biographies for 2023

The Best New Biographies of 2023

CJ Connor is a cozy mystery and romance writer whose main goal in life is to make their dog proud. They are a Pitch Wars alumnus and an Author Mentor Match R9 mentor. Their debut mystery novel BOARD TO DEATH is forthcoming from Kensington Books. Twitter: @cjconnorwrites | cjconnorwrites.com

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Read on to discover nine of the best biographies published within the last year. Included are life stories of singular people, including celebrated artists and significant historical figures, as well as collective biographies.

The books included in this list have all been released as of writing, but biography lovers still have plenty to look forward to before the year is out. A few to keep your eye out for in the coming months:

The World According to Joan Didion by Evelyn McDonnell (HarperOne, September 26)
Einstein in Time and Space by Samuel Graydon (Scribner, November 14)
Overlooked: A Celebration of Remarkable, Underappreciated People Who Broke the Rules and Changed the World by Amisha Padnani (Penguin Random House, November 14).

Without further ado, here are the best biographies of 2023 so far!

Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo

Ellen and William Craft were a Black married couple who freed themselves from slavery in 1848 by disguising themselves as a traveling white man and an enslaved person. Author Ilyon Woo recounts their thousand-mile journey to seek safety in the North and their escape from the United States in the months following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act.

The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel

Written over a period of 11 years with exclusive journalistic access to the subject, author Michael Finkel explores the motivations, heists, and repercussions faced by the notorious and prolific art thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Of special focus is his relationship with his girlfriend and accomplice, Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus.

King: A Life by Jonathan Eig

While recently published, King: A Life is already considered to be the most well-researched biography of Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. published in decades. New York Times bestselling journalist Jonathan Eig explores the life and legacy of Dr. King through thousands of historical records, including recently declassified FBI documents.

Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters by Lynnée Denise

This biography is part of the Why Music Matters series from the University of Texas. It reflects on the legendary blues singer’s life through an essay collection in which the author (also an accomplished musician) seeks to recreate the feeling of browsing through a box of records.

Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power by Leah Redmond Chang

Historian Leah Redmond Chang’s latest book release focuses on three aristocratic women in Renaissance Europe: Catherine de’ Medici, Elizabeth de Valois, and Mary, Queen of Scots. As a specific focus, she examines the juxtaposition between the immense power they wielded and yet the ways they remained vulnerable to the patriarchal, misogynistic societies in which they existed.

Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong’s Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang

Anna May Wong was a 20th-century actress who found great acclaim while still facing discrimination and typecasting as a Chinese woman. University of California professor Yunte Huang explores her life and impact on the American film industry and challenges racist depictions of her in accounts of Hollywood history in this thought-provoking biography.

Twice as Hard: The Stories of Black Women Who Fought to Become Physicians, from the Civil War to the 21st Century by Jasmine Brown

Written by Rhodes Scholar and University of Pennsylvania medical student Jasmine Brown, this collective biography shares the experiences and accomplishments of nine Black women physicians in U.S. history — including Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first Black American woman to earn a medical degree in the 1860s, and Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders.

Larry McMurtry: A Life by Tracy Daugherty

Two years after the Pulitzer Prize-winning author’s death, this biography presents a comprehensive history of Larry McMurtry’s life and legacy as one of the most acclaimed Western writers of all time.

The Kneeling Man: My Father’s Life as a Black Spy Who Witnessed the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. by Leta McCollough Seletzky

Journalist Leta McCollough Seletzky examines her father, Marrell “Mac” McCollough’s complicated legacy as a Black undercover cop and later a member of the CIA. In particular, she shares his account as a witness of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel.

Are you a history buff looking for more recommendations? Try these.

Best History Books by Era
Books for a More Inclusive Look at American History
Fascinating Food History Books

Read With Jenna, the Jenna Bush Hager Book Club

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Best Biographies of 2023

MAY 16, 2023

by Jonathan Eig

An extraordinary achievement and an essential life of the iconic warrior for social justice. Full review >

SEPT. 12, 2023

by Tracy Daugherty

A definitive life of the novelist/bookseller/scriptwriter/curmudgeon of interest to any McMurtry fan. Full review >

APRIL 11, 2023

by Robert Greenfield

A masterful look at the wild life of an enigmatic artist that shows how captivating the truth can be. Full review >

AUG. 15, 2023

by Patti Hartigan

An authoritative portrait of a defiant champion of Black theater. Full review >

OCT. 3, 2023

by Will Hermes

An engrossing, fully dimensional portrait of an influential yet elusive performer. Full review >

by Walter Isaacson

Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator. Full review >

by Sally H. Jacobs

An essential book about an incomparably authentic American pioneer and the times in which she lived. Full review >

APRIL 4, 2023

by Robert "Mack" McCormick ; edited by John W. Troutman

A worthwhile investigation into a true legend of the blues. Full review >

MAY 2, 2023

by Jonny Steinberg

A magnificent portrait of two people joined in the throes of making South African history. Full review >

DEC. 5, 2023

by Judith Tick

As masterful and wonderful as its subject. Full review >

OCT. 31, 2023

by Ronald C. White

A revealing portrait of an American hero who deserves even wider recognition. Full review >

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The best memoirs and biographies of 2023

The rise of Madonna, Barbra Streisand in her own words, plus the stormy relationship of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor are among this year’s highlights

F or most writers, a memoir is a once in a lifetime event, but not for the poet and novelist Blake Morrison. Having already written memoirs about his late mother and father, he has turned his attention to his siblings in Two Sisters (Borough). The book details the life of Gill, his younger sister who died in 2019 from heart failure caused by alcohol abuse, alongside his half-sister Josie, the product of his father’s affair with a married neighbour, whose real parentage went unacknowledged for years. Morrison’s account of their struggles is tender, vivid and achingly sad.

O Brother (Canongate) is another brutal and brilliant sibling memoir in which the Kill Your Friends author John Niven recalls the life and death of his charismatic, troubled brother, Gary, who took his own life in 2010. It’s with both humour and pathos that he recalls his and Gary’s early life growing up in Irvine, Ayrshire, their diverging adult trajectories and the “Chernobyl of the soul” felt by Niven and his family after his brother’s suicide.

From siblings to parents and grandparents: Before the Light Fades (Virago) by Natasha Walter reveals how the author’s mother, Ruth, took her life at the age of 75, leaving a note that read: “Please be happy for me. It is a logical, positive decision.” Her death inspires Walter to investigate her family’s history of activism, tracing a fascinating path from her German grandfather Georg, who protested against the rise of the Nazis in the early 1930s, via her mother’s campaigning – Ruth was a member of the anti-war group Committee of 100, founded by Bertrand Russell – through to her own direct action with Extinction Rebellion.

Having detailed the trauma endured by her Jewish grandparents and their siblings during the second world war in her 2020 memoir House of Glass, Hadley Freeman turns the microscope on herself in Good Girls (4th Estate), detailing an adolescence blown apart by anorexia. The book is both a fearless account of her hospitalisation and eventual recovery and an important study of this most slippery and misunderstood disorder.

The Pulitzer-winning Stay True (Picador) , by New Yorker writer Hua Hsu, is a powerful and beautifully written meditation on guilt, memory and male friendship as the author reflects on the death of his “flagrantly handsome” college friend, Ken, who was murdered in 1998 after leaving a house party. A similarly thoughtful portrait of friendship, Jonathan Rosen’s The Best Minds (Penguin) tells of Michael Laudor, Rosen’s childhood friend with whom he shared a dream of being a writer. In adulthood, Laudor developed schizophrenia, for which he spent time in a psychiatric institution, and, in 1998, committed a shocking murder. In telling Laudor’s story, Rosen paints a bleak picture of how initially hopeful new attitudes towards mental illness fed into a system where those in desperate need of help slipped through the cracks.

In the clear-eyed and courageous How to Say Babylon (4th Estate), the poet Safiya Sinclair documents her traumatic childhood as the daughter of a militant Rastafarian who struck fear into his wife and children and made it clear to Safiya that she should grow into “the humbled wife of a Rastaman. Ordinary and unselfed. Her voice and vices not her own.” In her teens, Sinclair took refuge in poetry and, in defiance of her father, forged her own path. A domineering father also features in Noreen Masud’s lyrical, melancholy A Flat Place (Hamish Hamilton), in which the author travels to some of Britain’s starkest landscapes, including Morecambe Bay, Orford Ness and Orkney, while reflecting on themes of exile, heritage and her troubled childhood in Lahore, Pakistan.

Cover of Wish I Was Here by M John Harrison

Subtitled “an anti-memoir”, Wish I Was Here (Serpent’s Tail) sees the Viriconium author M John Harrison sifting through old notebooks and observing how his character and writing have evolved in a career spanning half a century, all the while rejecting the concept of memoir as another form of fiction. Along with providing snapshots from his life, this delightfully oddball and original book functions as a writing manual in which Harrison reveals his own battles on the page. “The problem of writing,” he says, “is always the problem of who you were, the problem of who to be next.”

A beguiling blend of memoir and biography, the Observer art critic Laura Cumming’s Thunderclap (Chatto & Windus) recalls the life of her father, the Scottish artist James Cumming, and that of Carel Fabritius, the 17th-century Dutch artist who was killed aged 32 in the Delft “thunderclap”, an explosion at a municipal gunpowder magazine that caused the roof of his home to collapse. Wrapped around their stories is the author’s own artistic journey, from her early days in London visiting and revisiting Fabritius’s A View of Delft in the National Gallery. Cumming’s luminous descriptions of individual paintings are worth the price of the book alone.

Wifedom (Penguin), by the former human rights lawyer Anna Funder, similarly weaves together memoir and biography to tell the story of Eileen O’Shaughnessy, the first wife of George Orwell who died at the age of 39. Having spent a summer reading Orwell, Funder noticed how little he mentioned Eileen, even though she had joined him on research trips and collaborated with him on works including Nineteen Eighty-Four. And so Funder shifted her attention “from the work to the life, and from the man to the wife”, in the process creating a nuanced portrait of a charismatic, pragmatic woman who, for better or worse, sacrificed her talent for the man she loved.

Cover of Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China’s Cultural Revolution by Tania Branigan

Less a straightforward biography than a series of portraits, Red Memory (Faber), by the Guardian’s former China correspondent Tania Branigan, collates remarkable eyewitness accounts of China’s Cultural Revolution, a decade-long period of upheaval, paranoia and persecution beginning in 1966. Among Branigan’s interviewees is 60-year-old Zhang Hongbing, who, as a teenager, denounced his mother to the Communist party, leading to her arrest and execution. Zhang takes Branigan to her grave where, between sobs, he chastises his mother for failing to teach him about independence of thought.

Cover of Winnie & Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage by Jonny Steinberg

Jonny Steinberg’s richly detailed Winnie & Nelson (William Collins) documents the relationship of the late anti-apartheid activist and first South African president Nelson Mandela and his second wife, the former social worker Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who died in 2018. Both fought racism at great personal cost, though, as this insightful biography reveals, they also inflicted immeasurable cruelty on one another.

Mary Gabriel’s Madonna: A Rebel Life (Coronet) chronicles, in enthralling detail, Madonna Louise Ciccone’s path from terrifyingly ambitious trainee dancer to pop colossus, all the while placing her in a wider social and cultural context. This is not just the story of massive sales and reinvention but that of a young woman devastated by the loss of her ultra-religious mother and fearlessly battling patriarchal systems, the conservative right and the Catholic church. Another exhaustive portrait of an era-defining star comes courtesy of its subject. Barbra Streisand’s My Name Is Barbra (Century) clocks in at 992 pages, and charts every step of the winding road from Brooklyn to Hollywood.

If both those books reveal the hard graft behind fame, Erotic Vagrancy (Riverrun), by Roger Lewis, tells of the excess. A twin biography of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, the actors famed for their on-off relationship and lavish lifestyle, the title is borrowed from a furious Vatican statement drafted during the filming of 1963’s Cleopatra in Italy, which accused the pair of “erotic vagrancy”. Lewis’s magnificently entertaining book – a doorstopper at more than 650 pages – brims with outrageous anecdotes attesting to the couple’s obsession with one another and their chaotic and decadent ways (they once hired a yacht for their dogs). Burton and Taylor are seemingly monstrous – infantile, vulgar, narcissistic – but, as depicted here, they are nothing less than mesmerising.

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The Best Memoirs of 2023

These ten books explore what it means to be a person..

The beauty of memoir is its resistance to confinement: We contain multitudes, so our methods of introspection must, too. This year’s best memoirs perfectly showcase such variety. Some are sparse, slippery — whole lives pieced together through fragmented memories, letters to loved ones, recipes, mythology, scripture. Some tease the boundary between truth and fiction. Others elevate straightforward narratives by incorporating political theory, philosophy, and history. The authors of each understand that one’s life — and more significantly, one’s self — can’t be contained in facts. After all, the facts as we remember them aren’t really facts. It’s their openness and experimentation that allow, at once, intimacy and universality, provoking some of our biggest questions: How does a person become who they are? What makes up an identity? What are the stories we tell ourselves, and why do they matter? These books might not spell out the answers for you, but they’ll certainly push you toward them.

10. Hijab Butch Blues , by Lamya H

NYC-based organizer Lamya H (a pseudonym) has described her memoir as “unapologetically queer and unapologetically Muslim .” What this looks like is a book that isn’t so much grappling with or reconciling two conflicting identities, but rather lovingly examining the ways each has supported and strengthened the other. Lamya provides close, queer readings of the Quran, drawing connections between its stories and her own experiences of persecution as a brown girl growing up in an (unnamed) Arab country with strict colorist hierarchies. Beginning with her study of the prophet Maryam — whose virgin pregnancy and general rejection of men brings a confused 14-year-old Lamya real relief during Quran class — Lamya draws on various religious figures to track her political, spiritual, and sexual coming of age, jumping back and forth in time as she grows from a struggling child into a vital artist and activist.

9. Better Living Through Birding , by Christian Cooper

On May 25, 2020, birder Christian Cooper was walking the Central Park Ramble when he asked a white woman on the same path to leash her dog. She refused, he started recording, and after both he and his sister posted the video on social media , the whole world saw her call 911 and falsely claim that an African American man was threatening both her and her dog. Cooper quickly found himself at the center of an urgent conversation about weaponized whiteness and police brutality against Black men in the U.S., amplified by another devastating video circulating that same day: George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police. Many will pick up Cooper’s memoir for his account of the interaction that captured international attention and forever changed his life — and it is a powerful, damning examination — but it is far from the main event. By the time it shows up, Cooper has already given us poignant recollections of growing up Black and gay (and in the closet) in 1970s Long Island, a loving analysis of science fiction, a behind-the-scenes look at the comic-book industry as it broke through to the mainstream, and most significantly, an impassioned ode to and accessible education on recreational birding. (The audiobook comes with interstitial birdsong!) Recalling his time at Harvard, Cooper turns repeatedly to his love of his English classes, and this background comes through in his masterful writing. An already prolific writer in the comic-book space, his memoir marks his first (and hopefully not last) foray into the long-form territory.

8. Love and Sex, Death and Money , by McKenzie Wark

McKenzie Wark is one of the sharpest, most exciting voices writing at the intersections of capitalism, community, gender, and sex — more broadly, everything in this title — and she is also criminally underread. In her epistolary memoir Love and Sex … , she looks at a lifetime of transitions — journeys not only through her gender, but also politics, art, relationships, and aging — and reflects on all the ways she has become the woman she is today, in letters to the people who helped shape her. Wark’s first letter is, fittingly, directed to her younger self. She acknowledges their infinite possible futures and that, in this way, this younger Wark on the brink of independence is the one most responsible for setting her on the path to this specific future. In theory, it’s a letter to offer clarity, even guidance, to this younger self, but really it’s a means of listening to and learning from her. Her letters to mothers, lovers, and others are as much, if not more, about Wark as they are about the recipients, but that self-reflection doubles as a testament to the recipients’ power. What comes across most strongly is Wark’s belief in ongoing evolution and education, and it’s hard not to leave inspired by that possibility.

7. A Man of Two Faces , by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen’s memoir maintains the singular voice of his fiction: audacious, poetic, self-aware. Written in nonlinear second-person stream of consciousness — its disjointedness represented on the page by paragraphs volleying from left to right alignment across the page — A Man of Two Faces recounts his life as a Vietnamese refugee in the U.S. When his family moves from wartime Vietnam to San Jose, California, 4-year-old Nguyen is placed in a different sponsor home than the rest of his family. The separation is brief, but it sets a tone of alienation that continues throughout his life — both from his parents, who left their home in pursuit of safety but landed in a place with its own brand of violence, and from his new home. As he describes his journey into adulthood and academia, Nguyen incorporates literary and cultural criticism, penetrating analyses of political history and propaganda, and poignant insights about memory and trauma.

6. Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere , by Maria Bamford

It’s safe to say alt-comedian Maria Bamford’s voice isn’t for everyone. Those who get her anti-stand-up stand-up get it and those who don’t, don’t. Her absurdist, meta series Lady Dynamite revealed the work of a woman learning to recognize and love her brilliant weirdness, and in Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult , she channels that weirdness into a disarmingly earnest, more accessible account of both fame and mental illness. Centered on Bamford’s desperate pursuit of belonging, and the many, often questionable places it’s led her — church, the comedy scene, self-actualization conferences, 12-step groups, each of which she puts under the umbrella of the titular “cults” — Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult is egoless, eye-opening, uncomfortable, and laugh-out-loud funny. These are among the best qualities — maybe even prerequisites — of an effective mental-illness memoir, and Bamford’s has earned its keep in the top tier. If you’re thinking of skipping it because you haven’t connected with Bamford’s work before: don’t.

5. In Vitro: On Longing and Transformation , by Isabel Zapata

In Isabel Zapata’s intimate, entrancing memoir In Vitro , the Mexican poet brazenly breaks what she calls “the first rule of in vitro fertilization”: never talk about it. Originally published in Spanish in 2021, and with original drawings woven throughout, In Vitro is a slim collection of short, discrete pieces. Its fragments not only describe the invasive process and its effects on her mind and body, but also contextualize its lineage, locating the deep-seated draw of motherhood and conception, analyzing the inheritances of womanhood, and speaking directly to her potential child. All together, it becomes something expansive — an insightful personal history but also a brilliant philosophical text about the very nature of sacrifice and autonomy.

4. The Night Parade , by Jami Nakamura Lin

When Jami Nakamura Lin was 17 years old, she checked herself into a psych ward and was diagnosed bipolar. After years experiencing disorienting periods of rage, the diagnosis offers validation — especially for her historically dismissive parents — but it doesn’t provide the closure that mainstream depictions of mental illness promise. In The Night Parade , intriguingly categorized as a speculative memoir, Lin explains that if a story is good, it “collapses time”; in other words, it has no beginning or end. Chasing this idea, Lin turns to the stories of her Japanese, Taiwanese, and Okinawan heritage, using their demons, spirits, and monsters to challenge ideas of recovery and resituate her feelings of otherness. Intertwined in this pursuit is her grappling with the young death of her father and the birth of her daughter after a traumatic miscarriage. Extensively researched — citing not only folklore but also scholars of history, literary, and mythology — and elevated by her sister Cori Nakamura Lin’s lush illustrations, The Night Parade is both an entirely new perspective on bipolar disorder and a fascinating education in mythology by an expert who so clearly loves the material. It might be Lin’s first book, but it possesses the self-assurance, courage, and mastery of a seasoned writer.

3. Doppelganger , by Naomi Klein

After the onset of the COVID pandemic, as the U.S. devolved into frenzied factions, sociopolitical analyst Naomi Klein found herself in the middle of her own bewildering drama: A substantial population, especially online, began to either confuse or merge her with Naomi Wolf, a writer who’d gone from feminist intellectual to anti-vaxx conspiracy theorist. Klein’s initial bemusement becomes real concern verging on obsession as she fixates on her sort-of doppelgänger and starts questioning the stability of her identity. Klein becomes entangled in the world of her opposite, tracing the possible pipelines from leftism to alt-right and poking at the cracks in our convictions. Throughout, she nails the uncanniness of our digital existence, the ways constant performance of life both splinters and constrains the self. What happens when we sacrifice our humanity in the pursuit of a cohesive personal brand? And when we’re this far gone, is there any turning back?

2. The Woman in Me , by Britney Spears

Throughout the yearslong campaign to release Britney Spears from a predatory conservatorship , the lingering conspiracy theories questioning its success , and the ongoing cultural discourse about the ways public scrutiny has harmed her, what has largely been missing is Spears’s own voice. In her highly anticipated memoir, she lays it all out: her upbringing in a family grappling with multiple generations of abuse, the promise and betrayal of stardom, her exploitation and manipulation by loved ones, and the harrowing, dehumanizing realities of her conservatorship . These revelations are tempered by moments of genuine joy she’s found in love, motherhood, and singing, though it’s impossible to read these recollections without anticipating the loss — or at least the complication — of these joys. Most touching are her descriptions of her relationships with her sons; her tone is conversational, but it resonates with deep, undying devotion. It’s an intimate story, and one that forces questions about our treatment of mental illness, the ethics of psychiatric practices, the relationships between public figures and their fans, and the effects of fame — especially on young women. Justice for Britney, forever.

1. Pulling the Chariot of the Sun , by Shane McCrae

When Shane McCrae was 3 years old, his white maternal grandparents told his Black father they were taking Shane on a camping trip. It wasn’t the first time they’d done so, but this time, they never returned. What followed was a life full of instability, abuse, and manipulation, while his grandparents — including a grandfather who had, more than once, trawled cities for Black men to attack — convinced McCrae his father had abandoned him and that his Blackness was a handicap. It’s clear McCrae is first and foremost a poet; the rhythm of his prose and his hypnotic evocation of sensory memory reveals the way a lifetime of lies affected his grasp on his past. Maybe he can’t trust the facts of his past, but he certainly knows what it felt like, what it looked like. As he excavates and untangles muddied memories, contends with ambivalent feelings about his grandmother and mother, and ultimately comes to terms with their unforgivable robbery of a relationship with both his father and his true, full self, McCrae’s pain bleeds through his words — but so too does a gentle sense of acceptance. We are lucky to bear witness.

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100 Notable Books of 2023

Each year, we pore over thousands of new books, seeking out the best novels, memoirs, biographies, poetry collections, stories and more. Here are the standouts, selected by the staff of The New York Times Book Review.

Chosen by the staff of The New York Times Book Review Nov. 21, 2023

After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz

Inspired by Sappho’s work, Schwartz’s debut novel offers an alternate history of creativity at the turn of the 20th century, one that centers queer women artists, writers and intellectuals who refused to accept society’s boundaries.

All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby

In his earlier thrillers, Cosby worked the outlaw side of the crime genre. In his new one — about a Black sheriff in a rural Southern town, searching for a serial killer who tortures Black children — he’s written a crackling good police procedural.

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

In Murray’s boisterous tragicomic novel, a once wealthy Irish family struggles with both the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash and their own inner demons.

Biography of X by Catherine Lacey

Lacey rewrites 20th-century U.S. history through the audacious fictional life story of X, a polarizing female performance artist who made her way from the South to New York City’s downtown art scene.

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

In this action-packed novel from a Booker Prize winner, a collective of activist gardeners crosses paths with a billionaire doomsday prepper on land they each want for different purposes.

Blackouts by Justin Torres

This lyrical, genre-defying novel — winner of the 2023 National Book Award — explores what it means to be erased and how to persist after being wiped away.

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

In her third and most assured novel, Knoll shifts readers’ attention away from a notorious serial killer, Ted Bundy, and onto the lives — and deaths — of the women he killed. Perhaps for the first time in fiction, Knoll pooh-poohs Bundy's much ballyhooed intelligence, celebrating the promise and perspicacity of his victims instead.

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

This satire — in which prison inmates duel on TV for a chance at freedom — makes readers complicit with the bloodthirsty fans sitting ringside. The fight scenes are so well written they demonstrate how easy it might be to accept a world this sick.

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

Verghese’s first novel since “Cutting for Stone” follows generations of a family across 77 years in southwestern India as they contend with political strife and other troubles — capped by a shocking discovery made by the matriarch’s granddaughter, a doctor.

Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead

Returning to the world of his novel “Harlem Shuffle,” Whitehead again uses a crime story to illuminate a singular neighborhood at a tipping point — here, Harlem in the 1970s.

The Deluge by Stephen Markley

Markley’s second novel confronts the scale and gravity of climate change, tracking a cadre of scientists and activists from the gathering storm of the Obama years to the super-typhoons of future decades. Immersive and ambitious, the book shows the range of its author’s gifts: polyphonic narration, silken sentences and elaborate world-building.

Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal

In de Kerangal’s brief, lyrical novel, translated by Jessica Moore, a young Russian soldier on a trans-Siberian train decides to desert and turns to a civilian passenger, a Frenchwoman, for help.

book cover for Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

The world-building in this tale of a woman documenting a new kind of faerie is exquisite, and the characters are just as textured and richly drawn. This is the kind of folkloric fantasy that remembers the old, blood-ribboned source material about sacrifices and stolen children, but adds a modern gloss.

Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad

In Hammad’s second novel, a British Palestinian actor returns to her hometown in Israel to recover from a breakup and spend time with her family. Instead, she’s talked into joining a staging of “Hamlet” in the West Bank, where she has a political awakening.

Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes

A best-selling novelist and prominent anti-Fascist in her native Italy, de Céspedes has lately fallen into unjust obscurity. Translated by Ann Goldstein, this elegant novel from the 1950s tells the story of a married mother, Valeria, whose life is transformed when she begins keeping a secret diary.

The Fraud by Zadie Smith

Based on a celebrated 19th-century trial in which the defendant was accused of impersonating a nobleman, Smith’s novel offers a vast panoply of London and the English countryside, and successfully locates the social controversies of an era in a handful of characters.

From From by Monica Youn

In her fourth book of verse, a svelte, intrepid foray into American racism, Youn turns a knowing eye on society’s love-hate relationship with what it sees as the “other.”

A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll

After a lonely young woman marries a mild-mannered widower and moves into his home, she begins to wonder how his first wife actually died. This graphic novel alternates between black-and-white and overwhelming colors as it explores the mundane and the horrific.

book cover for The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

McBride’s latest, an intimate, big-hearted tale of community, opens with a human skeleton found in a well in the 1970s, and then flashes back to the past, to the ’20s and ’30s, to explore the town’s Black, Jewish and immigrant history.

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

In her radiant fourth novel, Napolitano puts a fresh spin on the classic tale of four sisters and the man who joins their family. Take “Little Women,” move it to modern-day Chicago, add more intrigue, lots of basketball and a different kind of boy next door and you’ve got the bones of this thoroughly original story.

A History of Burning by Janika Oza

This remarkable debut novel tells the story of an extended Indo-Ugandan family that is displaced, settled and displaced again.

Holly by Stephen King

The scrappy private detective Holly Gibney (who appeared in “The Outsider” and several other novels) returns, this time taking on a missing-persons case that — in typical King fashion — unfolds into a tale of Dickensian proportions.

A House for Alice by Diana Evans

This polyphonic novel traces one family’s reckoning after the patriarch dies in a fire, as his widow, a Nigerian immigrant, considers returning to her home country and the entire family re-examines the circumstances of their lives.

The Iliad by Homer

Emily Wilson’s propulsive new translation of the “Iliad” is buoyant and expressive; she wants this version to be read aloud, and it would certainly be fun to perform.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

The sisters in Törzs's delightful debut have been raised to protect a collection of magic books that allow their keepers to do incredible things. Their story accelerates like a fugue, ably conducted to a tender conclusion.

Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck

This tale of a torrid, yearslong relationship between a young woman and a much older married man — translated from the German by Michael Hofmann — is both profound and moving.

Kantika by Elizabeth Graver

Inspired by the life of Graver’s maternal grandmother, this exquisitely imagined family saga spans cultures and continents as it traces the migrations of a Sephardic Jewish girl from turn-of-the-20th-century Constantinople to Barcelona, Havana and, finally, Queens, N.Y.

Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang

Zhang’s lush, keenly intelligent novel follows a chef who’s hired to cook for an “elite research community” in the Italian Alps, in a not-so-distant future where industrial-agricultural experiments in America’s heartland have blanketed the globe in a crop-smothering smog.

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

The year is 1915, and the narrator of LaValle’s horror-tinged western has arrived in Montana to cultivate an unforgiving homestead. She’s looking for a fresh start as a single Black woman in a sparsely populated state, but the locked trunk she has in stow holds a terrifying secret.

Monica by Daniel Clowes

In Clowes’s luminous new work, the titular character, abandoned by her mother as a child, endures a life of calamities before resolving to learn about her origins and track down her parents.

book cover for The Most Secret Memory of Men

The Most Secret Memory of Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr

Based on a true story and translated by Lara Vergnaud, Sarr’s novel — about a Senegalese writer brought low by a plagiarism scandal — asks sharp questions about the state of African literature in the West.

The New Naturals by Gabriel Bump

In Bump’s engrossing new novel, a young Black couple, mourning the loss of their newborn daughter and disillusioned with the world, start a utopian society — but tensions both internal and external soon threaten their dreams.

North Woods by Daniel Mason

Mason’s novel looks at the occupants of a single house in Massachusetts over several centuries, from colonial times to present day. An apple farmer, an abolitionist, a wealthy manufacturer: The book follows these lives and many others, with detours into natural history and crime reportage.

Not Even the Dead by Juan Gómez Bárcena

An ex-conquistador in Spanish-ruled, 16th-century Mexico is asked to hunt down an Indigenous prophet in this novel by a leading writer in Spain, splendidly translated by Katie Whittemore. The epic search stretches across much of the continent and, as the author bends time and history, lasts centuries.

The Nursery by Szilvia Molnar

“I used to be a translator and now I am a milk bar.” So begins Molnar’s brilliant novel about a new mother falling apart within the four walls of her apartment.

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez

This dazzling, epic narrative, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell, is a bewitching brew of mystery and myth, peopled by mediums who can summon “the Darkness” for a secret society of wealthy occultists seeking to preserve consciousness after death.

Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson

Jackson’s smart, dishy debut novel embeds readers in an upper-crust Brooklyn Heights family — its real estate, its secrets, its just-like-you-and-me problems. Does money buy happiness? “Pineapple Street” asks a better question: Does it buy honesty?

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

Due’s latest — about a Black boy, Robert, who is wrongfully sentenced to a fictionalized version of Florida’s infamous and brutal Dozier School — is both an incisive examination of the lingering traumas of racism and a gripping, ghost-filled horror novel. “The novel’s extended, layered denouement is so heart-smashingly good, it made me late for work,” Randy Boyagoda wrote in his review. “I couldn’t stop reading.”

book cover for The Saint of Bright Doors

The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera

Trained to kill by his mother and able to see demons, the protagonist of Chandrasekera’s stunning and lyrical novel flees his destiny as an assassin and winds up in a politically volatile metropolis.

book cover for Same Bed Different Dreams

Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park

Double agents, sinister corporations, slasher films, U.F.O.s — Park’s long-awaited second novel is packed to the gills with creative elements that enliven his acerbic, comedic and lyrical odyssey into Korean history and American paranoia.

Take What You Need by Idra Novey

This elegant novel resonates with implication beyond the taut contours of its central story line. In Novey’s deft hands, the complex relationship between a young woman and her former stepmother hints at the manifold divisions within America itself.

This Other Eden by Paul Harding

In his latest novel, inspired by the true story of a devastating 1912 eviction in Maine that displaced an entire mixed-race fishing community, Harding turns that history into a lyrical tale about the fictional Apple Island on the cusp of destruction.

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Locked down on the family’s northern Michigan cherry orchard, three sisters and their mother, a former actress whose long-ago summer fling went on to become a movie star, reflect on love and regret in Patchett’s quiet and reassuring Chekhovian novel.

The Unsettled by Ayana Mathis

This novel follows three generations across time and place: a young mother trying to create a home for herself and her son in 1980s Philadelphia, and her mother, who is trying to save their Alabama hometown from white supremacists seeking to displace her from her land.

Victory City by Salman Rushdie

Rushdie’s new novel recounts the long life of Pampa Kampana, who creates an empire from magic seeds in 14th-century India. Her world is one of peace, where men and women are equal and all faiths welcome, but the story Rushdie tells is of a state that forever fails to live up to its ideals.

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian

This queer midcentury romance — about reporters who meet at work, become friends, move in together and fall in love — lingers on small, everyday acts like bringing home flowers with the groceries, things that loom large because they’re how we connect with others.

Western Lane by Chetna Maroo

In this polished and disciplined debut novel, an 11-year-old Jain girl in London who has just lost her mother turns her attention to the game of squash — which in Maroo’s graceful telling becomes a way into the girl’s grief.

Witness by Jamel Brinkley

Set in Brooklyn, and featuring animal rescue workers, florists, volunteers, ghosts and UPS workers, Brinkley’s new collection meditates on what it means to see and be seen.

Y/N by Esther Yi

In this weird and wondrous novel, a bored young woman in thrall to a boy band buys a one-way ticket to Seoul.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

Kuang’s first foray outside of the fantasy genre is a breezy and propulsive tale about a white woman who achieves tremendous literary success by stealing a manuscript from a recently deceased Asian friend and passing it off as her own.

The 272 by Rachel L. Swarns

Building on her groundbreaking work for The Times, Swarns fashions a complex portrait of 19th-century American Catholicism through the story of the nearly 300 people enslaved on Jesuit plantations who were sold in 1838 to save Georgetown University from ruin.

Anansi’s Gold by Yepoka Yeebo

Yeebo, a journalist, tracks down the elusive story of John Ackah Blay-Miezah, who revolutionized the “advance fee” scam (say, a Nigerian prince wants to wire you money), and contextualizes it within a Ghana — and a world — that allowed him to thrive.

Battle of Ink and Ice by Darrell Hartman

This fast paced, true-life adventure revives the headline-grabbing debate over which explorer reached the North Pole first — and which newspaper broke the news.

The Best Minds by Jonathan Rosen

A literary and compassionate examination of the porous line between brilliance and insanity, this riveting memoir traces the author’s childhood friendship and sometime rivalry with a neighbor and Yale classmate who is now in prison for murdering his girlfriend.

book cover for Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs

Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs by Kerry Howley

Howley writes about the national security state and those who get entangled in it — fabulists, truth tellers, combatants, whistle-blowers. Like many of us, they have left traces of themselves in the digital ether by making a phone call, texting a friend, looking something up online.

Built From the Fire by Victor Luckerson

This ambitious history, by a journalist based in Tulsa, provides an authoritative account of the prosperous Black neighborhood decimated by the city’s 1921 race massacre and a gripping portrait of the community resurrected in its aftermath.

Cobalt Red by Siddharth Kara

Cobalt is essential to the tech industry, but as Kara’s harrowing account demonstrates, it comes at a high cost: Much of the mineral is mined in toxic conditions for subsistence wages in Congo — all too often, by children.

Crossings by Ben Goldfarb

Goldfarb, an environmental journalist, crafts a fascinating and sensitive look at the costs of roads, both for wild animals and for the humans whose cities are divided by highways along racial lines.

Daughter of the Dragon by Yunte Huang

Huang’s new book, a biography embedded in cultural criticism, is an absorbing account of the life and times of the Chinese American starlet Anna May Wong, whose career spanned silent movies, talkies and television.

Doppelganger by Naomi Klein

After she was repeatedly confused online with the feminist scholar turned anti-vaxxer Naomi Wolf, Klein turned the experience into this sober, stylish account of the lure of disdain and paranoia.

book cover for Easily Slip Into Another World

Easily Slip Into Another World by Henry Threadgill and Brent Hayes Edwards

The jazz artist Henry Threadgill’s ardent memoir ranges from his maddening wartime experiences in Vietnam to his boundary-pushing musical career.

The Exceptions by Kate Zernike

Zernike’s excellent and infuriating tale of the fight for fairness at M.I.T. and beyond is not merely a fast-paced account of one woman’s accomplishments but a larger history of women in STEM (or lack thereof).

Fire Weather by John Vaillant

This timely and riveting account of the 2016 McMurray wildfire explores not just that Canadian inferno but what it bodes for the future. Vaillant has a chillingly serious message: This is the inevitable result of climate change, and it will happen again and again.

The Great Escape by Saket Soni

In this gripping account, Soni, a labor organizer, details the story of several hundred Indian men lured to this country on promises of work and green cards, who ended up in semi-captivity in Mississippi until his efforts to free them.

The Half Known Life by Pico Iyer

In talking to people the world over about what paradise means to them, Iyer provides hours of thought-provoking meditations. “Paradise becomes something different in every neighbor’s head,” he says.

How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair

In this breathless, scorching memoir of a girlhood spent becoming the perfect Rasta daughter and an adolescence spent becoming one of Jamaica’s most promising young poets, Montego Bay drips with as much tender sensuality and complexity as the buoyant patois of Sinclair’s parents’ banter.

Humanly Possible by Sarah Bakewell

In earlier books, Bakewell has written about Montaigne and the existentialists; here, she manages to wrangle seven centuries of humanist thought into a brisk narrative with characteristic wit and clarity, resisting the traps of windy abstraction and glib oversimplification.

Judgment at Tokyo by Gary J. Bass

This comprehensive treatment of the prosecution of Japanese war crimes after World War II is an elegantly written and immersive account of a moment that shaped not just the politics of the region, but of the Cold War to come.

King by Jonathan Eig

The first comprehensive biography of Martin Luther King Jr. in decades, Eig’s book draws on a landslide of recently released government documents as well as letters and interviews. This is a book worthy of its subject: both an intimate study of a complex and flawed human being and a journalistic account of a civil rights titan.

book cover for The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory

The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory by Tim Alberta

Having detailed how President Trump's rise to power occurred amid a years-long civil war within the Republican party in his 2019 book "American Carnage," Alberta, a staff writer for The Atlantic, turns his eye on another institution that has become split in two as a result of the former president: the American evangelical movement.

book cover for The Land of Hope and Fear

The Land of Hope and Fear by Isabel Kershner

Published months before the Israel-Hamas war, this book by a longtime correspondent in Jerusalem presents a complicated portrait of the many communities and faiths that constitute Israel three-quarters of a century into its existence.

book cover for Liliana’s Invincible Summer

Liliana’s Invincible Summer by Cristina Rivera Garza

In 1990, Rivera Garza’s 20-year-old sister was murdered in Mexico. That case is the inspiration and launching point for this memoir, a personal and cultural look at femicide in Mexico.

Lives of the Wives by Carmela Ciuraru

The relationships at the center of Ciuraru’s lively and absorbing new literary history vary widely, but are united by questions of ego and agency, competition and resentment.

A Living Remedy by Nicole Chung

Chung’s powerful second memoir is a look at family, illness and grief, and the way systemic issues like access to health care, capitalism and racism exacerbate loss.

book cover for Master Slave Husband Wife

Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo

Woo’s book recounts a daring feat: the successful flight north from Georgia in 1848 by an enslaved couple disguised as a sickly young white planter and his male slave. But her meticulous retelling is equally a feat — of research, storytelling, sympathy and insight.

Monsters by Claire Dederer

“Everyone alive is either canceled or about to be canceled,” writes the author of this sometimes maddening, always challenging meditation on polarizing cultural figures (Nabokov, Polanski, et al.) and the struggle to reconcile great art with the misdeeds of its creators.

My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand

“I’m the greatest star!” the 21-year-old actress defiantly sang in Broadway’s 1964 hit “Funny Girl.” Nearly six decades later, over 992 pages, Streisand chronicles how she delivered on that promise, a rocket ride from Brooklyn to Malibu.

book cover for The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley

The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley by David Waldstreicher

A beautiful and cogently argued biography offers a radical new vision of the life and work of colonial America’s brilliant Black female poet.

Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe

In this volume of 248 numbered notes, Sharpe assembles memories and insights, artifacts and artworks, balancing the persistence of racism and brutality with a rich variety of Black life.

Oscar Wars by Michael Schulman

A deeply researched and compulsively readable history digs into the scandal-soaked history of the Academy Awards.

Our Migrant Souls by Héctor Tobar

Tobar, a longtime journalist, delivers a kaleidoscopic account of Latino American experience, dispelling stereotypes and underscoring diversity in prose that is by turns lyrical, outraged, scholarly and affectingly personal.

Pageboy by Elliot Page

The Oscar-nominated actor offers a brutally honest account of child stardom, the pressure to conform in Hollywood and, ultimately, the announcement of his gender transition in 2020.

Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond

The central claim of this manifesto by the Princeton sociologist is that poverty in the United States is the product not only of larger economic shifts, but of choices and actions by more fortunate Americans.

book cover for The Rediscovery of America

The Rediscovery of America by Ned Blackhawk

This ambitious retelling of the American story, by a historian who is also a Native American, places Indigenous populations at the center, a shift in perspective that yields fresh insights and thought-provoking questions.

The Rigor of Angels by William Egginton

Challenging, ambitious and elegant, this mind-expanding book explores nothing less than “the ultimate nature of reality” through the work of three figures: the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, the German quantum physicist Werner Heisenberg and the 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant.

Schoenberg by Harvey Sachs

Sachs has written well for decades about conventional classical music. This impassioned defense of Arnold Schoenberg — creator of some of the most challenging music ever — might seem surprising from him, but Schoenberg’s life was one of the 20th century’s great narratives.

Sink by Joseph Earl Thomas

The lush prose of this memoir perfectly suits the author’s tender, teeming boyhood imagination, in which video-game and manga characters offered more guidance than volatile adults did. Most remarkable is Thomas’s matter-of-fact depiction of the daily depredations he faced without losing his spirit or his abundant creative gifts.

The Slip by Prudence Peiffer

From Ellsworth Kelly to Agnes Martin to Robert Indiana, a group of scrappy artists gathered in illegal studios at the tip of Lower Manhattan in the 1950s, trying to provide an answer to Abstract Expressionism. This group biography reflects the excitement of those years — and our debt to them.

Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista

In powerful, gripping prose, a Philippine journalist recounts her investigation into the campaign of extrajudicial murders under former President Rodrigo Duterte.

Spoken Word by Joshua Bennett

Bennett’s engaging history of a literary and cultural movement that took hold in many realms — including music, theater, film, television and, of course, poetry — tracks its evolution from the earliest days of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe on the Lower East Side to the first iterations of slam poetry and beyond.

A Thread of Violence by Mark O’Connell

O’Connell brings literary flourish and a philosophical bent to this investigation of an infamous and confounding Irish murder case.

Time’s Echo by Jeremy Eichler

This cultural history takes up works by Schoenberg, Britten, Shostakovich and Richard Strauss that reflect on World War II and the Holocaust, urging listeners to consider the link between music and remembrance.

The Undertow by Jeff Sharlet

Anxious about America’s political divides, and fearful that they presage the end of the union, Sharlet spent a year speaking with conservative pastors, gun fanatics and QAnon adherents, among others. The result is an eloquent cri de coeur by a writer struggling to meet political and moral unreason with compassion and grace.

Unscripted by James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams

This jaw-dropping chronicle by two Times reporters of the final years of Sumner Redstone, the head of Paramount, is an epic tale of toxic wealth and greed populated by connivers and manipulators, not least Redstone himself.

Up Home by Ruth J. Simmons

Simmons’s evocative account of her remarkable trajectory from Jim Crow Texas, where she was the youngest of 12 children in a sharecropping family, to the presidencies of Smith College and Brown University shines with tenderness and dignity.

The Wager by David Grann

After the H.M.S. Wager was shipwrecked off the coast of Patagonia in 1742, surviving crew members returned to England with dramatic — and starkly conflicting — tales about what had transpired. Grann recreates the voyage in all its enthralling horror.

book cover for Waiting to Be Arrested at Night

Waiting to Be Arrested at Night by Tahir Hamut Izgil

Offering a rare glimpse into the life and culture of China’s brutally persecuted Muslim Uyghur minority, this eloquent memoir by a poet who escaped with his family to the United States (and translated by Joshua L. Freeman) unfolds a horror story with calm restraint.

What An Owl Knows by Jennifer Ackerman

There are some 260 species of owls spread across every continent except Antarctica, and in this fascinating book, Ackerman explains why the birds are both naturally wondrous and culturally significant.

Wifedom by Anna Funder

Even George Orwell, whose dealings with women were often problematic, admitted that he behaved badly toward his first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy. This book focuses on O’Shaughnessy, and combines her story with a bravura analysis of female invisibility.

book cover for You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live

You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live by Paul Kix

The 1963 campaign to integrate Birmingham, Ala., led to shocking brutality: youths blasted by fire hoses and set upon by snarling police dogs. Kix, a journalist, weaves those images into a harrowing narrative of a crucial juncture in the civil rights movement.

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Spring 2023 Announcements: Memoirs & Biographies

While this season’s titles focus largely on identity, fans of celebrity memoirs have offerings from Paris Hilton and Elliot Page, among others, to look forward to.

Beyond This Harbor: Adventurous Tales of Heart and Home

Rose Styron. Knopf, June 13 ($32, ISBN 978-0-525-65902-0)

Poet, journalist, and Amnesty International USA cofounder Styron reflects on her marriage to Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist William Styron and their shared literary life.

King: A Life

Jonathan Eig. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, May 16 ($35, ISBN 978-0-374-27929-5)

Journalist and PEN/ESPN Award winner Eig takes an in-depth look at the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and his lasting impact on social justice and American history. 100,000-copy announced first printing.

A Living Remedy: A Memoir

Nicole Chung. Ecco, Apr. 4 ($28.99, ISBN 978-0-063-03161-6)

Chung recounts her father’s death from kidney disease, her mother’s cancer diagnosis, and the complicated bonds between a daughter and her adoptive parents. 75,000-copy announced first printing.

Pageboy: A Memoir

Elliot Page. Flatiron, June 6 ($29.99, ISBN 978-1-250-87835-9)

Umbrella Academy star Page opens up about coming out as transgender, his personal relationships, and his experiences in Hollywood. 750,000-copy announced first printing.

Paris: The Memoir

Paris Hilton. Dey Street, Mar. 21 ($29.99, ISBN 978-0-063-22462-9)

Socialite Hilton reveals the woman behind the carefully crafted public persona. 200,000-copy announced first printing.

A Renaissance of Our Own: A Memoir & Manifesto on Reimagining

Rachel Elizabeth Cargle. Ballantine, May 16 ($28.99, ISBN 978-0-593-13473-3)

Activist and The Cut contributor Cargle crafts a guide to personal transformation that doubles as a toolkit for cultural liberation.

Sink: A Memoir

Joseph Earl Thomas. Grand Central, Feb. 21 ($28, ISBN 978-1-538-70617-6)

Thomas details growing up in a dysfunctional, abusive family and plunging headfirst into the world of geek culture to escape his grim environment.

True West: Sam Shepard’s Life, Work, and Times

Robert Greenfield. Crown, Apr. 11 ($30, ISBN 978-0-525-57595-5)

Former Rolling Stone editor Greenfield examines the meteoric rise of actor and playwright Sam Shepard, along with his relationships with pop culture trailblazers.

Women We Buried, Women We Burned: A Memoir

Rachel Louise Snyder. Bloomsbury, Mar. 7 ($29, ISBN 978-1-635-57912-3)

Guggenheim Fellow Snyder chronicles her path from being a teenage runaway to a globe-trotting reporter determined to amplify the voices of those who are ignored or silenced. 100,000-copy announced first printing.

You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir

Maggie Smith. One Signal, Apr. 11 ($28, ISBN 978-1-982-18585-5)

Poet Smith recounts the breakdown of her marriage and her struggle to reach a place of self-forgiveness.

Memoirs & Biographies Listings

Abrams Image

Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto by Zachary Zane (May 9, $26, ISBN 978-1-4197-6471-4). Sex and relationship columnist Zane mines his experiences as a bisexual man in essays that deconstruct conventions and stigmas attached to sex, sexual identity, and relationships.

Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew from It by Greg Marshall (June 13, $28, ISBN 978-1-4197-6360-1). Marshall recalls his Utah childhood and how he has navigated adulthood as a gay man with cerebral palsy.

Toxic: The Story of Nine Famous Women in the Tabloid 2000s by Sarah Ditum (July 25, $27, ISBN 978-1-4197-6311-3) examines the misogynistic celebrity culture of the 2000s and some of the women who were mistreated by the media.

Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult: A Memoir by Michelle Dowd (Mar. 7, $28, ISBN 978-1-64375-185-6). Journalism professor Dowd recalls growing up in an apocalyptic cult founded by her grandfather, and how she gathered the courage to escape.

Top Billin’: Stories of Laughter, Lessons, and Triumph by Bill Bellamy (Apr. 25, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-323762-9). The actor and former MTV VJ offers a no-holds-barred look at his time at MTV in the 1990s. 100,000-copy announced first printing.

Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America by Abraham Riesman (Mar. 28, $29.99, ISBN 978-1-982169-44-2) chronicles the ascent of former WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon, from his impoverished Southern youth to his reign as a billionaire businessman and champion of the Republican Party.

Black Ball: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Spencer Haywood, and the Generation That Saved the Soul of the NBA by Theresa Runstedtler (Mar. 7, $29, ISBN 978-1-64503-695-1) offers an “illuminating” reappraisal of the world of 1970s professional basketball, according to PW ’s starred review, that foregrounds the racial equality and social justice efforts of Black players.

Breakup: A Marriage in Wartime by Anjan Sundaram (Apr. 11, $26, ISBN 978-1-64622-115-8). Journalist Sundaram takes stock of the physical, mental, and emotional toll of war reportage as he grapples with his responsibilities as a husband and a father to a newborn.

Coffee House

In Vitro: On Longing and Transformation by Isabel Zapata, trans. by Robin Myers (May 9, $16.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-56689-675-7), ruminates on motherhood, pregnancy, and in vitro fertilization.

Counterpoint

Life B: Overcoming Double Depression by Bethanne Patrick (May 16, $26, ISBN 978-1-64009-129-0). Expanding on an article published on Elle.com , Patrick excavates her maternal family history to understand how mental illness and trauma have shaped her identity.

When the World Didn’t End: A Memoir by Guinevere Turner (May 23, $28, ISBN 978-0-593-23759-5) describes how growing up in the Lyman Family cult irrevocably altered Turner’s idea of home and shattered her fragile understanding of the world.

Earth to Moon: A Memoir by Moon Unit Zappa (May 9, $28.99, ISBN 978-0-06-311334-3). The daughter of musician Frank Zappa recounts a whirlwind coming-of-age in 1980s California and forging a sense of self free from her father’s celebrity.

Pat in the City: My Life of Fashion, Style, and Breaking All the Rules by Patricia Field (Feb. 14, $35, ISBN 978-0-06-304832-4). “Costume designer Field makes a sparkling debut with this recollection of her influential career,” according to PW ’s review.

Choosing to Run: A Memoir by Des Linden (Apr. 4, $28, ISBN 978-0-593-18664-0). Two-time Olympian and 2018 Boston Marathon winner Linden details the highs and lows of being a professional athlete and offers words of encouragement to help tackle life’s challenges.

A Life of One’s Own: Nine Women Writers Begin Again by Joanna Biggs (May 9, $28.99, ISBN 978-0-06-307310-4) combines memoir, criticism, and biography to explore the lives and works of nine influential women writers.

Twentieth-Century Man: The Wild Life of Peter Beard by Christopher Wallace (July 4, $29.99, ISBN 978-0-06-306641-0) provides a warts-and-all biography of naturalist and wildlife photographer Peter Beard, whose passion for adventure matched his thirst for decadence.

Grand Central

Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother & Daughter Ponder Life’s Big Questions by Laura Dern and Diane Ladd (Apr. 25, $30, ISBN 978-1-5387-2037-0). Academy Award–winning actor Dern and her mother, BAFTA-winning actor Ladd, reflect on life and their relationship. 500,000-copy announced first printing.

Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain by Andrew McCarthy (May 9, $28, ISBN 978-1-5387-0920-7). Former Brat Pack member McCarthy details his trek with his eldest son across Spain’s Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route. 100,000-copy announced first printing.

Orphan Bachelors by Fae Myenne Ng (May 9, $28, ISBN 978-0-8021-6221-2) examines the 1882 Exclusion Act and the immigration service’s mid-20th-century Confession Program, and how they shaped her family’s history and life in San Francisco.

Belonging: A Daughter’s Search for Identity Through Love and Loss by Michelle Miller (Mar. 14, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-322043-0). CBS journalist Miller details her search for her birth mother, a white-passing Chicana hospital worker who had an affair with Miller’s Black doctor father. 60,000-copy announced first printing.

The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag by Sasha Velour (Apr. 4, $35, ISBN 978-0-358-50808-3) traces the cultural evolution of drag and its ability to serve as both artistic expression and collective activism. 75,000-copy announced first printing.

Chita: A Memoir by Chita Rivera (Apr. 25, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-322679-1). Three-time Tony Award–winning actor Rivera recounts the challenges she overcame during her life and career.

Directions to Myself: A Memoir of Four Years by Heidi Julavits (June 27, $27, ISBN 978-0-451-49851-9). The founding editor of The Believer contemplates how to prepare her young son for life’s disappointments and heartaches while reflecting on her childhood in Maine.

Through the Groves: A Memoir by Anne Hull (June 20, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-8050-9337-7). Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Hull recalls her childhood in 1960s Florida, her parents’ dysfunctional marriage, and the growing pains of girlhood.

We Are Too Many: A Memoir [Kind Of] by Hannah Pittard (May 2, $26.99, ISBN 978-1-250-86904-3) puts a magnifying glass on the author’s marriage, which ended after her husband had an affair with her best friend.

Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage by Jonny Steinberg (May 2, $35, ISBN 978-0-525-65685-2) offers a portrait of the marriage between former South African president Nelson Mandela and his wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. 60,000-copy announced first printing.

A Place for Us: A Memoir by Brandon J. Wolf (May 2, $28.99, ISBN 978-1-5420-3646-7). LGBTQ activist Wolf chronicles his search for chosen family after leaving his rural Oregon hometown, and later turning grief into action following the 2016 Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Orlando.

Holding Fire: A Reckoning with the American West by Bryce Andrews (Feb. 7, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-358-46827-1) reconsiders the settling of the American West, and the roles violence and firearms played in it.

The Critic’s Daughter: A Memoir by Priscilla Gilman (Feb. 7, $28.95, ISBN 978-0-393-65132-4) recounts life in 1970s New York as the daughter of critic Richard Gilman and literary agent Lynn Nesbit, as well as the secrets uncovered after their divorce.

How Not to Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind by Clancy Martin (Mar. 28, $30, ISBN 978-0-593-31705-1). Expanding on his Huffington Post essay “I’m Still Here,” philosophy professor Martin recalls his suicide attempts and considers the philosophical roots of self-destruction.

Penguin Press

Mott Street: A Chinese American Family’s Story of Exclusion and Homecoming by Ava Chin (Apr. 25, $28, ISBN 978-0-525-55737-1). Chin, an M.F.K. Fisher Prize winner, unearths her Chinese American family’s past and reckons with the effects of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

Random House

Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper (May 9, $28, ISBN 978-0-593-24238-4). The author ruminates on growing up in the 1970s, the beauty of the natural world, and his 2020 Central Park confrontation that made international headlines.

The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America by Monica Potts (Apr. 18, $28, ISBN 978-0-525-51991-1). Journalist Potts researches poverty in rural Arkansas as she tries to make sense of the fate of her childhood best friend.

The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science by Kate Zernike (Feb. 28, $30, ISBN 978-1-982131-83-8) chronicles the efforts of MIT molecular biologist Nancy Hopkins and others to get the university to acknowledge discrimination against women on its science faculty.

Owner of a Lonely Heart: A Memoir by Beth Nguyen (July 4, $27, ISBN 978-1-982196-34-9). American Book Award winner Nguyen writes of new parenthood and coming to terms with her mother, who stayed in Vietnam at the end of the war.

Seven Stories

A Matter of Appearance: A Memoir of Chronic Illness by Emily Wells (Mar. 21, $20, ISBN 978-1-64421-276-9) combines memoir and literary analysis to detail a childhood marked by ballet dancing and a mysterious chronic illness, as well as the author’s eventual path to wellness.

Simon & Schuster

Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia by Hadley Freeman (Mar. 7, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-982-18983-9). Guardian writer Freeman grapples with her history of anorexia nervosa and examines how treatments for the eating disorder have changed over the years.

Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in America by Krista Burton (June 6, $28, ISBN 978-1-66800-053-3) visits America’s dwindling lesbian bars and celebrates the sanctity of queer spaces.

St. Martin’s

The Education of Kendrick Perkins by Kendrick Perkins, with Seth Rogoff (Feb. 21, $29.99, ISBN 978-1-250-28034-3). Perkins, an ESPN commentator and former NBA player, opens up about his ascent from small-town Texas athlete to championship winner.

Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City by Jane Wong (May 16, $27.95, ISBN 978-1-953534-67-5) reflects on identity and growing up on the 1980s Jersey shore as the daughter of working-class Asian American parents.

Nobody Needs to Know by Pidgeon Pagonis (June 20, $28.99, ISBN 978-1-5420-2946-9). Activist Pagonis charts their path to self-acceptance as a person who was born intersex and challenges society’s misconceptions and stigmas about gender identity.

Univ. of Chicago

On Christopher Street: Life, Sex, and Death After Stonewall by Michael Denneny (Mar. 17, $22.50 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-226-82463-5). Christopher Street magazine cofounder Denneny spotlights the queer community of 1970s and ’80s New York City, incorporating as well his journal entries, articles, and interviews.

Don’t Call Me Home: A Memoir by Alexandra Auder (Apr. 25, $27, ISBN 978-0-593-29995-1). The actor recounts her upbringing as the daughter of Warhol muse Viva and French filmmaker Michael Auder, and considers the impact of family on self-fulfillment.

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Nonfiction Books » Best Nonfiction Books of 2023

Notable memoirs of 2023, recommended by cal flyn.

Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn selects the best recent autobiographical writing in this round-up of notable memoirs of 2023—taking in new work from such literary giants as Janet Malcolm and Annie Ernaux, the writer other writers are raving about, and a humorous debut depicting life in a haunted antiquarian bookshop.

Stay True by Hua Hsu

Still Pictures: On Photography and Memory by Janet Malcolm

Pageboy: A Memoir by Elliot Page

The Light Room: On Art and Care by Kate Zambreno

O Brother by John Niven

1 Stay True by Hua Hsu

2 still pictures: on photography and memory by janet malcolm, 3 pageboy: a memoir by elliot page, 4 the light room: on art and care by kate zambreno, 5 o brother by john niven.

Well, usually here I’d have two automatic answers: this year’s winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Memoir and Autobiography, and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Autobiography or Memoir . But what would you know—in 2023, the same book won both. Bard professor and New Yorker writer Hua Hsu’s Stay True centres upon the death of a Berkeley classmate in a bungled armed robbery. The Pulitzer judges declared it an “elegant and poignant coming of age account that considers intense, youthful friendships but also random violence that can suddenly and permanently alter the presumed logic of our personal narratives.” Stay True has been out in the United States since October 2022, but only reached UK bookshops this month.

Absolutely. The late, great Janet Malcolm’s final book, Still Pictures , was released posthumously at the start of this year. It’s a memoir in essays, inspired by a collection of black and white photographs of her Czech refugee family found in a box (labeled ‘old not good photos’) in her attic. They left Prague in 1939, she writes: “We were among the small number of Jews who escaped the fate of the rest by sheer dumb luck, as a few random insects escape a poison spray.” Malcolm was instinctively leery of autobiography. Memoir was a “novelistic enterprise,” she felt. But these candid images offered her an alternate way in, one befitting the former photography columnist for the New York Times: “Occasionally… like memory itself, one of these inert pictures will suddenly stir and come to life,” she writes, warming to her theme. Still Pictures will not, perhaps, be the work that Malcolm will be best known for, but it will greatly appeal to those who already admire her writing.

I was also very excited to learn about a new book from the French Nobel Prize-winner Annie Ernaux . The Young Man — ably translated from the original French by Alison Strayer—is an exacting account of an affair with a student thirty years her junior. “Perhaps it was the desire to spark the writing of a book—a task I had hesitated to undertake because of its immensity—that prompted me to take A home for a drink after dinner at a restaurant,” she writes, analysing herself after the fact. The affair does not end well, but one does not read Annie Ernaux for happy endings. She has made her name by conducting live dissections of her emotional life, and The Young Man is no different. But it is, even for Ernaux, a very slim book, coming in at only 35 pages.

Have there been notable celebrity memoirs published in 2023?

Otherwise, the celebrity memoir of the year is probably Elliot Page’s Pageboy , which charts—among other things—his Hollywood career, coming out as gay, then his later gender transition. The Juno and Inception actor might be the most famous trans man in the world right now, and this thoughtful, non-linear account is thus not only a glimpse into the Tinseltown lifestyle but a valuable addition to trans literature . In its sensitivity and earnest tone, wrought from first-hand and sometimes painful experience, it is also, as was noted in the i , “a vital antidote to the toxic trans debate.” If you’d like to get a taste of the book before committing, People magazine published an extract from the first chapter here .

Kate Zambreno is a true writers’ writer; her books are always being recommended to me by other authors. (Most recently, the novelist Catherine Lacey told me that Zambreno’s Screen Tests is “a perfect book.”) Her latest, The Light Room , is billed as “a candid chronicle of life as a mother of two young daughters in a moment of profound uncertainty.” Annie Ernaux herself offered an endorsement, enthusing that Zambreno “has invented a new form,” comprising “a kind of absolute present, real life captured in closeup.” That absolute present is a meditation on parenting, on the quiet joys of maintenance, and what Zambreno terms “life inside”—that is, both of being cooped up in the house during the pandemic, and interiority in that other sense. The life of the mind finds intellectual trapdoors that can relieve the tedium. Speaking to Lithub recently, Zambreno explained that she hopes the book will be “a balm for others, a space of joy as well as exhaustion and deep sadness, a space to think with.”

The US poet Maggie Smith—whose bittersweet poem ‘Good Bones’ went viral several years ago, making Smith an overnight sensation—has released a memoir charting the disintegration of her marriage. (Its title, You Could Make This Place Beautiful , is a line from that poem.) Smith’s fans tend towards the devotional, but I do have the sense that this particular book has been unusually polarising. You’ll either love it and find its aphoristic style and motivational tone inspiring, or you’ll find it somewhat trying . Probably that description in itself will be enough to indicate which will be the case in your instance.

Another social media darling, Oliver Darkshire—whose unexpectedly riotous helming of the Sotheran’s antiquarian bookshop Twitter account found an avid online audience—has published Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller . Sotheran’s, on London’s Sackville Street, is one of the world’s oldest bookshops, and is by all accounts a charmingly eccentric establishment, with a resident ghost, cursed books, and a byzantine cataloguing system. Darkshire’s whimsical and humorous account of his apprenticeship in this storied, somewhat shadowy, institution is a lot of fun. If you’re on the fence, Lithub has published an extract .

Yes. The Scottish novelist and screenwriter John Niven—perhaps best known for the cult favourite Kill Your Friends — has just released a searing account of his fraught relationship with his charismatic younger brother Gary, who took his own life in 2010. O Brother records how their lives began in tandem but diverged; while John made his way in the music business, and later as a writer, Gary worked manual jobs and dealt drugs in the small town they grew up in. By the end of his life, Gary had alienated most of his friends and family, and was in debt—although not insurmountably so. Looking through his dead brother’s belongings, John tallies up the overdue bills and has the sickening realisation that he could have written a cheque and solved his sibling’s financial crisis instantly. But what might have been a grim story of self-recrimination and despair is, in Niven’s hands, a moving and even exuberant story that reflects the chaotic energy of their brother and the dark humour that he and his sister Linda forge from an otherwise harrowing situation.

Let me slip in a couple more quick ones: naturalist Amy-Jane Beer just won the UK’s Wainwright Prize for The Flow: Rivers, Waters, and Wildness , in which she revisits the waterway that claimed the life of a close friend, and in doing so opens herself again to fluvial beauty; and former Five Books contributor Thea Lenarduzzi ‘s lyrical family memoir Dandelions is currently in contention for the UK’s Ackerley Prize for Autobiography.

And finally, the next thing on my to-be-read pile is The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight by Andrew Leland, a sufferer of retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative condition that will ultimately result in complete blindness. The Millions editor Sophia Stewart raved that it was not only one of the best books she’d read in 2023, but “one of the best books I’ve ever read in my life. No descriptor feels capacious enough: an intellectually rigorous memoir, a moving cultural history, and a brilliant study of blindness, disability, and adaptation.” Sounds good to me.

September 23, 2023

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©Nancy Macdonald

Cal Flyn is a writer, journalist, and the deputy editor of Five Books . Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape , her nonfiction book about how nature rebounds in abandoned places, was shortlisted for numerous awards including the Baillie Gifford Prize, the Ondaatje Prize, and the British Academy Book Prize. She writes regular round-ups of the most notable new fiction, which can be found here . Her Five Books interviews with other authors are here .

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The best biographies to read in 2023.

Nik Rawlinson

Discover what inspired some of history’s most familiar names with these comprehensive biographies

The best biographies can be inspirational, can provide important life lessons – and can warn us off a dangerous path. They’re also a great way to learn more about important figures in history, politics, business and entertainment. That’s because the best biographies not only reveal what a person did with their life, but what effect it had and, perhaps most importantly, what inspired them to act as they did.

Where both a biography and an autobiography exist, you might be tempted to plump for the latter, assuming you’d get a more accurate and in-depth telling of the subject’s life story. While that may be true, it isn’t always the case. It’s human nature to be vain, and who could blame a celebrity or politician if they covered up their embarrassments and failures when committing their lives to paper? A biographer, so long as they have the proof to back up their claims, may have less incentive to spare their subject’s blushes, and thus produce a more honest account – warts and all.

That said, we’ve steered clear of the sensational in selecting the best biographies for you. Rather, we’ve focused on authoritative accounts of notable names, in each case written some time after their death, when a measured, sober assessment of their actions and impact can be given.

Best biographies: At a glance

Best literary biography: Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley | £20
Best showbiz biography: Let’s Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood | £6.78
Best political biography: Hitler by Ian Kershaw | £14

How to choose the best biography for you

There are so many biographies to choose from that it can be difficult knowing which to choose. This is especially true when there are several competing titles focused on the same subject. Try asking yourself these questions.

Is the author qualified?

Wikipedia contains potted biographies of every notable figure you could ever want to read about. So, if you’re going to spend several hours with a novel-sized profile it must go beyond the basics – and you want to be sure that the author knows what they’re talking about.

That doesn’t mean they need to have been personally acquainted with the subject, as Jasper Rees was with Victoria Wood. Ian Kershaw never met Adolf Hitler (he was, after all, just two years old when Hitler killed himself), but he published his first works on the subject in the late 1980s, has advised on BBC documentaries about the Second World War, and is an acknowledged expert on the Nazi era. It’s no surprise, then, that his biography of the dictator is extensive, comprehensive and acclaimed.

Is there anything new to say?

What inspires someone to write a biography – particularly of someone whose life has already been documented? Sometimes it can be the discovery of new facts, perhaps through the uncovering of previously lost material or the release of papers that had been suppressed on the grounds of national security. But equally, it may be because times have changed so much that the context of previous biographies is no longer relevant. Attitudes, in particular, evolve with time, and what might have been considered appropriate behaviour in the 1950s would today seem discriminatory or shocking. So, an up-to-date biography that places the subject’s actions and motivations within a modern context can make it a worthwhile read, even if you’ve read an earlier work already.

Does it look beyond the subject?

The most comprehensive biographies place their subject in context – and show how that context affected their outlook and actions or is reflected in their work. Lucy Worsley’s new biography of Agatha Christie is a case in point, referencing Christie’s works to show how real life influenced her fiction. Mathew Parker’s Goldeneye does the same for Bond author Ian Fleming – and in doing so, both books enlarge considerably on the biography’s core subject.

READ NEXT: Best reading lights to brighten up your page

1. Let’s Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood by Jasper Rees: Best showbiz biography

Price: £6.78 | Buy now from Amazon

It’s hardly surprising Victoria Wood never got around to writing her own autobiography. Originator of countless sketches, songs, comedy series, films, plays, documentaries and a sitcom, she kept pushing back the mammoth job of chronicling her life until it was too late. Wood’s death in 2016 came as a surprise to many, with the entertainer taking her final bow in private at the end of a battle with cancer she had fought away from the public eye.

In the wake of her death, her estate approached journalist Jasper Rees, who had interviewed her on many occasions, with the idea of writing the story that Wood had not got around to writing herself. With their backing, Rees’ own encounters with Wood, and the comic’s tape-recorded notes to go on, the result is a chunky, in-depth, authoritative account of her life. It seems unlikely that Wood could have written it more accurately – nor more fully – herself.

Looking back, it’s easy to forget that Wood wasn’t a constant feature on British TV screens, that whole years went by when her focus would be on writing or performing on stage, or even that her career had a surprisingly slow start after a lonely childhood in which television was a constant companion. This book reminds us of those facts – and that Wood wasn’t just a talented performer, but a hard worker, too, who put in the hours required to deliver the results.

Let’s Do It, which takes its title from a lyric in one of Wood’s best-known songs, The Ballad of Barry & Freda, is a timely reminder that there are two sides to every famous character: one public and one private. It introduces us to the person behind the personality, and shows how the character behind the characters for which she is best remembered came to be.

Key specs – Length: 592 pages; Publisher: Trapeze; ISBN: 978-1409184119

Let's Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood

2. the chief: the life of lord northcliffe, britain’s greatest press baron by andrew roberts: best business biography.

Lord Northcliffe wasn’t afraid of taking risks – many of which paid off handsomely. He founded a small paper called Answers to Correspondents, branched out into comics, and bought a handful of newspapers. Then he founded the Daily Mail, and applied what he’d learned in running his smaller papers on a far grander scale. The world of publishing – in Britain and beyond – was never the same again. The Daily Mail was a huge success, which led to the founding of the Daily Mirror, primarily for women, and his acquisition of the Observer, Times and Sunday Times.

By then, Northcliffe controlled almost half of Britain’s daily newspaper circulation. Nobody before him had ever enjoyed such reach – or such influence over the British public – as he did through his titles. This gave him sufficient political clout to sway the direction of government in such fundamental areas as the establishment of the Irish Free State and conscription in the run-up to the First World War. He was appointed to head up Britain’s propaganda operation during the conflict, and in this position he became a target for assassination, with a German warship shelling his home in Broadstairs. Beyond publishing, he was ahead of many contemporaries in understanding the potential of aviation as a force for good, as a result of which he funded several highly valuable prizes for pioneers in the field.

He achieved much in his 57 years, as evidenced by this biography, but suffered both physical and mental ill health towards the end. The empire that he built may have fragmented since his passing, with the Daily Mirror, Observer, Times and Sunday Times having left the group that he founded, but his influence can still be felt. For anyone who wants to understand how and why titles like the Daily Mail became so successful, The Chief is an essential read.

Key specs – Length: 556 pages; Publisher: Simon & Schuster; ISBN: 978-1398508712

The Chief: The Life of Lord Northcliffe Britain's Greatest Press Baron

3. goldeneye by matthew parker: best biography for cinema fans.

The name Goldeneye is synonymous with James Bond. It was the title of both a film and a video game, a fictional super weapon, a real-life Second World War plan devised by author Ian Fleming, and the name of the Jamaican estate where he wrote one Bond book every year between 1952 and his death in 1964. The Bond film makers acknowledged this in 2021’s No Time To Die, making that estate the home to which James Bond retired, just as his creator had done at the end of the war, 75 years earlier.

Fleming had often talked of his plan to write the spy novel to end all spy novels once the conflict was over, and it’s at Goldeneye that he fulfilled that ambition. Unsurprisingly, many of his experiences there found their way into his prose and the subsequent films, making this biography as much a history of Bond itself as it is a focused retelling of Fleming’s life in Jamaica. It’s here, we learn, that Fleming first drinks a Vesper at a neighbour’s house. Vesper later became a character in Casino Royale and, in the story, Bond devises a drink to fit the name. Fleming frequently ate Ackee fish while in residence; the phonetically identical Aki was an important character in You Only Live Twice.

Parker finds more subtle references, too, observing that anyone who kills a bird or owl in any of the Bond stories suffers the spy’s wrath. This could easily be overlooked, but it’s notable, and logical: Fleming had a love of birds, and Bond himself was named after the ornithologist James Bond, whose book was on Fleming’s shelves at Goldeneye.

So this is as much the biography of a famous fictional character as it is of an author, and of the house that he occupied for several weeks every year. So much of Fleming’s life at Goldeneye influenced his work that this is an essential read for any Bond fan – even if you’ve already read widely on the subject and consider yourself an aficionado. Parker’s approach is unusual, but hugely successful, and the result is an authoritative, wide-ranging biography about one of this country’s best-known authors, his central character, an iconic location and a country in the run-up to – and immediately following – its independence from Britain.

Key specs – Length: 416 pages; Publisher: Windmill Books; ISBN: 978-0099591740

Goldeneye: Where Bond was Born: Ian Fleming's Jamaica

4. hitler by ian kershaw: best political biography.

The latter portion of Adolf Hitler’s life, from his coming to power in 1933 to his suicide in 1945, is minutely documented, and known to a greater or lesser degree by anyone who has passed through secondary education. But what of his earlier years? How did this overlooked art student become one of the most powerful and destructive humans ever to have existed? What were his influences? What was he like?

Kershaw has the answers. This door stopper, which runs to more than 1,000 pages, is an abridged compilation of two earlier works: Hitler 1889 – 1936: Hubris, and Hitler 1936 – 1946: Nemesis. Yet, abridged though it may be, it remains extraordinarily detailed, and the research shines through. Kershaw spends no time warming his engines: Hitler is born by page three, to a social-climbing father who had changed the family name to something less rustic than it had been. As Kershaw points out, “Adolf can be believed when he said that nothing his father had done pleased him so much as to drop the coarsely rustic name of Schicklgruber. ‘Heil Schicklgruber’ would have sounded an unlikely salutation to a national hero.”

There’s no skimping on context, either, with each chapter given space to explore the political, economic and social influences on Hitler’s development and eventual emergence as leader. Kershaw pinpoints 1924 as the year that “can be seen as the time when, like a phoenix arising from the ashes, Hitler could begin his emergence from the ruins of the broken and fragmented volkisch movement to become eventually the absolute leader with total mastery over a reformed, organisationally far stronger, and internally more cohesive Nazi Party”. For much of 1924, Hitler was in jail, working on Mein Kampf and, by the point of his release, the movement to which he had attached himself had been marginalised. Few could have believed that it – and he – would rise again and take over first Germany, then much of Europe. Here, you’ll find out how it happened.

If you’re looking for an authoritative, in-depth biography of one of the most significant figures in modern world history, this is it. Don’t be put off by its length: it’s highly readable, and also available as an audiobook which, although it runs to 44 hours, can be sped up to trim the overall running time.

Key specs – Length: 1,072 pages; Publisher: Penguin; ISBN: 978-0141035888

5. Stalin’s Architect: Power and Survival in Moscow by Deyan Sudjic: Best historical biography

Boris Iofan died in 1976, but his influence can still be felt today – in particular, through the architectural influences evident in many mid-century buildings across Eastern Europe. Born in Odessa in 1891, he trained in architecture and, upon returning to Russia after time spent in Western Europe, gained notoriety for designing the House on the Embankment, a monumental block-wide building containing more than 500 flats, plus the shops and other facilities required to service them.

“Iofan’s early success was based on a sought-after combination of characteristics: he was a member of the Communist Party who was also an accomplished architect capable of winning international attention,” writes biographer Deyan Sudjic. “He occupied a unique position as a bridge between the pre-revolutionary academicians… and the constructivist radicals whom the party saw as bringing much-needed international attention and prestige but never entirely trusted. His biggest role was to give the party leadership a sense of what Soviet architecture could be – not in a theoretical sense or as a drawing, which they would be unlikely to understand, but as a range of built options that they could actually see.”

Having established himself, much of the rest of his life was spent working on his designs for the Palace of the Soviets, which became grander and less practical with every iteration. This wasn’t entirely Iofan’s fault. He had become a favourite of the party elite, and of Stalin himself, who added to the size and ambition of the intended building over the years. Eventually, the statue of Lenin that was destined to stand atop its central tower would have been over 300ft tall, and would have had an outstretched index finger 14ft long. There was a risk that this would freeze in the winter, and the icicles that dropped from it would have been a significant danger to those going into and out of the building below it.

Although construction work began, the Palace of the Soviets was never completed. Many of Iofan’s other buildings remain, though, and his pavilions for the World Expos in Paris and New York are well documented – in this book as well as elsewhere. Lavishly illustrated, it recounts Iofan’s life and examines his work in various stages, from rough outline, through technical drawing, to photographs of completed buildings – where they exist.

Key specs – Length: 320 pages; Publisher: Thames and Hudson; ISBN: 978-0500343555

Stalin's Architect: Power and Survival in Moscow

6. agatha christie: a very elusive woman by lucy worsley: best literary biography.

Agatha Christie died in 1976 but, with more than 70 novels and 150 short stories to her name, she remains one of the best-selling authors of all time. A new biography from historian Lucy Worsley is therefore undoubtedly of interest. It’s comprehensive and highly readable – and opinionated – with short chapters that make it easy to dip into and out of on a break.

Worsley resists the temptation to skip straight to the books. Poirot doesn’t appear until chapter 11 with publication of The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which Christie wrote while working in a Torquay hospital. Today, Poirot is so well known, not only from the books but from depictions in film and television, that it’s easy to overlook how groundbreaking the character was upon his arrival.

As Worsley explains, “by choosing to make Hercule Poirot a foreigner, and a refugee as well, Agatha created the perfect detective for an age when everyone was growing surfeited with soldiers and action heroes. He’s so physically unimpressive that no-one expects Poirot to steal the show. Rather like a stereotypical woman, Poirot cannot rely upon brawn to solve problems, for he has none. He has to use brains instead… There’s even a joke in his name. Hercules, of course, is a muscular classical hero, but Hercule Poirot has a name like himself: diminutive, fussy, camp, and Agatha would show Poirot working in a different way to [Sherlock] Holmes.” Indeed, where Holmes rolls around on the floor picking up cigar ash in his first published case, Poirot, explains Worsley, does not stoop to gather clues: he needs only his little grey cells. Worsley’s approach is thorough and opinionated, and has resulted not only in a biography of Christie herself, but also her greatest creations, which will appeal all the more to the author’s fans.

As with Matthew Parker’s Goldeneye, there’s great insight here into what influenced Christie’s work, and Worsley frequently draws parallels between real life events and episodes, characters or locations in her novels. As a result of her experiences as a medical volunteer during the First World War, for example, during which a rigid hierarchy persisted and the medics behaved shockingly, doctors became the most common culprit in her books; the names of real people found their way into her fiction; and on one occasion Christie assembled what today might be called a focus group to underpin a particular plot point.

Worsley is refreshingly opinionated and, where events in the author’s life take centre stage, doesn’t merely re-state the facts, but investigates Christie’s motivations to draw her own conclusions. This is particularly the case in the chapters examining Christie’s disappearance in 1926, which many previous biographers have portrayed as an attempt to frame her husband for murder. Worsley’s own investigation leads to alternative conclusions, which seem all the more plausible today, when society has a better understanding of – and is more sympathetic towards – the effects of psychological distress.

Key specs – Length: 432 pages; Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton; ISBN: 978-1529303889

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The 14 fall 2023 pop culture memoirs and biographies we're most excited to read

From Barbra to Peloton instructors, there's no shortage of great pop culture reads this fall.

Here at EW, we're pop culture junkies.

If there's a behind-the-scenes story or a personal hot take from a celeb, we are here for it. Chances are, if you're reading this you are too. And this fall, there is no shortage of engrossing, juicy new memoirs and biographies shedding light on all corners of the entertainment industry.

From Old Hollywood (Charlie Chaplin, Lena Horne, Greta Grabo) to the music industry (Barbra Streisand, Britney Spears, Geddy Lee) to the virtual gym (Cody Rigsby), pop culture figures across the gamut are telling their stories (or receiving new evaluation) in a slew of new titles hitting shelves this season.

Here are the 14 pop culture memoirs and biographies we're most excited about in fall 2023.

Ideal Beauty: The Life and Times of Greta Garbo by Lois W. Banner

Historian and biographer Lois Banner ( Marilyn: The Passion and The Paradox ) takes one of Hollywood's most enigmatic figures as her latest subject. Drawing on over a decade of research in archives across Sweden, Germany, France, and the United States, Banner examines the shadowy personal life of the woman most famous for stating, "I want to be alone." While Garbo captivated audiences with her beauty and mysterious persona, this book offers an insightful portrait of her private life, interrogating her feminism, sexuality, mental health, and more. Garbo rose to fame on the silent screen, but this new biography gives voice to her life in unparalleled fashion. (Sept. 5) — Maureen Lee Lenker

XOXO, Cody by Cody Rigsby

With XOXO Cody , the beloved Peloton instructor shows he has range. His memoir aims to make readers laugh and tear up in equal measure. He delivers his hot takes and humorous advice about living life right while also diving into the difficult moments in his life that shaped the adult he is. As he delves into growing up gay and his issues with his parents, Rigsby provides an opportunity for folks to get to know him better. XOXO Cody is inspiring and raw, but also a great reminder that laughing our way through something is a solid option. (Sept. 12) — Alamin Yohannes

Leslie F*cking Jones by Leslie Jones

Saturday Night Live alum Leslie Jones is known for her disarming frankness, and in her new memoir, Leslie F*cking Jones , the comic invites readers even deeper inside her brutally honest thoughts. Jones' sense of humor is intact even as she opens up about her experiences with childhood sexual abuse, abortion, and family tragedy, as well as the racism and sexism she's fought in stand-up comedy and from online trolls who made her life hell after she was cast in the women-led Ghostbusters . SNL fans will be especially interested in her tales from the show, including who she did and did not get along with, and hilarious details of an unaired sketch about killing Whoopi Goldberg . (Sept. 19) —Jillian Sederholm

Sondheim: His Life, His Shows, His Legacy by Stephen M. Silverman

Stephen Sondheim may have died in 2021, but his spirit lives on among the Broadway faithful. This month alone marks the premiere of the third Sondheim revival since his passing, as well as the premiere of Here We Are , a posthumous presentation of the Luis Buñuel-inspired musical he was working on until the end. Somewhere between a biography and a coffee-table book, Stephen M. Silverman's new title makes a perfect companion to our current age of Sondheim remembrance. The master of the modern musical is chronicled with textual highlights of his life story (with Sondheim's sardonic wit on display in frequent direct quotes), but also helpfully accompanied by many, many photos of his legendary Broadway career — and the actors, artists, and celebrities he crossed paths with along the way. (Sept. 19) — Christian Holub

Thicker Than Water by Kerry Washington

In her memoir, Kerry Washington bares it all. After a long-kept family secret is revealed, the actress and producer looks back at her life to share what she has overcome and learned over the years. From past traumas to wisdom she's received through her roles, Washington is bringing fans into her world like never before. Through these stories, she tells readers of her fight to redevelop her own understanding of family as she started her own. Thicker Than Water is a poignant and captivating exploration of how she became the woman she is today. (Sept. 26) — A.Y.

Worthy by Jada Pinkett Smith

Though Jada Pinkett Smith has spent the last couple of years peeling back the layers on Red Table Talk , she still feels like people misunderstand her. In Worthy, she attempts to tell her story, her way. From Baltimore to Hollywood, and through suicidal ideation to self-acceptance and healing, Pinkett Smith recounts her journey to reflection and healing. (Oct. 4) — Yolanda Machado

Thank You: Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin by Sly Stone

In the late '60s, Sly Stone was the embodiment of cool, an impossibly stylish funk master and preternatural hitmaker. He was also a man who carted around a violin case filled with cocaine wherever he'd go. If his drug use could conjure magic in the studio, it also destroyed the Sly and the Family Stone frontman's relationships, wiped out his earnings, and made him a recluse. Now 80 years old and sober, the living legend is finally releasing his memoir, a cautionary tale and the story of one of rock's true great visionaries. (Oct. 17) — Jason Lamphier

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

Britney Spears is finally ready to tell her story the way she's never been able to before. One of the world's biggest and most misunderstood pop icons is releasing her memoir, The Woman In Me , a little over two years after revealing harrowing details in open court about how her life wasn't her own under the conservatorship of her father for over 13 years. Now that the court-ordered conservatorship has been dissolved, Spears' chronicles her "brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope," allowing her fans to finally see the woman behind the music. (Oct. 24) — Sydney Bucksbaum

Being Henry: The Fonz...and Beyond by Henry Winkler

The guy who played one of the coolest characters ever on-screen is also known as one of the nicest ever off it. So how exactly did mild mannered Henry Winkler transform himself into the Fonz? The Emmy-winning actor takes us inside his original Happy Days audition as part of a memoir that goes through Winkler's entire career — from The Lords of Flatbush through Barry . And yes, he explains in full detail why in the world he jumped that damn shark. (Oct. 31) —Dalton Ross

Lena Horne: Goddess Reclaimed by Donald Bogle

Donald Bogle, revered historian of Black Hollywood, tackles one of the most iconic Black Golden Age stars — Lena Horne. Using a combination of interviews, press accounts, studio archives, and historical research, Bogle offers up a lush portrait of Horne, from her professional triumphs and bitter disappointments to her activism and role in breaking barriers for Black performers and Black women throughout her career. Bogle tells Horne's story accompanied by stunning photographs in this coffee table-style book that allows for never-before-published images of Horne to shine. (Oct. 31) — M.L.L.

Charlie Chaplin vs. America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided by Scott Eyman

While Charlie Chaplin's life has been chronicled many times, biographer Scott Eyman ( John Wayne: The Life and Legend; Cary Grant: A Brilliant Disguise ) drills down on Chaplin's fall from grace and exile from America in the back half of the Little Tramp's career. In the wake of the Red Scare and Chaplin's own sexual scandals, he was denied re-entry into the United States in 1952 following a trip to Europe. Eyman examines the events leading to this exile, the political turmoil at play, and Chaplin's years making his final two films in London. It's both a fascinating historical study and a cautionary tale about the perils of hysteria and extremism pervading government practices. (Oct. 31) — M.L.L.

My Name Is Barbra by Barbra Streisand

For years now, Barbra Streisand has spoken of her long-gestating memoir, and it's finally here. In her inimitable way, Streisand tells the story of her life, from her childhood in Brooklyn to her legendary Broadway breakout in Funny Girl to her success in Hollywood as an actress and director. Full of her signature frankness and dry humor, the memoir gives fans an unprecedented look at Streisand's life, from her personal struggles to her professional triumphs, all with a reminder that through the decades, nobody was going to rain on her parade. (Nov. 7) — M.L.L.

My Effin' Life by Geddy Lee

Living in the limelight may be the universal dream for some, but for Rush frontman Geddy Lee, it's simply another chapter in his effin' excellent life. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer — who played bass, keyboards, and sang on the progressive rock band's biggest hits — holds nothing back in his highly-anticipated memoir. From being named after his grandfather who was murdered during the Holocaust to sharing intimate tales of life on the road with bandmates Alex Lifeson and the late Neil Peart, Lee puts aside the alienation and gets on with the fascination surrounding his extraordinary life in an honest, hilarious, and heartfelt way all his own. (Nov. 14) — Emlyn Travis

The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story by Sam Wasson

If he had only made The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola would already be remembered as one of the most successful American directors of all time. But his ambitions always went far beyond that, and the filmmaker promises he has one more masterpiece on the way in the form of the mysterious utopian magnum opus Megalopolis . This new book by Sam Wasson (who already proved himself one of the great modern chroniclers of the New Hollywood era with the Chinatown making-of story The Big Goodbye ) chronicles the road to heaven Coppola trod after descending to Hell with Apocalypse Now. The Vietnam War epic is already the subject of much reporting, but Wasson boasts unprecedented access to Coppola's personal archive — as well as a first-hand look at the making of a movie we can't wait to see. (Nov. 28) — C.H.

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Read Ahead: A Release Calendar of Music Books & Biographies Being Published in 2023

Highly anticipated books by Britney Spears, Barbra Streisand and more are hitting shelves this year.

By Hannah Dailey

Hannah Dailey

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In the upcoming chapters of 2023, quite a few promising page-turners are expected to hit the “Music” shelf in a bookstore near you.

Spanning all genres and time periods, the second half of this year holds dozens of commentaries, historical deep dives, juicy biographies and more music-related volumes in store. So whether you’re in need of a rainy day read, beach suntanning entertainment or a before-bed future bestseller, Billboard has rounded up a list of upcoming books fit for even the most casual of music fans to pour over in the coming months – and it’s bound to have something you’ll love.

Take Britney Spears ‘ memoir The Woman In Me , for example. One of the most anticipated memoirs of all time (with a price tag of $15 million ), Spears announced that the autobiographical project would finally arrive in October just three months ahead of time. And speaking of highly anticipated memoirs, Barbra Streisand ‘s My Name Is Barbra finally has a November release date, after years of delay. The book, which will detail the Broadway icon’s astronomical career, has been in the making since 2015.

Plus, look out for books by or featuring words from such other legends as Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Reba McEntire, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Jeff Tweedy on the list below. Make sure to bookmark this page so you can keep checking back for updates as more titles are announced in the future.

See Billboard ‘s list of music books to watch out for this year, including release dates, below:

Alan Paul, Brothers and Sisters: The Allman Brothers Band and the Inside Story of the Album That Defined the ’70s
Kiana Fitzgerald, Ode to Hip-Hop: 50 Albums That Define 50 Years of Trailblazing Music
Amy Winehouse, Amy Winehouse: In Her Words
Jeremy Eichler, Time’s Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance
Melissa Etheridge, Talking to My Angels
Juicy J & Soren Baker, Chronicles of the Juice Man: A Memoir
Laura Flam, Emily Sieu Liebowitz, But Will You Love Me Tomorrow?: An Oral History of the ’60s Girl Groups
Holly Gleason, Prine on Prine: Interviews and Encounters with John Prine
Paula Blackman, Night Train to Nashville: The Greatest Untold Story of Music City
Stephen M. Silverman, Sondheim: His Life, His Shows, His Legacy
Jann S. Wenner, The Masters: Conversations with Dylan, Lennon, Jagger, Townshend, Garcia, Bono, and Springsteen
Jeff Apter, Keith Urban
Reba McEntire, Not That Fancy: Simple Lessons on Living, Loving, Eating, and Dusting Off Your Boots
Sowmya Krishnamurthy, Fashion Killa: How Hip-Hop Revolutionized High Fashion
Joe Coscarelli, Rap Capital: An Atlanta Story
Dolly Parton, Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones
Brian Southall, Bee Gees – The Illustrated Story
Britney Spears, The Woman in Me
Thurston Moore, Sonic Life: A Memoir
Philip Norman, George Harrison: The Reluctant Beatle
Mary Gabriel, Madonna: A Rebel Life
Michael Azerrad, The Amplified Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana
Willie Nelson, Energy Follows Thought: The Stories Behind My Songs
Barbra Streisand, My Name Is Barbra
Jeff Tweedy, World Within a Song: Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music
Ralph H. Craig III, Dancing in My Dreams: A Spiritual Biography of Tina Turner
Benoit Clerc, Metallica All the Songs: The story behind every track
Kenneth Womack, Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans
Johnny Cash & John Carter Cash with Mark Stielper, Johnny Cash: The Life in Lyrics
Snoop Dogg & E-40: Goon With the Spoon
Greg McDonald & Marshall Terrill, Elvis and the Colonel: An Insider’s Look at the Most Legendary Partnership in Show Business

(Releases TBD)

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Biography.com

10 Books About Philosophers That Will Change Your Mind for the Better

Posted: October 11, 2023 | Last updated: October 12, 2023

<p>Philosophy quite literally means “love of wisdom.” What book-lover wouldn’t want to dive deeper into that? But finding the best books about philosophy to start your philosophical journey can feel like a daunting task. In a perfect world, we’d all have Chidi Anagonye tutoring us on the teachings of <a href="https://www.biography.com/scholars-educators/plato">Plato</a>, <a href="https://www.biography.com/scholars-educators/aristotle">Aristotle</a>, and <a href="https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/voltaire">Voltaire</a>. In real life, <a href="https://www.biography.com/philosophers">philosophers</a> and their philosophies can seem too heady and inaccessible to explore casually. </p><p>But studying philosophy is a worthwhile endeavor for anyone to pursue. Reading about different philosophers and their ways of thinking can help you reframe your own biases about the world, improve your critical thinking skills, and gain more confidence in debating tricky subjects. Philosophers can also offer models for improving your public speaking, solving ethical problems, and interacting with new kinds of people. Reading books about philosophers can even help you find—or simply solidify — your personal moral code. </p><p>Whether you’re looking to hone your logical thinking skills, explore the world of aesthetics, or ponder mind-blowing existential questions, these 10 books about philosophers and philosophy will serve as a great starting point. </p>

Philosophy quite literally means “love of wisdom.” What book-lover wouldn’t want to dive deeper into that? But finding the best books about philosophy to start your philosophical journey can feel like a daunting task. In a perfect world, we’d all have Chidi Anagonye tutoring us on the teachings of Plato , Aristotle , and Voltaire . In real life, philosophers and their philosophies can seem too heady and inaccessible to explore casually.

But studying philosophy is a worthwhile endeavor for anyone to pursue. Reading about different philosophers and their ways of thinking can help you reframe your own biases about the world, improve your critical thinking skills, and gain more confidence in debating tricky subjects. Philosophers can also offer models for improving your public speaking, solving ethical problems, and interacting with new kinds of people. Reading books about philosophers can even help you find—or simply solidify — your personal moral code.

Whether you’re looking to hone your logical thinking skills, explore the world of aesthetics, or ponder mind-blowing existential questions, these 10 books about philosophers and philosophy will serve as a great starting point.

<p><strong>$8.39</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140449280?tag=syndication-20&ascsubtag=%5Bartid%7C2171.g.45485839%5Bsrc%7Cmsn-us">Shop Now</a></p><p>If you’re looking to read some books about philosophers, it’s hard to find a title more classic than this one. In a series of four dialogues, <a href="https://www.biography.com/scholars-educators/plato">Plato</a> recounts the trial, final days, and death of his philosophical mentor, <a href="https://www.biography.com/scholars-educators/socrates">Socrates</a>. While historians continue to debate just how reliable a source Plato is on the life and beliefs of his famous teacher, these dialogues are nevertheless a classic introduction to classical philosophy. </p>

1) 'The Last Days of Socrates' by Plato

If you’re looking to read some books about philosophers, it’s hard to find a title more classic than this one. In a series of four dialogues, Plato recounts the trial, final days, and death of his philosophical mentor, Socrates . While historians continue to debate just how reliable a source Plato is on the life and beliefs of his famous teacher, these dialogues are nevertheless a classic introduction to classical philosophy.

<p><strong>$11.95</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0192854089?tag=syndication-20&ascsubtag=%5Bartid%7C2171.g.45485839%5Bsrc%7Cmsn-us">Shop Now</a></p><p>Oxford’s Very Short Introduction series offers exactly what it says on the tin for a huge variety of topics. Its volumes dedicated to various philosophers are a great way to cover the basics of philosophy in a short period of time. This short and sweet commentary on <a href="https://www.biography.com/scholars-educators/aristotle">Aristotle</a> and his ideas is the perfect place to start. </p>

2) 'Aristotle: A Very Short Introduction' by Jonathan Barnes

Oxford’s Very Short Introduction series offers exactly what it says on the tin for a huge variety of topics. Its volumes dedicated to various philosophers are a great way to cover the basics of philosophy in a short period of time. This short and sweet commentary on Aristotle and his ideas is the perfect place to start.

<p><strong>$11.42</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1465458557?tag=syndication-20&ascsubtag=%5Bartid%7C2171.g.45485839%5Bsrc%7Cmsn-us">Shop Now</a></p><p>This book uses vibrant graphics and clear, accessible text to introduce history’s most impactful philosophers to even the most intimidated readers. In addition to key quotes from more than 100 of the great thinkers of philosophy — including Siddhartha Gautama, <a href="https://www.biography.com/scholars-educators/niccolo-machiavelli">Niccolo Machiavelli</a>, and <a href="https://www.biography.com/scholars-educators/thomas-hobbes">Thomas Hobbes</a> — the book features graphs and cartoons to help explain complex concepts. </p>

3) 'The Philosophy Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained'

This book uses vibrant graphics and clear, accessible text to introduce history’s most impactful philosophers to even the most intimidated readers. In addition to key quotes from more than 100 of the great thinkers of philosophy — including Siddhartha Gautama, Niccolo Machiavelli , and Thomas Hobbes — the book features graphs and cartoons to help explain complex concepts.

<p><strong>$16.39</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/178352801X?tag=syndication-20&ascsubtag=%5Bartid%7C2171.g.45485839%5Bsrc%7Cmsn-us">Shop Now</a></p><p>As far as historical biographies go, books about philosophers are already in something of a niche category. But books about female philosophers throughout history are even more scant. This book, written by a duo of modern-day philosophers, aims to finally bring the women of philosophy to center stage. It shares the stories of 20 influential female thinkers, from Hypatia to <a href="https://www.biography.com/activists/angela-davis">Angela Davis</a>. </p>

4) 'The Philosopher Queens' by Rebecca Buxton

As far as historical biographies go, books about philosophers are already in something of a niche category. But books about female philosophers throughout history are even more scant. This book, written by a duo of modern-day philosophers, aims to finally bring the women of philosophy to center stage. It shares the stories of 20 influential female thinkers, from Hypatia to Angela Davis .

<p><strong>$14.79</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0802158803?tag=syndication-20&ascsubtag=%5Bartid%7C2171.g.45485839%5Bsrc%7Cmsn-us">Shop Now</a></p><p>Regan Penaluna blends memoir, biography, and criticism to tell the stories of four women philosophers, including groundbreaking feminist <a href="https://www.biography.com/activists/mary-wollstonecraft">Mary Wollstonecraft</a>. Penaluna uses her own struggles against sexism in academia in concert with the lives of the women who’ve inspired her to muse on how philosophy might have evolved if women had been given more airtime. </p>

5) 'How to Think Like a Woman' by Regan Penaluna

Regan Penaluna blends memoir, biography, and criticism to tell the stories of four women philosophers, including groundbreaking feminist Mary Wollstonecraft . Penaluna uses her own struggles against sexism in academia in concert with the lives of the women who’ve inspired her to muse on how philosophy might have evolved if women had been given more airtime.

<p><strong>$11.10</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1465482032?tag=syndication-20&ascsubtag=%5Bartid%7C2171.g.45485839%5Bsrc%7Cmsn-us">Shop Now</a></p><p>If you’re looking for less of an academic deep-dive and more of a lovely overview of the world’s most impactful philosophers, this entry in the DK History Changers series should suit you perfectly. Introduced with a stunning portrait of each featured philosopher, the 100 biographies in the book trace the lives and ideas of <a href="https://www.biography.com/scholars-educators/noam-chomsky">Noam Chomsky</a>, Confucius, <a href="https://www.biography.com/scholars-educators/karl-marx">Karl Marx</a>, and more. </p>

6) 'Philosophers: Their Lives and Works'

If you’re looking for less of an academic deep-dive and more of a lovely overview of the world’s most impactful philosophers, this entry in the DK History Changers series should suit you perfectly. Introduced with a stunning portrait of each featured philosopher, the 100 biographies in the book trace the lives and ideas of Noam Chomsky , Confucius, Karl Marx , and more.

<p><strong>$17.89</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316066125?tag=syndication-20&ascsubtag=%5Bartid%7C2171.g.45485839%5Bsrc%7Cmsn-us">Shop Now</a></p><p>Pulitzer Prize finalist Mary Gabriel uses extensive research and masterful storytelling to present a rarely-seen facet of philosopher and revolutionary socialist <a href="https://www.biography.com/scholars-educators/karl-marx">Karl Marx</a>. The epic narrative spans decades to show how Marx’s marriage and family life suffered and persevered through the years he spent crafting his defining masterpiece. The remarkably in-depth account of the Marx family is both informative and poignant. </p>

7) 'Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution' by Mary Gabriel

Pulitzer Prize finalist Mary Gabriel uses extensive research and masterful storytelling to present a rarely-seen facet of philosopher and revolutionary socialist Karl Marx . The epic narrative spans decades to show how Marx’s marriage and family life suffered and persevered through the years he spent crafting his defining masterpiece. The remarkably in-depth account of the Marx family is both informative and poignant.

<p><strong>$20.00</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/022659937X?tag=syndication-20&ascsubtag=%5Bartid%7C2171.g.45485839%5Bsrc%7Cmsn-us">Shop Now</a></p><p>Many books have taken up various aspects of <a href="https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/henry-david-thoreau">Henry David Thoreau</a>’s character and achievements, but, as Laura Dassow Walls writes, “Thoreau has never been captured between covers; he was too quixotic, mischievous, many-sided.” Walls presents a complete portrait of the famous transcendentalist, drawing on previously unpublished writings to better explore his philosophy, values, and life. </p>

8) 'Henry David Thoreau: A Life' by Henry David

Many books have taken up various aspects of Henry David Thoreau ’s character and achievements, but, as Laura Dassow Walls writes, “Thoreau has never been captured between covers; he was too quixotic, mischievous, many-sided.” Walls presents a complete portrait of the famous transcendentalist, drawing on previously unpublished writings to better explore his philosophy, values, and life.

<p><strong>$16.29</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250271355?tag=syndication-20&ascsubtag=%5Bartid%7C2171.g.45485839%5Bsrc%7Cmsn-us">Shop Now</a></p><p>This lively, engaging book sits at the intersection of biography, self-help, and philosophy. Philosopher and writer Skye C. Cleary uses the life and teachings of <a href="https://www.biography.com/scholars-educators/simone-de-beauvoir">Simone de Beauvoir</a> to instruct readers on how to live more purposeful, authentic lives in the age of social media and self-exposure. Clear, accessible, and engaging but still deeply thought-provoking, Cleary’s writing proves that de Beauvoir’s philosophy is more relevant today than ever. </p>

9) 'How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment' by Skye C. Cleary

This lively, engaging book sits at the intersection of biography, self-help, and philosophy. Philosopher and writer Skye C. Cleary uses the life and teachings of Simone de Beauvoir to instruct readers on how to live more purposeful, authentic lives in the age of social media and self-exposure. Clear, accessible, and engaging but still deeply thought-provoking, Cleary’s writing proves that de Beauvoir’s philosophy is more relevant today than ever.

<p><strong>$21.99</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0197523390?tag=syndication-20&ascsubtag=%5Bartid%7C2171.g.45485839%5Bsrc%7Cmsn-us">Shop Now</a></p><p>Looking for philosophy 101? First compiled in the third century AD, this anthology from Diogenes Laertius covers Ancient Greek philosophers from Pythagoras and<a href="https://www.biography.com/scholars-educators/socrates"> Socrates</a> to <a href="https://www.biography.com/scholars-educators/aristotle">Aristotle</a> and Epicurus. This English translation by Pamela Mensch offers a lively, accessible text with ample footnotes and annotations to contextualize content for the reader. </p>

10) 'Lives of the Eminent Philosophers: Diogenes Laertius' By Pamela Mensch

Looking for philosophy 101? First compiled in the third century AD, this anthology from Diogenes Laertius covers Ancient Greek philosophers from Pythagoras and Socrates to Aristotle and Epicurus. This English translation by Pamela Mensch offers a lively, accessible text with ample footnotes and annotations to contextualize content for the reader.

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COMMENTS

Best Biographies & Memoirs of 2023
Booklovers everywhere will love our lineup of best biographies and memoirs of 2023. From personal narratives of empowerment and self-realization such as Kerry Washington's Thicker than Water to biographies and memoirs of the great artists of our time such as Barbra Streisand's My Name is Barbra, these are the best biographies and memoirs of the year 2023.
The Best New Biographies of 2023
2023 has been an excellent year for biographies, with plenty of well-researched and innovative new releases for fans of the genre to immerse themselves in. Among the new releases, some have received enough praise from critics that they may even become the definitive biographies of their subjects.
Best Biographies of 2023
Best Biographies of 2023. NONFICTION. MAY 16, 2023. NONFICTION. KING. by Jonathan Eig An extraordinary achievement and an essential life of the iconic warrior for social justice. Full review > FULL REVIEW > get a copy. bookshelf NONFICTION. SEPT. 12, 2023. NONFICTION. LARRY MCMURTRY. by ...
The best memoirs and biographies of 2023
The best memoirs and biographies of 2023. The rise of Madonna, Barbra Streisand in her own words, plus the stormy relationship of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor are among this year's ...
Biographies and Memoirs To Read in 2023
by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex. For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief. Add to Bookshelf.
The Best Biographies of 2023: The National Book Critics Circle
Talented biographers examine the interplay between individual qualities and greater social forces, explains Elizabeth Taylor—chair of the judges for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle award for biography.Here, she offers us an overview of their five-book shortlist, including a garlanded account of the life of J. Edgar Hoover and a group biography of post-war female philosophers.
The Best Memoirs and Autobiographies of 2023
All together, it becomes something expansive — an insightful personal history but also a brilliant philosophical text about the very nature of sacrifice and autonomy. In Vitro: On Longing and ...
100 Notable Books of 2023
100 Notable Books of 2023. Each year, we pore over thousands of new books, seeking out the best novels, memoirs, biographies, poetry collections, stories and more.
Spring 2023 Announcements: Memoirs & Biographies
A Matter of Appearance: A Memoir of Chronic Illness by Emily Wells (Mar. 21, $20, ISBN 978-1-64421-276-9) combines memoir and literary analysis to detail a childhood marked by ballet dancing and a ...
Notable Memoirs of 2023
Notable Memoirs of 2023 recommended by Cal Flyn. Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn selects the best recent autobiographical writing in this round-up of notable memoirs of 2023—taking in new work from such literary giants as Janet Malcolm and Annie Ernaux, the writer other writers are raving about, and a humorous debut depicting life in a haunted antiquarian bookshop.
The Best Books of 2023: Biography
10+ in stock. Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days. In the most eagerly-awaited memoir of 2023, Prince Harry tells his version of the story about the tragic death of his mother Princess Diana, life within the Royal Family and his marriage to Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, with remarkable candour and directness.
The best biographies to read in 2023
Best biographies: At a glance. Best literary biography: Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley | £20. Best showbiz biography: Let's Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria ...
2023 Biographies Books
avg rating 3.67 — 9,464 ratings — published 2021. Books shelved as 2023-biographies: Miss Dior: A Story of Courage and Couture by Justine Picardie, Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by...
14 fall 2023 pop culture memoirs and biographies we're excited to read
The 14 fall 2023 pop culture memoirs and biographies we're most excited to read. From Barbra to Peloton instructors, there's no shortage of great pop culture reads this fall. By EW Staff ...
20 Best New Biography Books To Read In 2024
A list of 20 new biography books you should read in 2024, such as Colin Powell, KAMALA HARRIS, Martha Stewart and Carlos Alcaraz. ... 4.04 | Dec 31, 2023 | 71 Pages. Biography Celebrity Biography. Kamaru Usman Biography. The Nigerian Nightmare's Journey to UFC Greatness" is a captivating biography that delves into the life and career of one of ...
2023 Biographies Shelf
Read ». More articles…. 2023 Biographies genre: new releases and popular books, including Miss Dior: A Story of Courage and Couture by Justine Picardie, Between Two Kingdoms: A ...
Coming Soon: Biography & Memoir Books
The French Ingredient. Jane Bertch. Manifesto. Ernesto Che Guevara, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Rosa Luxemburg. The Kneeling Man. Leta McCollough Seletzky. Grown Woman Talk. Sharon Malone, M.D. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: A 500-Piece Puzzle.
30 Best Biographies to Read Now 2024
Via Bookshop.org. 1. Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie S. Glaude (2020) In these tumultuous times, average citizens and leaders alike have been ...
Best Memoir & Autobiography 2023
WINNER 132,867 votes. The Woman in Me. by. Britney Spears. One of several high-profile celebrity memoirs to drop this year, Britney Spears' big book was ecstatically received by fans—and it did quite well with the critics, too. If you're keeping score at home, Prince Harry's memoir, Spare, came in second place in this category.
Amazon.com: Coming Soon
Editors' pick Best Biographies & Memoirs. Fi: A Memoir of My Son. by Alexandra Fuller | Apr 9, 2024. Hardcover. $25.20 $ 25. 20. List: $28.00 $28.00. Pre-order Price Guarantee. FREE delivery Fri, Apr 12 on $35 of items shipped by Amazon. Or fastest delivery Thu, Apr 11 . This title will be released on April 9, 2024.
Best of 2023 So Far
Paperback. More Stock On Order. RRP $34.99. $28.50. 19%. OFF. 31 Results | View 24 / All. Booktopia - Buy Best of 2023 So Far - Biographies books online from Australia's leading online bookstore. Discount Best of 2023 So Far - Biographies books and flat rate shipping of $9.99 per online book order.
Music Books & Biographies Arriving in 2023: A Reading ...
Read Ahead: A Release Calendar of Music Books & Biographies Being Published in 2023. Highly anticipated books by Britney Spears, Barbra Streisand and more are hitting shelves this year.
10 Books About Philosophers That Will Change Your Mind for the Better
$16.29. Shop Now. This lively, engaging book sits at the intersection of biography, self-help, and philosophy. Philosopher and writer Skye C. Cleary uses the life and teachings of Simone de ...
Picture Book Biographies of 2023 (109 books)
109 books · 5 voters · list created June 24th, 2023 by Cherie (votes) . Tags: 2023, autobiographies, biographies, nonfiction, picture-book-biographies, picture-books. Like. Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.
Nickolas H. Guertin > United States Navy > BioDisplay
Nickolas H. Guertin was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition (ASN RD&A) on December 20, 2023. A Presidential appointee confirmed by the United ...