Book #143 of 2025: The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon by Laurie Gwen Shapiro These days, Amelia Earhart is probably best remembered for two things: her status as a pioneering female pilot, including her being the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, …
Tag Archives: biography
Book Review: Mark Twain by Ron Chernow
Book #102 of 2025: Mark Twain by Ron Chernow Ron Chernow is a consummate biographer, probably best known for popularizing the tale of an overlooked Founding Father into an account that became the basis for the hit Broadway musical Hamilton. Here he turns his attentions a century forward to the life of author Mark Twain, …
Book Review: Romney: A Reckoning by McKay Coppins
Book #55 of 2024: Romney: A Reckoning by McKay Coppins A remarkable inside look at a complicated political figure: the 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who as a senator during the Trump presidency then became one of the few members of that party willing to publicly stand against the president’s erratic, abusive, and outright …
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Book Review: The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden by Peter L. Bergen
Book #323 of 2021: The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden by Peter L. Bergen A well-researched biography, although not one that actually answers its own question of explaining the unique radicalization path of its subject from millionaire son of a Middle East construction dynasty to Western-hating Jihadist and inadvertent architect of the modern …
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Book Review: True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee by Abraham Riesman
Book #90 of 2021: True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee by Abraham Riesman Drawing on years of archive research and interviews with Stan Lee’s closest associates, this new biography is probably the definitive account of the Marvel Comics editor-turned-Hollywood cameo superstar. It also complicates if not contradicts a lot of our established …
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Book Review: Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik
Book #224 of 2020: Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik This 2015 book is a solid overview of the major events in the life and career of the titular Supreme Court justice, and a bittersweet read in the wake of her recent passing. It’s not …
Book Review: 41: A Portrait of My Father by George W. Bush
Book #243 of 2018: 41: A Portrait of My Father by George W. Bush My political views are very different from both the author and the subject of this presidential retrospective, but thankfully the former steers largely clear of politics to talk about the latter’s character. (The author’s brother Jeb, for example, barely features in …
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Book Review: A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of the Smiths by Tony Fletcher
Book #103 of 2018: A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of the Smiths by Tony Fletcher I am probably not the ideal reader or reviewer for a book about The Smiths, a band with which I have little familiarity and no emotional attachment. (As a partial defense, they had already split up …
Book Review: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Book #51 of 2018: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow This definitive biography of America’s controversial Founding Father is meticulously-researched, exhaustively-detailed, and above all engaging to read. It really brings the past to life, especially in relating the political struggles that took place after the Revolution as Alexander Hamilton and other patriots pursued different visions of …
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Book Review: Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson by Randall Sullivan
Book #41 of 2015: Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson by Randall Sullivan I don’t know how I feel about this one. I did learn a lot, and Michael Jackson had a very interesting life, but this narrative is a really disjointed telling of it. It keeps hopping around in time …
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