The Best Biographies & Memoirs 2024

1. Thread that Runs so True (Paperback)

First published in 1949, Jesse Stuart's now classic personal account of his twenty years of teaching in the mountain region of Kentucky has enchanted and inspired generations of students and teachers. With eloquence and wit, Stuart traces his twenty-year career in education, which began, when he was only seventeen years old, with teaching grades one through eight in a one-room schoolhouse. Before long Stuart was on a path that made him principal and finally superintendent of city and county schools. The road was not smooth, however, and Stuart faced many challenges, from students who were considerably older--and bigger--than he to well-meaning but distrustful parents, uncooperative administrators and, most daunting, his own fear of failure. Through it all, Stuart never lost his abiding faith in the power of education. A graceful ode to what he considered the greatest profession there is, Jesse Stuart's The Thread That Runs So True is timeless proof that "good teaching is forever and the teacher is immortal."

First published in 1949, Jesse Stuart’s now classic personal account of his twenty years of teaching in the mountain region of Kentucky has enchanted and inspired generations of students and teachers. With eloquence and wit, Stuart traces his twenty-year career in education, which began, when he was only seventeen years old, with teaching grades one through eight in a one-room schoolhouse. Before long Stuart was on a path that made him principal and finally superintendent of city and county schools. The road was not smooth, however, and Stuart faced many challenges, from students who were considerably older—and bigger—than he to well-meaning but distrustful parents, uncooperative administrators and, most daunting, his own fear of failure. Through it all, Stuart never lost his abiding faith in the power of education. A graceful ode to what he considered the greatest profession there is, Jesse Stuart’s The Thread That Runs So True is timeless proof that “good teaching is forever and the teacher is immortal.”

2. Dover Thrift Editions: American History: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Paperback)

Charming self-portrait covers boyhood, work as a printer, political career, scientific experiments, much more. Its openness, honesty, and readable style have made the Autobiography one of the great classics of the genre.

Blessed with enormous talents and the energy and ambition to go with them, Franklin was a statesman, author, inventor, printer, and scientist. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and later was involved in negotiating the peace treaty with Britain that ended the Revolutionary War. He also invented bifocals, a stove that is still manufactured, a water-harmonica, and the lightning rod. Franklin's extraordinary range of interests and accomplishments are brilliantly recorded in his Autobiography, considered one of the classics of the genre. Covering his life up to his prewar stay in London as representative of the Pennsylvania Assembly, this charming self-portrait recalls Franklin's boyhood, his determination to achieve high moral standards, his work as a printer, experiments with electricity, political career, experiences during the French and Indian War, and more. Related in an honest, open, unaffected style, this highly readable account offers a wonderfully intimate glimpse of the Founding Father sometimes called "the wisest American."

3. Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 (Paperback)

Originally published: San Francisco, Calif.: Straight Arrow Books, 1973.

With the same drug-addled alacrity and jaundiced wit that made Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas a hilarious hit, Hunter S. Thompson turns his savage eye and gonzo heart to the repellent and seductive race for President.He deconstructs the 1972 campaigns of idealist George McGovern and political hack Richard Nixon, ending up with a political vision that is eerily prophetic.A classic!

4. First Ladies (Paperback) 9780688112721

ISBN: 9780688112721 ISBN10: 0688112722 Contributors: Anthony, Carl Sferrazza,

In this previously untold story of a unique role and its evolving definitions, Carl Sferrazza Anthony has produced "an entirely new take on the first ladyship" and "an awesome work of scholarship" (Library Journal). Opening with a historic trip made in 1789 by Martha Washington from Mount Vernon to New York, then the capital city, First Ladies brings these women alive as never before in a saga of intertwining lives, friends, rivals, and allies. Among the women profiled in this first of a definitive two-volume history: Dolley Madison, Julia Tyler, Mary Lincoln, Julia Grant, Nellie Taft, Edith Wilson, Grace Coolidge, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Mamie Eisenhower. From the Federalist to the Antebellum periods, through the Gilded and Jazz ages, from the Great Depression to the Fabulous Fifties, thirty-four women confronted the towering events of American history. They also helped establish its course. We also glimpse the early years of the living First Ladies, from Jacqueline Kennedy to Barbara Bush.

5. The Passion of Ayn Rand, (Paperback)

This bestselling biography of one of the 20th century's most remarkable and controversial writers is now available in paperback.Author Barbara Branden, who knew Rand for nineteen years, provides a matchless portrait of this fiercely private and complex woman."

The Passion of Ayn Rand, (Paperback) Author: Anchor Books ISBN: 9780385243889 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 1987-08-18 Page Count: 480

6. Ghost Girl

9780380716814

Ghost Girl

7. Walks in Hemingway's Paris: A Guide to Paris for the Literary Traveler (Paperback)

Walks in Hemingway's Paris is the perfect travel companion to the most romantic and fascinating of cities for those who want to experience Paris beyond the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. Covering all the area of Paris that Hemingway and his fellow expatriates once roamed from Left Bank to Right, Noel Riley Fitch provides an intimate visit to major Parisian landmarks as well as to out-of-the-way cafes, hotels and residences immortalized by Papa and his friends.

Walks in Hemingway's Paris is the perfect travel companion to the most romantic and fascinating of cities for those who want to experience Paris beyond the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. Covering all the area of Paris that Hemingway and his fellow expatriates once roamed from Left Bank to Right, Noel Riley Fitch provides an intimate visit to major Parisian landmarks as well as to out-of-the-way cafes, hotels and residences immortalized by "Papa" and his friends.

8. The Dangerous Summer (Paperback)

Experience Hemingway's firsthand chronicle of a brutal season of bullfights in Spain. In the 1950s, Hemingway and his wife return to Spain, where Hemingway had visited before as a war correspondent to cover the Spanish Civil War, in order to see friends and follow bullfighting events. Hemingway's time in Spain is most often remembered as his experiences with bullfighting, his passion often conveyed through his writing. He and his wife follow summer-long series events and witness the complexities and danger within the bullfighting community. In this vivid account, Hemingway captures the exhausting pace and pressure of the season, the camaraderie and pride of the matadors, and the mortal drama as in fight after fight the rival matadors try to outdo each other with ever more daring performances. At the same time, Hemingway offers an often complex and deeply personal self-portrait that reveals much about one of the twentieth century's preeminent writers.

Experience Hemingway’s firsthand chronicle of a brutal season of bullfights in Spain. In the 1950s, Hemingway and his wife return to Spain, where Hemingway had visited before as a war correspondent to cover the Spanish Civil War, in order to see friends and follow bullfighting events. Hemingway’s time in Spain is most often remembered as his experiences with bullfighting, his passion often conveyed through his writing. He and his wife follow summer-long series events and witness the complexities and danger within the bullfighting community. In this vivid account, Hemingway captures the exhausting pace and pressure of the season, the camaraderie and pride of the matadors, and the mortal drama as in fight after fight the rival matadors try to outdo each other with ever more daring performances. At the same time, Hemingway offers an often complex and deeply personal self-portrait that reveals much about one of the twentieth century's preeminent writers.

9. Still by Your Side: A True Story of Love & Grief, Faith & Miracles (Hardcover) by Marjorie Holmes

9780824516314. New condition. Hard cover. Language: English. Pages: 132. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 132 p. When she lost the love of her life, Marjorie Holmes found herself alone for the first time. How she came to learn that love is stronger than death makes for a reading experience you will not forget. Holmes is the bestselling author of such classic books of inspiration as I've Got to Talk to Somebody, God, Two from Galilee and The Messiah.

ISBN: 9780824516314 Condition: New Hard cover Language: English Pages: 132 Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 132 p. When she lost the love of her life, Marjorie Holmes found herself alone for the first time. How she came to learn that love is stronger than death makes for a reading experience you will not forget. Holmes is the bestselling author of such classic books of inspiration as I've Got to Talk to Somebody, God, Two from Galilee and The Messiah.

10. Nietzsche: Life as Literature (Paperback)

More than eighty years after his death, Nietzsche's writings and his career remain disquieting, disturbing, obscure. His most famous views--the will to power, the eternal recurrence, the Übermensch, the master morality--often seem incomprehensible or, worse, repugnant. Yet he remains a thinker of singular importance, a great opponent of Hegel and Kant, and the source of much that is powerful in figures as diverse as Wittgenstein, Derrida, Heidegger, and many recent American philosophers. Alexander Nehamas provides the best possible guide for the perplexed. He reveals the single thread running through Nietzsche's views: his thinking of the world on the model of a literary text, of people as if they were literary characters, and of knowledge and science as if they were literary interpretation. Beyond this, he advances the clarity of the concept of textuality, making explicit some of the forces that hold texts together and so hold us together. Nehamas finally allows us to see that Nietzsche is creating a literary character out of himself, that he is, in effect, playing the role of Plato to his own Socrates. Nehamas discusses a number of opposing views, both American and European, of Nietzsche's texts and general project, and reaches a climactic solving of the main problems of Nietzsche interpretation in a step-by-step argument. In the process he takes up a set of very interesting questions in contemporary philosophy, such as moral relativism and scientific realism. This is a book of considerable breadth and elegance that will appeal to all curious readers of philosophy and literature.

Nietzsche: Life as Literature (Paperback)