Book picks similar to
Being Britney by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike
biography
non-fiction
audible
music
A Little Me
Amy Roloff - 2019
Finally allowing herself to be vulnerable enough to open up to others, she learned that it’s worth risking possible rejection for a chance at genuine relationships.Ultimately, it was Amy’s faith, as well as the support and encouragement of her community of loving family and good friends, that saw her through the dark times and allowed her to realize her greatest dreams and beyond. Amy’s memoir is an inspiring and at times heart-wrenching account of resilience and the strength of the human spirit to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
How to Make Gravy
Paul Kelly - 2010
Over four nights Paul Kelly performed, in alphabetical order, one hundred of his songs from the previous three decades. In between songs he told stories about them, and from those little tales grew How to Make Gravy, a memoir like no other. Each of its hundred chapters, also in alphabetical order by song title, consists of lyrics followed by a story, the nature of the latter taking its cue from the former. Some pieces are confessional, some tell Kelly's personal and family history, some take you on a road tour with the band, some form an idiosyncratic history of popular music, some are like small essays, some stand as a kind of how-to of the songwriter's art – from the point of inspiration to writing, honing, collaborating, performing, recording and reworking.Paul Kelly is a born storyteller. Give him two verses with a chorus or 550 pages, but he won't waste a word. How to Make Gravy is a long volume that's as tight as a three-piece band. There isn't a topic this man can't turn his pen to – contemporary music and the people who play it, football, cricket, literature, opera, social issues, love, loss, poetry, the land and the history of Australia … there are even quizzes. The writing is insightful, funny, honest, compassionate, intelligent, playful, erudite, warm, thought-provoking. Paul Kelly is a star with zero pretensions, an everyman who is also a renaissance man. He thinks and loves and travels and reads widely, and his musical memoir is destined to become a classic – it doesn't have a bum note on it.
Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums
Travis Barker - 2014
But the dark side of rock stardom took its toll: his marriage, chronicled for an MTV reality show, fell apart. Constant touring concealed a serious drug addiction. A reckoning did not truly come until he was forced to face mortality: His life nearly ended in a horrifying plane crash, and then his close friend, collaborator, and fellow crash survivor DJ AM died of an overdose.In this blunt, driving memoir, Barker ruminates on rock stardom, fatherhood, death, loss, and redemption, sharing stories shaped by decades’ worth of hard-earned insights. His pulsating memoir is as energetic as his acclaimed beats. It brings to a close the first chapters of a well-lived life, inspiring readers to follow the rhythms of their own hearts and find meaning in their lives.
King Larry: The Life and Ruins of a Billionaire Genius
James D. Scurlock - 2012
Now, James Scurlock engages, educates, and entertains readers with the captivating story of DHL co-founder and billionaire Larry Hillblom.King Larry begins with an early biography of Larry Lee Hillblom, a mercurial young man who grew up on a peach farm outside of Fresno, California. Hillblom co-founded DHL in 1969 (three years before FedEx), and it became the fastest-growing corporation in history. Hillblom’s expatriate life began in 1981, when he retreated to a small tax haven in the Western Pacific. There he led the resistance to American meddling in the Marianas Islands. Hillblom’s voracious appetite for underage prostitutes is another facet of his unusual story. In 1995, Hillblom’s amoral, thrill-seeking nature caught up to him when his seaplane disappeared off the coast of Anatahan, leaving behind an estate worth billions. Weeks later, five impoverished women and their attorneys came forward to challenge Hillblom’s will in a legal battle for his fortunes that continues to this day. Meticulously researched and thoroughly engaging, King Larry will satisfy fans of such bestsellers as Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and The Accidental Billionaires .
Without Frontiers: The Life & Music of Peter Gabriel
Daryl Easlea - 2013
A quintessential Englishman, he has since pursued several overlapping careers, bringing to each of them his trademark preoccupation with quality control and restless curiosity.In 1975, after leaving the band that made him famous he diversified into writing movie soundtracks, various audio-visual ventures, tireless charity work and supporting major peace initiatives. He also became world music’s most illustrious champion, launching the WOMAD festival and recording solo albums that featured musicians from every corner of the globe. These and several other careers make writing Peter Gabriel’s biography an unusually challenging task, but Daryl Easlea has undertaken hours of new interviews with key friends, musicians, aides and confidants to get to the very heart and soul of Peter Gabriel, his music and his complex life. The result is an extraordinary biography of an extraordinary man.
Adele: To Make You Feel Her Love
Neil Simpson - 2012
Her album 21 is the biggest selling record of the century so far clocking up an incredible 24 million sales globally. From a cramped flat in London to the Grammys in Los Angeles, Adele's golden voice, her catchy hits, and her irrepressible personality have taken the world by storm. But who is the woman behind the songs? What struggles and heartbreaks inspired the music that moved the world to tears - and bought it to its feet? And now that she seems to have finally found happiness with her new partner, and with the baby boy she gave birth to in October 2012, can she still find the passion that made her the artist who conquered the entertainment industry?In this brilliant, insightful biography Neil Simpson takes the reader inside Adele's world. He details her childhood, her early attempts to break into the music business, the tempestuous relationships that inspired some of her greatest songs and the months of painstaking work that went into the albums the defined her. This is the real Adele - unvarnished and close-up. And the book has been updated to include the birth of her baby boy - and to examine what kind of mother Adele will be, and what impact it will have on her incredible creativity. 'Adele: To Make You Feel Her Love' is the one book every Adele fan will want to read. 'I adore Adele’s voice and I adored this book. Neil Simpson’s account of Adele’s amazing career, from her childhood days to mega-stardom, captivated me right from the start.' - Emma Lee-Potter, best-selling author of 'School Ties'. Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.
The Roof: The Beatles' Final Concert
Ken Mansfield - 2018
January 30, 1969 was one of those moments. There are those who were on the periphery of the event that day and heard what was going on; but as one of the few remaining insiders who accompanied the Beatles up onto the cold windswept roof of the Apple building, Ken Mansfield had a front row seat to the full sensory experience of the moment and witnessed what turned out to be beginning of the end. Ken shares in The Roof: The Beatles Final Concert, the sense that something special was taking place before his eyes that would live on forever in the hearts and souls of millions. As the US manager of Apple, Ken Mansfield was on the scene in the days, weeks, and months leading up to this monumental event. He shares his insights into the factors that brought them up onto that roof and why one of the greatest bands of all time left it all on that stage. Join Ken as he reflects on the relationships he built with the Fab Four and the Apple corps and what each player meant to this symphony of music history.
The unknown Mongol
Scott "Junior" Ereckson - 2010
From a child to the National President of one the most notorious Motorcycle clubs in history. The best book of its genre.Once you start it you won't be able to put it down.
Lost Daughter: A Daughter's Suffering, a Mother's Unconditional Love, an Extraordinary Story of Hope and Survival.
Nola Wunderle - 2013
I hadn't slept properly for weeks. All of us had been waiting for this moment for months. Our fourth child was soon to arrive ...This is the story of 18-year-old Kartya Wunderle, one of 64 babies flown out of Taiwan in the early 80s. Babies stolen from their mothers or sold by their families and adopted out to unsuspecting overseas parents. At 15, Kartya began to use heroin in an attempt to take away the pain of not knowing who she was and where she came from. Her distraught parents watched their beautiful daughter slowly slip away from them, spiralling towards a tragic and almost inevitable conclusion. Out of desperation and fired by an unconditional love for her daughter, Nola Wunderle resolved to find Kartya's birth mother and change the ending to Kartya's story. An amazing search for one woman in a country of 22 million began. The result was nothing short of miraculous, and made Kartya a national hero in her homeland. Lost Daughter is a moving testament to the power of love and the strength of the human spirit, one that will humble and inspire all who read it.
White Picket Monsters: A Story of Strength and Survival
Bev Moore Davis - 2021
The Next Next Level: A Story of Rap, Friendship, and Almost Giving Up
Leon Neyfakh - 2015
Journalist Leon Neyfakh has been something more than a fan of Juiceboxxx’s since he was a teenager, when he booked a show for the artist in a church basement in his hometown of Oak Park, Illinois. Juiceboxxx went on to the tireless, lonely, possibly hopeless pursuit of success on his own terms—no club was too dank, no futon too grubby, if it helped him get to the next, next level. And, for years, Neyfakh remained haunted from afar: was art really worth all the sacrifices? If it was, how did you know you’d made it? And what was the difference, anyway, between a person like Juiceboxxx—who devoted his life to being an artist—and a person like Neyfakh, who elected instead to pursue a stable career and a comfortable, middle-class existence? Much more than a brilliant portrait of a charismatic musician always on the verge of something big, The Next Next Level is a wholly contemporary story of art, obsession, fame, ambition, and friendship—as well as viral videos, rap-rock, and the particulars of life on the margins of culture.
My Story
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum - 2019
These stories tell of the vision behind Dubai’s meteoric growth from a small and bustling trading port to an international metropolis at the heart of global business. They record the evolution of the United Arab Emirates from a shared ideal to a nation where more than 195 nationalities live and work in peace, harmony and prosperity. And they reveal insights from a man whose drive, determination and will to succeed have become legendary. Within these stories lies the heart of Sheikh Mohammed the statesman, the equestrian, the poet and the leader. They are written with the intent to inspire and inform new generations of readers, and to celebrate the achievements of this young and vibrant nation and the people who shaped it. This celebration of a life in service is unavoidably incomplete. As Sheikh Mohammed himself indicates, there is still so much left to do. As a record of the first fifty years alone, however, it forms part of a remarkable legacy. Other titles written by Sheikh Mohammed and published by Explorer include Zayed, Reflections on Happiness & Positivity, Flashes of Verse and Two Great Leaders.
Dying to Get Married: The Courtship and Murder of Julie Miller Bulloch
Ellen Harris - 1991
Julie Miller was a successful executive who, through a newspaper ad, met who she thought was "Mr. Right." Little did she know that he had a violent past and a predisposition for bizarre sexual rituals. This tragic, true-crime tale will shock its horrified readers.
Chloe Sims: The Only Way Is Up: My Story
Chloe Sims - 2012
But there is more to Chloe than viewers see on the TV, and the drama doesn’t stop when the camera stops rolling. Just two years ago, Chloe was a single mother struggling to make ends meet doing a string of jobs she hated and wondering if she would ever find happiness. Since joining the cast of The Only Way Is Essex, her life is now a whirlwind of glitzy parties and jet-set holidays, but life hasn’t always dealt Chloe a good hand. Her story is one of triumph over adversity, with plenty of laughs along the way. From her turbulent childhood where she was raised by a neighbor after her mother abandoned her, to battling with bullies and struggling with an eating disorder, to the magical moment when she met the man of her dreams.
Steven Tyler: The Biography
Laura Jackson - 2008
With an exhaustively vibrant personality, this dynamic lead singer has been one of the most distinctive figures in rock music for more than three decades. Although he was raised in a close knit, loving family, Tyler survived a tough upbringing in the Bronx. His inherent passion for performing and a talent for playing instruments propelled him into rock music as a teenager. He fronted a succession of local bands before meeting the guys with whom he would form Aerosmith in 1970. Laura Jackson reveals the stories behind Tyler's relationships with band members and the many women in his life, his battle with Hepatitis C, and his drug-fuelled meltdown during the late '70s and early '80s when he was snorting pure heroin. She also explores his visits to rehab in the 1980s which saved his life. Tyler has lived a roller coaster life of excess - spending over a million dollars on drugs - but is miraculously still performing. Steven Tyler: the biography tells his incredible story.