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Katherine Hepburn by Barbara Leaming is fantastic. In case you don't kow much about her, she was a very courageous and tough woman. She graduated from college during a time when the popular media said that women who study who become sterile because all the blood leaves their uterus to go to their brain. She survived at least three suicides in her family, including her brother, to whom she was very close. She made her own way on Broadway and in Hollywood, shunning the advice of those who wanted to control her and becoming a star who directed her own career, not a starlet controlled by moguls. It's an inspiring book.
I am also about to finish Howard Hughes: His Life and Madness. While this is not inspiring, it is fascinating because it takes you through intersting times in American history. Hughes was an aviation pioneer in the 30s, no less famous or accomplished than Lindbergh or Earhart. He was also well known and connected in Hollywood in the 40s and participated in the blacklisting of artists who would not cooperate with Congressional investigations into Communist activities. He was in seclusion by the 60s and missed most of that turbulent time, but his operatives were so active in giving away campaign cash that he was asked to testify before the Watergate Investigation Committee (of course he failed to show up). He was not a nice person: racist, used people, lied. But in the end, he was a victim of his own insanity: his aides lied to him, stole from his businesses, and eventually allowed him to die of neglect: dehydrated, with bedsores, and at 6'3", weighing barely 100 pounds. Sad.
What do you recommend????
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