Three series of thermotropic liquid crystalline polycarbonates and poly(ester-carbonate)s were prepared by solution polycondensation of 4,4'-biphenyldiol (BP), 4'-hydroxybiphenyl-4-hydroxybenzoate (HHB), or 4-hydroxyphenyl-4"-hydroxybiphenyl-4'-carboxylate (HHBP), as mesogenic unit, with 1,10-bis(p-hydroxybiphenoxy)decane (N10), bisphenol A (BPA), 4,4'-dihydroxy-diphenyl ether (BPO), 4,4'-[phenyl-bis(oxy)]bisphenol (BPOO), methylhydroquinone (MeHQ), or phenylhydroquinone (PhHQ). One series of cholesteric poly(ester-carbonate)s were also prepared by using HHBP, the aromatic diols mentioned above and isosorbide as the chiral moiety. All polycondensations were implemented in pyridine by using triphosgene as the condensation agent. The synthesized polycarbonates were characterized by viscometer, FTIR, DSC, TGA measurements, polarizing microscopy equipped with a heating stage, and WAXD powder pattern. In this study, it was found that the liquid crystalline properties of polycarbonates strongly rely on the mesogenic unit applied. HHBP-series exhibits a wide temperature region of liquid crystalline (LC) phase even with 50% of bisphenol A (BPA), which is a V-shaped structure and usually destroys liquid crystalline properties. In addition, homopolycarbonate with HHBP structure possesses extraordinarily low phase-transition temperature and wide liquid crystalline phase range, due to its asymmetric structure. This asymmetric structure results in head-to-tail, head-to-bead, and tail-to-tail random conformation of polymer chain. The isosorbide containing poly(ester-carbonate)s formed cholesteric phase, which showed homogeneous blue, green, or red Grandjean texture upon shearing in molten state and the Grandjean texture could be frozen easily while quenching the sample to the room temperature.