Music By Philip Glass


Philip Glass - 1987
    In Music by Philip Glass, he tells of his musical struggle and growth, from the Juilliard School, through his studies in Paris with the great teacher Nadia Boulanger (whose other students included Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson) and working with Ravi Shankar to 'translate' his scores for Western musicians, to his immersion in the avant-garde theater of Mabou Mines, LaMama, and Robert Wilson.

Schindler's List


Thomas Keneally - 1982
    He was a womaniser, a heavy drinker and a bon viveur, but to them he became a saviour. This is the extraordinary story of Oskar Schindler, who risked his life to protect Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland and who was transformed by the war into a man with a mission, a compassionate angel of mercy.

Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon


Craig Nelson - 2009
    on July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 rocket launched in the presence of more than a million spectators who had gathered to witness a truly historic event. It carried Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins to the last frontier of human imagination: the moon. Rocket Men is the thrilling story of the moon mission, and it restores the mystery and majesty to an event that may have become too familiar for most people to realize what a stunning achievement it represented in planning, technology, and execution. Through interviews, twenty-three thousand pages of NASA oral histories, and declassified CIA documents on the space race, Craig Nelson re-creates a vivid and detailed account of the Apollo 11 mission. From the quotidian to the scientific to the magical, readers are taken right into the cockpit with Aldrin and Armstrong and behind the scenes at Mission Control. Rocket Men is the story of a twentieth-century pilgrimage; a voyage into the unknown motivated by politics, faith, science, and wonder that changed the course of history.

Don't Block the Blessings


Patti LaBelle - 1996
    In Don't Block the Blessings, Patti reveals the exciting story of her rise to fame, describes how she overcame serious career setbacks, and writes frankly about her own personal tragedies.

The Voyage of the Rose City: An Adventure at Sea


John Moynihan - 2011
    Navy, Pat Moynihan had worked the New York City docks and knew what his son would encounter. However, John’s mother, Elizabeth, an avid sailor, found the idea of an adventure at sea exciting and set out to help him get his Seaman’s Papers. When John was sworn in, he was given one piece of advice: to not tell the crew that his father was a United States senator.The job ticket read “forty-five days from Camden, New Jersey, to the Mediterranean on the Rose City,” a supertanker. As the ship sailed the orders changed, and forty-five days became four months across the equator, around Africa, across the Indian Ocean, and up to Japan—a far more perilous voyage than John or his mother had imagined. The physical labor was grueling, and outdated machinery aboard the ship, including broken radar, jeopardized the lives of the crew. They passed through the Straits of Malacca three times, with hazardous sailing conditions and threats of pirates. But it was also the trip of a lifetime: John reveled in the natural world around him, listened avidly to the tales of the old timers, and even came to value the drunken camaraderie among men whose only real family was one another. A talented artist, John drew what he saw and kept a journal on the ship that he turned into his senior thesis when he returned to Wesleyan the following year.A few years after John died in his early forties, the result of a reaction to acetaminophen, his mother printed a limited edition of his journal illustrated with drawings from his notebooks. Encouraged by the interest in his account of the voyage, she agreed to publish the book more widely. An honestly written story of a boy’s coming into manhood at sea, The Voyage of the Rose City is a taut, thrilling tale of the adventure of a lifetime.

Damn! Why Did I Write This Book?


Jayson "JTG" Paul - 2015
    In this compilation all focused around the four letter word that has ended more wrestling careers than steroids, pills and alcohol combined: HEAT!HEAT: A dark cloud that follows a wrestler after a personal conflict or misunderstanding between two individuals or more backstage.JTG will take you, the reader, on a journey, from the beginning of his career, to the final curtain call; sharing stories on how he battled Heat from day one. Join JTG on this epic pilgrimage through this blazing inferno that was his career, while managing to piss off more people for writing this book!!!

Loose Balls: Easy Money, Hard Fouls, Cheap Laughs, & True Love in the NBA


Jayson Williams - 2000
    From revelations about the meanest, softest, and smelliest players in the league, to Williams’s early days as a “young man with a lot of money and not a lot of sense,” to his strong and powerful views on race, privilege, and giving back, Loose Balls is a basketball book unlike any other.No inspirational pieties or chest-thumping boasting here—instead, Jayson Williams gives us the real insider tales of refs, groupies, coaches, entourages, and all the superstars, bench warmers, journeymen, clowns, and other performers in the rarefied circus that is professional basketball.From the Trade Paperback edition.

You're Lucky You're Funny: How Life Becomes a Sitcom


Phil Rosenthal - 2006
    As the number-one sitcom, it received more than seventy Emmy nominations, including two wins for best comedy. With You’re Lucky You’re Funny, Phil Rosenthal takes us onstage and inside the writer’s room. Rosenthal’s meteoric ascent was preceded by odd jobs, including a stint as a museum security guard, running a deli, and writing for a slew of forgettable shows—including one starring Robert Mitchum as a curmudgeonly homeless man taken in by two orphans. But when he met comedian Ray Romano, they discovered a shared lifetime of family dysfunction—and endless material for a sitcom. Not only a chronicle of one man’s rise to the peak of his profession, Rosenthal’s book is also an unprecedented look at the making of a hit series: how shows are written and character developed, how comedy is refined, how network executives are outsmarted, and most important, how egos are massaged. You’re Lucky You’re Funny is an inspiration to anyone involved in the creative process and a must read for the show’s millions of devoted fans. BACKCOVER: Advanced Praise: “In the Prologue, Mr. Rosenthal says ‘No one listens to me. Maybe the reader will...’ You should! He is the real deal, both as a human being and as an artist of comedy.” —Henry Winkler "I read YOU'RE LUCKY YOU'RE FUNNY and loved it! If you had the Everybody Loves Raymond bug during its 9 year run, this is the love letter you've been waiting for. If you've missed the bug, read it at the risk of being bitten and smitten." —Norman Lear

Peter and Alice


John Logan - 2013
    Enchantment and reality collide at a 1932 meeting between Alice Liddell Hargreaves, the original Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Llewelyn Davies, the original Peter Pan. Peter and Alice, which opened on London's West End in March 2013, stars Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw.

Fosse


Sam Wasson - 2013
    The only person ever to win Oscar, Emmy, and Tony awards in the same year, Fosse revolutionized nearly every facet of American entertainment, forever marking Broadway and Hollywood with his iconic style — hat tilted, fingers splayed — that would influence generations of performing artists. Yet in spite of Fosse’s innumerable achievements, no accomplishment ever seemed to satisfy him, and offstage his life was shadowed in turmoil and anxiety.Now, bestselling author Sam Wasson unveils the man behind the swaggering sex appeal, tracing Fosse’s untold reinventions of himself over a career that would spawn The Pajama Game, Cabaret, Pippin, All That Jazz, and Chicago, one of the longest-running Broadway musicals ever. Drawing on a wealth of unpublished material and hundreds of sources — friends, enemies, lovers, and collaborators, many of whom have never spoken publicly about Fosse before — Wasson illuminates not only Fosse’s prodigious professional life, but also his close and conflicted relationships with everyone from Liza Minnelli to Ann Reinking to Jessica Lange and Dustin Hoffman. Wasson also uncovers the deep wounds that propelled Fosse’s insatiable appetites — for spotlights, women, and life itself. In this sweeping, richly detailed account, Wasson’s stylish, effervescent prose proves the ideal vehicle for revealing Bob Fosse as he truly was — after hours, close up, and in vibrant color.

The Dramatic Imagination: Reflections and Speculations on the Art of the Theatre


Robert Edmond Jones - 1941
    The volume includes A New Kind of Drama, To a Young Stage Designer and six other of Jones's reflections.

A Helluva High Note: Surviving Life, Love, and American Idol


Kara DioGuardi - 2011
    But success wouldn’t have happened for this songwriter, artist and producer without the darker times of defeat. Now, in this daringly honest memoir, DioGuardi reveals everything she’s learned about living, creating, loving, stumbling, picking herself up again and ultimately succeeding.  And, of course, she hares behind-the-scenes stories from her years on American Idol, including the real truth about her departure from the show.  Passionate, wide and funny, A Helluva High Note inspires readers to find, develop and follow their own true voice.

In Search of River Phoenix: The Truth Behind The Myth


Barry C. Lawrence - 2004
    The complete book about the life of Academy Award nominee River Phoenix, from his parents beginning, his birth, member of a cult religion, to his TV acting, activism, veganism and movie career.

Defying Gravity: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz, from Godspell to Wicked


Carol de Giere - 2008
    Defying Gravity takes readers into the creative world of Broadway and film composer Stephen Schwartz, from writing Godspell 's score at age 23 through the making of the megahit Wicked . For this first authorized biography, de Giere draws from 80 hours of interviews with Schwartz and over 100 interviews with his colleagues, friends, and family. Her sympathetic yet frank narrative reveals never-before-told stories and explores both Schwartz's phenomenal hits and expensive flops. The book also includes a series of "Creativity Notes" with insights about artistic life, and more than 200 photographs and illustrations. "In Defying Gravity, Carol de Giere pulls back the curtain and gives us a fascinating glimpse into the creative process of one of the musical theater's greatest wizards." - Stephen Flaherty, Tony-Award winning composer of Ragtime, Seussical, and Once On This Island "This is a fantastic book, scrapbook, story and photo collection." - Broadwayworld.com "Defying Gravity, which takes its name from the Act 1 closer in Wicked, is not just a he-did-this-then-he-did-this biography: de Giere reconstructs the collaborative process that brought Schwartz's works to the Great White Way." - The Journal News "A wonderful read. And the Wicked section provides a comprehensive account of a thoroughly recondite and even mysterious event: the gestation and birth of a phenomenon." - Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked (the novel), Son of a Witch, and A Lion Among Men "Trying to reconstruct the writing process of a musical is nearly impossible. Carol de Giere has captured it." - Winnie Holzman, book writer for Wicked (the musical) "This is a loving, in-depth look at the career and process of one of our most important musical theater writers. I am happy to have it on my shelf." - Lynn Ahrens, Tony Award-winning lyricist of Ragtime "A must-have for any of the composer's many fans." - Theatermania.com

Marilyn Manson


Kurt Reighley - 1998
    This biography offers an all-encompassing look at the success of this controversial band.