I never pick up biographies (I find them too impersonal - I’m nosey and wanna know everyone’s deepest inner thoughts which memoirs usually provide!) but a few reading challenges I’m doing this year required one, so I found one that was also a finalist for a Lambda award a few years back (another reading project of mine). Queer women are often written out of history, or at least their queerness is. I’d never heard of Charlotte Cushman, an American actor who found fame bringing Shakespeare to life in the US, often in male roles. She was also a lesbian - with a tonne of lovers at that! 

I listened to the audio of this one which was a good choice as it felt more like listening to an interesting lecture. I enjoyed learning about Cushman’s rise through the ranks of theatre, as well as her little commune of lesbians in Italy. Amazing. But just something about biographies - too cut and dry!