Not enough books focus on how a culture responds to radically new ideas or discovery. Especially in the biography genre, they tend to focus on all the sordid details in the life of the person...

History is the essence of innumerable biographies.

Anyone who has lived a full life has something fascinating to share with the world.

…to her all books were the same and, as with her subjects, she felt a duty to approach them without prejudice…Lauren Bacall, Winifred Holtby, Sylvia Plath – who were they? Only be reading could she...

Biographies are best when written chronologically. Boring people don’t make for good biographies.

I liked reading biographies of writers, even if (as was the case with Monsieur Rabelais)I’d never read any of their actual writing. I flipped to the back and found the highlighted quote (“NEVER USE A...

I thought of the one thing about home that I missed, my dad’s study with its built-in, floor-to-ceiling shelves sagging with thick biographies and the black leather chair that kept me just uncomfortable enough to...