If best books lists are used as evidence, 2014 was a big year for biographical and autobiographical books. When I examined the lists from the eight review sources that I used last year, I found a surprisingly larger number of titles. In 2013, Amazon's editors named 16 biographical titles to their top 100 books. This year the number is 22. Booklist included 11 such titles in 2013 and 16 in 2014. If I kept counting, I suspect I would find similar results in most cases.
What I also noticed this year is the lack of agreement among the book reviewing editors. Most of the titles were chosen only once. Only one biography made seven of the lists: The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs. Another biography made five of the lists: Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright. One memoir made five lists: Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart.
As you scan the lists below, you may wonder at some of the inclusions, such as Thirteen Days in September, which many readers would consider a history instead of a biography. I think it is both, representing the category of collective biography. Someone interested in any of the three figures named in the title would enjoy reading this book.
The result of the long and diverse lists is there are many excellent titles from which readers may choose. Kirkus offers 53 biographical titles! Enjoy and have a happy new reading year.
Amazon
Biographies
Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival by Peter Stark
Cosby: His Life and Times by Mark Whitaker
A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention by Matt Richtel
The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott
Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts
No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U. S. Surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald
Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art by Carl Hoffman
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs
A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre
Untamed: The Wildest Woman in America and the Fight for Cumberland Island by Will Harlan
Updike by Adam Begley
War of the Whales: A True Story by Joshua Horwitz
Memoirs
Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay
Badluck Way: A Year on the Ragged Edge of the West by Bryce Andrews
Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade by Walter Kirn
Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir by Roz Chast
I'll Drink to That: A Life in Style, with a Twist by Betty Halbreich
Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned" by Lena Dunham
Sous Chef: 24 Hours on the Line by Michael Gibney
Tibetan Peach Pie: A True Account of an Imaginative Life by Tom Robbins
Yes, Please by Amy Poehler
Booklist
Biographies
The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution by Jonathan Eig
Brando's Smile: His Life, Thought and Work by Susan L. Mizruchi
Charlie Chaplin: A Brief Life by Peter Ackroyd
The Crusades of Cesar Chavez by Miriam Pawel
The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson
John Quincy Adams: American Visionary by Fred Kaplan
Lines of Descent: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Emergency of Identity by Kwame Anthony Appiah
Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces by Miles J. Unger
No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U. S. Surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald
A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III by Janice Hadlow
Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space by Lynn Sherr
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs
Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright
The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War by Tim Butcher
Victoria by A. N. Wilson
Memoirs
The Ogallala Road: A Memoir of Love and Reckoning by Julene Bair
Kirkus
Biographies
Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival by Peter Stark
Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard by John Branch
Careless People: Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of The Great Gatsby by Sarah Churchill
A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention by Matt Richtel
The Double Life of Paul De Man by Evelyn Barish
Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local - And Helped Save an American Town by Beth Macy
Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War by Mark Harris
Hope: Entertainer of the Century by Richard Zoglin
The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson
The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein
Isabella: The Warrior Queen by Kristin Downey
The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science by Armand Marie Leroi
Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion by Harold Holzer
A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton, from the Box Tops to Big Star to Backdoor Man by Holly George-Warren
The Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941-1942 by Nigel Hamilton
On His Own Terms: A Life of Nelson Rockefeller by Richard Norton Smith
One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band by Alan Paul
Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin by David Ritz
Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art by Carl Hoffman
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs
The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man by Luke Harding
Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War by Helen Thorpe
A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre
Stalin: Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 by Stephen Kotkin
The Tastemaker: Carl Van Vechten and the Birth of Modern America by Edward White
Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr
Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright
The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War by Tim Butcher
Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution by Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz
War of the Whales: A True Story by Josshua Horwitz
William Wells Brown: An African-American Life by Ezra Greenspan
Memoirs
The Answer to the Riddle Is Me: A Memoir of Amnesia by David Stuart MacLean
Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir by Roz Chast
A Cup of Water Under My Bed: A Memoir by Daisy Hernandez
Dear Leader: A Poet, Spy, Escapee - A Look Inside North Korea by Jang Jin-Sung
Getting Schooled: The Reeducation of an American Teacher by Garret Keizer
The Great Floodgates of Wonderworld by Justin Hocking
History Lessons: A Memoir of Madness, Memory, and the Brain by Clifton Crais
If Only You People Could Follow Directions: A Memoir by Jessica Hendry Nelson
Internal Medicine: A Doctor's Stories by Terrence Holt
Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart
Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness, and Becoming a Man by Thomas Page McBee
My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind by Scott Stossel
My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead
The Other Side by Lacy Johnson
Out of the Woods: A Memoir of Wayfinding by Lynn Darling
Pandora's DNA: Tracing the Breast Cancer Genes Through History, Science, and One Family Tree by Lizzie Stark
Perfectly Miserable: Guilt, God, and Real Estate in a Small Town by Sarah Payne Stuart
The Sea Inside by Philip Hoare
Take This Man: A Memoir by Brando Skyhorse
There Was and There Was Not: A Journey Through Hate and Possibility in Turkey, Armenia, and Beyond by Meline Toumani
Trespassing on Einstein's Lawn: A Father, a Daughter, the Meaning of Nothing, and the Beginning of Everything by Amanda Gefter
Unremarried Widow: A Memoir by Artis Henderson
Library Journal
Biographies
An American Cardinal: The Biography of Cardinal Timothy Dolan by Christina Boyle
Dr. Mutter's Marvels: A True Story of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz
Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War by Mark Harris
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott
No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U. S. Surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald
Memoirs
Bulletproof Vest: The Ballad of an Outlaw and His Daughter by Maria Venegas
Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War by Robert M. Gates
Eating Wildly: Foraging for Life, Love, and the Perfect Meal by Ava Chin
The End of Eve by Ariel Gore
Gone Feral: Tracking My Dad Through the Wild by Novella Carpenter
The Great Floodgates of Wonderworld by Justin Hocking
History Lessons: A Memoir of Madness, Memory, and the Brain by Clifton Crais
Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth About Everything by Barbara Ehrenreich
My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead
Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned" by Lena Dunham
The Other Side by Lacy Johnson
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty
So We Read On: How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures by Maureen Corrigan
Things I've Learned from Dying: A Book About Life by David R. Dow
Weightless: My Life as a Fat Man and How I Escaped by Gregg McBride
National Public Radio
Biographies
Another Man's War: The Story of a Burma Boy in Britain's Forgotten Army by Barnaby Phillips
Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph by Jan Swafford
Bolano: A Biography in Conversations by Monica Maristain
Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang
Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS by Martin Duberman
Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell and Christian Robinson
A Long Way Home: A Memoir by Saroo Brierley
The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News - And Divided a Country by Gabriel Sherman
The Map Thief: The Gripping Story of an Esteemed Rare-Map Dealer Who Made Millions Stealing Priceless Maps by Michael Blanding
Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love by James Booth
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs
Memoirs
Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay
Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade by Walter Kirn
The Broken Road: From the Iron Gates to Mouth Athos by Patrick Leigh Fermor
Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard on You? A Memoir by George Clinton
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jaqueline Woodson
Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir by Roz Chast
Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage by Molly Wizenberg
Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War by Robert M. Gates
El Deafo by Cece Bell
Fresh from the Farm: A Year of Recipes and Stories by Susie Middleton
Geek Sublime: The Beauty of Code, The Code of Beauty by Vikram Chandra
The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames by Kai Bird
How I Discover Poetry by Marilyn Nelson
How the World Was: A California Childhood by Emmanuel Guibert
Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart
Loitering: New and Collected Essays by Charles D'Ambrosio
Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness, and Becoming a Man by Thomas Page McBee
The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky, and Death by Colson Whitehead
A Painter's Progress: A Portrait of Lucian Freud by David Dawson
Showa 1944-1953: A History of Japan by Shigeru Mizuki
The Splendid Things We Planned: A Family Portrait by Blake Bailey
Things I've Learned from Dying: A Book About Life by David R. Dow
Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film by Glenn Kurtz
Thrown by Kerry Howley
The Universal Tone: Bringing My Story to Light by Carlos Santana
New York Times
Biographies
American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell by Deborah Solomon
Demon Camp: A Soldier's Exorcism by Jennifer Percy
Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero by James S. Romm
Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer by Bettina Stangneth
Elephant Company:The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II by Vicki Constantine Croke
Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis as Commander in Chief by James M. McPherson
Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local - And Helped Save an American Town by Beth Macy
Gandhi Before India by Ramachandra Guha
Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill
The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein
The Invisible Front: Love and Loss in an Era of Endless War by Yochi Dreazen
Limonov by Emmanuel Carrere
Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts
Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life by Hermione Lee
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs
A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre
Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright
The Trip to Echo Springs: On Writers and Drinking by Olivia Laing
True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas by Anand Giridharadas
Memoirs
Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir by Roz Chast
Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War by Robert M. Gates
Fire Shut Up in My Bones by Charles M. Blow
Geek Sublime: The Beauty of Code, The Code of Beauty by Vikram Chandra
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart
The Madwoman in the Volvo: My Year of Raging Hormones by Sandra Tsing Loh
Not I: Memoirs of a German Childhood by Joachim Fest
On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss
Thrown by Kerry Howley
Publishers Weekly
Biographies
Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard by John Branch
Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local - And Helped Save an American Town by Beth Macy
The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein
Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story by Rick Bragg
John Wayne: The Life and Legend by Scott Eyman
Limonov by Emmanuel Carrere
Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life by Hermione Lee
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs
Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War by Helen Thorpe
Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr
Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright
True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas by Anand Giridharadas
Memoirs
A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren
Fire Shut Up in My Bones by Charles M. Blow
Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart
Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness, and Becoming a Man by Thomas Page McBee
On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss
Washington Post
Biographies
The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution by Jonathan Eig
The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames by Kai Bird
The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson
The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein
John Quincy Adams: American Visionary by Fred Kaplan
Limonov by Emmanuel Carrere
Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion by Harold Holzer
Little Demon in the City of Light: A True Story of Murder and Mesmerism in Belle Epoque Paris by Steven Levingston
The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It by John W. Dean
Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space by Lynn Sherr
Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art by Carl Hoffman
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs
Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War by Helen Thorpe
A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre
Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr
Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright
Unreasonable Men: Theodore Roosevelt and the Republican Rebels Who Created Progressive Politics by Michael Wolraich
Updike by Adam Begley
War of the Whales: A True Story by Josshua Horwitz
Memoirs
Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War by Robert M. Gates
Hard Choices by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart
My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind by Scott Stossel
S Street Rising: Crack, Murder, and Redemption in D. C. by Ruben Castaneda
Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace by Leon Panetta
Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book by Peter Finn