Modern Lives: Sixteen True Stories of Change and Creativity
From the ruins of war to the rise of digital empires, Modern Lives gathers sixteen remarkable true stories of people who have helped shape — or been transformed by — the modern world. These biographies and memoirs explore courage, creativity, and reinvention: from occupied Paris and the Soviet frontier to the studios of Lauryn Hill, the flight deck of a Navy jet, and the mind of Stephen Hawking. Together, they reveal the power of individual lives to illuminate the complexity of our age. The books are as follows:
1. Clouds over Paris: The Wartime Notebooks of Felix Hartlaub
Felix Hartlaub’s rediscovered notebooks capture occupied Paris with eerie precision — the beauty, fear, and absurdity of daily life in a collapsing world. His sharp, poetic fragments offer a haunting reflection on how modern Europe was forged in the shadow of destruction.
2. Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy
Leslie Brody’s vivid biography celebrates Louise Fitzhugh, a queer, iconoclastic writer who turned the private gaze of childhood into literary rebellion. A portrait of an artist who challenged convention long before diversity became a buzzword.
3. Stephen Hawking: A Memoir of Friendship and Physics
Physicist Leonard Mlodinow shares a deeply human portrait of his collaboration with Stephen Hawking — not as an untouchable genius, but as a man of humour, stubbornness, and imagination. A moving testament to friendship and intellectual adventure.
4. She Begat This: 20 Years of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Joan Morgan revisits Lauryn Hill’s groundbreaking album and its legacy through the lens of Black feminism, creativity, and fame. More than a music study, it’s a cultural biography of an artist who reshaped identity for a generation.
5. Access All Areas: A Backstage Pass Through 50 Years of Music and Culture
Barbara Charone, one of rock’s first female publicists, offers a joyous insider’s memoir of five decades in music — from Fleetwood Mac to Madonna. A celebration of talent, timing, and tenacity in a changing industry.
6. Panic as Man Burns Crumpets: The Vanishing World of the Local Journalist
Roger Lytollis chronicles the eccentric glory days of British local journalism with wit and affection. His stories of absurd headlines and newsroom chaos capture a disappearing world — and remind us why local stories still matter.
7. Up in Smoke: Stories From a Life on Fire
Firefighter Leigh Hosy-Pickett delivers a blazing memoir full of gallows humour, adrenaline, and quiet humanity. His tales from the frontline reveal the everyday courage of those who run toward danger when others flee.
8. Young Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Memoir and a Reckoning
Alex Halberstadt’s family memoir travels through Soviet myths and personal memory, uncovering the emotional ruins of totalitarianism. Intimate and unsparing, it’s a search for truth in a world built on heroic lies.
9. The Road to London Bridge: How I Went from a Life of Violence to Stopping the Terror Attack at Fishmongers’ Hall
Steve Gallant’s extraordinary story charts his transformation from prisoner to hero. Brutally honest and ultimately redemptive, it’s a modern parable about accountability, courage, and the possibility of change.
10. Jet Girl: My Life in War, Peace, and the Cockpit of the Navy’s Most Lethal Aircraft
Caroline “Hof” Williams takes readers inside the world of high-performance fighter jets and the fight to earn respect in a male-dominated field. Thrilling, candid, and inspiring — a story of flight, fear, and determination.
11. Love Unknown: The Life and Worlds of Elizabeth Bishop
Thomas Travisano brings the elusive poet Elizabeth Bishop into vivid focus — her travels, loves, and creative discipline. A biography of restraint and revelation, it captures the quiet brilliance behind her enduring poems.
12. The Rooster House: A Ukrainian Family Memoir
Victoria Belim unearths her family’s secrets amid the shifting tides of Ukrainian history. Part personal journey, part cultural archaeology, it’s a deeply moving story of belonging, silence, and rediscovery.
13. Thoroughly Modern: The Pioneering Life of Barbara Ker-Seymer and Her Brilliant Bohemian Friends
Sarah Knights resurrects the dazzling life of Barbara Ker-Seymer, a photographer at the heart of 1930s London modernism. Glamorous and subversive, it’s a portrait of a woman who captured — and embodied — the spirit of modernity.
14. Jump: From the Streets to the Suites
Larry Miller recounts his rise from inner-city Philadelphia to the top of Nike’s Jordan Brand, while confronting a buried past. A candid, inspirational story of talent, resilience, and the uneasy balance between success and redemption.
15. Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History
Alex von Tunzelmann explores the lives behind twelve contested monuments — from colonial generals to revolutionaries — and what their fates reveal about how we remember history. Sharp, witty, and powerfully relevant.
16. Winnie & Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage
Jonny Steinberg’s dual biography of Nelson and Winnie Mandela explores the passion, politics, and pain of a partnership that mirrored South Africa’s struggle. Deeply researched and humane, it redefines both figures for a new era.
17. The Smallest Lights in the Universe
Astrophysicist Sara Seager weaves the search for life beyond Earth with her own story of love, loss, and discovery. A luminous memoir that reminds us how the vastness of space can mirror the depths of the human heart.
From the ruins of war to the rise of digital empires, Modern Lives gathers sixteen remarkable true stories of people who have helped shape — or been transformed by — the modern world. These biographies and memoirs explore courage, creativity, and reinvention: from occupied Paris and the Soviet frontier to the studios of Lauryn Hill, the flight deck of a Navy jet, and the mind of Stephen Hawking. Together, they reveal the power of individual lives to illuminate the complexity of our age. The books are as follows:
1. Clouds over Paris: The Wartime Notebooks of Felix Hartlaub
Felix Hartlaub’s rediscovered notebooks capture occupied Paris with eerie precision — the beauty, fear, and absurdity of daily life in a collapsing world. His sharp, poetic fragments offer a haunting reflection on how modern Europe was forged in the shadow of destruction.
2. Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy
Leslie Brody’s vivid biography celebrates Louise Fitzhugh, a queer, iconoclastic writer who turned the private gaze of childhood into literary rebellion. A portrait of an artist who challenged convention long before diversity became a buzzword.
3. Stephen Hawking: A Memoir of Friendship and Physics
Physicist Leonard Mlodinow shares a deeply human portrait of his collaboration with Stephen Hawking — not as an untouchable genius, but as a man of humour, stubbornness, and imagination. A moving testament to friendship and intellectual adventure.
4. She Begat This: 20 Years of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Joan Morgan revisits Lauryn Hill’s groundbreaking album and its legacy through the lens of Black feminism, creativity, and fame. More than a music study, it’s a cultural biography of an artist who reshaped identity for a generation.
5. Access All Areas: A Backstage Pass Through 50 Years of Music and Culture
Barbara Charone, one of rock’s first female publicists, offers a joyous insider’s memoir of five decades in music — from Fleetwood Mac to Madonna. A celebration of talent, timing, and tenacity in a changing industry.
6. Panic as Man Burns Crumpets: The Vanishing World of the Local Journalist
Roger Lytollis chronicles the eccentric glory days of British local journalism with wit and affection. His stories of absurd headlines and newsroom chaos capture a disappearing world — and remind us why local stories still matter.
7. Up in Smoke: Stories From a Life on Fire
Firefighter Leigh Hosy-Pickett delivers a blazing memoir full of gallows humour, adrenaline, and quiet humanity. His tales from the frontline reveal the everyday courage of those who run toward danger when others flee.
8. Young Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Memoir and a Reckoning
Alex Halberstadt’s family memoir travels through Soviet myths and personal memory, uncovering the emotional ruins of totalitarianism. Intimate and unsparing, it’s a search for truth in a world built on heroic lies.
9. The Road to London Bridge: How I Went from a Life of Violence to Stopping the Terror Attack at Fishmongers’ Hall
Steve Gallant’s extraordinary story charts his transformation from prisoner to hero. Brutally honest and ultimately redemptive, it’s a modern parable about accountability, courage, and the possibility of change.
10. Jet Girl: My Life in War, Peace, and the Cockpit of the Navy’s Most Lethal Aircraft
Caroline “Hof” Williams takes readers inside the world of high-performance fighter jets and the fight to earn respect in a male-dominated field. Thrilling, candid, and inspiring — a story of flight, fear, and determination.
11. Love Unknown: The Life and Worlds of Elizabeth Bishop
Thomas Travisano brings the elusive poet Elizabeth Bishop into vivid focus — her travels, loves, and creative discipline. A biography of restraint and revelation, it captures the quiet brilliance behind her enduring poems.
12. The Rooster House: A Ukrainian Family Memoir
Victoria Belim unearths her family’s secrets amid the shifting tides of Ukrainian history. Part personal journey, part cultural archaeology, it’s a deeply moving story of belonging, silence, and rediscovery.
13. Thoroughly Modern: The Pioneering Life of Barbara Ker-Seymer and Her Brilliant Bohemian Friends
Sarah Knights resurrects the dazzling life of Barbara Ker-Seymer, a photographer at the heart of 1930s London modernism. Glamorous and subversive, it’s a portrait of a woman who captured — and embodied — the spirit of modernity.
14. Jump: From the Streets to the Suites
Larry Miller recounts his rise from inner-city Philadelphia to the top of Nike’s Jordan Brand, while confronting a buried past. A candid, inspirational story of talent, resilience, and the uneasy balance between success and redemption.
15. Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History
Alex von Tunzelmann explores the lives behind twelve contested monuments — from colonial generals to revolutionaries — and what their fates reveal about how we remember history. Sharp, witty, and powerfully relevant.
16. Winnie & Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage
Jonny Steinberg’s dual biography of Nelson and Winnie Mandela explores the passion, politics, and pain of a partnership that mirrored South Africa’s struggle. Deeply researched and humane, it redefines both figures for a new era.
17. The Smallest Lights in the Universe
Astrophysicist Sara Seager weaves the search for life beyond Earth with her own story of love, loss, and discovery. A luminous memoir that reminds us how the vastness of space can mirror the depths of the human heart.