Biography Books > S Biography Books > W

Advantages: Fascinating historical account of a remarkable woman.
Disadvantages: None

If you're into the history of aviation, you should love this book, it charts the action packed life and adventures of a woman born in 1918 to a somewhat wealthy family, and her exploits in the Air Transport Auxilliary (ATA) as a ferry pilot, delivering new aircraft from factories to the fighting squadrons in World War 2, often without radios or navigation equipment (which presented a hazard on it's own). Later, after the war, she continued flying, ... Read review

Advantages: Some insight about Robbie is given
Disadvantages: Not the biography it is portrayed as being

Could not wait to read this book when I bought it unfortunately I was not too impressed. The book says that it will give an insight into the real Robbie and tell the truth about his love, and his drug and alcohol addictions. This is really not the case. The book is written in the words of Mark McCrum who accompanies Robbie and his entourage on tour. We learn all about the hard work that is involved in the making of his shows and the pressure he ...
...get introduced to his few close friends/work party and hear about their antics on tour and how they miss the old Robbie before he stopped the drugs and alcohol abuse but thats pretty much all. It does tell of the after show antics of this so called rocker which might suprise you all as it is not the wild parties as you would expect but more like a game of uno sitting around a big table. I have the paper back edition of this book which is published ... Read review

Advantages: Very personal, very interesting
Disadvantages: The last part could be developed more

I was intrigued by Buzz Williams' book on several levels – it appealed to me because of my general interest in things historical and military; it was timely, given that the Gulf War II is in many ways a continuation of Gulf War I (I am convinced that history will see this conflict as one long war with periodic lulls, rather like the Hundred Years War and similar times in history); it was also written by someone who is currently a teacher (a profession ...
...that I could look at and say, 'That was almost me!' I seriously contemplated the military for a time while in college as a reservist (one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer, and I'd get experience and scholarship money for college) – had I followed that path, it would have been something akin to the call of the yellow footprints. Williams talks about 'the call of the yellow footprints' in his own life. In a physical sense, this refers to ... 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