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Post by solgroupie on Apr 28, 2009 9:40:43 GMT -5
no big surprise that mine would be about my favorite actor/director, charlie chaplin. chaplin never finished school and wasn't the most articulate guy in the world, but he became an avid reader during his fame and by the time he wrote this, he made a point to use every big word he had ever seen. i love the beginning, when he talks about his childhood and the beginning years of his fame, but the last half of the book is more of a who's who that he met through the years, which didn't interest me as much. he was very honest, i thought, about the events that led up to his eventual exile from the u.s. in 1952. but he could be very evasive when it came to other topics, especially about his actual work.
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Post by inlovewithcrow on Apr 28, 2009 12:51:22 GMT -5
The biography of Harry Harlow that I just read, Love at Goon Park, is quite good. I also liked Kobie Kruger's book The Wilderness Family, of her life in a wildlife preserve in africa, and of raising a lion cub. And there must be a hundred more, but that's what pops to mind.
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Post by CBG on Apr 28, 2009 13:21:22 GMT -5
The bio of the Beatles "SHOUT!" was one of the best I've read.
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Post by Donna SadCat Lady on Apr 28, 2009 18:18:58 GMT -5
If Chins Could Kill by Bruce Campbell. Not just for Bruce fans, of which I am one. But a very entertaining look at Hollywood from the bemused perspective of a wise-cracking guy from middle-class suburban Michigan.
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Post by angilasman on Apr 29, 2009 11:26:25 GMT -5
Something Like an Autobiography by Akira Kurosawa. Extremely compelling, and when you've seen so many of his films you can read this book and realize just how much of his characters and stories come from a very personal place. It's quite astonding.
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Post by Emperor Cupcake on Apr 30, 2009 0:08:41 GMT -5
Two that immediately spring to mind are the excellent Mozart: A Life by Maynard Solomon, which does a stellar job of humanizing a man who is often perceived as an otherwordly genius; and what is perhaps my favorite biography ever, M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio by Peter Robb, which reads almost like a sordid thriller with the very troubled artist as its main protagonist. I read it a while back, but I have forgotten very little of it. A great read.
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Post by KyrieEleison on May 1, 2009 20:11:28 GMT -5
My favorite biography is The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn by Eric Ives. It does a very good job of showing more of the story than the basic press release version most people know, and it manages to humanize Henry VIII as well, who was not completely the evil wife-killer he's been identified as. It's the only biography I own (not counting the short bio included in each of my Folger Shakespeare Editions), and the only biography I've ever read more than once.
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Post by Fred Burroughs on Jul 19, 2009 1:25:48 GMT -5
Mick Foley's first autobiography, the other ones of his I'm not sure fall under that category strictly. Even if you don't watch wrestling I recommend reading it as it will give you a new perspective on wrestling and it's actually a pretty funny, and sometimes touching, read.
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Post by Bix Dugan on Jul 22, 2009 19:28:18 GMT -5
He's the guy that came up with inventive ways to make sound effects, right?
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