A hilarious, honest memoir—combined with just the right amount of relationship advice—from the popular actress and host of the hit podcast Anna Faris is Unqualified.
Anna Faris has advice for you. And it's great advice, because she's been through it all, and she wants to tell you what she's learned.
After surviving an awkward childhood (when she bribed the fastest boy in the third grade with ice cream), navigating dating and marriage in Hollywood, and building a podcast around romantic advice, Anna has plenty of lessons to share: Advocate for yourself. Know that there are wonderful people out there and that a great relationship is possible. And, finally, don't date magicians.
Her comic memoir, Unqualified, shares Anna's candid, sympathetic, and entertaining stories of love lost and won. Part memoir—including stories about being “the short girl” in elementary school, finding and keeping female friends, and dealing with the pressures of the entertainment industry and parenthood—part humorous, unflinching advice from her hit podcast, Anna Faris Is Unqualified, the book will reveal Anna's unique take on how to master the bizarre, chaotic, and ultimately rewarding world of love.
Hilarious, honest, and useful, Unqualified is the book Anna's fans have been waiting for.
Anna Faris has advice for you. And it's great advice, because she's been through it all, and she wants to tell you what she's learned.
After surviving an awkward childhood (when she bribed the fastest boy in the third grade with ice cream), navigating dating and marriage in Hollywood, and building a podcast around romantic advice, Anna has plenty of lessons to share: Advocate for yourself. Know that there are wonderful people out there and that a great relationship is possible. And, finally, don't date magicians.
Her comic memoir, Unqualified, shares Anna's candid, sympathetic, and entertaining stories of love lost and won. Part memoir—including stories about being “the short girl” in elementary school, finding and keeping female friends, and dealing with the pressures of the entertainment industry and parenthood—part humorous, unflinching advice from her hit podcast, Anna Faris Is Unqualified, the book will reveal Anna's unique take on how to master the bizarre, chaotic, and ultimately rewarding world of love.
Hilarious, honest, and useful, Unqualified is the book Anna's fans have been waiting for.
In this superb guidebook, a skilled practitioner of figure drawing demonstrates how to achieve mastery of anatomy through careful, knowledgeable articulation of the muscles and bones lying beneath the skin. Joseph Sheppard's concise instructions have been carefully integrated with over 250 halftone illustrations and over 180 line drawings to lead artists one step at a time through the techniques required in rendering human anatomy convincingly.
The opening chapter of the book presents the special techniques involved in mastering human proportion.The chapters that follow each deal with a separate part of the body: the arm, hand, leg, foot, torso, head, and neck (with special coverage of facial features and expressions) and the complete figure.
Each of these chapters follows a basic format that combines drawings of the featured body portion from many different angles, coverage of the specific bones and muscles involved, a table of muscle origins and insertions, and coverage of surface anatomy and depictions of the body part in a variety of positions.
The opening chapter of the book presents the special techniques involved in mastering human proportion.The chapters that follow each deal with a separate part of the body: the arm, hand, leg, foot, torso, head, and neck (with special coverage of facial features and expressions) and the complete figure.
Each of these chapters follows a basic format that combines drawings of the featured body portion from many different angles, coverage of the specific bones and muscles involved, a table of muscle origins and insertions, and coverage of surface anatomy and depictions of the body part in a variety of positions.
In this title Barrington Barber teaches the essentials of drawing, offering a six-part course that will suit absolute beginners as well as anyone who wants to improve their existing skills. Although the book is structured in six weekly lessons, the timing is flexible: readers might prefer to work through in a different order, or spend less or more time on each section. However, beginners will find it easiest to progress from start to finish.
Calligraphy, the art of elegant, beautiful lettering, has increased in popularity over the last several years. From brides who want to address their wedding invitations to do-it-yourselfers who want to prepare certificates or make a family tree, and even for art journalers and scrapbookers who like creative text in their works, calligraphy books and classes are hot. This new-in-paperback book will spark the interest of the calligraphy novice by introducing a new approach to lettering, one that combines a lively combination of traditional lettering styles, fun and scripty modern styles, and artsy street-style lettering, along with project ideas that incorporate creative lettering. The book demonstrates the uses of traditional and cutting edge lettering tools, from classic calligraphy pens to bling-producing metallic foils and glue pens. It introduces a wide array of lettering styles with complete alphabets sample artworks that show an application. Fully stepped-out illustrations break down each letterform, taking the reader through each stroke and a large collection of gallery images provides further inspiration for how to use creative lettering in artwork.
If you can write your name, you have enough touch to learn to draw. Let Mark Linley inspire you to pick up your pencil and create a magical masterpiece. His positive approach secures quick, accurate results and ever-growing confidence.
Learn to look properly and get the basic outlines correct; include the key features but simplify what you see; understand how shading (such as dot stipple or cross-hatching) can transform a sketch; get the eye level right and see how a grid helps with the composition.
Whatever you want to draw - a beautiful holiday scene, a lifelike portrait of your family or favourite pet, or even a funny cartoon to illustrate a birthday card - Mark Linley shows, in this new edition of his bestselling book, everything you need to succeed.
That Kevin Smith? The guy who did “Clerks” a million years ago? Didn’t they bounce his fat ass off a plane once? What could you possibly learn from the director of “Cop Out”? How about this: he changed filmmaking forever when he was twenty-three, and since then, he’s done whatever the hell he wants. He makes movies, writes comics, owns a store, and now he’s built a podcasting empire with his friends and family, including a wife who’s way out of his league. So here’s some tough shit: Kevin Smith has cracked the code. Or, he’s just cracked.
Tough Sh*t is the dirty business that Kevin has been digesting for 41 years and now, he’s ready to put it in your hands. Smear this shit all over yourself, because this is your blueprint (or brownprint) for success. Kev takes you through some big moments in his life to help you live your days in as Gretzky a fashion as you can: going where the puck is gonna be. Read all about how a zero like Smith managed to make ten movies with no discernible talent, and how when he had everything he thought he’d ever want, he decided to blow up his own career. Along the way, Kev shares stories about folks who inspired him (like George Carlin), folks who befuddled him (like Bruce Willis), and folks who let him jerk off onto their legs (like his beloved wife, Jen).
So make this your daily reader. Hell, read it on the toilet if you want. Just make sure you grab the bowl and push, because you’re about to take one Tough Sh*t.
From the authors of The Book of Beer Pong and The Book of Beer Awesomeness, this illuminating and hilarious volume features everything a person could ever wish to know (and more!) about everyone's favorite bodily function. It's loaded with interesting information, from the history of farts to different types of flatulence ("Much like a fingerprint, no two farts sound—or smell—alike"). Also featuring the best fart techniques, defenses, and pranks, The Fart Tootorial will make any reader a master of the gas we pass.
Draw the Human Figure Anywhere, Anytime
For today’s in-demand comic creators, animators, video game artists, concept designers, and more, being able to quickly draw the human figure in a variety of action-packed poses is a requirement. But what do you do if you don’t have models or photographic reference readily available? In Freehand Figure Drawing for Illustrators, artist and instructor David H. Ross provides an alternative solution, showing you how to master freehand figure drawing without visual reference by using a modern twist on the classic technique of blocking out the human figure in mannequin form. Step-by-step lessons guide illustrators from basic poses (standing, running, jumping) to extreme motions (throwing punches, high kicking). For on-the-go artists, Freehand Figure Drawing for Illustrators allows you complete freedom to bring your figures to life at any time.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
For today’s in-demand comic creators, animators, video game artists, concept designers, and more, being able to quickly draw the human figure in a variety of action-packed poses is a requirement. But what do you do if you don’t have models or photographic reference readily available? In Freehand Figure Drawing for Illustrators, artist and instructor David H. Ross provides an alternative solution, showing you how to master freehand figure drawing without visual reference by using a modern twist on the classic technique of blocking out the human figure in mannequin form. Step-by-step lessons guide illustrators from basic poses (standing, running, jumping) to extreme motions (throwing punches, high kicking). For on-the-go artists, Freehand Figure Drawing for Illustrators allows you complete freedom to bring your figures to life at any time.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
"America's nerviest journalist" (Newsweek) trains his satirical eye on Modern Art in this "masterpiece" (The Washington Post)
Wolfe's style has never been more dazzling, his wit never more keen. He addresses the scope of Modern Art, from its founding days as Abstract Expressionism through its transformations to Pop, Op, Minimal, and Conceptual. The Painted Word is Tom Wolfe "at his most clever, amusing, and irreverent" (San Francisco Chronicle).
Wolfe's style has never been more dazzling, his wit never more keen. He addresses the scope of Modern Art, from its founding days as Abstract Expressionism through its transformations to Pop, Op, Minimal, and Conceptual. The Painted Word is Tom Wolfe "at his most clever, amusing, and irreverent" (San Francisco Chronicle).
DIVThis is the perfect book for readers to keep handy in the studio, and reference often. The photographs, illustrations and diagrams, make the learning process simple and fun for beginning painters and provides useful tips for more advanced artists.
This book is divided into three sections. In the first section, you will find practical advice on choosing the necessary tools and equiopment as well as hints on mixing colors—one of the trickier skills to master until you have learned some of the basic properties of color. Next, the techniques used in watercolor painting are explained in detail, from the most basic like laying washes and reserving highlights to some of the more unusual and exciting methods like wax-resist or spattering paint.
Tutorials and more than 100 step-by-step sequences demonstrate how to paint a wide range of subjects, including landscapes, buildings, people and still life. Over 180,000 copies sold worldwide./div
This book is divided into three sections. In the first section, you will find practical advice on choosing the necessary tools and equiopment as well as hints on mixing colors—one of the trickier skills to master until you have learned some of the basic properties of color. Next, the techniques used in watercolor painting are explained in detail, from the most basic like laying washes and reserving highlights to some of the more unusual and exciting methods like wax-resist or spattering paint.
Tutorials and more than 100 step-by-step sequences demonstrate how to paint a wide range of subjects, including landscapes, buildings, people and still life. Over 180,000 copies sold worldwide./div
A must-have gift book: the wit, wisdom, and frequent diatribes of mad scientist Rick Sanchez of Adult Swim's Rick and Morty, the Emmy-winning, #1 animated series on TV.
Finally, from the self-appointed "Most Intelligent Being in the Multiverse" Rick Sanchez of Rick and Morty: a mind-bending collection of his innate and acquired wisdom.
Each season, Rick and his grandson Morty embark on thrilling earthly and intergalactic adventures, all for the benefit of science (and Rick's inflated ego). But what makes the depraved genius tick? Now Rick is eager to impart his unique (and sometimes disturbing) take on life, love, and everything in-between for the benefit of aspiring mad scientists everywhere.
Fully illustrated with color images from the show, The World According to Rick is a collection of Rick's most famous (and not so famous) sayings, monologues, and quotes, complete with a personal introduction by the mad man himself. A truly unique and special book, this collectible is sure to become a cult favorite like the show that inspired it.
RICK AND MORTY, ADULT SWIM, the logos, and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and (c) 2018 Cartoon Network.
Finally, from the self-appointed "Most Intelligent Being in the Multiverse" Rick Sanchez of Rick and Morty: a mind-bending collection of his innate and acquired wisdom.
Each season, Rick and his grandson Morty embark on thrilling earthly and intergalactic adventures, all for the benefit of science (and Rick's inflated ego). But what makes the depraved genius tick? Now Rick is eager to impart his unique (and sometimes disturbing) take on life, love, and everything in-between for the benefit of aspiring mad scientists everywhere.
Fully illustrated with color images from the show, The World According to Rick is a collection of Rick's most famous (and not so famous) sayings, monologues, and quotes, complete with a personal introduction by the mad man himself. A truly unique and special book, this collectible is sure to become a cult favorite like the show that inspired it.
RICK AND MORTY, ADULT SWIM, the logos, and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and (c) 2018 Cartoon Network.
*A New York Times Bestseller*
Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman reveal the full story behind their epic romance--presented in a series of intimate conversations between the couple, including photos, anecdotes, and the occasional puzzle.
The year: 2000. The setting: Los Angeles. A gorgeous virtuoso of an actress agreed to star in a random play, and a basement-dwelling scenic carpenter said he would assay a supporting role in the selfsame pageant. At the first rehearsal she surveyed her fellow cast members, determining if any of the men might qualify to provide her with a satisfying fling. Her gaze fell upon the carpenter, and like a bolt of lightning the thought struck her: no dice. Moving on.
Yet, unbeknownst to our protagonists, Cupid had merely set down his bow and picked up a rocket launcher . . . that fired a love rocket (not a euphemism). The players were Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman, and the resulting romance, once ignited, was . . . epic. Beyond epic. It resulted in a coupling that has endured to this day; a sizzling, perpetual tryst that has captivated the world with its kindness, athleticism, astonishingly low-brow humor, and true (fire emoji) passion.
How did they do it? They came from completely different families, ignored a significant age difference, and were separated by the gulf of several social strata. Megan loved books and art history; Nick loved hammers. But much more than these seemingly unsurpassable obstacles were the values they held in common: respect, decency, the ability to mention genitalia in almost any context, and an abiding obsession with the songs of Tom Waits.
Eighteen years later, they're still very much in love and have finally decided to reveal the philosophical mountains they have conquered, the lessons they've learned, and the myriad jigsaw puzzles they've completed. Presented as an oral history in a series of conversations between the couple, the book features anecdotes, hijinks, photos, and a veritable grab bag of tomfoolery. This is not only the intoxicating book that Mullally's and Offerman's fans have been waiting for, it might just hold the solution to the greatest threat facing our modern world: the single life.
Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman reveal the full story behind their epic romance--presented in a series of intimate conversations between the couple, including photos, anecdotes, and the occasional puzzle.
The year: 2000. The setting: Los Angeles. A gorgeous virtuoso of an actress agreed to star in a random play, and a basement-dwelling scenic carpenter said he would assay a supporting role in the selfsame pageant. At the first rehearsal she surveyed her fellow cast members, determining if any of the men might qualify to provide her with a satisfying fling. Her gaze fell upon the carpenter, and like a bolt of lightning the thought struck her: no dice. Moving on.
Yet, unbeknownst to our protagonists, Cupid had merely set down his bow and picked up a rocket launcher . . . that fired a love rocket (not a euphemism). The players were Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman, and the resulting romance, once ignited, was . . . epic. Beyond epic. It resulted in a coupling that has endured to this day; a sizzling, perpetual tryst that has captivated the world with its kindness, athleticism, astonishingly low-brow humor, and true (fire emoji) passion.
How did they do it? They came from completely different families, ignored a significant age difference, and were separated by the gulf of several social strata. Megan loved books and art history; Nick loved hammers. But much more than these seemingly unsurpassable obstacles were the values they held in common: respect, decency, the ability to mention genitalia in almost any context, and an abiding obsession with the songs of Tom Waits.
Eighteen years later, they're still very much in love and have finally decided to reveal the philosophical mountains they have conquered, the lessons they've learned, and the myriad jigsaw puzzles they've completed. Presented as an oral history in a series of conversations between the couple, the book features anecdotes, hijinks, photos, and a veritable grab bag of tomfoolery. This is not only the intoxicating book that Mullally's and Offerman's fans have been waiting for, it might just hold the solution to the greatest threat facing our modern world: the single life.
Romance is lost or doomed in the bathroom. For an eager husband, who might be expecting a favour or two, and does not want to be crushed under foot, lashed by the cruel tongue or reduced to a quivering, shivering wreck - "remember, the toilet seat!". Raise and lower it like your life depended on it, and never ever, heavens no, leave skid marks inside the W.C. bowl. Next, be clean and groomed, brushed and polished, neat and tidy...this is just for starters. Anticipate her every whim; prostrate your self on the ground so that she can walk all over you, as a God given and natural right. Argue not, praise her often, second-guess her every command and shower her with compliments as you rush to do her every bidding. Even then this won't be enough! A husband’s lot is not to win, but your place in the realm of Martyrs is assured!
Comedian and star of The Office and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Ellie Kemper delivers a hilarious and uplifting collection of essays about one pale woman’s journey from Midwestern naïf to Hollywood semi-celebrity to outrageously reasonable New Yorker.
There comes a time in every sitcom actress’s life when she is faced with the prospect of writing a book. When Ellie Kemper’s number was up, she was ready. Contagiously cheerful, predictably wholesome, and mostly inspiring except for one essay about her husband’s feet, My Squirrel Days is a funny, free-wheeling tour of Ellie’s life—from growing up in suburban St. Louis with a vivid imagination and a crush on David Letterman to moving to Los Angeles and accidentally falling on Doris Kearns Goodwin.
But those are not the only famous names dropped in this synopsis. Ellie will also share stories of inadvertently insulting Ricky Gervais at the Emmy Awards, telling Tina Fey that she has “great hair—really strong and thick,” and offering a maxi pad to Steve Carell. She will take you back to her childhood as a nature lover determined to commune with squirrels, to her college career as a benchwarming field hockey player with no assigned position, and to her young professional days writing radio commercials for McDonald’s but never getting paid. Ellie will guide you along her journey through adulthood, from unorganized bride to impatient wife to anxious mother who—as recently observed by a sassy hairstylist—“dresses like a mom.” Well, sassy hairstylist, Ellie Kemper is a mom. And she has been dressing like it since she was four.
Ellie has written for GQ, Esquire, The New York Times, McSweeney’s, and The Onion. Her voice is the perfect antidote to the chaos of modern life. In short, she will tell you nothing you need to know about making it in show business, and everything you need to know about discreetly changing a diaper at a Cibo Express.
There comes a time in every sitcom actress’s life when she is faced with the prospect of writing a book. When Ellie Kemper’s number was up, she was ready. Contagiously cheerful, predictably wholesome, and mostly inspiring except for one essay about her husband’s feet, My Squirrel Days is a funny, free-wheeling tour of Ellie’s life—from growing up in suburban St. Louis with a vivid imagination and a crush on David Letterman to moving to Los Angeles and accidentally falling on Doris Kearns Goodwin.
But those are not the only famous names dropped in this synopsis. Ellie will also share stories of inadvertently insulting Ricky Gervais at the Emmy Awards, telling Tina Fey that she has “great hair—really strong and thick,” and offering a maxi pad to Steve Carell. She will take you back to her childhood as a nature lover determined to commune with squirrels, to her college career as a benchwarming field hockey player with no assigned position, and to her young professional days writing radio commercials for McDonald’s but never getting paid. Ellie will guide you along her journey through adulthood, from unorganized bride to impatient wife to anxious mother who—as recently observed by a sassy hairstylist—“dresses like a mom.” Well, sassy hairstylist, Ellie Kemper is a mom. And she has been dressing like it since she was four.
Ellie has written for GQ, Esquire, The New York Times, McSweeney’s, and The Onion. Her voice is the perfect antidote to the chaos of modern life. In short, she will tell you nothing you need to know about making it in show business, and everything you need to know about discreetly changing a diaper at a Cibo Express.
With contributions from Cheryl Strayed, Mark Cuban, Ta-Nahesi Coates, Melinda Gates, Joss Whedon, James Patterson, and many more--this fascinating collection gives us a peek into 150 personal treasures and the secret histories behind them. All of us have that one object that holds deep meaning--something that speaks to our past, that carries a remarkable story. Bestselling author Bill Shapiro collected this sweeping range of stories--he talked to everyone from renowned writers to Shark Tank hosts, from blackjack dealers to teachers, truckers, and nuns, even a reformed counterfeiter--to reveal the often hidden, always surprising lives of objects.
Real Recipes to Feed Your Inner Plastic
THE BURN COOKBOOK is a hilarious, delicious must-have cookbook for chefs (and wannabes) everywhere! Jonathan Bennett (that's right, Aaron Samuels himself) dishes out a tasty parody of Mean Girls, serving up behind-the-scenes stories from the movie alongside awesome recipes for treats that your favorite mean girls should be enjoying in Girl World. Like math, the language of food is the same in every country, and this cookbook is packed with amazing creations like Fetch-uccine Alfredo, You Go, Glenn (Hot) Cocoa, and Just Stab Caesar Salad. Written with the help of rock star chef Nikki Martin, Jonathan also shares his favorite recipes from his own childhood, like his mom's famous stuffed shells, mandarin chicken salad, and other specialties that will round out any special event. Perfect for happy hour (don't forget it's from 4:00 to 6:00 PM), Wednesdays, or when sweatpants are the only thing that fits, THE BURN COOKBOOK is a must-own book for any food lover still trying making fetch happen.
THE BURN COOKBOOK is a hilarious, delicious must-have cookbook for chefs (and wannabes) everywhere! Jonathan Bennett (that's right, Aaron Samuels himself) dishes out a tasty parody of Mean Girls, serving up behind-the-scenes stories from the movie alongside awesome recipes for treats that your favorite mean girls should be enjoying in Girl World. Like math, the language of food is the same in every country, and this cookbook is packed with amazing creations like Fetch-uccine Alfredo, You Go, Glenn (Hot) Cocoa, and Just Stab Caesar Salad. Written with the help of rock star chef Nikki Martin, Jonathan also shares his favorite recipes from his own childhood, like his mom's famous stuffed shells, mandarin chicken salad, and other specialties that will round out any special event. Perfect for happy hour (don't forget it's from 4:00 to 6:00 PM), Wednesdays, or when sweatpants are the only thing that fits, THE BURN COOKBOOK is a must-own book for any food lover still trying making fetch happen.
At long last, this is the definitive Wet Hot American Summer book fans have been clamoring for! Screenwriters David Wain and Michael Showalter take pen to page and create a hilarious, behind-the-scenes annotated version of the original screenplay that launched a thousand Halloween costumes. They provide commentary on and insight into how and why they made the artistic decisions they did while writing and filming the movie that went on to become a true cult classic, as well as an ongoing Netflix series. The book will also feature reproduced ephemera from filming—photos, original (and scathing) reviews, AIM chat conversations, marked up script pages, and so much more. Written and curated by Wain and Showalter, this will be the must-have guide to all things Wet Hot.
Move from apprentice to master with assertiveness advice from the Star WarsTM galaxy's most powerful leaders, including Darth Vader, Palpatine, and Supreme Leader Snoke.
Negotiating the workplace can be an impossible task, especially if that workplace is a towering, all-powerful force intent on taking over the galaxy. Whether your day-to-day work involves developing plans to build the Death Star, building a rebellion, or simply trying to make the printer work, the leaders of the Star Wars universe offer essential guidance on how to assertively deal with common professional pitfalls.
Find out how to get a promotion, beat the competition, manage difficult employees, and move from intern to CEO with top tips from Star Wars: Be More Vader and the most powerful villains in the Star Wars movies.
The perfect gift for colleagues and friends alike, Star Wars: Be More Vader is a tongue-in-cheek guide on how to advance your career, featuring favourite moments from the Star Wars series alongside hilarious advice and iconic, inspirational Star Wars quotes.
© & TM 2018 LUCASFILM LTD. Used Under Authorization.
Handmade Artwork to Inspire Your Creative Life
Take your love for hand lettering, coloring, and doodling to the next level with this easy guide to creating gorgeous sketches by hand. Artist Mary Phan has toured North America teaching luxury sketching workshops, and she now reveals her simple yet big-impact techniques for everyone— from beginners to experienced designers. You’ll learn to draw 14 exquisite sketches, featuring fully illustrated, detailed step-by-step instructions to ensure a frame-worthy result from your very first sketch!
Follow along with Mary’s simple, foolproof sketching process: drawing in basic shapes with a pencil and ruler, bringing the scene to life with brightly colored art markers, and outlining with black ink for the final details. From each tutorial, you’ll have your own impressive work of art to share as a gift, send as a card, share on social media, use in your business, or display in your home. No matter how you use it, this book will give you the tools and inspiration to fill your life with more color, beauty, and creativity.
Why read a book about Amy Schumer and philosophy? After all, Amy Schumer is primarily known as a comedian, though she is also an actor, writer, and producer. One reason is that it will be enlightening. Amy Schumer is one of a handful of contemporary comedians filling the role of public philosopher. To be clear, Amy herself does not claim to be offering wisdom.
This volume contains seventeen fun-filled chapters. One author makes the case that Amy uses humor to encourage her audience to consider important questions, for example, she does this when she discusses the trial of Bill Cosby while evoking fond memories of The Cosby Show. She essentially asks her audience to consider whether they give priority to unconflicted entertainment over justice for rape victims. In another chapter, the author casts a philosophical eye toward the action-comedy film Snatched and finds that it raises questions about responsibility: Is Schumer’s character, Emily, responsible for getting kidnapped in Ecuador? Is Emily responsible for the death of one of her kidnappers? Another author asks whether Snatched can be a great comedy and still get negative reviews? What is the role of art and who determines whether a work of art is good or beautiful? What do Amy Schumer and Friedrich Nietzsche have in common? Is Amy a “sex comic” or an “issue comic”? With her typical self-deprecating comedic style, Amy makes jokes by highlighting the absurd, the illogical, and the hypocritical in gender relations, notions of masculinity and femininity, and superficial values.
But the main reason to read Amy Schumer and Philosophy is that it a pretty awesome read and laughter will most definitely ensue.
This volume contains seventeen fun-filled chapters. One author makes the case that Amy uses humor to encourage her audience to consider important questions, for example, she does this when she discusses the trial of Bill Cosby while evoking fond memories of The Cosby Show. She essentially asks her audience to consider whether they give priority to unconflicted entertainment over justice for rape victims. In another chapter, the author casts a philosophical eye toward the action-comedy film Snatched and finds that it raises questions about responsibility: Is Schumer’s character, Emily, responsible for getting kidnapped in Ecuador? Is Emily responsible for the death of one of her kidnappers? Another author asks whether Snatched can be a great comedy and still get negative reviews? What is the role of art and who determines whether a work of art is good or beautiful? What do Amy Schumer and Friedrich Nietzsche have in common? Is Amy a “sex comic” or an “issue comic”? With her typical self-deprecating comedic style, Amy makes jokes by highlighting the absurd, the illogical, and the hypocritical in gender relations, notions of masculinity and femininity, and superficial values.
But the main reason to read Amy Schumer and Philosophy is that it a pretty awesome read and laughter will most definitely ensue.
Learning how to think through fashion is both exciting and challenging, being dependent on one’s ability to critically engage with an array of theories and concepts. This is the first book designed to accompany readers through the process of thinking through fashion. It aims to help them grasp both the relevance of social and cultural theory to fashion, dress, and material culture and, conversely, the relevance of those fields to social and cultural theory. It does so by offering a guide through the work of selected major thinkers, introducing their concepts and ideas. Each chapter is written by an expert contributor and is devoted to a key thinker, capturing the significance of their thought to the understanding of the field of fashion, while also assessing the importance of this field for a critical engagement with these thinkers’ ideas. This is a guide and reference for students and scholars in the fields of fashion, dress and material culture, the creative industries, sociology, cultural history, design and cultural studies.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From stand-up comedian, actress, and breakout star of Girls Trip, Tiffany Haddish, comes The Last Black Unicorn, a sidesplitting, hysterical, edgy, and unflinching collection of (extremely) personal essays, as fearless as the author herself.
Growing up in one of the poorest neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles, Tiffany learned to survive by making people laugh. If she could do that, then her classmates would let her copy their homework, the other foster kids she lived with wouldn’t beat her up, and she might even get a boyfriend. Or at least she could make enough money—as the paid school mascot and in-demand Bar Mitzvah hype woman—to get her hair and nails done, so then she might get a boyfriend.
None of that worked (and she’s still single), but it allowed Tiffany to imagine a place for herself where she could do something she loved for a living: comedy.
Tiffany can’t avoid being funny—it’s just who she is, whether she’s plotting shocking, jaw-dropping revenge on an ex-boyfriend or learning how to handle her newfound fame despite still having a broke person’s mind-set. Finally poised to become a household name, she recounts with heart and humor how she came from nothing and nowhere to achieve her dreams by owning, sharing, and using her pain to heal others.
By turns hilarious, filthy, and brutally honest, The Last Black Unicorn shows the world who Tiffany Haddish really is—humble, grateful, down-to-earth, and funny as hell. And now, she’s ready to inspire others through the power of laughter.
From stand-up comedian, actress, and breakout star of Girls Trip, Tiffany Haddish, comes The Last Black Unicorn, a sidesplitting, hysterical, edgy, and unflinching collection of (extremely) personal essays, as fearless as the author herself.
Growing up in one of the poorest neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles, Tiffany learned to survive by making people laugh. If she could do that, then her classmates would let her copy their homework, the other foster kids she lived with wouldn’t beat her up, and she might even get a boyfriend. Or at least she could make enough money—as the paid school mascot and in-demand Bar Mitzvah hype woman—to get her hair and nails done, so then she might get a boyfriend.
None of that worked (and she’s still single), but it allowed Tiffany to imagine a place for herself where she could do something she loved for a living: comedy.
Tiffany can’t avoid being funny—it’s just who she is, whether she’s plotting shocking, jaw-dropping revenge on an ex-boyfriend or learning how to handle her newfound fame despite still having a broke person’s mind-set. Finally poised to become a household name, she recounts with heart and humor how she came from nothing and nowhere to achieve her dreams by owning, sharing, and using her pain to heal others.
By turns hilarious, filthy, and brutally honest, The Last Black Unicorn shows the world who Tiffany Haddish really is—humble, grateful, down-to-earth, and funny as hell. And now, she’s ready to inspire others through the power of laughter.
Comedian and star of The Office and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Ellie Kemper delivers a hilarious and uplifting collection of essays about one pale woman’s journey from Midwestern naïf to Hollywood semi-celebrity to outrageously reasonable New Yorker.
There comes a time in every sitcom actress’s life when she is faced with the prospect of writing a book. When Ellie Kemper’s number was up, she was ready. Contagiously cheerful, predictably wholesome, and mostly inspiring except for one essay about her husband’s feet, My Squirrel Days is a funny, free-wheeling tour of Ellie’s life—from growing up in suburban St. Louis with a vivid imagination and a crush on David Letterman to moving to Los Angeles and accidentally falling on Doris Kearns Goodwin.
But those are not the only famous names dropped in this synopsis. Ellie will also share stories of inadvertently insulting Ricky Gervais at the Emmy Awards, telling Tina Fey that she has “great hair—really strong and thick,” and offering a maxi pad to Steve Carell. She will take you back to her childhood as a nature lover determined to commune with squirrels, to her college career as a benchwarming field hockey player with no assigned position, and to her young professional days writing radio commercials for McDonald’s but never getting paid. Ellie will guide you along her journey through adulthood, from unorganized bride to impatient wife to anxious mother who—as recently observed by a sassy hairstylist—“dresses like a mom.” Well, sassy hairstylist, Ellie Kemper is a mom. And she has been dressing like it since she was four.
Ellie has written for GQ, Esquire, The New York Times, McSweeney’s, and The Onion. Her voice is the perfect antidote to the chaos of modern life. In short, she will tell you nothing you need to know about making it in show business, and everything you need to know about discreetly changing a diaper at a Cibo Express.
There comes a time in every sitcom actress’s life when she is faced with the prospect of writing a book. When Ellie Kemper’s number was up, she was ready. Contagiously cheerful, predictably wholesome, and mostly inspiring except for one essay about her husband’s feet, My Squirrel Days is a funny, free-wheeling tour of Ellie’s life—from growing up in suburban St. Louis with a vivid imagination and a crush on David Letterman to moving to Los Angeles and accidentally falling on Doris Kearns Goodwin.
But those are not the only famous names dropped in this synopsis. Ellie will also share stories of inadvertently insulting Ricky Gervais at the Emmy Awards, telling Tina Fey that she has “great hair—really strong and thick,” and offering a maxi pad to Steve Carell. She will take you back to her childhood as a nature lover determined to commune with squirrels, to her college career as a benchwarming field hockey player with no assigned position, and to her young professional days writing radio commercials for McDonald’s but never getting paid. Ellie will guide you along her journey through adulthood, from unorganized bride to impatient wife to anxious mother who—as recently observed by a sassy hairstylist—“dresses like a mom.” Well, sassy hairstylist, Ellie Kemper is a mom. And she has been dressing like it since she was four.
Ellie has written for GQ, Esquire, The New York Times, McSweeney’s, and The Onion. Her voice is the perfect antidote to the chaos of modern life. In short, she will tell you nothing you need to know about making it in show business, and everything you need to know about discreetly changing a diaper at a Cibo Express.
The hit comic book series based on Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland’s hilarious [adult swim] animated show RICK & MORTY continues!
Catch up on the adventures of degenerate genius Rick Sanchez and his bumbling grandson Morty as they explore the outer reaches of time, space, and morality. This volume features Eisner award nominated writer Kyle Starks (Sexcastle) in collaboration with series artist CJ Cannon in a three-issue story of interplanetary drug rings and star-traveling pickup artists. Also included is "Rick Burn, Dude," drawn by artist Marc Ellerby, in which Rick and Morty take a germaphobic planet by storm, a totally swole one-shot drawn by Kyle Starks, and hilarious backup comics about the whole family!
Instant New York Times bestseller
“Howard Zinn on acid or some bullsh*t like that.” —Tim Heidecker
The creators of the cult-hit podcast Chapo Trap House deliver a manifesto for everyone who feels orphaned and alienated—politically, culturally, and economically—by the bloodless Wall Street centrism of the Democrats and the lizard-brained atavism of the right: there is a better way, the Chapo Way.
In a manifesto that renders all previous attempts at political satire obsolete, The Chapo Guide to Revolution shows you that you don’t have to side with either the pear-shaped vampires of the right or the craven, lanyard-wearing wonks of contemporary liberalism. These self-described “assholes from the internet” offer a fully ironic ideology for all who feel politically hopeless and prefer broadsides and tirades to reasoned debate.
Learn the “secret” history of the world, politics, media, and everything in-between that THEY don’t want you to know and chart a course from our wretched present to a utopian future where one can post in the morning, game in the afternoon, and podcast after dinner without ever becoming a poster, gamer, or podcaster.
The Chapo Guide to Revolution features illustrated taxonomies of contemporary liberal and conservative characters, biographies of important thought leaders, “never before seen” drafts of Aaron Sorkin’s Newsroom manga, and the ten new laws that govern Chapo Year Zero (everyone gets a dog, billionaires are turned into Soylent, and logic is outlawed). If you’re a fan of sacred cows, prisoners being taken, and holds being barred, then this book is NOT for you. However, if you feel disenfranchised from the political and cultural nightmare we’re in, then Chapo, let’s go...
“Howard Zinn on acid or some bullsh*t like that.” —Tim Heidecker
The creators of the cult-hit podcast Chapo Trap House deliver a manifesto for everyone who feels orphaned and alienated—politically, culturally, and economically—by the bloodless Wall Street centrism of the Democrats and the lizard-brained atavism of the right: there is a better way, the Chapo Way.
In a manifesto that renders all previous attempts at political satire obsolete, The Chapo Guide to Revolution shows you that you don’t have to side with either the pear-shaped vampires of the right or the craven, lanyard-wearing wonks of contemporary liberalism. These self-described “assholes from the internet” offer a fully ironic ideology for all who feel politically hopeless and prefer broadsides and tirades to reasoned debate.
Learn the “secret” history of the world, politics, media, and everything in-between that THEY don’t want you to know and chart a course from our wretched present to a utopian future where one can post in the morning, game in the afternoon, and podcast after dinner without ever becoming a poster, gamer, or podcaster.
The Chapo Guide to Revolution features illustrated taxonomies of contemporary liberal and conservative characters, biographies of important thought leaders, “never before seen” drafts of Aaron Sorkin’s Newsroom manga, and the ten new laws that govern Chapo Year Zero (everyone gets a dog, billionaires are turned into Soylent, and logic is outlawed). If you’re a fan of sacred cows, prisoners being taken, and holds being barred, then this book is NOT for you. However, if you feel disenfranchised from the political and cultural nightmare we’re in, then Chapo, let’s go...
FROM THE PUBLISHER:
Every time Allie Brosh posts something new on her hugely popular blog Hyperbole and a Half the internet rejoices.
Touching, absurd, and darkly comic, Allie Brosh’s highly anticipated book Hyperbole and a Half showcases her unique voice, leaping wit, and her ability to capture complex emotions with deceptively simple illustrations.
This full-color, beautifully illustrated edition features more than fifty percent new content, with ten never-before-seen essays and one wholly revised and expanded piece as well as classics from the website like, “The God of Cake,” “Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving,” and her astonishing, “Adventures in Depression,” and “Depression Part Two,” which have been hailed as some of the most insightful meditations on the disease ever written.
Brosh’s debut marks the launch of a major new American humorist who will surely make even the biggest scrooge or snob laugh. We dare you not to.
FROM THE AUTHOR:
This is a book I wrote. Because I wrote it, I had to figure out what to put on the back cover to explain what it is. I tried to write a long, third-person summary that would imply how great the book is and also sound vaguely authoritative—like maybe someone who isn’t me wrote it—but I soon discovered that I’m not sneaky enough to pull it off convincingly. So I decided to just make a list of things that are in the book:
Pictures
Words
Stories about things that happened to me
Stories about things that happened to other people because of me
Eight billion dollars*
Stories about dogs
The secret to eternal happiness*
*These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness!
Every time Allie Brosh posts something new on her hugely popular blog Hyperbole and a Half the internet rejoices.
Touching, absurd, and darkly comic, Allie Brosh’s highly anticipated book Hyperbole and a Half showcases her unique voice, leaping wit, and her ability to capture complex emotions with deceptively simple illustrations.
This full-color, beautifully illustrated edition features more than fifty percent new content, with ten never-before-seen essays and one wholly revised and expanded piece as well as classics from the website like, “The God of Cake,” “Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving,” and her astonishing, “Adventures in Depression,” and “Depression Part Two,” which have been hailed as some of the most insightful meditations on the disease ever written.
Brosh’s debut marks the launch of a major new American humorist who will surely make even the biggest scrooge or snob laugh. We dare you not to.
FROM THE AUTHOR:
This is a book I wrote. Because I wrote it, I had to figure out what to put on the back cover to explain what it is. I tried to write a long, third-person summary that would imply how great the book is and also sound vaguely authoritative—like maybe someone who isn’t me wrote it—but I soon discovered that I’m not sneaky enough to pull it off convincingly. So I decided to just make a list of things that are in the book:
Pictures
Words
Stories about things that happened to me
Stories about things that happened to other people because of me
Eight billion dollars*
Stories about dogs
The secret to eternal happiness*
*These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness!
From the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd, hilarious and informative answers to important questions you probably never thought to ask Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe’s iconic webcomic. His stick-figure drawings about science, technology, language, and love have an enormous, dedicated following, as do his deeply researched answers to his fans’ strangest questions. The queries he receives range from merely odd to downright diabolical: • What if I took a swim in a spent-nuclear-fuel pool? • Could you build a jetpack using downward-firing machine guns? • What if a Richter 15 earthquake hit New York City? • Are fire tornadoes possible? His responses are masterpieces of clarity and wit, gleefully and accurately explaining everything from the relativistic effects of a baseball pitched at near the speed of light to the many horrible ways you could die while building a periodic table out of all the actual elements. The book features new and never-before-answered questions, along with the most popular answers from the xkcd website. What If? is an informative feast for xkcd fans and anyone who loves to ponder the hypothetical.
David Sedaris returns with his most deeply personal and darkly hilarious book.
If you've ever laughed your way through David Sedaris's cheerfully misanthropic stories, you might think you know what you're getting with Calypso. You'd be wrong.
When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. And life at the Sea Section, as he names the vacation home, is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it's impossible to take a vacation from yourself.
With Calypso, Sedaris sets his formidable powers of observation toward middle age and mortality. Make no mistake: these stories are very, very funny--it's a book that can make you laugh 'til you snort, the way only family can. Sedaris's powers of observation have never been sharper, and his ability to shock readers into laughter unparalleled. But much of the comedy here is born out of that vertiginous moment when your own body betrays you and you realize that the story of your life is made up of more past than future.
This is beach reading for people who detest beaches, required reading for those who loathe small talk and love a good tumor joke. Calypso is simultaneously Sedaris's darkest and warmest book yet--and it just might be his very best.
If you've ever laughed your way through David Sedaris's cheerfully misanthropic stories, you might think you know what you're getting with Calypso. You'd be wrong.
When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. And life at the Sea Section, as he names the vacation home, is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it's impossible to take a vacation from yourself.
With Calypso, Sedaris sets his formidable powers of observation toward middle age and mortality. Make no mistake: these stories are very, very funny--it's a book that can make you laugh 'til you snort, the way only family can. Sedaris's powers of observation have never been sharper, and his ability to shock readers into laughter unparalleled. But much of the comedy here is born out of that vertiginous moment when your own body betrays you and you realize that the story of your life is made up of more past than future.
This is beach reading for people who detest beaches, required reading for those who loathe small talk and love a good tumor joke. Calypso is simultaneously Sedaris's darkest and warmest book yet--and it just might be his very best.
That Kevin Smith? The guy who did “Clerks” a million years ago? Didn’t they bounce his fat ass off a plane once? What could you possibly learn from the director of “Cop Out”? How about this: he changed filmmaking forever when he was twenty-three, and since then, he’s done whatever the hell he wants. He makes movies, writes comics, owns a store, and now he’s built a podcasting empire with his friends and family, including a wife who’s way out of his league. So here’s some tough shit: Kevin Smith has cracked the code. Or, he’s just cracked.
Tough Sh*t is the dirty business that Kevin has been digesting for 41 years and now, he’s ready to put it in your hands. Smear this shit all over yourself, because this is your blueprint (or brownprint) for success. Kev takes you through some big moments in his life to help you live your days in as Gretzky a fashion as you can: going where the puck is gonna be. Read all about how a zero like Smith managed to make ten movies with no discernible talent, and how when he had everything he thought he’d ever want, he decided to blow up his own career. Along the way, Kev shares stories about folks who inspired him (like George Carlin), folks who befuddled him (like Bruce Willis), and folks who let him jerk off onto their legs (like his beloved wife, Jen).
So make this your daily reader. Hell, read it on the toilet if you want. Just make sure you grab the bowl and push, because you’re about to take one Tough Sh*t.
Working closely with Moebius Productions in France, Dark Horse is putting the work of a master storyteller back in print--with some material in English for the first time!
Stel and Atan are interstellar investigators trying to find a lost space station and its crew. When they discover the mythical paradise planet Edena, their lives are changed forever. The long out-of-print Edena Cycle from Moebius gets a deluxe hardcover treatment! Moebius's World of Edena story arc is comprised of five chapters--Upon a Star, Gardens of Edena, The Goddess, Stel, and Sra--which are all collected here.
A storyboard artist and designer (Alien, Tron, The Fifth Element, among many others) as well as comic book master, Moebius's work has influenced creators in countless fields.
Stel and Atan are interstellar investigators trying to find a lost space station and its crew. When they discover the mythical paradise planet Edena, their lives are changed forever. The long out-of-print Edena Cycle from Moebius gets a deluxe hardcover treatment! Moebius's World of Edena story arc is comprised of five chapters--Upon a Star, Gardens of Edena, The Goddess, Stel, and Sra--which are all collected here.
A storyboard artist and designer (Alien, Tron, The Fifth Element, among many others) as well as comic book master, Moebius's work has influenced creators in countless fields.
In She Always Knew How, her wonderful new biography of legendary actress Mae West, acclaimed biographer Charlotte Chandler draws on a series of interviews she conducted with the star just months before her death in 1980. From their first meeting, where West held out a diamond-covered hand in greeting and lamented her interviewer's lack of jewels, to their farewell, where the star was still gamely offering advice on how to attract men, Mae West and Charlotte Chandler developed a warm rapport that glows on every page of this biography.
Actress, playwright, screenwriter, and iconic sex symbol Mae West was born in New York in 1893. She created a scandal -- and a sensation -- on Broadway with her play Sex in 1926. Convicted of obscenity, she was sentenced to ten days in prison. She went to jail a convict and emerged a star. Her next play, Diamond Lil, was a smash, and she would play the role of Diamond Lil in different variations for virtually her entire film career.
In Hollywood she played opposite George Raft, Cary Grant (in one of his first starring roles), and W. C. Fields, among others. She was the number one box-office attraction during the 1930s and saved Paramount Studios from bankruptcy. Her films included some notorious one-liners -- which she wrote herself -- that have become part of Hollywood lore: from "too much of a good thing can be wonderful" to "When I'm good, I'm very good. When I'm bad, I'm better." Her risqué remarks got her banned from radio for a dozen years, but behind the clever quips was Mae's deep desire, decades before the word "feminism" was in the news, to see women treated equally with men. She saw through the double standard of the time that permitted men to do things that women would be ruined for doing.
Her cause was sexual equality, and she was shrewd enough to know that it was perhaps the ultimate battleground, the most difficult cause of all. In addition to her extensive interviews of Mae West, Chandler also spoke with actors and directors who worked with and knew the star, the man with whom she lived for the last twenty-seven years of her life, as well as her closest assistant at the end of her life. Their comments and insights enrich this fascinating book. She Always Knew How captures the voice and spirit of this unique actress as no other biography ever has.
Actress, playwright, screenwriter, and iconic sex symbol Mae West was born in New York in 1893. She created a scandal -- and a sensation -- on Broadway with her play Sex in 1926. Convicted of obscenity, she was sentenced to ten days in prison. She went to jail a convict and emerged a star. Her next play, Diamond Lil, was a smash, and she would play the role of Diamond Lil in different variations for virtually her entire film career.
In Hollywood she played opposite George Raft, Cary Grant (in one of his first starring roles), and W. C. Fields, among others. She was the number one box-office attraction during the 1930s and saved Paramount Studios from bankruptcy. Her films included some notorious one-liners -- which she wrote herself -- that have become part of Hollywood lore: from "too much of a good thing can be wonderful" to "When I'm good, I'm very good. When I'm bad, I'm better." Her risqué remarks got her banned from radio for a dozen years, but behind the clever quips was Mae's deep desire, decades before the word "feminism" was in the news, to see women treated equally with men. She saw through the double standard of the time that permitted men to do things that women would be ruined for doing.
Her cause was sexual equality, and she was shrewd enough to know that it was perhaps the ultimate battleground, the most difficult cause of all. In addition to her extensive interviews of Mae West, Chandler also spoke with actors and directors who worked with and knew the star, the man with whom she lived for the last twenty-seven years of her life, as well as her closest assistant at the end of her life. Their comments and insights enrich this fascinating book. She Always Knew How captures the voice and spirit of this unique actress as no other biography ever has.
“860 glittering pages” (Janet Maslin, The New York Times): The first volume of the full-scale astonishing life of one of our greatest screen actresses; her work, her world, her Hollywood through an American century.
Frank Capra called her, “The greatest emotional actress the screen has yet known.” Now Victoria Wilson gives us the first volume of the rich, complex life of Barbara Stanwyck, an actress whose career in pictures spanned four decades beginning with the coming of sound (eighty-eight motion pictures) and lasted in television from its infancy in the 1950s through the 1980s. Here is Stanwyck revealed as the quintessential Brooklyn girl whose family was in fact of old New England stock…her years in New York as a dancer and Broadway star…her fraught marriage to Frank Fay, Broadway genius…the adoption of a son, embattled from the outset…her partnership with Zeppo Marx (the “unfunny Marx brother”) who altered the course of Stanwyck’s movie career and with her created one of the finest horse breeding farms in the west…her fairytale romance and marriage to the younger Robert Taylor, America’s most sought-after male star… Here is the shaping of her career through 1940 with many of Hollywood's most important directors, among them Frank Capra, “Wild Bill” William Wellman, George Stevens, John Ford, King Vidor, Cecil B. Demille, Preston Sturges, set against the times—the Depression, the New Deal, the rise of the unions, the advent of World War II and a fast-changing, coming-of-age motion picture industry.
And at the heart of the book, Stanwyck herself—her strengths, her fears, her frailties, losses, and desires—how she made use of the darkness in her soul, transforming herself from shunned outsider into one of Hollywood’s most revered screen actresses.
Fifteen years in the making—and written with full access to Stanwyck’s family, friends, colleagues and never-before-seen letters, journals, and photographs. Wilson’s one-of-a-kind biography—“large, thrilling, and sensitive” (Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Town & Country)—is an “epic Hollywood narrative” (USA TODAY), “so readable, and as direct as its subject” (The New York Times). With 274 photographs, many published for the first time.
Frank Capra called her, “The greatest emotional actress the screen has yet known.” Now Victoria Wilson gives us the first volume of the rich, complex life of Barbara Stanwyck, an actress whose career in pictures spanned four decades beginning with the coming of sound (eighty-eight motion pictures) and lasted in television from its infancy in the 1950s through the 1980s. Here is Stanwyck revealed as the quintessential Brooklyn girl whose family was in fact of old New England stock…her years in New York as a dancer and Broadway star…her fraught marriage to Frank Fay, Broadway genius…the adoption of a son, embattled from the outset…her partnership with Zeppo Marx (the “unfunny Marx brother”) who altered the course of Stanwyck’s movie career and with her created one of the finest horse breeding farms in the west…her fairytale romance and marriage to the younger Robert Taylor, America’s most sought-after male star… Here is the shaping of her career through 1940 with many of Hollywood's most important directors, among them Frank Capra, “Wild Bill” William Wellman, George Stevens, John Ford, King Vidor, Cecil B. Demille, Preston Sturges, set against the times—the Depression, the New Deal, the rise of the unions, the advent of World War II and a fast-changing, coming-of-age motion picture industry.
And at the heart of the book, Stanwyck herself—her strengths, her fears, her frailties, losses, and desires—how she made use of the darkness in her soul, transforming herself from shunned outsider into one of Hollywood’s most revered screen actresses.
Fifteen years in the making—and written with full access to Stanwyck’s family, friends, colleagues and never-before-seen letters, journals, and photographs. Wilson’s one-of-a-kind biography—“large, thrilling, and sensitive” (Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Town & Country)—is an “epic Hollywood narrative” (USA TODAY), “so readable, and as direct as its subject” (The New York Times). With 274 photographs, many published for the first time.
In this deliciously revealing oral history of Broadway from World War II through the early 1980s, more than one hundred theater veterans—including Carol Channing, Hal Prince, Donna McKechnie, Hal Holbrook, Andrea McArdle, and Al Hirschfeld—deliver the behind-the-scenes story of the hits, the stars, the feuds, and the fiascoes. Along the way there are evocations of the great comedians and dramatic actors who had that indefinable magic that made them stand out above the rest. With verve, love, and passion, this book gives us the story of more than half a century of great theater—from the inside out.
Acclaimed playwright David Henry Hwang’s hilarious comedy Chinglish has been described as “a sly, funny, multi-tiered joke with a laugh-out-loud surface that conceals a movingly somber aftertaste” (Village Voice) and “a triumph in any language” (New York Magazine).
Springing from the author's personal experiences in China, Chinglish follows a Midwestern American businessman desperately seeking to score a lucrative contact for his family's firm as he travels to China, only to discover how much he doesn't understand. Named for the unique and often comical third language that evolves from attempts to translate Chinese signs into English, Chinglish explores the challenges of doing business in a country whose language—and underlying cultural assumptions—are worlds apart from our own. David Henry Hwang's "best new work since M. Butterfly, this shrewd, timely and razor-sharp comedy" (Chicago Tribune) received its Broadway premiere in fall 2011, and a film adaptation is currently in development.
David Henry Hwang is the author of the Tony Award-winning M. Butterfly, Yellow Face (OBIE Award, 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalist), Golden Child (1997 OBIE Award), FOB (1981 OBIE Award), Family Devotions (Drama Desk nomination), and the books for musicals Aida ( co-author), Flower Drum Song (2002 Broadway revival), and Tarzan, among other works. David Henry Hwang graduated from Stanford University, attended the Yale School of Drama, and holds honorary degrees from Columbia College in Chicago and The American Conservatory Theatre. He lives in New York City with his wife, actress Kathryn Layng, and their children, Noah David and Eva Veanne.
Springing from the author's personal experiences in China, Chinglish follows a Midwestern American businessman desperately seeking to score a lucrative contact for his family's firm as he travels to China, only to discover how much he doesn't understand. Named for the unique and often comical third language that evolves from attempts to translate Chinese signs into English, Chinglish explores the challenges of doing business in a country whose language—and underlying cultural assumptions—are worlds apart from our own. David Henry Hwang's "best new work since M. Butterfly, this shrewd, timely and razor-sharp comedy" (Chicago Tribune) received its Broadway premiere in fall 2011, and a film adaptation is currently in development.
David Henry Hwang is the author of the Tony Award-winning M. Butterfly, Yellow Face (OBIE Award, 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalist), Golden Child (1997 OBIE Award), FOB (1981 OBIE Award), Family Devotions (Drama Desk nomination), and the books for musicals Aida ( co-author), Flower Drum Song (2002 Broadway revival), and Tarzan, among other works. David Henry Hwang graduated from Stanford University, attended the Yale School of Drama, and holds honorary degrees from Columbia College in Chicago and The American Conservatory Theatre. He lives in New York City with his wife, actress Kathryn Layng, and their children, Noah David and Eva Veanne.
Julie Andrews is the last of the great Hollywood musical stars, unequaled by any in her time.
In My Fair Lady, Julie Andrews had the biggest hit on Broadway. As the title character in Mary Poppins, she won an Academy Award. And, in 1965, The Sound of Music made her the most famous woman in the world and rescued Twentieth Century Fox from bankruptcy. Three years later, the disastrous Star! almost put the studio back under, and the leading lady of both films fell as spectacularly as she had risen.
Her film career seemed over.
Yet Julie Andrews survived, with what Moss Hart, director of My Fair Lady, called "that terrible British strength that makes you wonder why they lost India." Victor/Victoria, directed by her second husband, Blake Edwards, reinvented her screen image---but its stage version in 1997 led to the devastating loss of her defining talent, her singing voice.
Against all odds, she has fought back again, with leading roles in The Princess Diaries and Shrek 2. The real story of bandy-legged little Julia Wells from Walton-on-Thames is even more extraordinary; fresh details of her family background have only recently come to light.
This is the first completely new biography of Julie Andrews as artist, wife, and mother in over thirty-five years---combining the author's interviews with the star and his wide-ranging and riveting research. It is a frank but affectionate portrait of an enduring icon of stage and screen, who was made a Dame in the Millenium Honours List.
Once dubbed "the last of the really great broads" by Paul Newman, she was the only actress in the 2002 BBC poll The 100 Greatest Britons. But who was Dame Julie, and who is she now?
This is her story.
What do Natalie Portman, Robert Downey, Jr., Zach Braff, and Mandy Moore have in common? Before they were stars, they were campers at Stagedoor Manor, the premier summer theater camp for children and teenagers. Founded in 1975, Stagedoor continues to attract scores of young performers eager to find kindred spirits, to sing out loud, to become working actors—or maybe even stars.
Every summer for the past thirty-five years, a new crop of campers has come to the Catskills for an intense, often wrenching introduction to professional theater. (The camp produces thirteen full-scale productions during each of its three sessions.) These kids come from varying backgrounds—the offspring of Hollywood players from Nora Ephron to Bruce Willis work alongside kids on scholarship. Some campers have agents, others are seeking representation.
When Mickey Rapkin, a senior editor at GQ and self-proclaimed theater fanatic, learned about this place, he fled Manhattan for an escape to upstate New York. At Stagedoor, he tracked a trio of especially talented and determined teen actors through their final session at camp. Enter Rachael Singer, Brian Muller, and Harry Katzman, three high school seniors closing out their sometimes sheltered Stagedoor experiences and graduating into the real world of industry competition and rejection. These veteran campers—still battling childhood insecurities, but simultaneously searching for that professional gig that will catapult them to fame—pour their souls into what might be their last amateur shows.
Their riveting stories are told in Theater Geek, an eye-opening, laugh-out-loud chronicle full of drama and heart, but also about the business of training kids to be professional thespians and, in some cases, child stars. (The camp has long acted as a farm system for Broadway and Hollywood, attracting visits from studio executives and casting directors.) Via original interviews with former and current campers and staff—including Mandy Moore, Zach Braff, and Jon Cryer—Rapkin also recounts Stagedoor Manor’s colorful, star-studded history: What was Natalie Portman’s breakout role as a camper? What big-time Hollywood director, then barely a teenager, dated a much older Stagedoor staff member? Why did Courtney Love (at Stagedoor visiting her daughter) get into an argument with a hot dog vendor who had set up shop at the camp?
Theater Geek leads readers through the triumphs and tragedies of the three senior campers’ final summer in an absorbing, thought-provoking narrative that reveals the dynamic and inspiring human beings who populate this world. It also explores what the proliferation of theater camps says about our celebrity-obsessed youth and our most basic but vital need to fit in. Through the rivalry, heartbreak, and joy of one summer at Stagedoor Manor, Rapkin offers theater geeks of all ages a dishy, illuminating romp through the lives of serious child actors. Rich, insightful, and thoroughly entertaining, Theater Geek pulls back the curtain on an elite and intriguing world to reveal what’s really at its core: children who simply love to perform.
Every summer for the past thirty-five years, a new crop of campers has come to the Catskills for an intense, often wrenching introduction to professional theater. (The camp produces thirteen full-scale productions during each of its three sessions.) These kids come from varying backgrounds—the offspring of Hollywood players from Nora Ephron to Bruce Willis work alongside kids on scholarship. Some campers have agents, others are seeking representation.
When Mickey Rapkin, a senior editor at GQ and self-proclaimed theater fanatic, learned about this place, he fled Manhattan for an escape to upstate New York. At Stagedoor, he tracked a trio of especially talented and determined teen actors through their final session at camp. Enter Rachael Singer, Brian Muller, and Harry Katzman, three high school seniors closing out their sometimes sheltered Stagedoor experiences and graduating into the real world of industry competition and rejection. These veteran campers—still battling childhood insecurities, but simultaneously searching for that professional gig that will catapult them to fame—pour their souls into what might be their last amateur shows.
Their riveting stories are told in Theater Geek, an eye-opening, laugh-out-loud chronicle full of drama and heart, but also about the business of training kids to be professional thespians and, in some cases, child stars. (The camp has long acted as a farm system for Broadway and Hollywood, attracting visits from studio executives and casting directors.) Via original interviews with former and current campers and staff—including Mandy Moore, Zach Braff, and Jon Cryer—Rapkin also recounts Stagedoor Manor’s colorful, star-studded history: What was Natalie Portman’s breakout role as a camper? What big-time Hollywood director, then barely a teenager, dated a much older Stagedoor staff member? Why did Courtney Love (at Stagedoor visiting her daughter) get into an argument with a hot dog vendor who had set up shop at the camp?
Theater Geek leads readers through the triumphs and tragedies of the three senior campers’ final summer in an absorbing, thought-provoking narrative that reveals the dynamic and inspiring human beings who populate this world. It also explores what the proliferation of theater camps says about our celebrity-obsessed youth and our most basic but vital need to fit in. Through the rivalry, heartbreak, and joy of one summer at Stagedoor Manor, Rapkin offers theater geeks of all ages a dishy, illuminating romp through the lives of serious child actors. Rich, insightful, and thoroughly entertaining, Theater Geek pulls back the curtain on an elite and intriguing world to reveal what’s really at its core: children who simply love to perform.
Using dozens of real-life examples, readers will find up-to-date information on avoiding copyright infringement, working effectively with managers and music lawyers, developing management and booking agreements, and more. This updated edition is completely revised and expanded with two brand-new chapters on the do's and don't's of starting and running a band, and how to make money from music. It also includes expanded material on Internet copyright issues.
Pollyanna's eternal optimism has made her one of the most beloved characters in American literature. First published in 1913, her story spawned the formation of "Glad" clubs all over the country, devoted to playing Pollyanna's famous game. Pollyanna has since sold over one million copies, been translated into several languages, and has become both a Broadway play and a Disney motion picture.
Brimming with advice and techniques, this essential reference for book- and songwriters clearly explains the fundamentals of the three crafts of a musical—book, music, and lyrics. Using copious examples from classic shows, Frankel has created the quintessential musical writers' how-to. Among the topics:definitions of musical theater; differences between musical books and straight plays and between poetry and lyrics; what a score is and how it develops; how to write for the voice; and how to audition musicals for producers. With a new introduction and revised text, Frankel's work is ready to guide a new generation of aspiring writers.
“It is a meditation on Chicago’s old soul . . . a witty, seductive, live-wire and greatly entertaining dark comedy that you just don’t want to end.” –Chicago Tribune
“The sting, the speed and marksmanship of the gimcracks his characters fire at each other . . . drips the kind of soulful, energized sarcasm that has long characterized [Letts’] work as an actor and playwright.”–Time Out Chicago
Tracy Letts, who won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for his epic, caustic Oklahoma family drama August: Osage County, has shifted gears with this entertaining comedy set in a donut shop. A love letter to the city where he has lived for more than twenty years, Letts describes his new work as “an exploration of the Chicago storefront experience.” The play takes place in the north side neighborhood of Uptown, where Arthur Przybyszewski runs the donut shop that has been in his family for sixty years. More content to spend the day smoking weed and reminiscing about his Polish immigrant father, Arthur hires a shop assistant, the young African American Franco Wicks, who has both an unpublished novel and unpaid gambling debt. Superior Donuts premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre Company and recently opened on Broadway—following the same path of success as Letts’ previous work.
Tracy Letts is the author of Killer Joe, Bug, Man from Nebraska (nominated for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize), and August: Osage County (awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama). He is a member of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
The fourth book in Dawn Dais's popular Sh!t No One Tells You series offers "been there, freaked out about that" advice for expectant parents
The fourth title in Dawn Dais's popular parenting series, The Sh!t No One Tells You About Pregnancy is quite possibly the funniest, and most heartfelt, yet. After all, pregnancy is not all about scanning Pinterest for baby shower themes and registering for ironic onesies, and sometimes the less flattering aspects of gestation have a way of dimming a bit of that so-called pregnancy glow.
Not to worry! Dawn is here, ready to shepherd you through the experience of one human body taking on the task of growing another human body. (Spoiler alert: It ain't always pretty.)
Dawn covers it all, sharing expert lists, tips, warnings, and even a series of Parent-Training Workouts designed to increase readers' tolerance to the various indignities of parenthood, like peeing with an audience and surviving an afternoon in Chuck E. Cheese.
The Sh!t No One Tells You About Pregnancy is a must-have guide for expectant moms (and their partners!) who are looking for some counsel, comedy, and camaraderie during their ultimate countdown to parenthood.
The fourth title in Dawn Dais's popular parenting series, The Sh!t No One Tells You About Pregnancy is quite possibly the funniest, and most heartfelt, yet. After all, pregnancy is not all about scanning Pinterest for baby shower themes and registering for ironic onesies, and sometimes the less flattering aspects of gestation have a way of dimming a bit of that so-called pregnancy glow.
Not to worry! Dawn is here, ready to shepherd you through the experience of one human body taking on the task of growing another human body. (Spoiler alert: It ain't always pretty.)
Dawn covers it all, sharing expert lists, tips, warnings, and even a series of Parent-Training Workouts designed to increase readers' tolerance to the various indignities of parenthood, like peeing with an audience and surviving an afternoon in Chuck E. Cheese.
The Sh!t No One Tells You About Pregnancy is a must-have guide for expectant moms (and their partners!) who are looking for some counsel, comedy, and camaraderie during their ultimate countdown to parenthood.
A hilarious, honest memoir—combined with just the right amount of relationship advice—from the popular actress and host of the hit podcast Anna Faris is Unqualified.
Anna Faris has advice for you. And it's great advice, because she's been through it all, and she wants to tell you what she's learned.
After surviving an awkward childhood (when she bribed the fastest boy in the third grade with ice cream), navigating dating and marriage in Hollywood, and building a podcast around romantic advice, Anna has plenty of lessons to share: Advocate for yourself. Know that there are wonderful people out there and that a great relationship is possible. And, finally, don't date magicians.
Her comic memoir, Unqualified, shares Anna's candid, sympathetic, and entertaining stories of love lost and won. Part memoir—including stories about being “the short girl” in elementary school, finding and keeping female friends, and dealing with the pressures of the entertainment industry and parenthood—part humorous, unflinching advice from her hit podcast, Anna Faris Is Unqualified, the book will reveal Anna's unique take on how to master the bizarre, chaotic, and ultimately rewarding world of love.
Hilarious, honest, and useful, Unqualified is the book Anna's fans have been waiting for.
Anna Faris has advice for you. And it's great advice, because she's been through it all, and she wants to tell you what she's learned.
After surviving an awkward childhood (when she bribed the fastest boy in the third grade with ice cream), navigating dating and marriage in Hollywood, and building a podcast around romantic advice, Anna has plenty of lessons to share: Advocate for yourself. Know that there are wonderful people out there and that a great relationship is possible. And, finally, don't date magicians.
Her comic memoir, Unqualified, shares Anna's candid, sympathetic, and entertaining stories of love lost and won. Part memoir—including stories about being “the short girl” in elementary school, finding and keeping female friends, and dealing with the pressures of the entertainment industry and parenthood—part humorous, unflinching advice from her hit podcast, Anna Faris Is Unqualified, the book will reveal Anna's unique take on how to master the bizarre, chaotic, and ultimately rewarding world of love.
Hilarious, honest, and useful, Unqualified is the book Anna's fans have been waiting for.
Inside Sorry I Barfed on Your Bed, writer and comedian Jeremy Greenberg presents a collection of laugh-out-loud letters and photographs that offer a cat's eye view on common feline vs. human cohabitation conundrums. It's the perfect gift for crazy cat lovers and anyone who appreciates hilarious (and so true!) insights into cat—and human—nature, including:Your cat sits on your laptop not just for warmth or attention, but to prevent you from interacting with the outside world. After all, isn’t the main reason to have a cat so you don’t have to waste time developing normal human relationships?
If you spent a third of your life licking yourself, you too would occasionally forget to stick your tongue back in your face.
Eating grass has medicinal purposes, and most cats believe grass should be legalized.
The cat feels bad about barfing on your bed…because now it must get to up to go sleep on your clean laundry instead.
Compiled in one book, the essential collection of Psmith books by P. G. Wodehouse:
Mike and Psmith
Psmith in the City
Psmith, Journalist
Mike and Psmith
Psmith in the City
Psmith, Journalist
CAPTURED ONCE MORE! Morty is back in Rick's clutches... but could he be an ally in the fight against the Council of Ricks? Maybe! Or maybe he just wants to see Morty fight a bunch of other Mortys on the way. We'll find out!
That Kevin Smith? The guy who did “Clerks” a million years ago? Didn’t they bounce his fat ass off a plane once? What could you possibly learn from the director of “Cop Out”? How about this: he changed filmmaking forever when he was twenty-three, and since then, he’s done whatever the hell he wants. He makes movies, writes comics, owns a store, and now he’s built a podcasting empire with his friends and family, including a wife who’s way out of his league. So here’s some tough shit: Kevin Smith has cracked the code. Or, he’s just cracked.
Tough Sh*t is the dirty business that Kevin has been digesting for 41 years and now, he’s ready to put it in your hands. Smear this shit all over yourself, because this is your blueprint (or brownprint) for success. Kev takes you through some big moments in his life to help you live your days in as Gretzky a fashion as you can: going where the puck is gonna be. Read all about how a zero like Smith managed to make ten movies with no discernible talent, and how when he had everything he thought he’d ever want, he decided to blow up his own career. Along the way, Kev shares stories about folks who inspired him (like George Carlin), folks who befuddled him (like Bruce Willis), and folks who let him jerk off onto their legs (like his beloved wife, Jen).
So make this your daily reader. Hell, read it on the toilet if you want. Just make sure you grab the bowl and push, because you’re about to take one Tough Sh*t.
Here we go vampire-ing again! Summer's still being held captive by the Draculas (who are actually sort of smitten with her) and our hallowed heroes are storming the castle—literally! It's a drag-out, fang-out, stake-out, blood-soaked rescue story. So many Draculas! So many scary windows! So many vampire fights! Rick's drunk! Morty's useless! Beth is trying! Jerry is a you know what! It's the second part of the dynamic LET THE RICK ONE IN vampire-y two parter, co-written by TINI HOWARD (Rick and Morty: Pocket Like You Stole It)! It's awesome!
From the authors of The Book of Beer Pong and The Book of Beer Awesomeness, this illuminating and hilarious volume features everything a person could ever wish to know (and more!) about everyone's favorite bodily function. It's loaded with interesting information, from the history of farts to different types of flatulence ("Much like a fingerprint, no two farts sound—or smell—alike"). Also featuring the best fart techniques, defenses, and pranks, The Fart Tootorial will make any reader a master of the gas we pass.
Says the SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE, "This book is worthy of a book rustler." In the tradition of humorist Will Rogers, it takes a look at life through the eyes of the cowboy. It is filled with quips and quotes that represent the Code of the West, like: "Always drink upstream from the herd" and "The easiest way to eat crow is while it's still warm. The colder it gets, the harder it is to swallow."
Henry Ward Beecher said “the common sense of one century is the common sense of the next.” That said, these pocket-sized humor books pack quite a bit of punch—lines that is. With more than 1.5 million copies in print, their all-new look will leave a whole new generation in stitches!
Henry Ward Beecher said “the common sense of one century is the common sense of the next.” That said, these pocket-sized humor books pack quite a bit of punch—lines that is. With more than 1.5 million copies in print, their all-new look will leave a whole new generation in stitches!
A laugh-out-loud, adults-only bedtime story for parents familiar with the age-old struggle of putting their kids to bed
“Hell no, you can’t go to the bathroom. You know where you can go? The f**k to sleep.”
Go the Fuck to Sleep is a book for parents who live in the real world, where a few snoozing kitties and cutesy rhymes don’t always send a toddler sailing blissfully off to dreamland. Profane, affectionate, and radically honest, it captures the familiar—and unspoken—tribulations of putting your little angel down for the night.
Read by a host of celebrities, from Samuel L. Jackson to Jennifer Garner, this subversively funny bestselling storybook will not actually put your kids to sleep, but it will leave you laughing so hard you won’t care.
“Hell no, you can’t go to the bathroom. You know where you can go? The f**k to sleep.”
Go the Fuck to Sleep is a book for parents who live in the real world, where a few snoozing kitties and cutesy rhymes don’t always send a toddler sailing blissfully off to dreamland. Profane, affectionate, and radically honest, it captures the familiar—and unspoken—tribulations of putting your little angel down for the night.
Read by a host of celebrities, from Samuel L. Jackson to Jennifer Garner, this subversively funny bestselling storybook will not actually put your kids to sleep, but it will leave you laughing so hard you won’t care.
“The industry bible” (Los Angeles Times), now updated, essential for anyone in the music business—musicians, songwriters, lawyers, agents, promoters, publishers, executives, and managers—trying to navigate the rapid transformation of the industry.
For more than twenty years, All You Need to Know About the Music Business has been universally regarded as the definitive guide to the music industry. Now in its ninth edition, this latest edition leads novices and experts alike through the crucial, up-to-the-minute information on the industry’s major changes in response to today’s rapid technological advances and uncertain economy.
Whether you are—or aspire to be—a performer, writer, or executive, veteran music lawyer Donald Passman’s comprehensive guide is an indispensable tool. He offers timely, authoritative information from how to select and hire a winning team of advisors and structure their commissions and fees; navigate the ins and outs of record deals, songwriting, publishing, and copyrights; maximize concert, touring, and merchandising deals; understand the digital streaming services; and how to take a comprehensive look at the rapidly transforming landscape of the music business as a whole.
The music industry is in the eye of the storm, when everyone in the business is scrambling to figure out what’s going to happen to the major labels and what it will mean for the careers of artists and business professionals. No musician, songwriter, entertainment lawyer, agent, promoter, publisher, manager, or record company executive—anyone who makes their living from music—can afford to be without All You Need to Know About the Music Business. As Adam Levine, lead singer and guitarist of Maroon 5, says, “If you want to be in music, you have to read this book.”
For more than twenty years, All You Need to Know About the Music Business has been universally regarded as the definitive guide to the music industry. Now in its ninth edition, this latest edition leads novices and experts alike through the crucial, up-to-the-minute information on the industry’s major changes in response to today’s rapid technological advances and uncertain economy.
Whether you are—or aspire to be—a performer, writer, or executive, veteran music lawyer Donald Passman’s comprehensive guide is an indispensable tool. He offers timely, authoritative information from how to select and hire a winning team of advisors and structure their commissions and fees; navigate the ins and outs of record deals, songwriting, publishing, and copyrights; maximize concert, touring, and merchandising deals; understand the digital streaming services; and how to take a comprehensive look at the rapidly transforming landscape of the music business as a whole.
The music industry is in the eye of the storm, when everyone in the business is scrambling to figure out what’s going to happen to the major labels and what it will mean for the careers of artists and business professionals. No musician, songwriter, entertainment lawyer, agent, promoter, publisher, manager, or record company executive—anyone who makes their living from music—can afford to be without All You Need to Know About the Music Business. As Adam Levine, lead singer and guitarist of Maroon 5, says, “If you want to be in music, you have to read this book.”
"We loved the book. The information was well paced and concise enough not to overwhelm. Any beginner would definitely benefit from having this book, and it's a great reminder for those who might have forgotten details or are looking for them.” -- Nimal De Silva, The Music Garage (Singapore)
"Plenty of detail that goes into posture, hand position, thumb position, etc. The notation and strumming is really good here because it builds up in stages. In a lesson, you can introduce it in this way piece by piece and not overwhelm the student." -- Michael Hanna, Grade 8 RS.Guitar - Larne Guitar School (N.Ireland)
Learn to Play Guitar is comprehensive and clear with over 180 photographic examples, illustrations and purpose made diagrams. This guitar book includes 42 downloadable mp3 tracks of full band demo and backing track with the guitar removed for you to play over. Learn to Play Guitar bridges the gaps explaining guitar techniques that can be taken for granted by more experienced guitar players.
Melodies: To get you straight into playing music, numbers have been added underneath guitar tablature to assist with the rhythm. Later on, the rhythmical aspect of conventional music notation is covered so you can use it in conjunction with tablature.
Rhythm Guitar: Changing between chords and strumming are presented as separate subjects initially, so that you can develop coordination in each hand independently. They are then brought together starting basic and getting more advanced until there is a rhythm guitar musical piece to play.
Music theory: The major scale, minor scale, major and minor pentatonic scales and basic major and minor chord construction are explained in terms of the fret-board and reinforced by musical pieces in various styles to make the learning process practical and enjoyable.
What else?: Fret-board layout, power chords, barre chords, how to string a guitar, how to practise guitar, palm muting and basic lead guitar techniques.
Please Note: The eBook includes musical pieces so is not suitable for smaller screens.
"This top value eBook and MP3 package covers a wide range topics essential for all guitarists. Over 100 pages with plenty of information and solid advice that a player can dip into as needed. Evans does not gloss over the often neglected area of reading notation for rhythm. There are many examples to practice (melodies and rhythm patterns) with the backing tracks. I was especially interested in the final section of exercises to keep your body guitar-ready. A very useful tool to help you progress with your guitar playing." -- Hedley Timbs BA(Mus), Grad.Dip. Teaching (New Zealand)
"Awesome. Well laid out, easy to look at and there is the supplemental material to top it off. The theory may get tedious for some, it's hard to not teach theory but most people seem to have an aversion to it, the idea of discipline I think." -- Gernot Schlegel, Professional Guitarist & Teacher (Canada)
"There’s two ways of learning the guitar – the first is two learn enough of the basics to fly towards playing your favourite songs competently, and the second is to intensively gain an understanding of the instrument by forming a solid foundation through taking your time with it in the early stages. The book titled “Learn to play Guitar” by Gareth Evans is of the latter approach. Through reading and learning from this book, players can discover a deep, extensive and in-depth approach to the technique, theory and everything else related to being a good beginner guitarist. Newcomers can learn positive and productive exercises to train their body to better play the guitar (not just their fingers) and across the 120 or so pages within, it’s clear that the writer has put a lot of time into figuring out the right approach for starters to take when adjusting to the standard 6-string. Would recommend this for anyone who is looking to get a really solid grip on how to play the guitar, and also to tutors who are looking at ways to improve their own tutoring abilities." -- Logan Ellis, Mgr. Spiderhands Productions Ltd (New Zealand)
"Learn to play Guitar is an ideal companion to support the beginner on their new found musical journey. Highly recommended." -- Liam Cain, BMus (hons) Professional Guitarist (UK)
"Plenty of detail that goes into posture, hand position, thumb position, etc. The notation and strumming is really good here because it builds up in stages. In a lesson, you can introduce it in this way piece by piece and not overwhelm the student." -- Michael Hanna, Grade 8 RS.Guitar - Larne Guitar School (N.Ireland)
Learn to Play Guitar is comprehensive and clear with over 180 photographic examples, illustrations and purpose made diagrams. This guitar book includes 42 downloadable mp3 tracks of full band demo and backing track with the guitar removed for you to play over. Learn to Play Guitar bridges the gaps explaining guitar techniques that can be taken for granted by more experienced guitar players.
Melodies: To get you straight into playing music, numbers have been added underneath guitar tablature to assist with the rhythm. Later on, the rhythmical aspect of conventional music notation is covered so you can use it in conjunction with tablature.
Rhythm Guitar: Changing between chords and strumming are presented as separate subjects initially, so that you can develop coordination in each hand independently. They are then brought together starting basic and getting more advanced until there is a rhythm guitar musical piece to play.
Music theory: The major scale, minor scale, major and minor pentatonic scales and basic major and minor chord construction are explained in terms of the fret-board and reinforced by musical pieces in various styles to make the learning process practical and enjoyable.
What else?: Fret-board layout, power chords, barre chords, how to string a guitar, how to practise guitar, palm muting and basic lead guitar techniques.
Please Note: The eBook includes musical pieces so is not suitable for smaller screens.
"This top value eBook and MP3 package covers a wide range topics essential for all guitarists. Over 100 pages with plenty of information and solid advice that a player can dip into as needed. Evans does not gloss over the often neglected area of reading notation for rhythm. There are many examples to practice (melodies and rhythm patterns) with the backing tracks. I was especially interested in the final section of exercises to keep your body guitar-ready. A very useful tool to help you progress with your guitar playing." -- Hedley Timbs BA(Mus), Grad.Dip. Teaching (New Zealand)
"Awesome. Well laid out, easy to look at and there is the supplemental material to top it off. The theory may get tedious for some, it's hard to not teach theory but most people seem to have an aversion to it, the idea of discipline I think." -- Gernot Schlegel, Professional Guitarist & Teacher (Canada)
"There’s two ways of learning the guitar – the first is two learn enough of the basics to fly towards playing your favourite songs competently, and the second is to intensively gain an understanding of the instrument by forming a solid foundation through taking your time with it in the early stages. The book titled “Learn to play Guitar” by Gareth Evans is of the latter approach. Through reading and learning from this book, players can discover a deep, extensive and in-depth approach to the technique, theory and everything else related to being a good beginner guitarist. Newcomers can learn positive and productive exercises to train their body to better play the guitar (not just their fingers) and across the 120 or so pages within, it’s clear that the writer has put a lot of time into figuring out the right approach for starters to take when adjusting to the standard 6-string. Would recommend this for anyone who is looking to get a really solid grip on how to play the guitar, and also to tutors who are looking at ways to improve their own tutoring abilities." -- Logan Ellis, Mgr. Spiderhands Productions Ltd (New Zealand)
"Learn to play Guitar is an ideal companion to support the beginner on their new found musical journey. Highly recommended." -- Liam Cain, BMus (hons) Professional Guitarist (UK)
Examining the dynamics of hip-hop from every region and in every form—mainstream and underground, current and classic—this compelling how-to discusses everything from content and flow to rhythm and delivery in relation to the art and craft of rap. Compiled from the most extensive research on rapping to date, this first-of-its-kind guide delivers countless candid and exclusive insights from more than 100 of the most critically acclaimed artists in hip-hop—including Clipse, Cypress Hill, Nelly, Public Enemy, Remy Ma, Schoolly D, A Tribe Called Quest, and will.i.am—unraveling the stories behind their art and preserving a wealth of the genre’s history through the words of the legends themselves. Exhaustively detailing the many complex aspects of rapping—such as utilizing literary tools and devices to strengthen content, battling, imagery, similes, metaphors, analogies, slang, performing both live and in the studio, word play, controversial content and punchlines, and constructing beats, singles, and freestyling—with emphasis on enunciating and breathing for unique vocal style, this remarkable book will benefit beginners and pros alike with its limitless wealth of rapping lore and insight.
Idiot's Guides: Guitar Theory is music theory for guitar and other fretboard instruments. Beginning with very simple and clear explanations, the book defines notes, their names, relationships, and guitar tablature and then explains rhythm, keeping time, and strumming. The book then goes into depth on the major scale and the four basic chords, to make guitar theory very clear and keep it easy, before going into all the chords and scales. The last part of the book covers playing solo and with others. There is more than an hour of listen- and follow-along audio files online with all of the music in the book and more.
(Book). Following in the footsteps of the popular Hal Leonard Pocket Music Dictionary , this handy pocket-sized book is the most contemporary music theory book on the market! A step-by-step guide to harmony and theory for every musician, it includes thorough, yet to easy-to-understand analysis of: intervals, rhythms, scales, chords, key signatures, transposition, chord inversion, key centers, harmonizing the major and minor scales, extended chords, modulation and much more. Packed with info from the Harmony & Theory course at Musicians Institute!
Invaluable advice that will be music to your ears!
Are you thinking of getting started in home recording? Do youwant to know the latest home recording technologies? HomeRecording For Musicians For Dummies will get you recordingmusic at home in no time. It shows you how to set up a home studio,record and edit your music, master it, and even distribute yoursongs.
With this guide, you?ll learn how to compare studio-in-a-box,computer-based, and stand-alone recording systems and choose whatyou need. You?ll gain the skills to manage your sound, take fulladvantage of MIDI, mike common instruments, do overdubs and replacemissed notes, understand the mastering process, and prepare yourmusic for duplication.
Explains how to put together all the things your home recordingstudio should haveShows you how to perform multitrack recording and venture intoMIDI sequencingDetails ways to clean up your tracks by becoming an expert atmixing and editingAddresses choosing the gear that suits your projectWalks you through adding computers and software to yourrecording tools and enhancing sound with professional editingtipsFeatures instructions for setting up microphones, connectingelectronic instruments, and orking with MIDI and electronicinstrumentsIncludes advice for editing tracks, mixing, mastering, anddistributing your songsWhether you?re a beginning musician or a pro, Home RecordingFor Musicians For Dummies teaches you home recording basics soyou can begin recording music at home and create great CDs.
Teach how to play guitar for kids with our easy guitar lessons for kids.
***Comes with online access to free guitar videos and audio demonstrating all examples. See and hear how each one is played by a teacher, then play along with the backing band. Also includes music score animation for easy music learning.***
"This children's book is a positive learning experience for introducing music reading to young guitarists. The [audio] is extremely helpful as the child can point out the notes in the book while listening. The sound effects seem to capture the child's imagination and attention well. I use this book for 5 year olds to 9. Highly recommended." - Alan J. Grundy [Amazon]
Progressive Guitar Method for Young Beginners - Book 1 contains all you need to know to start teaching kids to play guitar - in one easy-to-follow, lesson-by-lesson children’s guitar tutorial. Suitable for children aged 4 to 8 years and all types of guitars including acoustic guitar and electric guitar. No prior knowledge of how to read music or playing the guitar is required to teach a child to learn to play guitar from this book.
Teach your child:
• How to play guitar chords for kids and guitar strumming patterns
• How to play guitar notes for kids and guitar scales for kids
• All the fundamental techniques of guitar playing including correct posture, hand position and fingering technique for 5 beginner guitar notes and 4 beginner guitar chords
• Basic guitar theory for kids including how to read music
• Guitar tips for kids that every child should know when learning guitar
• Shortcuts for how to learn guitar fast by getting the most from guitar practice sessions
Contains everything you need to know about how to teach a child to play guitar today.
Features include:
• Progressive step-by-step easy guitar lessons written by a professional children’s guitar teacher
• Beautifully illustrated in full color throughout
• Easy-to-read guitar music for kids, guitar chords for kids
• Guitar chord chart
• 57 great sounding guitar exercises, guitar chord progressions and popular easy guitar music for kids
Kids guitar lessons have never been this easy for parents and teachers who want to teach children to learn how to play the guitar, fast.
***Comes with online access to free guitar videos and audio demonstrating all examples. See and hear how each one is played by a teacher, then play along with the backing band. Also includes music score animation for easy music learning.***
"This children's book is a positive learning experience for introducing music reading to young guitarists. The [audio] is extremely helpful as the child can point out the notes in the book while listening. The sound effects seem to capture the child's imagination and attention well. I use this book for 5 year olds to 9. Highly recommended." - Alan J. Grundy [Amazon]
Progressive Guitar Method for Young Beginners - Book 1 contains all you need to know to start teaching kids to play guitar - in one easy-to-follow, lesson-by-lesson children’s guitar tutorial. Suitable for children aged 4 to 8 years and all types of guitars including acoustic guitar and electric guitar. No prior knowledge of how to read music or playing the guitar is required to teach a child to learn to play guitar from this book.
Teach your child:
• How to play guitar chords for kids and guitar strumming patterns
• How to play guitar notes for kids and guitar scales for kids
• All the fundamental techniques of guitar playing including correct posture, hand position and fingering technique for 5 beginner guitar notes and 4 beginner guitar chords
• Basic guitar theory for kids including how to read music
• Guitar tips for kids that every child should know when learning guitar
• Shortcuts for how to learn guitar fast by getting the most from guitar practice sessions
Contains everything you need to know about how to teach a child to play guitar today.
Features include:
• Progressive step-by-step easy guitar lessons written by a professional children’s guitar teacher
• Beautifully illustrated in full color throughout
• Easy-to-read guitar music for kids, guitar chords for kids
• Guitar chord chart
• 57 great sounding guitar exercises, guitar chord progressions and popular easy guitar music for kids
Kids guitar lessons have never been this easy for parents and teachers who want to teach children to learn how to play the guitar, fast.
Mixing and mastering are the final challenges in creating great recordings. Great mixes require both creativity and a practical understanding of process, while final masters require both a clear sense for purpose and specialized ears for achieving artistic goals. Mixing and Mastering in the Box gives readers the practical tools for accomplishing both of these tasks while highlighting the artistry of the creative process. While much of the information presented in Mixing and Mastering in the Box is applicable to those using analog mixing gear, or a hybrid of digital and analog tools, the book focuses directly on working completely within the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Author Steve Savage lets readers in on such topics as the secrets of collaboration and using EQ, compression, delay, reverb, and brickwall limiting to improve the sound of records, each topic illustrated with a myriad of concrete examples. Mixing and Mastering in the Box is the ultimate reference manual for the home recordist and the perfect basic to intermediate text for any DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) training class in mixing or mastering. The book is also ideal for readers who handle their own mixing and mastering or who wish - or are professionally required - to be better informed when collaborating on mixes and masters.
The long-awaited New York Times bestselling memoir of seven-time Grammy-nominated artist Charlie Wilson, the iconic R&B and Funk singer-songwriter-producer and former lead singer of The Gap Band—interwoven with his recollections of collaborating with fellow artists such as Stevie Wonder, Kanye West, and Snoop Dogg.
Recognized the world over for his distinct voice and timeless hits spanning a career of nearly half a century, Charlie Wilson is one of the most celebrated musicians of his generation. So it took friends and family by surprise when he checked into rehab and revealed that he had been not only homeless, but also helpless.
Here is the riveting story of how love and faith carried him through not only his addiction, but also prostate cancer. Here, too, is the story of his work in the music business, including a career resurgence that saw collaborations with some of the most sought-after artists of today, including Pharrell and Justin Timberlake.
Now over twenty years sober, Wilson recounts a life filled with vertiginous highs and heartbreaking lows. His is a story of triumph over adversity, courage in the face of extreme hardship, and love when all else is lost. It is a tale of the last sixty years in social and pop culture history, and one that will stay with you for years to come.
Recognized the world over for his distinct voice and timeless hits spanning a career of nearly half a century, Charlie Wilson is one of the most celebrated musicians of his generation. So it took friends and family by surprise when he checked into rehab and revealed that he had been not only homeless, but also helpless.
Here is the riveting story of how love and faith carried him through not only his addiction, but also prostate cancer. Here, too, is the story of his work in the music business, including a career resurgence that saw collaborations with some of the most sought-after artists of today, including Pharrell and Justin Timberlake.
Now over twenty years sober, Wilson recounts a life filled with vertiginous highs and heartbreaking lows. His is a story of triumph over adversity, courage in the face of extreme hardship, and love when all else is lost. It is a tale of the last sixty years in social and pop culture history, and one that will stay with you for years to come.
Teach yourself how to play keyboard with our easy electronic keyboard lessons for beginners.
***Comes with online access to free keyboard videos and audio for all examples. See and hear how each one is played by a teacher, then play along with the backing band. Also includes music score and keyboard animation for easy music learning.***
"What an amazing book! I recently bought it for my son and he loves it. Starting with the basics, you learn keyboard essentials very quickly. Before long, you can make your keyboard sound like a full band!" - John Litoris, Phoenix AZ
Progressive Beginner Electronic Keyboard contains all you need to know to start learning to be a great electronic keyboard player - in one easy-to-follow, lesson-by-lesson electronic keyboard tutorial. Suitable for all ages and all types of musical keyboard, electric piano and electronic piano with an auto-chord function including Yamaha keyboards, Casio keyboard and other digital keyboard. No prior knowledge of how to read music or playing the electronic keyboard is required to teach yourself to learn to play keyboard from this book.
Teach yourself:
• How to play electronic keyboard notes and electronic keyboard chords - both full fingered and automatic chords using the auto accompaniment function
• How to play keyboard scales, melodies and rhythms
• All the fundamental techniques of electronic keyboard playing including correct posture, hand positions and fingering technique
• A fast and easy system for learning the keyboard theory required to read piano music for beginners including scales, sharps and flats, ties, rests, key signatures and time signatures
• Electronic keyboard tips and electronic keyboard tricks that every player should know when learning keyboard
• Shortcuts for how to learn keyboard fast by getting the most from keyboard practice sessions
Contains everything you need to know to learn to play the keyboard today.
Features include:
• Progressive step-by-step easy beginners keyboard lessons written by a professional electronic keyboard teacher
• Easy-to-read keyboard music and keyboard chords for beginners
• Full color photos and diagrams
• Keyboard chord chart containing formulas and chord diagrams for all important keyboard chords
• 50+ electronic keyboard exercises and popular easy keyboard songs for beginners in rock keyboard, blues keyboard, folk keyboard and classical keyboard styles
Beginner keyboard lessons have never been this easy for anyone who wants to learn how to play the keyboard, fast.
***Comes with online access to free keyboard videos and audio for all examples. See and hear how each one is played by a teacher, then play along with the backing band. Also includes music score and keyboard animation for easy music learning.***
"What an amazing book! I recently bought it for my son and he loves it. Starting with the basics, you learn keyboard essentials very quickly. Before long, you can make your keyboard sound like a full band!" - John Litoris, Phoenix AZ
Progressive Beginner Electronic Keyboard contains all you need to know to start learning to be a great electronic keyboard player - in one easy-to-follow, lesson-by-lesson electronic keyboard tutorial. Suitable for all ages and all types of musical keyboard, electric piano and electronic piano with an auto-chord function including Yamaha keyboards, Casio keyboard and other digital keyboard. No prior knowledge of how to read music or playing the electronic keyboard is required to teach yourself to learn to play keyboard from this book.
Teach yourself:
• How to play electronic keyboard notes and electronic keyboard chords - both full fingered and automatic chords using the auto accompaniment function
• How to play keyboard scales, melodies and rhythms
• All the fundamental techniques of electronic keyboard playing including correct posture, hand positions and fingering technique
• A fast and easy system for learning the keyboard theory required to read piano music for beginners including scales, sharps and flats, ties, rests, key signatures and time signatures
• Electronic keyboard tips and electronic keyboard tricks that every player should know when learning keyboard
• Shortcuts for how to learn keyboard fast by getting the most from keyboard practice sessions
Contains everything you need to know to learn to play the keyboard today.
Features include:
• Progressive step-by-step easy beginners keyboard lessons written by a professional electronic keyboard teacher
• Easy-to-read keyboard music and keyboard chords for beginners
• Full color photos and diagrams
• Keyboard chord chart containing formulas and chord diagrams for all important keyboard chords
• 50+ electronic keyboard exercises and popular easy keyboard songs for beginners in rock keyboard, blues keyboard, folk keyboard and classical keyboard styles
Beginner keyboard lessons have never been this easy for anyone who wants to learn how to play the keyboard, fast.
The memoir of iconic tattoo artist Ed Hardy from his beginnings in 1960s California, to leading the tattoo renaissance and building his name into a hugely lucrative international brand
"Ed Hardy" is emblazoned on everything from t-shirts and hats to perfumes and energy drinks. From LA to Japan, his colorful cross-and-bones designs and ribbon-banners have become internationally ubiquitous. But long before the fashion world discovered his iconic designs, the man behind the eponymous brand spearheaded nothing less than a cultural revolution.
In Wear Your Dreams, Ed Hardy recounts his genesis as a tattoo artist and leader in the movement to recognize tattooing as a valid and rich art form, through to the ultimate transformation of his career into a multi-billion dollar branding empire. From giving colored pencil tattoos to neighborhood kids at age ten to working with legendary artists like Sailor Jerry to learning at the feet of the masters in Japan, the book explains how this Godfather of Tattoos fomented the explosion of tattoo art and how his influence can be witnessed on everyone, from countless celebs to ink-adorned rockers to butterfly-branded, stroller-pushing moms. With over fifty different product categories, the Ed Hardy brand generates over $700 million in retail sales annually.
Vividly packaged with original Ed Hardy artwork and ideal for ink devotees and Ed Hardy aficionados alike, Wear Your Dreams is a never-before-seen look at the tattoo artist who rocked the art world and has left a permanent mark on fashion history.
Weegee not only captured the gritty underbelly of New York City in his explosive photographs, but he lived it as well. This long out-of-print autobiography, brought back as an ebook with complete and unabridged text by Devault-Graves Digital Editions, was written toward the end of Weegee’s life before he was the photographic legend he is today. Here he tells the story of how an impoverished Jewish immigrant named Arthur Fellig from Zlothev, Austria, came to grips with one of the toughest cities in the world and made it his own. In wisecracking prose that is a match for his unblinking ferocity behind the camera, Weegee recounts his days of taking tintypes of kids on ponies and how this knowledge of the streets and neighborhoods of New York led to him being the first on the scene of the city’s every murder, disaster, and heartbreak.
In Weegee: The Autobiography the author candidly and without reserve tells readers about documenting the grisly street executions by Murder, Inc., tenements up in flames, child killers, lovers in the back rows of movie theaters, and the sexual misadventures of streetwalkers, pimps, and transsexuals, all in a voice that had seen it all and loved it all. Fans of Weegee’s photography will not want to miss his story—told in the way only Weegee himself could tell.
The new Devault-Graves Digital Editions version of Weegee: The Autobiography contains a wealth of new material for readers. Included are: extensive annotations and endnotes, an original Afterword by author and critic Ed Ward, a bibliography of Weegee’s photography books, a guide for further study on works about Weegee, and a guide for further study of books by and about other neorealist photographers such as Diane Arbus.
Norman Rockwell’s tremendously successful, prolific career as a painter and illustrator has rendered him a twentieth-century American icon. However, the very popularity and accessibility of his idealized, nostalgic depictions of middleclass life have caused him to be considered not a serious artist but a “mere illustrator”–a disparagement only reinforced by the hundreds of memorable covers he drew for The Sunday Evening Post.
Symptomatic of critics’ neglect is the fact that Rockwell has never before been the subject of a serious critical biography. Based on private family archives and interviews and publishes to coincide with a major two-year travelling retrospective of his work, this book reveals for the first time the driven workaholic who had three complicated marriages and was a distant father —so different from the loving, all-American-dad image widely held to this day. Critically acclaimed author Laura Claridge also breaks new ground with her reappraisal of Rockwell’s art, arguing that despite his popular sentimental style, his artistry was masterful, complex, and far more manipulative than people realize.
Symptomatic of critics’ neglect is the fact that Rockwell has never before been the subject of a serious critical biography. Based on private family archives and interviews and publishes to coincide with a major two-year travelling retrospective of his work, this book reveals for the first time the driven workaholic who had three complicated marriages and was a distant father —so different from the loving, all-American-dad image widely held to this day. Critically acclaimed author Laura Claridge also breaks new ground with her reappraisal of Rockwell’s art, arguing that despite his popular sentimental style, his artistry was masterful, complex, and far more manipulative than people realize.
Millions have visited the museums that bear her name, yet few know much about Madame Tussaud. A celebrated artist, she had both a ringside seat at and a cameo role in the French Revolution. A victim and survivor of one of the most tumultuous times in history, this intelligent, pragmatic businesswoman has also had an indelible impact on contemporary culture, planting the seed of our obsession with celebrity.
In Madame Tussaud, Kate Berridge tells this fascinating woman's complete story for the first time, drawing upon a wealth of sources, including Tussaud's memoirs and historical archives. It is a grand-scale success story, revealing how with sheer graft and grit a woman born in 1761 to an eighteen-year-old cook overcame extraordinary reversals of fortune to build the first and most enduring worldwide brand identified simply by reference to its founder's name: Madame Tussaud's.
All in Good Time is the remarkable story of George Daniels, the master mechanic, who was born into poverty but raised himself to become the greatest watchmaker of the twentieth century. Daniels stood alone in modern times as the inventor of the revolutionary co-axial escapement, the first substantial advance in portable mechanical timekeeping over the lever escapement, which had dominated ever since its invention in 1759. Daniels’s love of mechanics embraced not only the minute, however - he was also a passionate collector and driver of historic motorcars. This revised and updated autobiography allows the reader to witness the triumph of intelligence, ingenuity, matchless skill and singularity of purpose over the most unpromising of beginnings
The sparkling memoir of an idyllic, bohemian childhood in an enchanted Tuscan castle between the World War I and World War II.
When Kinta Beeevor was five, her father, the painter Aubrey Waterfield, bought the sixteenth-century Fortezza della Brunella in the Tuscan village of Aulla. There her parents were part of a vibrant artistic community that included Aldous Huxley, Bernard Berenson, and D. H. Lawrence. Meanwhile, Kinta and her brother explored the glorious countryside, participated in the region's many seasonal rites and rituals, and came to know and love the charming, resilient Italian people. With the coming of World War II the family had to leave Aulla; years later, though, Kinta would return to witness the courage and skill of the Tuscan people as they rebuilt their lives. Lyrical and witty, A Tuscan Childhood is alive with the timeless splendour of Italy.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
When Kinta Beeevor was five, her father, the painter Aubrey Waterfield, bought the sixteenth-century Fortezza della Brunella in the Tuscan village of Aulla. There her parents were part of a vibrant artistic community that included Aldous Huxley, Bernard Berenson, and D. H. Lawrence. Meanwhile, Kinta and her brother explored the glorious countryside, participated in the region's many seasonal rites and rituals, and came to know and love the charming, resilient Italian people. With the coming of World War II the family had to leave Aulla; years later, though, Kinta would return to witness the courage and skill of the Tuscan people as they rebuilt their lives. Lyrical and witty, A Tuscan Childhood is alive with the timeless splendour of Italy.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
In celebration of its 25th anniversary, the bestselling classic is introduced to a new generation-with an added preface by Warhol's diarist and long-time friend, Pat Hackett, contemplating Warhol's lasting cultural impact. This international literary sensation turns the spotlight on one of the most influential and controversial figures in American culture. Filled with shocking observations about the lives, loves, and careers of the rich, famous, and fabulous, Warhol's journal is endlessly fun and fascinating. Spanning the mid-1970s until just a few days before his death in 1987, THE ANDY WARHOL DIARIES is a compendium of the more than twenty thousand pages of the artist's diary that he dictated daily to Pat Hackett. In it, Warhol gives us the ultimate backstage pass to practically everything that went on in the world-both high and low. He hangs out with "everybody": Jackie O ("thinks she's so grand she doesn't even owe it to the public to have another great marriage to somebody big"), Yoko Ono ("We dialed F-U-C-K-Y-O-U and L-O-V-E-Y-O-U to see what happened, we had so much fun"), and "Princess Marina of, I guess, Greece," along with art-world rock stars Jean-Michel Basquiat, Francis Bacon, Salvador Dali, and Keith Haring. Warhol had something to say about everyone who crossed his path, whether it was Lou Reed or Liberace, Patti Smith or Diana Ross, Frank Sinatra or Michael Jackson. A true cultural artifact, THE ANDY WARHOL DIARIES amounts to a portrait of an artist-and an era-unlike any other.
Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, military-engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. His genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, a man of 'unquenchable curiosity' and 'feverishly inventive imagination'. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.
Learn more about him in this informative and concise biography!
Learn more about him in this informative and concise biography!
The true story of the New York society couple portrayed in the John Singer Sargent painting—an architect and an heiress who became passionate reformers.
Contemporaries of the Astors and Vanderbilts, they grew up together along the shores of bucolic Staten Island, linked by privilege—her grandparents built the world’s fastest clipper ship, while his family owned most of Murray Hill. Theirs was a world filled with mansions, balls, summer homes, and extended European vacations. This fascinating biography re-creates the glittering world of Edith Minturn and Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes—and reveals how their love for each other was matched by their dedication to others.
Newton became a passionate preserver of New York history and published the finest collection of Manhattan maps and views in a six-volume series. Edith became the face of the age when Daniel Chester French sculpted her for Chicago’s Columbian Exposition, a colossus intended to match the Statue of Liberty’s grandeur. But beyond their life of prominence and prestige, Edith and Newton battled together on behalf of New York’s poor and powerless—and through it all, sustained a strong-rooted marriage.
From the splendid cottages of the Berkshires to the salons of 1890s Paris, Love, Fiercely tells the real-life story behind Mr. and Mrs. I .N. Phelps Stokes—one of the Gilded Age’s most famous works of art.
“With an impressive amount of research behind every page, Zimmerman manages to capture the sweeping drama of the turn of the century as well as the compelling story of a couple who knew how to love, fiercely. Her superb pacing and gripping narrative will appeal to all who enjoy history, biography, and real-life romance.” —Library Journal
Contemporaries of the Astors and Vanderbilts, they grew up together along the shores of bucolic Staten Island, linked by privilege—her grandparents built the world’s fastest clipper ship, while his family owned most of Murray Hill. Theirs was a world filled with mansions, balls, summer homes, and extended European vacations. This fascinating biography re-creates the glittering world of Edith Minturn and Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes—and reveals how their love for each other was matched by their dedication to others.
Newton became a passionate preserver of New York history and published the finest collection of Manhattan maps and views in a six-volume series. Edith became the face of the age when Daniel Chester French sculpted her for Chicago’s Columbian Exposition, a colossus intended to match the Statue of Liberty’s grandeur. But beyond their life of prominence and prestige, Edith and Newton battled together on behalf of New York’s poor and powerless—and through it all, sustained a strong-rooted marriage.
From the splendid cottages of the Berkshires to the salons of 1890s Paris, Love, Fiercely tells the real-life story behind Mr. and Mrs. I .N. Phelps Stokes—one of the Gilded Age’s most famous works of art.
“With an impressive amount of research behind every page, Zimmerman manages to capture the sweeping drama of the turn of the century as well as the compelling story of a couple who knew how to love, fiercely. Her superb pacing and gripping narrative will appeal to all who enjoy history, biography, and real-life romance.” —Library Journal
Leonardo da Vinci's scientific explorations were virtually unknown during his lifetime, despite their extraordinarily wide range. He studied the flight patterns of birds to create some of the first human flying machines; designed military weapons and defenses; studied optics, hydraulics, and the workings of the human circulatory system; and created designs for rebuilding Milan, employing principles still used by city planners today. Perhaps most importantly, Leonardo pioneered an empirical, systematic approach to the observation of nature-what is known today as the scientific method.Drawing on over 6,000 pages of Leonardo's surviving notebooks, acclaimed scientist and bestselling author Fritjof Capra reveals Leonardo's artistic approach to scientific knowledge and his organic and ecological worldview. In this fascinating portrait of a thinker centuries ahead of his time, Leonardo singularly emerges as the unacknowledged “father of modern science.”
From the Trade Paperback edition.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
A vivid memoir of food and family, survival and triumph, Love, Loss, and What We Ate traces the arc of Padma Lakshmi’s unlikely path from an immigrant childhood to a complicated life in front of the camera—a tantalizing blend of Ruth Reichl’s Tender at the Bone and Nora Ephron’s Heartburn
Long before Padma Lakshmi ever stepped onto a television set, she learned that how we eat is an extension of how we love, how we comfort, how we forge a sense of home—and how we taste the world as we navigate our way through it. Shuttling between continents as a child, she lived a life of dislocation that would become habit as an adult, never quite at home in the world. And yet, through all her travels, her favorite food remained the simple rice she first ate sitting on the cool floor of her grandmother’s kitchen in South India.
Poignant and surprising, Love, Loss, and What We Ate is Lakshmi’s extraordinary account of her journey from that humble kitchen, ruled by ferocious and unforgettable women, to the judges’ table of Top Chef and beyond. It chronicles the fierce devotion of the remarkable people who shaped her along the way, from her headstrong mother who flouted conservative Indian convention to make a life in New York, to her Brahmin grandfather—a brilliant engineer with an irrepressible sweet tooth—to the man seemingly wrong for her in every way who proved to be her truest ally. A memoir rich with sensual prose and punctuated with evocative recipes, it is alive with the scents, tastes, and textures of a life that spans complex geographies both internal and external.
Love, Loss, and What We Ate is an intimate and unexpected story of food and family—both the ones we are born to and the ones we create—and their enduring legacies.
Get healthy in just 15 days with this diet plan from Harley Pasternak, the celebrity trainer and New York Times bestselling author frequently featured on Khloe Kardashian's Revenge Body
We've gone way overboard trying to beat the bulge. We've tried every diet out there—low-carb, low-fat, all-grapefruit—and spent hours toiling on treadmills and machines, to no avail. It's time to hit the reset button and start over with a new perspective on weight loss.
In The Body Reset Diet, celebrity trainer and New York Times bestselling author Harley Pasternak offers you the ultimate plan for a thinner, healthier, happier life. This three-phase program focuses on the easiest, most effective way to slim down: blending. The 5-day jump-start includes delicious, expertly crafted smoothies (White Peach Ginger, Apple Pie, and Pina Colada, to name a few), dips, snacks, and soups that keep you satisfied while boosting your metabolism. Over the following 10 days, the plan reintroduces healthy combinations of classic dishes along with the blended recipes to keep the metabolism humming, so you will continue to torch calories and shed pounds.
The plan also explains how the easiest form of exercise—walking—along with light resistance training is all it takes to achieve the celebrity-worthy physique that we all desire. No equipment necessary! Whether you are looking to lose significant weight or just those last 5 pounds, The Body Reset Dietoffers a proven program to reset, slim down, and get healthy in just 15 days—and stay that way for good!
We've gone way overboard trying to beat the bulge. We've tried every diet out there—low-carb, low-fat, all-grapefruit—and spent hours toiling on treadmills and machines, to no avail. It's time to hit the reset button and start over with a new perspective on weight loss.
In The Body Reset Diet, celebrity trainer and New York Times bestselling author Harley Pasternak offers you the ultimate plan for a thinner, healthier, happier life. This three-phase program focuses on the easiest, most effective way to slim down: blending. The 5-day jump-start includes delicious, expertly crafted smoothies (White Peach Ginger, Apple Pie, and Pina Colada, to name a few), dips, snacks, and soups that keep you satisfied while boosting your metabolism. Over the following 10 days, the plan reintroduces healthy combinations of classic dishes along with the blended recipes to keep the metabolism humming, so you will continue to torch calories and shed pounds.
The plan also explains how the easiest form of exercise—walking—along with light resistance training is all it takes to achieve the celebrity-worthy physique that we all desire. No equipment necessary! Whether you are looking to lose significant weight or just those last 5 pounds, The Body Reset Dietoffers a proven program to reset, slim down, and get healthy in just 15 days—and stay that way for good!
TLC’s beloved Buddy Valastro is not only a master baker and the Cake Boss, he’s also a great cook and star of the hit show, Kitchen Boss. Now he shares 100 delicious, essential Italian-American recipes—from his grandmother’s secret dishes to his personal favorites—with his own signature touches that make dinner a family event.
TLC’s beloved Buddy Valastro is not only a master baker, he’s also a great cook—the boss of his home kitchen as well as of his famous bakery, Carlo’s Bake Shop. Home cooking is even more vital for the Valastro family than the work they do at the bakery. Every Sunday, the whole clan gathers to cook and eat Sunday Gravy—their family recipe for hearty tomato sauce. These nourishing meals are the glue of their family. Cooking Italian with the Cake Boss shares 100 delicious Italian- American recipes beloved by Buddy’s family, from his grandmother’s secret dishes to Buddy’s personal favorites, with Buddy’s own signature touches that make dinner a family event.
Buddy Valastro is renowned worldwide as the Cake Boss, but Buddy knows far more than just desserts. He makes classic dishes like Pasta Carbonara, Shrimp Scampi, and Eggplant Parmesan even more irresistible with his singular flair and with old-school tips passed down through generations. With his friendly charm, he guides even novice cooks from appetizers through more complicated dishes, and all 100 easy-to-follow recipes use ingredients that are obtainable and affordable. Your family will love sitting down at the table to eat Steak alla Buddy, Auntie Anna’s Manicotti, Mozzarella-and- Sausage-Stuffed Chicken, Veal Saltimbocca, Buddy’s Swiss Chard, and mouthwatering desserts like Lemon Granita, Apple Snacking Cake, Cocoa-Hazelnut Cream with Berries, and Rockin’ Rice Pudding.
Buddy’s recipes allow home cooks to become the bosses of their own kitchens, and anyone will be able to whip up a tasty and nutritious Italian dinner. Filled with luscious full-color photography and with stories from the irrepressible Valastro clan, Cooking Italian with the Cake Boss shows how to create new takes on traditional dishes that will make your famiglia happy.
***
My family, the Valastros, makes its living by baking and selling just about anything you can think of at Carlo’s Bake Shop. It’s what we’re known for. But there’s another side to our family and our relationship to food, and it’s just as personal, maybe even more personal, than what we do at the bakery. I’m talking about the recipes and dishes, meals and traditions that nourish our bodies and souls when we get home. Just like any other family, we enjoy chilling out and spending time together, and there’s no way we’d rather do that than around a table, a place that keeps us grounded and connected to each other as well as to the relatives who came before us. As proud as I am of our professional success, I’m just as proud that we’ve been able to continue making time for our family and extended family—and we’re talking a lot of people— to meet several times a week and eat together.
And now I’m honored to share with you my family’s favorite recipes and to tell you the stories of what makes them so near and dear to our hearts. I hope they might become favorites for your family as well, that they help you create memories to last a lifetime, the same way they’ve done for us Valastros.
-- Buon Appetito, Buddy Valastro
TLC’s beloved Buddy Valastro is not only a master baker, he’s also a great cook—the boss of his home kitchen as well as of his famous bakery, Carlo’s Bake Shop. Home cooking is even more vital for the Valastro family than the work they do at the bakery. Every Sunday, the whole clan gathers to cook and eat Sunday Gravy—their family recipe for hearty tomato sauce. These nourishing meals are the glue of their family. Cooking Italian with the Cake Boss shares 100 delicious Italian- American recipes beloved by Buddy’s family, from his grandmother’s secret dishes to Buddy’s personal favorites, with Buddy’s own signature touches that make dinner a family event.
Buddy Valastro is renowned worldwide as the Cake Boss, but Buddy knows far more than just desserts. He makes classic dishes like Pasta Carbonara, Shrimp Scampi, and Eggplant Parmesan even more irresistible with his singular flair and with old-school tips passed down through generations. With his friendly charm, he guides even novice cooks from appetizers through more complicated dishes, and all 100 easy-to-follow recipes use ingredients that are obtainable and affordable. Your family will love sitting down at the table to eat Steak alla Buddy, Auntie Anna’s Manicotti, Mozzarella-and- Sausage-Stuffed Chicken, Veal Saltimbocca, Buddy’s Swiss Chard, and mouthwatering desserts like Lemon Granita, Apple Snacking Cake, Cocoa-Hazelnut Cream with Berries, and Rockin’ Rice Pudding.
Buddy’s recipes allow home cooks to become the bosses of their own kitchens, and anyone will be able to whip up a tasty and nutritious Italian dinner. Filled with luscious full-color photography and with stories from the irrepressible Valastro clan, Cooking Italian with the Cake Boss shows how to create new takes on traditional dishes that will make your famiglia happy.
***
My family, the Valastros, makes its living by baking and selling just about anything you can think of at Carlo’s Bake Shop. It’s what we’re known for. But there’s another side to our family and our relationship to food, and it’s just as personal, maybe even more personal, than what we do at the bakery. I’m talking about the recipes and dishes, meals and traditions that nourish our bodies and souls when we get home. Just like any other family, we enjoy chilling out and spending time together, and there’s no way we’d rather do that than around a table, a place that keeps us grounded and connected to each other as well as to the relatives who came before us. As proud as I am of our professional success, I’m just as proud that we’ve been able to continue making time for our family and extended family—and we’re talking a lot of people— to meet several times a week and eat together.
And now I’m honored to share with you my family’s favorite recipes and to tell you the stories of what makes them so near and dear to our hearts. I hope they might become favorites for your family as well, that they help you create memories to last a lifetime, the same way they’ve done for us Valastros.
-- Buon Appetito, Buddy Valastro
Every day 1,500 Bostonians can't resist buying sweet, simple treats such as Homemade Pop-Tarts, from an alumna of Harvard with a degree in economics. From Brioche au Chocolat and Lemon Raspberry Cake to perfect croissants, Flour Bakery-owner Joanne Chang's repertoire of baked goods is deep and satisfying. While at Harvard she discovered that nothing made her happier than baking cookies leading her on a path that eventually resulted in a sticky bun triumph over Bobby Flay on the Food Network's Throwdown. Almost 150 Flour recipes such as Milky Way Tart and Dried Fruit Focaccia are included, plus Joanne's essential baking tips, making this mouthwatering collection an accessible, instant classic cookbook for the home baker.
For over fifty years, New York Times bestseller Mastering the Art of French Cooking has been the definitive book on the subject for American readers. Featuring 524 delicious recipes, in its pages home cooks will find something for everyone, from seasoned experts to beginners who love good food and long to reproduce the savory delights of French cuisine, from historic Gallic masterpieces to the seemingly artless perfection of a dish of spring-green peas. Here Julia Child, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle break down the classic foods of France into a logical sequence of themes and variations rather than presenting an endless and diffuse catalogue of dishes. Throughout, the focus is on key recipes that form the backbone of French cookery and lend themselves to an infinite number of elaborations—bound to increase anyone’s culinary repertoire. With over 100 instructive illustrations to guide readers every step of the way, Mastering the Art of French Cooking deserves a place of honor in every kitchen in America.
The ideal companion to Flour—Joanne Chang's beloved first cookbook—Flour, too includes the most-requested savory fare to have made her four cafés Boston's favorite stops for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Here are 100 gratifying recipes for easy at-home eating and entertaining from brunch treats to soups, pizzas, pasta, and, of course, Flour's famous cakes, tarts, and other sweet goodies. More than 50 glorious color photographs by Michael Harlan Turkell take the viewer inside the warm, cozy cafés; into the night pastry kitchen; and demonstrate the beauty of this delicious food. With a variety of recipes for all skill levels, this mouthwatering collection is a substantial addition to any home cook's bookshelf.
Medium Raw marks the return of the inimitable Anthony Bourdain, author of the blockbuster bestseller Kitchen Confidential and three-time Emmy Award-nominated host of No Reservations on TV’s Travel Channel. Bourdain calls his book, “A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook,” and he is at his entertaining best as he takes aim at some of the biggest names in the foodie world, including David Chang, Alice Waters, the Top Chef winners and losers, and many more. If Hunter S. Thompson had written a book about the restaurant business, it could have been Medium Raw.
"I've gone through all my books and put together this collection of my most treasured recipes and memories for the holiday season to share with you...You'll find a few new dishes, a sprinkling of new holiday stories, and some family pictures you might not have seen before."
There's no holiday Paula Deen loves better than Christmas, when she opens her home to family and friends, and traditions old and new make the days merry and bright. Filled with Paula's trademark Southern charm and happy reminiscences of Yuletide seasons past, Christmas with Paula Deen is a collection of beloved holiday recipes and stories interspersed with cherished family photographs. Included are Paula's most requested homemade gifts of food; a collection of cookies sure to become your family's favorites; easy dishes for a Christmas breakfast or brunch that will let you enjoy the food and your guests; impressive fare for Christmas dinner and holiday entertaining and, of course, spectacular cakes, puddings, pies, and other sweet things.
"So Merry Christmas, y'all, and best dishes and best wishes from me and my family to yours."
There's no holiday Paula Deen loves better than Christmas, when she opens her home to family and friends, and traditions old and new make the days merry and bright. Filled with Paula's trademark Southern charm and happy reminiscences of Yuletide seasons past, Christmas with Paula Deen is a collection of beloved holiday recipes and stories interspersed with cherished family photographs. Included are Paula's most requested homemade gifts of food; a collection of cookies sure to become your family's favorites; easy dishes for a Christmas breakfast or brunch that will let you enjoy the food and your guests; impressive fare for Christmas dinner and holiday entertaining and, of course, spectacular cakes, puddings, pies, and other sweet things.
"So Merry Christmas, y'all, and best dishes and best wishes from me and my family to yours."
• The highly visible “Mr. Paula Deen”: Michael Groover has his own adoring fans, who have gotten to know him from Paula’s shows, books, and personal appearances. Now, five years into their romantic marriage, fans are clamoring for more about Michael and his everyday life with Paula. Michael has his own line of coffees and is poised to have additional products released soon..
• A compelling life story: Michael will share stories of his life from before and after meeting Paula, from his quintessentially southern childhood to his work as a tugboat captain, raising his children as a single dad, to the pleasures and challenges of marrying one of the nation’s biggest celebrities. .
• Delicious recipes: Michael is pretty good in the kitchen himself, and My Delicious Life with Paula Deen will feature some of his favorites, such as Captain’s Deviled Crabs and Blue Water Banana Pudding. .
• A compelling life story: Michael will share stories of his life from before and after meeting Paula, from his quintessentially southern childhood to his work as a tugboat captain, raising his children as a single dad, to the pleasures and challenges of marrying one of the nation’s biggest celebrities. .
• Delicious recipes: Michael is pretty good in the kitchen himself, and My Delicious Life with Paula Deen will feature some of his favorites, such as Captain’s Deviled Crabs and Blue Water Banana Pudding. .
Stephanie Izard knows how to inspire, captivate, and cook up a storm. Fan favorite and the first and only woman to win on TV's Top Chef, she's also the chef and owner of the acclaimed Girl & the Goat restaurant in Chicago. The Girl in the Kitchen collects more than 100 of Izard's best recipes, from innovative appetizers like Asian-Spiced English Peas to luscious desserts like Quince and Fig Cobbler with Vanilla Mascarpone. Beautifully photographed and bursting with flavor, personality, and insights into the top chef's process including where she finds her cooking muses, how she shops for food, and which beers and wines she chooses to accompany her meals this book represents the culmination of a craft and provides inspiration that reaches far beyond the kitchen walls.
THE ONLY OFFICIAL KHLOÉ KARDASHIAN BOOK
“There is no such thing as perfect. Nobody attains perfection. But if you keep trying, you grow and evolve, and to me that’s the point: To be a better person today than I was yesterday; to become the best possible version of myself.” —KHLOÉ KARDASHIAN
Khloé Kardashian shares her secrets for finding strength of body, mind, and heart with revelatory stories of her own struggles with weight, relationships, and her self-image.
In a culture that worships skinny, Kardashian writes with passion about the power of strength: a strong body lays the foundation for a strong mind, which leads to strength of heart, character, and ultimately spirit. Filled with practical advice, recipes, and compelling personal anecdotes, Strong Looks Better Naked is an inspiring meditation on how to create strength, confidence, and true beauty in every facet of your life.
“There is no such thing as perfect. Nobody attains perfection. But if you keep trying, you grow and evolve, and to me that’s the point: To be a better person today than I was yesterday; to become the best possible version of myself.” —KHLOÉ KARDASHIAN
Khloé Kardashian shares her secrets for finding strength of body, mind, and heart with revelatory stories of her own struggles with weight, relationships, and her self-image.
In a culture that worships skinny, Kardashian writes with passion about the power of strength: a strong body lays the foundation for a strong mind, which leads to strength of heart, character, and ultimately spirit. Filled with practical advice, recipes, and compelling personal anecdotes, Strong Looks Better Naked is an inspiring meditation on how to create strength, confidence, and true beauty in every facet of your life.
In her book Self-Inflicted Wounds, comedian, actress, and cohost of CBS’s daytime hit show The Talk, Aisha Tyler recounts a series of epic mistakes and hilarious stories of crushing personal humiliation, and the personal insights and authentic wisdom she gathered along the way.
The essays in Self-Inflicted Wounds are refreshingly and sometimes brutally honest, surprising, and laugh-out-loud funny, vividly translating the brand of humor Tyler has cultivated through her successful standup career, as well as the strong voice and unique point of view she expresses on her taste-making comedy podcast Girl on Guy.
Riotous, revealing, and wonderfully relatable, Aisha Tyler’s Self-Inflicted Wounds: Heartwarming Tales of Epic Humiliation is about the power of calamity to shape life, learning, and success.
The essays in Self-Inflicted Wounds are refreshingly and sometimes brutally honest, surprising, and laugh-out-loud funny, vividly translating the brand of humor Tyler has cultivated through her successful standup career, as well as the strong voice and unique point of view she expresses on her taste-making comedy podcast Girl on Guy.
Riotous, revealing, and wonderfully relatable, Aisha Tyler’s Self-Inflicted Wounds: Heartwarming Tales of Epic Humiliation is about the power of calamity to shape life, learning, and success.
An intimate biography of Harry Styles, breakout star and fan favorite of the hottest boy band on the planet—One Direction—featuring stunning, swoon-worthy photographs!
Harry Styles is one-fifth of the worldwide boy band phenomenon that is One Direction. Made up of bandmates Liam Payne, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, and Harry himself, 1D came to prominence in the 2010 television series of X Factor UK. Since then they’ve played to sold-out arenas as they toured the world, topped the charts across the globe, and broken numerous records. Initially auditioning as separate contestants, the band was put together by Simon Cowell who thought they would stand a much better chance as a group. Simon was proved right as the five boys went on to finish third in the competition—and onward to global superstardom.
Born February 1st, 1994 in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, Harry is often considered the favorite of 1D fans. Known for his trademark boyish looks and gorgeous curly hair, girls all over the world are falling head over heels in love with him and will do anything to get his attention. Lifting the lid on life as a member of the world’s biggest band, this is the inspirational and sensational story of a how a boy from Cheshire followed his dreams to become an international star and heartthrob to millions of devoted fans.
Harry Styles is one-fifth of the worldwide boy band phenomenon that is One Direction. Made up of bandmates Liam Payne, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, and Harry himself, 1D came to prominence in the 2010 television series of X Factor UK. Since then they’ve played to sold-out arenas as they toured the world, topped the charts across the globe, and broken numerous records. Initially auditioning as separate contestants, the band was put together by Simon Cowell who thought they would stand a much better chance as a group. Simon was proved right as the five boys went on to finish third in the competition—and onward to global superstardom.
Born February 1st, 1994 in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, Harry is often considered the favorite of 1D fans. Known for his trademark boyish looks and gorgeous curly hair, girls all over the world are falling head over heels in love with him and will do anything to get his attention. Lifting the lid on life as a member of the world’s biggest band, this is the inspirational and sensational story of a how a boy from Cheshire followed his dreams to become an international star and heartthrob to millions of devoted fans.
THE GREATEST IMMIGRANT SUCCESS STORY OF OUR TIME
His story is unique, and uniquely entertaining, and he tells it brilliantly in these pages.
He was born in a year of famine, in a small Austrian town, the son of an austere police chief. He dreamed of moving to America to become a bodybuilding champion and a movie star.
By the age of twenty-one, he was living in Los Angeles and had been crowned Mr. Universe.
Within five years, he had learned English and become the greatest bodybuilder in the world.
Within ten years, he had earned his college degree and was a millionaire from his business enterprises in real estate, landscaping, and bodybuilding. He was also the winner of a Golden Globe Award for his debut as a dramatic actor in Stay Hungry.
Within twenty years, he was the world’s biggest movie star, the husband of Maria Shriver, and an emerging Republican leader who was part of the Kennedy family.
Thirty-six years after coming to America, the man once known by fellow bodybuilders as the Austrian Oak was elected governor of California, the seventh largest economy in the world. He led the state through a budget crisis, natural disasters, and political turmoil, working across party lines for a better environment, election reforms, and bipartisan solutions. With Maria Shriver, he raised four fantastic children. In the wake of a scandal he brought upon himself, he tried to keep his family together.
Until now, he has never told the full story of his life, in his own voice.
Here is Arnold, with total recall.
His story is unique, and uniquely entertaining, and he tells it brilliantly in these pages.
He was born in a year of famine, in a small Austrian town, the son of an austere police chief. He dreamed of moving to America to become a bodybuilding champion and a movie star.
By the age of twenty-one, he was living in Los Angeles and had been crowned Mr. Universe.
Within five years, he had learned English and become the greatest bodybuilder in the world.
Within ten years, he had earned his college degree and was a millionaire from his business enterprises in real estate, landscaping, and bodybuilding. He was also the winner of a Golden Globe Award for his debut as a dramatic actor in Stay Hungry.
Within twenty years, he was the world’s biggest movie star, the husband of Maria Shriver, and an emerging Republican leader who was part of the Kennedy family.
Thirty-six years after coming to America, the man once known by fellow bodybuilders as the Austrian Oak was elected governor of California, the seventh largest economy in the world. He led the state through a budget crisis, natural disasters, and political turmoil, working across party lines for a better environment, election reforms, and bipartisan solutions. With Maria Shriver, he raised four fantastic children. In the wake of a scandal he brought upon himself, he tried to keep his family together.
Until now, he has never told the full story of his life, in his own voice.
Here is Arnold, with total recall.
Legendary influential performer Grace Jones offers a revealing account of her spectacular career and turbulent life, charting the development of a persona that has made her one of the world’s most recognizable artists.
As a singer, model, and actress—a deluxe triple threat—Grace has consistently been an extreme, challenging presence in the entertainment world since her emergence as an international model in the 1970s. Celebrated for her audacious talent and trailblazing style, Grace became one of the most unforgettable, free-spirited characters to emerge from the historic Studio 54, recording glittering disco classics such as “I Need a Man” and “La Vie en Rose.” Her provocative shows in underground New York nightclubs saw her hailed as a disco queen, gay icon, and gender defying iconoclast.
In 1980, the always ambitious Grace escaped a crowded disco scene to pursue more experimental interests. Her music also broke free, blending house, reggae, and electronica into a timeless hybrid that led to classic hits such as “Pull Up to the Bumper” and “Slave to the Rhythm.” In the memoir she once promised never to write, Grace offers an intimate insight into her evolving style, personal philosophies, and varied career—including her roles in the 1984 fantasy-action film Conan the Destroyer alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and the James Bond movie A View to a Kill.
Featuring sixteen pages of stunning full-color photographs, many from her own personal archive, I’ll Never Write My Memoirs follows this ageless creative nomad as she rejects her strict religious upbringing in Jamaica; conquers New York, Paris, and the 1980s; answers to no-one; and lives to fight again and again.
As a singer, model, and actress—a deluxe triple threat—Grace has consistently been an extreme, challenging presence in the entertainment world since her emergence as an international model in the 1970s. Celebrated for her audacious talent and trailblazing style, Grace became one of the most unforgettable, free-spirited characters to emerge from the historic Studio 54, recording glittering disco classics such as “I Need a Man” and “La Vie en Rose.” Her provocative shows in underground New York nightclubs saw her hailed as a disco queen, gay icon, and gender defying iconoclast.
In 1980, the always ambitious Grace escaped a crowded disco scene to pursue more experimental interests. Her music also broke free, blending house, reggae, and electronica into a timeless hybrid that led to classic hits such as “Pull Up to the Bumper” and “Slave to the Rhythm.” In the memoir she once promised never to write, Grace offers an intimate insight into her evolving style, personal philosophies, and varied career—including her roles in the 1984 fantasy-action film Conan the Destroyer alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and the James Bond movie A View to a Kill.
Featuring sixteen pages of stunning full-color photographs, many from her own personal archive, I’ll Never Write My Memoirs follows this ageless creative nomad as she rejects her strict religious upbringing in Jamaica; conquers New York, Paris, and the 1980s; answers to no-one; and lives to fight again and again.
Emmy Award-winning actress Kirstie Alley’s candid and audacious memoir about her life and the men she has shared it with—for better and for worse.
John Travolta.
Parker Stevenson.
Ted Danson.
Maksim Chmerkovskiy.
Kelsey Grammer.
Patrick Swayze.
Woody Allen.
Woody Harrelson.
And many others. . . . In three decades in Hollywood, Kirstie Alley has lived with, worked with, loved, or lost all of these men, and in this revealing memoir, she peels back the layers (and sometimes the sheets) on her relationships with all of them.
From the early days of her childhood in Wichita, Kansas, surrounded by her loving father, her inquisitive and doting grandfather, and a younger brother she fiercely protected when she wasn’t selling tickets to see him naked, Kirstie Alley’s life has been shaped and molded by men. “Men, men, glorious men!” gave her her first big break in Hollywood and her awardwinning role on Cheers, and through two marriages, a debilitating cocaine addiction, the death of her mother, roles in some of the biggest comedies of the last twenty years, and a surprising stint on Dancing with the Stars, men proved to be the inspiration for multitudes of the decisions and dramas in Kirstie Alley’s life.
In this collection of linked essays that’s both hilarious and poignant in turns, Kirstie chronicles all the good, the bad, and the ugly men who have influenced and guided her. She demonstrates how men can be the air that women breathe or the source of all of their frustrations. But for better or worse, Kirstie shows that a life well lived is a life lived in the company of men, especially if they
remember to put the lid down. The Art of Men (I Prefer Mine al Dente) is a hilarious excursion into love, joy, motherhood, loss, sex, and self-discovery from one of Hollywood’s most enduring stars.
John Travolta.
Parker Stevenson.
Ted Danson.
Maksim Chmerkovskiy.
Kelsey Grammer.
Patrick Swayze.
Woody Allen.
Woody Harrelson.
And many others. . . . In three decades in Hollywood, Kirstie Alley has lived with, worked with, loved, or lost all of these men, and in this revealing memoir, she peels back the layers (and sometimes the sheets) on her relationships with all of them.
From the early days of her childhood in Wichita, Kansas, surrounded by her loving father, her inquisitive and doting grandfather, and a younger brother she fiercely protected when she wasn’t selling tickets to see him naked, Kirstie Alley’s life has been shaped and molded by men. “Men, men, glorious men!” gave her her first big break in Hollywood and her awardwinning role on Cheers, and through two marriages, a debilitating cocaine addiction, the death of her mother, roles in some of the biggest comedies of the last twenty years, and a surprising stint on Dancing with the Stars, men proved to be the inspiration for multitudes of the decisions and dramas in Kirstie Alley’s life.
In this collection of linked essays that’s both hilarious and poignant in turns, Kirstie chronicles all the good, the bad, and the ugly men who have influenced and guided her. She demonstrates how men can be the air that women breathe or the source of all of their frustrations. But for better or worse, Kirstie shows that a life well lived is a life lived in the company of men, especially if they
remember to put the lid down. The Art of Men (I Prefer Mine al Dente) is a hilarious excursion into love, joy, motherhood, loss, sex, and self-discovery from one of Hollywood’s most enduring stars.
The New York Times bestseller, now in paperback from one of the most versatile and bold writers of our time—“an astonishing, tightly structured, and lyrically told” novel (People) inspired by Princess Diana.
W hat if Princess Diana hadn’t died? Diana’s life and marriage were fairy tale and nightmare rolled into one. Adored by millions, in her personal life she suffered rejection, heartbreak, and betrayal. Surrounded by glamour and glitz and the constant attentions of the press, she fought to carve a meaningful role for herself in helping the needy and dispossessed. Had she lived, what direction would her life have taken? How would she have matured into her forties and beyond?
Untold Story is about the nature of celebrity, the meaning of identity, and the finding of one’s place in the world. Like Diana, the fictional princess who is the novel’s heroine is both icon and iconoclast. She touches many millions of lives and hearts around the world, sharing the details of her troubled marriage and her eating disorder and reaching out as has no other royal before her. But she is troubled and on the brink of disaster. Will she ever find peace and happiness in her own life, or will the curse of fame always be too great?
W hat if Princess Diana hadn’t died? Diana’s life and marriage were fairy tale and nightmare rolled into one. Adored by millions, in her personal life she suffered rejection, heartbreak, and betrayal. Surrounded by glamour and glitz and the constant attentions of the press, she fought to carve a meaningful role for herself in helping the needy and dispossessed. Had she lived, what direction would her life have taken? How would she have matured into her forties and beyond?
Untold Story is about the nature of celebrity, the meaning of identity, and the finding of one’s place in the world. Like Diana, the fictional princess who is the novel’s heroine is both icon and iconoclast. She touches many millions of lives and hearts around the world, sharing the details of her troubled marriage and her eating disorder and reaching out as has no other royal before her. But she is troubled and on the brink of disaster. Will she ever find peace and happiness in her own life, or will the curse of fame always be too great?
Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Cheek Peek Behind the Pose by Paris Hilton with Merle Ginsberg
A Learjet's view of the fast, fun world of PARIS HILTON -- packed with enough photos, advice, and inside scoop to help anyone live a glamorous life.
Paris Hilton has a lifestyle most girls dream about. Her name is on everyone's lips -- but can she help it if she was born rich and beautiful? Now, with her trademark sense of humor, Paris looks back on her rise to fame and reveals the delicious details of her fairy tale life.
"People say they envy my lifestyle," says Paris, "but I'm convinced that anyone with a little imagination can live 'The Life.'" In her fabulous, tongue in-cheek -- and very chic -- guide, readers will learn Paris's thoughts on fashion don'ts ("I look like Army Barbie in that Pucci dress!") to romantic advice ("I like guys who are hot, funny, sweet, and loyal"), to celebrity tips ("Never have only one cell phone"). She also shares personal information on her lifelong friendship with sister Nicky; fashion shows and favorite designers; her famous friends; how she likes to travel; what modeling is like; her highly successful television show The Simple Life; a look at the glamorous life of her teacup chihuahua Tinkerbell -- the best dressed dog in the world; and a glimpse at her upcoming movie roles.
Featuring beautiful, full-color pictures by famed photographer Jeff Vespa and his colleagues at WireImage, Confessions of an Heiress is a look at life from the unique perspective of a celebrity who has the whole world at her Jimmy Choo-clad feet.
A Learjet's view of the fast, fun world of PARIS HILTON -- packed with enough photos, advice, and inside scoop to help anyone live a glamorous life.
Paris Hilton has a lifestyle most girls dream about. Her name is on everyone's lips -- but can she help it if she was born rich and beautiful? Now, with her trademark sense of humor, Paris looks back on her rise to fame and reveals the delicious details of her fairy tale life.
"People say they envy my lifestyle," says Paris, "but I'm convinced that anyone with a little imagination can live 'The Life.'" In her fabulous, tongue in-cheek -- and very chic -- guide, readers will learn Paris's thoughts on fashion don'ts ("I look like Army Barbie in that Pucci dress!") to romantic advice ("I like guys who are hot, funny, sweet, and loyal"), to celebrity tips ("Never have only one cell phone"). She also shares personal information on her lifelong friendship with sister Nicky; fashion shows and favorite designers; her famous friends; how she likes to travel; what modeling is like; her highly successful television show The Simple Life; a look at the glamorous life of her teacup chihuahua Tinkerbell -- the best dressed dog in the world; and a glimpse at her upcoming movie roles.
Featuring beautiful, full-color pictures by famed photographer Jeff Vespa and his colleagues at WireImage, Confessions of an Heiress is a look at life from the unique perspective of a celebrity who has the whole world at her Jimmy Choo-clad feet.
A Billboard Must-Read Fall 2015 Music Book
The first comprehensive biography ever published about America's favorite living pop icon, Beyoncé, from New York Times bestselling biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli.
Beyoncé Knowles is a woman who began her career at the age of eight performing in pageant shows and talent contests, honing her craft through her teenage years until, at the age of 16, she had her first number one record with Destiny's Child. That hit-making trio launched Beyoncé's successful solo career, catapulting her, as of 2014, to #1 on Forbes annual list of most wealthy celebrities--the same year she made the cover of Time. BECOMING BEYONCÉ is not only the story of struggle, sacrifice, and what it takes to make it in the cut-throat record industry, it's the story of the great rewards of such success and the devastating toll it often takes on the human spirit.
The first comprehensive biography ever published about America's favorite living pop icon, Beyoncé, from New York Times bestselling biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli.
Beyoncé Knowles is a woman who began her career at the age of eight performing in pageant shows and talent contests, honing her craft through her teenage years until, at the age of 16, she had her first number one record with Destiny's Child. That hit-making trio launched Beyoncé's successful solo career, catapulting her, as of 2014, to #1 on Forbes annual list of most wealthy celebrities--the same year she made the cover of Time. BECOMING BEYONCÉ is not only the story of struggle, sacrifice, and what it takes to make it in the cut-throat record industry, it's the story of the great rewards of such success and the devastating toll it often takes on the human spirit.
The definitive biography of the world’s number-one reality star, Kim Kardashian West—the savvy entrepreneur and fashion forward woman who has defined fame for today’s generation—from the UK's leading celebrity biographer.
A thoroughly modern woman, Kim Kardashian West, the daughter of headline-making lawyer Robert Kardashian, grew up like a princess in a Beverley Hills mansion. As a young girl, Kim’s ambition was to appear on The Real World, the groundbreaking hit series. But reality proved even bigger than her dreams, when just a few years later she became the star of her own smash show, Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
While Keeping Up with the Kardashians took us into Kim’s privileged world and made her a household name, the details of her life story—murder, elopement, domestic violence, a sex tape, a quickie divorce, religious worship, and unbelievably glamorous designer fashions—played out like an X-rated version of the 1980s soap opera Dynasty. But Kim’s story has only just begun. Married for a second time—to one of the biggest stars on the planet, Kanye West—she has begun her own dynasty with the birth of daughter, North, and another baby due in November 2015.
Filled with delicious, painstakingly researched, eye-popping detail, KIM uncovers what it took for Kim to rise to the top—and how she intends to stay there. Sean Smith offers a multidimensional portrait of this remarkable woman, exploring her childhood, her family, her turbulent love life, and her glitzy multi-millionaire lifestyle. From her fabulous fashion-sense, to her world-famous physique, to her devotion to her family, including her relationship with her stepparent, Bruce Jenner and his transition to Caitlyn Jenner, this sensational, addictive biography tells the unvarnished truth about the undisputed Queen of Celebrity—the real story of Kim Kardashian.
From one of America’s iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage–and a life, in good times and bad–that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.
Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later–the night before New Year’s Eve–the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary. In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over. Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma.
This powerful book is Didion’ s attempt to make sense of the “weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness . . . about marriage and children and memory . . . about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself.”
Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later–the night before New Year’s Eve–the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary. In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over. Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma.
This powerful book is Didion’ s attempt to make sense of the “weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness . . . about marriage and children and memory . . . about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself.”
In December 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby, the 43-year-old editor of French Elle, suffered a massive stroke that left him permanently paralyzed, a victim of “locked in syndrome.” Once known for his gregariousness and wit, Bauby now finds himself imprisoned in an inert body, able to communicate only by blinking his left eye. The miracle is that in doing so he was able to compose this stunningly eloquent memoir.In a voice that is by turns wistful and mischievous, angry and sardonic, Bauby gives us a celebration of the liberating power of consciousness: what it is like to spend a day with his children, to imagine lying in bed beside his wife, to conjure up the flavor of delectable meals even as he is fed through at tube. Most of all, this triumphant book lets us witness an indomitable spirit and share in the pure joy of its own survival.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
The story of Heart is a story of heart and soul and rock ’n’ roll. Since finding their love of music and performing as teenagers in Seattle, Washington, Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson, have been part of the American rock music landscape. From 70s classics like “Magic Man” and “Barracuda” to chart- topping 80s ballads like “Alone,” and all the way up to 2012, when they will release their latest studio album, Fanatic, Heart has been thrilling their fans and producing hit after hit. In Kicking and Dreaming, the Wilsons recount their story as two sisters who have a shared over three decades on the stage, as songwriters, as musicians, and as the leaders of one of our most beloved rock bands. An intimate, honest, and a uniquely female take on the rock and roll life, readers of bestselling music memoirs like Life by Keith Richards and Steven Tyler’s Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? will love this quintessential music story finally told from a female perspective.
“A child’s garden of vices, My Booky Wook is also a relentless ride with a comic mind clearly at the wheel.... The bloke can write. He rhapsodizes about heroin better than anyone since Jim Carroll. With the flick of his enviable pen, he can summarize childhood thus: ‘My very first utterance in life was not a single word, but a sentence. It was, ‘Don’t do that.’... Russell Brand has a compelling story." — New York Times Book Review
The gleeful and candid New York Times bestselling autobiography of addiction, recovery, and rise to fame from Russell Brand, star of Forgetting Sarah Marshall and one of the biggest personalities in comedy today.
Suppose I were to begin by saying that I had fallen in love with a color . . .
A lyrical, philosophical, and often explicit exploration of personal suffering and the limitations of vision and love, as refracted through the color blue. With Bluets, Maggie Nelson has entered the pantheon of brilliant lyric essayists.
Maggie Nelson is the author of numerous books of poetry and nonfiction, including Something Bright, Then Holes (Soft Skull Press, 2007) and Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (University of Iowa Press, 2007). She lives in Los Angeles and teaches at the California Institute of the Arts.
As the artist behind the beloved Peanuts comic strip for more than 50 years, Charles Schulz—arguably the most famous cartoonist in the world—created a colorful cast of characters that continues to bring humor and comfort to millions of readers. In this distinctively designed yet highly accessible book, renowned children's biographer Beverly Gherman traces both the life events that shaped Schulz's art and the various ways in which art influenced his life in return. Acclaimed by artists ranging from Andrew Wyeth to Mo Willems, the artistic elements of Schulz's work are brought to life in a colorful layout and thoroughly explored in an enchanting text that will draw in even the most reluctant readers.
I Walked the Line is a chronicle of first love, long-kept secrets, betrayal, forgiveness, and the truth--told at last by Johnny Cash's first wife, the mother of his four daughters. It is a book that had the full support of Johnny Cash, who insisted it was time for their story to be told, despite any painful revelations that might come to light as a result.
Many myths and contradictions regarding the life of Johnny and his family have been perpetuated for decades in film and literature. Vivian exposes previously untold stories involving Johnny's drug addiction, his fraught family life, and their divorce in 1968, as well as the truth behind the writing of two of Johnny's most famous songs, "I Walk the Line" and "Ring of Fire."
Supplemented by a never-before-published archive of love letters and family photos, I Walked the Line offers a deeper look at one of the most sig- nificant artists in music history. Here, fans and readers can experience the extraordinary account of love and heartbreak between Johnny and Vivian, and come to understand Vivian's dignified silence over the years. Through this elegant, revealing, and powerful memoir, Vivian Cash's voice is finally heard.
Many myths and contradictions regarding the life of Johnny and his family have been perpetuated for decades in film and literature. Vivian exposes previously untold stories involving Johnny's drug addiction, his fraught family life, and their divorce in 1968, as well as the truth behind the writing of two of Johnny's most famous songs, "I Walk the Line" and "Ring of Fire."
Supplemented by a never-before-published archive of love letters and family photos, I Walked the Line offers a deeper look at one of the most sig- nificant artists in music history. Here, fans and readers can experience the extraordinary account of love and heartbreak between Johnny and Vivian, and come to understand Vivian's dignified silence over the years. Through this elegant, revealing, and powerful memoir, Vivian Cash's voice is finally heard.
The early life and trailblazing career of one of the twentieth century’s most remarkable female journalists
In this fascinating memoir, Ruth Gruber recalls her first twenty-five years, from her youth in Brooklyn to her astonishing academic accomplishments and groundbreaking journalistic career. She shares her experiences entering New York University at fifteen and just five years later becoming the world’s youngest person to earn a PhD. She recounts her time in Cologne, Germany, studying during Hitler’s rise to power, and her adventures in Europe and the Arctic as a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune.
Spirited and compelling, Ahead of Time is a striking account of the early years of a woman at the center of the twentieth century’s turning points.
In this fascinating memoir, Ruth Gruber recalls her first twenty-five years, from her youth in Brooklyn to her astonishing academic accomplishments and groundbreaking journalistic career. She shares her experiences entering New York University at fifteen and just five years later becoming the world’s youngest person to earn a PhD. She recounts her time in Cologne, Germany, studying during Hitler’s rise to power, and her adventures in Europe and the Arctic as a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune.
Spirited and compelling, Ahead of Time is a striking account of the early years of a woman at the center of the twentieth century’s turning points.
Legendary singer, songwriter, actress, and activist Cyndi Lauper offers a personal account of the journey that led her to become an international superstar in this “moving story of an American musical original” (Kirkus Reviews).
Icon Cyndi Lauper offers a poignant account of the journey that led her to become an international superstar—from her years growing up in Queens, New York, to the making of enduring hits like “Time After Time,” “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” and “True Colors,” to becoming an actress, a mother, an outspoken activist, and maintaining a music career that has lasted more than thirty years.
After leaving her childhood home at seventeen, Cyndi took on a series of jobs: racetrack hot walker, IHOP waitress, and, as she puts it, “gal Friday the thirteenth,” as she pursued her passion for music. She worked her way up playing small gigs and broke out in 1983 with She’s So Unusual, which earned her a Grammy for Best New Artist and made her the first female artist in history to have four top-five singles on a debut album. And while global fame wasn’t always what she expected, she has remained focused on what matters most. Cyndi is a gutsy real-life heroine who has never been afraid to speak her mind and stick up for a cause—whether it’s women’s rights, gay rights, or fighting against HIV/AIDS.
With her trademark warmth and humor, Cyndi fearlessly writes of a life she’s lived only on her own terms, perfect for fans of Patti Smith’s Just Kids and Billy Idol’s Dancing with Myself.
Icon Cyndi Lauper offers a poignant account of the journey that led her to become an international superstar—from her years growing up in Queens, New York, to the making of enduring hits like “Time After Time,” “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” and “True Colors,” to becoming an actress, a mother, an outspoken activist, and maintaining a music career that has lasted more than thirty years.
After leaving her childhood home at seventeen, Cyndi took on a series of jobs: racetrack hot walker, IHOP waitress, and, as she puts it, “gal Friday the thirteenth,” as she pursued her passion for music. She worked her way up playing small gigs and broke out in 1983 with She’s So Unusual, which earned her a Grammy for Best New Artist and made her the first female artist in history to have four top-five singles on a debut album. And while global fame wasn’t always what she expected, she has remained focused on what matters most. Cyndi is a gutsy real-life heroine who has never been afraid to speak her mind and stick up for a cause—whether it’s women’s rights, gay rights, or fighting against HIV/AIDS.
With her trademark warmth and humor, Cyndi fearlessly writes of a life she’s lived only on her own terms, perfect for fans of Patti Smith’s Just Kids and Billy Idol’s Dancing with Myself.
Immensely helpful and illuminating to any aspiring writer, this special edition of Stephen King’s critically lauded, million-copy bestseller shares the experiences, habits, and convictions that have shaped him and his work.
“Long live the King” hailed Entertainment Weekly upon publication of Stephen King’s On Writing. Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King’s advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported, near-fatal accident in 1999—and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it—fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.
“Long live the King” hailed Entertainment Weekly upon publication of Stephen King’s On Writing. Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King’s advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported, near-fatal accident in 1999—and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it—fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.