Books In The Mirror

Life Stories: A Checklist

Teresa Weaver
Cox News Service

   “Boswell’s Presumptuous Task: The Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson,’’ By Adam Sisman. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Sisman takes on his own presumptuous task, writing a biography of one of the most famous biographies, James Boswell’s “The Life of Samuel Johnson,’’ published in 1791 and hailed ever since as the first truly modern biography.
   “Churchill,’’ By Roy Jenkins. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Jenkins, a longtime British politician and author of 1997’s Whitbread Prize-winning “Gladstone,’’ focuses on the larger-than-life prime minister’s evolution as a political animal.
   “Five-Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History,’’ By Helene Stapinski. Random House. With deadpan humor, Stapinski recounts her growing-up years in the 1960s and ‘70s in Jersey City, N.J., a city known for its ties to the Mafia, industrial blight and corrupt local officials.
   “Gaudi,’’ By Gijs van Hensbergen. HarperCollins. The first critical biography of architect Antoni Gaudi, whose extravagant, futuristic buildings define the Catalan landscape. Even Gaudi’s death in 1926 had a bizarre poetry to it: He was run over by a tram as he stepped back to admire his cathedral in Barcelona.
   “Hoop Roots,’’ By John Edgar Wideman. Houghton Mifflin. Basketball is the jumping-off point for novelist John Edgar Wideman’s meditations on life, race relations, writing and much more.
   “I Will Be Cleopatra: An Actress’s Journey,’’ By Zoe Caldwell. Norton. In a captivating theatrical memoir, Caldwell recalls her early life and career, from birth into a lower-middle-class family in Melbourne in 1933 to her triumphant performance as Shakespeare’s Cleopatra at Stratford, Ontario, in 1967.
   “Iris Murdoch: A Life,’’ By Peter Conradi. Norton. An affectionate portrait of the late British writer by the literary executor of her estate and a close friend in the last two decades of her life.
   “Jack: Straight From the Gut,’’ By Jack Welch with John A. Byrne. Warner. Welch started at GE in 1960 as a $10,500-a-year engineer and rose through the ranks to become CEO. Now one of the most admired American business titans, “Neutron Jack’’ -- so nicknamed for his disdain of “superficial congeniality’’ -- shares some of his secrets.
   “John Adams,’’ By David McCullough. Simon & Schuster. McCullough, a master of narrative history, has faced some criticism for not focusing more on the politics of the vastly overshadowed second president. But this biography shines a great light on the two most important relationships of Adams’ life: with his wife, Abigail, and with his alter ego, Thomas Jefferson.
   “Norman Rockwell: A Life,’’ By Laura Claridge. Random House. The biographer of art-deco painter Tamara DeLempicka goes in a decidedly different direction with this study of Rockwell, portraitist of middle-brow Americana. Apparently given to suppressing his emotions and prone to depression, Rockwell poured all his energy into his art and was forever frustrated by his dismissive critical reception.
   “President Nixon: Alone in the White House,’’ By Richard Reeves. Simon & Schuster. Syndicated columnist and biographer Reeves (“President Kennedy: Profile of Power’’) examines the siege mentality that ultimately destroyed the Nixon administration.
   “Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones,’’ Doubleday. This book has an appropriately improvisational feel, with some chapters written by Jones and some by family and friends, including lifelong pal Ray Charles and ex-wife Peggy Lipton. It’s strongest when Jones is writing about the topic he knows best: music. Dinah Washington, he writes, “could take the melody in her hand, hold it like an egg, crack it open, fry it, let it sizzle, reconstruct it, put the egg back in the box and back in the refrigerator, and you would’ve still understood every single syllable.’’
   “Reaching for Glory: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1964-1965,’’ By Michael Beschloss. Simon & Schuster. The follow-up to Beschloss’ “Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964’’ (1997) picks up as President Lyndon B. Johnson is preparing to trounce Barry Goldwater.
“Richard Wright: The Life and Times,’’ By Hazel Rowley. Henry Holt. The author of the classic novel “Native Son’’ told his own life story in “Black Boy,’’ but literary biographer Rowley draws from archival materials -- “Wright kept everything,’’ she writes, “drafts of manuscripts, letters, photographs, hotel bills, newspaper cuttings’’ -- in this retelling.
   “Somewhere for Me: A Biography of Richard Rodgers,’’ By Meryle Secrest. Knopf. Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) teamed with Lorenz Hart in the 1920s and ‘30s and with Oscar Hammerstein in the 1940s and ‘50s to create some of the greatest musicals, including “South Pacific,’’ “Oklahoma!’’ and “The Sound of Music.’’ But the man behind such wholesome lyrics as “whiskers on kittens and warm woollen mittens’’ was an ill-tempered perfectionist, a compulsive philanderer and a secret alcoholic.
   “The Stardust Lounge: Stories From a Boy’s Adolescence,’’ By Deborah Digges. In this riveting account of a distinctly unconventional family, Digges tells how she reclaimed her wayward son, Stephen, and eventually rebuilt both their lives. The family ultimately grew to include two bulldogs, one epileptic and the other on Prozac; a basset hound who takes in a litter of motherless kittens; and Stephen’s friend, Trev, who had been abandoned by his parents.
   “Still Waters,’’ By Jennifer Lauck. Pocket Books. This memoir picks up where last year’s best-selling “Blackbird’’ left off, with 12-year-old orphan Jennifer being rescued from an abusive stepmother. The bad times aren’t over yet, though.