He has a public meltdown while chaperoning Oasis at an awards ceremony; he’s lost joy in his bathroom full of rock’n’roll memorabilia; and his young son is in trouble at school for emulating rock star behaviour.Reluctantly Michael consults Mrs Henckel, a no-nonsense therapist with zero experience of pop culture. As Michael addresses his feelings about the past, in particular his failed teenage band, Mental Elf, he’s forced to confront the question: is it finally time to grow up and forget rock’n’roll?Michael Odell is a former contributing editor to Q magazine and has written about music for NME, the Guardian, the Independent and Spin, among others. Currently he does interviews and writes on family matters for The Times. He lives in Bristol."Please don't put your life in the hands of a rock 'n' roll band, who'll throw it all away." So advised Noel Gallagher in 1995 and Michael Odell ignored him anyway.One of Britain's most fearless rock interrogators, Odell turns his merciless searchlight on himself in this wry, compelling odyssey into the heart of his own - and rock n roll's - madness. Larks with the legends are all here (Bowie, McCartney, Mick `n' Keef ... Michael Buble) but it's his inner life which illuminates, his psyche traumatically crumbling as he confronts his chaotic past. Hilarious, tragic and timely, this is high farce in high (and low) places, uncovering why rock's lost highway is littered with the bodies of the righteous dreamers. Could it be because "the music people are all mad?" (Clue: yes.)' -- Sylvia Patterson, author of I'm Not with the Band `Hilarious and disarmingly honest; a journey into the neurosis of rock fame, but through doors you don't expect.' -- Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry `Rock Bottom is one of the best music books ever written, because Michael Odell knows music isn't about the musicians - it's about what it does to the listener, even if what it does ends up being wholly disastrous. It's sad, funny, fascinating and wise. And everyone who ever claimed a record changed their life should read it, and then think again.' -- Michael Hann, former Guardian music editor

    Roy Orbison died in 1988 but he's hardly forgotten. Raised in rural Texas, Orbison became one of the pioneers of rock and roll in the 1950s, sharing the famed Sun Records with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. He achieved superstar status in the 1960s, writing and releasing a series of smash singles, such as Oh, Pretty Woman, Only the Lonely, and Crying, plus many others that remain the most well-known songs of the era. IN DREAMS features rare memorabilia from Roy's career, much of it unseen for decades. This stunning biography, written by his sons along with Jeff Slate, tells the true story of their father's remarkable life, including his personal tragedies, reinventions, and untimely death.

    See the books that made APJ Abdul Kalam

    It has been twenty-five years since you were born. There have been too many Christmases without you . . . 'In the summer of 2000, schoolgirl Sarah Payne went missing from a beach where she played with her siblings. The nation waited with her whole family as the search for the little girl touched the hearts of everyone in the country. After Sarah's body was found, abducted and murdered by convicted paedophile Roy Whiting, her mother, Sara, spoke of how she had survived those terrible times.Now, seventeen years later, Sara wants to tell the full story of how she coped then, and how she has survived. Through a series of letters to her beloved daughter, she takes the reader on a heart-breaking but uplifting journey through every parent's worst nightmare in a moving account of the ultimate emotional survival. It is a story for the little girl who was taken, but a reminder to us all that hope never dies – and love never ends.

    Each woman knows the struggles they face to find water every day. Each woman knows that the power to bring water to homes lies only in the hands of powerful men. Each woman does what is needed to make sure that happens anyway. The struggle and pain of being a good woman in rural India is brought to life beautifully by Sudha Murty.

    

    Cultivated by the Motown star machine, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross, and Florence Ballard popped onto the charts with hits like "Baby Love" and "Where Did Our Love Go" and made the Supremes not only a household name, but rock and roll legends. The story of their journey to fame is one that fairy tales are made of-complete with battles, tragedies, and triumphs. It's a story that only one of the founders of this talented trio is able or willing to share with the world. In Dreamgirls & Supreme Faith: My Life as a Supreme, Supremes' co-founder Mary Wilson boldly brings to life all the intimate details of the group's struggle to top the charts. This is the first book to tell the complete story of Mary's courageous life from childhood through the height of the Supremes, to the turn of the century. This beautiful paperback edition combines the best-selling Dreamgirls with the sequel, Supreme Faith: Someday We'll Be Together, for the first time in one volume. The new afterword brings Mary's intriguing story up to date with details on. . . - The tragic car accident that claimed her son's life - The death of her mother, Johnnie Mae, and her dear friend, Mary Wells - Becoming a grandmother - Making her peace with Berry Gordy and Diana Ross - Being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame The Supremes wonderful music isn't the only thing to remain in the public's mind. Diana Ross' push for dominance in the trio has become legendary. Mary Wilson speaks candidly about Ross' tactics to latch onto Berry Gordy, and force her will on the group's activities. For example, while on the early tours, Diana would threaten to call Gordy from the road if the men on the bus didn't behave to her approval. She also openly pushed for Flo's removal from the group. Wilson also openly shares her thoughts on . . .The group's never-ending b

    This new edition addresses such important issues as the implication of MP3, the Copyright Term Extension Act, union treatment of digital music, and much more.

    As scholar and cultural critic Tricia Rose argues, hip hop, in fact, has become one of the primary ways we talk about race in the United States. But hip hop is in crisis. For years, the most commercially successful hip hop has become increasingly saturated with caricatures of black gangstas, thugs, pimps, and hos. This both represents and feeds a problem in black American culture. Or does it? In The Hip-Hop Wars, Rose explores the most crucial issues underlying the polarized claims on each side of the debate: Does hip hop cause violence, or merely reflect a violent ghetto culture? Is hip hop sexist, or are its detractors simply anti-sex? Does the portrayal of black culture in hip hop undermine black advancement? A potent exploration of a divisive and important subject, The Hip Hop Wars concludes with a call for the regalvanization of the progressive and creative heart of hip hop. What Rose calls for is not a sanitized vision of the form, but one that more accurately reflects a much richer space of culture, politics, anger, and yes, sex, than the current ubiquitous images in sound and video currently provide.

    Poker's biggest players, such as Phil Ivey (2009 WSOP Main Event Finalist), Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson and Daniel Negreanu give first-person accounts of their personal journeys and the key moments in their rise to the top of the poker pantheon. These stories will teach, inspire and make you laugh. Deal Me In humanizes the larger-than-life personalities, allowing the reader to understand more about poker strategy through the trials and errors of the best players in the game. Each poker legend tells his or her own story in the book including: Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Annie Duke, Johnny Chan, Chris Jesus Ferguson, Carlos Mortensen, Chau Giang, Jennifer Harman, Allen Cunningham, Howard Lederer, Erik Seidel, Chad Brown, David Devilfish Ulliott, Layne Flack, Scotty Nguyen, Annette Obrestad, Tom Dwan and the 2008 Main Event winner Peter Eastgate.

    In this no-holds-barred memoir, legendary rocker Danny Seraphine shares his dramatic—and often shocking—experiences as the popular supergroup's cofounder and longtime drummer. He reveals behind-the-scenes anecdotes about Chicago’s beginnings as the house band at Los Angeles's legendary Whisky A Go Go, where they were discovered by music icons Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, and personal insights about the group’s many comebacks and reinventions over the years.Offers a lively inside account of the music and history of the perennially popular band Chicago, one of the most successful American bands ever with over 122 million albums sold, by the band’s cofounder and longtime drummer Danny SeraphineIncludes riveting tales and rare photographs from Seraphine's time on the road touring with performers including Dennis and Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Bruce SpringsteenCandidly tackles many rumors about Chicago, including Mafia ties, accounting and payola scandals, and major drug abuseDiscusses the mysterious circumstances surrounding Seraphine's 1990 firing from the band as well as his comeback with his critically acclaimed new band, California Transit AuthorityWhether you're a diehard Chicago fan or just love a well-told rock-and-roll memoir, Street Player will entertain and surprise you.

    But long before he was a Backstreet Boy, he was my boy--and I want to share his whole exciting story with you.

    Mark Hodkinson's biography of Queen focuses on the band's formative years, and draws on interviews with over sixty friends and colleagues of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon.

    Forty New York Times #1 Bestsellers. One lousy band. Now go behind the scenes to hear their stories firsthand.In 1992, a cadre of the world’s bestselling authors formed a rock band called the Rock Bottom Remainders. For two decades the band played proudly (and some would say, terribly) to sold out crowds across the country. Now they’re hanging up their guitar picks, drumsticks and leather whips, but not without a look back at twenty years of friendship, love, writing, and the redemptive power of rock ’n’ roll.Hard Listening is a voyeuristic view into the private lives of your favorite authors, combining essays, fiction, musings, candid email exchanges and conversations, compromising photographs, audio and video clips, and interactive quizzes for a groundbreaking ebook experience. See Stephen King, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, Dave and Sam Barry, Roy Blount Jr., Mitch Albom, James McBride, Ridley Pearson, Matt Groening, Greg Iles, and rock legend Roger McGuinn at their most unguarded.

    Like rock and roll before it, it has permanently transformed music, art, dance and fashion while capturing millions of listeners - and this vast cultural revolution was all started by a bunch of street kids in the ravaged Bronx of the 1970s. Documenting hip-hop's remarkable genesis, this book tells its stories in voices that bristle with vitality, character, humour and menace, tracing the music from DJ Kool Herc's first parties in 1973 through the release of "Rapper's Delight" in 1979 and the rise of the new school in the mid 1980s. Fricke and Ahearn weave an electric narrative from the accounts of over 50 of hip-hop's founders and stars, old school and new, including Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, DJ Kool Herc, Melle Mel, Grand Wizard Theodore, Grandmaster Caz, Rahiem, Fab 5 Freddy, Tony Tone and DMC. A wealth of previously unseen photographs, flyers and posters illustrate the text. This work is a chorus of voices, a tale of artistry in the face of extraordinary adversity, and the definitive history of a revolution created with nothing more than a microphone, a turntable and a dance floor.