Hi, I’m Katie, a writer and podcaster and I believe that literature, art, beauty, theology, and wonder are worth our time and attention.
This post is part of a regular series of once a month book recommendations I’m offering to paid subscribers. If you’re interested in book reviews across a wide variety of themes and genres, consider an upgrade. Thank you so much for reading and sharing!
First things first, I should address the fact that this bibliophilia edition is coming out in May and not April. That’s not fair to you paid subscribers who I owe at least one of these a month! All I can say as an excuse is that life is well, perpetually insane - in largely good ways - but insane nonetheless. The current roller-coaster ride (good things, chaotic things) had my husband saying, “we need to embrace this the way Teddy Roosevelt would. With energy! With excitement!”
Yes, Teddy Roosevelt had a gung-ho attitude. The man guzzled coffee and hunted bears and traipsed a merry menagerie through the White House while his six children ran wildly across the South Lawn. He overcame his poor health by (it seems) sheer force of will.
I love Teddy Roosevelt. He was a trust-busting, bullet-taking, speed reading, large-living man with a King complex and a big heart. It makes me feel put-together and competent and brave to think about Teddy Roosevelt.
It’s important to find good role models. (necessary caveat that role models *are not perfect in all ways* - you can still find them inspiring!) And sometimes a good biography can immerse you in someone else’s life in all the right ways. (Chris and I read much of Edmund Morris’s rightly praised TR biography out loud to one another - would recommend!) They make you feel artistic or brave or witty when you don’t feel like any of those things. They can remind you that people have lived in all kinds of ways throughout history - that they have made a go of it. They failed in some ways, succeeded in others. But they lived, boldly! And you can too!
So for today’s bibliophilia edition I’m including three biographies of very different figures that I have found immensely interesting and inspiring. I admire each of these people for very different reasons (and they are very different from one another). You’re getting a monarch, a writer (perhaps one you’ve heard of… Think that new Wildcat movie coming out!), and a poet/song writer. There are aspects to each of their lives that I find encouraging and inspiring. But more than that, they are all well-researched, highly readable portraits of some singular and unique lives.
Sometimes we need to get lost a bit in someone else’s life to see the beauty, bravery, and unique story taking place in our own.
I hope you enjoy!
And let’s all live a bit more like Teddy!