Check out Open by Andre Agassiz.  He writes from the heart about his life and tennis.  His father was determined to make his son a world class tennis player.  He did but at his son's expense.  Read this autobiography and get to know the man and the tennis player.

An Hour Before Daylight by Jimmy Carter. Memoir. I came close to requesting this book several times in the last couple of years. But today I discovered our library has the book so I got it. I hope to start it tonight.

A Full Cup: Sir Thomas Lipton's Extraordinary Life and His Quest for the America's Cup by Michael D'Antonio

An in-depth biography of Sir Thomas Lipton, the founder of Lipton Tea-a portrait of a remarkable self-made man and intrepid sailor. — Today Lipton means tea. However, in his time Sir Thomas Lipton was known for much more. Raised in desperate poverty, he became rich beyond his wildest dreams. He built a global empire of markets, factories, plantations, and stockyards. And his colorful pursuit of the America's Cup trophy made him a beloved figure on both sides of the Atlantic.

In A Full Cup, Michael D'Antonio tells the tale of this larger- than-life figure. Beginning with a journey across the United States just after the Civil War, Thomas J. Lipton developed the ambition and learned the business techniques that helped him create the first chain of grocery stores. Wealthy before the age of thirty, he set his sights on the tea trade, and soon his name became synonymous with his product. Lipton's great business success makes for a compelling story of innovation and achievement. Moreover, though, Lipton's most intriguing creation was a public persona-one of the first formed with the help of a modern mass media-that appealed to millions of ordinary people, as well as the elites in America and Europe. Concocting simple stunts like elephant parades, Lipton mastered the new art of obtaining free publicity. With shameless self-promotion, he became one of the world's most eligible bachelors, a patron of the poor, and ultimately reached legendary heights when he revived the competition for the America's Cup. With one losing attempt after another, the gallant Lipton, who didn't even know how to sail his own yacht, became ever more popular. D'Antonio's biography brings to vivid life this remarkable figure.

a great read.

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

This was an interesting read but it was shorter than I thought it would be. only 267pp.

Babe by Robert Creamer. a bio of Babe Ruth. I think anybody who follows baseball knows some if not all of Babe Ruth's life.

Winston Churchill by John Keegan. this is one of the Penquin Lives series.

Madam Secretary by Madeleine Albright. very interesting read. she had help in the writing.

His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J Ellis.

Let Me Finish by Roger Angell. memoir. a mix of various memories in his life. not chronological.

South to a very old Place by Albert Murray. memoir

My  ladies' bookclub recetly read 'The Wright Brothers' by David McCullough. Everyone loved it though we had expected it to get bogged down in math and  the science of aerodynamics. I guess that was avoided because the brothers did not go to college? All their successes were based upon the intelligence and curiosity they were born with and their father's devotion to reading.....their family home had a library rivalled by very few except the extremely wealthy.

I am about to start The Autobiography of Agatha Christie by herself.

Recently finished Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly as an audiobook narrated by Bourdain.  I enjoyed his CNN: Parts Unknown programs and was saddened and stunned by his suicide. Listening to his narration was sad and nothing in the book other than his relentless cynacism foretold how his story would end. Even though I'm not remotely interested in the culinary world I enjoyed the book but don't think I'll be too keen to dine out any time soon after hearing the stories of the debauchery that takes place behind those kitchen doors.

I just finished a book that really moved me and I had to comment on it.  J. Michael Straczynski's autobiography,  Becoming Superman: A Writer's Journey from Poverty to Hollywood with Stops Along the Way at Murder, Madness, Mayhem, Movie Stars, Cults, Slums, Sociopaths, and War Crimes.

I knew of JMS as the creator of the sci-fi series Babylon 5 so I had decided to read it when it came out in 2019 but only got to it this year.  I haven't read a lot of biographies on a regular basis but have tried a few this year.  The title was a bit over the top so I wondered if he was being sarcastic but was I wrong.  We all have heard and read stories of people who had horrific childhoods and this one fits the bill.  The amazing thing to me is how he survived and didn't become a monster like his father, his love of Superman was one thing that kept him going.  It was hard to read at first but I kept on going because I knew he had to have made it out ok with B5 as a reference point.  This book chronicles all the projects he was involved in and it literally blew me away that so many tv shows, cartoons, graphic novels, movies and series on cable he has written.  I watched Thor again so I could see his cameo in it, I realize now that it was the writing of the script of that show which made me like it so much.

The other thread through this is how to become a writer, he shows how he did it and if he could succeed then others will be able to as well.  There were so many twists and turns in his career, chance meetings with other writers and how their lives intersected at numerous times.  If you have watched any of these shows or comics then you have come across his writing:

Sense 8, Jeremiah, World War Z, Changeling, Murder She Wrote, Jake and the Fatman, The Real Ghostbusters, Twilight Zone 86-89, She-Ra and He-Man,  The Amazing Spiderman, Thor and many others.

I know this is rather long but it was such a revelation of how many ways he used his talent to write, his tenacity to do the one thing he always wanted to do and be the exact opposite of what his father was.  It is not always an easy read but it is so worth your time.