Biography

A biography (from the Greek words bios meaning "life", and graphos meaning "write") is a non-fictional account of a person's life. Biographies are written by an author who is not the subject/focus of the book.

See also:
Autobiography
Memoir ...more

New Releases Tagged "Biography"

The Stolen Crown: Treachery, Deceit, and the Death of the Tudor Dynasty

Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore

Don't Stop: Why We (Still) Love Fleetwood Mac's Rumours

Captain's Dinner: A Shipwreck, An Act of Cannibalism, and a Murder Trial That Changed Legal History

Winning the Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress

Eleanor: A 200-Mile Walk in Search of England's Lost Queen

Fanny's Big Idea: How Jewish Book Week Was Born

The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto: The True Story of Five Courageous Young Women Who Sparked an Uprising

Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy

Lincoln's Ghost: Houdini's War on Spiritualism and the Dark Conspiracy Against the American Presidency

More new releases tagged "biography"...

Giveaways

Adult Braces: Driving Myself Sane

Lindy West

Release date: Mar 10, 2026

Win an early galley of bestselling author Lindy West’s most ambitious book yet where she unpacks her last few tumultuous years & rediscovers herself.
View Details »

Enter Giveaway

Format: Print book

Giveaway ends in: a

Availability: 20 copies available, 2650 people requesting

Giveaway dates: Nov 09 - Dec 07, 2025

Countries available: U.S.

Get Your Own Coffee: Underestimated, Overlooked, and Now The Boss

Suzanne Hopgood

Release date: Oct 21, 2025

Suzanne Hopgood was eleven when she got her first real job bussing tables at her parents’ hotel in New Hampshire. By seventeen, she was running the pl ...more
View Details »

Enter Giveaway

Format: Kindle book

Giveaway ends in: a

Availability: 100 copies available, 403 people requesting

Giveaway dates: Nov 24 - Dec 08, 2025

Countries available: U.S.

The Uncool: A Memoir

Cameron Crowe

Release date: Oct 28, 2025

The long-awaited memoir by Cameron Crowe—one of America’s most iconic journalists and filmmakers—revealing his formative years in rock and roll and br The long-awaited memoir by Cameron Crowe—one of America’s most iconic journalists and filmmakers—revealing his formative years in rock and roll and bringing to life stories that shaped a generation, in the bestselling tradition of Patti Smith’s Just Kids with a dash of Moss Hart’s Act One.

The Uncool is a joyful dispatch from a lost world, the real-life events that became Almost Famous, and a coming-of-age journey filled with characters you won’t soon forget.

Cameron Crowe was an unlikely rock and roll insider. Born in 1957 to parents who strictly banned the genre from their house, he dove headfirst into the world of music. By the time he graduated high school at fifteen, Crowe was contributing to Rolling Stone. His parents became believers, uneasily allowing him to interview and tour with legends like Led Zeppelin; Lynyrd Skynyrd; Bob Dylan; Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young; and Fleetwood Mac.

The Uncool offers a front-row ticket to the 1970s, a golden era for music and art when rock was young. There’s no such thing as a media junket—just a rare chance a young writer might be invited along for an adventure. Crowe spends his teens politely turning down the drugs and turning on his tape recorder. He talks his journalism teacher into giving him class credit for his road trip covering Led Zeppelin’s 1975 tour, which lands him—and the band—on the cover of Rolling Stone. He embeds with David Bowie as the sequestered genius transforms himself into a new persona: The Thin White Duke. Why did Bowie give Crowe such unprecedented access? “Because you’re young enough to be honest,” Bowie tells him.

Youth and humility are Crowe’s ticket into the Eagles’ dressing room in 1972, where Glenn Frey vows to keep the band together forever; to his first major interview with Kris Kristofferson; to earning the trust of icons like Gregg Allman and Joni Mitchell who had sworn to never again speak to Rolling Stone. It’s a magical odyssey, the journey of a teenage writer waved through the door to find his fellow dreamers, music geeks, and lifelong community. It’s a path that leads him to writing and directing some of the most beloved films of the past forty years, from Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Say Anything to Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous. His movies often resonate with the music of the artists he first met as a journalist, including Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Who, and Pearl Jam.

The Uncool is also a surprisingly intimate family drama. If you’ve seen Almost Famous, you may think you know this story—but you don’t. For the first time, Crowe opens up about his early formative years in Palm Springs, and pays tribute to his father, a decorated Army officer who taught him the irreplaceable value of the human voice. Crowe also offers a full portrait of his mother, whose singular spirit helped shape him into an unconventional visionary.

With its vivid snapshots of a bygone era and a celebration of creativity and connection, this memoir is an essential read for music lovers or anyone chasing their wildest dreams. At the end of that roller-coaster journey, you might just find what you were looking for: Your place in the world. ...more
View Details »

Enter Giveaway

Format: Print book

Giveaway ends in: a

Availability: 10 copies available, 2596 people requesting

Giveaway dates: Nov 27 - Dec 09, 2025

Countries available: U.S.

More book giveaways...

Most Read This Week

Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum

Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York

This American Woman: A One-in-a-Billion Memoir

»Mama, bitte lern Deutsch«: Unser Eingliederungsversuch in eine geschlossene Gesellschaft

Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America

Out of the Woods: A Girl, a Killer, and a Lifelong Struggle to Find the Way Home

Lists

SCARS ARE SEXY- Books with imperfect/disfigured/disabled heroes

1,936 books — 2,494 voters

Best Feminist Books

2,500 books — 3,506 voters

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer

The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman

Best History Books

3,691 books — 3,728 voters

Best Woman-Authored Books

8,196 books — 5,198 voters

Viciously Yours by Jamie Applegate Hunter

Being a Witch, and Other Things I Didn't Ask For by Sara Pascoe

A Dead and Stormy Night by Steffanie Holmes

Favourite young adult books

1,645 books — 1,570 voters

100 Biographies & Memoirs to Read in a Lifetime: Readers' Picks

1,871 books — 1,777 voters

Biography Books

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood

More biography books...

Related Genres

Nonfiction
Memoir
Autobiography

Adventurers
Music Biography
Mémoir

Related News

Readers' Most Anticipated December Books

At the beginning of each calendar month, Goodreads’ crack editorial squad assembles a list of the hottest and most popular new books...

Quotes Tagged “Biography”

“ The Black Prince is entombed at Canterbury Cathedral. His effigy reads: “Such as thou art, sometimes was I, Such as I am, such thou shalt be, I thought little on hour of death, So long as I enjoyed breath, On earth I had great riches, Land, houses, great treasure, Horses money and gold, But now a wretched captive am I, Deep in the ground, lo I lie, My beauty great, is all quite gone, My flesh is wasted to the bone. ”
― Michael G. Kramer, Isabella Warrior Queen

155 likes

“ If you want to be great, you have to be a leader. You’ve got to listen to me, son. That’s what we brought you here to do, to be a leader. And you can do it. ”
― Vernon Davis, Playing Ball: Life Lessons from My Journey to the Super Bowl and Beyond

279 likes

More quotes...