Truth can certainly be stranger than fiction, and for those non-fiction fans in your life who can’t get enough of learning about those famous and infamous, Barnes & Noble reviewers recommend the following biographies, profiling the lives of three very different individuals. Each one makes a great gift this holiday season.
American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell by Deborah Solomon
Rockwell’s iconic paintings of American life belied the artist’s personal struggles and inability to connect with his three wives and children. Solomon’s portrait of Rockwell, who always called himself an illustrator rather than an artist, reveals a man at odds with the art world, his family and himself. Barnes & Noble reviewer Barbara Spindel calls the biography “… an engaging and enjoyable read, and Solomon manages to be both authoritative and breezily conspiratorial in tone…”
The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin
When Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901, “an immense gulf” between rich and poor existed in the U.S. Sound familiar? Goodwin highlights how those past political times offer parallels to politics today. She explores how the volatile relationship between Roosevelt and his successor, William Howard Taft, resulted in the fracturing of the Republican progressive faction and paved the way for Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, to ascend to the presidency in 1913, as well as the role the muckraking press played in the real-life battle. According to Barnes & Noble reviewer Melissa H. Pierson, “The sweeping book has the unparalleled quality of being both deep and easy. In other words, the ideal storyboard for a big movie with a little of everything: romance, political intrigue, oratory, blood in the streets, a charge up San Juan Hill. And, at its heart, two men. Just men.”
Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore
Who was Jane Franklin, and why should anyone read about her? She was born three hundred years ago, never attended school and had twelve children – all but one of whom died before she did. She was also the youngest sister of Benjamin Franklin, who saw her very little and failed to even mention her in his autobiography. But she wrote about her life’s milestones and struggles with poverty and, nearly erased from historical existence, Lepore resurrects Franklin’s story and ponders the injustice of women forced to remain invisible and irrelevant. Barnes & Noble reviewer Melissa H. Pierson writes of the biography, a 2013 National Book Awards finalist, “The woman who both saw so much tumult and who kept circumspect about her private anguish, as expected of her kind, is an achingly poignant presence. We can almost hear her breathe, hundreds of years after her voice was stilled, as Lepore gives her the chance to speak in all her individuality, sometimes gabby, sometimes petulant, sometimes thoughtful, always deep-feeling. About war, birth, death, even the making of soap by the family recipe, she had necessary -- historic -- things to say.”
Check out these titles and more at Barnes & Noble.
