100 Best Biographies: Name That Author! (3)

[B] Thomas Keneally | Keneally’s novel recounts Oskar Schindler’s daring rescue of more than a thousand Jews during the Holocaust, whereas Spiegelman tells his father’s story through comics and Massie writes royal biographies.

[D] Doris Kearns Goodwin | Goodwin shows how Lincoln appointed political foes to his cabinet to forge unity, a different focus from McCullough’s single‑president portraits or Millard’s Garfield narrative.

[B] Amanda Lindhout | Lindhout recounts being kidnapped by Somali insurgents and surviving 15 months in captivity, while Knight and Dugard endured other kidnappings and Fossey studied gorillas.

[C] Trevor Noah | The comedian humorously recounts growing up under apartheid as the son of a Black mother and Swiss father, unlike Mandela’s political memoir or Obama’s presidential reminiscences.

[C] Sarah Huckabee Sanders | As press secretary, Sanders offers an insider’s view of the Trump White House; Clinton, Page and Totenberg write about other political figures.

[A] Augusten Burroughs | Burroughs narrates his surreal adolescence living with his mother’s psychiatrist in a chaotic household, while Karr and Sedaris depict different dysfunctional families.

[B] David McCullough | McCullough’s expansive biography examines Harry Truman’s rise from Missouri farmer to decisive U.S. president; Roberts and Goodwin cover other leaders.

[A] Ayaan Hirsi Ali | Hirsi Ali recounts her journey from Somali girlhood through arranged marriage, asylum and outspoken critique of Islam; Cahalan, Obama and Chang tell very different stories.

[B] Beryl Markham | Pilot and horse trainer Markham writes lyrically about flying solo across the Atlantic and growing up in Kenya; Child writes about French cooking and Fossey studies gorillas.

[C] Michelle Knight | Kidnapped at 21, Knight spent 11 years held captive in Cleveland and details her survival and healing, differing from Dugard’s childhood abduction or Lindhout’s Somali ordeal.

[C] Julia Child | Child recounts discovering French cuisine with husband Paul and co‑writing “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”; Smith is a musician and Worth a midwife.

[A] Jennifer Worth | Worth draws on her 1950s London experiences delivering babies among dockworkers to show poverty and resilience; Lindhout and Ung write about captivity and war.

[D] Doris Kearns Goodwin | Goodwin interweaves the partnership of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt with America’s wartime mobilization, unlike McCullough’s and Roberts’s single‑subject biographies.

[C] C.S. Lewis | Lewis’s spiritual autobiography recounts his journey from atheism to Christianity, a contrast to Augustine’s ancient confessions or Albom’s dialogues with his professor.

[B] Arnold Schwarzenegger | Schwarzenegger chronicles his Austrian youth, bodybuilding triumphs, Hollywood fame and California governorship, unlike Roberts’s and Obama’s political histories.

[A] Mary Karr | Karr’s memoir depicts her turbulent Texas childhood with a brilliant but alcoholic mother, inspiring a genre of confessional memoirs; Burroughs and Sedaris add humor to their family sagas.

[C] Sonia Purnell | Purnell uncovers the adventures of disabled spy Virginia Hall, who organized the French Resistance; Fraser writes royal histories and Ware covers suffragists.

[A] Susan Ware | Ware spotlights lesser‑known activists of the U.S. women’s suffrage movement, while Goodwin and Purnell profile presidents and spies.

[B] John Howard Griffin | In 1959 Griffin darkened his skin and traveled the Deep South to expose segregation firsthand, a very different memoir from McBride’s family story or Obama’s political career.

[D] Loung Ung | Ung survives the Khmer Rouge’s genocidal regime and later trains as a child soldier before escaping, contrasting with Beah’s Sierra Leone narrative or Chang’s family saga.

[C] Jaycee Dugard | Kidnapped at 11, Dugard writes about life in captivity for 18 years and reclaiming her identity; Smart and Knight recount different abductions.

[D] Christopher C. Gorham | Gorham brings Anna Rosenberg out of obscurity, showing how she advised Presidents Roosevelt and Truman on defense and labor; Goodwin, Ware and Fraser focus elsewhere.

[A] Susan Page | Page draws on interviews to chronicle Nancy Pelosi’s Catholic upbringing, strategic acumen and legislative battles; Sanders served in the Trump administration and Clinton writes about her own career.

[D] Barack Obama | Obama gives a detailed account of his early campaigns and first term, while Mandela and McCullough tell very different national stories.

[A] Carolyn Jessop | Jessop describes fleeing the FLDS polygamous sect with her eight children, whereas Wall details her own forced marriage and Knight and Lindhout describe abductions.

[D] Nelson Mandela | Mandela recalls his rural upbringing, political radicalization, decades in prison and negotiation to end apartheid, a sweep unmatched by Obama’s and Noah’s memoirs.

[A] Rüdiger Safranski | Safranski explores the philosopher’s innovative ideas and Nazi entanglements, whereas Roberts covers Napoleon and Marton writes about Angela Merkel.

[D] Kati Marton | Marton traces Merkel’s journey from East German physicist to Europe’s most powerful leader, while Totenberg and Page profile U.S. figures.

[B] Nina Totenberg | Totenberg reflects on her decades‑long friendship with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and other remarkable women, whereas Smith and Kerman write about art and prison.

[B] Blaine Harden | Harden tells the story of Shin Dong‑hyuk, born in a North Korean gulag, whose escape exposed the regime’s brutality; Park escaped later in life and Ung fled Cambodia.

[D] Dian Fossey | Fossey combines field notes and personal reflections on years studying mountain gorillas in Rwanda, while Markham writes about aviation and Worth about midwifery.

[D] Elizabeth Smart | Smart recounts her kidnapping at age 14 and the faith that sustained her, distinguishing her narrative from Dugard’s and Knight’s.

[A] Roald Dahl | Dahl shares memories of boarding school pranks and Norwegian holidays that later inspired his stories, whereas Lewis writes about faith and Spiegelman about the Holocaust.

[C] Elissa Wall | Wall recounts being forced into marriage by the FLDS at 14 and her legal fight against leader Warren Jeffs; Jessop describes a separate escape and Knight suffered a kidnapping in Cleveland.

[B] John Elder Robison | Robison reflects on growing up undiagnosed with Asperger’s and finding work designing guitar effects; Cahalan writes about encephalitis and Sedaris offers humor.

[B] Candice Millard | Millard unravels James Garfield’s assassination and the medical missteps that killed him, while Goodwin and McCullough focus on other presidents and Massie on Russian royalty.

[C] Andrew Roberts | Roberts leverages Napoleon’s vast correspondence to paint a nuanced portrait of the ambitious Corsican, whereas Massie and McCullough write about tsars and U.S. leaders.

[C] Yeonmi Park | Park describes escaping famine and human trafficking, crossing the Gobi Desert and adjusting to freedom, distinct from Harden’s account of a different defector and Ung’s Cambodian memoir.

[D] Susannah Cahalan | Cahalan recounts how an autoimmune disease caused psychosis and catatonia, a medical mystery resolved after doctors discovered anti‑NMDA receptor encephalitis; Schreiber chronicles a psychiatric case and Robison writes about Asperger’s.

[A] Jeannette Walls | Walls fictionalizes her grandmother Lily Casey Smith’s frontier life—breaking horses, teaching in remote schools and surviving dust storms—contrasting with Karr’s and Obama’s memoirs.