Category Archives: Biography

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre

28 Friday Dec 2018

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A nonfiction spy book that’s as gripping as fiction. Kim Philby was an English intelligence officer in the 1940s and 50s who was secretly working for the Soviet Union, as part of the “Cambridge Five” spy ring. This book is a great mix of history, action, and espionage.

“Macintyre has produced more than just a spy story. He has written a narrative about that most complex of topics, friendship…When devouring this thriller, I had to keep reminding myself it was not a novel. It reads like a story by Graham Greene, Ian Fleming, or John Le Carré, leavened with a dollop of P.G. Wodehouse…[Macintyre] takes a fresh look at the grandest espionage drama of our era.”—Walter Isaacson, New York Times Book Review

“Macintyre does here what he does best — tell a heck of a good story. A Spy Among Friends is hands down the most entertaining book I’ve reviewed this year.” —Boston Globe

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A Shepherd’s Life: Modern Dispatches from a Ancient Landscape by James Rebanks

17 Monday Dec 2018

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While you are waiting to obtain a copy of Educated: a Memoir by Sara Westover ( the holds list is still in the 800’s), you might want to try this book.  Mr. Rebanks, the latest in a long family line of Herdwick sheep farmers, has become an international phenomenon with his evocative prose and blunt observations on the rugged lives and culture of his native English Lake District (Wellesley Books).  He rejects everything about school as a boy but ends up at Oxford.  While most memoirs are about people trying to leave a place, James is determined to remain on the land of his ancestors.

“Captivating… A book about continuity and roots and a sense of belonging in an age that’s increasingly about mobility and self-invention. Hugely compelling” ―Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“A gorgeous book, unsentimental but exultant, vivid and profound, and a fierce defense of small-scale farming against the twin threats of agribusiness and tourism.” ―National Geographic

“May well do for sheep what Helen Macdonald did for hawks.” ―The Guardian (UK)

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From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein

28 Friday Sep 2018

Posted by in Biography, Humor

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While this is written by a former stenographer in the Obama administration, politics don’t play that large a role in the book. Instead, this memoir is primarily about a young woman navigating life after graduating college, trying to find a career path in Washington, and falling in love. There are a lot of fun stories about working for the president (such as getting to fly on Air Force One) balanced with relationship heartbreak and the author’s dreams of becoming a writer.

“[Dorey-Stein] writes with wit and self-deprecating humor but is fully aware, too, of the pomposity and petty spite of official Washington. She’s at her best and funniest when recalling the physically unhealthy and vaguely ridiculous work of following the president wherever he goes.”—The Wall Street Journal

“History lesson meets soap opera. In this poignant, brutally honest, and often-funny work of self-reflection, Dorey-Stein pulls no punches and tells all she learned from and about the president who ‘taught me to look up.’”—Booklist

“Hilarious . . . Dorey-Stein writes with honesty and panache.”—Publishers Weekly

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Bobby Kennedy : a Raging Spirit by Chris Matthews

06 Friday Jul 2018

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This book is recommended by a Weston library patron.

“Matthews is skilled at weaving tension and conflict throughout the book. One doesn’t just read the words, but experiences the tension and emotions….The depth of Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit provides insight into this man’s spirit and what drove him to greatness. Matthews does an excellent job of pulling Bobby out from behind any family shadows to give us an in-depth portrait of what could have been.”  –New York Journal of Books

“If you love reading about politics, if you ever loved the Kennedys or were fascinated by them, if you love biographical history or if you just like a good yarn about a brooding soul who turns into an uplifting, magnetic force—Chris Matthews’ “Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit” Should be your next read. It’s well-researched, dramatically told. It brings those times—Camelot and after—back to life.” –Lesley Stahl, Correspondent for 60 Minutes

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I Am, I Am, I Am : Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O’Farrell

23 Saturday Jun 2018

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A writer examines her life through a series of “near death” experiences, including a childhood illness, almost getting attacked, and giving birth. While the premise sounds bleak, the book is ultimately hopeful and beautifully written.

“I Am I Am I Am is a gripping and glorious investigation of death that leaves the reader feeling breathless, grateful, and fully alive. Maggie O’Farrell is a miracle in every sense. I will never forget this book.”—Ann Patchett

“Her stories are harrowing, but the purpose of these essays is not to frighten. It is to affirm. She did not die; she lived through all of these experiences and now recounts each one in vivid, fully alive detail — remembering the feeling of the wind in her hair, the roughness of the grass, the jolt of the plane, the sharpness of the machete.”
—Minneapolis-Star Tribune

“Astounding…awe-inspiring…a tour de force”  —Booklist, starred review

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Educated: a Memoir by Tara Westover

08 Friday Jun 2018

Posted by in 20th century, Biography, memoir, Non-fiction, United States

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An unforgettable memoir about a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University

I was enthralled and moved by this powerful memoir. The author grew up in a survivalist family in Idaho, the youngest child. She was not homeschooled—instead, she simply didn’t go to school at all, due to her father’s mistrust of public schools. Her family didn’t believe in modern medicine. Instead, her mother was an herbalist and midwife. The memoir becomes a story of her internal struggle—to believe her own version of her life and to have the strength to break away from her past.

“The extremity of Westover’s upbringing emerges gradually through her telling, which only makes the telling more alluring and harrowing.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Incredibly thought-provoking . . . so much more than a memoir about a woman who graduated college without a formal education. It is about a woman who must learn how to learn.”—The Harvard Crimson

“At its heart, her memoir is a family history: not just a tale of overcoming but an uncertain elegy to the life that she ultimately rejected. Westover manages both tenderness and a savage honesty that spares no one, not even herself.”—Booklist

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Some Bright Morning, I’ll Fly Away: a memoir by Alice Anderson

10 Saturday Mar 2018

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This woman’s story of her ordeal to escape her abusive, mentally ill husband knocked me over. She is amazing.

“Like blowtorching through silk, Alice Anderson’s alchemy is to turn the shattering pain of her life into poetry. Heartbreaking, terrifying, and shattering, Anderson’s powerful fight for her kids and her own safety becomes a story of breathtaking redemption and yes, beauty.” -Caroline Leavitt, bestselling author of Cruel Beautiful World

 “Anderson is a gifted writer who vividly describes both settings and emotions. Her powerful story gives voice and hope to women caught in similarly terrible conditions.” –Booklist (starred review)

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Life without a Recipe: a Memoir by Diana Abu-Jaber

02 Friday Feb 2018

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Diana’s writing exudes open hearted joy in all of life’ s unexpected bumps in the road.  Her mixed heritage of Jordanian, American, Irish and German roots brew a contagious excitement for life throughout her family stories and her cooking.  Hilarious, gorgeously written, poignant, and wise, Life Without a Recipe is Diana’s celebration of journeying without a map, of learning to ignore the script and improvise, of escaping family and making family on one’s own terms. Curl up, warm up, and laugh with any of her books to stave off the winter blues.

“[A] deliciously candid story….Generously seasoned by an abiding love of food and a keen eye for the nuances of human relationships, this book is a reminder that however unpredictable it may be, life is a dish to be savored. A delectably warm and wise memoir.”- Kirkus Reviews

“Filled with visceral joys and literary beauty as well as soulful honesty and a gripping story. Diana Abu-Jaber writes trenchantly and gorgeously about family, marriage, and motherhood with insights and connections that feel hard-won and richly earned. Her sharp intelligence and unsparing self-knowledge bristle on every page alongside her passionate brio for life in all its flavors and complexities.”- Kate Christensen, author of Blue Plate Special and The Great Man

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Once We Were Sisters: A Memoir by Sheila Kohler

19 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by in Biography, Travel

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On the first page in the first one hundred words, the author has given the reader the end of the story.  But the writing is so fluid and so many intriguing topics are touched on – sisterhood, motherhood, the yearning for the impossible, the regret of unfulfilled relationships, the desire to write it all down and the exotic but troubled location of South Africa during apartheid – that the reader feels compelled to read on to discover the full story.

“A searing and intimate memoir about love turned deadly.” —The BBC

“In this intimate, exquisitely written memoir, the author’s first work of nonfiction, she explores the impenetrable bond that can exist between sisters. . . . In spare, delicate prose, Kohler brings a seasoned novelist’s skills to this deeply moving, compelling memoir.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“It’s fitting that the book is written in the present tense, because [Kohler’s] sister is forever with her. Their relationship changes shape yet lingers, as do the important questions about women and violence.”—Oprah.com (5 Powerful New Memoirs)

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American Heiress: the Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and trial of Patty Hearst by Jeffrey Toobin

07 Tuesday Nov 2017

Posted by in 20th century, Biography, History, Non-fiction, United States

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I knew only the most basic facts about the kidnapping of Patty Hearst before reading this book, which provides many interesting details about the kidnapping as well as the people involved, the political and social climate of the time, and the Hearst family. Several moments in this story reminded me that sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction!

“Terrifically engrossing…Toobin uses his knowledge of the justice system and his examination of the evidence to pierce the veil of spectacle…As for Patty Hearst herself, Toobin treats her as a person, not a tabloid phantasm.—New York Times Book Review

“The abduction and subsequent radicalization of Patricia Hearst is one of the most bizarre but illuminating episodes of that tumultuous era of protest…and in American Heiress Jeffrey Toobin retells the story with a full-blown narrative treatment that may astonish readers too young to remember it themselves…Toobin spins this complex chapter of recent history into an absorbing and intelligent page-turner.”—The Washington Post 

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