New autobiographies to inspire and learn from in 2019
I love holiday time for a number of reasons.
Free time off work from the newspaper and catching up with family.
But a definite guilty pleasure this time of year is reading.
I love reading and listening to all kind of books, especial non-fiction, autobiographies, biographies, memoir and life stories.
Here are my recommended best books of 2018 in an extended holiday article.
Some I have been suggested, some I have read about and others just look interesting.
They are by a mix of authors, Australian and overseas, and are sure to get you thinking about your own life.
I hope a number of titles catch your fancy too.
Happy reading!
Best books of 2018: Any Ordinary Day by Leigh Sales, Hamish Hamilton
As a journalist, Leigh Sales often encounters people experiencing the worst moments of their lives in the full glare of the media.
But one particular string of bad news stories – and a terrifying brush with her own mortality – sent her looking for answers about how vulnerable each of us is to a life-changing event.
What are our chances of actually experiencing one?
What do we fear most and why?
And when the worst does happen, what comes next?
In this wise and layered book, Leigh talks intimately with people who’ve faced the unimaginable, from terrorism to natural disaster to simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Expecting broken lives, she instead finds strength, hope, even humour…
Related article – Book review: Any Ordinary Day by Leigh Sales
Johnathan Thurston: The Autobiography by Johnathan Thurston with James Phelps, HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd
Johnathan Thurston is widely regarded as rugby league’s greatest player.
This autobiography will follow Thurston’s journey from a Brisbane kid who was written off as too skinny, too slow and too wild to play professionally, to his debut with the Canterbury Bulldogs in 2003, to State of Origin star, to Dally M and Clive Churchill Medal winner, and the fairytale premierships.
Related article – Book review: Johnathan Thurston – The Autobiography, with James Phelps
Germaine: The Life of Germaine Greer by Elizabeth Kleinhenz, Random House Australia
As a student in Melbourne, Elizabeth Kleinhenz heard frequent talk of this almost mythical figure, Germaine Greer.
Urged on by her mother, a first wave feminist, she read The Female Eunuch, a clarion call that rallied women to assert their female power, and, like her mother and millions of others across the world, changed her life.
As one of the first researchers permitted to trawl through the Germaine Greer Archive housed at the University of Melbourne, Elizabeth found evidence of a brilliant teacher, serious scholar, flamboyantly attired hippie TV presenter, provocative magazine columnist and editor, real estate investor, domestic goddess, creator of extravagant gardens and preserves, shelterer of strays and waifs, libertarian, bohemian, anarchist, working journalist, correspondent, traveller and adventurer, international celebrity and performer, wag and ratbag, mentor and icon.
Germaine Greer has said that her archive is a representation of the times in which she has lived.
Yet she anticipated, catalysed and triumphantly rode the wave of the immense social and intellectual changes of her era…
Thanks A Lot Mr Kibblewhite by Roger Daltrey, Allen and Unwin
The fascinating and revealing autobiography of rock legend Roger Daltrey, lead singer of The Who.
“Before the sixties, you were a child and then you were a man. You went to school and then you went to work. That changed. Our generation changed it.”
Roger Daltrey is the voice of a generation.
That generation was the first to rebel, to step out of the shadows of World War II … to invent the concept of the teenager.
This is the story from his birth at the height of the Blitz, through tempestuous school days to his expulsion, age 15, for various crimes and misdemeanours within a strict school system.
Thanks to Mr Kibblewhite, his authoritarian headmaster, it could all have ended there. The life of a factory worker beckoned.
But then came rock and roll…
Related article – Top autobiography books to read in 2018
Best books of 2018: Educated by Tara Westover, Cornerstone
International bestseller – Tara Westover and her family grew up preparing for the End of Days but, according to the government, she didn’t exist.
She hadn’t been registered for a birth certificate.
She had no school records because she’d never set foot in a classroom, and no medical records because her father didn’t believe in hospitals.
As she grew older, her father became more radical and her brother more violent.
At 16, Tara knew she had to leave home.
In doing so she discovered both the transformative power of education, and the price she had to pay for it.
Related article – Book review: Educated by historian Tara Westover
Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee, Allen and Unwin
EGGSHELL SKULL: A well-established legal doctrine that a defendant must ‘take their victim as they find them’.
If a single punch kills someone because of their thin skull, that victim’s weakness cannot mitigate the seriousness of the crime.
But what if it also works the other way?
What if a defendant on trial for sexual crimes has to accept his ‘victim’ as she comes: a strong, determined accuser who knows the legal system, who will not back down until justice is done?
Bri Lee began her first day of work at the Queensland District Court as a bright-eyed judge’s associate.
Two years later she was back as the complainant in her own case.
This is the story of Bri’s journey through the Australian legal system; first as the daughter of a policeman, then as a law student, and finally as a judge’s associate in both metropolitan and regional Queensland-where justice can look very different, especially for women.
The injustice Bri witnessed, mourned and raged over every day finally forced her to confront her own personal history, one she’d vowed never to tell…
Related article – Book review: Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee
Working Class Boy by Jimmy Barnes, HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd
Long before Cold Chisel, long before ‘Barnesy’, there was the true story of James Dixon Swan.
A household name, an Australian rock icon, the elder statesman of Ozrock – there isn’t an accolade or cliche that doesn’t apply to Jimmy Barnes.
But long before Cold Chisel and ‘Barnesy’, long before the tall tales of success and excess, there was the true story of James Dixon Swan – a working class boy whose family made the journey from Scotland to Australia in search of a better life.
Working Class Boy is a powerful reflection on a traumatic and violent childhood, which fuelled the excess and recklessness that would define, but almost destroy the rock’n’roll legend.
This is the story of how James Swan became Jimmy Barnes.
It is a memoir burning with the frustration and frenetic energy of teenage sex, drugs, violence and ambition for more than what you have.
Related article – Book review: Working Class Boy by Cold Chisel’s Jimmy Barnes
Best books of 2018: Final say
I hope you have enjoyed this list of the best books of 2018.
Pick some titles to read and add them to your reading list.
Reading others’ work is a fantastic way to motivate and inspire us to create our own autobiography, memoir or help a loved one record their life story, as I’m doing with my grandmother.
I’ll be back with another article in the new year.
Thanks for supporting my website in 2018!
Happy holidays and new year to you and your family.
Here’s to a successful 2019 full of great reads and happy writing!
Would you like to tell your own story? Need a hand writing your own autobiography? I can help you get started today with my FREE Structure Success training. Click here.
Please let me know what is your favourite autobiography, biography or memoir. I always love hearing what others enjoy. Drop me an email.
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This article first appeared on the website Forever Young Autobiographies.com.
