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“Mr. President” by Harlow Giles Unger

Harlow Giles Unger’s latest is a very good book in a series of them. In his typically lucid and conversational style, Unger paints a never-before-seen portrait of Washington as a surprisingly beleaguered leader whose challenges in many ways echo those of the current occupier of the White House.

Under the Eagle by Samuel Holiday and Robert S. McPherson

Former soldier Samuel Holiday and history professor Robert S. McPherson get together to tell Holiday’s amazing story in Under the Eagle: Samuel Holiday Navajo Code Talker.

Eminent Hipsters by Donald Fagen

As Telegraph music editor Bernadette McNulty remarks in her review, Fagan’s “‘art-o-biography,’ much like his music, is nerdishly clever, entertainingly original and even a moving reconfiguration of the memoir format.”

Queens of Noise: The Real Story of the Runaways by Evelyn McDonnell
Though there’s much to like about Evelyn McDonnell’s well thought out and researched biography of The Runaways, the first all-girl, all-teen rock band, Queens of Noise (Da Capo). But what slays me are the might-have-beens.

Bad Boy: My Life On and Off the Canvas by Eric Fischl
The idyllic suburban childhood was a facade. What appeared like American perfection from the outside was, from inside, a living hell. Eric Fischl’s mother was an alcoholic, their family life often violent and dark.

Official Truth: 101 Proof: The Inside Story of Pantera by Rex Brown and Mark Eglinton
A decade after they were torn asunder, super metal group, Pantera, has more than seven million Facebook fans. Numbers like would be a major feat for an active group, never mind an essentially dead one. And make no mistake, though three of the original four bandmembers are still alive, Pantera is no more, nor will it be. That much is clear from Official Truth: 101 Proof: The Inside Story of Pantera.

John Quincy Adams by Harlow Giles Unger
No one writes biography quite like Harlow Giles Unger. His last half dozen or so books have brought as many long dead presidents back to something like literary life.

Truth Be Told by Larry King
Those who enjoy Larry King’s odd style and eclectic guest list as well as his acerbic and slightly off-the-wall approach will have no trouble getting into Truth Be Told.

American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare, The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee by Karen Abbott
Following on the success of 2007’s magnificent Sin in the Second City, author Karen Abbott seems determined to build a career writing books about sexy seductresses of the past.

Shockaholic by Carrie Fisher
Though she will always be Star Wars’ Princess Leia to many of us, Fisher was born a Hollywood princess. The daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, some would say she was born royal.

Recipes for Life by Linda Evans
The record gets set entirely straight in Recipes for Life: My Memories a surprisingly candid -- not to mention surprisingly delicious -- collection of both Evans’ memories and her recipes. Who would have thought that when she used the word “recipe” in the title, she actually meant it?

One With the Sea by Richard Daniel O’Leary
In One With the Sea, much is made of author Richard Daniel O’Leary’s affinity and passion for the sea. But it’s more than that that pushes the young man back to become head of a large shipping and cruise company.

Nica’s Dream by David Kastin
Nica’s Dream: The Life and Legend of the Jazz Baroness is one of those books that you wouldn’t find credible if it were fiction.

Joe Simon: My Life in Comics by Joe Simon
While biographies of the real superheroes in the world of comics are, sadly, few and far between, it’s difficult to imagine one much better than Joe Simon: My Life in Comics.

The Real Girl Next Door by Denise Richards
The big news isn’t that reality star and one-time vampish ingenue Denise Richards has written a book. It’s that her ex-husband, former Two and a Half Men star apparently gone mad, Charlie Sheen, likes The Real Girl Next Door when we’d expected… well… more madness.

The Curve of Time by M. Wylie Blanchet
Half a century after the debut publication of The Curve of Time, the first person account of a young widow’s travels with her five children on a 25-foot coastal cruiser of the shores of British Columbia still captivates.

The Natural Laws of Good Luck by Ellen Graf
Ellen Graf’s The Natural Laws of Good Luck is one of those memoirs that, if it were presented to you as fiction, you’d scoff and send it back. Incredible but true, then, that this is the story of the author’s own marriage.

Robert Redford
Robert Redford almost reads like a novel with a heavy focus on one character: a very handsome guy from L.A. who parlayed an eventful childhood surrounded by family and friends and Hollywood star drive-bys into one of the most successful careers in Hollywood itself.

An Improvised Life by Allan Arkin
While Alan Arkin’s An Improvised Life is disguised as a memoir, it’s really something more than that; though some would say less.

Ugly Beauty: Helena Rubinstein, L’Oréal and the Blemished History of Looking Good by Ruth Brandon
British historian, biographer and novelist, Ruth Brandon, has been making a habit of writing very good books on art and culture-related topics.

Endgame: Bobby Fischer’s Remarkable Rise and Fall by Frank Brady
Though he was once considered to be the Mozart of the chess board, by the time he died at the age of 64 in 2008, chess champion Bobby Fischer was widely considered to be a kook who died notorious and maybe crazy in Iceland.

Radio Shangri-La by Lisa Napoli
More than anything, Radio Shangri-La is about transformation. The awakening of a sleepy kingdom to the inevitably cold dreams of the modern world and, of course, Napoli’s personal transformation as she trades her self-dubbed midlife crisis for peace -- an even joy -- in the magical kingdom.

Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney by Howard Sounes
You only have to look at Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney to know that it is going to at least try to be exhaustive: it’s a very thick book.

Lion of Liberty: Patrick Henry and the Call to a New Nation by Harlow Giles Unger
The book that will change your mind, change your view and introduce you to a whole gang of players you’ve never considered before.

The Hilliker Curse by James Ellroy
The Demon Dog is alive and well and perhaps even feeling somewhat hopeful. And a whack-load of reviewers might feel compelled to pooh-pooh this one, but Ellroy fans will eat it up.

Storyteller by Donald Sturrock
Roald Dahl, author of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, The BFG and many others, died on November 23, 1990. Storyteller remarks that anniversary.

The Paper Garden by Molly Peacock
If you were to dream up the perfect gift for the hardcore book lover, it would look a lot like The Paper Garden by Molly Peacock.

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