Walk a mile in someone else's shoes. Immerse yourself in the lives of the famous and people whose stories you can relate to. Our biography titles come in book, eBook, eAudiobook or large print. This list updates when we add new titles to our collection.
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Book
Samantha Markle shares her insights and perspectives on growing up with father Thomas W. Markle, being a sister to the much-younger Meghan Markle, building a life as a single mom in Southern California managing MS and a screenwriting career, as well ...
As Jenny Lawson's hundreds of thousands of fans know, she suffers from depression. In Broken (in the best possible way), she explores her experimental treatment of transcranial magnetic stimulation with brutal honesty. But also with brutal humor: "People...
Scoundrels, Cads, and Other Great Artists introduces people to great art by showing the more salacious side of the personal lives of great artists. The book not only tells the stories of twelve artists, but explores how to look at art and the separat...
They say it takes 10,000 hours to master a new skill. Well 60,000 hours since Todd and Jeff's tree change, they should have nailed country life, right? Sure, they've made great wine, built stunning villas and even learnt how to look after rescued farm...
eBook
Geoff Dyer wanted to write a book about D. H. Lawrence. He wanted, in fact, to write his 'Lawrence book'. The problem was Dyer didn't really know what his 'Lawrence book' would be, what form it would take, or even when he'd start writing it. He set out...
eAudiobook
Written more than a century ago by Frederick Douglass, a former slave who went on to become a famous orator, writer, journalist, U.S. minister, and a leader of his people, this masterpiece is one of the most eloquent indictments of slavery ever recor...
This heartfelt memoir and travel story is about an idealistic young woman forced to confront the limitations of how much difference she can make in a country rich in culture but stark in its deprivations. Julie Sprigg spent three years in Ethiopia,.....
The bible is the best selling book in history. maybe you've heard the classic stories of Noah, Moses, or the virgin Mary countless times. Or maybe you're thinking "Noah who?" Either way, you've never encountered the Bible quite like this. With more than...
Certain and impossible events begins in April 1994, with the suicide of a fourteen-year-old boy in a small New England town. The boy left behind no trail of warning signs and no suicide note, only a series of rumors that connected his actions to the suicide...
From all four parts of Kurdistan and across the diaspora, Kurdish women from different geographical, political, and educational backgrounds pick up a pen, reflect, and remember. Going beyond exoticising stereotypes and patriarchal representations, Ku...
The renowned biographer's definitive portrait of a literary titan. Appointed by Philip Roth and granted independence and complete access, Blake Bailey spent years poring over Roth's personal archive, interviewing his friends, lovers, and colleagues, ...
A moving, hopeful, and refreshingly candid memoir by the husband of former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg about growing up gay in his small Midwestern town, his relationship with Pete, and his hope for America's future. Throughout the...
Europe's greatest scientist during the latter half of the seventeenth century, Christiaan Huygens was a true polymath. A towering figure in the fields of astronomy, optics, mechanics, and mathematics, many of his innovations in methodology, optics an...
When the Golden Age of Hollywood was in its heyday, The Australian Women's Weekly was there too, reporting in real time on the faces, places and events of this glorious era. While the most iconic women of Hollywood may no longer be with us, their appeal...
Florence B. Price (1887-1953) was the first African American woman composer to achieve national recognition. She grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, studies at the new England Conservatory, and spent her professional career in Chicago (1927-53), where ...
From Kindertransport survivor to pioneering Foreign Correspondent at the Guardian - the extraordinary life of Hella Pick. A trailblazer for women in journalism, Hella Pick arrived in Britain in 1939 as a child refugee from Austria. Over nearly four decades...
What do we sacrifice in the pursuit of normalcy? And what becomes possible when we embrace monstrosity? In 1958, Riva is one of the first children born with spina bifida to survive. Her parents and doctors are determined to "fix" her, sending the message...
What if a lifesaving medical device causes loss of life along its supply chain? That's the question Katherine E. Standefer finds herself asking one night after being suddenly shocked by her implanted cardiac defibrillator. In this gripping, intimate ...
'This is the story of one man who went to Spain with an intellectual sympathy for socialist doctrine and came back. . . with a fervent, almost religious belief in its necessity' Both a memoir of Orwell's experiences during the Spanish Civil War and a...
Don't look at him. He is dangerous to look at,' said Lady Liddell to her daughter in 1817. Handsome, charismatic, aristocratic and allegedly 'mad, bad and dangerous to know', Lord Byron (1788-1824) is one of the most captivating and recognisable figures...
Accessible exploration of the noteworthy scientific career of James Smithson, who left his fortune to establish the Smithsonian Institution. James Smithson is best known as the founder of the Smithsonian Institution, but few people know his full and....
Recounts Maxwell's rise and fall and rise and fall again. Preston weaves backwards and forwards in time to examine the forces that shaped Maxwell, including his childhood as a Jew in occupied Eastern Europe through his failed political ambitions in the...
This the only authorized biography of New Zealand's prime minister, Robert Muldoon-one of the dominant political figures of the last half-century in that country. Based on many hours of conversation with Muldoon himself as well as colleagues, friends,...
This is a collection of linked essays on individuals and companies from 1931 to 1984 who contributed in major ways to building the New Zealand nation. It captures the intertwining of the lives of politicians, their advisers, and those influence them,...
Julius Vogel (1835?99) dominated New Zealand politics in a way that no man had done before him and few have done since. He was behind the policy that transformed New Zealand from a collection of sparsely settled and isolated provinces into a unified nation,...
Walter Nash (1882?1968) was among the most influential of the group of Labour Party leaders who created the welfare state. He was a member of parliament for almost 40 years and he was one of New Zealand political leaders known internationally. Keith ...
The gripping personal story of a Falklands Fighter Ace. David Morgan, RAF officer and poet, relives his experiences during the Falklands War in this vivid memoir. On secondment to the Royal Navy when the Argentine invasion of the Falklands began and ...
This is the astonishing story of persistence, comradeship and fighting spirit showed by everyday people in bringing the Nazis down. Patricia and Jean Owtram are possibly the only living sisters to have signed the wartime Official Secrets Act. Raised in...
A revelatory biography of the first Black woman to stand for Vice President, charting how the daughter of two immigrants in segregated California became one of this country's most effective power players. There's very little that's conventional about...
Yumiko Kadota was a young, gifted medical student - the top of her class - on her way to becoming an outstanding plastic and reconstructive surgeon. Fourteen years she'd studied and worked hard. She put in 70-hour weeks at the public hospital as a pl...
Raised in sleepy English suburbia, Georgina Lawton was no stranger to homogeneity. Her parents were white; her friends were white; there was no reason for her to think she was any different. But over time her brown skin and dark, kinky hair frequently...
A co-written project by Irvin and Marilyn Yalom, which describes their heartbreaking journey as a couple married 65 years facing the end of their long partnership. A longtime teacher and therapist on the subject of death anxiety, Dr. Yalom now confronts...
Ido in Autismland opens a window into non-verbal autism through dozens of short, autobiographical essays each offering new insights into autism symptoms, effective and ineffective treatments and the inner emotional life of a severely autistic boy. In...
"Europeans had no idea what they would find when they first set eyes on Aotearoa. The records they kept of their encounters with this new land and its Māori inhabitants reveal stories of great wonder, curiosity, misunderstanding and adventure. [This ...
Kayla Cox was a frustrated mom of three, who weighed 222 pounds when she discovered intermittent fasting. She eventually lost over 80 pounds using this method of eating, but she had mixed results at first. She finally realized her big mistake: she was...
When you are a female born into a poor Indian family, the odds are already stacked greatly against you. The human drama captured in this memoir is nothing short of amazing - a young woman's struggle between the two worlds of her existence. Saved by h...
Jenelle Evans shares the raw emotional stories of her youth that helped shape the woman she has become, all drawn from her childhood diary. From her appearances on 16 and Pregnant and then Teen Mom 2, Jenelle Evans's life was put on display for all to...
The engaging story of Fred Opert, whose brief time in a New York jail led him into a roller-coaster life of automobiles and motorsport. The author takes you into Opert's world of spotting talent in both drivers and crew members: 20 future F1 drivers who...
In her memoir, Molly reflects on her life with rawness and vulnerability - from chilldhood trauma and a nine-year-long battle with cancer to a sexual revolution and her final days in a hospital bed searching for meaning and finding grace.
When her body began to change at eleven years old, Febos understood immediately that her meaning to other people had changed with it. By her teens, she defined herself based on these perceptions and by the romantic relationships she threw herself int...
Over the course of almost half a century, puppeteer Ronnie Le Drew has worked with the greats - from David Bowie in Labyrinth to Michael Caine in The Muppet Christmas Carol. But the role that defined his career was Rainbow's Zippy, who he operated for...
In the course of making Human Flow, his epic feature documentary about the global refugee crisis, the artist Ai Weiwei and his collaborators interviewed more than 600 refugees, aid workers, politicians, activists, doctors, and local authorities in tw...
An attractive new hardcover edition of the classic biography of Tamara de Lempicka, whose paintings defined Art Deco and whose life epitomised the Jazz Age. As F. Scott Fitzgerald portrayed the mad glories of the 1920s on the printed page, Tamara de ...
In the 1930s, as official government expeditions set their sights on conquering Everest, a little-known World War I veteran named Maurice Wilson conceived his own crazy, beautiful plan: he would fly a Gipsy Moth aeroplane from England to Everest, crash...
A remarkable memoir by a mother and her autistic daughter who'd long been unable to communicate--until a miraculous breakthrough revealed a young woman with a rich and creative interior life, a poet, who'd been trapped inside for more than two decades."I...
What Happens When One of America's Most Beloved Biographers Writes His Own Biography?For five-time New York Times bestselling author Eric Metaxas, the answer is Fish Out of Water: A Search for the Meaning of Life--a soaring, lyrical, and often mischi...
May 10, 1940. The Netherlands was swarming with Third Reich troops. In seven days it's entirely occupied by Nazi Germany. Joining a small resistance cell in the Dutch city of Haarlem were three teenage girls: Hannie Schaft, and sisters Truus and Fred...
In the first portrait of James Beard in twenty-five years, John Birdsall accomplishes what no prior telling of Beard's life and work has done: He looks beyond the public image of the "Dean of American Cookery" to give voice to the gourmet's complex, queer...
From the BC doctor who has become a household name for leading the response to the pandemic, a personal account of the first weeks of COVID, for readers of Sam Nutt's Damned Nations and James Maskayk's Life on the Ground Floor.Dr. Bonnie Henry has been...
Nashville legend Loretta Lynn tells the story of her rise from deep poverty in Butcher Holler, Kentucky, to the top of the male-dominated country music industry. Reissued for the fortieth Anniversary of the Oscar-winning, Sissy Spacek-starring film of...
A powerful and moving account of adopting the boy who inspired the motion picture LION. Saroo Brierley's journey home to a small village in India with the help of Google Earth became an internationally bestselling book and inspired the major motion p...
There's very little that's conventional about Kamala Harris, yet her personal story also represents the best of America. Morain introduces us to the fast-rising prosecutor, who became the first Black female attorney general in California history. He shows...
"When I sailed to Greenland with 1994 Whitbread Round the World Race winner Ross Field, I knew many yachties would want to know how Ross applied 35 years' ocean racing experience to the refit of his 20-year-old, 55ft aluminium sloop; how he managed his...
Other Fish to Fry is an autobiographical journey through the first 80 years of the author's life. It is also a history of the struggle of Jewish families to escape the violence and oppression of the Russian dominated Eastern European countries to find...
Large Print
"PC Gareth Greaves first met Theo, a German Shepherd, when he was a nervous 14-month-old puppy. They were instantly inseparable and police dog Theo became the best partner Gareth's ever had. During six-and-a-half years of active service, police dog T...
Charles Dickens was a superb public performer, a great orator and one of the most famous of the Eminent Victorians. Slight of build, with a frenzied, hyper-energetic personality, Dickens looked much older than his fifty-eight years when he died an oc...
When he was two years old, Hunter Biden was badly injured in a car accident that killed his mother and baby sister. In 2015, he suffered the devastating loss of his beloved big brother, Beau, who died of brain cancer at the age of 46. These hardships...
Judith Lucy was just Great! Sure, the last remaining member of her immediate family had died, she was menopausal, she suspected her career was in the shitter and it seemed like the world was going to hell in a handbasket – but she was about to move in...
A symphony of contemporary New York through the magnificent words of its people-from the best-selling author of Londoners. In the first twenty years of the twenty-first century, New York City has been convulsed by terrorist attack, blackout, hurrican...
Bharti Dhir faced many challenges in her childhood that could have broken her. As a baby, she was abandoned at a bus stop in Uganda before being adopted by Punjabi-Sikh parents. Growing up as a biracial, female child and a refugee, she experienced an...
The Genius Makers tells the story of AI from pioneering days to current achievements to future potential. At the same time it takes the lid off what has effectively become an arms race between Google, Microsoft, Facebook and OpenAI, in which Google may...
Jill Trevelyan won the Non Fiction Award at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards in 2009 for this magnificent biography of one of New Zealands leading 20th century artists. Now back in print, this revised edition brings the book up to date with new as...
Bryony Gordon survived her adolescence by dreaming about the life she'd have in her twenties: the perfect job, the lovely flat, the amazing boyfriend. The reality was something of a shock. Her telegraphy column was a diary of her daily screw-ups, she...
本书讲述了杨度曲折坎坷,诡奇多舛的传奇人生,他十七岁中秀才,十八岁中举人,师承王闿运学习帝王之学,一心想成为宰相,后留学日本研究君主立宪,鼓动袁世凯称帝失败后又主张共和,人生不如意再入老庄,佛门,晚年加入中国共产党直至离世.唐浩明以史为鉴,以人书史,围绕杨度复杂的人生轨迹和思想脉络,编织穿插王闿运,梁启超,蔡锷,孙中山,严复等众多时代人物的言行踪迹,再现了在20世纪风云变幻格局下的中国救国之路.
A high position bestowed by China's empress dowager grants power and wealth to the Sun family. For Isabel, growing up in glamorous 1930s and '40s Shanghai, it is a life of utmost privilege. But while her scholar father and fashionable mother shelter her...
In Book One of the Made Beautiful by SCARS - Transformation series, Veronica Farmer, author and therapist with her own fascinating scar story, seeks out inspiring people to share their tales - from Mo Gawdat CBO of Google X and his Happiness mission ...
John Lennon, 1980: The Last Days in the Life traces the powerful, life-affirming story of the former Beatle's remarkable comeback after five years of self-imposed retirement. Lennon's final pivotal year would climax in several moments of creative triumph...
"The author shares the stories of his years in stand-up comedy in a humorous memoir that recalls a first job selling guidebooks at Disneyland, his early magic and comedy act, his years of honing his craft, and the sacrifice, discipline, and originality...
Born in 1864, Nellie Bly was a woman who did not allow herself to be defined by the time she lived in, she rewrote the narrative and made her own way. Bly's story is told through Miriam, a fictionalized female student at the Columbia School of Journalism...
BTS have exploded onto the global music scene with their distinctive brand of music, impressive choreography, and socially conscious lyrics. With multiple chart-topping albums and record-breaking music videos under their belt, this seven-man band, co...
An exploration of female friendship and women in music, from the iconic singer-songwriter and bestselling author of Another Planet and Bedsit Disco Queen. In 1983, backstage at the Lyceum in London, Tracey Thorn and Lindy Morrison first met. Tracey's...
Award-winning director; author; theatre, radio and TV personality; and recipient of the Padma Bhushan the patchwork quilt of Sai Paranjpyes life is indeed multicoloured. Born to noted author and social worker Shakuntala Paranjpye and Russian artist Y...
The rollicking memoir from the cardiologist turned legendary scientist and winner of the Nobel Prize that revels in the joy of science and discovery. Like Richard Feynman in the field of physics, Dr. Robert Lefkowitz is also known for being a larger-...
The remarkable story of how a consul and his allies helped save thousands of Jews from the Holocaust in one of the greatest rescue operations of the twentieth century. In May 1940, Jan Zwartendijk, the director of the Lithuanian branch of the Philips...
The Freezer Door records the ebb and flow of desire in daily life. Crossing through loneliness in search of communal pleasure in Seattle, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore exposes the failure and persistence of queer dreams, the hypocritical allure of gay ...
As the author, a young Army bandsman lies wounded at the Battle of Corinth, he is shot between the eyes at point blank range. Miraculously he survives but is blinded. In a makeshift hospital a young Greek volunteer saves his life with slices of boiled...
At just sixteen, Tana Douglas ran away to the circus that was rock 'n' roll in the 1970s, taking a job with a young and upcoming band called AC/DC. While still a teenager she went on to work for Santana, Neil Diamond and Suzi Quatro, before heading to...
"The son of Greek and Danish royalty, consort to the queen, and the grandfather of Princes Harry and William, Prince Philip has been at the heart of the royal family for decades--yet he remains an enigma to many. From his early childhood in Paris amo...
"Christie Tate had just been named the top student in her law school class and finally had her eating disorder under control. Why then was she fantasizing about her own death? Why was she envisioning putting an end to the isolation and sadness that s...
"Hailing from small beginnings in rural Waimate, William Manchester became a battalion medical officer with the New Zealand Amy in the United Kingdom during World War II. Selected in 1941 to train as a plastic surgeon, serendipitously under the supervision...
In this New York Times bestseller, the White House chief usher for nearly three decades offers a behind-the-scenes look at America's first families. J. B. West, chief usher of the White House, directed the operations and maintenance of 1600 Pennsylvania...
Gabrielle Korn starts her professional life with all the right credentials. Prestigious college degree? Check. A loving, accepting family? Check. Instagram-worthy offices and a tight-knit group of friends? Check, check. Gabrielle’s life seems to reach...
Mathilde Carre, codenamed 'La Chatte', the cat, then known as Agent Victoire, who was the exceptionally charismatic and daring founder of the 'Big Network'. This was the first Allied intelligence network in Occupied France, which soon grew central to...
When the glamorous Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston and Countess of Bristol, went on trial in Westminster for bigamy in April 1776, the story drew more attention in society than the American War of Independence. Now, in Catherine Ostler's bri...
Until the Americans killed Tecumseh in 1813, he and his brother Tenskwatawa were the co-architects of the broadest pan-Indian confederation in United States history. In previous accounts of Tecumseh's life, Tenskwatawa has been dismissed as a talentl...
A thoughtful and revealing memoir from one of the world's most recognizable women, renowned for her bold risk-taking, multiculturalism, and activism. "I am a product of traditional India and its ancient wisdom, and modern India and its urban bustle. ...
The true story of a detective, two bronze horses and the dictator who set the world on fire. When detective Arthur Brand is summoned to a meeting with one of the most dangerous men in the art world, he learns that a clue has emerged that could solve one...
Ida and Louise Cook were two ordinary Englishwomen, seemingly destined never to stray from their quiet London suburb and comfortable jobs, But in 1923, a chance hearing of an aria from Madame Butterfly sparked a passion for opera in the sisters that led...
For eight-year-old Tani Adewumi, growing up in Abuja, Nigeria, life is good. His father a prosperous businessman, is descended from a royal family. His mother's family owns a profitable printing press. Then what should have been a routine print job changed...
In Autumn 1942, Anna Goldenberg's great-grandparents and one of their sons are deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Hans, their elder son, survives by hiding in an apartment in the middle of Nazi-controlled Vienna. But this is no Anne F...
I've been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and...
A vivid, deeply researched work of history that explores the life of an unconventional woman in Edo - now known as Tokyo - and a portrait of a great city on the brink of momentous change. The daughter of a Buddhist priest, Tsuneno was born in 1804 in...
From Ty McCormick, winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, an epic and timeless story of a family in search of safety, security, and a place to call home.When Asad Hussein was growing up in the world's largest refugee camp, nearly every aspect...
One of Italy's most revered cultural figures reconstructs the extraordinary life of the legendary Cleopatra at the height of her power in this epic story of passion, intrigue, betrayal, and war.Our world today would not be the same without Cleopatra....
An exploration narrative of the highest order: the bestselling author of Over the Edge of the World brings alive the extraordinary life and adventures of Sir Francis Drake, whose mastery of the seas during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I changed the course...
The mesmerizing biography of a brilliant and eccentric surgeon and his quest to transplant the human soul.In the early days of the Cold War, a spirit of desperate scientific rivalry birthed a different kind of space race: not the race to outer space that...
A collection of transcendent, lyrical essays on life in the American West, the classic companion to Gretel Ehrlich's new book, Unsolaced"Wyoming has found its Whitman." --Annie DillardPoet and filmmaker Gretel Ehrlich went to Wyoming in 1975 to make the...
Always a Song is a collection of stories from singer and songwriter Ellen Harper--folk matriarch and mother to the Grammy-winning musician Ben Harper. Harper shares vivid memories of growing up in Los Angeles through the 1960s among famous and small-...
In this grand and thrilling narrative, the acclaimed biographer of Magellan, Columbus, and Marco Polo brings alive the singular life and adventures of Sir Francis Drake, the pirate/explorer/admiral whose mastery of the seas during the reign of Queen ...
One of Italy's most revered cultural figures reconstructs the extraordinary life of the legendary Cleopatra at the height of her power in this epic story of passion, intrigue, betrayal, and war. Our world today would not be the same without Cleopatra....
"For the first time, Stan Walker speaks with startling honesty about abuse and addiction, hardship and excess, cancer and discrimination, and growing up in a family where love and violence were horribly entwined. From one of the finest singers to emerge...
"Soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines speak in their own words about real life in today's armed forces. These are the brutally honest stories usually only shared amongst comrades in arms. Here, in the voices of the men and women who've fought overseas...
Wendyl's mother suffered from Alzheimer's, and during her last days she told Wendyl the most amazing stories of her life. It was as if her failing memory was delving back into the past in one final desperate attempt for it to be remembered. Being adopted...
"Brave, explosive, and thought-provoking, this is a powerful memoir. 'It's material, make a story out of it,' was the mantra Charlotte Grimshaw grew up with in her literary family. But when her life suddenly turned upside-down, she needed to re-examine...
A moving and revealing new portrait of Winston Churchill through the most important relationship in his life - that with his son, Randolph. Few fathers and sons can ever have been so close as Winston Churchill and his only son Randolph. Both showed f...
In the fall of 2014, educators Eric and Rixa Freeze moved with their young family to Old Nice, a medieval town-within-a-city on the famed Côte d'Azur. They'd bought a 700-square-foot dive, an apartment in need of renovation just a couple blocks from ...
Annabet and her younger brother Anders grew up in idyllic surrounds on the lower North Shore of Sydney, living in the original Balmoral boatshed. However, nothing was as it seemed and Annabet and Anders were both exposed to harsh, often irrational an...
The wise, warm, defiant new book from literary legend Isabel Allende – a meditation on power, feminism and what it means to be a woman. "When I say that I was a feminist in kindergarten, I am not exaggerating." As a child, Isabel Allende watched her ...
"The most anticipated political memoir of the year. A frank account from National MP Judith Collins of the highs and lows of a political life. From humble beginnings as the daughter of Labour-voting farming parents, Judith Collins has carved a path to...
"When she was just nine, Golriz Ghahraman and her parents were forced to flee their home in Iran. After a terrifying and uncertain journey, they landed in Auckland where they were able to seek asylum and - ultimately - create a new life. In this open...
Eye-opening and candid, David Bailey's Look Again is a fantastically entertaining memoir by a true icon. David Bailey burst onto the scene in 1960 with his revolutionary photographs for Vogue. Discarding the rigid rules of a previous generation of portrait...
''So lithe,' they say. 'So spry and sparkling. So uncannily youthful. How on earth do you do it?' Well, what can I tell you? An hour of tai chi first thing in the morning, an HIIT work-out with my personal trainer, a bowl of steamed kale and a handful...
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