Category Archives: Biography

A Labyrinth of Kingdoms

Posted on September 25, 2012 by

When you think of the great 19th-century explorers of Africa, what names spring to mind? Livingston, Stanley, and Burton, sure. Speke, Denham, and Baker, if you’ve done your reading. But Heinrich Barth? Who’s he? In A Labyrinth of Kingdoms, Steve … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Nonfiction, Travel/ Exploration | Tagged | 11 Comments

The Hare With Amber Eyes

Posted on December 22, 2011 by

I read Edmund De Waal’s family biography after seeing a rave review of it over at Eve’s Alexandria. Victoria loved this book about the Ephrussi family’s generations-long ownership of 264 Japanese netsuke, loved it so much that she didn’t want … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, History, Memoir, Nonfiction | 4 Comments

Young Romantics

Posted on November 1, 2011 by

There is, I think, a myth about creative genius that it takes place in solitary glory. Picture an author, writing. Picture Hemingway, or Wordsworth, or Shakespeare; picture George Eliot or Mary Oliver or Isabelle Allende. In my mind, unless I … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, History, Nonfiction | 27 Comments

Jane Austen

Posted on October 19, 2011 by

A few years ago, I was on a three-week-long hiking trip with students, doing a portion of the pilgrimage trail of St. James of Compostella. We had to pack light, as you can imagine: we would rue any extra weight … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Nonfiction | 13 Comments

Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings

Posted on October 2, 2011 by

I grew up reading the Anne of Green Gables series. I read the first one when I was about eight, and then read them over and over: Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne of Windy Poplars, Anne of … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Nonfiction | 20 Comments

The Lunar Men

Posted on May 20, 2011 by

“In the eighteenth century clubs are everywhere,” says Jenny Uglow, “clubs for singing, clubs for drinking, clubs for farting; clubs of poets and pudding-makers and politicians.” This marvelous book is the history of one such club, the Lunar Society of … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, History, Nonfiction | 16 Comments

The Sisters of Sinai

Posted on January 6, 2011 by

You may have an image of the Victorian age as a world of stuffiness, prudishness, and repression (though not if you’ve read any Wilkie Collins!) But it was also an age of exploration and discovery: up the Nile, to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, History, Nonfiction, Religion, Travel/ Exploration | 18 Comments

The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million

Posted on August 26, 2010 by

Daniel Mendelsohn had always been interested in his own family’s genealogy, even when he was a child. As an adult, he eagerly gathered information and stories: the branch of the family that went to Israel, the ones who lived in … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, History, Memoir, Nonfiction, Travel/ Exploration | 6 Comments

Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self

Posted on January 17, 2010 by

A few weeks ago, I reviewed the breathtakingly wonderful Diary of Samuel Pepys, a reading experience that left me feeling that I had encountered the mind of a cheerful, original, and impossibly open human being in touch with every aspect … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, History, Nonfiction | 16 Comments

The Lost City of Z

Posted on June 24, 2009 by

Percy Harrison Fawcett was utterly convinced that there was evidence hidden in the Amazon jungle of an ancient civilization. He had found shards of pottery and rock paintings, he had spoken to Indians who had oral histories of their ancestors, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Nonfiction, Travel/ Exploration | 6 Comments