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The Best Reviewed Memoirs and Biographies of 2022

Featuring buster keaton, jean rhys, bernardine evaristo, kate beaton, and more.

We’ve come to the end of another bountiful literary year, and for all of us review rabbits here at Book Marks, that can mean only one thing: basic math, and lots of it.

Yes, using reviews drawn from more than 150 publications, over the next two weeks we’ll be calculating and revealing the most critically-acclaimed books of 2022, in the categories of (deep breath): Fiction ; Nonfiction ; Memoir and Biography; Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror; Short Story Collections; Essay Collections; Poetry; Mystery and Crime; Graphic Literature ; and Literature in Translation .

Today’s installment: Memoir and Biography .

Brought to you by Book Marks , Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.”

1. We Don’t Know Ourselves by Fintan O’Toole (Liveright) 17 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Mixed • 1 Pan

“One of the many triumphs of Fintan O’Toole’s We Don’t Know Ourselves is that he manages to find a form that accommodates the spectacular changes that have occurred in Ireland over the past six decades, which happens to be his life span … it is not a memoir, nor is it an absolute history, nor is it entirely a personal reflection or a crepuscular credo. It is, in fact, all of these things helixed together: his life, his country, his thoughts, his misgivings, his anger, his pride, his doubt, all of them belonging, eventually, to us … O’Toole, an agile cultural commentator, considers himself to be a representative of the blank slate on which the experiment of change was undertaken, but it’s a tribute to him that he maintains his humility, his sharpness and his enlightened distrust …

O’Toole writes brilliantly and compellingly of the dark times, but he is graceful enough to know that there is humor and light in the cracks. There is a touch of Eduardo Galeano in the way he can settle on a telling phrase … But the real accomplishment of this book is that it achieves a conscious form of history-telling, a personal hybrid that feels distinctly honest and humble at the same time. O’Toole has not invented the form, but he comes close to perfecting it. He embraces the contradictions and the confusion. In the process, he weaves the flag rather than waving it.”

–Colum McCann ( The New York Times Book Review )

2. Thin Places: A Natural History of Healing and Home by Kerri Ní Dochartaigh (Milkweed)

12 Rave • 7 Positive • 2 Mixed

“Assured and affecting … A powerful and bracing memoir … This is a book that will make you see the world differently: it asks you to reconsider the animals and insects we often view as pests – the rat, for example, and the moth. It asks you to look at the sea and the sky and the trees anew; to wonder, when you are somewhere beautiful, whether you might be in a thin place, and what your responsibilities are to your location.It asks you to show compassion for people you think are difficult, to cultivate empathy, to try to understand the trauma that made them the way they are.”

–Lynn Enright ( The Irish Times )

3. Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton (Drawn & Quarterly)

14 Rave • 4 Positive

“It could hardly be more different in tone from [Beaton’s] popular larky strip Hark! A Vagrant … Yes, it’s funny at moments; Beaton’s low-key wryness is present and correct, and her drawings of people are as charming and as expressive as ever. But its mood overall is deeply melancholic. Her story, which runs to more than 400 pages, encompasses not only such thorny matters as social class and environmental destruction; it may be the best book I have ever read about sexual harassment …

There are some gorgeous drawings in Ducks of the snow and the starry sky at night. But the human terrain, in her hands, is never only black and white … And it’s this that gives her story not only its richness and depth, but also its astonishing grace. Life is complex, she tell us, quietly, and we are all in it together; each one of us is only trying to survive. What a difficult, gorgeous and abidingly humane book. It really does deserve to win all the prizes.”

–Rachel Cooke ( The Guardian )

4. Stay True by Hua Hsu (Doubleday)

14 Rave • 3 Positive

“… quietly wrenching … To say that this book is about grief or coming-of-age doesn’t quite do it justice; nor is it mainly about being Asian American, even though there are glimmers of that too. Hsu captures the past by conveying both its mood and specificity … This is a memoir that gathers power through accretion—all those moments and gestures that constitute experience, the bits and pieces that coalesce into a life … Hsu is a subtle writer, not a showy one; the joy of Stay True sneaks up on you, and the wry jokes are threaded seamlessly throughout.”

–Jennifer Szalai ( The New York Times )

5.  Manifesto: On Never Giving Up by Bernardine Evaristo (Grove)

13 Rave • 4 Positive

“Part coming-of-age story and part how-to manual, the book is, above all, one of the most down-to-earth and least self-aggrandizing works of self-reflection you could hope to read. Evaristo’s guilelessness is refreshing, even unsettling … With ribald humour and admirable candour, Evaristo takes us on a tour of her sexual history … Characterized by the resilience of its author, it is replete with stories about the communities and connections Evaristo has cultivated over forty years … Invigoratingly disruptive as an artist, Evaristo is a bridge-builder as a human being.”

–Emily Bernard ( The Times Literary Supplement )

1. Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

14 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Rundell is right that Donne…must never be forgotten, and she is the ideal person to evangelise him for our age. She shares his linguistic dexterity, his pleasure in what TS Eliot called ‘felt thought’, his ability to bestow physicality on the abstract … It’s a biography filled with gaps and Rundell brings a zest for imaginative speculation to these. We know so little about Donne’s wife, but Rundell brings her alive as never before … Rundell confronts the difficult issue of Donne’s misogyny head-on … This is a determinedly deft book, and I would have liked it to billow a little more, making room for more extensive readings of the poems and larger arguments about the Renaissance. But if there is an overarching argument, then it’s about Donne as an ‘infinity merchant’ … To read Donne is to grapple with a vision of the eternal that is startlingly reinvented in the here and now, and Rundell captures this vision alive in all its power, eloquence and strangeness”

–Laura Feigel ( The Guardian )

2. The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland (Harper)

12 Rave • 3 Positive

“Compelling … We know about Auschwitz. We know what happened there. But Freedland, with his strong, clear prose and vivid details, makes us feel it, and the first half of this book is not an easy read. The chillingly efficient mass murder of thousands of people is harrowing enough, but Freedland tells us stories of individual evils as well that are almost harder to take … His matter-of-fact tone makes it bearable for us to continue to read … The Escape Artist is riveting history, eloquently written and scrupulously researched. Rosenberg’s brilliance, courage and fortitude are nothing short of amazing.”

–Laurie Hertzel ( The Star Tribune )

3. I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys by Miranda Seymour (W. W. Norton & Company)

11 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Pan

“…illuminating and meticulously researched … paints a deft portrait of a flawed, complex, yet endlessly fascinating woman who, though repeatedly bowed, refused to be broken … Following dismal reviews of her fourth novel, Rhys drifted into obscurity. Ms. Seymour’s book could have lost momentum here. Instead, it compellingly charts turbulent, drink-fueled years of wild moods and reckless acts before building to a cathartic climax with Rhys’s rescue, renewed lease on life and late-career triumph … is at its most powerful when Ms. Seymour, clear-eyed but also with empathy, elaborates on Rhys’s woes …

Ms. Seymour is less convincing with her bold claim that Rhys was ‘perhaps the finest English woman novelist of the twentieth century.’ However, she does expertly demonstrate that Rhys led a challenging yet remarkable life and that her slim but substantial novels about beleaguered women were ahead of their time … This insightful biography brilliantly shows how her many battles were lost and won.”

–Malcolm Forbes ( The Wall Street Journal )

4. The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon’s Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I by Lindsey Fitzharris (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

9 Rave • 5 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Grisly yet inspiring … Fitzharris depicts her hero as irrepressibly dedicated and unfailingly likable. The suspense of her narrative comes not from any interpersonal drama but from the formidable challenges posed by the physical world … The Facemaker is mostly a story of medical progress and extraordinary achievement, but as Gillies himself well knew—grappling daily with the unbearable suffering that people willingly inflicted on one another—failure was never far behind.”

5. Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker’s Life by James Curtis (Knopf)

8 Rave • 6 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Keaton fans have often complained that nearly all biographies of him suffer from a questionable slant or a cursory treatment of key events. With Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker’s Life —at more than 800 pages dense with research and facts—Mr. Curtis rectifies that situation, and how. He digs deep into Keaton’s process and shows how something like the brilliant two-reeler Cops went from a storyline conceived from necessity—construction on the movie lot encouraged shooting outdoors—to a masterpiece … This will doubtless be the primary reference on Keaton’s life for a long time to come … the worse Keaton’s life gets, the more engrossing Mr. Curtis’s book becomes.”

–Farran Smith Nehme ( The Wall Street Journal )

Our System:

RAVE = 5 points • POSITIVE = 3 points • MIXED = 1 point • PAN = -5 points

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The Best New Biographies of 2023

CJ Connor is a cozy mystery and romance writer whose main goal in life is to make their dog proud. They are a Pitch Wars alumnus and an Author Mentor Match R9 mentor. Their debut mystery novel BOARD TO DEATH is forthcoming from Kensington Books. Twitter: @cjconnorwrites | cjconnorwrites.com

View All posts by CJ Connor

Read on to discover nine of the best biographies published within the last year. Included are life stories of singular people, including celebrated artists and significant historical figures, as well as collective biographies.

The books included in this list have all been released as of writing, but biography lovers still have plenty to look forward to before the year is out. A few to keep your eye out for in the coming months:

• The World According to Joan Didion by Evelyn McDonnell (HarperOne, September 26)
• Einstein in Time and Space by Samuel Graydon (Scribner, November 14)
• Overlooked: A Celebration of Remarkable, Underappreciated People Who Broke the Rules and Changed the World by Amisha Padnani (Penguin Random House, November 14).

Without further ado, here are the best biographies of 2023 so far!

Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo

Ellen and William Craft were a Black married couple who freed themselves from slavery in 1848 by disguising themselves as a traveling white man and an enslaved person. Author Ilyon Woo recounts their thousand-mile journey to seek safety in the North and their escape from the United States in the months following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act.

The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel

Written over a period of 11 years with exclusive journalistic access to the subject, author Michael Finkel explores the motivations, heists, and repercussions faced by the notorious and prolific art thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Of special focus is his relationship with his girlfriend and accomplice, Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus.

King: A Life by Jonathan Eig

While recently published, King: A Life is already considered to be the most well-researched biography of Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. published in decades. New York Times bestselling journalist Jonathan Eig explores the life and legacy of Dr. King through thousands of historical records, including recently declassified FBI documents.

Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters by Lynnée Denise

This biography is part of the Why Music Matters series from the University of Texas. It reflects on the legendary blues singer’s life through an essay collection in which the author (also an accomplished musician) seeks to recreate the feeling of browsing through a box of records.

Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power by Leah Redmond Chang

Historian Leah Redmond Chang’s latest book release focuses on three aristocratic women in Renaissance Europe: Catherine de’ Medici, Elizabeth de Valois, and Mary, Queen of Scots. As a specific focus, she examines the juxtaposition between the immense power they wielded and yet the ways they remained vulnerable to the patriarchal, misogynistic societies in which they existed.

Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong’s Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang

Anna May Wong was a 20th-century actress who found great acclaim while still facing discrimination and typecasting as a Chinese woman. University of California professor Yunte Huang explores her life and impact on the American film industry and challenges racist depictions of her in accounts of Hollywood history in this thought-provoking biography.

Twice as Hard: The Stories of Black Women Who Fought to Become Physicians, from the Civil War to the 21st Century by Jasmine Brown

Written by Rhodes Scholar and University of Pennsylvania medical student Jasmine Brown, this collective biography shares the experiences and accomplishments of nine Black women physicians in U.S. history — including Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first Black American woman to earn a medical degree in the 1860s, and Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders.

Larry McMurtry: A Life by Tracy Daugherty

Two years after the Pulitzer Prize-winning author’s death, this biography presents a comprehensive history of Larry McMurtry’s life and legacy as one of the most acclaimed Western writers of all time.

The Kneeling Man: My Father’s Life as a Black Spy Who Witnessed the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. by Leta McCollough Seletzky

Journalist Leta McCollough Seletzky examines her father, Marrell “Mac” McCollough’s complicated legacy as a Black undercover cop and later a member of the CIA. In particular, she shares his account as a witness of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel.

Are you a history buff looking for more recommendations? Try these.

• Best History Books by Era
• Books for a More Inclusive Look at American History
• Fascinating Food History Books

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Best memoirs and biographies to read in 2024

Dive into some of the most compelling life stories – from David Bowie to Keir Starmer

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Me and Mr Jones by Suzi Ronson

Queen victoria and her prime ministers by anne somerset, byron: a life in ten letters by andrew stauffer, keir starmer: the biography by tom baldwin, hardy women by paula byrne, the woman in me by britney spears, marcia williams by linda mcdougall, lou reed: the king of new york by will hermes, dinner with joseph johnson by daisy hay, original sins by matt rowland hill.

When Franz Kafka's diaries were first published soon after his death, aged 40, in 1924, they were heavily polished by his friend Max Brod, said Dwight Garner in The New York Times . Brod – who'd ignored Kafka's instruction to burn all his manuscripts – set out to turn him into a saintly figure, untouched by "human impulses". He cut out anything remotely sexual (including his visits to prostitutes) and excised anything else he judged extraneous – including the letters, draft stories, dreams and aphorisms that Kafka had "stuffed" into his diaries. Now, more than 30 years after they appeared in Germany, the unexpurgated diaries have finally been published in English, sensitively translated by Ross Benjamin. And they're a "revelation". 

Apart from anything else, this new edition is "a lot funnier than Brod's version", said Morten Høi Jensen in Literary Review . We see Kafka noticing that a fellow train passenger's "sizeable member makes a large bulge in his pants", and commenting on a friend's pornography collection. But more valuable still is the restoration of the "open-endedness" of the original text. Kafka's diaries were really closer to notebooks: they were, Benjamin notes, a "laboratory" for his fiction – and now we can peer into that laboratory, seeing how the themes of his writing (alienation and loss, futility and repetition) "grew out of his circumscribed life". 

At times Kafka cuts a surprisingly ordinary figure, said Chris Power in The Guardian . We see him off to the theatre, or "watching a ski-jumping competition" – though at other times he expresses "profound loneliness and isolation". He emerges not just as the tortured genius he is known as now, but also as a "youngish man finding his way, hungry for experience and inspiration" – and the contradiction between the two "brings him closer to us".

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Penguin Classics 704pp £24 ( £18.99 )

In 1971, Suzi Ronson (then Suzanne Fussey) was a 21-year-old hairdresser at a salon in Beckenham, southeast London, when one of her customers – Mrs Jones – mentioned her "artistic" son David, said Anthony Quinn in The Observer . The next week, Mrs Jones brought in David's wife, Angie, who was so delighted with the "outrageous" haircut Suzi gave her that she took her to meet David himself – "a pale and epicene young man" who had just started calling himself David Bowie. With the help of a German anti-dandruff product, Suzi transformed David's "mousy" hair into a "spiky red feather cut". It was the birth of the "look of Ziggy Stardust".

Suzi, infatuated with the couple and their bohemian world, became Bowie's stylist, and soon after went on the road with him and the Spiders from Mars. Five decades on, she has written an "honest and troubled memoir" of her time as his "hair'n'make-up mascot". It belongs to a niche genre – call it "I-was-Sinatra's-valet" – but her book offers a compelling portrait of Bowie "on the verge of stardom".

Ronson skilfully charts her drab suburban upbringing, so different from Bowie's "countercultural" mileu, said Deborah Levy in Literary Review . With "perfect pitch and tension", she recounts key moments in his early career – from his legendary performance of Starman on Top of the Pops in 1972 to the night a year later when he unexpectedly "retired" Ziggy Stardust.

Her book makes a refreshing change from the hagiographic tone of most Bowie biographies, said John Aizlewood on iNews . Here, "the star emerges as cold": he sacks his drummer on his wedding day, and expects Suzi to procure him an "endless supply of young girls and boys". Suzi herself is soon "cut adrift", at which point she marries the guitarist Mick Ronson, who had also been ditched by Bowie. After that, the book loses its dynamism.

Much Bowie literature consists of "pretentious evaluation" of his lyrics and influences, said Suzanne Moore in The New Statesman . Ronson, by contrast, barely mentions his music, and instead focuses on practical matters – such as sewing the jewels onto Bowie's jockstrap, or worrying "about all the sweat breaking the zips of his costumes". She tells us that she slept with him once, but is "discreet" about the details. It makes for an engaging, often endearing account of the "magical rising of Ziggy, by the woman who put the colour in his hair".

Faber 320pp £20 ( £15.99 )

Elizabeth II once described her great-great-grandmother as a "believer in moderation in all things", said Matthew Dennison in The Telegraph . But as Anne Somerset demonstrates in this "masterly account" of Queen Victoria's relationships with the ten men who served as her prime ministers, Victoria was "frequently far from moderate". In her private letters and memoranda, she made clear her dislike of "vivisectionists, Russians and four-time prime minister William Ewart Gladstone" (depicted together, above). And she remained unswervingly convinced of her right to meddle in politics – railing, for instance, against the "miserable democrats" in the Liberal Party. This caused friction, inevitably. Gladstone referred to her as "the leader of the opposition". Even the Conservative Disraeli, who was one of her favourites, found her "wilful and whimsical, like a spoilt child". 

"Victoria supposedly wrote 60 million words during her reign, or 2,500 a day," said Gerard DeGroot in The Times . Somerset has immersed herself in this "huge mass of correspondence" – but while the result is "impressively well-researched", she doesn't entirely succeed in her apparent mission to "emphasise Victoria's positive contributions". Indeed, at one point she admits that her subject's behaviour "verged upon the monstrous".Covering Victoria's 63-year reign, from 1837, the book is billed as a "personal history" – but what it really reveals is the gap between "Victoria's public image and the queen her ministers saw". Perhaps this gap is inevitable: "for a constitutional monarchy to work", reverence "must be heaped on an individual who might, in truth, be a despot, a psychopath or an idiot". Nevertheless, this account is an "eye-opener", and Victoria's reputation does not emerge well from it.

What we see is that Victoria "loved power", said Philip Mansel in The Spectator . She was an enthusiastic reader of despatches. "Far from being fatigued with signatures and business, I like the whole thing exceedingly," she wrote in 1837. She also appreciated "British patriotism, British successes", and what she called the "deep devotion and loyalty of my people". Despite the "tragic living conditions" of many of her subjects, she was cheered even on her last visit to Ireland in April 1900, although she couldn't stand the Irish: "abominable... a dreadful people". As Somerset's "magnificent, disturbing" history reminds us, in the 19th century, "most people wanted more monarchy, not less". 

William Collins 576pp £30; ( £23.99 ) 

"Mad, bad and dangerous to know" was how Lady Caroline Lamb famously characterised Lord Byron. It's a fair description, in many ways, said John Banville in The Guardian . But George Gordon, the 6th Baron Byron, "must also have been, at the simplest level, wonderful company". He didn't take himself too seriously, and his lust for life was immense: "I shall not live long," he wrote to his publisher John Murray in 1819, "& for that reason I must live while I can." In Byron: A Life in Ten Letters, Andrew Stauffer uses Bryon's "vivid and hugely entertaining letters" as a series of entry points into his tempestuous life. Each chapter begins with an extract from a letter; Stauffer then discusses the context that inspired it. It is an impressively "rounded portrait, venereal scars and all, of one of the prime movers of the Romantic movement".

Stauffer concedes that his approach is not particularly original, said D.J. Taylor in The Wall Street Journal : fragmented biographies are in vogue. "But there is something about Byron's headlong scamper about the world of his day that lends itself to this miniaturist treatment". We first see him as a Cambridge undergraduate, "planning endless bachelor parties"; then en route to Greece in 1810, where he swims the Hellespont with his friend Lt William Ekenhead; and later writing ghost stories on Lake Geneva with Percy and Mary Shelley. "The letters are practically Messianic in their intensity, aflame with relish for the incidental scenery or the women Byron is pursuing." It's a wonder, given the pace at which he lived his 36 years, that Byron had any time for serious writing.

The poet depicted in these pages often emerges as a "cold-hearted shit", said John Walsh in The Sunday Times . During his short-lived marriage to Annabella Milbanke – a "brilliant mathematician with a strong moral centre" – he installed his half-sister Augusta Leigh at their Piccadilly home, and "made the women compete with each other in caressing him". The night his wife gave birth, he "sat in the empty drawing room below, throwing empty bottles at the ceiling". In time, polite opinion turned against him, and he left England, never to return. Stauffer sometimes brings an incongruously "21st century perspective to 19th century behaviour": he describes Byron as a "sex tourist in Italy", and talks of Shelley's bisexual experiences as "polyamory". But no matter. This is a "devilishly readable book", which brings Regency England to "howling life", and its "disgraceful but irresistible subject into dazzling focus".

CUP 300pp; £25 (£19.99)  

Although Keir Starmer is almost certain to be our next prime minister, he remains an "oddly elusive" figure, said Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian . People often complain that they don't really know what he stands for, and he talks about personal matters somewhat stiffly, as if holding something back. All this makes a book such as Keir Starmer: The Biography feel long overdue. Tom Baldwin is a former journalist who worked for five years as a Labour spin doctor; he was originally recruited to ghostwrite Starmer's own memoir, but Starmer backed out of the project last year, agreeing instead to cooperate on this biography. The result, while not exactly revelatory – Baldwin warns that his pages won't be "spattered with blood" – does a job that "very precisely mirrors its subject": it is careful, nuanced and eminently capable. "It is, in short, as intimate an insight into Britain's likely next prime minister as readers are probably going to get." 

The most interesting chapters concern Starmer's "difficult early life", said Robert Shrimsley in the FT . Starmer grew up in a cramped semi in Surrey with a "seriously ill mother", Jo (she had Still's disease); a "cold, difficult" father, Rodney (a toolmaker); and three siblings (one of whom, Nick, has learning difficulties). Television was banned in the Starmer household, the "radio played only Beethoven or Shostakovich", and Rodney "barracked and bullied" visiting schoolfriends, said Patrick Maguire in The Times . Although Starmer was the only one of the siblings to go to grammar school and university, and then became a leading barrister, his dad never once told him he made him proud. Only after his death in 2018 did Starmer find out this wasn't "the full story": hidden in his father's wardrobe was a "scrapbook of every newspaper story about his son".

Many politicians pose as regular people, but Starmer emerges from this as someone who really is quite ordinary, said Matthew d'Ancona in the Evening Standard . He is happiest spending time with his family, or organising weekend eight-a-side football games. As his deputy, Angela Rayner, puts it: he is "the least political person I know in politics". The "one nagging question" is how much Baldwin's political sympathies have coloured his portrait, said Ben Riley-Smith in The Daily Telegraph . Had he discovered "less laudable aspects of Sir Keir's story", would he have "forensically interrogated" them? This may not, then, quite be a definitive biography – but it is engaging and "skilfully done".

The fame of the novelist and poet Thomas Hardy rested largely on the heroines he created, said Norma Clarke in Literary Review. With the likes of Tess Durbeyfield (Tess of the d'Urbervilles) and Sue Bridehead (Jude the Obscure), he displayed, as one young reader wrote to him, a "complete understanding of a woman's soul". But as Paula Byrne shows in this fascinating book, the women Hardy knew in real life were less fortunate. Byrne doggedly details them all, from Hardy's "strong-minded" mother, Jemima, to the "pretty girls" who "turned his head" in his youth, to his wives, Emma Gifford and Florence Dugdale (pictured, with Hardy). Hardy's women, she concludes, "paid a large price" for the "magnificent fictional women he invented". "In a sign of trouble to come, young Hardy fell in love violently and often," said Susie Goldsbrough in The Times . His first serious entanglement, says Byrne, "was with a Dorset maidservant called Eliza Nicholls, whom he dumped for her young sister". 

In his mid-30s, Hardy married Emma, a solicitor's daughter. Although initially happy, the marriage soured as "Emma gained weight" and became increasingly eccentric. By the time of her death, aged 72, in 1912, she was living in the attic of their Dorset home – and the much younger Florence was living with them, having been employed as Hardy's typist. After Hardy married Florence in 1914, she had to put up with him "enthusiastically mourning the wife he had spent years complaining about" – and who now became the subject of an "astonishing" series of love poems. Although Byrne is sometimes hampered by a lack of evidence (Hardy destroyed most of Emma's letters, together with the journal she wrote about him), this is still an "absorbing" portrait of the women who suffered for Hardy's art.

William Collins 656pp; £25 ( £19.99 )

In January 2008 – 11 months after the notorious occasion when she shaved off her own hair in a Los Angeles salon – Britney Spears was asked by her parents to meet them at their beach house, said Anna Leszkiewicz in The New Statesman . "There she was ambushed by police and taken to hospital against her will." A month later, the state of California placed the pop star under a "conservatorship" – a legal arrangement giving her father, Jamie, full control of her finances and personal life. For the next 13 years, Spears was "told what to eat, what medication to take, when she could see her children", even when she could and couldn't use the lavatory. Meanwhile, her father "paid himself a $6m salary" from the proceeds of her endless concerts and recordings. It's no surprise, in the circumstances, that Spears's memoir reads "like a dark fairy tale". Powerful and compellingly candid, it tells of how a "young girl, both adored and vilified for her beauty, talent and fame", was effectively "imprisoned" by her jealous and avaricious family.

The truth, of course, is that Spears had always been controlled and infantilised, said Neil McCormick in The Daily Telegraph . She became a "people-pleasing child performer" at a young age, supporting her family by appearing in theatrical musicals. Aged 16, male music executives moulded her into "America's teen pop princess" – and soon she was being taken advantage of by "narcissistic self-serving boyfriends", and "hounded by paparazzi". When she rebelled against her "powerlessness", her sanity was called into question – a process she "specifically likens to a witch trial". Her memoir, written without self-pity, is gripping and "forensically convincing". Finally, we know what it feels like to be the "madwoman in the attic of pop".

Gallery 288pp £25, ( £19.99 )

"Imagine a story of sex, drugs and secrets inside Downing Street. A story of a political wife accused of meddling, and a resignation honours list mired in scandal," said Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian . But no, it's not the one you're imagining: this biography by Linda McDougall tells the "irresistible tale" of Marcia Williams, political secretary and "office wife" to Labour PM Harold Wilson. Baroness Falkender, as she became in 1974, was one of the most controversial and vilified political figures of the 1960s and 1970s. According to many, she was a "hysterical tyrant" with a "dark hold" over Wilson. McDougall offers a more nuanced portrait. Without ignoring Williams's flaws, she outlines the strains she must have been under, as a high-achieving woman with a troubled personal life living in rampantly sexist times. Her Williams, while "no heroine", is "fascinating". 

Williams, the daughter of a Northamptonshire builder, first met Wilson in the mid-1950s, when she became a secretary at Labour HQ, said Frances Wilson in The Daily Telegraph . She began sending the then-shadow chancellor anonymous letters, alerting him to machinations within the party. She soon became Wilson's private secretary – at which point, McDougall admits, they probably had a brief affair. (She later allegedly told Wilson's wife, Mary: "I went to bed with your husband six times in 1956 and it wasn't satisfactory.") In 1964, when Wilson became PM, he appointed Williams his political secretary, a newly created role that made her one of Britain's first unelected political advisers. She stayed in it when Wilson lost power in 1970, and went with him back to Downing Street when he regained it in 1974.

It was then that Private Eye revealed that "Lady Forkbender" had a shocking secret, said Anne de Courcy in The Spectator . In 1968 and 1969, Williams had given birth to two children – the result of an affair with political journalist Walter Terry. The births had been hushed up; Williams concealed her pregnancies by wearing a baggy coat at work. Amid a public outcry, McDougall suggests, Williams resorted to taking amphetamine pills and Valium, "prescribed by Wilson's doctor", which contributed to the "hysterical outbursts" for which she became known. Further scandal followed in 1976, when it was revealed that Williams had hand-written Wilson's controversial resignation honours list (dubbed the "Lavender List") on a sheet of lilac paper. McDougall's sympathetic book is a "gripping" portrait both of an "extraordinary woman", and of the "emotional dynamics of Downing Street".

Biteback 304pp; £25 ( £19.99 )

Lou Reed, the lead vocalist of the Velvet Underground, who died in 2013, already has a longish shelf of biographies. This one is the first to make use of his personal archive, "and it shows", said David Keenan in Literary Review . "It feels more like a coolly researched biography than one written by a passionate fan." What's more, Will Hermes tries to repackage the "violently aggressive, drug-huffing", gender-bending, "sexually unhinged" rock star to make him acceptable to the modern world: Reed and his circle were "nonbinary", Hermes informs us; he suggests that Reed was a troubled person who tried to become "someone good" (as he wrote in one of his best-loved songs, Perfect Day), not the sociopath that his behaviour suggested. The result is an "awkward love letter to the 20th century", but "the perfect biography of Lou Reed for 2023": a defensive depiction of a man whose stock in trade was "all that was difficult and dark and destructive in what it is to be human".

It's "the only Lou Reed bio you need to read", said Stephen Metcalf in The Washington Post . It's really two biographies: one of Lewis Allan Reed, the sensitive, middle-class, midcentury music fan; and one of the louche, sardonic, drug-addled persona he invented and inhabited. From Reed's early days with Andy Warhol to his  breakthrough as a solo star, with a little help from David Bowie, it's all there, written up with a judicious blend of "love and scepticism". Hermes doesn't conceal the evidence that Reed became a pampered celeb who could be as obnoxious to waiters as he was to journalists. But he's good on Reed's "musically confrontational" yet "unabashedly romantic" songwriting. The book gets the balance between the person and the poseur "exactly right".

Viking 560pp £25; (£19.99)

The radical publisher Joseph Johnson was a "key figure" in late 18th century London, said the FT . Many of the great minds of the age – Mary Wollstonecraft, Thomas Paine, William Blake – attended his weekly salons. A biography of Johnson has long been overdue – and this one is "meticulous". It’s altogether a "delightful book", said The Times – one that gives its readers the "feeling of being at a rather elevated party".

Vintage £10.99; (£8.99)

This "devastatingly good" memoir recounts how its author "swapped a love of Jesus for a love of Class-A drugs", said The Daily Telegraph . Following his strict evangelical upbringing in Swansea, Hill won a scholarship to Harrow and then went to Oxford – where he became addicted to heroin. The themes of this book are not exactly original, said The Guardian . But it proves "propulsive" and "brilliant" – thanks to Hill's black humour and his "lacerating candour".

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The 50 Best Biographies of All Time

Think you know the full and complete story about George Washington, Steve Jobs, or Joan of Arc? Think again.

Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. We may earn a commission from these links.

Biographies have always been controversial. On his deathbed, the novelist Henry James told his nephew that his “sole wish” was to “frustrate as utterly as possible the postmortem exploiter” by destroying his personal letters and journals. And one of our greatest living writers, Hermione Lee, once compared biographies to autopsies that add “a new terror to death”—the potential muddying of someone’s legacy when their life is held up to the scrutiny of investigation.

Why do we read so many books about the lives and deaths of strangers, as told by second-hand and third-hand sources? Is it merely our love for gossip, or are we trying to understand ourselves through the triumphs and failures of others?

To keep this list from blossoming into hundreds of titles, we only included books currently in print and translated into English. We also limited it to one book per author, and one book per subject. In ranked order, here are the best biographies of all time.

Crown The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo, by Tom Reiss

You’re probably familiar with The Count of Monte Cristo , the 1844 revenge novel by Alexandre Dumas. But did you know it was based on the life of Dumas’s father, the mixed-race General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, son of a French nobleman and a Haitian slave? Thanks to Reiss’s masterful pacing and plotting, this rip-roaring biography of Thomas-Alexandre reads more like an adventure novel than a work of nonfiction. The Black Count won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2013, and it’s only a matter of time before a filmmaker turns it into a big-screen blockbuster.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret, by Craig Brown

Few biographies are as genuinely fun to read as this barnburner from the irreverent English critic Craig Brown. Princess Margaret may have been everyone’s favorite character from Netflix’s The Crown , but Brown’s eye for ostentatious details and revelatory insights will help you see why everyone in the 1950s—from Pablo Picasso and Gore Vidal to Peter Sellers and Andy Warhol—was obsessed with her. When book critic Parul Sehgal says that she “ripped through the book with the avidity of Margaret attacking her morning vodka and orange juice,” you know you’re in for a treat.

Inventor of the Future: The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller, by Alec Nevala-Lee

If you want to feel optimistic about the future again, look no further than this brilliant biography of Buckminster Fuller, the “modern Leonardo da Vinci” of the 1960s and 1970s who came up with the idea of a “Spaceship Earth” and inspired Silicon Valley’s belief that technology could be a global force for good (while earning plenty of critics who found his ideas impractical). Alec Nevala-Lee’s writing is as serene and precise as one of Fuller’s geodesic domes, and his research into never-before-seen documents makes this a genuinely groundbreaking book full of surprises.

Free Press Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, by Robin D.G. Kelley

The late American jazz composer and pianist Thelonious Monk has been so heavily mythologized that it can be hard to separate fact from fiction. But Robin D. G. Kelley’s biography is an essential book for jazz fans looking to understand the man behind the myths. Monk’s family provided Kelley with full access to their archives, resulting in chapter after chapter of fascinating details, from his birth in small-town North Carolina to his death across the Hudson from Manhattan.

University of Chicago Press Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography, by Meryle Secrest

There are dozens of books about America’s most celebrated architect, but Secrest’s 1998 biography is still the most fun to read. For one, she doesn’t shy away from the fact that Wright could be an absolute monster, even to his own friends and family. Secondly, her research into more than 100,000 letters, as well as interviews with nearly every surviving person who knew Wright, makes this book a one-of-a-kind look at how Wright’s personal life influenced his architecture.

Ralph Ellison: A Biography, by Arnold Rampersad

Ralph Ellison’s landmark novel, Invisible Man , is about a Black man who faced systemic racism in the Deep South during his youth, then migrated to New York, only to find oppression of a slightly different kind. What makes Arnold Rampersand’s honest and insightful biography of Ellison so compelling is how he connects the dots between Invisible Man and Ellison’s own journey from small-town Oklahoma to New York’s literary scene during the Harlem Renaissance.

Oscar Wilde: A Life, by Matthew Sturgis

Now remembered for his 1891 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde was one of the most fascinating men of the fin-de-siècle thanks to his poems, plays, and some of the earliest reported “celebrity trials.” Sturgis’s scintillating biography is the most encyclopedic chronicle of Wilde’s life to date, thanks to new research into his personal notebooks and a full transcript of his libel trial.

Beacon Press A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun: The Life & Legacy of Gwendolyn Brooks, by Angela Jackson

The poet Gwendolyn Brooks was the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1950, but because she spent most of her life in Chicago instead of New York, she hasn’t been studied or celebrated as often as her peers in the Harlem Renaissance. Luckily, Angela Jackson’s biography is full of new details about Brooks’s personal life, and how it influenced her poetry across five decades.

Atria Books Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century, by Dana Stevens

Was Buster Keaton the most influential filmmaker of the first half of the twentieth century? Dana Stevens makes a compelling case in this dazzling mix of biography, essays, and cultural history. Much like Keaton’s filmography, Stevens playfully jumps from genre to genre in an endlessly entertaining way, while illuminating how Keaton’s influence on film and television continues to this day.

Algonquin Books Empire of Deception: The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation, by Dean Jobb

Dean Jobb is a master of narrative nonfiction on par with Erik Larsen, author of The Devil in the White City . Jobb’s biography of Leo Koretz, the Bernie Madoff of the Jazz Age, is among the few great biographies that read like a thriller. Set in Chicago during the 1880s through the 1920s, it’s also filled with sumptuous period details, from lakeside mansions to streets choked with Model Ts.

Vintage Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life, by Hermione Lee

Hermione Lee’s biographies of Virginia Woolf and Edith Wharton could easily have made this list. But her book about a less famous person—Penelope Fitzgerald, the English novelist who wrote The Bookshop, The Blue Flower , and The Beginning of Spring —might be her best yet. At just over 500 pages, it’s considerably shorter than those other biographies, partially because Fitzgerald’s life wasn’t nearly as well documented. But Lee’s conciseness is exactly what makes this book a more enjoyable read, along with the thrilling feeling that she’s uncovering a new story literary historians haven’t already explored.

Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath, by Heather Clark

Many biographers have written about Sylvia Plath, often drawing parallels between her poetry and her death by suicide at the age of thirty. But in this startling book, Plath isn’t wholly defined by her tragedy, and Heather Clark’s craftsmanship as a writer makes it a joy to read. It’s also the most comprehensive account of Plath’s final year yet put to paper, with new information that will change the way you think of her life, poetry, and death.

Pontius Pilate, by Ann Wroe

Compared to most biography subjects, there isn’t much surviving documentation about the life of Pontius Pilate, the Judaean governor who ordered the execution of the historical Jesus in the first century AD. But Ann Wroe leans into all that uncertainty in her groundbreaking book, making for a fascinating mix of research and informed speculation that often feels like reading a really good historical novel.

Brand: History Book Club Bolívar: American Liberator, by Marie Arana

In the early nineteenth century, Simón Bolívar led six modern countries—Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela—to independence from the Spanish Empire. In this rousing work of biography and geopolitical history, Marie Arana deftly chronicles his epic life with propulsive prose, including a killer first sentence: “They heard him before they saw him: the sound of hooves striking the earth, steady as a heartbeat, urgent as a revolution.”

Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History, by Yunte Huang

Ever read a biography of a fictional character? In the 1930s and 1940s, Charlie Chan came to popularity as a Chinese American police detective in Earl Derr Biggers’s mystery novels and their big-screen adaptations. In writing this book, Yunte Huang became something of a detective himself to track down the real-life inspiration for the character, a Hawaiian cop named Chang Apana born shortly after the Civil War. The result is an astute blend between biography and cultural criticism as Huang analyzes how Chan served as a crucial counterpoint to stereotypical Chinese villains in early Hollywood.

Random House Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay, by Nancy Milford

Edna St. Vincent Millay was one of the most fascinating women of the twentieth century—an openly bisexual poet, playwright, and feminist icon who helped make Greenwich Village a cultural bohemia in the 1920s. With a knack for torrid details and creative insights, Nancy Milford successfully captures what made Millay so irresistible—right down to her voice, “an instrument of seduction” that captivated men and women alike.

Simon & Schuster Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson

Few people have the luxury of choosing their own biographers, but that’s exactly what the late co-founder of Apple did when he tapped Walter Isaacson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin. Adapted for the big screen by Aaron Sorkin in 2015, Steve Jobs is full of plot twists and suspense thanks to a mind-blowing amount of research on the part of Isaacson, who interviewed Jobs more than forty times and spoke with just about everyone who’d ever come into contact with him.

Brand: Random House Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), by Stacy Schiff

The Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov once said, “Without my wife, I wouldn’t have written a single novel.” And while Stacy Schiff’s biography of Cleopatra could also easily make this list, her telling of Véra Nabokova’s life in Russia, Europe, and the United States is revolutionary for finally bringing Véra out of her husband’s shadow. It’s also one of the most romantic biographies you’ll ever read, with some truly unforgettable images, like Vera’s habit of carrying a handgun to protect Vladimir on butterfly-hunting excursions.

Greenblatt, Stephen Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, by Stephen Greenblatt

We know what you’re thinking. Who needs another book about Shakespeare?! But Greenblatt’s masterful biography is like traveling back in time to see firsthand how a small-town Englishman became the greatest writer of all time. Like Wroe’s biography of Pontius Pilate, there’s plenty of speculation here, as there are very few surviving records of Shakespeare’s daily life, but Greenblatt’s best trick is the way he pulls details from Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets to construct a compelling narrative.

Crown Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

When Kiese Laymon calls a book a “literary miracle,” you pay attention. James Baldwin’s legacy has enjoyed something of a revival over the last few years thanks to films like I Am Not Your Negro and If Beale Street Could Talk , as well as books like Glaude’s new biography. It’s genuinely a bit of a miracle how he manages to combine the story of Baldwin’s life with interpretations of Baldwin’s work—as well as Glaude’s own story of discovering, resisting, and rediscovering Baldwin’s books throughout his life.

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10 Must-Read Biographies And Memoirs Of Famous New Yorkers

It is no secret that New York City has played a particular role in nurturing some of history’s most iconic movers and shakers. Global influence has been an integral part of its landscape, and the city’s culture would be nothing without the individuals who possess it. We profile ten must-read biographies and memoirs of some of New York’s most prominent figures.

The powerbroker: robert moses and the fall of new york by robert caro.

Robert Moses was arguably the most powerful man in New York City for four decades. In addition to his contributions of thousands of acres of public parks, hundreds of miles of roads, seven bridges, the UN Headquarters, and Lincoln Center , he at one time held so many government positions that without him, the city would have ceased to function. He often used this influence to bully mayors into fulfilling his wishes —many of which solidified the race and class segregation among New York’s neighborhoods. The Powerbroker is as much a story about power and its destructive nature as it is about the famous urban planner who physically shaped the city we know today. Though the book is a 1,300-page commitment, it’s so compelling that you won’t be able to put it down.

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable

This scrupulously researched biography digs beneath the surface of Malcolm X’s many personas, providing the most complete picture of the fiercely passionate activist to date. Malcolm X is presented as a complex and reflective figure who was a master of reinvention. Marable debunks some popular assumptions such as the exaggerated criminal activity of his youth (presented in his autobiography to make the narrative of his transformation more powerful), and he looks more deeply into Malcom X’s split with the Nation of Islam and the facts around his assassination. Malcolm X’s more controversial and contradictory qualities are discussed while chronicling what remained constant: his search for truth in his political and spiritual life.

Wishing on the Moon: The Life and Times of Billie Holiday By Donald Clarke

Though Billie Holiday’s autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues , is the best-known story of the iconic artist’s life, Wishing on the Moon serves as a thorough and accurate biography. Granted access to a large collection of interviews with people connected to Billie Holiday throughout her life, Clarke tells the story of a woman beat down by racism, sexism, and drug addiction until her untimely death. He sought to present her a hero as opposed to a troubled victim. While he falls short of this goal, he writes with a great deal of empathy and provides a critical review of her work and its place in both the pop and jazz world.

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The Long Loneliness by Dorothy Day

Socialist, pacifist, organizer, and co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement , Dorothy Day was a spiritual and political force to be reckoned with. A journalist by trade, she documented many events of people working in solidarity to create a more just society. The Long Loneliness, written in 1952, delves deep into Day’s active inner world. She was constantly reflecting on the principals of her religion and using this inspiration to transform both herself and society. With the significant moments of her life as the backdrop — her childhood, her first job as a journalist with the New York Call , her imprisonment for demonstrating with women suffragists, her daughter’s birth, her founding the Catholic Worker Movement with Peter Maurin — The Long Loneliness is a deeply personal and engrossing story of one of the great social activists of the 20th century.

The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles

Whether you revere or revile him, Cornelius Vanderbilt, the man of steamships and railroads , was an undeniable force. From his humble beginnings on Staten Island to his reign as what T.J. Stiles calls ‘an unelected king that never pretended to rule for his people,’ his biography is as much a story of American economic history as it is of Vanderbilt’s life. He lived through the early formative years of the United States, from 20 years after the nation’s birth through the Civil War, and this book covers this history as well as his competition with John D. Rockefeller. Some would argue that he is the man responsible for our current version of American capitalism, including corporate consolidation and the widening chasm between the rich and the poor. Whether or not you agree with his ideas, his story is enlightening and remains relevant to contemporary society.

Eleanor Roosevelt Volume 1: 1884-1933 by Blanche Weisen Cook

The first in a set of three volumes documenting Eleanor Roosevelt’s life, Blanche Weisen Cook tells the story of a First Lady who redefined the role , publicly disagreeing with her husband’s policies and working tirelessly on behalf of the people. Eleanor Roosevelt Volume 1 covers the early years of Roosevelt’s life and the influences of her aristocratic family, which was ravaged by alcoholism and tragedy. Learn of the difficulties of her marriage, and follow her all the way until she reaches the White House. A woman who strove to fight against racism and advance opportunities for women and workers, Mrs. Roosevelt, a powerful and often misunderstood American figure, is demystified in Cook’s volumes.

Zami, a New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde

Zami is a study in truth-telling. In what the publisher calls a ‘biomythography, combining elements of history, biography and myth’, the prose reflects Audre Lorde’s poetic prowess (she was New York’s Poet Laureate from 1991-1993), while her characters serve as metaphors for the truths she uncovered in her life. The stories of women who shaped her give the reader a glimpse into lesbian life in the West Village during the McCarthy Era in the 1950s – what feels like a distant past to many of us growing up less than 50 years later. Lorde’s world was one where difference was assumed more than it was actually investigated. The result is her story which is firmly rooted in, as well as gracefully transcendent of, her multiple identities as a black lesbian writer. It is a tale of love, loneliness and self-definition that is not to be missed.

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

More than ten years before the runaway success of the Broadway play written in the president’s name, there was an over 800-page biography of Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Hamilton was a man who grew from a young orphan into a central political figure. A rival of Thomas Jefferson, he was known for his propensity for conflict, which ultimately got him killed in a seemingly baseless duel with Aaron Burr. Chernow extends a sympathetic eye, though, reminding us that Hamilton lived during a time of vicious political attacks. He was also an outspoken abolitionist, a believer of meritocracy, and composed some of George Washington’s key correspondence. We also get to see his softer, private side: that of a gentle and loving father.

James Baldwin, A Biography by David Leeming

James Baldwin was born in Harlem in 1924. He famously fled New York and headed to Paris in 1948, fearing that he wouldn’t survive the racism of his home country. A prolific writer, his fiction, nonfiction, drama and poetry chronicle life amidst the backdrop of tumultuous social times. His searing intellect and beautiful prose made him one of the greatest American authors of all times. David Leeming chronicles Baldwin’s life in this biography, a respectful and loving portrait of a man who made you believe that no matter the depth of the struggle, you had the strength and resilience to survive it. Though this is not the first biography of Baldwin, it reads as the most true.

My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor

My Beloved World is Sonia Sotomayor’s moving and deftly written memoir of the journey from her childhood in the Bronx to her tenure as a federal district judge in New York. While veering away from explaining her legal philosophies, she gives the reader deep insight into the experiences that created the powerful and hardworking woman who went on to become the first Latina to sit on the Supreme Court . She describes her family and childhood with love and empathy, despite the fact that in many ways — with the exception of her grandmother — she was left alone to take care of herself. She also addresses her time at Yale and the repeated accusations that her admission was solely the result of affirmative action. Sotomayor’s sharp intellect and strong heart are present on the page, demonstrating the real reasons for her success in this inspiring story.

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Which New York Italian Restaurant Sells the Best Red Sauce?

Rao’s, Carbone, Patsy’s, Michael’s of Brooklyn, and Carmine’s all sell jarred marinara in stores: Are they any good?

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Share All sharing options for: Which New York Italian Restaurant Sells the Best Red Sauce?

There comes a time in the history of a popular Italian restaurant when the proprietors — to extend the brand and make more money — decide they should bottle and sell their red sauce. And so chefs, co-packers, and marketing execs spring into action, formulating sauces and designing seductive labels as advertising.

I decided to gather several bottled marinaras from famous establishments and test them, not only to see which is best, but also to assess how they reflect and extend the brand. The contenders are Rao’s , Carbone , Patsy’s , Michael’s of Brooklyn , and Carmine’s . In addition to tasting the sauce out of the jar, I also used each in a dish to see how it complemented other flavors. I’ve listed the sauces in ascending order.

5. Carmine’s Marinara

32 ounces, $13.

The sauce from this Times Square and Upper West Side chain was flat and bland, with little flecks of tomato and a processed taste. The dish : I slathered it on Raffetto’s superlative cheese-and-spinach ravioli. Does a high tide lift all boats? In this case, no.

Carmine’s 3 Sauce Bundle

Prices taken at time of publishing.

Local pickup and delivery only

• $27 at Carmine’s Market

4. Rao’s Sensitive Marinara

24 ounces, $10.

The restaurant founded in 1896 is East Harlem is famous for being impossible to get into, unless you acquire a table — or know someone who has one. This is the Rao’s sauce I saw most frequently, noting the absence of onions and garlic. On the chunky side, forthrightly oily, and sweeter than most, the sauce, which claims to be a product of Italy, derives its flavor from aromatics, carrots, and celery. It’s more like a pizza sauce than a pasta sauce in its extreme simplicity. The dish : Thick dried fettuccine (also made by Rao’s) with fennel pork sausage (from Sopranos favorite, Satriale’s ) worked well with the sauce.

Rao’s Homemade Sensitive Marinara Pasta Sauce

• $7 at Walmart
• $7 at Amazon

3. Carbone Marinara Delicato

24 ounces, $9.

For a restaurant known for its exclusivity, Carbone’s marinara is often cheaper than others by a dollar or two, though the label suggests that by buying it you can “bring elevated dining home.” The sauce is bright red, thick, and perhaps a little too sweet, with carrots contributing to its brightness. Oil seeps around the edges, and the oregano promised on the label is undetectable. The dish: It excelled with poached squid and fusilli, a reminder that marinara means “sailor,” and marinara sauces are especially good with seafood.

Carbone Delicato Marinara Pasta Sauce, 24 oz

• $9 at Amazon

2. Michael’s of Brooklyn

This sauce, from Michael’s of Brooklyn , a well-regarded Marine Park Italian American restaurant, was not disappointing, though too sweet and dependent on garlic for flavor, with a tartness that was almost lemony. It bested the three previous sauces in that it was more assertive, which works in its favor, in my opinion. This, at least, is a sauce you could simply pour over pasta and be happy with. The dish : This sauce paired with onion-y lamb meatballs: Served with fresh cavatelli, it made an agreeable supper.

Michael’s of Brooklyn Pasta Sauce, Fresh Tomato & Basil, 32 oz

• $15 at Amazon
• $24 at Walmart

1. Patsy’s Marinara

The sauce from Midtown veteran Patsy’s seems born for the bottle: It doesn’t taste much like what is ladled over spaghetti in the actual restaurant. The sauce is chunky and piquant: This is a sauce with terrain. The dish: Tossed with ziti, eggplant, and mozzarella into a free-form Sicilian casserole, the sauce wailed on its opponents.

Patsy’s Marinara Sauce, 24 oz (Case of 6)

• $65 at Amazon

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Six restaurant closings in new york city this month, 4 fun places to try this weekend.

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Governors Island is a world unto itself.

In New York City , summer is the season for festivals and festivities, rooftops and sidewalks, long lunches and longer weekends. The city’s pace may slow down, but the influx of tourists picks up. The New York City Tourism Bureau estimates that the five boroughs will welcome 64.5 million visitors in 2024. So, it’s safe to assume that many of the city’s most famous attractions will be packed.

If you want to see quintessential New York City sights but don’t feel like dealing with the crowds, here’s a local’s list of excellent alternatives to keep in your back pocket.

Instead of Ellis Island , Try Governors Island

A ferry ride to Ellis Island to visit Lady Liberty seems like an obvious must-see. And that is precisely why you’re guaranteed to find lines stretching around Battery Park and back whatever weekend you’re in town.

Instead, why not take the ferry in a different direction and spend the day at Governors Island? You’ll still enjoy Statue of Liberty views as you explore the 172-acre island, but on this stretch, you can rent a beach cruiser from Blazing Saddles and explore the impressive public artworks and myriad food trucks, which includes weekend appearances by Brooklyn’s Threes Brewing and the resident sheep living in Hammock Grove.

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Prospect Park is Brooklyn’s answer to Central Park.

Instead of Central Park , Try Prospect Park

If you can’t find a spot for a picnic blanket on Central Park’s Great Lawn, pack up your wicker basket and head to Brooklyn’s backyard, Prospect Park. Landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux designed both parks. But there is a difference: the Brooklyn green space offers more freedom. Long Meadow runs nearly a mile along Prospect Park’s west side, guaranteeing enough space for a picnic blanket and much more.

Should you be staying in Manhattan, it’s understandable that you’ll want to make a day of it at Prospect Park. The rolling 526 acres offer enough activities to fill a weekend. If you visit on Saturday, swing by the 30-plus vendors at the farmers market at the Grand Army Plaza entrance to stock up on picnic supplies. Stop by the park any day but Monday and you’ll also have a chance to catch some late-spring bloom brilliance at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Avoid the mayhem at MoMA here.

Instead of MoMA , Try the Cooper Hewitt

The MoMA boasts one of the world’s best collections of modern art. But on weekends, the cost of admission comes with hour-long lines and crowds elbowing one another for a glimpse of a Van Gogh. The Upper East Side’s Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum tends to fly under most tourists’ radar.

The landmark building, an ivy-covered, 64-room Carnegie mansion, is itself a work of art and a piece of Manhattan history. The museum’s historic and contemporary design specialty befits its elegant exterior. Design buffs will pore over the museum’s collection of more than 215,000 design objects and a gift shop that rivals MoMA’s. And if you’re not in the mood to spend a sunny day inside a museum, the Cooper Hewitt boasts a gorgeous outdoor garden across the street from Central Park.

Instead of J.G. Melon , Try EJ’s Luncheonette

J.G. Melon, the longtime Upper East Side pub standard, is notorious for its cash-only policy and a queue stretching down the street of diners in pursuit of one of the city’s best burgers. But there is no need to worry if you’re in the area with a growling stomach or forgot to stop at the ATM because there’s another Manhattan institution just a minute away.

For nearly four decades, EJ’s Luncheonette has proudly continued the quintessential New York City tradition of serving a straightforward menu from the counter. But don’t be fooled by its traditional setup. While Formica tables and turquoise booths create a nostalgic atmosphere, the menu surprises with its modern twists. In addition to traditional burgers and open-faced pastrami sandwiches, you’ll find delicious vegetarian-friendly alternatives. And credit cards are welcomed.

Instead of Bemelmans , Try Monkey Bar

Unless you are a guest of Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star Carlyle Hotel , nabbing a seat at its Bemelmans Bar — famed for its red-suited staffers, art deco ambiance and Madeline author Ludwig Bemelmans’ whimsical murals — is nearly impossible.

Fortunately, Manhattan has no shortage of martinis. If you seek a spot with the same Mad Men -era style, look no further than Midtown’s Monkey Bar. Serving Vesper martinis to well-heeled guests in red leather banquettes since 1936, Monkey Bar features an eye-catching mural depicting some of the bar’s bygone regulars, like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker and Fred Astaire. And unlike Bemelmans, Monkey Bar accepts reservations.

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• university of new orleans
• campus news
• in memoriam: philosophy professor frank schalow

CAMPUS NEWS: MAY 30, 2024

In memoriam, in memoriam: philosophy professor frank schalow.

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Frank Schalow, a University of New Orleans philosophy faculty member, died May 25, 2024.

Frank Schalow, a University of New Orleans philosophy faculty member for nearly three decades and an internationally renowned authority on German philosopher Martin Heidegger, died on May 25 at the age of 68.

Schalow started his career at UNO in 1995 as an adjunct faculty member. In 2001, he was promoted to assistant professor and became a full professor in 2010. He taught classes including Introduction to Philosophy, Social Ethics, Ethics, The Philosophy of Kant and The Philosophy of Heidegger.

Schalow was a prolific author and researcher. He wrote 12 books on Heidegger and was the longtime co-editor of “Heidegger Studies,” an international journal published in four languages. Considered one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century, Heidegger was best known for his philosophy of existentialism. Schalow’s other areas of research interest included ethics, medical ethics, phenomenology, and 19th and 20th century German thought.

“Dr. Schalow had the admiration of his students and the respect of his colleagues,” said Robert Stufflebeam, associate professor of philosophy. “He was the embodiment of the philosophy professor stereotype. He was brilliant, but quirky. He always wore a tie, even if it bore no stylistic relation to whatever shirt he was wearing. He always spoke thoughtfully and logically. He was never heard to raise his voice in anger. The philosophy program has suffered a great loss. Professor Schalow was one of a kind. He will be missed.”

In addition to the dozen books he authored on Heidegger, Schalow co-edited three books, wrote 16 chapters, and authored several dozen journal articles, review essays, critical discussions and book reviews, Stufflebeam said.

According to colleagues, Schalow’s commitment to his discipline was matched only by his devotion to the stray cats for which he cared for in his New Orleans neighborhood and his beloved New York Yankees.

Schalow earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Denver, and both a master’s and doctorate in philosophy from Tulane University.

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The jury convicted Trump. Here’s what could happen next.

A guilty verdict for Trump in the New York trial means a mix of routine court processing and extraordinary logistical considerations, legal experts say.

On Thursday afternoon, after more than a day of deliberations, a jury in Manhattan convicted Donald Trump on all 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a 2016 hush money payment.

During the seven-week trial, Trump complained of the indignities of a cold, uncomfortable courtroom. The former president and presumptive 2024 Republican nominee may now face other conditions he may consider insulting, including a required inmate review by the New York City Department of Probation.

The probation office on the 10th floor of the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse prepares presentencing reports for judges. There, Trump would be interviewed about his personal history, his mental health and the circumstances that led to his conviction.

Lawyers say the process is humbling.

“If you think the courtroom is dingy, just wait until you go to the probation office,” said Daniel Horwitz, a white-collar criminal defense attorney in New York and former prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

Trump guilty verdict

Former prosecutors sketched out a mix of likely experiences for Trump, who is now a felon. Trump was convicted of charges relating to $130,000 in payments made to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election to keep her quiet about a sexual encounter she said they had.

The routine processing of felons into the New York criminal justice system would include the timeline of a potential appeal. But with Trump, there would also be extraordinary considerations — such as how the Secret Service would protect the former president if he were sent to prison and whether he would be allowed to travel to campaign events if sentenced to home confinement.

Legal experts said incarceration appears unlikely for Trump, 77, who has no criminal record.

The Class E felony charges are punishable by 16 months to four years in prison. Among the key issues to be determined would be whether Trump faces some form of incarceration, either in a government facility or a private location, or a less-restrictive experience through probation.

New York Mayor Eric Adams said this month that the city’s Rikers Island jail complex and Department of Corrections were prepared if Trump were ordered to serve time.

His conviction does not disqualify him from running for office or serving as president if elected, constitutional experts said.

During the trial, which began April 15, prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said Trump falsely recorded the payments involving Daniels as legal expenses and alleged they were improper campaign expenditures. Defense attorneys said Trump, who pleaded not guilty, made personal payments to protect his family from an embarrassing disclosure.

The jury, which heard closing arguments Tuesday, unanimously agreed to convict on all counts after hours of deliberations spread over two days.

Trump’s punishment is now up to New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan , who will receive input from the prosecution and defense in the presentencing report. Though jail or prison are unlikely , the former prosecutors said, alternatives such as probation or home confinement would create logistical challenges and potential political concerns.

If he is sentenced to probation, for example, Trump would be required to clear any out-of-state travel — such as to campaign rallies and fundraisers — with a probation officer. If Trump were to serve home confinement at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., New York authorities would probably have to work with counterparts in Florida to accommodate him, the experts said.

Such arrangements are not uncommon for felons, experts said, but probation officers must approve the details.

“If you have a probation officer, you are not supposed to travel without permission. Your home is subject to random search because you don’t have a Fourth Amendment right to your home being private. You can get drug-tested, potentially. Travel outside the country is difficult,” said Matthew Galluzzo, another former prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

“That would be super awkward for someone on the campaign trail, but not impossible,” Galluzzo said. “If he had to go to a debate against Biden, he probably could go, but you’re supposed to make that request far in advance.”

Trump and President Biden have agreed to two debates . The first is scheduled for June 27 in Atlanta, before Trump’s sentencing, which Merchan scheduled for July 11. A second debate is planned for Sept. 10 at a yet-undisclosed location.

The probation office will put together a presentencing report for Merchan. As part of that process, Trump must be interviewed by a probation officer, who will produce a biography of him of about five or six pages, legal experts said. Such documents are confidential, intended only for the judge and the lawyers.

Trump has called his prosecution politically motivated and denigrated Merchan, Bragg and others , leading the judge to fine him 10 times for a total of $10,000 during the trial for violating a partial gag order . How Trump would react to questions from a probation officer about the case could get him into more hot water with the court. Legal experts said his attorneys probably would advise him not to discuss the case.

Convicts are “expected to tell the truth. If they are convicted and then say, ‘No, it’s a lie, it didn’t happen,’ that will go back to the judge. And that’s not good,” said defense lawyer Jeremy Saland, who also served as a Manhattan prosecutor.

The prosecution and Trump’s legal team also are expected to submit recommendations about the sentencing.

Because he was charged with nonviolent crimes, Trump is unlikely to be detained in prison as he awaits sentencing, said the experts, who added that it is also unlikely that Merchan would impose bail as a condition for his release.

Trump’s team has 30 days to file notice of appeal and six months to file the full appeal.

A key question is whether the court would agree to stay Trump’s sentence pending an appeal, a process that is likely to last well beyond the Nov. 5 presidential election. Former prosecutors suggested such a scenario is plausible given that any punishment of Trump could be short enough in duration that the sentence would be fully carried out before a legal appeal is litigated.

The legal experts said Merchan could grant Trump a conditional discharge tied to the requirement that he not commit another legal offense. Merchan also could impose a financial penalty or require Trump to do community service or undergo counseling, some legal experts said.

If the judge were to impose a more onerous penalty, such as home confinement, Trump could still find ways to continue campaigning, even if he were not on the road.

“He could be confined but go to Mar-a-Lago and hold a news conference every day, be on TV, hold rallies remotely,” Horwitz said. “There’s a lot he can do as a candidate while under home confinement.”

Trump New York hush money case

Donald Trump is the first former president convicted of a crime . Follow live updates .

Can Trump still run for president? Yes. He is eligible to campaign and serve as president if elected. Here’s everything to know about next steps , what this means for his candidacy and the other outstanding trials he faces.

What happens next? Trump’s sentencing is scheduled for July 11. He faces up to four years in prison, but legal experts say incarceration appears unlikely. Trump has 30 days to file notice of an appeal of the verdict and six months to file the full appeal.

Reaction to the verdict: Trump continued to maintain his innocence , railing against what he called a “rigged, disgraceful trial” and emphasizing voters would deliver the real verdict on Election Day.

The charges: Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records . Falsifying business records is a felony in New York when there is an “intent to defraud” that includes an intent to “commit another crime or to aid or conceal” another crime.

17 New Books Coming in June

A biography of Joni Mitchell, two hotly anticipated horror novels, a behind-the-scenes exposé about Donald Trump’s years on “The Apprentice” and more.

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Fire Exit , by Morgan Talty

In Talty’s novel, Charles — who was raised on a Penobscot reservation in Maine before being asked to leave because he wasn’t Native — reflects on his life and what he has lost in the years since his expulsion.

Tin House, June 4

Godwin , by Joseph O’Neill

O’Neill’s new novel is about soccer in the way his acclaimed book “Netherland” was about cricket, which is to say that it’s less about the sport itself than what it signifies in an unfair world. A restless technical writer joins a sports scout on a global search for an African soccer prodigy, whom they’ve seen only on video. The story builds into a study of greed, labor and ambition.

Pantheon, June 4

The Friday Afternoon Club , by Griffin Dunne

His father was the Vanity Fair journalist Dominick Dunne; his uncle the screenwriter John Gregory Dunne ; his uncle’s wife the essayist Joan Didion . With this memoir, Griffin Dunne, best known as an actor and producer, becomes the latest published author in the clan, sharing stories of his family and their celebrity encounters.

Penguin Press, June 11

Horror Movie , by Paul Tremblay

Years after a curse — and deaths of those involved — thwarted the release of an art-house film called “Horror Movie,” Hollywood has decided it’s ripe for a remake.

Morrow, June 11

Margo’s Got Money Troubles , by Rufi Thorpe

Broke, adrift and pregnant — what’s a girl to do? Margo finds an extremely 21st-century solution to her financial bind: OnlyFans. But semi-pornographic internet fame is perhaps the least of the shenanigans contained within the pages of Thorpe’s comic novel.

One of Our Kind , by Nicola Yoon

An established star of contemporary Y.A. (known for her book “Everything, Everything”), Yoon pivots to adult fiction with her latest — a slow-burn thriller that crosses the cinematic vectors of “Get Out” and “Stepford Wives” in a story about a young family that moves to a prosperous Black community, only to find that all is not as utopian as it seems.

Knopf, June 11

Traveling , by Ann Powers

This is a warts-and-all consideration of Joni Mitchell, whose comeback after a 2015 aneurysm and appearance at the 2024 Grammy Awards , have only burnished her exalted reputation in the pantheon of modern singer-songwriters.

Dey Street, June 11

Apprentice in Wonderland , by Ramin Setoodeh

Setoodeh, the co-editor in chief of Variety, goes deep behind the scenes at “The Apprentice,” the show that transformed Donald Trump from a bankrupt businessman and tabloid fixture into a reality TV star.

Harper, June 18

Little Rot , by Akwaeke Emezi

Emezi’s latest is part deep dive into Nigeria’s underworld, part exploration of love and desire. The story opens as Aima and Kalu end their relationship. Each decides to join their friends for an independent night out, but instead of helping them relax, the evening spirals, exposing both of them to a dangerous side of Lagos.

Riverhead, June 18

On Call , by Anthony Fauci

The unflappable doctor who led the United States through public-health maelstroms — including the AIDS epidemic and Covid-19 — traces his six-decade career. Sharing his life story, he said, may “inspire younger individuals in particular to consider careers in public health and public service.”

Viking, June 18

Middle of the Night , by Riley Sager

When he was 10, Ethan spent an evening camping in his yard with his best friend Billy, but when he woke up in the morning, he found that something — or someone — had violently ripped open their tent, and Billy had vanished. Thirty years later, Ethan tries to get to the bottom of what happened.

Dutton, June 18

Parade , by Rachel Cusk

In her new novel, Cusk presents the enigmatic lives and predicaments of several artists identified by the initial “G”: a man who becomes famous for painting his wife upside down; a painter who escapes her troubled childhood, only to wind up in a troubled marriage; a filmmaker considering the legacy of his imperious mother. Throughout the book, Cusk takes on knotty questions about art, family and selfhood.

Farrar, Straus & Giroux, June 18

Same As It Ever Was , by Claire Lombardo

Lombardo’s novel takes readers to the heart of domestic drama. As her youngest child prepares to leave home, a middle-age woman looks back on the choices that landed her where she is now.

Doubleday, June 18

When the Clock Broke , by John Ganz

For this account of America in the 1990s, Ganz ditches the familiar narrative about a decade of relative peace and prosperity for a disturbing tale of populists, nativists and demagogues, who, acting on the margins of U.S. politics, helped shatter the post-Cold War consensus and usher in anti-democratic forces that plague the country today.

Bear , by Julia Phillips

Two working-class sisters struggle for happiness on a small island off the coast of Washington. Enter … an enormous bear. The author’s debut, “Disappearing Earth,” was a New York Times Best Book of 2019.

Hogarth, June 25

Cue the Sun !, by Emily Nussbaum

From “Queen for a Day” to “The Real World,” “Survivor” and “The Apprentice,” it’s all here in the New Yorker staff writer’s capacious look at the early history and explosive growth of reality TV — the pop-culture genre we love to hate, hate to love and just can’t quit.

Random House, June 25

Frostbite , by Nicola Twilley

The food and science writer travels the length of the cold chain, talking up the people who fill our shipping containers and cheese caves. She meets a frozen dumpling billionaire, explores “the largest concentrated juice-storage facility in North America” and even explains why being chilly really does encourage you to catch a cold.

Penguin Press, June 25

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

John S. Jacobs was a fugitive, an abolitionist — and the brother of the canonical author Harriet Jacobs. Now, his own fierce autobiography has re-emerged .

Don DeLillo’s fascination with terrorism, cults and mass culture’s weirder turns has given his work a prophetic air. Here are his essential books .

Jenny Erpenbeck’s “ Kairos ,” a novel about a torrid love affair in the final years of East Germany, won the International Booker Prize , the renowned award for fiction translated into English.

Kevin Kwan, the author of “Crazy Rich Asians,” left Singapore’s opulent, status-obsessed, upper crust when he was 11. He’s still writing about it .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

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