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12-08-2006, 06:22 PM
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#1
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 372
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Suggest a Biography
I'm ready to start another book and looking for a good biography. My interest is in successful people in the business or historical arenas - prefer dead people (too much spin and bias on the living). No entertainers or sports figures. Anyone have a suggestion? Thanks
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12-08-2006, 09:04 PM
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#2
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Confused about dryer sheets
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 8
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Re: Suggest a Biography
Just started listerning to books on tape while walking...Get from the library either non-fiction or biography...It is difficult to walk and pay stricked attention to fiction...
Anyway I just finished Andy Rooney's war years as a journalist with The Stars and Stripes...Read by him and very interesting...
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12-08-2006, 09:33 PM
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#3
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 714
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Re: Suggest a Biography
Winston Churchill ... very much enjoyed one of his biographies. A great life of precocious youth, rejection, fulfillment of great leadership potential, and then ... rejection again. Fascinating.
Some great quotes as well.
For instance, allegedly:
Female member of Parliament: "Winston, you are drunk!"
Churchill: "Madam, you, are ugly. And, in the morning, I shall be sober!". 
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12-09-2006, 12:43 AM
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#4
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,183
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Re: Suggest a Biography
I really enjoyed J.P. Getty's bio. Son got it for me for Christmas about 2 years after I took him & his sister to the museum when it was on Pacific Coast Hwy.
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12-09-2006, 05:22 AM
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#5
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 335
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Re: Suggest a Biography
The Hermit of Peking. The story of a British baronet who moved to China about 100 years ago, went native, and scammed the British govt pretending to be a spy. And lots more.
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12-09-2006, 06:50 PM
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#6
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 927
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Re: Suggest a Biography
I suppose you've covered Abraham Lincoln already?
If not, don't start now! I read Gore Vidal's historical novel ten years ago. About a hundred-and-fifty Lincoln / Civil War books later, I'm still at it...
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12-09-2006, 07:23 PM
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#7
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Oahu
Posts: 26,860
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Re: Suggest a Biography
 Quote:
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Originally Posted by Arc
I'm ready to start another book and looking for a good biography. My interest is in successful people in the business or historical arenas - prefer dead people (too much spin and bias on the living).
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How about Ron Chernow's biographies of Alexander Hamilton, John Rockefeller, or J.P. Morgan?
Roger Lowenstein's biography of Buffett is pretty low-spin, as is Kirkpatrick's "Of Permanent Value", although the latter is 10 years out of date.
I've just finished Colin Powell's "Soldier". Mega-spin in many directions but a fascinating insight into his character and those around him. Book report to follow, but let's just say that it's made me pray very fervently for the continued good health of George W. Bush throughout the next two-plus years...
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Co-author (with my daughter) of “Raising Your Money-Savvy Family For Next Generation Financial Independence.”
Author of the book written on E-R.org: "The Military Guide to Financial Independence and Retirement."
I don't spend much time here— please send a PM.
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12-09-2006, 08:06 PM
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#8
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 372
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Re: Suggest a Biography
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Nords
How about Ron Chernow's biographies of Alexander Hamilton, John Rockefeller, or J.P. Morgan?
Roger
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Funny you mentioned these - I've read them all - Rockefeller and JP Morgan just this past year. Chernow is pretty good. Add to that Carnegie and I've covered many of the Robber Barons - a facinating time period.
Was considering reading on Henry Ford or Andrew Mellon (just came out) - unless a better idea came up on this thread.
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12-09-2006, 08:26 PM
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#9
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 696
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Re: Suggest a Biography
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Arc
I'm ready to start another book and looking for a good biography. My interest is in successful people in the business or historical arenas - prefer dead people (too much spin and bias on the living). No entertainers or sports figures. Anyone have a suggestion? Thanks
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I enjoyed " John Adams" by David McCullough very much. It was one the best book I have ever read.
__________________
Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar.--Drew Carey
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12-09-2006, 11:03 PM
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#10
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Dryer sheet aficionado
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 29
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Re: Suggest a Biography
Here are a few autobiographies you might enjoy:
- Marriott
- Conrad Hilton
- Sam Walton
- Ray Krok
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12-10-2006, 09:01 AM
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#11
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Dryer sheet wannabe
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 13
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Re: Suggest a Biography
I suggest a biography of Benjamin Franklin. He is one interesting guy. The one I like was by E.W. Brands.
Ray
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12-10-2006, 09:37 AM
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#12
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,670
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Re: Suggest a Biography
Quote:
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Originally Posted by boathole
I suggest a biography of Benjamin Franklin. He is one interesting guy. The one I like was by E.W. Brands.
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Ben is one of my few heros! I'm going to put that book on my reading list. But I believe the author is H.W. Brands.
I'm reading Tom Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation" right now which is a bunch of little biographies of very interesting people.
__________________
No man is free who is not master of himself. --- Epictetus
Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think). --- Guy Lombardo
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12-10-2006, 01:37 PM
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#13
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 174
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Re: Suggest a Biography
The autobiography of Ben Franklin is really interesting too . . .
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12-10-2006, 02:30 PM
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#14
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Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 23,038
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Re: Suggest a Biography
Here are some that I have enjoyed:
Captain James Cook by Richard Hough
Lincoln by David Herbert Donald
Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton by Edward Rice
__________________
Living an analog life in the Digital Age.
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12-12-2006, 12:48 AM
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#15
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: San Diego
Posts: 468
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Re: Suggest a Biography
Truman by David McCullough
Written in the early 90s, not a fresh suggestion, but a good book none the less.
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12-12-2006, 06:44 PM
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#16
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 372
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Re: Suggest a Biography
Thanks for all the suggestions - am very surprised that I've already read many of them - great minds must think alike. Going to go ahead and read the Henry Ford story, "The Peoples Tycoon". I'll let you know how it turns out - rumor has it he started some big company or something. 
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12-18-2006, 08:54 AM
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#17
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Oahu
Posts: 26,860
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Re: Suggest a Biography
I don't know why I didn't think of these earlier-- more memoirs than biography (in the strict academic sense of the word) but much more entertaining and at least as educational:
"The Harder They Fall"
"Walk This Way"
"Rock & Roll Gearhead"
__________________
*
Co-author (with my daughter) of “Raising Your Money-Savvy Family For Next Generation Financial Independence.”
Author of the book written on E-R.org: "The Military Guide to Financial Independence and Retirement."
I don't spend much time here— please send a PM.
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