12 Biographies to READ or SKIP

I love biographies and memoirs. I've been reading them since I was a teenager, but it only recently dawned on me that it's my favorite book genre.

When I was an international relations student I didn't read much for fun. I chose serious works by Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren and Ann-Marie Slaughter. One vacation I read Fred Lawrence's book about Marylin Monroe, to give myself a break. I loved it because it’s juicy but also has a lot of detail and it offers such a great window into a bygone era where women occupied a totally different place in American society. I shifted to lighter fare and audiobooks. My first audiobook was Tina Fey's "Bossypants," which I loved.

Biographies are a great way to learn stuff and enjoy celebrity gossip at the same time. I'm sharing 12 biographies I recently read below. Surprisingly, how much I liked a book was totally unrelated to how much I cared about the author. Generally speaking: the bigger the celebrity, the weirder the memoir.

But: I'm very dismayed with myself that most of the books I liked were written by men, and all the ones I didn't like were written by women. The only excuse I have is that I read more books written by women, including ones that don't come highly recommended.

SKIP! Run away!

My Body by Emily Ratajkowski (2021)

About: Being a supermodel, objectification of women.

What a huge drag! Ratajkowski makes it sound like she was forced to be a model and her entire career has been one depressing disappointment. The anecdotes are inconsequential and devoid of self-criticism.

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears (2023)

About: Britney's life and the 13-year conservatorship.

Britney is an interesting woman and listening to her lovely voice for six hours was a treat in itself. Unfotunately, she appears to be completely delusional. Because large parts of the story don't make sense I went on to listen to her sister's book (Things I Should Have Said by Jamie Lynn Spears) but that's also skip.

The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey (2020)

About: her dysfunctional family, bad relationships, and her career as a singer.

The story of her career is interesting, because she’s so talented, but as soon as she introduces other characters the story becomes depressing and a little unlikely. She either had to world's worst people around her (especially her family!) during the first 30 years of her life, emotionally abusing her, restricting her movement, and even trying lure her into prostitution, or maybe there's another side to the story that's not being told…

A Natural Woman by Carole King (2012)

About: her life and musical career since the 1950s.

I grew up with her music and I wanted to love this book, but the old-timey stories about getting started in the music biz and her relationships with her family and her many husbands don't feel authentic and for some reason sound really cheesy. She seems uncomfortable talking about her fame and why she left LA and moved to the middle of nowhere where she is suing people for tresspassing. In the audiobook she also hums and sings a lot, which doesn't help matters.

Unfinished by Priyanka Chopra (2021)

About: Priyanka's childhood, her rise to fame through Miss World and her careers in Bollywood and Hollywood.

Not a terrible book. Living in India, I could relate to a lot of what she wrote about growing up and being sent to boarding school, and then the United States, as a child. But as open as she is about her childhood, is how closed she is about her adulthood. There were a few moments where I laughed and was genuinely surprised, but the book ends with an unbelievably corny discription of her wedding and her mansion in California and that's when I decided I disliked this book.

Yes Please by Amy Poehler (2014)

About: Amy Poehler's life as a comedienne.

After loving Tina Fey and several other comedians' books so much, I thought this would be a slam dunk. Instead, I got bored almost immediately. I don't know why, but I'm also not a fan of Parks & Recreation. I think Poehler is talented, but I don't relate to her or her humor.

Read! Or even better: listen to the audiobook!

Making a Scene by Constance Wu (2022)

About: her acting career and being Asian-American.

Constance Wu might not be the most famous person, but she's really smart and authentic, and doesn’t try to please. I loved reading about how she made it as an actress in New York, and then LA, in the 2000s. It's a pretty classic story with lots of mishaps and a happy ending. Some of the stories are just fun essays.

A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost (2020)

About: Growing up on Staten Island, 9/11, and being on SNL since 2005.

This is a delightful book! Really light fare, perfect as an audiobook. Actually, I found him much funnier in this book than on SNL.

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry (2022)

About: substance abuse and addiction.

This book is real, raw, and funny. And it's all the more powerful because Perry died shortly after publishing. It's salacious, yes, but I honestly felt I learned things about depression and substance abuse.

Shrill by Lindy West (2016)

About: being a comedienne, fat-shaming, and internet trolls.

This book is not for everyone. The ladies at my book club hated it, accusing the author of not being honest about her relationship with her bodyweight. I thought it was thought-provoking, hilarious, and it stands out for having several strong messages, for a change.

Spare by Prince Harry (2023)

About: the heartbreak of being Prince Harry.

I probably knew all the information shared in this book already, and yet it felt incredibly salacious to hear Harry tell his life story himself. The tragedy of losing his Great Mother, the difficulty of being a British royal, how he loves the nature and his stand-in parents in Botswana, meeting Megan Markle, and the beef he has with his brother and Kate Middleton... gossip at its best!

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah (2016)

About: his (poor) childhood in apartheid South Africa and his road to success in the United States.

This is a fanatistic book that probably everyone knows about by now. I thoroughly enjoyed the audio version, which is think is an absolute must given his talent for telling stories and the many accents he uses to bring the characters to life.

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