

And my current obsession with the real Lewis Carrol (Charles Dodgson) was triggered many years ago by Martin Gardner's Annotated Alice.

I've recent read Philip Hoare's England's Lost Eden, which contains a fascinating and startlingly lyrical biography of the 19th century prophetess Mary Girling. It's really a superbly written book.

 

[kendo1]

Albrecht Durer, Doc?


Thought you might be into Terry Wogan's auto.

 

[Dr_Strabismus]

Thought you might be into Terry Wogan's auto.

Nah, I don't read porn much these days

 

[kendo1]

LOL

The most recent ones I've read are A Climbers Life : Chris Bonington and The First Munroist.

Both pretty dry.

 

[Boota]

There are two autobiographies I read recently that I loved, and both were written with David Strauss. The Dirt by Motley Crue with Strauss, and Long Road Out Of Hell by Marilyn Manson with Strauss. All the filth that good rock and roll is known for.

Raw Talent by Jerry Butler was an interesting read. It's basically about his life as a porn star.

Not exactly biographies, but all three are written so candidly that I don't think they lost anything in the telling. If Motley Crue, for instance, was cleaning anything up for publication I can only imagine how bad things must have gotten.

 

[MagicaPractica]

I used to enjoy reading biographies, especially when I was a kid reading stories about Amelia Earhart and Florence Nightingale, but lately it seems like they're all so dry and weighted down with facts they forget to tell an interesting story. I'm not a scholar. I'm tired of little footnotes and every other word being in single quotes. Biographers these days seem to be in a one-up-man-ship mode to see who can be most accurate as though they were all writing for each other. I just want to read a nice story that's reasonably accurate about someone interesting and what made them interesting. Even the most interesting people have largely mundane lives, as 400 page biographies have made me realize.

Anyone read any good biographies lately? I love a little dramatization, maybe some dialogue. I know it's being made up but they make it up for movies and plays. Why do books have to be so boring?

This is basically why I prefer autobiographies to biographies. I've read several good ones by Patty LaBelle, Naomi Judd, Mary Higgins Clark, Eudora Welty, and most recently a book of memoirs by Amy Tan called The Oppositte of Fate which I highly recommend.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

I'm a big fan of serious historical fiction, including fictionalized biography. Two of my favorite authors are Alfred Duggan for dark age and medieval Britain (and Normans), and Noel Gerson for U.S. history. "I'll Storm Hell," Gerson's treatment of the life of Mad Anthony Wayne, was inspiring and even touching, to name one.

 

[tanyachrs]

This is basically why I prefer autobiographies to biographies.

Yeah, I've noticed a lot of people are recommending autobiographies. I'll take a look at some of the suggestions, thanks.

 

[cloudy]

I'm a big fan of serious historical fiction, including fictionalized biography. Two of my favorite authors are Alfred Duggan for dark age and medieval Britain (and Normans), and Noel Gerson for U.S. history. "I'll Storm Hell," Gerson's treatment of the life of Mad Anthony Wayne, was inspiring and even touching, to name one.

There's one about the life of Elizabeth Tudor that I can't remember the title of at the moment (it's driving me nuts!)....I loved it. It's a fictionalized account of her life.

I'll remember eventually, probably when it doesn't matter any more.

 

[TE999]

Here's a few I like:

'Truman' by David McCullough,

'Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success' by Joseph McBride,

'Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller Sr.' by Ron Chernow,

'George S. Kaufman: An Intimate Portrait' by Howard Teichmann, and

'Robert Mitchum: "Baby, I don't Care" by Lee Server. (Bob was way cool!)

I love bios.

Peace.