Biography Books > Hardback Biography Books

Car Fever or Car Bore? You Decide

Advantages: It passed the 2 and a half hour flight
Disadvantages: Doesn't really do what it says on the tin, rambles off on a tangent too often

...While I appreciate these are car articles he goes too deep into the mechanics at times and that becomes increasing more boring the further into the book you get. In fact as you read through the articles his writing style is almost identical to his spoken presenting style and as I read 2 or 3 articles I could feel myself drifting off to sleep. With other books of this type I've always found them easy to dip in and out of or read continuously depending ...
...than I do about the car related subjects he's actually meant to be writing about. There were times when I could have sworn the book was being sponsored by Fiat given the number of articles he mentions the Fiat Panda seems to get. Overall I have to say I'm disappointed with this book. I'd not previously read any of James other books and I do still intend to try some of them but if he releases anymore compilation books I will avoid them like the plague. ...

Andy.mack 22.10.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Car Fever: Dispatches from Behind the Wheel - James May

Hiding behind the sofa with a giggling Prime Minister

Advantages: Some interesting, sometimes amusing political anecdotes
Disadvantages: A little dull in the earlier parts, though it picks up later on

...bull. He long remembered the cold cream of the title which helped to soothe the abrasions on his arms and legs – not to mention the luck which had saved him from a worse fate. As he concludes, the luck is the bit that counts. An interesting one on the whole, though in my view there are better political memoirs out there than this one. (This is a modified version of the review I originally posted on Bookbag) ...

JOHNV 15.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Cold Cream: My Early Life and Other Mistakes - Ferdinand Mount

* What A Lovely Pair Indeed! *

Advantages: Funny , Interesting!
Disadvantages: None!

I wouldn't necessarily call myself a major Ant and Dec fan , although I used to absolutely love SM:TV Live when they presented it with Cat Deeley (it just wasn't the same after they lift) and still find them incredibly enteraining and funny when I watch them on 'I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!' So when I heard the duo were releasing an autobiography , I just had to get my hands on it! Everyone knows who Ant 'n'Dec are right ? Well , I would ...
...although I will give a brief introduction as to who they are! Well , Anthony McPartlin and Declyn O'Donelly are a pair of aged-thirty-something-men (although they're still seen as two young lads who like to have fun , rather than two blokes!) who have been on our screens for what seems like forever. The Geordie duo kick-started their showbiz careers when they played two teenage lads on the kids show , Byker Grove. After their stint as actors , they ...

xdonzx 15.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Ooh! What a Lovely Pair: Our Story - Ant McPartlin, Declan Donnelly

Woop Woop Arf Woop Woop

Advantages: moving, inspiring, thought provoking story
Disadvantages: not readily available in all bookshops

Do you know Brad Cohen? No? Well, I’m not surprised. Not many people know Brad Cohen. And until a few months ago, I was not aware of his existence either. But that changed when, bored one weekend, I happened to come across a movie on one of the many movie channels on SKY that made me want to find out more about a person I had never heard of, would probably never meet, yet who’s life intrigued me immensely. The movie was called ‘Front of the Class’ ...
...who, despite a disability that could have made him withdraw from ever leaving the house, became a role model for so many people and is showing people that living with a disability that you cannot hide, does not necessarily mean your life was not worth living or you have no future in a world where everyone strives to be ‘normal’. I was intrigued and went out to find a copy of the biography the movie was based on. Not a lot of bookshops in the UK store ...

Tempus_Fugit 14.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Front of the Class - Brad Cohen

A vain pursuit of paradise on earth

Advantages: Interesting look at father-daughter relationship against eventful time in US history
Disadvantages: Probably for the specialist rather than the general reader

...of paradise on earth as Eden's outcasts - hence the title of this dual biography. Bronson Alcott was well known during his lifetime as a self-educated philosopher and controversial education reformer, and a friend of Thoreau and Emerson (who called him ‘a tedious archangel’.) He was by far the better-known of the two in their time, yet it was his second daughter whose name lives on today while his is virtually forgotten. In his younger days he was ...
...plain living and high thinking, reflecting the New England Transcendentalist movement, to a degree which sorely tested the patience of his long-suffering wife and family. Yet his daughter adored and revered him, longing to prove herself worthy of him. As a young woman she tried teaching for a career but hated it. Next she became a nurse during the Civil War, but before long she fell seriously ill with typhoid and pneumonia, leaving her in poor health ...

JOHNV 12.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Eden's Outcasts - John Matteson