Book picks similar to
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Marilyn


Norman Mailer - 1973
    Mailer, the winner of two Pullitzer Prizes, was the first writer to explore the relationship between Monroe and Bobby Kennedy.

Rebel Without a Crew, or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker with $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player


Robert Rodríguez - 1995
    This is both one man's remarkable story and an essential guide for anyone who has a celluloid story to tell and the dreams and determination to see it through.  Part production diary, part how-to manual, Rodriguez unveils how he was able to make his influential first film on only a $7,000 budget.  Also included is the appendix, 'The Ten Minute Film Course,” a tell-all on how to save thousands of dollars on film school and teach yourself the ropes of film production, directing, and screenwriting.

The Glitter Plan: How We Started Juicy Couture for $200 and Turned It into a Global Brand


Pamela Skaist-Levy - 2014
    Following their vision of comfortable, fitted T-shirts, they set up shop in Gela’s one-bedroom Hollywood apartment with $200 and one rule: Whatever they did, they both had to be obsessed by it. The best friends’ project became Juicy Couture. Pam and Gela eventually sold their company to Liz Claiborne for $50 million, but not before they created a whole new genre of casual clothing that came to define California cool.   Pamela and Gela built an empire from the ground up, using themselves as models to build their patterns and placing their merchandise by storming into stores and handing out samples. They balanced careful growth with innovative tactics—sending Madonna a tracksuit with her nickname, Madge, embroidered on it—and created a unique, bold, and unconventional business plan that was all their own: the Glitter Plan.   Now, Pam and Gela reveal the secrets of Juicy’s success: how they learned to find and stick with the right colleagues and trust their instincts when it became time to move on to their next project. They also share their missteps and hilarious lessons learned—like the time robbers stole one thousand pairs of maternity shortalls, which the partners took as the first sign to get out of the maternity clothing business.   Told in the bright, cheery voice that defines Juicy style even today, The Glitter Plan shows readers how to transform passion and ideas into business success. Aspiring designers, Juicy fans, and business readers of all stripes will be enthralled by the story of spirit and savvy behind Pam and Gela’s multimillion-dollar fashion empire.

Cabinet of Natural Curiosities: The Complete Plates in Colour, 1734-1763


Albertus Seba - 1765
    His amazing, unprecedented collection of animals, plants and insects from all around the world gained international fame during his lifetime. In 1731, after decades of collecting, Seba commissioned illustrations of each and every specimen and arranged the publication of a four-volume catalog detailing his entire collection?from strange and exotic plants to snakes, frogs, crocodiles, shellfish, corals, insects, butterflies and more, as well as fantastic beasts, such as a hydra and a dragon. Seba's scenic illustrations, often mixing plants and animals in a single plate, were unusual even for the time. Many of the stranger and more peculiar creatures from Seba's collection, some of which are now extinct, were as curious to those in Seba's day as they are to us now. This reproduction is taken from a rare, hand-colored original. The introduction offers background information about the fascinating tradition of the cabinet of curiosities to which Seba's curiosities belonged.

The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney


Michael Barrier - 2007
    He was both a creative visionary and a dynamic entrepreneur, roles whose demands he often could not reconcile.In his compelling new biography, noted animation historian Michael Barrier avoids the well-traveled paths of previous biographers, who have tended to portray a blemish-free Disney or to indulge in lurid speculation. Instead, he takes the full measure of the man in his many aspects. A consummate storyteller, Barrier describes how Disney transformed himself from Midwestern farm boy to scrambling young businessman to pioneering artist and, finally, to entrepreneur on a grand scale. Barrier describes in absorbing detail how Disney synchronized sound with animation in Steamboat Willie; created in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs sympathetic cartoon characters whose appeal rivaled that of the best live-action performers; grasped television’s true potential as an unparalleled promotional device; and—not least—parlayed a backyard railroad into the Disneyland juggernaut.Based on decades of painstaking research in the Disney studio’s archives and dozens of public and private archives in the United States and Europe, The Animated Man offers freshly documented and illuminating accounts of Disney’s childhood and young adulthood in rural Missouri and Kansas City. It sheds new light on such crucial episodes in Disney’s life as the devastating 1941 strike at his studio, when his ambitions as artist and entrepreneur first came into serious conflict.Beginning in 1969, two and a half years after Disney’s death, Barrier recorded long interviews with more than 150 people who worked alongside Disney, some as early as 1922. Now almost all deceased, only a few were ever interviewed for other books. Barrier juxtaposes Disney’s own recollections against the memories of those other players to great effect. What emerges is a portrait of Walt Disney as a flawed but fascinating artist, one whose imaginative leaps allowed him to vault ahead of the competition and produce work that even today commands the attention of audiences worldwide.

I've Lived in East London for 86 1/2 years


Martin Usborne - 2013
    My Foreman was a bastard. Apart from that it was OK. But if I was less heavy... you know what I'd like to be? I'd like to be a ballet dancer. That would be my dream."

Edie: American Girl


Jean Stein - 1982
    Edie Sedgwick exploded into the public eye like a comet. She seemed to have it all: she was aristocratic and glamorous, vivacious and young, Andy Warhol’s superstar. But within a few years she flared out as quickly as she had appeared, and before she turned twenty-nine she was dead from a drug overdose.In a dazzling tapestry of voices—family, friends, lovers, rivals—the entire meteoric trajectory of Edie Sedgwick’s life is brilliantly captured. And so is the Pop Art world of the ‘60s: the sex, drugs, fashion, music—the mad rush for pleasure and fame. All glitter and flash on the outside, it was hollow and desperate within—like Edie herself, and like her mentor, Andy Warhol. Alternately mesmerizing, tragic, and horrifying, this book shattered many myths about the ‘60s experience in America.

Losing My Virginity: How I've Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way


Richard Branson - 1998
    From the airline business (Virgin Atlantic Airways), to music (Virgin Records and V2), to cola (Virgin Cola), to retail (Virgin Megastores), and nearly a hundred others, ranging from financial services to bridal wear, Branson has a track record second to none.Losing My Virginity is the unusual, frequently outrageous autobiography of one of the great business geniuses of our time. When Richard Branson started his first business, he and his friends decided that "since we're complete virgins at business, let's call it just that: Virgin." Since then, Branson has written his own "rules" for success, creating a group of companies with a global presence, but no central headquarters, no management hierarchy, and minimal bureaucracy.Many of Richard Branson's companies--airlines, retailing, and cola are good examples--were started in the face of entrenched competition. The experts said, "Don't do it." But Branson found golden opportunities in markets in which customers have been ripped off or underserved, where confusion reigns, and the competition is complacent. And in this stressed-out, overworked age, Richard Branson gives us a new model: a dynamic, hardworking, successful entrepreneur who lives life to the fullest. Family, friends, fun, and adventure are equally important as business in Branson's life. Losing My Virginity is a portrait of a productive, sane, balanced life, filled with rich and colorful stories: Crash-landing his hot-air balloon in the Algerian desert, yet remaining determined to have another go at being the first to circle the globeSigning the Sex Pistols, Janet Jackson, the Rolling Stones, Boy George, and Phil CollinsFighting back when British Airways took on Virgin Atlantic and successfully suing this pillar of the British business establishmentSwimming two miles to safety during a violent storm off the coast of MexicoSelling Virgin Records to save Virgin AtlanticStaging a rescue flight into Baghdad before the start of the Gulf War . . .And much more. Losing My Virginity is the ultimate tale of personal and business survival from a man who combines the business prowess of Bill Gates and the promotional instincts of P. T. Barnum.

Information is Beautiful


David McCandless - 2001
    We need a brand new way to take it all in. 'Information is Beautiful' transforms the ideas surrounding and swamping us into graphs and maps that anyone can follow at a single glance.

Renegades: Born in the USA


Barack Obama - 2021
    Renegades: Born in the USA is a candid, revealing, and entertaining dialogue between President Barack Obama and legendary musician Bruce Springsteen that explores everything from their origin stories and career-defining moments to our country’s polarized politics and the growing distance between the American Dream and the American reality. Filled with full-color photographs and rare archival material, it is a compelling and beautifully illustrated portrait of two outsiders—one Black and one white—looking for a way to connect their unconventional searches for meaning, identity, and community with the American story itself. It includes:• Original introductions by President Obama and Bruce Springsteen• Exclusive new material from the Renegades podcast recording sessions• Obama’s never-before-seen annotated speeches, including his “Remarks at the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Marches”• Springsteen’s handwritten lyrics for songs spanning his 50-year-long career• Rare and exclusive photographs from the authors’ personal archives• Historical photographs and documents that provide rich visual context for their conversation In a recording studio stocked with dozens of guitars, and on at least one Corvette ride, Obama and Springsteen discuss marriage and fatherhood, race and masculinity, the lure of the open road and the call back to home. They also compare notes on their favorite protest songs, the most inspiring American heroes of all time, and more. Along the way, they reveal their passion for—and the occasional toll of—telling a bigger, truer story about America throughout their careers, and explore how our fractured country might begin to find its way back toward unity and global leadership.

Who What Wear: Celebrity and Runway Style for Real Life


Hillary Kerr - 2009
    Now, the creators share their tricks of the trade, translating high fashion in a low-fuss, accessible way. Hillary Kerr and Katherine Power, two former Elle magazine editors, are the fashionable duo behind the booming website. In Who What Wear they’ve compiled the best of their tips and advice into one stylish compendium.Trends come and go at a dizzying pace and it can be challenging to just get dressed in the morning!Kerr and Power banish those fashion faux-pas fears and give readers the tools necessary to update their own personal styles and recognize and incorporate the latest runway and Hollywood looks.Celebrity contributors such as Rachel Zoe, Nicole Richie, and Rachel Bilson also dish their insider style secrets alongside images from the runway and beyond.

100 Unforgettable Dresses


Hal Rubenstein - 2011
    In this lavishlyillustrated style compendium, InStyle magazinefashion director Hal Rubenstein reveals the fascinating origins and legacies ofthe most stunning dresses ever created. Perfect for backstage story snoops,gossip lovers, die-hard shoppers, and pop culture mavens who can't get enoughof these indelible, once-in-a-lifetime creations, 100 Unforgettable Dresses willchange the way you think about couture forever.

The Ballad of Sexual Dependency


Nan Goldin - 1999
    As Goldin writes: "Real memory, which these pictures trigger, is an invocation of the color, smell, sound, and physical presence, the density and flavor of life."

Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat's Jewel Box


Madeleine K. Albright - 2009
    Her collection is both international and democratic--dime-store pins share pride of place with designer creations and family heirlooms. Included are the antique eagle purchased to celebrate Albright's appointment as secretary of state, the zebra pin she wore when meeting Nelson Mandela, and the Valentine's Day heart forged by Albright's five-year-old daughter. "Read My Pins" features more than 200 photographs, along with compelling and often humorous stories about jewelry, global politics, and the life of one of America's most accomplished and fascinating diplomats.

Happyslapped by a Jellyfish: The Words of Karl Pilkington


Karl Pilkington - 2007
    From sunbathing in t-shirts and lizards the length of Toblerones, to a toxic apartment in Ibiza with a used loo that can't be flushed, these witty musings could put you off travelling forever!