James Hawes’ breezy guide to Franz Kafka is filled with literary gossip and dishy speculation. Was Kafka pursuing a married woman at the same time he was engaged? And what was going on during all Kafka’s brothel visits? This book isn’t going to give you any deep insights into Kafka’s works, but if you’re interested in the man behind the myth, Hawes’ book will do nicely.

I was in a nonfiction kick and when a writer I love decided to write about another writer I love I knew this was something I had to read. Byron’s curiosity yet his need to stay true to facts makes this a very readable and short biography. The facts about Shakespeare’s life are very few and far between but this biography keeps to them. If you want to know more about the Bard but don’t want to be bogged down with hearsay and imagination this is the biography for you.

Be warned: if you read Nigel Hamilton’s HOW TO DO BIOGRAPHY, you’ll find Hamilton’s descriptions of dozens of biographies so compelling, you’ll want to read them all!!!

Hamilton shows how to write a biography, an autobiography, a memoir, and a blog by presenting wonderful examples from the classics.

This is a great book!!!

Everybody knows who Albert Einstein is, but how many people would recognize the name Ernest Rutherford? Rutherford was the improbable, unlikely genius from rural New Zealand who figured out the structure of the atom. Richard Reeves, in his fascinating A FORCE OF NATURE, makes the convincing claim that Rutherford’s experiments in physics make him the equal of Einstein. You won’t get any argument from me.