Yesterday's RAIG meeting helped us to put together a list of favorite biographies of our group. Here they are (in no particular order):
- Catherine the Great: Love, Sex and Power by Virginia
Rounding ~ Dutiful daughter, frustrated wife, passionate lover, domineering mother, doting grandmother, devoted friend, tireless legislator, generous patron of artists and philosophers - the Empress Catherine II, the Great, was all these things and more. Her reign, the longest in Russian imperial history, lasted from 1762 until her death in 1796; during those years she built on the work begun by her most famous predecessor, Peter the Great, to establish Russia as a major European power and to transform its new capital, St. Petersburg, into a city to rival Paris and London in the beauty of its architecture, the glittering splendor of its court, and the magnificence of its art collections. Yet the great Catherine was not even Russian by birth and had no legitimate claim to the Russian throne; she seized it and held on to it, through wars, rebellions, and plagues, by the force of her personality, by her charm and determination, and by an unshakable belief in her own destiny. (Selected by Julia)
and mother, Wendy Kann believes she has put her volatile childhood in colonial Rhodesia - now Zimbabwe - behind her. Then one Sunday morning comes a terrible phone call: her youngest sister, Lauren, has been killed on a lonely road in Zambia. (Selected by Marge)
Mark Kurzem ~ When a Nazi death squad raided his Latvian village, Jewish five-year-old Alex escaped. After surviving the winter by foraging for food and stealing clothes off dead soldiers, he was discovered by a Latvian SS unit. Not knowing he was Jewish, they made him their mascot, dressing the little "corporal" in uniform and toting him from massacre to massacre. (Selected by Lisa)
looks back to reassess the meaning of his own life and the paths he has taken, from the turbulent 1960s to the tragedy of September 11, and to answer such questions as "What do I value?" and "What, exactly, is the good life?" (Selected by Ann)
amusing anecdote about traveling to Prague with her mother, who seems cheerfully oblivious to the fact that the handsome young man who joins them for dinner is far more interested in her than her daughter. Unfortunately, Cohen's mother is dying of a brain tumor by the end of the chapter, and though the endless kibitzing of her father, who tries to fix Cohen's love life while dating a string of "older widows and comely divorcees," is entertaining, the other members of her inner circle pale in comparison. (Selected by Anna)
about living like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Retreating to the dismal West Virginia mining town--and the family-- her father, Rex Walls, had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home. (Selected by Christina)
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