What every life-story creator should read this year
Welcome to my best life stories of 2024 ‘to be read’ shortlist.
These are the best life stories to claim a prestigious award during the past year.
They include writers from Australia, United Kingdom and USA.
Use this list to get inspiration for your own reading and writing during the year.
Stay tuned as I’ll also aim to publish book reviews on the website during 2025…
Related article – Best life stories of 2023: Award-winning books to read over the holidays
Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life by Anna Funder, Penguin Books
ABIA Biography Book of the year
Looking for wonder and some reprieve from the everyday, Anna Funder slips into the pages of her hero George Orwell.
When she uncovers his forgotten wife, it’s a revelation.
Eileen O’Shaughnessy’s literary brilliance shaped Orwell’s work and her practical nous saved his life.
But why – and how – was she written out of the story?
Using newly discovered letters from Eileen to her best friend, Funder recreates the Orwells’ marriage, through the Spanish Civil War and WW II in London.
Related article – Best life stories of 2022: Award-winning books to read over the holidays
Nuked: The Submarine Fiasco that Sank Australia’s Sovereignty by Andrew Fowler, Melbourne University Publishing
2024 Walkley Awards Book Award
Like all military acquisition programs worth billions of dollars, Australia’s decision to buy a new submarine fleet was expected to be a torturous process.
But no one could have predicted the trail of wreckage it left behind, from the boulevards of Paris to the dockyards of Adelaide, as deep inside the Australian Government a secret group conspired to overthrow the winning French bid.
In this tale of treachery and intrigue, Andrew Fowler exposes the lies and deception that so outraged the President of France.
Related article – Best life stories of 2021: Award-winning books to read this holiday season
Politics On the Edge by Rory Stewart, Penguin Random House
British Book Awards Book of the Year – Non-Fiction: Narrative
Over the course of a decade from 2010, Rory Stewart went from being a political outsider to standing for prime minister – before being sacked from a Conservative Party that he had come to barely recognise.
Tackling ministerial briefs on flood response and prison violence, engaging with conflict and poverty abroad as a foreign minister, and Brexit as a Cabinet minister, Stewart learned first-hand how profoundly hollow and inadequate our democracy and government had become.
Cronyism, ignorance and sheer incompetence ran rampant.
Around him, individual politicians laid the foundations for the political and economic chaos of today.
Related article – Best life stories of 2020: Award-winning books to read this holiday season
King: A Life by Jonathan Eig, Macmillan Publishers
2024 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Biography
Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig’s King: A Life is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King (MLK) Jr. – and the first to include recently declassified FBI files.
In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself.
He casts fresh light on the King family’s origins as well as MLK’s complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists.
Related article – Best books of 2019: Must-read books about life stories to enjoy this summer
Final say: Best life stories of 2024
Find your next book to read with the Forever Young Autobiographies best life stories of 2024 book shortlist.
Try stories about authors, politicians, preachers and more.
Undoubtedly you will find a read to captivate you!
Also don’t forget to look out for my book reviews during the year.
Happy writing and reading!
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