It’s rare to get a solid chunk of uninterrupted reading time the way you do on a flight. But if you’re wondering what to throw in your carry-on bag, we’ve got you covered. There’s nothing like a celebrity biography – a peek into the lives of the rich and famous – to get you in the mood for escape, adventure and luxury. Here are five of our somewhat recent faves.
Parachute Women (2022)
Gossipy and glamorous, yet perceptive and thoughtful, Elizabeth Winder’s dishy, lushly detailed account of the Rolling Stones through the lens of their most significant and influential paramours – Marianne Faithfull, Marsha Hunt, Bianca Jagger and Anita Pallenberg – is long overdue. These four audacious women introduced a group of straightlaced London boys to art, alternative lifestyles, literature, the occult and LSD, while connecting them with cutting-edge cultural figures. They also inspired and styled their music and look – even writing and remixing the band’s songs – without model and style icon Pallenberg, in particular, there would be no Glimmer Twins.
Jessica Lange: An Adventurer’s Heart (2023)
In the first full-length biography of the American actress, author Anthony Uzarowski looks back at her pre-fame, bohemian lifestyle. With a journey that stretches from Andalusia to Paris to Swinging London and the artistic communes of Amsterdam, the alluring Ms. Lange’s road to fame reads like a kaleidoscope of psychedelic tripping – and it gets only more interesting from there. Mingling early in life with the smart-set glitterati (Grace Jones, Halston and Andy Warhol), the future Oscar winner and Ryan Murphy muse went on to beguile some of the most fascinating male artists of her time, including lovers Sam Shepard and Mikhail Baryshnikov – what a life.
Paul Newman: The Extraordinary Life Of An Ordinary Man (2022)
Drawn from years of interviews, starting in 1986, that the Hollywood icon gave to his close friend, Rebel Without a Cause screenwriter Stewart Stern, the transcripts of this posthumous memoir were presumed lost. Once recovered – along with recorded conversations Stern conducted with Newman’s colleagues and family, including the actor’s wife Joanne Woodward – they reveal Newman in his own raw, unvarnished words. Recalling his traumatic childhood, his marriage and family, his glittering, decades-long career, struggles with imposter syndrome, and memories of fellow stars from Marlon Brando and James Dean to Elizabeth Taylor, it’s a page-turning read – and for a companion piece, the same interviews were used by Ethan Hawke to make the 2022 documentary The Last Movie Stars, about Newman and Woodward.
Miss Dior: A Story of Courage and Couture (2021)
Written by Justine Picardie, former investigative reporter for The Sunday Times – features director of Vogue and author of the bestseller, Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life – Miss Dior takes a deep dive into the life of Catherine ‘Caro’ Dior. The intrepid French Resistance fighter was captured by the Gestapo and survived Ravensbrück, the only Nazi camp solely for women. (Catherine’s story is also told prominently in Apple TV+’s 2024 drama, The New Look, about her famous fashion designer brother Christian.) She spent the rest of her life as a cultivator of beautiful rose gardens, inspiring Christian’s iconic fragrance, Miss Dior, and the classic handbag still produced by the brand today.
Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography (2021)
Compiled by his longtime assistant turned collaborator, Laurie Woolever, this 400-plus-page book offers the most intimate and insightful portrait of the beloved late chef Anthony Bourdain, who himself wrote the definitive memoir about life in the chaotic kitchens of high-end restaurants. Woolever’s narrative charts his sudden rise to fame through his family, ex-wives, old friends and fellow chefs, while shedding light on his globetrotting adventures and obsessions. It’s a testament to the life of a remarkable man.