- Table View
- List View
Under the Big Top
by Bruce FeilerBoth a great American adventure and a rare entry into asheltered world, Under the Big Top describes one man's pursuit of every child's fantasy: running away to join the circus. Bruce Feiler's unforgettable year as a clown will forever change your view of one of the world's oldest art forms and remind you of how dreams can go horribly wrong -- and then miraculously come true.
Under the Big Top
by Bruce FeilerBoth a great American adventure and a rare entry into asheltered world, Under the Big Top describes one man's pursuit of every child's fantasy: running away to join the circus. Bruce Feiler's unforgettable year as a clown will forever change your view of one of the world's oldest art forms and remind you of how dreams can go horribly wrong -- and then miraculously come true.
The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee
by Sarah SilvermanFrom the outrageously filthy and oddly innocent comedienne comes a memoir that is at once shockingly personal, surprisingly poignant, and still laugh-out-loud funny. With her signature taboo-breaking humor, Silverman writes on everything from her epic struggle with hairy arms (there's not enough wax in the world) to the death of her infant brother.
Mozart: A Life
by Maynard SolomonOn the occasion of Mozart's two hundred and fiftieth birthday, read Maynard Solomon's Mozart: A Life, universally hailed as the Mozart biography of our time.
It's Not Necessarily Not the Truth: Dreaming Bigger Than the Town You're From
by Jaime PresslyAmerica knows Jaime Pressly as Joy Turner, the feisty cheatin' ex-wife of Earl Hickey on the NBC hit show My Name Is Earl. Like her character, the Emmy Award-winning actress is, at heart, a smart, vibrant, small-town Southern girl. In this humorous and honest book, she recalls her journey from Kinston, North Carolina, to Hollywood, California, to motherhood, and the fortitude it took to make her dreams come true, including separating from her troubled past, overcoming her own bad choices, and dealing with success when it finally came her way.Pressly speaks openly of her extremely colorful family and of her growing understanding of how their lives have been shaped by larger forces, including prejudice, power, privilege, love, loss, and longing. She shares how the lessons she learned from their lives impacted her own journey and helped her succeed where so many others have failed. Inspiring, heart-wrenching, and laugh-out-loud funny, It's Not Necessarily Not the Truth offers a slice of American life sure to touch the hearts of readers everywhere.
Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari
by Pat ShipmanIn 1917, the notorious Oriental dancer Mata Hari was arrested on the charge of espionage; less than one year later, she was tried and executed, charged with the deaths of at least 50,000 gallant French soldiers. The mistress of many senior Allied officers and government officials, even the French minister of war, she had a sharp intellect and a golden tongue fluent in several languages; she also traveled widely throughout war-torn Europe, with seeming disregard for the political and strategic alliances and borders. But was she actually a spy? In this persuasive new biography, Pat Shipman explores the life and times of the mythic and deeply misunderstood dark-eyed siren to find the truth.
Just Being Audrey
by Margaret CardilloThis book for younger readers pays a stunning tribute to one of America's most beloved icons--Audrey Hepburn.
Charmed Lives: A Family Romance
by Michael KordaA Rolls Royce Silver Cloud drove him to airports; the British film industry kowtowed to his power; the great Hollywood studios fawned at his feet. Sir Alexander Korda, one of the world's most flamboyant movie tycoons, rose from obscurity in rural Hungary to become a legendary filmmaker. With him were his brothers, Zoltan and Vincent, all living charmed lives in circles that included H. G. Wells, Sir Lawrence Olivier, Marlena Dietrich, Vivien Leigh, and Merle Oberon, who was soon to be Alex's wife. But along with Alex's flair for success was an equally powerful impulse for destruction. Now, Vincent's son, Michael Korda, in the first book of his memoirs, recalls the enchanted figures of his childhood...the glory days of the Korda brothers' great films...and then their heartbreaking, tragic end.
Jimi Hendrix: The Man, The Music, The Truth
by Sharon LawrenceThe genius we never understood. . . . The man we never knew. . . . The truth we never heard. . . . The music we never forgot. . . . A revealing portrait of a legend by a close and trusted friend.
The Women Who Raised Me: A Memoir
by Victoria RowellBorn as a ward of the state of Maine, the child of an unmarried Yankee blueblood mother and an unknown black father, Victoria Rowell beat the odds. The Women Who Raised Me is the remarkable story of her rise out of the foster care system to attain the American Dream—and of the unlikely series of women who lifted, motivated, and inspired her along the way.From Agatha Armstead—a black Bostonian who was Victoria's longest-term foster mother and first noticed her spark of creativity and talent—to Esther Brooks, a Paris-trained prima ballerina who would become her first mentor at the Cambridge School of Ballet—The Women Who Raised Me is a loving, vivid portrait of all the women who would help Victoria transition out of foster care and into New York City's wild worlds of ballet, acting, and adulthood. Though Victoria would go on to become an accomplished television and film star, she still carried the burden of loneliness and anxiety, particularly common to those "orphans of the living" who are never adopted. Vividly recalled and candidly told, her story is transfixing, redemptive, heartbreaking, and, ultimately, inspiring.
Screen Plays: How 25 Scripts Made It to a Theater Near You--for Better or Worse
by David S. CohenIn this fascinating survey of contemporary screen craft, David Cohen of Script and Variety magazines leads readers down the long and harrowing road every screenplay takes from idea to script to screen. In interviews with Hollywood screenwriters from across the board-Oscar winners and novices alike-Cohen explores what sets apart the blockbuster successes from the downright disasters. Tracing the fortunes of twenty-five films, including Troy, Erin Brockovich, Lost in Translation, and The Aviator, Cohen offers insider access to back lots and boardrooms, to studio heads, directors, and to the over-caffeinated screenwriters themselves. As the story of each film evolves from the drawing board to the big screen, Cohen proves that how a script is written, sold, developed, and filmed can be just as dramatic and intriguing as the movie itself-especially when the resulting movie is a fiasco. Covering films of all kinds-from tongue-in-cheek romps like John Waters's A Dirty Shame to Oscar winners like Monster's Ball and The Hours-Screen Plays is an anecdote-filled, often inspiring, always revealing look at the alchemy of the movie business. With Cohen as your expert guide, Screen Plays exposes how and why certain films (such as Gladiator) become "tent poles," those runaway successes every studio needs to survive, and others become train wrecks. Full of critical clues on how to sell a script-and avoid seeing it destroyed before the director calls Action!-it's the one book every aspiring screenwriter will find irresistible.
Ron Jeremy: The Hardest (Working) Man in Showbiz
by Ron JeremyHe's the porn world's Everyman. Blessed with an enormous "talent" yet average looks, he's starred in more than 1,700 adult films, directed 250 of them, and over the last twenty years has become porn's biggest ambassador to the mainstream. He's appeared in 60 regular films, 14 music videos, and VH1's Surreal Life, starred in the critically acclaimed Porn star (a movie about his life), and in Being Ron Jeremy (a take off on Being John Malkovich), co-starring Andy Dick. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. . . . Ron Jeremy is a born storyteller (funny, considering he doesn't do a lot of talking in his films). He knows where all the bodies are buried, and in this outrageous autobiography he not only shows you the grave but also gives you the back story on the tombstone. Get ready for Ron Jeremy—a scandalously entertaining deep insider's view of the porn industry and its emergence into popular culture, and a delectable self-portrait of the amazingly endowed Everyman every man wanted to be.
A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, 1599
by James Shapiro1599 was an epochal year for Shakespeare and England. Shakespeare wrote four of his most famous plays: Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet; Elizabethans sent off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathered an Armada threat from Spain, gambled on a fledgling East India Company, and waited to see who would succeed their aging and childless queen. James Shapiro illuminates both Shakespeare's staggering achievement and what Elizabethans experienced in the course of 1599, bringing together the news and the intrigue of the times with a wonderful evocation of how Shakespeare worked as an actor, businessman, and playwright. The result is an exceptionally immediate and gripping account of an inspiring moment in history.
Badasses: The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders
by Peter RichmondCould a very good football team be more than just a very good football team? Could it be something more? Could it be legendary--not just Hall of Fame legendary but legendary as in the tales of ancient warriors, half-real and half-mythical, who mattered because they inspired people who needed to believe in figures mightier than their mundane selves? Could a football team seize the modern imagination because the days of true legend have long passed? Because we no longer have myths in sport or in life? Because long gone are the days when, as Ken Stabler put it to me, "you played for the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back"?
Roasting in Hell's Kitchen: Temper Tantrums, F Words, and the Pursuit of Perfection
by Gordon RamsayEveryone thinks they know the real Gordon Ramsay: rude, loud, pathologically driven, stubborn as hellFor the first time, Ramsay tells the full inside story of his life and how he became the world's most famous and infamous chef: his difficult childhood, his brother's heroin addiction, his failed first career as a soccer player, his fanatical pursuit of gastronomic perfection and his TV persona—all of the things that made him the celebrated culinary talent and media powerhouse that he is today. In Roasting in Hell's Kitchen Ramsay talks frankly about his tough and emotional childhood, including his father's alcoholism and violence and their effect on his relationships with his mother and siblings. His rootless upbringing saw him moving from house to house and town to town followed by the authorities and debtors as his father lurched from one failed job to another. He recounts his short-circuited career as a soccer player, when he was signed by Scotland's premier club at the age of fifteen but then, just two years later, dropped out when injury dashed his hopes. Ramsay searched for another vocation and, much to his father's disgust, went into catering, which his father felt was meant for “poofs.”He trained under some of the most famous and talented chefs in Europe, working to exacting standards and under extreme conditions that would sometimes erupt in physical violence. But he thrived, with his exquisite palate, incredible vision and relentless work ethic. Dish by dish, restaurant by restaurant, he gradually built a Michelin-starred empire.A candid, eye-opening look into the extraordinary life and mind of an elite and unique restaurateur and chef, Roasting in Hell's Kitchen will change your perception not only of Gordon Ramsay but of the world of cuisine.
Dance with a Vampire (Vampire Kisses #4)
by Ellen SchreiberRaven tries to shield her younger brother from the menacing Valentine Maxwell, even as she yearns to attend the prom with her immortal love, Alexander.
Sugar and Spice (L.A. Candy #3)
by Lauren ConradSugar and Spice ... Not everyone's nice. Fresh from being betrayed by one of her closest friends, new reality-television celebrity Jane Roberts has learned a few lessons. Most important: know who to trust. And in Hollywood, that list is short. Although the press is intent on creating a tabloid war between her and ex-friend/current-costar Madison Parker, Jane just wants to take control of her life. She's started by swearing off guys and the drama that comes with them. But when her high school sweetheart Caleb and her unrequited L. A. crush Braden show up, both acting sweeter than ever, Jane has a hard time remembering her no-boys rule. . . . Her best friend, Scarlett, has only one guy on her mind: her new boyfriend, Liam. The girl who once thought love was a four-letter word is now head over heels. The problem is, being on a hit reality show means hanging out with other guys on-camera, and Liam isn't too happy with pretending to play a bit part in her love life. Just when everything feels out of control, Jane makes a shocking discovery--one that changes everyone's definition of "reality" forever. In her deliciously entertaining novel, television star Lauren Conrad pulls back the curtain on young Hollywood and shows that sometimes the real drama is behind the scenes.
Sweet Little Lies (L.A. Candy #2)
by Lauren ConradJane Roberts was the average girl next door until she and her best friend, Scarlett Harp, landed their own hit reality show, L. A. Candy. But life on camera is getting complicated. . . . When racy photos of Jane are leaked to the press, she becomes the center of a tabloid scandal. She turns to costar Madison Parker for help, but does Madison really have Jane's back? Scarlett's got a scandal of her own. She's fallen for a guy who's strictly off-limits-which means Scarlett has a big secret to keep. But nothing stays secret for long in Hollywood. In television star Lauren Conrad's dishy, entertaining novel about young Hollywood, the lies are only as sweet as the people telling them.
How I Broke into Hollywood: Success Stories from the Trenches
by Pablo F. Fenjves Rocky Lang“Inspiring…. Celebrity watchers will enjoy these vignettes, and Hollywood hopefuls will benefit from the advice.” — Library Journal“The collection of people ranges far and wide…buy it and take it with you to the beach.” — Filmstew.com
Words of Wisdom: Daily Affirmations of Faith
by Rev RunFocus, Focus, Focus! You will only have significant success with something that is an obsession. Success comes from having passion and having fun creating your objective!Words of Wisdom is a collection of inspirational aphorisms, which Rev Run sends out to his closest friends each day and which were made suddenly popular when his television show zoomed to the top of the MTV charts. Rev Run (an ordained minister) closes each episode of Run's House by reading philosophical, Christian, and inspirational books in the bathtub before penning words that inspire, encourage, and motivate. Here, available for the first time to the public, are Run's Words of Wisdom published in a gifty yet affordable format just in time for the show's second season. All great blessings come from being at peace. When the day is over, go to sleep. Never sit up worrying about tomorrow. Work hard and let God do the rest. I always say these words at night: "I can sleep tonight because God is awake!" Relax. Rest easy.
Zamba: The True Story of the Greatest Lion That Ever Lived
by Ralph HelferWhen Ralph Helfer, now one of Hollywood's top animal behaviorists, first began working, he was shocked by the cruelty that was accepted practice in the field. He firmly believed in "affection training" -- that love, not fear, should be the basis of any animal's development, even when dealing with the most dangerous of creatures. Then Zamba came into his life -- an adorable four-month-old lion cub that went on to prove Helfer's theories resoundingly correct.Over the next eighteen years, Zamba would thrive and grow, and go on to star in numerous motion pictures and television shows -- all the while developing a deep and powerful bond of love and affection with the man who raised him. By turns astonishing, hilarious, and poignant, Zamba is not only the unforgettable story of the relationship that Helfer would come to consider one of the most important in his life but also that of the amazing career and adventures of the greatest lion in the world.
Yes, You're Pregnant, But What About Me?
by Kevin NealonAt fifty-three, Kevin Nealon thought he had it all: a massive international celebrity with legions of loyal fans; a fabulous modeling career; hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank; and the most recognizable face on the planet. Nealon had accomplished the impossible: a thirty-year career in show business with only limited trips to rehab. But just like every other celebrity, he felt that was not enough. The perpetually insatiable Nealon wanted more, and for him "more" meant a little addition that drooled, burped, and pooped (no, not a Pomeranian).Now, in his first-ever book, Nealon tells the outrageous story of how he battled through aching joints, Milano cookie cravings, and a rapidly receding hairline to become a first-time dad at an age when most fathers are packing their kids off to college. Offering hysterical commentary about his fickle, often hormonal, road to belated and bloated fatherhood, Nealon guides you through the delivery room and beyond, discussing how his past, his wife, and his neuroses all converged in a montage of side-splitting insecurities during the months leading up to the birth of his son.In Yes, You're Pregnant, But What About Me?, Nealon details his trip through all the emotional stages of pregnancy—uncomfortable, denial, hungry, sleepy, self-conscious, hungrier, confused, cranky, not-quite-as-hungry but still craving something, sweaty, covered in cookie crumbs—all while struggling to keep his blood pressure down and find the time to read the latest issue of the AARP Bulletin. Wrestling with the dilemmas and fears that fathers have been dealing with for centuries (Can I duct-tape a crib together? How often can I reuse a disposable diaper? What if the baby looks like me and not my wife?), Nealon never fails to entertain with the frequent lunacy and inevitable joy that punctuate his story about parenthood.Laugh-out-loud funny and remarkably poignant, Nealon's entertaining perspective and his wealth of sarcasm provide a take on fatherhood that is as fresh as it is universal, always reminding you that half the fun of being a parent is getting there.
Season Finale: The Unexpected Rise & Fall of the WB and UPN
by Susanne Daniels Cynthia LittletonIn the mid-1990s, two major Hollywood studios, Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures, each launched their own broadcast television network with the hope of becoming the fifth major player in an industry long dominated by ABC, CBS, NBC, and, more recently, Fox. Despite the odds against them, the WB and UPN went on to alter the landscape of primetime television, only to then merge as the CW network in 2006—each a casualty of conflicting personalities, relentless competition, and a basic failure to anticipate the future of the entertainment business.Unfolding amid this backdrop of high-stakes business ventures, fanatical creative struggles, and corporate power plays, Season Finale traces the parallel stories of the WB and UPN from their prosperous beginnings to their precipitous demise. Following the big money, big egos, and big risks of network television, Susanne Daniels, a television executive with the WB for most of its life, and Cynthia Littleton, a longtime television reporter for Variety, expose the difficult reality of trying to launch not one but two traditional broadcast networks at the moment when cable television and the Internet were ending the dominance of network television.Through in-depth reportage and firsthand accounts, Daniels and Littleton expertly re-create the creative and business climate that gave birth to the WB and UPN, illustrating how the race to find suitable programming spawned a heated rivalry between the two but also created shows that became icons of American youth culture. Offering insider stories and never-before-published details about shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawson's Creek, 7th Heaven, Gilmore Girls, Smallville, Felicity, Girlfriends, Everybody Hates Chris, and America's Next Top Model, Daniels and Littleton provide an exhaustive account of the two creative teams that ushered these groundbreaking programs into the hearts, minds, and living rooms of Americans across the country.But in spite of these successes, the WB and UPN unraveled, and here the authors elucidate the corporate miscalculations that led to their undoing, examining the management missteps and industry upheaval that brought about their rapid decline and the surprising teamwork that united them as the CW. The result is a cautionary and compelling entertainment saga that skillfully captures a precarious moment in television history, when the dramatic transformation of the broadcast networks signaled an inevitable shift for all pop culture.
Spoiled Rotten America: Outrages of Everyday Life
by Larry MillerLike Kofi Annan, Larry Miller is one of the most irresistible comic personalities working today. Known for years as an actor, writer, comedian, and sexual pioneer, he's gained a new following as a cultural commentator and frequent guest on political shows. Now, in Spoiled Rotten America, he fixes his gaze on what's funny about our daily lives—which includes, roughly speaking, everything. From middle-aged drinking ("When you're in your twenties, you can drink all night and bungee-jump off a bridge the next day. If I drank all night, I'd want to go off that bridge without the cord") to the excesses of our eating habits ("This is why the world hates us: the size of the portions we order. Thank God they've never shown us eating on Al Jazeera—that would be the end of it"), Miller finds the silver lining of absurdity within every black cloud.Ultimately, though, Spoiled Rotten America is more than just the average yukfest. It's an insightful, and surprisingly heartfelt, plea for us to notice what's best and worst about ourselves. "The American pendulum only swings to extremes," he writes. "The news is on all day, but we know less and less; there's music in every mall, but we don't hear it; everyone has a phone but nothing to say. The chubbiest of us have the strictest diets, because we can't learn to modulate and moderate. It's all or nothing. One bite of a cookie, and suddenly you're on a plane to Vegas with a hooker. To the Cranky Nitpickers of America—a club I'd join in a second if I weren't already its president—it's long been understood that the world is going to Hell in a handbasket."What better time for a collection of seventeen comic essays?"What better time indeed.
Slash: The Autobiography
by Anthony Bozza SlashFrom one of the greatest rock guitarists of our era comes a memoir that redefines sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll He was born in England but reared in L.A., surrounded by the leading artists of the day amidst the vibrant hotbed of music and culture that was the early seventies. Slash spent his adolescence on the streets of Hollywood, discovering drugs, drinking, rock music, and girls, all while achieving notable status as a BMX rider. But everything changed in his world the day he first held the beat-up one-string guitar his grandmother had discarded in a closet. The instrument became his voice and it triggered a lifelong passion that made everything else irrelevant. As soon as he could string chords and a solo together, Slash wanted to be in a band and sought out friends with similar interests. His closest friend, Steven Adler, proved to be a conspirator for the long haul. As hairmetal bands exploded onto the L.A. scene and topped the charts, Slash sought his niche and a band that suited his raw and gritty sensibility. He found salvation in the form of four young men of equal mind: Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin, Steven Adler, and Duff McKagan. Together they became Guns N' Roses, one of the greatest rock 'n' roll bands of all time. Dirty, volatile, and as authentic as the streets that weaned them, they fought their way to the top with groundbreaking albums such as the iconic Appetite for Destruction and Use Your Illusion I and II. Here, for the first time ever, Slash tells the tale that has yet to be told from the inside: how the band came together, how they wrote the music that defined an era, how they survived insane, never-ending tours, how they survived themselves, and, ultimately, how it all fell apart. This is a window onto the world of the notoriously private guitarist and a seat on the roller-coaster ride that was one of history's greatest rock 'n' roll machines, always on the edge of self-destruction, even at the pinnacle of its success. This is a candid recollection and reflection of Slash's friendships past and present, from easygoing Izzy to ever-steady Duff to wild-child Steven and complicated Axl. It is also an intensely personal account of struggle and triumph: as Guns N' Roses journeyed to the top, Slash battled his demons, escaping the overwhelming reality with women, heroin, coke, crack, vodka, and whatever else came along. He survived it all: lawsuits, rehab, riots, notoriety, debauchery, and destruction, and ultimately found his creative evolution. From Slash's Snakepit to his current band, the massively successful Velvet Revolver, Slash found an even keel by sticking to his guns. Slash is everything the man, the myth, the legend, inspires: it's funny, honest, inspiring, jaw-dropping . . . and, in a word, excessive.