Great Reads: Great Lives
Great Reads is a series of posts featuring recent books that are highly recommended by Toronto Public Library staff.
This list of biographies, memoirs and novels recounts the lives of the famous, the powerful and lesser known individuals with fascinating lives.
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Non-Fiction |
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The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss Thomas Alexandre Dumas, son of a French aristocrat and a Haitian slave, rose quickly in the army of the French Republic and became the inspiration for his son’s famous story, The Count of Monte Cristo. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Regular Print |
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The Boxer: The True Story of Holocaust Survivor Harry Haft by Reinhold Kleist Imprisoned in a series of concentration camps, Harry Haft was forced to fight other prisoners for the amusement of camp officers. After escaping the Nazis, he made his way to America and kept on fighting. He was good enough to take a shot at heavyweight champion, Rocky Marciano in 1949. Told in graphic book format. |
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Eminent Hipsters by Donald Fagen The founder of the band Steely Dan writes about the music and books that he loved growing up. He also shares his 2011 tour diary which documents the aches, anxieties and despair he suffers as an older and jaded performer. |
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Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West by Blaine Harden Shin Dong-hyuk was born inside one of North Korea’s secretive labour camps. This is the heartbreaking story of his life in Camp 14, and how he became the only person known to have escaped. Regular Print |
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Instant Mom: I Thought I Knew Love, Then I Met My Daughter by Nia Vardalos A heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking memoir, Nia Vardalos is achingly honest in her retelling of the bumpy road she took to motherhood. |
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My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead Mead examines her own personal history through a re-reading of her favourite novel and finds much in common with its protagonist, Dorothea and with author, George Eliot. Even those unfamiliar with Middlemarch will appreciate the transformative power a good book can have on someone’s life. Regular Print |
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Paris: A Love Story by Kati Marton In this remarkably honest memoir, award-winning journalist Kati Marton presents an impassioned and romantic story of love and life after loss. At every stage of her life, Paris offers beauty and excitement, and now, after the sudden death of her husband, Richard Holbrooke, it offers a chance for a fresh beginning. Regular Print |
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Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed A powerful and inspiring memoir of a troubled young woman’s 1,100-mile solo hike that broke her down before building her back up again. Regular Print |
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Fiction |
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The Confabulist by Stephen Galloway The lives of magician Harry Houdini and everyday man, Martin Strauss, are forever bound in ways that will startle and amaze. Memorable characters from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are scattered throughout this novel about fame, ambition, reality, illusion and unexpected love. Regular Print |
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A King’s Ransom by Sharon Kay Penman Sequel to the excellent Lionheart. It continues King Richard I’s story from the shipwreck in Italy, through his capture and imprisonment by the Holy Roman Emperor, his eventual release and the remaining years of his reign. |
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The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami The author reimagines a 1527 expedition to Florida by conquistadors, using a Muslim slave, Estebanico, as the tale’s narrator. Estebanico, or Mustafa ibn Muhammad ibn Abussalam al-Zamori, is considered the first black man to have explored the New World. Finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. |
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The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan Following the death of their father, sisters Marie and Antoinette find their lives forever changed. One girl is set to become a ballet dancer and model for the great artist Edgar Degas, while the other’s life slips onto the dark streets of Paris. Regular Print |
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Song of the Shank by Jeffery Renard Allen A lyrical and imaginitive rendering of the life of a real person – Tom Wiggins – a young slave and blind musical prodigy who at ten years of age, played for the president and travelled the world performing concerts. |
Other Posts in the Great Reads series:
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