More History and Heroes: 55 Biographies and Memoirs I Want To Read

Anthony, Carl Sferrazza. Florence Harding: The First Lady, The Jazz Age, And The Death Of America’s Most Scandalous President
Berg, A. Scott. Lindbergh.
Brookiser, Richard. James Madison.
Buechner, Frederick. The Sacred Journey: A Memoir of Early Days.
Byrne, Paula. Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead.
Carter, Jimmy. An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood.
Chang, Jung. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China.
Chesnut, Mary Boykin. A Diary from Dixie.
Colledge, Gary. God and Charles Dickens: Recovering the Christian Voice of a Classic Author. Recommended by Gina Dalfonzo at NRO’s Summer Reading List.
Conroy, Pat. My Reading Life. I just got this one from the library, and Eldest Daughter is reading it. I’ll see if I can get her to post a review when she’s finished.
DeMuth, Mary. Thin Places: A Memoir.
Dineson, Isak. Out of Africa.
Foer, Joshua. Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything.
Freeman-Keel, Tom. The Disappearing Duke: The Improbable Tale of an Eccentric English Family.
Godden, Rumer. A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep.
Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.
Gourevitch, Philip. We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families.
Hall, Ron. Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together. I just borrowed this book from the library, too.
Harrer, Heinrich. Seven Years in Tibet.
Harrison, Rosina. Rose: My Life in Service to Lady Astor.
Hemingway, Ernest. A Moveable Feast.
Hirsi, Ayaan. Infidel.
Hitchcock, Susan Tyler. Mad Mary Lamb: Lunacy and Murder in Literary London.
James, Marquis. The Raven.
James, P.D. Time To Be In Earnest: A Fragment Of Autobiography.
Junger, Sebastian. The Perfect Storm A True Story of Men Against the Sea.
Kamara-Ummuna, Agnes and Emily Holland. And Still Peace Did Not Come: A Memoir of Reconciliation.
Kendall, Joshua. The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget’s Thesaurus.
Kirkby, Mary-Ann. I Am Hutterite: The Fascinating True Story of a Young Woman’s Journey to Reclaim Her Heritage.
Korda, Michael. Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia.
Korda, Michael. Ike: An American Hero. Recommended by Patrick Lee at NRO’s Summer Reading List.
Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild.
Kullberg, Kelly Monroe. Finding God at Harvard.
Mandela, Nelson. Long Walk to Freedom.
Markham, Beryl. West With the Night.
Massie, Robert. Peter the Great: His Life and World.
Massie Robert. Catherine the Great. Recommended by Samuel Gregg in NRO’s Summer Reading List.
Matteson, John. Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father.
McCullough, David. Truman. I got a copy of this book for Christmas, but I still haven’t read it. Before next Christmas?
Millard, Candice. Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President.
Morris, Roy. Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876.
Naidi, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran.
Nevin, Allan. Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage.
O’Brien, Michael. Mrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon.
Orwell, George. Down and Out in Paris and London.
Panter-Downes, Mollie. London War Notes 1939 to 1945.
Roe, Dianah. The Rossettis in Wonderland: A Victorian Family History.
Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
Steinmeyer, Jim. The Last Greatest Magician in the World: Howard Thurston versus Houdini & the Battles of the American Wizards.
Taylor, Hudson. The Autobiography of Hudson Taylor: Missionary to China. I have this one on my Kindle.
Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812
Ung, Loung. First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers.
White, William Allen. A Puritan in Babylon: The Story of Calvin Coolidge.
Wilbur, Gregory. Glory and Honor: The Music and Artistic Legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Wolff, Tobias. This Boy’s Life.
Wrong, Michaela. It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower.

So many books. So little time. Have you read any of these books? Do you recommend that I move any one or more of them to the top of the TBR list?

4 thoughts on “More History and Heroes: 55 Biographies and Memoirs I Want To Read

  1. I have Greg Wilbur’s book on Bach ( actually know him). It is good but can stay where it is .

    I would move Hudson Taylor’s autobiography up the list.
    My daughter ( 15) loved The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Move up.
    I LOVED PD James : A Time to be Earnest. I wanted to have tea with her after reading it years ago. She has a lecture she gave to the Jane Austen Soc. in England on EMMA at the back. MOVE UP.
    The Sacred Journey by Buechner is good. I just returmed it to the library as a reread.
    Rumer Godden’s A time to Dance ….. is good!
    I LOVED Pat Conroy’s My Reading Life ~~ filled my journal with quotes. MOVE up.
    I started . Reading Lolita in Tehran. and got tired of it. Too modern or something.
    Same Kind Different as Me : book club did and it is good.
    Really good list!

  2. Pingback: 55 Reading Lists That I Would Love to Read Through . . . | Semicolon

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