BOOKS Fall Biography Picks

Life writing has always been my favourite literary genre which is probably why I aspire to go to grad school in London for that very subject. The whole process intrigues me and equally as interesting is how some biographies can be wholly captivating that bring to life their subjects while some can be absolute disasters. Four out of five of these books are biographies while the fifth is an autobiography. All four biographies are of often chronicled subjects (well, perhaps with the exception of Hedy Lamarr), and all four are by authors of good repute. The lone autobiography is by Dame Judi Dench. She requires not an introduction nor an endorsement by me. She's just plain amazing. After all, there's nothing like a dame!

1. Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff

Ever since I saw Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra when I was a mere nine years old I have been enamoured by the story of the Ancient Egyptian queen, the last ruler of the powerful Ptolemaic dynasty. As it turns out, Cleopatra VII wasn't the seductress her detractors painted her as. (So much of what we know about her has been filtered through the biased lens of her Roman enemies.)

Now, from Pulitzer Prize winning biographer Stacy Schiff comes Cleopatra: A Life. So far reviewers through Amazon's Vine Program have been mediocre. Not surprisingly they have taken issue with the fact that this book offers no substantial new information. Is this really surprising? As I alluded to, there is so little information known about Cleopatra's life, and it's almost entirely from Plutarch's books on Caesar and Antony from his famous Lives biographical series.

I'm interested to see how it stacks up to the Cleopatra books by Joyce Tyldesley and Duane W. Roller. I bought both of them for a paper I wrote on Cleopatra for my Shakespeare class. I found the former insanely readable while the second I put down after a few pages. In my--and the author's--defense, I really got all I needed from the Tyldesley book. Perhaps that will also be the case with the Schiff book. Little, Brown and Company. November 1.

2. Frank: The Voice by James Kaplan

While I've never been much of a fan of Frank Sinatra, I do love a good biography and Old Blue Eyes did live quite the life. While The Voice doesn't cover his entire life, its 800 pages does appear to be an exhaustive look at the years from 1915-1954. (The second volume, which looks at his last 44 years will be released later.)

Sinatra has been chronicled by countless biographers from Kitty Kelley to J. Randy Taraborrelli. This book details Sinatra's meteoric rise to fame, his ebbs and tides in popularity and his comeback with the 1954 classic film, From Here to Eternity, which garnered him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Doubleday. November 2.

3. Beautiful: The Life of Hedy Lamarr by Stephen Michael Shearer

This summer one of the books I read was Hedy Lamarr: The Most Beautiful Woman in Film by Ruth Barton. I found her critiques on Lamarr's films to be definitive, but Hedy Lamarr herself remained elusive. Barton acknowledged that the Hollywood legend is shrouded in myth, primarily due to the somewhat fictitious story weaved by the ghostwriters and presented as truth in her notorious 1960s autobiography, Ecstasy and Me.

Now it's Stephen Michael Shearer's turn with Beautiful: The Life of Hedy Lamarr to see if he can't do any better. His book is substantially longer (480 pages to Barton's 312). Time will tell if Shearer is able to achieve what Barton was largely unable to. Thomas Dunne. September 28.

4. Possessed: The Life of Joan Crawford by Donald Spoto

Donald Spoto's biographies have ranged from excellent (Rebel: The Life and Legend of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe: The Biography are considered by some to be definitive accounts of their respective subjects) to the disappointing (High Society: The Life of Grace Kelley). Spoto next turns his attention to another oft written about Hollywood superstar: Joan Crawford.

For years Crawford's legend has been damaged by her daughter Christina Crawford's notorious memoir, Mommie Dearest--and perhaps even more so by the film it spawned of the same name starring Faye Dunaway--which Spoto hopes to rescue her from in Possessed: The Life of Joan Crawford. Harper Collins. November 2.

5. And Furthermore by Judi Dench
Dame Judi Dench is one of the world's preeminent actors of both stage and screen. Seen most recently on screen in the musical Nine (2009) and onstage in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Rose Theatre, Kingston (2010) she alternates between both. And Furthermore, "however, [is] much more than a career record. Her marriage (Michael Williams died in 2001), their daughter, and her impish sense of humour contribute vividly to her account of more than half a century as Britain's best-loved actress." Weidenfeld & Nicolson. October 14.