A Baker's Dozen of Biographies

As if I needed any sort of reminder, reading Elizabeth Jane Howard's autobiography has brought home just how much I enjoy reading biographies (and autobiographies and memoirs).  I didn't read as much nonfiction this year as I would have liked, but of the books I did read, most of them were some sort of biography.  I would love to read more nonfiction in the coming year, so I made a list of possible reads (all biographies as it happens).  All of these have been waiting patiently for me, and they all look good.  I could have made the list much longer, as I have plenty more on my shelves, but there are already more than I am likely to read in a year anyway. 

1. Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa, and Sarah Lennox, 1750-1832, S.K. Tillyard 

2. Black Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of an English Dynasty, Catherine Bailey

3. The Bolter: Idina Sackville, Frances Osborne

4. Jane Austen: A Life, Claire Tomalin

5. Lilla's Feast: A True Story of Love, War, and a Passion for Food, Frances Osborne

6. May and Amy: A true Story of a Family, Forbidden Love, and the Secret Lives of May Gaskell and Her Daughter Amy, Josceline Dimbleby

7. Myself When Young: The Shaping of an Writer, Daphne du Maurier

8. The Private World of Georgette Heyer, Jane Aiken Hodge

9. The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family, Mary S. Lovell

10. The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton: The First Domestic Goddess, Kathryn Hughes

11. Rosamond Lehmann, Selina Hastings

12. American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White: The Birth of the "It" Girl and the Crime of the Century, Paula Uruburu

13. Marie Antoinette: The Journey, Antonia Fraser and Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution, Caroline Weber   

I feel a little bit repetitive with many of these as I'm sure they've popped up in more than one previous list, which just goes to show you how much I do want to read them.  Maybe next year is going to be the year?  I make no promises however (you never know what else will pop up and grab my attention along the way).  This year I had wanted to read one nonfiction title each month, but it didn't quite happen.  I'll give it another try next year, though.