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I am hoping to read several good biographies this year. Tell me your favorites, please! I'd love to find a good one of Winston Churchill. And some about women too!

 

I read Jack by George Sayers and The Narnian by Alan Jacobs (both about C.S. Lewis) recently and Eric Metaxas' Bonhoeffer a couple of months ago.

 

Thanks!

Y'all are such a fabulous book resource! :D:D

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Father Arseny

 

Product Description:

It is one of the great mysteries of life that in atmospheres of the harshest cruelty, a certain few not only survive but emerge as beacons of light and life. Father Arseny, former scholar of church art, became Prisoner No. 18736 in the brutal 'special sector' of the Soviet prison camp system. In the darkness of systematic degradation of body and soul, he shone with the light of Christ's peace and compassion. His sights set on God and his life grounded in the Church, Father Arseny lived by injunction to 'bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ' (Galatians 6:2). This narrative, compiled from accounts of Father Arseny's spiritual children and others whom he brought to God, gives stirring glimpses of his life in prison camp and after his release. It also tells the stories of people whose lives, often during times of almost unimaginable crisis, were touched and transfigured through their connection with Father Arseny. Emerging from the context of the particular tragedies of Soviet Russia, this book carries a universal impact certain to be felt by readers in the West today.

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:bigear::lurk5: I'd love to hear some suggestions as well.

 

I like reading biographies from missionaries. Some of them read like action packed adventure stories. I liked Audrey Hepburn's biography as well. It was fascinating to learn that she actually smuggled papers for the Resistance in Holland during WWII.

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Wild Swans: Three Women of China by Jung Chang is one of the best biography/autobiographies I've ever read. It follows Chang's family, her grandmother (wife of a warlord), mother and father (party officials), and herself (coming of age during the revolution of the '60s). One of the most clear documentations of party hopes, disappointments, and general politics.

 

I also liked Pearl S. Buck's autobiography My Several Worlds. Her parents were missionaries in China and they allowed her to become part of local Chinese families. She married, moved North, and was always interested in Chinese family life. An interesting look at early 20th century Chinese politics, Chiang Kaishek, and an adventurous soul.

 

Honeymoon in Purdah was fun too. A travelogue of Iran in the '90s.

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