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Son of "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night" (Book #2)
by Scott RiceMORE WRETCHED WRITING FROM THE CONTEST THAT PROVES "NOTHING IS SO POWERFUL AS A BAD IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME." <P><P> Scott Rice, organizer of the notorious-- and hilarious-- Bulwer-Lytton "bad" writing contest, has once again collected the best opening sentences of the worst novels never published. Here, penned by the literary vigilantes who prowl the subways of literature, is a sampling of winning entries: <P><P> "'I want something more in life,' Wesley fumed as the lime-scented Jacuzzi bubbles collected between his secretary's breasts." <P><P> "The November snow was thin and slushy-- almost as if the angels in Heaven were brushing their teeth and dribbling toothpaste over the earth." <P><P> "Fall had come to the city; the trees had turned to yellows and the winos had turned to reds." <P><P> As the Tallahassee Democrat said about It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: "This is a book to be enjoyed one stinky sentence at a time." The great literary tradition continues...
The American Orchestra and Theodore Thomas
by Charles Edward RussellThe history of the American orchestra.<P><P> Pulitzer Prize Winner
Quisters 1, Logic Riddles for Thinkers of all Ages
by John ZaxQUISTERS are puzzles which require only logic and abstract thinking to solve. To play, one person (who knows the solution) presents the problem to other players who attempt to solve it by asking questions the presenter may answer only with "Yes" or "No". An occasional "Sort of" or "Irrelevant" may be helpful.
Bright Lights, Dark Shadows: The Real Story of ABBA
by Magnus PalmBRIGHT LIGHTS, DARK SHADOWS. Revealed for the first time--the people who were Abba, their individual backgrounds, their musical influences and their personal demons. By the time Abba split up, no one was in any doubt that behind the glitter there was a dark side, and behind the smiling group were four troubled individuals. But even as a whole new generation of fans discovers Abba's great music, Anni-Frid, Agnetha, Benny and Bjorn have continued to remain rather shadowy, secretive figures. Their marriages, personal break-ups and superficial biographical details are well known ... but who exactly were Abba? How did Norwegian Anni-Frid, the illegitimate daughter of a German soldier, become a real-life princess? How did folksy Benny and Bjorn reinvent themselves as an international pop force to rival Lennon & McCartney? And what actually happened to blonde Agnetha who smiled a lot but never really looked happy? The author answers these and many more questions about the hit group that no one took seriously ... until everyone did. Each page is a revelation and Palm's acute understanding of the culture of his native Sweden makes these sometimes dark personal stories understandable in a unique way. Bright Lights, Dark Shadows is an instant classic, a truly great account of the rise and fall of a legendary group and a multiple biography of rare insight. . achieves the difficult feat of capturing the multiple layers of Abba ... with a deftness unusual in a rock biography." Sunday Times ".. an extraordinary book.... *Dancing Queen* will never sound the same again."
The Girls: Sappho Goes To Hollywood
by Diana MclellanMcLellan's investigative account of the lives of Hollywood's most glamorous and uninhibited goddesses plunges deep into the rich stew of love, money, and passion that was the dawn of the movie business. The Girls reveals an early marriage to a communist spy that Marlene Dietrich fought all her life to keep secret and unearths an equally shrouded fling between Dietrich and Greta Garbo as starlets in Berlin. From the complex love life of the elegant Mercedes de Acosta through Isadora Duncan and Tallulah Bankhead to Garbo's lover Salka Viertel, McLellan untangles a passionate skein of connections that stretches from the theater in New York through brazenly bisexual socialites deep into the heart of the film industry.
The Movies That Changed Us: Reflections On The Screen
by Nick ClooneyTwenty movies that had an impact on society.
Good Moon Rising
by Nancy GardenLambda Literary Award winner Good Moon Rising is about two young women who fall in love while rehearsing a school play, realize they're gay, and resist a homophobic campaign against them.
Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman
by Queen Latifah Karen HunterAutobiography of a rap star.
Vagupparai Charalgal - Azhagiya Thooralgalai...!
by Navin Raj ThangavelA collection of poems written by the author during his college days based on his feelings on love and other thoughts.
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind: An Unauthorized Autobiography
by Chuck BarrisAutobiography of creator of game shows including The Dating Game and The Gong Show.
Good Morning, Mr. Zip Zip Zip: Movies, Memory, and World War II
by Richard SchickelIn this memoir, film critic Schickel recalls his childhood days growing up in a Milwaukee suburb during World War II. The story centers around the author's lifelong love of the movies. Schickel also discusses the ways in which the wartime movies he enjoyed as a youth misled the public about the nature of the war, our soldiers, our government, and the home front. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Kong, The 8th Wonder of the World: The Junior Novel
by Laura J. Burns Melinda MetzCarl Denham could not have imagined a better place to shoot his movie. Skull Island was perfect -- its lush jungle, massive ruins, and exotic creatures looked incredible through his camera lens. But when his lead actress, the stunning Ann Darrow, is taken by the islanders and captured by a giant gorilla called Kong, the movie takes on a life of its own.
Star Power (A Talent Novel)
by Zoey DeanMac, Emily, Coco and Becks are so over BAMS-- which means their focus has turned to hitting the Big Time. Emily's on the set of her first movie, starring opposite longtime crush Davey Woodward, while Mac's busy launching Coco's new Aguilera-inspired debut and Becks's Quicksilver modeling career. Superstardom, here they come!
The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch): Lessons From a Life in Feathers
by Caroll Spinney J. MilliganMemoir of the man inside Big Bird from Sesame Street.
Bridge at Your Fingertips
by Jackie BlakeA convenient handbook for bridge players of all levels. It clearly explains and defines popular bidding techniques and conventions. It helps avoid common partnership misunderstandings in the first two rounds of bidding.
Talent (A Talent Novel)
by Zoey DeanWhen thirteen-year-old Mac Armstrong witnesses newcomer Emily Mungler's stellar lying-to-gain-entry performance during a movie premiere party at the Roosevelt in Hollywood, it dawns on her that her own talent is to discover it in others! So Mac and her BFFs set out to prove it by turning fresh-from- Cedartown-Iowa Emily into a box office bombshell. They'll make deals, throw parties, crush on boys, all on the way to discovering that no matter how famous or important you are, friendship always comes first. Well, almost always.
Becoming Bille Holiday
by Carole Boston WeatherfordIn a series of free-verse poems and bluesy lyrics, headed by song titles, Weatherford retraces Holiday's childhood and early career in the renowned jazz singer's own voice. "At eleven, I had the body / of a grown woman, / the mouth of a sailor, and a temper / hot enough to fry an egg." Growing up in Baltimore, she moved to Harlem with her sometimes-absent mother after being molested by a neighbor, and quickly fell in love with late-night life. Dubbed "Lady Day," she earned money singing in clubs, was "discovered" by jazz-enthusiast John Hammond, and battled racism on a groundbreaking tour with Artie Shaw's all-white band. Closing with Holiday's spectacular headline gig at the Café Society, where she sang "Strange Fruit"--"how could I not claim: / this is my song?"--Weatherford leaves the 25-year-old at a high spot in her career, before later troubles and drug addiction. After the whole story readers will find a generous assortment of recommended reading and listening at the end of this proud, clear-voiced testimonial. Grades 6-9. --John Peters
Bessie Smith
by Jackie KayAs a young black girl growing up in Glasgow, Jackie Kay found in Bessie Smith someone with whom she could identify and idolise. Her fascinating and extraordinary Outline mixes fact and fiction, poetry and prose as she relates the tempestuous life of the greatest blues singer who ever lived. She takes us from Bessie's early years in Chattanooga, and her time spent with Ma and Pa Rainey in the Moses Stokes Travelling Show, through her rapid rise to fame and fortune, her raucous and wild lifestyle on the road in her famous yellow Pullman railroad car, to her slide from popularity during the Depression years and her eventual tragic death in a car crash in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1937.
Cousin Betty
by Honoré De BalzacLa Cousine Bette (French pronunciation: [la kuzin bɛt], Cousin Bette) is an 1846 novel by French author Honoré de Balzac. Set in mid-19th century Paris, it tells the story of an unmarried middle-aged woman who plots the destruction of her extended family. Bette works with Valérie Marneffe, an unhappily married young lady, to seduce and torment a series of men. One of these is Baron Hector Hulot, husband to Bette's cousin Adeline. He sacrifices his family's fortune and good name to please Valérie, who leaves him for a tradesman named Crevel. The book is part of the Scènes de la vie parisienne section of Balzac's novel sequence La Comédie humaine ("The Human Comedy").
Cousin Pons
by Honoré De BalzacMild, harmless and ugly to behold, the impoverished Pons is an ageing musician whose brief fame has fallen to nothing. Living a placid Parisian life as a bachelor in a shared apartment with his friend Schmucke, he maintains only two passions: a devotion to fine dining in the company of wealthy but disdainful relatives, and a dedication to the collection of antiques. When these relatives become aware of the true value of his art collection, however, their sneering contempt for the parasitic Pons rapidly falls away as they struggle to obtain a piece of the weakening man's inheritance. Taking its place in the Human Comedy as a companion to Cousin Bette, the darkly humorous Cousin Pons is among of the last and greatest of Balzac's novels concerning French urban society: a cynical, pessimistic but never despairing consideration of human nature.