Biographies to read
- Best modern biographies
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- Best biographies of all time new york times
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The 30 Best Biographies of All Time
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Blog – Posted on Monday, Jan 21
Biographer Richard Holmes once wrote that his work was “a kind of pursuit… writing about the pursuit of that fleeting figure, in such a way as to bring them alive in the present.”
At the risk of sounding cliché, the best biographies do exactly this: bring their subjects to life. A great biography isn’t just a laundry list of events that happened to someone. Rather, it should weave a narrative and tell a story in almost the same way a novel does. In this way, biography differs from the rest of nonfiction.
All the biographies on this list are just as captivating as excellent novels, if not more so. With that, please enjoy the 30 best biographies of all time — some historical, some recent, but all remarkable, life-giving tributes to their subjects.
If you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of great biographies out there, you can also take our 30-second quiz below to narrow it down quickl The 2023 Goodreads Choice Awards have two rounds of voting open to all registered Goodreads members. Winners will be announced December 07, 2023. In the first round there are 20 books in each of the 15 categories, and members can vote for one book in each category. The field narrows to the top 10 books in each category, and members have one last chance to vote! Books published in the United States in English, including works in translation and other significant rereleases, between November 17, 2022, and November 15, 2023, are eligible for the 2023 Goodreads Choice Awards. Books published between November 16, 2023, and November 14, 2024, will be eligible for the 2024 awards. We analyze statistics from the millions of books added, rated, and reviewed on Goodreads to nominate 20 books in each category. For the Audiobook category, nominations are based on the millions of titles added, rated, and reviewed both on Goodreads and Audible. Opening round official nominees must have an ave Hey everyone, Oooh, I love an annual roudup, don’t you? A chance to look back on the best and brightest of the year, a way to reflect on where we’ve been. Where I’ve been is reading. I read 100 books this year (if I can finish this last one today), and a lot of them were history and biography. So I thought I’d share them! Now these are my favorites of what I’ve read in 2024. A lot of them didn’t come out this year. So hopefully this is resurface some old favorites for you. I wrote a full review of my experience reading this book in October, but this book has really stuck with me. The imagery that Iris Jamahl Dunkle See It On Goodreads Buy on Bookshop Buy on Amazon I’m used to biographies with a more strict narrative structure, so I was pleasantly surprised by this book, which confronts the reality and myth of Owain Glyndŵr by examining the actual documents we have left
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2023 Rules & Eligibility
Opening Round: Nov 14 - 26
Final Round: Nov 28 - Dec 03
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