Swap Info:

Looking to try a book in a new-to-you genre? Or looking for an excuse to read a book off your Mt. To Be Read? Every month, we'll explore a different genre by reading a single book and sharing our thoughts with our partner. May's genre is biographies. Whether you're new to the scene or just using this swap to read one you've had your eye on for a long time, this is the swap for you.

Genre Definition:

(Wikipedia) A biography or simply bio is a detailed description or account of a person's life. It entails more than basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death—a biography also portrays a subject's experience of these events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biography presents a subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of his or her life, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis of the subject's personality.

Biographical works are usually nonfiction, but fiction can also be used to portray a person's life. One in-depth form of biographical coverage is called legacy writing. Works in diverse media—from literature to film—form the genre known as biography.

An authorized biography is written with the permission, cooperation, and at times, participation of a subject or a subject's heirs. An autobiography is written by the person themselves, sometimes with the assistance of a collaborator or ghostwriter.

Swap Instructions:

Choose any biography and read it! Autobiographies count. Authorized & unauthorized alike count. There are tons of online suggestion guides that might help. I'll list some favorites of the CL mods here at the end of this post to get you started.

Send an email or swap-bot message to your partners with the following info:

• Title & author of the book you read
• Why did you choose this book?
• A brief summary of the book
• A brief review--what did you think of it?
• Your experience with the genre (have you read a lot? a little? was this your first?)
• Your thoughts about the genre overall and if this book was a good representation of it
• Would you read more of this genre in the future?

Some suggestions from your group mods:

• Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones
• Maus by Art Spiegelman
• The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
• Wild (From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail) by Cheryl Strayed
• Bossypants by Tina Fey
• Underneath it All by Tracy Lords
• A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley
• I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
• Dear Fatty by Dawn French
• Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman
• Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
• Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
• The International Bank of Bob by Bob Harris
• Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

These are just suggestions, in case you need suggestions. Feel free to choose a book from this list or from anywhere else as long as it could be considered part of the genre.

Let me know if you have any questions/comments. Group rules & ratings apply.