Sunday, September 23, 2007

More Biographical Reading!

Here's a few more books for the In Their Shoes Challenge that I found on my apartment shelves. Dang! I must be subconsciously worried that there's going to be some kind of biography/memoir embargo in the future:

Going Solo - Roald Dahl (memoir)
Travels With Charley - John Steinbeck (memoir)
Fried Eggs With Chopsticks - Polly Evans (memoir)
Tete-a-Tete: The Tumultuous Lives And Loves Of Simone de Beauvoir And Jean Paul Sartre - Hazel Rowley (biography)
The Book Of Margery Kempe (the first autobiography written in English)
My Life In France - Julia Child (memoir)
Poet Of The Appetites - Joan Reardon (M.F.K. Fisher biography)
James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life Of Alice B. Sheldon - Julie Phillips (biography)
En route:
Lillian Hellman: A Life With Foxes And Scoundrels -Deborah Martinson (biography)

So...that's eight, almost nine at the apartment and thirteen in my office, plus I'm planning to get Autobiography Of A Face so I can read it as a companion piece to Truth & Beauty.

Twenty-three to choose from for the challenge! I've got to cull my list down to a dozen -- make it manageable. I'm taking suggestions. Please look at the list in my previous post and the list in this blog entry and tell me which ones you think look good. Don't suggest anything new or different, because you KNOW I'm weak. If you mention Harrys Houdini or Truman or Edith Wharton or Colette...

6 comments:

jenclair said...

I am really enjoying reading the suggestions for this challenge. I've been reading biographies and memoirs all this year as a personal goal, so this challenge might be a good way to continue.

Dewey said...

Autobiography of a Face was awful, in my opinion. I know people who liked it, but although it was an interesting story, the author is just... not a writer.

I'd like to read Going Solo. And Tete a Tete is on my wishlist. I have no opinion about any of the others, sorry!

joemmama said...

I liked "Face" alot. I'd also read "Tete a Tete" "Travels with Charley","My life in France"."Widow" was good as well. Best of luck!

MissMiller said...

Hey-ho again! Tete-a-tete really intrigues me - oh the intensity of their intellectual relationship and the scandal of it's open approach!

darkorpheus said...

I was intrigued by Tete-a-Tete, and the bio on James Tiptree Jr. And The Piano Shop On The Left Bank -- I've been meaning to read it for years!

Bookfool said...

I lurv memoirs and your list looks pretty terrific. Going Solo is a favorite. I've also read Travels with Charley and enjoyed it, although his experiences in the Deep South gave me the shivers. Of course, it *was* the 60's.

I've got a book of Simone de Beauvoir's letters to Jean-Paul Sartre that I need to read and some of her memoir series (but not all of them, darn it). I'll be curious to see what you think of those. Looks like a fun challenge!