Favorite autobiography/biography?

[mamalisa]

I'm looking for some new reading material and I've decided to go the "real life" route. I read Lance Armstrong's autobiography last week and really enjoyed it. Any suggestions?

[nicole lisa]

A couple of faves:

No future Without Forgiveness by Desmond Tutu. I'm athiest but loved this book. Not really an autobiography but he does include a lot from his whole life and the lessons he was taught that prepared him for chairing the Truth and Reconciliation Comission.

Prison Writings: My Life is My Sun Dance by Leonard Peltier

Inside Out by James Tyman. This is the Chapters synopsis for it:

At the age of 24, in prison for a two-year stretch, James Tyman realized he was going nowhere and began to wonder why. In six weeks, he wrote Inside Out, a powerful record of his own voyage of self-discovery and an open letter to the people of Canada telling how his life had been shaped by troubling aspects of our society. Inside Out gets behind the stereotypes associated with native Canadians and raises important questions about adoption of native children into white families; about the legal and penal systems; about drugs and prostitution, and about life on the streets of Canada's urban centres.

I also love With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Togther by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.

Right now I've just started Stand Facing the Stove: The Story of the Women Who Gave America the Joy of Cooking by Anne Mendelson. I'd heared it mentioned more than once on radio and in print and decided to give it a go.

[AEZMama]

Me-Katherine Hepburn
Kaffir Boy-Mark Mathabane
Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life
Ansel Adams-An Autobiography

[lisalou]

Orson Welles: Road to Xanadu by Simon Callow

At Amazon

A really fascinating life and you get to picture the guy from 4 Weddings and a Funeral telling you the story while you read it.

Simon Callow

[Lisoula]

I really enjoyed Michael J. Fox's autobio...but I can't remember the title.

[bjorker]

I KNOW there are some I enjoyed that I am forgetting, but I'll come back if I think of it. For now, I really second "Kaffir Boy" by Mark Mathabane!

Also enjoyed "Zlata's Diary" by Zlata ... Flipovic? Something like that. I read it when I was much younger, and it is kinda-sorta written for younger readers, but it's good!

"Girl, Interupted" by Susanna Kaysen was pretty good.

"She's Not There" by Jennifer Finney Boylen.

I know it's an Oprah selection now, but I swear on my prized book collection that I read it long ago... *ahem* Anyway, "Night" by Elie Wiesel is a winner.

Not entirely a biography, but close enough & definately worth mentioning: "There Are No Children Here" by Alex Kotlowitz.

Two that I am dying to read but haven't yet are "Lucky" by Alice Sebold (the author of "The Lucky Bones") and "Djuna: The Life and Work of Djuna Barnes".

- okay I'll stop. Still, I'm racking my brain for the rest! I may be back...

Whenever you get around to an update, I'd love to hear what you read!

[Susana]

I'll second Me by Katharine Hepburn

adding to the list
Coal Miners Daughter and
Still Woman Enough by Loretta Lynn

Scar Tissue-Anthony Kiedis

No Lifeguard on Duty-Janice Dickenson. She's the self-proclamined "worlds first supermodel" and this book about her childhood and years in the 70s modelling world I found very interesting.

[rose angel]

It's a "memoir," but I LOVE LOVE LOVE Angela's Ashes by Frank Mc Court Hilarious and totally heartbreaking.