Reviews Archives - Forever Young Autobiographies

Best life stories of 2024: Settle in with an award-winning book

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…

Super-Infinite: A historical biography about love poet John Donne

Book review: A British Book Awards winner and bestseller by Katherine Rundell

Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne is a sparkling, modern biography about an ancient, standout scholar.

Oxford’s All Souls College Fellow Katherine Rundell brings Donne to life by detailing his myriad of careers and poems on love, sex and death.

As a result, this Faber bestseller won British Book Awards 2023 Book of the Year Non-Fiction Narrative.

So keep reading to find out more about this famous shape-shifter and hints for your own life-story creating…

The Boy from Boomerang Crescent: Australian memoir by AFL star Eddie Betts

Book review: Australian Book Industry Awards winner about a First Nations and Carlton identity

The Boy from Boomerang Crescent is an Aussie sports memoir about Eddie Betts’s long, hard road from the bush to the stadium.

The Australian Rules football legend tells how he was once a “skinny Aboriginal kid” growing up in Port Lincoln and Kalgoorlie but found success against the odds.

Significantly the life story has become a bestseller and won the Australian Book Industry Awards 2023 Social Impact Book of the Year.

So keep scrolling to find out more about this giant of the sport, his life story and tips for your own creating…

My Dream Time: Tennis memoir by Wimbledon and Aus Open star Ash Barty

Book review: Australian Book Industry Awards winner about an Aussie girl from Ipswich

I started My Dream Time: A memoir of tennis and teamwork by Ash Barty AO during the middle of an Aussie summer when the Australian Open was being played.

It certainly was a fitting time to read this story by the 2022 Australian Open champ, which charts her tennis story from age 5 when she picked up a racquet in Queensland.

Notably the HarperCollins life story nabbed the Australian Book Industry Awards 2023 Biography Book of the Year and has been a huge bestseller.

So keep reading to discover more about this First Nations’ Australian, her memorable story plus what it can teach us for our own creating…

Best life stories of 2023: Award-winning books to read over the holidays

What’s on a life-story coach’s reading list for 2024

Welcome to my final and fave article of the year!

Keep reading for the Forever Young Autobiographies shortlist of life stories to win awards during the past 12 months.

This best life stories of 2023 list features writers from Australia, the United Kingdom and the USA.

Also look out for my reviews of each book on the website during 2024 …

Chasing Me to My Grave: Jim Crow memoir by Georgia artist Winfred Rembert

Book review: Pulitzer winner about chain gangs, lynching, black history and the Civil Rights era

Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South by the late Winfred Rembert is a life story about a nobody becoming a somebody.

In short, it recounts how Rembert grew up in Georgian cotton fields, survived years on chain gangs and became a world-renowned leather artist.

The Bloomsbury Publishing memoir was told to Tufts Philosopher Erin I. Kelly and scooped the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Biography.

So keep reading to find out more about this award-winning story, what makes it interesting and how it can help us with our own creating …

Windswept and Interesting: Autobiography by Glasgow joker Billy Connolly

Book review: British Book Awards winner about a national treasure and comedian rambling man

Windswept and Interesting: My Autobiography by Sir Billy Connolly CBE is a remarkable success story.

In fact it is the first full-length autobiography by the Glaswegian ‘rock-star comedian’.

Notably the John Murray Press publication is a No. 1 bestseller and took out the British Book Awards 2022 Book of the Year Audiobook Non-Fiction.

So keep reading to find out more about the book and what we can learn from Connolly’s efforts for our own life-story creating…

Currowan: Surviving one of Australia’s worst bushfires by Bronwyn Adcock

Book review: A Walkley Award winning life story about living with fire and climate change

Currowan: The Story of a Fire and a Community During Australia’s Worst Summer is a terrifying tale.

It was written by journalist Bronwyn Adcock who fled the inferno with her children while her husband went to fight at the front.

This Black Inc read tells her story, plus those of many others, and won the 2022 Walkley Awards Book Award.

So keep reading to learn more about this memoir, why it is a must-read and what we can apply to our own life-story projects …

The Mother Wound: A multi award-winning debut memoir by Amani Haydar

Book review: How a Sydney lawyer is confronted with murder and motherhood

The Mother Wound by Amani Haydar is a memoir about strong women and motherhood.

All of sudden, when Haydar was five months pregnant, she lost her mother in a brutal act of domestic violence perpetrated by her father.

A lawyer by trade, Haydar’s Pan Macmillan Australia read won the Australian Book Industry Awards 2022 Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year.

So keep reading to find out what her book is all about, what makes it a powerful read and what we can learn for our own life-story projects …

My Adventurous Life: Australian Book Industry Awards winner by Dick Smith

Book review: Autobiography of an Aussie entrepreneur, aviator and philanthropist

My Adventurous Life by Dick Smith AC is a must-read Aussie autobiography.

Firstly because provocateur Smith has been a household name for most Australians over the decades.

But also because this Allen & Unwin read was named Australian Book Industry Awards 2022 Biography Book of the Year.

So let’s find out more about the book, why it’s interesting and what we can learn from Smith as life-story creators …