The Top 10 Biographies of the last 12 months. This list appeared in Booklist (Vol. 107, number 19/20).

To read Booklist reviews of these books, click on the link above and click on the book title.

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Top 10 Biographies: 2011.

Hooper, Brad (author).

FEATURE. First published June 1, 2011 (Booklist).

Since our previous Spotlight on Biography, the past 12 months have shown us that to ever think that the art of biography is slipping or sliding, even temporarily, is ridiculous. Read the following examples of the best of the past year, and see what we mean.

Alice Neel: The Art of Not Sitting Pretty. By Phoebe Hoban.

Judicious and ardent, Hoban has created a galvanizing portrait of a “rebel artist” who remained true to her humanist convictions.
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Colonel Roosevelt. By Edmund Morris.

Morris completes his fully detailed, dynamic triptych of the restless, energetic, on-the-move first President Roosevelt.
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A Complicated Man: The Life of Bill Clinton as Told by Those Who Know Him. By Michael Takiff.

What Takiff delivers is an astonishing collection of 171 interviews, collectively offering an intimate portrait of former president Bill Clinton.
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Edward Kennedy: An Intimate Biography. By Burton Hersh.

For readers exhausted at the thought of another Ted Kennedy book, this one is beautifully written and exquisitely detailed with plenty of new material.
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Fab: The Life of Paul McCartney. By Howard Sounes.

This is the first comprehensive, candid, and up-to-date portrait of Sir Paul McCartney.
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Galileo. By John Heilbron.

A complete portrait illuminating how a bold pioneer forged surprising links between science and the humanities.
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How to Live; or, A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer. By Sarah Bakewell.

By casting her biography of Michel de Montaigne as 20 chapters, each focused on a different answer to the question “How to live?” Bakewell limns Montaigne’s ceaseless pursuit of this most elusive knowledge.
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Joan Mitchell: Lady Painter. By Patricia Albers.

Painter Joan Mitchell is no mere “second-generation abstract expressionist,” Albers avers in the first comprehensive biography of this ruthlessly independent, flagrantly blunt, highly educated artist.
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Washington. By Ron Chernow.

This magisterial biography is a vastly enlightening, overwhelmingly engaging treatment of a great man.
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Will Eisner: A Dreamer’s Life in Comics. By Michael Schumacher.

In addressing the life of Will Eisner, now known as the father of the graphic novel, seasoned biographer Schumacher zeroes in on the essence of Eisner’s success.
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Check out the New Releases page on the Regina Public Library website.

Here is one of the books mentioned in the Best-Selling Nonfiction Releases:

Stolen Life: A Memoir by Jaycee Dugard

Summary: Dugard recounts, in her own words, her story of being kidnapped on June 10, 1991. She was 11 years old.
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from the Maclean's review: When Jaycee Dugard appeared on TV in an interview with Diane Sawyer last July, her poise was astonishing. The California woman was kidnapped at age 11, held captive for 18 years, and raped repeatedly by her captor, Phillip Garrido. Dugard calmly acknowledged that certain sounds still haunt her—locks clicking, beds squeaking. She radiated compassion for her own children, to whom she gave birth when she was 14 and 17, and both of whom were fathered by Garrido. So dignified, so down-to-earth, so…normal. At least one viewer wondered: how is that possible?
Her new memoir sheds some light. . . . Click here to read the entire Maclean's review.