The Namo Story: A Political Life


Kingshuk Nag - 2013
    From his humble beginnings as a RSS pracharak to his rise in the Hindutva ranks, and from being Bharatiya Janata Partys master planner to one of the its most popular and controversial state chief ministers, Modis mantra of change and development is gradually finding many takers. Though he evokes vastly different reactions among the citizens for his alleged role during the Godhra aftermath, what is absolutely clear is that he indeed is racing towards the centre stage, making the 2014 General Elections look more like a Presidential system where, you either vote for him or against him. And that, as they say, is the Modi effect. Kingshuk Nag paints the most vivid portrait of the extraordinary politician who is poised to take on a new role in the coming years.

Bon Iver


Mark Beaumont - 2013
    This book tells the story of Bon Iver's main man Justin Vernon via exclusive and extensive original interviews with those around him throughout his rise from his failed Wisonsin bands to the illness and isolation that forged his breakthrough album For Emma, Forever Ago.  Examines his subsequent critical and commercial success as the latest US alternative icon.

Taylor Swift


Sarah Parvis - 2009
    The New York Times described her as "one of pop's finest songwriters, country's foremost pragmatist and more in touch with her inner life than most adults." This perfectly giftable Little Book tells Taylor's tale from her roots in Pennsylvania to Nashville to Hollywood. This is a must-have for Taylor Swift fans.

True


Martin Kemp - 2000
    He writes openly about his film career, the huge success of The Krays, his tremendous fight against brain cancer and on to today with fame again in EastEnders. This is a stunningly written account of a fascinating life written with candour and wit. 'There are tears and laughter, and it's all told with honesty, style and unexpected humour. This inspiring tale reveals his hopes and fears as he battled for his life while trying to get his career back into the groove. It will have you glassy-eyed, torn between the Kleenex and digging out your old Spandau Ballet albums' The Mirror

Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters


Jeff Burger - 2013
    No one is better qualified to talk about Springsteen than the man himself, and he’s often as articulate and provocative in interviews and speeches as he is emotive onstage and in recordings. While many rock artists seem to suffer through interviews, Springsteen has welcomed them as an opportunity to speak openly, thoughtfully, and in great detail about his music and life. This volume starts with his humble beginnings in 1973 as a struggling artist and follows him up to the present, as Springsteen has achieved almost unimaginable wealth and worldwide fame. Included are feature interviews with well-known media figures, including Charlie Rose, Ted Koppel, Brian Williams, Nick Hornby, and Ed Norton. Fans will also discover hidden gems from small and international outlets, in addition to radio and TV interviews that have not previously appeared in print. This collection is a must-have for any Springsteen fan.

Elvis Presley: A Life in Music — The Complete Recording Sessions


Ernst Jorgensen - 1998
    With exclusive access to the RCA vaults, producer Ernst Jorgensen brings to intimate life every moment that Elvis spent in the studio--from the spontaneous joy of his early sessions to the intensely creative periods of his later career. At once the definitive recording session guide and a compellingly readable narrative, this is the ultimate companion to the singer and his songs.

My Name is Gauhar Jaan!: The Life and Times of a Musician


Vikram Sampath - 2010
    Vikram Sampath, in this remarkable book, brings forth little known details of this fascinating woman who was known for her melodious voice, her multi-lingual skills, poetic sensibility, irresistible personality and her extravagant lifestyle. From her early days in Azamgarh and Banaras to the glory years in Calcutta when Gauhar ruled the world of Indian music, to her sad fall from grace and end in Mysore, the book takes the reader through the roller-coaster ride of this feisty musician. In the process, the author presents a view of the socio-historical context of Indian music and theatre during that period.

Something in the Air: Radio, Rock, and the Revolution That Shaped a Generation


Marc Fisher - 2007
    But radio came roaring back with a whole new concept. The war was over, the baby boom was on, the country was in clover, and a bold new beat was giving the syrupy songs of yesteryear a run for their money. Add transistors, 45 rpm records, and a young man named Elvis to the mix, and the result was the perfect storm that rocked, rolled, and reinvented radio.Visionary entrepreneurs like Todd Storz pioneered the Top 40 concept, which united a generation. But it took trendsetting “disc jockeys” like Alan Freed, Murray the K, Wolfman Jack, Cousin Brucie, and their fast-talking, too-cool-for-school counterparts across the land to turn time, temperature, and the same irresistible hit tunes played again and again into the ubiquitous sound track of the fifties and sixties. The Top 40 sound broke through racial barriers, galvanized coming-of-age kids (and scandalized their perplexed parents), and provided the insistent, inescapable backbeat for times that were a-changin’.Along with rock-and-roll music came the attitude that would literally change the “voice” of radio forever, via the likes of raconteur Jean Shepherd, who captivated his loyal following of “Night People”; the inimitable Bob Fass, whose groundbreaking Radio Unnameable inaugurated the anything-goes free-form style that would come to define the alternative frontier of FM; and a small-time Top 40 deejay who would ultimately find national fame as a political talk-show host named Rush Limbaugh.From Hunter Hancock, who pushed beyond the limits of 1950s racial segregation with rhythm and blues and hepcat patter, to Howard Stern, who blew through all the limits with a blue streak of outrageous on-air antics; from the heyday of summer songs that united carefree listeners to the latter days of political talk that divides contentious callers; from the haze of classic rock to the latest craze in hip-hop, Something in the Air chronicles the extraordinary evolution of the unique and timeless medium that captured our hearts and minds, shook up our souls, tuned in–and turned on–our consciousness, and went from being written off to rewriting the rules of pop culture.

A Woman Like Me


Bettye LaVette - 2012
    An inspiring, no-holds-barred, audacious memoir by Bettye LaVette, one of R&B's greatest legends - guaranteed to make news, and make hearts break, too.

Lucky Man: The Autobiography


Greg Lake - 2017
    Their first album, the landmark In the Court of the Crimson King, co-produced by Greg, featured the iconic song '21st Century Schizoid Man'. King Crimson pioneered progressive rock and paved the way for many famous bands that followed, from Yes and Genesis to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.In 1970 Greg met fellow legend Keith Emerson during a North American tour; the two shared common bonds: European musical influences and a desire to reinterpret classical works while creating a new musical genre. After being introduced to drummer Carl Palmer, they formed the first progressive rock supergroup Emerson, Lake and Palmer.To date ELP has sold over 50 million records. Lake produced Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Tarkus, Pictures at an Exhibition, Trilogy, Brain Salad Surgery, Works Vol. 1 and 2, and two different live albums. All went platinum and featured a series of hit singles, most written and all sung by Lake. The three created a unique live theatrical performance which featured Emerson attacking his keyboards with knives, Palmer playing a 2.5 ton stainless steel kit and Lake performing on a £6,000 Persian rug which had its own roadie. One of their very first performances was at the historic Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 and they went on to headline California Jam, one of the biggest concerts of the 1970s, attended by 350,000 people.Probably the voice of his generation, Greg fronted the greatest rock supergroup of the 1970s but never held with the 'progressive' tag that attached itself to both the music and the excess. Lucky Man not only charts the highs and lows of a career in rock music but also reflects on the death of Keith Emerson last year, living with terminal cancer and the end of life. Greg can best be summed up by his now-famous line: 'Material wealth is a very fleeting pleasure ... when you can buy anything you want and do anything you want, you soon discover that you actually don't want any of it.'

Elvis and the Memphis Mafia


Alanna Nash - 1995
    Through revealing interviews with three of Elvis’s closest friends, who were also his protectors and rescuers, Nash achieves the first true mapping of Elvis’s psyche. Billy Smith – Elvis’s first cousin and the person he reputedly loved most after his own mother – Marty Lacker – best man at his wedding and foreman of the ‘Memphis Mafia’, the King’s handpicked group of gatekeepers and confidants – and Lamar Fike – the touring crew member who accompanied him into the Army – were with Elvis from his teens to his final days and provide unique access to the greatest of all rock and roll legends. The revelations cut through every aspect of Elvis’s life, from the childhood seeds of his drug dependency, through his fear for his mother’s life and his plan to change his identity, to his bizarre self-mutilation. No one who reads this symphonic blending of three proud, ribald, sad and ultimately wistful voices can fail to be profoundly moved.

The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash: My Life, My Beats


Grandmaster Flash - 2008
    Theirs was a groundbreaking union between one DJ and five rapping MCs. One of the first hip hop posses, they were responsible for such masterpieces as “The Message” and “Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel.” In the 1970s Grandmaster Flash pioneered the art of break-beat DJing—the process of remixing and thereby creating a new piece of music by playing vinyl records and turntables as musical instruments. Disco-era DJs spun records so that people could dance. The original turntablist, Flash took it a step further by cutting, rubbing, backspinning, and mixing records, focusing on “breaks”—what Flash described as “the short, climactic parts of the records that really grabbed me”—as a way of heightening musical excitement and creating something new. Now the man who paved the way for such artists as Jay-Z, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, and 50 Cent tells all—from his early days on the mean streets of the South Bronx, to the heights of hip hop stardom, losing millions at the hands of his record label, his downward spiral into cocaine addiction, and his ultimate redemption with the help and love of his family and friends. In this powerful memoir, Flash recounts how music from the streets, much like rock ’n’ roll a generation before, became the sound of an era and swept a nation with its funk, flavor, and beat.

Live While You Can: A Memoir of Faith, Hope and the Power of Acceptance


Tony Coote - 2019
    Just a few short months later, he found himself confined to a wheelchair. But rather than succumbing to the darkness that threatened to overwhelm him in the days after his diagnosis, he drew on his powerful faith and unwavering belief in life and found a way to light, hope and acceptance.From growing up in Fairview, to serving in the dioceses in Ballymun and later Mount Merrion and Kilmacud, and his charity work while in UCD, Fr Tony takes us on the journey of his life and shows us how, through this devastating illness, he came to know the true meaning and nature of God's love.Sadly, Tony passed away on the 28 August 2019 but his memoir and his message of hope, strength and unwavering faith live on.'Our lives will never be measured in words spoken or success achieved but rather how we live and how our life has affected those around us.' Fr Tony Coote

The Comeback: How Larry Ellison's Team Won the America's Cup (Kindle Single)


G. Bruce Knecht - 2016
    New Zealand needed just one more win. Oracle ultimately beat back the odds in what's been called the greatest comeback in sport. But was it? G. Bruce Knecht set out to investigate how Oracle turned things around and, most particularly, the source of extra horsepower that seemed to come from nowhere during the final races. What he discovered was that the team was using a sailing technique that was prohibited under the rules. The Comeback is a pulse-pounding account of Oracle's desperate stop-at-nothing campaign.G. Bruce Knecht, a former staff reporter and foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, is the author of three books, including The Proving Ground: The Inside Story of the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race. Larry Ellison was a major character in that book as well and it explains how his experience in the race led to his pursuit of the America's Cup. A sailor himself, Knecht raced across the Atlantic in 2005 on the yacht that broke the 100-year-old transatlantic race record.Cover design by Charles Rue Woods.

Finishing Off the Bottle: A Memoir of Addiction and Self-Discovery


Bruce Hidasch - 2018
    From stress and anxiety to real loss, booze was his magic elixir that made it all disappear. But the constant blackout nights brought with them even more trouble. Despite the perpetual cycle of drunken mistakes and continued escalation in drinking, he found new ways to rationalize his self-destructive behavior. Drinking was a part of who he was. And an existence without it seemed inconceivable. He takes you through a life where nights with missing pieces of time were the norm. And how there was a haze that overshadowed everything, even his happiest memories. He shares how far he fell before finally willing to change. And the long road back in recovery that required him to completely shift his perceptive in order to remain sober. He also explains what he discovered about the many reasons he drank so much for so long. And how he was ultimately able to come out better on the other side. This is a memoir about overcoming the grip alcohol can have on us. About learning to live life again after the bottle and facing the world with sober eyes. And finally discovering one’s true self. This is a story that will resonate with anyone who has struggled with addiction. And will give hope to those looking to change their lives for the better.