Popular biographies 2018

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR BEST SELLERS MAY

Rank

1

Spare. [HC] Prince Harry. Random House. ISBN $

2

The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times [HC] Michelle Obama. Crown. ISBN $

3

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. [HC] Matthew Perry. Flatiron Books. ISBN $

4

The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man. [HC] Paul Newman. Knopf. ISBN $

5

I’m Glad My Mom Died. [HC] Jennette McCurdy. Simon & Schuster. ISBN $

6

And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle. [HC] Jon Meacham. Random House. ISBN $

7

So Help Me God. [HC] Mike Pence. Simon & Schuster. ISBN $

8

The Revolutionary Samuel Adams. [HC] Stacy Schiff. Little, Brown. ISBN $

9

Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story. [HC] Bono. Knopf. ISBN $

10

Love, Pamela. [HC] Pamela Anderson. Dey Street Books. ISBN $

11

The Stories We Tell: Every Piece of Your Story Matters. [HC] Joanna Gaines. Harper Select. ISBN $

12

Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman. [HC] Alan Rickman. Henry Holt. ISBN $

13

Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard. [HC] Tom Felton. Grand Central. ISBN $

14

Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit & Glamour of an Icon. [HC] Kate Anderson Brower. Harper. ISBN $

15

Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships. [HC] Nina Totenberg. Simon & Schuster. ISBN $

16

My Travels with Mrs. Kennedy. [HC] Clint Hill and Lisa McCubbin Hill. Gallery Books. ISBN $

17

The Queen: Her Life. [HC] Andrew Morton. Grand Central. ISBN $

18

Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories. [HC] Kelly Ripa. Dey Street Books. ISBN $

19

Have I Told You This Already?: Stories I Don’t Want To Forget To Remember. [HC] Lauren Graham. Ballantine Books. ISBN $

20

Solito. [HC]

A Designer’s List of Favorites

If your strongest attraction to comics is for the most visually exceptional ones, then there’s a chance that you just might be me. And if you also find yourself reflecting on the most memorable and engaging graphic narratives you’ve encountered this year, then you – a.k.a. I – also might feel compelled to share your findings with readers. So let’s get started then, with three outstanding biography comics.

icon artist: Elsa Charretier

Femme Magnifique: 50 Magnificent Women Who Changed The World

editor: Shelly Bond (Black Crown)

In Femme Magnifique, Michelle Obama is quoted as saying, “We’ve got a responsibility to live up to the legacy of those who come before us by doing all that we can to help those who come after us.” And that, in a nutshell, is what this book is helping to accomplish. Appropriately subtitled 50 Magnificent Women Who Changed The World, it includes biographies of Michelle and of Hillary Clinton, Harriet Tubman and Margaret Sanger, Disney’s Mary Blair and Brenda Starr’s Dale Messick, Björk and Laurie Anderson, Ursula K. Le Guin and Elizabeth Cady Stanton… you get the idea.

With each profile limited to three or four pages max, Femme Magnifique serves as a quick sampler of worthy role models who have made, and are still making, significant differences in our world. The diverse international array of a hundred-plus artists and writers include Gail Simone, Bill Sienkiewicz, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Gilbert Hernandez, Elsa Charretier, Ronald Wimberly, Jill Thompson, Sonny Liew, Annie Wu, and Hope Nicholson.

The best way to wrap up this write-up would be to wish the best for the admirable goals of Femme Magnifique’s editor, Shelley Bond: “We want it in every bedroom, boardroom, and library to educate and empower.”

artist: Teddy Kristiansen

artist: Jen Hickman

artist: Jason Shawn Alexander

artist: Dan Parent

artist: Rob Davis

artist: Gilbert Hernandez

artist: Bill Sienkiewicz (click to enlarge

Biography

1. Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight

16 Rave • 6 Positive

&#;David Blight has written the definitive biography of Frederick Douglass. With extraordinary detail he illuminates the complexities of Douglass’s life and career and paints a powerful portrait of one of the most important American voices of the 19th century &#; Blight is masterful in handling this material. In these moments, the pace of this big book picks up; the details pull you in; and if only just for a moment, the larger-than-life image dips and we see the man.&#;

&#;Eddie S. Glade Jr. (The Boston Globe)

*

2. Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown

12 Rave • 3 Positive • 2 Mixed

&#;Brown ignores all the starchy obligations of biography and adopts a form of his own to trap the past and ensnare the reader — even this reader, so determinedly indifferent to the royals. I ripped through the book with the avidity of Margaret attacking her morning vodka and orange juice &#; [Brown] swoops at his subject from unexpected angles — it’s a Cubist portrait of the lady &#; The wisdom of the book, and the artistry, is in how Brown subtly expands his lens from Margaret’s misbehavior &#; History isn’t written by the victors, he reminds us, it’s written by the writers, and this study becomes a scathing group portrait of a generation of carnivorous royal watchers &#; Without ever explicitly positioning Margaret for our pity, Brown reveals how we elevate in order to destroy.&#;

&#;Parul Sehgal (The New York Times)

*

3. Mr. Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense by Jenny Uglow

10 Rave • 3 Positive • 2 Mixed

&#;More than any of the five previous Lear biographies&#;Ms. Uglow’s nearly page book miraculously takes wing, soars higher and provides a more inclusive bird’