NEW Biographies, Autobiographies and Memoirs
"As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised As a Girl"
by John Colapinto
BOOK on Sale
Once you begin reading "As Nature Made Him," a mesmerizing
story of a medical tragedy and its traumatic results, you
absolutely won't want to put it down. Following a botched
circumcision, a family is convinced to raise their infant
son, Bruce, as a girl. They rename the child Brenda and
spend the next 14 years trying to transform him into a
her. Brenda's childhood reads as one filled with anxiety and
loneliness, and her fear and confusion are present on nearly
every page concerning her early childhood. Much of her pain
is caused by Dr. Money, who is presented as a villainous
medical man attempting to coerce an unwilling child into
submitting to numerous unpleasant treatments.
Reading over interviews and reports of decisions made by this doctor, it's difficult to contain anger at the widespread results of his insistence that natural-born gender can be altered with little more than willpower and hormone treatments. The attempts of Brenda's parents, twin brother, and extended family to assist her to be happily female are touching--the sense is overwhelmingly of a family wanting to do "right" while being terribly mislead as to what "right" is for her. As Brenda makes the decision to live life as a male (at age 14), she takes the name David and begins the process of reversing the effects of estrogen treatments. David's ultimately successful life--a solid marriage, honest and close family relationships, and his bravery in making his childhood public--bring an uplifting end to his story. Equally fascinating is the latest segment of the longtime nature/nurture controversy, and the interviews of various psychological researchers and practitioners form a larger framework around David's struggle to live as the gender he was meant to be.
"The Unruly Life of Woody Allen: A Biography"
by Marion Meade
BOOK on Sale
Woody Allen once controlled the press like his actors--and
as critic Andrew Sarris observed, Woody "is almost a
ventriloquist and all his actors are marionettes. It's his
nature. He has to be on top." The Soon-Yi scandal cost him
$7 million and his protected reputation, and now we've got
Marion Meade's unblinking look at his blighted life
(superior to John Baxter's "Woody Allen," not quite as good
as Meade's "Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This?"). The
son of a loveless dad and mom who respectively ignored and
beat him daily, Woody grew up mean, scarred, and scared: he
slept with a night-light until his early 40s and considered
suicide daily until at least age 51. His uncanny gift for
comedy gave him no comfort, but movies did. His most
autobiographical character is Cecilia in "The Purple Rose of
Cairo," who took refuge in theaters from "the ugly light" of
real life.
Boy, does Meade cast ugly light on Woody and his work. His best role for a woman, "Annie Hall," is "basically stupid," as Diane Keaton said. In life and art, Woody sought leading ladies he could dominate. He stalled Mia forever before granting her the right to keep her shampoo at his apartment "alongside toiletries belonging to Diane Keaton, preserved there like so many fossilized relics in King Tut's tomb for more than a decade." Mia was horrified that he spilled her family's nasty secrets in "Hannah and Her Sisters," and fretted over his obsession with Keaton and her sisters, Mariel Hemingway's sister, and Mia's own sister Steffi--whose photos she discovered (shades of Soon-Yi!) in his apartment. Woody's lovable persona was as fake as his transplanted, dyed hair. And Mia's no sweetheart herself: having caught her scuzzy dad with Ava Gardner one night as a child, she married Ava's squeeze Frank Sinatra at 19, and then stole her friend Dory Previn's husband, Andre, saying, "You don't fight what feels good."
If Meade's sour, thorough tome is true, nobody in Hollywood fights what feels good, and they all come out looking pretty bad.
"Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot"
by J. Randy Taraborrelli
BOOK on Sale
What a great idea for a deep-dish tell-all! JFK's lonely,
classy wife, Bobby's athletic, competitive wife, and Ted's
meek, alcoholic wife, together at last between covers,
soothing each other when not fighting like fishwives.
Taraborrelli's breathless prose makes you a fly on the wall
when formidable mother-in-law Rose Kennedy walks in on Joan
commiserating with Ethel about their honeymoons: "I think
Bobby was finished before I got into the room!" said Ethel.
"Now what are you ladies talking about?" asked Rose. Jackie,
who was present, cooed, "Oh, we were just saying how well
Bobby sleeps at night." "He gets that from me," said Rose.
Ethel should never have been so catty when gentle, simple Joan joined the clan: "Goodbye wine and cheese," she hissed. "Hello macaroni and cheese." And she shouldn't have mocked Jackie for being unable to compete in touch football--with the Kennedys, it was more like "claw, scratch and bite" football. And what about when she rubbed it in that she and Bobby were closer than Jackie and Jack? After all, when Lee Remick phoned Ethel to say "You're on the way out," and Ethel replied that Bobby was home in bed, Bobby was in fact (says Taraborrelli) in bed with Lee Remick.
You may have heard that JFK's dad, Joe Kennedy, offered Jackie $1 million not to divorce JFK, but did you hear Jackie's alleged reply? "The price goes up to $20 million if Jack brings home any venereal diseases." Did Ethel betray Jackie's discontent to Joe--and then go ballistic when Joe only gave Ethel $500,000? You'd think Joan would be the clinker in the group, like Zeppo Marx. She was a bit dim, but should Ted have put her down as dumb? He's the one who showed up soused with a prostitute for dinner with the king and queen of Belgium, whose priceless antique couch Ted's date ruined by wetting it.
Who knows how historians will judge this book, but it sure does a great job of making history into a Jackie Collins novel.
"Boy with Loaded Gun"
by Lewis Nordan
BOOK on Sale
In only the first of many profoundly self-destructive acts
in his memoir, "Boy with Loaded Gun," Lewis "Buddy" Nordan
dons a Superman cape, shrieks in excitement at the arrival
of his family's new TV, and leaps off his porch as if to
fly. A few seconds later, his forehead strikes the concrete,
Buddy is laid out cold, and a number of all-too-enduring
patterns have taken root, including a lifelong fascination
with power and fathers and flight. To Nordan's credit, he
doesn't knock you over the head with the metaphorical
implications of this or any of the other escapades that
follow. Instead, he lets one improbably cinematic vignette
build on another: the time he met his alcoholic father's
midget ex-girlfriend; the time he ran away to New York and
was rescued from his own drunkenness by a suspiciously short
elevator operator; the time he mail-ordered a gun.
("Eventually I tried to kill my father, of course.") With a
life like this, how is it that Nordan has never written a
memoir before? The curious recurrence of midgets alone would
have been too much temptation for many a lesser talent.
One of the book's most acute pleasures is Nordan's account of his childhood in the wonderfully named Itta Bena, Mississippi. (The Chickasaw words--reputed by local legend to mean "home in the woods"--actually mean "to build a house of crossed logs.") Growing up in Itta Bena, of course, is all about getting out of Itta Bena, but once Nordan does, things go downhill fast. In the typically sordid progression of alcohol and infidelity that follows, we miss, as readers, Itta Bena's certainties: they are comfortable, especially to rebel against, and Nordan's account of them is like a well-crafted coming-of-age novel. In contrast, the myriad ambiguities of grown-up life seem less grand, even less true, than fiction. Still, who else has ever attained understanding by confronting his "inner midget"? The general outlines of Nordan's ascent from hell may be familiar--the church basements, what he calls his "Don't Drink meetings"--but the particulars never are (cf. the chapter titled "The Amazing Technicolor Effing Machine"). Nordan is an original, a storyteller of great and unusual gifts, and in "Boy with Loaded Gun," readers reap the fruits of both his present happiness and his past unhappiness.
"Baby Precious Always Shines: Selected Love Notes Between
Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas"
by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas
BOOK on Sale
"Baby Precious Always Shines," a delightful selection from
the 300 love notes that Alice B. Toklas accidentally
deposited with the rest of Gertrude Stein's papers in the
Beinecke Library at Yale, would not have been possible
before the 1980s, when the locked cabinet in which they were
kept was finally opened to scholars.
"Rembrandt's Eyes"
by Simon Schama
REVIEW
In Simon Schama's skillful hands, Rembrandt's conflicted
relationship with fellow painter Peter Paul Rubens, his
ambitions, and his great loves emerge--along with the
stories of his paintings--from the shadows of history.
"Rembrandt's Eyes" is a powerful blend of traditional
biography and art history that expands our understanding of
the famously mysterious artist.
"Mozart"
by Robert Gutman
REVIEW
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the puerile prodigy--if
contemporary depictions like those in the movie "Amadeus"
are to be believed--is treated to an adult assessment of his
great musical talents and very human character flaws in
Robert Gutman's definitive biography.
"James Joyce"
by Edna O'Brien
REVIEW
With nearly 20 books under her belt, including the acclaimed
"Down by the River" and the Country Girls trilogy, Edna
O'Brien is one of Ireland's living literary treasures.
"James Joyce"--a short biography in the vaunted Penguin
Lives series--is her homage to the man who taught her "the
only thing a writer needs to know."
It's not easy deciding on a subject for a book that could
eat up a decade of a writer's life. In an exclusive essay
for Amazon.com, Judith Thurman explains how language
barriers, fear of math, a bizarre test of loyalty, and a
breast-feeding infant all played a role in her choice of
Colette, the subject of "Secrets of the Flesh," the
award-winning biographer's latest work.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/16785/acousticdigestmu"> REVIEW
"Secrets of the Flesh"
by Judith Thurman
REVIEW
Dominick Dunne was once the toast of Hollywood--entertaining
movie stars and socialites, invited by moguls to clambakes
and black-tie dances. That is, until the bottom fell out--on
his marriage, his fortune, and his spirit. And having lost
nearly everything, at the age of 50 he reincarnated himself
as a successful novelist and journalist. His latest book,
"The Way We Lived Then," is a scrapbook-like memoir of his
earlier life. Dunne chatted with Amazon.com editor Jordana
Moskowitz about the differences between now and then.
REVIEW
"The Way We Lived Then"
by Dominick Dunne
REVIEW
Robert Scott and Roald Amundsen's race to the frigid top of the world, Linda Greenlaw's battle with an angry sea, the mystery of Amelia Earhart's final journey--the power of these tales of adventure gone bad is rivaled only by the skill with which they're told. We've compiled a list of the most intriguing and compelling of these stories, so batten down the hatches--you're in for a good ride. These great adventures are just some of the books collected thematically in a set of booklists built for biography and memoir readers. Visit the Biographies and Memoirs page at Amazon.com to peruse the complete selection. REVIEW
"The Hungry Ocean"
by Linda Greenlaw
REVIEW
"Amelia Earhart"
by Elgen M. Long and Marie K. Long
REVIEW
"When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi"
by David Maraniss
REVIEW
As coach of the Green Bay Packers from 1959 to 1967, Vince
Lombardi turned perennial losers into a juggernaut, winning
back-to-back NFL titles in 1961 and 1962, and Superbowls I
and II in 1966 and 1967. Stern, severe, sentimental, and
paternal, he stood revered, reviled, respected, and
mocked--a touchstone for the '60s all in one person. Which
adds up to the myth we've been left with. But who was the
man? That's the question Pulitzer Prize winner David
Maraniss tackles here.
"Hitler's Pope"
by John Cornwell
REVIEW
This devastating account of the ecclesiastical career of
Eugenio Pacelli (1876- 1958), who became Pope Pius XII in
1939, is all the more powerful because British historian
John Cornwell maintains throughout a measured though
strongly critical tone. He meticulously builds his case for
the painful conclusion that "Pacelli's failure to respond to
the enormity of the Holocaust was more than a personal
failure, it was a failure of the papal office itself and the
prevailing culture of Catholicism."
"Dutch"
by Edmund Morris
REVIEW
Why did Pulitzer-winning Theodore Roosevelt biographer
Edmund Morris controversially choose to write his authorized
biography of Ronald Reagan in the form of a historical
novel? There's a clue in a quote the book attributes to Jane
Wyman, Reagan's first wife. As Ronnie speechified about the
Red Menace at a 1940s Hollywood party, Wyman allegedly
whispered to a friend, "I'm so bored with him, I'll either
kill him or kill myself."
"'Tis"
by Frank McCourt
REVIEW
The sequel to Frank McCourt's memoir of his Irish Catholic
boyhood, "Angela's Ashes," picks up the story in October
1949, upon his arrival in America. Initially, his American
experience is as harrowing as his impoverished youth in
Ireland, including two of the grimmest Christmases ever
described in literature. McCourt views the U.S. through the
same sharp eye and with the same dark humor that
distinguished his first memoir: race prejudice, casual
cruelty, and dead-end jobs weigh on his spirits as he
searches for a way out.
"My First 79 Years"
by Isaac Stern with Chaim Potok
REVIEW
The conductor George Szell once told Isaac Stern that if he
spent less time doing other things and more time practicing
he could be "the greatest violinist in the world." Since
those "other things" included saving Carnegie Hall from the
wrecker's ball, generously sponsoring young artists like
Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman, and touring the world as an
ambassador of American classical performance, music lovers
can only be grateful that Stern settled for being one of the
world's great violinists.
"My Kitchen Wars"
by Betty Fussell
REVIEW
She may be a cookbook author, but Betty Fussell's extra-tart
autobiography is no ordinary gastronomic memoir. For
starters, her attitude toward cooking ("the one activity,
besides tennis, in which housewives were encouraged to
excel") is decidedly ambivalent. Smart, funny, even
appetizing at times, her book takes one woman's story as a
case study of the role food plays in our lives and in our
culture.
"The Life of Thomas More"
by Peter Ackroyd
REVIEW
"The Life of Thomas More" is Peter Ackroyd's biography--from
baptism to beheading--of the lawyer who became a saint.
More, a noted humanist whose friendship with Erasmus and
authorship of "Utopia" earned him great fame in Europe,
succeeded Cardinal Wolsey as Lord Chancellor of London at
the time of the English Reformation.
"I Will Bear Witness"
by Victor Klemperer
REVIEW
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Victor Klemperer
(1881-1960), honored as a frontline veteran of World War I,
was a distinguished professor at the University of
Dresden. A scant few months later he was merely a Jew,
protected from deportation to a death camp only by his
marriage to an Aryan.
"Slow Motion"
by Dani Shapiro
REVIEW
Dani Shapiro was rescued by tragedy. At the age of 23 she is
a wreck. A Sarah Lawrence college dropout, she is living as
the mistress--one of many, she would later find out--of her
best friend's stepfather, Lenny, a high-profile New York
City lawyer.
"A Flame of Pure Fire: Jack Dempsey and the Roaring '20s"
by Roger Kahn
REVIEW
Heavyweight boxing champ Jack Dempsey helped inaugurate both
sports as big business and the modern culture of celebrity.
Roger Kahn packs his biography "A Flame of Pure Fire" with
details of Dempsey's fights as well as his life in that
heady decade of Prohibition, before the stock-market crash
of '29.
"Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette"
by Judith Thurman
REVIEW
It's been nearly a century since Colette's racy novel
"Claudine at School" was first published under her husband's
name. "Secrets of the Flesh" explores the writing,
cross-dressing, bisexuality, post-literary careers, and
immutable individuality of this enfant terrible of French
literature.
"Gore Vidal"
by Fred Kaplan
REVIEW
Though biographer Fred Kaplan writes, "I prefer my subjects
dead," it is lucky for readers that he made an exception for
Gore Vidal. This biography of the writer, actor, and
cultural critic--to name just a few of Vidal's vocations--is
packed with memorable vignettes and American social history.
With nearly 20 books under her belt, including the acclaimed
"Down by the River" and the Country Girls trilogy, Edna
O'Brien is one of Ireland's living literary treasures.
"James Joyce," a short biography in the popular Penguin
Lives series, is her homage to the man who taught her "the
only thing a writer needs to know."
"James Joyce"
REVIEW
"Down by the River"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0452278775/acousticdigestmu"> REVIEW
"The Country Girls Trilogy"
REVIEW
Two of the most hotly anticipated and fiercely debated biographies of the fall season:
"Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan"
by Edmund Morris
REVIEW
Edmund Morris's big book about Ronald Reagan may be the most
controversial authorized biography ever written. Find out
what happens when a Pulitzer-winning historian turns a
president's life into a kind of weirdly revealing historical
novel.
"Hitler's Pope"
by John Cornwell
REVIEW
John Cornwell decided to write about Pope Pius XII to lay to
rest the decades-long rumors that the pontiff had aided and
abetted Hitler's rise to power and the extermination of
Europe's Jews. In "Hitler's Pope," however, Cornwell reveals
that what he found in the Vatican's archives confirmed even
the most malicious rumors and his own deepest fears.
"Saint Augustine"
by Garry Wills
REVIEW
"Saint Augustine," by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and
cultural critic Garry Wills, is a 145-page biography of a
saint whose collected works total 13 volumes. Despite its
brevity, the book offers a complex and compelling
interpretation of Augustine's life and work.
"When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi"
by David Maraniss
REVIEW
As coach of the Green Bay Packers from 1959 to 1967, Vince
Lombardi was revered, reviled, respected, and mocked--a
touchstone for the '60s all in one person. But who was the
man? That's the question Pulitzer Prize-winner David
Maraniss tackles in this biography.
"The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind the New
York Times"
by Susan E. Tifft and Alex S. Jones
REVIEW
This mammoth history of the dynasty that created and
controls the New York Times is as epic in its scope as is
the role of the newspaper in America. And like any good
epic, the story is filled with its fair share of personal
ambition, disappointment, competing heirs to the throne,
fierce loyalties, and powerful intrigue.
"'Tis"
by Frank McCourt
REVIEW
The sequel to Frank McCourt's memoir of his Irish Catholic
boyhood, "Angela's Ashes," picks up the story in October
1949, upon his arrival in America. His early American
experience is as harrowing as his impoverished youth in
Ireland, including two of the grimmest Christmases ever
described in literature. McCourt views the U.S. through the
same sharp eye and with the same dark humor that
distinguished his first memoir.
"Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945"
by Leo Marks
REVIEW
At the age of 8, Leo Marks discovered the great game of
codemaking and -breaking in his father's London bookshop,
thanks to a first edition of Poe's "The Gold-Bug." At 23,
as World War II was being played out in earnest, he hoped to
use his strengths for the Allies. But Marks's urgent, witty
memoir, "Between Silk and Cyanide," begins with his failure
to get into British Intelligence's cryptographic department.
"Out of Place"
by Edward W. Said
REVIEW
Edward Said is one of the most celebrated cultural critics
of the postwar world. His career as a thinker spans
literature, politics, music, philosophy, and history.
However, as the title suggests, Said's memoir is a far more
ambivalent and at times personally painful account of his
early years in Palestine, Egypt, and Lebanon and the often
paralyzing embrace of his loving but overbearing parents.
"Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry"
by Andy Marino
REVIEW
Artist Marc Chagall, philosopher Hannah Arendt, and writer
Andre Breton are among the 20th century's most important
cultural figures. If not for a man named Varian Fry,
however, they might never have survived the Nazi regime.
"Quiet American" is the biography of the extraordinary
Fry, who spirited nearly 2,000 Jewish artists and
intellectuals out of Hitler's grasp.
"Homelands and Waterways"
by Adele Logan Alexander
REVIEW
Young English sailor John Robert Bond--the son of an African
father and British mother--came to America in a typical
fashion: he joined the Union Navy during the U.S. Civil War
and then stayed on in his adopted country. But his biracial
heritage distinguished him from many of his peers. In
"Homelands and Waterways," Bond's great-granddaughter
shares the history of her extraordinary family.
"Fannie: The Amazing Rise to Fame of Author Fannie Hurst"
by Brooke Kroeger
REVIEW
Fannie Hurst, the highest-paid short-story writer of her
day, moved in the rarefied circles of early Hollywood, the
parlors of Harlem's intellectual elite, and the FDR White
House. "Fannie" resurrects this great personality.
As the generation that experienced the Holocaust firsthand begins to fade, many of these last survivors are sharing their stories. Some, like Victor Klemperer, have published memoirs, while others, like the family of Varian Fry, have granted permission to writers to do so. These exceptionally moving works guarantee that future generations will never forget the horror of war.
Victor Klemperer's memoirs:
"I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941"
REVIEW
"I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1941-1945"
REVIEW
A. Scott Berg soared above the biography competition to
snare the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for "Lindbergh," his popular
account of the legendary aviator. His book, recently issued
in paperback, and "Under a Wing," a luminous memoir by
Lindbergh's youngest daughter, Reeve, demonstrate how two
works can illuminate a single subject in distinct but
equally compelling ways.
"Lindbergh"
by A. Scott Berg
REVIEW
"Under a Wing"
by Reeve Lindbergh
REVIEW
NEW PAPERBACKS
It is arguably something of a mad undertaking to compile a
dictionary. But the original editors of the "Oxford English
Dictionary" had a certified lunatic on their hands in
W.C. Minor, who contributed thousands of entries. "The
Professor and the Madman," which traces the equally
fascinating stories of Minor's life and the dictionary's
evolution, tops the list of paperback biographies and
memoirs due this month.
"The Professor and the Madman"
by Simon Winchester
REVIEW
BIOGRAPHY BESTSELLERS
"Eleanor Roosevelt: 1933-1938"
by Blanche Wiesen Cook
REVIEW
"Saint Augustine"
by Garry Wills
REVIEW
"Hemingway: The Final Years"
by Michael Reynolds
REVIEW
MEMOIR BESTSELLERS
"Before the Wind: The Memoir of an American Sea Captain,
1808-1833"
by Charles Tyng
REVIEW
"Another Life: A Memoir of Other People"
by Michael Korda
REVIEW
"The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and
America's Race in Space "
by Eugene Cernan with Don Davis
REVIEW