#biography

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A Civil Rights Icon

My Life, My Love, My Legacy by Coretta Scott King

February 8, 2023 by Jake Leave a Comment

Like many white folk who studied the Civil Rights Movement on a surface level, I always assumed Coretta Scott King fully played the Dutiful Wife. She tended to the children, kept the house, lifted the spirits of her famous husband, mourned with dignity and carried on his legacy as she got older. Well, she did do those things. But she did so much more and she deserves to be remembered as more than The Wife. I’ve always had a curiosity about Coretta Scott King ever […]

Gripping story of resilience

Hostage by Guy Delisle

January 30, 2023 by ElCicco 1 Comment

CBR15Passport books from different countries Hostage is the true story of Christophe Andre, a Frenchman working for Doctors Without Borders in Chechnya who was kidnapped and held for three months. Guy Delisle, a French illustrator and writer, interviewed Andre after his ordeal and turned the taped interviews into a gripping work of graphic biography. In order to place things in context I had to read up a bit on the Chechen/Russian war of 1994-96. The events in this story take place after that conflict had […]

The People Make the Place

The New Yorkers: 31 Remarkable People, 400 Years, and the Untold Biography of the World's Greatest City by Sam Roberts

January 7, 2023 by Pooja Leave a Comment

New York City has seen nearly a billion inhabitants in its 400 year long history, and a great many of them have been very remarkable. But there are also many how had an indelible impact on the city, even if they are mostly forgotten today. I do not like New York City. I am a Bostonian through and through. But I’ve been there many times, and I must admit that there is really no other place like it. The city has a strange essence to […]

“Buddy Rich once told me that he was the loneliest man in the universe.”

The Torment of Buddy Rich: A Biography by John Minahan

Traps, The Drum Wonder: The Life of Buddy Rich by Mel Torme

October 10, 2022 by GentleRain Leave a Comment

CBR14Bingo: Minds (I read both of these as I continued my personal psychological study of Buddy Rich’s mind) Buddy Rich is arguably the best drummer to ever live. I was first introduced to his work about a year ago when he was mentioned in a biography of Frank Sinatra I was reading; the two of them had at least one fistfight when they were in Tommy Dorsey’s band together. As I have a fascination with mid-century men with terrible tempers (Frank Sinatra, Burt Lancaster) I […]

The Complicated Splinter

The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams by Ben Bradlee, Jr.

October 1, 2022 by Jake Leave a Comment

Read as part of CBR14Bingo: star. Ted Williams was one of the biggest stars in baseball history and this biography is worthy of him. When I read Leigh Montville’s Ted Williams: The Biography of An American Hero about ten years ago, I figured that would be the end of my journey with the life of the Splendid Splinter. I liked reading about Williams, I find him interesting, but I didn’t need more than one 500+ page work on his life. When Ben Bradlee, Jr. dropped this 775 page tome […]

August 2022 Leftovers

Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood by Jane Leavy

Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner

The Stranger by Albert Camus

The Man Who Liked to Look at Himself by K.C. Constantine

The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott

Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris

Inside the Empire: The True Power Behind the New York Yankees by Bob Klapisch and Pete Solotaroff

Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child

Finley Ball: How Two Outsiders Turned the Oakland As into a Dynasty and Changed Baseball Forever by Nancy Finley

Sea Change by Robert B. Parker

The Hunting Wives by May Cobb

The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay

Ms. Tree, Volume 1 by Max Alan Collins

September 3, 2022 by Jake Leave a Comment

Some extra books I read in August. What a miserably hot month… Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood**** Less a conventional biopic on The Mick and more a look at his life vis-a-vis his legend and the backdrop of postwar America. Not as thorough as I would’ve liked but still riveting given how Jane Leavy presents her subject. Greenwich Park*** Again glad I slept on my review. I really liked how this started but after a while, it morphed into […]

Malin on Do you find yourself comfort reading?I probably have at least thirty books (or more) to read before I'm where you are now, but I totally agree with you on the...
Carriejay on A great time was had.Good choices! I feel like I don't see Emma Thompson in enough stuff these days.
narfna on A great time was had.My friend and I actually fancast it while we were reading! We decided on Viola Davis for Billie, Michelle Yeoh as Helen, Emma Thompson as...
Emmalita on “The way to stay married is simple – don’t get divorced.”Faintingviolet and ASKReviews did. I clearly need more Ada Calhoun in my life.
booktrovert on “The way to stay married is simple – don’t get divorced.”Thank you- I highly recommend this one! Did you review her book, Why We Can't Sleep? I remember seeing someone review that here on Cannonball...

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