Inspirational Biographies for Unusual Times

Here are some true stories about how people overcame the odds, reconnected with the world in new ways or just experienced exceptional lives – all from our online library collections.

The Year of Less by Cait Flanders' self-help memoir could be just the thing to read right now. Over the course of a twelve-month, self-imposed shopping ban, Flanders discovered the less she consumed, the more fulfilled she felt. It was a life-changing moment when she realised how much she'd come to depend on shopping, food and alcohol to lift her mood. The book also offers tips and advice for anyone wanting to live with less.

Walden by Henry David Thoreau: First published in 1854, Walden, or Life in the Woods is Henry David Thoreau’s account of two years spent in a cabin in the wilderness. During this time, Thoreau gets back to nature focusing on the basics, getting food and water, keeping the fire lit, etc. The experience also inspired philosophical contemplation and poetry. Since then Walden has become something of a classic and reminds us that life doesn’t have to be busy or complicated to be purposeful. Timeless.

Ring the Hill by Tom Cox. Another book about one of life’s simple pleasures -  in this case, getting out into the countryside. Tom Cox, well known for his cat memoirs (The Good, the Bad and the Furry) describes hills he has walked around, from very inconsequential hills (in Norfolk) to bigger hills of the UK, with stories about people, places and family along the way. As usual, Cox is amusing and great company.

No Friend but the Mountains by Behrouz Boochani: Kurdish-Iranian journalist Boochani wrote this memoir/exposé on his phone using WhatsApp while imprisoned as an asylum seeker on Manus Island. The book describes Boochani’s boat journey from Indonesia in 2013 and subsequent detainment by the Australian government. Written in both prose and poetry, the book bears witness to the oppressive, spirit-breaking regime on Manus. ‘Both a profound creative writing project and a strategic act of resistance’ according to translator Tofighian.

The Lotus Eaters by Emily Clements is another memoir for our times. When Emily falls out with her friend in Vietnam, she makes the bold decision to stay. In an attempt to overcome loneliness and isolation, she engages in reckless behaviour before realizing that the need to be liked is leading her to some very dangerous situations. An engrossing if at times harrowing voyage of self-discovery.

Against All Odds by Craig Challen and Richard Harris: The authors are two Australian doctors who were chosen for the rescue squad when the Wild Boars soccer team were marooned in a deep underground cave by floodwaters in Thailand. This is the story of the seventeen days when the world held its breath not daring to hope that these children and their coach would somehow be rescued.


Educated by Tara Westover describes the author's growing up in a Mormon fundamentalist household in the back blocks of Idaho, her father convinced the world would end at the turn of the millennium. Denied schooling, and facing abuse from within her family, Tara decided to escape at sixteen to make her own way and to be somehow rescued by books. Hard to read and hard to put down.

The Mountbattens: their lives and loves by Andrew Lownie reads a bit like a who's who of mid-
twentieth-century history. All the major players are there: Churchill, Roosevelt and Eisenhower, the Royal Family, Gershwin, Grace Kelly and Salvador Dali and more. Louis Mountbatten's many roles included being a key adviser to the Queen and Prince Philip as well as Viceroy of India, his wife Edwina a popular and magnetic ambassador for charity. Fascinating and a complete page-turner.

Posted by JAM