Biography 
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There are a total of 255 valid entries on the list.
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"Nadia Owusu grew up all over the world--from Rome and London to Dar-es-Salaam and Kampala. When her mother abandoned her when she was two years old, the rejection caused Nadia to be confused about her identity. Even after her father died when she was thirteen and she was raised by her stepmother, she was unable to come to terms with who she was since she still felt motherless and alone. When Nadia went to university in America when she was eighteen...
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Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
Few figures in American history have been more hotly debated or more grossly misunderstood than Alexander Hamilton. Chernow's biography gives Hamilton his due and sets the record straight, deftly illustrating that the political and economic greatness of today's America is the result of Hamilton's countless sacrifices to champion ideas that were often wildly disputed during his time. "To repudiate his legacy," Chernow writes, "is, in many ways, to...
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Average Rating:
3 stars
Description:
"In 1850s South Carolina, just before nine-year-old Ashley was sold, her mother Rose gave her a sack filled with just a few things as a token of her love. Decades later, Ashley's granddaughter Ruth embroidered this history on the bag--including Rose's message that 'It be filled with my Love always.' Historian Tiya Miles carefully follows faint archival traces back to Charleston to find Rose in the kitchen where she may have packed the sack for Ashley....
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Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
"From the indie rockstar of Japanese Breakfast fame, and author of the viral 2018 New Yorker essay that shares the title of this book, an unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean-American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity."--
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Average Rating:
5 stars
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A biography of Queen Elizabeth II and her sister Margaret examines their early idyllic youth as the closest of sisters as well as their often fraught relationship after their father's death and Elizabeth's ascension to the throne.
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Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
NATIONAL BEST SELLER
A stunning, personal memoir from the astronaut and modern-day hero who spent a record-breaking year aboard the International Space Station—a message of hope for the future that will inspire for generations to come.
The veteran of four spaceflights and the American record holder for consecutive days spent in space, Scott Kelly has experienced things very few have. Now, he takes us inside a sphere utterly hostile...
A stunning, personal memoir from the astronaut and modern-day hero who spent a record-breaking year aboard the International Space Station—a message of hope for the future that will inspire for generations to come.
The veteran of four spaceflights and the American record holder for consecutive days spent in space, Scott Kelly has experienced things very few have. Now, he takes us inside a sphere utterly hostile...
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Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
Ricks discusses "the founding fathers, examining their educations and, in particular, their devotion to the ancient Greek and Roman classics--and how that influence would shape their ideals and the new American nation ... [His book] follows [the first four U.S. presidents] ... from their youths to their adult lives, as they grappled with questions of independence and forming and keeping a new nation. In doing so, Ricks interprets not only the effect...
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Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction and of the Goodreads Choice Award for History & Biography
The award-winning, best-selling book that changes the narrative of the "Ripper" murders forever
Polly, Annie, Elisabeth, Catherine, and Mary Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from some of London's wealthiest and poorest neighborhoods, from the factory towns of middle England,...
The award-winning, best-selling book that changes the narrative of the "Ripper" murders forever
Polly, Annie, Elisabeth, Catherine, and Mary Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from some of London's wealthiest and poorest neighborhoods, from the factory towns of middle England,...
9. Grant
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Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
Ulysses S. Grant's life has typically been misunderstood. All too often he is caricatured as a chronic loser and an inept businessman, or as the triumphant but brutal Union general of the Civil War. But these stereotypes don't come close to capturing him, as Chernow shows in his masterful biography, the first to provide a complete understanding of the general and president whose fortunes rose and fell with dizzying speed and frequency. Before the...
10. Greenlights
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Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"Drawing on the Academy Award-winning actor's journals and diaries from the last 40 years, this book presents a uniquely McConaughey approach to achieving success and satisfaction"--
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Average Rating:
2.5 stars
Description:
Traces the parallel stories of nineteenth-century art patron Charles Ephrussi and his unique collection of 264 miniature netsuke Japanese ivory carvings, documenting Ephrussi's relationship with Marcel Proust and the impact of the Holocaust on his cosmopolitan family.
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Average Rating:
3.3 stars
Notes:
rec by spencer. writing is good
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Description:
The author, journalist, and rock musician "Mikel Jollett was born into one of the country's most infamous cults, and subjected to a childhood filled with poverty, addiction, and emotional abuse. Yet, ultimately, his is a story of fierce love and family loyalty told in a raw, poetic voice"--Publisher marketing.
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The former CEO of General Electric discusses how he led the corporation through the days immediately after 9/11 and the 2008-09 financial crisis and refocus it into a more diverse, globalized, and innovative company.
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Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
"I Am I Am I Am is a gripping and glorious investigation of death that leaves the reader feeling breathless, grateful, and fully alive. Maggie O’Farrell is a miracle in every sense. I will never forget this book."
—Ann Patchett
An extraordinary memoir—told entirely in near-death experiences—from one of Britain's best-selling novelists, for fans of Wild, When Breath Becomes Air, and...
—Ann Patchett
An extraordinary memoir—told entirely in near-death experiences—from one of Britain's best-selling novelists, for fans of Wild, When Breath Becomes Air, and...
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Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
In 1942, one young social worker, Irena Sendler, was granted access to the Warsaw ghetto as a public health specialist. While there, she reached out to the trapped Jewish families, going from door to door and asking the parents to trust her with their young children. She started smuggling them out of the walled district, convincing her friends and neighbors to hide them. Driven to extreme measures and with the help of a network of local tradesmen,...
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Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"The ... memoir of the woman whose letter to Brock T urner gave voice to millions of survivors."--Publisher's description.
17. My own words
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Average Rating:
3.2 stars
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"The first book from Ruth Bader Ginsburg since becoming a Supreme Court Justice in 1993--a ... collection of writings and speeches from the woman who has had [an] ... influence on law, women's rights, and popular culture"--
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Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
"One of the most prominent voices of her generation debuts with [a] ... powerful memoir: the story of a childhood defined by the ever looming absence of her incarcerated father and the path we must take to both honor and overcome our origins"--
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Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
In this "portrait of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz, ... Larson shows ... how Churchill taught the British people 'the art of being fearless.' It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it's also an intimate domestic drama set against the backdrop of Churchill's prime-ministerial country home Chequers; his wartime retreat Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course...
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Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"This brilliant multiple biography is centered on Lincoln's mastery of men and how it shaped the most significant presidency in the nation's history."--Provided by publisher.