Biography Books > A Biography Books > B

Advantages: A moving, funny and terrifying read.
Disadvantages: None

...such men that Brian Keenan, an Irish teacher, found himself when on his way to work at the English University of Beirut. What was to follow for Brian, would have made a lesser man insane, I am sure that if it were me who had been taken I would have been dead by now. Brian Keenan was raised in an Ireland full of troubles, sectarian values were abound and he was himself troubled by the futility of the young people dying for a cause they understood ...
...complete horror with honesty and an understanding of how his captors viewed him in relation to themselves. He was, quite simply, an infidel and unclean, he was never allowed to look upon any of them and wore a blindfold whenever they were present. He was determined that he would show no fear to them, despite the fact that he was, understandably, scared witless for much of the time. His captors would try and engage him in conversation, asking about ... Read review

Advantages: Full of action
Disadvantages: None

...tells how she got together with toy boy, Scott, which I think most people have wondered since first seeing them together. Overall this book keeps you rivetted from start to end. I would definately recommend it, I'm not a Barbara Windsor fan, but loved it all the same. ... Read review

Advantages: Informative
Disadvantages: None

People have the impression of Gordon as an arrogant, foul mouthed chef. However, this is the persona he adopts to achieve his goals successfully, and this read highlights how he has got there. A follow on from Humble Pie, the book goes in to more depth on the business side of his life, where risks were taken to get where he is today. Lessons that he has learnt along the way are both informative and amusing. His plight to go from a well known UK ...
...What we do learn about Gordon is his passion to develop the people who have been most loyal to him. Angela Hartnett is mentioned a few times throughout the book, as it goes from him owning his first restaurant right through to his MNC Gordon Ramsay Holdings. Loyalty is shown to be a key factor in his life, and as he has progressed, so have the people who have helped him get there. A great read and very inspiring! ... Read review

Advantages: Well written, easy to read
Disadvantages: Nothing new, its all been written before

Madonna - love her or loathe her, it seems that everyone has an opinion about her. With a career that now spans over 25 years her rise to fame from the early days when she first arrived in New York, penniless but with huge ambitions has been well documented many times. Madonna - Queen of the world by Douglas Thompson could at first glance quite easily be dismissed as yet another regurgitated account of Madonna's rise to fame but from the sleeve notes ...
...that everyone claims to already know everything there is to know about. Madonna has given many interviews throughout her life. Usually these interviews are carefully timed to coincide with her latest project, be it a new album, movie, book or other project and the new image that compliments the project is always flaunted to its maximum effect. When it comes to being interviewed Madonna always calls the shots, so how can anyone really expect to know ... Read review

Advantages: A true life account of a terrible accident.
Disadvantages: You don't always get a happy ending in real life.

The book I will now review contains probably one of the worst nightmares any parent could anticipate, the fact is a biography detailing the entire scenario makes it even more difficult and heart wrenching to read. The book I will now review is "Shattered", by Mavis Marsh and ghost written by Andrew Crofts. The book starts with the awful words of the doctor that has done the pre assessment on Mavis's son Mathew - "Your son will be a cabbage for ...
...a vegetable, or what-ever you want to call him". From that awful statement the story goes back to Mavis's ( the mother, writer and teller of this somewhat frightening story), childhood, first detailing her parents life, from jobs and home life, through to her father serving in the war and the untold horrors he had witnessed. From this she went on to her school life, until reading further into the book I never quite understood the purpose for all ... Read review