Biography Books > T Biography Books

Advantages: heart-felt personal account
Disadvantages: Lacks the fire of Revolt of the Cockroach People

Author: Oscar Zeta Acosta Publisher: First Vintage Books Publish Date: 1972 Genre: autobiographical Pages: 204 RRP: £6.47 Amazon Price: £5.52 ***Who is Oscar Zeta Acosta*** edited from Revolt of the Cockroach People Oscar Zeta Acosta was a man of many faces; He was an attorney specialising in human rights, he spent time in the Air Force, he was a fledging politician, he was a Chicano movement activist and he was an writer. That sums up his ...
...complicated. For those of you who have read Hunter S Thompson's Fear in Loathing in Las Vegas, or seen the film starring Johnny Depp and Benito Del Toro, you will know Acosta as Samoan, Thompson's perpetually drugged out attorney and friend. Acosta's keen use of marijuana, amphetamines and particularly the hallucinogenic, LSD are well documented not only by others but also by the man himself. Acosta's involvement with the Chicano movement, earned ... Read review

Advantages: Technicalities are explained in a language you can understand
Disadvantages: Not much personal info about ellen

It takes a very special type of person to sail round the world, it taken serious guts, belief in yourself and a whole lot of trust in you support team, cos your stuck out there in an ocean where if it all goes wrong theres no paramedic for 2000 miles and you are the only one who can help yourself out. I love what ellen has done and this book gives you an insight, though maybe a slighly retrained one into the adventure she took on, and how she and ...
...and their families. Its well written with a good selection of pictures and humor to offer some insight into this amazing woman and her life competing in what is considered to be the worlds toughest yacht race. She is an inspiration and and this book will inspire all of those with an adventurous side to grab the next flight to africa to trapse through the jungle. Be nice to know a little more about her personal trials, but maybe this is best left ... Read review

Advantages: Great introduction to Bennett.
Disadvantages: Quite pricey for a short book.

‘Telling Tales’ by Alan Bennett does exactly what it says on the cover… Alan Bennett, one of the country’s best loved wordsmiths, tells ten tales about his childhood in Leeds, a provincial city in the West Riding where life generally tended to avoid. In several of the tales Bennett details the causes of his frustration as a youth – he knew that his family was very ordinary (not working class, but certainly not middle class), yet at the same time ...
...that life for everyone else was much different to hers and that the cocktail party lifestyle she read about in Woman’s Own was the norm and attainable by a move to the hallowed ‘down South’. We learn much about Bennett’s ‘Mam and Dad’ (so good to see the word Mam, I feel I’m one of the few who still uses it). Their real names were Lil and Walt, but as in many households, the birth of the first child sees real names being wrapped in paper and only ... Read review

Advantages: Discriptions of Sculptures and Frescos. Italian Renaissance.
Disadvantages: Subjective interpretation. Lengthy and sometimes difficult to read.

...year old Michelangelo Buonarroti began the carving of the 17ft marble statue the Biblical King David. Now renowned as a masterpiece of Renaissance art, David is regarded as a symbol both of strength and youthful human beauty. To mark the 500th anniversary, New American Library released a special edition of Irving Stone’s biography of the artist- “The Agony and The Ecstasy.” “The Agony and The Ecstasy” has achieved a reputation of a masterpiece in ...
...Michelangelo but THE biography. No-one can criticise Irving Stone’s dedication and commitment to his novel. He worked on the novel for six years researching primary sources in Florence, Rome, Carrara and Bologna. He studied all of Michelangelo’s existing 495 letters as well as a vast amount of other Renaissance documentation. He even learned how to carve marble to be able to portray the act realistically. A lot of time out of anyone’s life!! But ... Read review

Advantages: The whole book, start to finish!
Disadvantages: There is none really unless you are a kennedy fan!!!

...understood who she was. From the first page of that book i was a hooked fan everything about her was so intriguing and the pictures in the book where truely amazing, at the age of 13 when maybe i should of wanted to be like the spice girls like most other girls my age i was classing marilyn monroe as a beautiful woman who after reading about her life i deeply admired. So 11 years on and i have to say iam still a great fan of the biggest sex symbol ...
...hers its her background and the on going struggle of her life and quest to find happiness that makes me a fan. After reading many books on her life and death and the mystery that surronds most of it i must admit i was getting a little bored of reading the same things over and over again most books on marilyn tend to tell you about her hard childhood and her mothers mental illness and the fact she was moved from foster home to childrens home untill ... Read review