Biography recommendations
08-06-04 | 08:57 AM
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From: MA
Biography recommendations
Could any of you please recommend your favorite biographies or memoirs. I'm pretty burnt out on sci fi and fiction in general. Thanks.
04-21-05 | 08:10 PM
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I'm bumping this up because I'd like to hear some recommendations of some biographies. I finished reading Heavier Than Heaven: Kurt Cobain-which was great and The Emperor and the Wolf: Akira Kurosawa & Toshiro Mifune-again great. Currently, I'm reading Cary Grant by Marc Eliot. I'm enjoying it. Next I have is Jim Morrison by Stephen Davis. Any recommendations?
04-22-05 | 12:19 AM
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From: Texas! Damn right.
I still need to read The Emperor and the Wolf.
What are you areas of interest?
Akira Kurosawa's autobiography is called 'Something Like and Autobiography'.
Also, there is a recent bio on Miyamoto Musashi which I've been meaning to read, the first english bio on him, called 'The Lone Samurai: The Life Of Miyamoto Musashi' by William Scott Wilson.
I would personally suggest 'Serling, The Rise and Fall of Televisions Last Angry Man' which is out of print but can be had easily enough on eBay, Amazon zshops, alibris.com, etc.
If you're into revolutionary America at all, I would say Walter Isaacson's biography on Benjamin Franklin, or Joseph Ellis' 'American Sphinx' about Thomas Jefferson. And while not a biography, David Hackett Fischer's 'Washington's Crossing' got the Pulitzer for history this year, which is on the top of my 'to read' list. Another one I need to read is David McCoullough's 'John Adams'. These are all award winning books, and probably represent the pinnacle of popular American revolutionary history/biography in recent years.
If you dig a little bit later history, say the 1800's and Westward exploration, I personally enjoyed Francis Parkman's 'The Oregon Trail', and John Wesley Powell's 'Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons' is supposed to be a classic as well, although I haven't got to it myself yet. Then of course, regarding the 1800s, there is also the two Edmund Morris award winning biographies on Theodore Roosevelt, 'The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt' and 'Theodore Rex'.
What are you areas of interest?
Akira Kurosawa's autobiography is called 'Something Like and Autobiography'.
Also, there is a recent bio on Miyamoto Musashi which I've been meaning to read, the first english bio on him, called 'The Lone Samurai: The Life Of Miyamoto Musashi' by William Scott Wilson.
I would personally suggest 'Serling, The Rise and Fall of Televisions Last Angry Man' which is out of print but can be had easily enough on eBay, Amazon zshops, alibris.com, etc.
If you're into revolutionary America at all, I would say Walter Isaacson's biography on Benjamin Franklin, or Joseph Ellis' 'American Sphinx' about Thomas Jefferson. And while not a biography, David Hackett Fischer's 'Washington's Crossing' got the Pulitzer for history this year, which is on the top of my 'to read' list. Another one I need to read is David McCoullough's 'John Adams'. These are all award winning books, and probably represent the pinnacle of popular American revolutionary history/biography in recent years.
If you dig a little bit later history, say the 1800's and Westward exploration, I personally enjoyed Francis Parkman's 'The Oregon Trail', and John Wesley Powell's 'Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons' is supposed to be a classic as well, although I haven't got to it myself yet. Then of course, regarding the 1800s, there is also the two Edmund Morris award winning biographies on Theodore Roosevelt, 'The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt' and 'Theodore Rex'.
