This list is organized by the last name of the individual that the biography is about.

Paula by Isabelle Allende
An exquisitely rendered, deeply moving mother-daughter story that doubles as Allende's autobiography, Paula is a prodigious evocation and a hymn to life, written from the heart.

Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin
Providing detailed and absorbing accounts of Jane Austen's friendships and travels, Tomalin shatters the myth of the novelist as a sheltered and homebound spinster whose knowledge of the world was limited to the view from a Hampshire village.

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman
This Whitbread Prize-winning biography presents a rich evocation of 18th-century London, revolving around Lady Georgiana Spencer, the great-great-great-great aunt of Diana, Princess of Wales.

An American Childhood by Annie Dillard
A moving and vivid recollection of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author's childhood in Pittsburgh in the 1950s conveys the keen mind and sense of adventure with which she experienced relatives, neighbors, nature, friends, and changes.

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
A thought-provoking portrait of world-renowned infectious disease expert Dr. Paul Farmer follows the efforts of this unconventional Harvard genius to understand the world's great health, economic, and social problems and to bring healing to humankind.

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard Feynman
The late Nobel Prize-winning physicist recounts in his own inimitable style exchanging ideas on atomic physics with Alfred Einstein, painting a naked toreador, and accompanying a ballet on his bongo drums.

Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox
The popular actor recounts his childhood in western Canada, his rise in film and television, his diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, and how he has worked to raise awareness of the disease and find a cure.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Traces the life of the Jewish girl who hid with seven other people in an attic for two years in Nazi-occupied Holland and chronicled her day-to-day life in a diary which was discovered after her death in a German concentration camp.

Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos
The author relates how, as a young adult, he became a drug user and smuggler, was arrested, did time in prison, and eventually got out and went to college, all the while hoping to become a writer.

Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
The American-born author describes her family's experiences and impressions when they were forced to relocate in a camp for the Japanese in Owens Valley, California, during the Second World War.

The Diary of Alice James by Alice James
The sister of the psychologist William James and the novelist Henry James depicts her family and her life as an invalid.

Henry James, A Life by Leon Edel
Traces the life of the prominent nineteenth century American novelist, examines his major works, and tries to capture his complex personality.

The Years of Lyndon Johnson (3 volumes) by Robert Caro
This three volume set traces the life of Lyndon Johnson, including his rise from Texas poverty to political power, illuminating his political relationships and accomplishments.

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston
A first-generation Chinese-American woman recounts the circumstances, conditions, and consequences of growing up in frantic America within a steadfastly tradition-bound Chinese family, and confronted with Chinese ghosts from the past and non-Chinese ghosts of the present.

Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott
Combining elements of spiritual study and memoir, the author of Bird by Bird and Crooked Little Heart describes her odyssey of faith, drawing on her own sometimes troubled past to explore the many ways in which faith sustains and guides one's daily life.

Life Stories: Profiles from The New Yorker edited by David Remnick
An anthology of biographical profiles from "The New Yorker" covers some of the most influential and infamous people of the century, from Ernest Hemingway and Mikhail Baryshnikov to George W. Bush and Edna Buchanan.

Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran by Azadeh Moaveni
The story of the Iranian-American author's search for identity between two cultures torn apart by a violent history paints a rare and perceptive portrait of Iran's next generation.

The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters with Extraordinary People by Susan Orlean
In a collection of essays from The New Yorker, the acclaimed author of The Orchid Thief offers a series of intriguing profiles of some of the colorful people she has encountered, from the first female Spanish matador to the African king who drives a New York City cab to Silly Billy, a popular entertainer on the children's birthday-party circuit.

Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self by Claire Tomalin
The Whitbread Award-winning biography of the master diarist and chronicler of Restoration London draws on the famous diaries, as well as on other sources and period material, to furnish a candid chronicle of the life and times of Samuel Pepys, answering questions about his relations with women, triumphs and near disasters, youth, and other lesser known aspects of his life.

Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts
An inspirational but personal look into the trials and tribulations of historical women who helped shape our nation into what it has become exhibits the many facets of their lives and how they supported some of the founders of our country, profiling such key figures as Abigail Adams, Eliza Pinkney, Dolley Payne Madison, Deborah Read Franklin, and Catherine Littlefield Greene.

I Am Third: The Inspiration for Brian's Song by Gale Sayers
The Chicago Bear discusses his pro career, his friendship with Brian Piccolo, and his comeback from a 1968 knee operation.

Truman by David McCullough
A biography of the U.S. president explores Truman's brutal frontier childhood, his education, his dogged optimism, his rise through the ranks of the Pendergast machine that controlled Missouri politics, and more.

All Rivers Run to the Sea by Elie Wiesel
The memoirs of the Nobel Peace Laureate chronicle his prewar childhood, suffering in Auschwitz, adult struggles with faith, literary endeavors, and relationships with such figures as Golda Meir.