Ginger Geezer: The Life of Vivian Stanshall


Chris Welch - 2001
    The eccentric group who satirised trad jazz, pop and rock, reached Number five with ‘I’m The Urban Spaceman’ in 1968. A punishing schedule of tours and television followed, including work with the future Monty Python team. The following year, broke and burned out, the Bonzos split up, leaving behind a loyal cult following.Vivian launched into myriad solo projects in music, film and theatre, giving himself several nervous breakdowns in the process. His comic masterpiece, ‘Sir Henry at Rawlinson End’, was heard in radio, on an album, and then hit the big screen. Vivian wrote the musical ‘Stinkfoot’, was narrator on ‘Tubular Bells’ and provided lyrics for Steve Winwood. In person, he was just as multi-faceted, by turns the erudite artist and the truculent Teddy Boy, breathtakingly rude. A powerful figure, tall, red-haired and never less than extravagant in his fashion, Vivian Stanshall was a hell-raiser of legendary reputation – ably assisted through much of the 1970s by Who drummer Keith Moon. Vivian drove the many who loved him to the limit, struggling with terrible tranquilliser and alcohol dependency. He died at home in a house fire in 1995. The story of his turbulent life is utterly compelling.

Oil Painting Secrets From a Master


Linda Cateura - 1984
    This is such a book. For more than two years, Linda Cateura has pursued teacher / artist David A. Leffel, notebook in hand, as he critiqued the work of students. Linda Cateura's succinct notes capture his insights, philosophy, painting hints, and general comments.Leffel's classic, painterly, twentieth-century old master style, much in the manner of Rembrandt or Chardin, affords ample illustration of the ideas expressed - through his many paintings, details, demonstrations, and diagrams, almost all in color.No matter what your level of ability, there is something here to apply to your own work, ideas that will cause you to rething your own ways of painting, hints to save you effort, or solutions to persistent painting problems.

Faith on the March


A.H. Macmillan - 1957
    For the next 66 years he was in the fore front of seeing the truth being spread throughout the world, to what has become known in over 235 lands, with over 6 million witnesses to date.He served with three of the presidents, Russell, Rutherford, and Knorr. He relates the good times and also the bad times of the early history of the modern day Jehovah Witnesses. From being put into jail with 7 others, and going through two world wars, he relates honestly to the readers what the Jehovah Witnesses went throughout to tell the truth of the Bible.

Hard Knocks Soft Spots


Paddy Doherty - 2012
    I teach my children to be proud too. Because being a traveller means everything to me. It's not just a label, it goes much deeper. It's an identity that is burned into my heart.Paddy Doherty loves his life as an Irish traveler, but as a child he felt like an outsider. He was different from his siblings. On the rare occasions he went to school, he was bullied. And beyond the gates of the camp he found nothing but hostility. Slowly, Paddy's hurt turned into anger and by the age of 11 he had started out on an illustrious career as a bare-knuckle boxer. This earned him a position as one of the most well-respected (and feared) men in the traveling community. Yet while he won countless brutal fights in the ring, the real battles he faced were very much outside. In this deeply honest autobiography, he tells of how he has loved and lost five children, and plummeted to seven stone while battling depression, drink, and drugs. He describes how it feels to be shot point-blank in the head and the lengths he'll go to to protect his people. Told with all the warmth and humor he is famed for, Paddy's rich and colorful story is one that will stay with you for a long time to come.

Big Day Coming: Yo La Tengo and the Rise of Indie Rock


Jesse Jarnow - 2012
    Yo La Tengo has lit up the indie scene for three decades, part of an underground revolution that defied corporate music conglomerates, eschewed pop radio, and found a third way. Going behind the scenes of one of the most remarkable eras in American music history, Big Day Coming traces the patient rise of husband-and-wife team Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley, who--over three decades--helped forge a spandex-and-hairspray-free path to the global stage, selling millions of records along the way and influencing countless bands.Using the continuously vital Yo La Tengo as a springboard, Big Day Coming uncovers the history of the legendary clubs, bands, zines, labels, record stores, college radio stations, fans, and pivotal figures that built the infrastructure of the now-prevalent indie rock world. Journalist and freeform radio DJ Jesse Jarnow draws on all-access interviews and archives for mesmerizing trip through contemporary music history told through one of its most creative and singular acts.

Earth Song: Inside Michael Jackson's Magnum Opus


Joseph Vogel - 2011
    In both subject and sound, it was like nothing else on the radio. It defied the cynicism and apathy of Generation X; it challenged the aesthetic expectations for a "pop song" (or even a "protest song"), fusing blues, opera, rock and gospel; and it demanded accountability in an era of corporate greed, globalization and environmental indifference. A massive hit globally (reaching #1 in over fifteen countries), it wasn't even offered as a single in the United States. Yet nearly two decades later, it stands as one of Jackson's greatest artistic achievements. In this groundbreaking monograph, author Joseph Vogel details the song's context and evolution from its inception in Vienna in 1988, to its release and reception in 1995, to Jackson's final live performance in Munich in 1999. Based on original research, including interviews with the song's key participants, Earth Song: Inside Michael Jackson's Magnum Opus offers a fascinating reassessment of this prophetic musical statement.

Dark Knights and Holy Fools: The Art and Films of Terry Gilliam: From Before Python to Beyond Fear and Loathing


Bob McCabe - 1999
    Since 1969, when he became the only American among the otherwise all-British Monty Python team. Terry Gilliam's work has won plaudits and acclaim for its originality and imagination. His films are renowned for the quality of performances from some of Hollywood's top acting talent, such as Robert de Niro, Brad Pitt, Robin Williams and Johnny Depp.For the first time, this book traces thirty years of the work and art of Terry Gilliam, from his pre-Python days through to the astounding adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, released in 1998.Using Gilliam's own drawings, storyboard and scripts, this book builds to a complete overview of the director's work, examining in detail his striking visual sense ad labyrinthing stories of Man against bureaucracy (Brazil, Twelve Monkeys), triumphant tales of imagination winning over mediocrity (Time Bandits, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King) and, of course, something completely different (Monty Python and the Holy Grail).

My life and struggle; autobiography of Badshah Khan


Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan - 1969
    Narang. Badshah Khan was the leader of the Khudai Khidmatgar (also known as the Red Shirts) in NWFP.

Marcel Duchamp: Appearance Stripped Bare


Octavio Paz - 1968
    The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas.

Sketchy Stories: The Sketchbook Art of Kerby Rosanes


Kerby Rosanes - 2016
    With a legion of over a million followers, Kerby has been a source of inspiration to artists, designers, and art-lovers all over the world with his stunning art and inspirational messages like "Never Quit Drawing" and "Be Awesome Today." Now fans can glimpse the personal sketchbook of Kerby Rosanes with Sketchy Stories, a beautiful facsimile reproduction of his original sketchbook, loaded with secret doodles, elaborate sketches, and whimsical lines and detailed patterns. Interspersed with his artwork, Kerby also includes techniques, tips, inspirations, influences, and more. The ideal gift for fans of Kerby Rosanes or anyone who is ready to be creatively inspired.

Evolution of a Crazy Artist


Sophie Crumb - 2010
    Sifting through dozens of their daughter's remarkable sketchbooks, our generation's most celebrated graphic artists have, with their only child, Sophie, now selected more than three hundred paintings and drawings that depict her artistic and psychological maturation. Revealing how an original artistic sensibility is both innate and nurtured, the book features six separate developmental stages, including Sophie's earliest drawings, the elaborate fantasy world of her childhood, her late adolescent rebellion, and her coming of age in the milieu of the Paris circus world and New York's "seventh circle of hell." The drawings from her early twenties—of tattoo artists, dangerous men—reflect a personal anguish that finally ends with her becoming a mother and creating a family of her own. Illuminating and intimate, this book is a dramatic yet subtle statement on the evolution of personality as seen through art. This slipcased limited edition is signed by S., R., and A. Crumb, including a signed print.

King James: Believe the Hype---The LeBron James Story


Ryan Jones - 2003
    He was the undisputed finest high school player in America. He was the one NBA scouts drooled over, corporations dreamed of, event promoters begged for, and now fans clamor after. Never before had a high school basketball player been so highly touted or an eighteen-year-old athlete been the subject of such fascination. Maybe no basketball player in the world has had that level of attention.Now with the Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron has become a certified NBA all-star. Love him or hate him, there is no denying that LeBron James is a force on the basketball court, and his rags to riches story is the stuff that dreams are made of.Ryan Jones has updated his smash hit book King James to incorporate everything that is LeBron: the controversy, the star power, the shoes, the cars, the hobnobbing with the world's most famous celebrities, and, of course, the game. This is a book for every fan of LeBron James and for anybody interested in reading about an NBA legend in the making.

The Pornographer of Vienna


Lewis Crofts - 2007
    . . . Thoroughly researched, and well described. The author is bewitched by his subject’s decadence and by the period’s historical detail.”—Financial Times“[Lewis] Crofts’s debut doesn’t shrink from depicting the squalor of Schiele’s existence and powerfully evokes his uncompromising talent.”—Guardian“Utterly engrossing. I was drawn into Schiele’s reeling world with its reek of wet paint and sex.”—Jon McGregor, author of If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things“Lewis Crofts’ poignant debut captures the turbulence, the vividness and the tragedy of Egon Schiele’s life with rare skill and empathy.”—Liz Jensen, author of The Ninth Life of Louis DraxA Vogue magazine recommended summer read.A Metro newspaper fiction title of the week.The Pornographer of Vienna is an acclaimed fictionalized life of Egon Schiele, the great Austrian artist and protégé of Gustav Klimt. Publicly shunned by the very same establishment figures that secretly clamor to buy his erotic, explicit work, Schiele lives a short, intense life against the richly evoked backdrop of the absinthe-soaked, decaying last days of the Austro-Hungarian empire.In a first novel of rare descriptive power and empathy, fuelled by a blend of research and literary imagination, Lewis Crofts succeeds in evoking the man as well as the artist. The result is a masterful, at times heart-breaking, portrayal of Austria’s most decadent and most misunderstood painter, and of the city that both inspired and destroyed him.Thirty-year-old debut novelist Lewis Crofts lives in Belgium.

After the Light: What I Discovered on the Other Side of Life That Can Change Your World


Kimberly Clark Sharp - 1995
    Swept into a peaceful loving place of brilliant golden light and warm comfort, she saw, for the first time, the meaning of life-and death.Thereafter, Kimberly, with hamster Toto at her side, left Kansas for Seattle-known as "the Emerald City"-to fulfill a destiny devoted to the service of others as foreseen at the end of her near-death experience. Guided by a new sensitivity to the presence of angels, demons and other invisibilities, Kimberly attained a Masters degree in Social Work at the University of Washington and began a career in medical social work that put her in direct contact with dying people-and people who almost died and came back.It is the inspirational stories of these near-death experiences, as well as Kimberly's own life challenges in love, family life and the diagnosis of breast cancer, that form the core of this surprisingly funny page-turner of a book.

Dirty Darlings


Catherine Chagra - 2015
    But after their father was arrested and his hundred-million dollars had disappeared, they were left penniless, at the mercy of a Texas society that vilified them. With the help of their principled mother before her tragic death, and haunted by the shadow of their father, Dirty Darlings is a portrait of courage as three women attempt to reassemble the shattered pieces of their lives.