I’ve read more than a hundred biographies over the years, mostly because I want to know what makes great people great. In doing so, I have sifted through some real crap along the way. I don’t typically read many stories about losers. Sad to say, and most people don’t want to hear it, but losers are a dime a dozen and unmotivating downers. My book list gives others the benefits of my 40-plus years of work in identifying books about brilliant, accomplished people written by first-rate historians and narrated by the ”cream of the crop.”
This one’s easy. The writing in this book is so tight, thorough, clever, and subtly funny that I wanted to copy the author's style, but I wasn’t born an English aristocrat.
From the perspective of prose, it is the finest written book I have ever read. The author is clearly brilliant, and I’m in awe and envious of his mastery and usage of the English language and his seemingly unlabored way of phrasing the essence of situations, events, characteristics, and motivations of the people involved.
Then Jenkins chose Simon Vance to narrate with his voice impressions that are so eerily accurate I could feel Churchill in my very own presence.
The entire book is so thoroughly researched and documented that it clearly has become the go-to resource for all things “Churchill,” a man who may have more written about him than any man who ever lived except Jesus Christ.
From the admiralty to the miner's strike, from the Battle of Britain to eventual victory over Nazi Germany, Churchill oversaw some of the most important events the world has ever seen. Winning the Nobel Prize in Literature for his personal writing and cautioning against a powerful Soviet Russia in his later years in office, his larger-than-life and complex personality has continued to fascinate writers and historians.
In this comprehensive biography, Roy Jenkins faithfully presents these events, while also managing to convey the contradictions and quirks in Churchill's character. Weaving together in-depth analysis and brilliant historical research, Jenkins has succeeded in…
I loved this book first and foremost for the completeness of the research done including supplemental materials such as sketches, artwork, etc.
How he was able to gather so much information about the roamings, seemingly on a daily basis, of a man that lived 500 years ago is beyond me. I also thought the choice of Alfred Molina to narrate was brilliant as his Italian phrasing and enunciation made all the difference in the world.
In the end, I felt I knew da Vinci on a personal level, which surprised me.
The #1 New York Times bestseller from Walter Isaacson brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography that is "a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it...Most important, it is a powerful story of an exhilarating mind and life" (The New Yorker).
Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo da Vinci's astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson "deftly reveals an intimate Leonardo" (San Francisco Chronicle) in a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo's genius was based on skills we can improve…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
I was working my way through listening to audiobooks on every President and wasn’t all that enthused about John Adams who was known to be a stick-in-the-mud. Boy was I wrong.
I adored this book because of the way McCullough brought Adams to life and made me respect, admire, and even like him in the end. The relationship between Adams and his wife was profound and made me long for others to capture what they felt.
Of course, Edward Herrman’s narration is worth the price of the book all by itself. In fact, I have purchased a dozen or more books simply because he read it. I’m his biggest fan.
His first book since Truman, from one of America's most distinguished and popular biographers. Destined for the same kind of sweeping success as his Pulitzer Prize-winning Truman, John Adams is a powerful, deeply moving biography that reads like an epic historical novel. Breathing fresh life into American history, it takes as its subject the extraordinary man who became the second president of the United States. A man whose adventurous life and spirited rivalry with Thomas Jefferson encompasses both the American Revolution and the birth of the young republic. Deftly written with a brilliant eye for detail, McCullough describes the childhood,…
Like the other books in this list and in Chernow’s stable of work, this one was extensively researched.
I crave historical information at this level as long as it’s fed to me one delicious morsel at a time rather than shoved down my throat. There was no shoving here. The author and narrator combine to bring Twain alive to the point where I could see and feel him speak.
I know I wasn’t old enough to watch Twain perform his one-man shows around the world, but you couldn’t convince me of that immediately after reading this masterpiece. Twain exemplified Americana in his day for thousands upon thousands of folks, and this book makes it easy for me to understand why.
The complex and fascinating life of Mark Twain, as told by a Pulitzer prizewinning biographer
Born in 1835, the man who would become America's first, and most influen tial, literary celebrity spent his childhood dreaming of piloting steamboats on the Mississippi. But when the Civil War interrupted his career on the river, the young Mark Twain went west and accepted a job at the local newspaper, writing dis patches that attracted attention for their brashness and humour. It wasn't long until the former steamboat pilot from Missouri was recognized across the country for his literary brilliance.
Social Security for Future Generations
by
John A. Turner,
This book provides new options for reform of the Social Security (OASI) program. Some options are inspired by the U.S. pension system, while others are inspired by the literature on financial literacy or the social security systems in other countries.
An example of our proposals inspired by the U.S. pension…
I abhorred Robert Moses from the first time I opened this book 20 years ago.
This power-grabbing bureaucratic functionary made me ill on some level, mad as hell on another, and want to take a shower after each time I opened the book.
In the end, I still hated Moses for his gall and immoral audacity, but you could not deny his accomplishments, as he saw them. Nevertheless, I had to love a book that could take such a scoundrel whom I grew to loathe and make me glad I read it.
The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro is 'simply one of the best non-fiction books in English of the last forty years' (Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times): a riveting and timeless account of power, politics and the city of New York by 'the greatest political biographer of our times' (Sunday Times); chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of All Time and by the Modern Library as one of the 100 Greatest Books of the Twentieth Century; Winner of the Pulitzer Prize; a Sunday Times Bestseller; 'An outright masterpiece' (Evening Standard)
What begins as a simple attempt by aspiring writer Roger Mace to collect interesting life stories quickly evolves into something much bigger.
Framed by Perry Barnes’ (the main character) recollections and confessions, the book traverses World War II covert missions, golf legends, jewelry thefts, deception, romance, betrayal, love, and the fragile pursuit of redemption as it unfolds like a front-porch storytelling session, rich with charm, intrigue, exaggeration, humor, and confessional wisdom.
Social Security for Future Generations
by
John A. Turner,
This book provides new options for reform of the Social Security (OASI) program. Some options are inspired by the U.S. pension system, while others are inspired by the literature on financial literacy or the social security systems in other countries.
An example of our proposals inspired by the U.S. pension…
Mother of Trees is the first book in an epic fantasy series about a dying goddess, a broken world, and a young elf born without magic in a society ruled by it.
When the ancient being that anchors the world’s power begins to fail, the consequences ripple outward—through prophecy, politics,…
