“Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man,” by Dale Peterson (Houghton Mifflin, 672 pages, $35). Peterson details the life of the woman who changed the way the world viewed primates and in the process became known the world over.
She is famous for determining that, much to the surprise of the world’s scientist, chimpanzees use tools, something that was thought to be purely a human characteristic.
Peterson also goes into Goodall’s private life, discussing her relationship with renown scientist Loiuis Leakey and two husbands.
“Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee,” by Charles J. Shields (Henry Holt, 337 pages, $25). Lee, amazingly, has sold 30 million copies of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” making it the century’s most widely read novel. But Lee quit writing and quit giving interviews in the 1960s, so this is the first biography of her.
We learned how she grew up as a tomboy in rural Alabama and how she helped her lifelong friend, Truman Capote, write his seminal work “In Cold Blood.”
The author conducted more than 600 interviews in researching the life of the reclusive author.
“Point to Point Navigation,” by Gore Vidal (Doubleday, 288 pages, $26). The second of noveist and essayist Vidal’s memoirs takes up where the first one (“Palimpsest” 1995) left off, only this time it’s a little darker.
He has a lot to feel bad about, including the deaths of Saul Bellow and Johnny Carson, the casualties in Iraq and the whole Katrina mess in New Orleans.
He talks lovingly of his friends and, as always, assails his enemies.
“Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell,” by Karen DeYoung, (Knopf, 624 pages, $28.95). The author, a Washington Post reporter, puts together the story of the life of a man who is the son of Jamaican immigrants who went on to become the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State. He once was declared “the most trusted man in America.”
DeYoung shows us a man who agonized over running for president and who still agonizes over his tarnished reputation because of his speech at the UN convincing the world that Saddam Hussein harbord weapons of mass destruction.
“Work Hard, Study…And Keep Out of Politics: Adventures and Lessons From an Unexpected Public Life,” by James A. Baker (Penguin, 480 pages, $28.95). Baker focuses on his work inside the presidents Ford, Reagan and the first Bush. While he does talk some of his early life, the bulk of the book is about his life in government.
He discusses the attempted assassination of President Reagan as well as the insider information from political campaigns.
Baker also seems to come from the old school of politics, by which it’s believed that just because you disagree with someone doesn’t mean you can’t be friends.
Celebrity biographies
“Ava Gardner: Love Is Nothing,” by Lee Server
“Elizabeth,” by J. Randy Taraborrelli
“Enchantment: The Life of Audrey Hepburn,” by Donald Spoto
“Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts From the Heart of America,” by Garrison Keillor
“Jimmy Stewart: A Biography,” by Marc Eliot
“Just One More Thing: Stories From My Life,” by Peter Falk
“Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn,” by William J. Mann
“Lessons in Becoming Myself,” by Ellen Burstyn
“Sound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship,” by Dave Kindred
“A Twist of Lemmon: A Tribute to My Father,” by Christopher Lemmon
