"Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight" by Alexandra Fuller is about Ms Fuller's years growing up in Rhodesia. It is poetic, terrifying and disturbing, in my opinion. It made a great book for discussion at our book club.

A Moveable Feast by Hemingway

A Thinking Reed by Barry Jones (former Australian politician and polymath)

The Summing Up by Maugham

A Life in Letters by Chekhov

A Mother's Disgrace; And so forth... by Robert Dessaix

Too Brief a Treat: The Letters of Truman Capote by Capote and Clarke.

All of these are outstanding...

Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford was a really good read.

My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle,
Memories of Childhood by Marcel Pagnol, about growing up in the south of France. Lovely, as are the movies based on the books.

Out of Egypt by Andre Aciman. A vanished world, beautiful language. Has anyone else read this hidden gem of a book?

I dreamed of Africa by Kuki Gallman. Atmospheric, sad, beautiful writing.

And of course, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt.

Some that I've enjoyed:

A Gypsy Life - Clare Allcard: She and her family's adventures sailing across the Atlantic on a wooden sailboat that they are fixing up as they sail the world.

Ethel and Ernest - Raymond Briggs: done in comic book form but is a wonderful tribute to the lives of two ordinary folks in London in the early part of the 20th century.

The Road from Coorain - Jill Ker Conway: Growing up on an Australian sheep station. This has two sequels that I've never read, but they are "on my list".

Life is SO Good - George Dawson: This book is AWESOME. George, with the help of a writer, tell the story of his life. He is the grandson of slaves and didn't learn to read until he was 101. He is optimistic, and many people can learn from his gentle common sense approach to life. At his age, he deserves the right to teach us all.

Dracula: Price of Many Faces - Florescu, Radu: The biography of Prince Dracul, better known as the probable prototype for Stoker's Count Dracula.

Daphne du Maurier - Margaret Forster: A biography of Du Maurier. It's been years since I read it but I remember being enthralled to learn more about the creator of Rebecca.

The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk - Paladan Gyatso: A regular ordinary Tibetan Monk tells about his life. Fascinating window on a world I will never experience first hand.

Francis Slocum, Lost Sister of Wyoming - John McGinness: This book is probably hard to find, but worth the search. Francis Slocum was born in the Wyoming Valley area of Pennsylvania in the USA. This would be in the northeast section of the state near the city of Wilkes-Barre. At the age of 5, she was kidnapped by Indians (sorry, in the book they are called Indians, but now they are Native Americans, the book is from the 1920's or 1930's.). When they finally found her again, she was an old woman who barely spoke English and who had totally assimilated into the Native American culture. This is the story of her life, both before and after her kidnapping.

Nicholas and Alexandria - Robert K. Massie: The story of Tsar Nicholas III and Tsarina Alexandria. I also have Massie's bio on Peter the Great which has been on my shelf since my tenth grade history teacher first taught us about him... I am 40 now. I should read that darned book.

Chasing Daylight - Eugene O'Kelly: This is the story of the end of his life. He was an American CEO, millionaire, happy life and family. Then he found out during a routine examination that he had an inoperable tumor and had three or four months to live. He kept a detailed journal of how he "shut down" his life. Touching, honest, beautiful and amazing.

PAM

Thanks to all, I wondered why I wasn't getting much help on this one. Twobigdogs, you are my best friend today! First the vindication on buying more books and now a huge list of biographies!

"Zelda" by Nancy Milford (biog. of the wife of F.S. Fitzgerald, who was as talented as he was)
Biography of Emily Dickinson (poet) by Richard Sewell, very thorough in its analysis
"A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep" by Rumer Godden (memoir of her life in India and England)
"The Last Tsar" by E. Radnitsky
"Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell" by Janet Wallach
"Love Among the Butterflies: the Travels and Adventures of a Victorian Lady" (memoir by Englishwoman Margaret Fountaine of her travels in primitive areas of Italy)

Two I liked: Spandau: The Secret Diaries by Albert Speer and A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar

A big 2nd for The Road from Coorain - Jill Ker Conway: Growing up on an Australian sheep station. I haven't read the sequels either.

Angela's Ashes is beautifully read by McCourt on Books On Tape. The accent and the singing make the book!

An American Childhoodby Annie Dillard
I would like to try Modern American Memoirs edited by Cort Conley & Annie Dillard Excerpts from a wide range of memoirs.

Also The Flame Trees of Thika Elsbeth Huxley
Bill Bryson's wonderful Thunderbolt Kid
Roger Angel's Let Me Finish

And I just bought Frank Conroy's well reviewed memoir My LosingSeason in preperation for my trip to Charleston.

Twobigdogs & Granjan,

I read True North, which is the 1st sequel to Road from Coorain. It is interesting, but not as engaging as the first book.

Two more: "Beatrix Potter" by Linda Lear
and
"Speak,Memory", by Vladimir Nabokov (his childhood in Russia with English influences).

I liked: The Liar's Club by Mary Karr, intense but interesting. Also, All Over But the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg, a Pulitzer Prize winner.

I'm enjoying Jeffrey Archer's A Prison Diary. I have to admit, I'd only heard of him in passing and just happened to pick this book up at the library and thumb through it. I couldn't put it down! What a unique perspective on a jail sentence!