Book picks similar to
A Fiery Soul: The Life and Theatrical Times of John Hirsch by Fraidie Martz
biography
plays
theatre
autobiographies-biographies
Jack Ma: A Biography of the Alibaba Billionaire
Ryan Gardner - 2017
He is one of China's richest men, as well as one of the wealthiest people in Asia. He has become a global icon in business and entrepreneurship, one of the world's most influential businessmen, and a philanthropist known for expounding his philosophy of business. Ma is one of the world's most powerful people, and has been a global inspirer and role model to many, he also gave numerous lectures, enlightenments and advices throughout his life career.
Wide Open: A Life in Supercross
Jeremy McGrath - 2004
Supercross started out as a redneck '70s sideshow, but thanks largely to Jeremy McGrath it has become a massive extreme sport. Over the last three years, AMA Supercross attendance has mushroomed from 700,000 spectators a year to 1.5 million. This book will satisfy even the most hardcore fans, as it not only gives you the life and times of Jeremy McGrath, but acts as the calling card to the entire sport by including unique sections on how to become a Supercross racer, the workout regimes, fixing common bike problems, and more.
The Book That's More Than Just a Book - Book
Peter Kay - 2011
These peculiar outlooks bring to life the unique world of Peter Kay like never before. The Book That's More Than Just a Book - Book invites you into a world of suspect characters and awkward situations. Here you will meet Peter's family, their friends, some familiar faces, and some completely unexpected ones. Chock full of brand new material and crammed with photographs and illustrations, creating one of the funniest books you're ever likely to read.
Coma Therapy
Eric Victorino - 2007
Important, so inspiring... Please read this book" -Sonny Moore, Recording Artist "There are very few ways to get inside the mind of a lyricist. One way is through reading their diaries, the other through sleeping with them. Eric's book is the more entertaining of the options. It's a raw look inside the heart and mind of a rock 'n' roll spiritualist whose struggles with love (Chaplin) and versus the world (Keaton) are laid out bare like an exhibitionist on a double-dare." -Mike Shea, Founder, AP Magazine "Coma Therapy" is the sound of a powerful new voice in contemporary American literature. Victorino's brand of punchy prose often draws comparisons to the likes of Charles Bukowski and Hunter S. Thompson. This debut collection of poems and short stories draws a dangerously thin line between the heartwarming and the horrifying... Eric Victorino then mischievously walks that line all the way to the last page. Defiant, triumphant, hopeful and wise.
Cold Cases Solved Vol. 2: More True Stories of Murders That Took Years or Decades to Solve
Mike Riley - 2015
2: This follow-up book to Cold Cases Solved continues where the first book left off detailing more true stories of criminal cases that went cold and were eventually solved, sometimes many years later. Some of the cases include:
Martha Moxley – the case with a Kennedy connection,
Jeanine Nicarico – the case that took over 20 years to solve,
Sherri Rasmussen – fresh eyes caught the right clue,
The 16th Baptist Church Bombing – solved after 14 years,
Leslie Long – the young mother kidnapped, raped and murdered,
The Outlaw Clubhouse Murders – a motorcycle gang wiped out,
and many others.
The closure attained by solving these cases must at least provide a modicum of relief for the friends and family of the victims. The authorities involved in the investigations and in bringing the perpetrators to justice must also feel a sense of accomplishment when they are able to successfully close a long-standing case.Grab your copy TODAY and read about more Cold Cases Solved!
For the Record: 28:50 - A journey toward self-discovery and the Cannonball Run Record
Ed Bolian - 2017
Ed Bolian’s memoir recounts his path from a conversation in high school with Cannonball Run founder, Brock Yates to setting the fastest time ever for driving from New York to Los Angeles. The journey explores goal setting, criminal psychology, and spirituality in the pursuit of finding your true purpose and using what makes you unique to achieve something extraordinary.
Out of the Frying Pan: Scenes from My Life
Keith Floyd - 2000
But here, for the first time, he tells his own story – and it is full of surprises.The stories from his childhood in Somerset are vivid and moving: his grandfather with his tin leg, his mother at the mills, and his uncle, the ferret keeper, and the black sheep of the family for ‘carrying on’ with married women.Keith Floyd spent a short spell on a local newspaper, and then, in a hilarious episode, joined the army. After he and the Ministry of Defence decided that they did not suit each other, he took his first cooking job as an assistant vegetable cook in a Bristol hotel. The great period of bistros and cafes had dawned and Keith Floyd was in the forefront, cooking in an open kitchen, with Pink Floyd blaring from the speakers.What is wonderful about this book is the vividness of the scenes he paints and the deftness with which he draws the characters – including his several wives. Those who have admired Keith Floyd’s way with a whisk will now be impressed to discover and enjoy his remarkable skill with words.
Flying the Knife Edge: New Guinea Bush Pilot
Matt McLaughlin - 2015
‘Flying the Knife Edge’ is the story of an ordinary man experiencing extraordinary things as a pilot in Papua New Guinea in the 1990s. After an untimely exit from the Royal New Zealand Air Force, New Zealander Matt McLaughlin took a leap into the unknown, travelling to Papua New Guinea to work as a missionary pilot. He soon switched from missionary to mercenary, and over the next three and a half years, as he built up the necessary experience to chase his goal of becoming an airline captain, his life was a rollercoaster ride of adventure, risk, near-misses, and tragedy. Matt lived on the knife edge of bush pilot ops in one of the world’s most dangerous flying environments. Along the way he soaked up some fascinating local history: the country's vital role in WWII’s Pacific Theatre; the disappearance of aviator Amelia Earhart; the chaos of the Bougainville civil war; the Morobe gold rush of the 1930s... “The gap in the cloud became smaller and smaller as I descended, a shrinking tunnel twisting down the gorge. In a matter of seconds I was so low my wheels barely cleared the trees on the valley floor as I passed, and jungle-clad walls closed in on me until I was a mere wingspan from both sides of the valley. And then, in an instant, the gap was gone and I was flying blind. In cloud. In the bottom of a gorge. With terrain on both sides rising thousands of feet above me. Time stopped. The passengers started screaming, anticipating the aircraft impacting the side of the mountain. And their deaths. I had the capacity for just one other thought: Will I hear the sound of the airframe smashing into the trees as we crash, or will I be dead before it registers?”
Jason Leonard: The Autobiography
Jason Leonard - 2002
His big break came when he was invited to join the England squad for their tour to Argentina in 1990 and has been capped 100 times.
A Genesis in My Bed: The Autobiography
Steve Hackett - 2020
As with his music, Steve has written a highly detailed, entertaining and embracing tome that charts his life in full, but with a firm emphasis on his years with Genesis that saw the band’s meteoric rise to become one of the most successful British bands of all time.Steve talks candidly about his early life, his time with Genesis, and his personal relationships with the other four band members, with great insight into the daily goings on of this major rock band.Naturally A Genesis In My Bed also regales stories of Steve’s career since leaving Genesis and the many different journeys that it has taken him on. With his flair for the creative, and a great deal of levity, A Genesis In My Bed is a riveting read. Indispensable for Genesis fans but also essential for general music lovers and avid readers of autobiographies full of heartfelt and emotive tales.
Year of the Mad King: The Lear Diaries
Antony Sher - 2018
Shortly after, he came back to Stratford to play Richard III – a breakthrough performance that would transform his career, winning him the Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Actor. Sher’s record of the making of this historic theatrical event, Year of the King, has become a classic of theatre writing, a unique insight into the creation of a landmark Shakespearean performance.More than thirty years later, Antony Sher returned to Lear, this time in the title role, for the 2016 RSC production directed by Gregory Doran. Sher’s performance was acclaimed by the Telegraph as ‘a crowning achievement in a major career’, and the show transferred from Stratford to London’s Barbican. Once again, he kept a diary, capturing every step of his personal and creative journey to opening night.Year of the Mad King: The Lear Diaries is Sher’s account of researching, rehearsing and performing what is arguably Shakespeare’s most challenging role, known as the Everest of Acting. His strikingly honest, illuminating and witty commentary provides an intimate, first-hand look at the development of his Lear and of the production as a whole. Also included is a selection of his paintings and sketches, many reproduced in full colour.Like his Year of the King and Year of the Fat Knight: The Falstaff Diaries, this book, Year of the Mad King, offers a fascinating perspective on the process of one of the greatest Shakespearean actors of his generation.'One of the finest books I have ever read on the process of acting' Time Out on Year of the King'Antony Sher's insider journal is a brilliant exploded view of a great actor at work – modest and gifted, self-centred and selfless – a genius capable of transporting us backstage' Craig Raine, The Spectator (Books of the Year) on Year of the Fat Knight
Faisal
Rebecca Stefoff - 1989
A biography of the Saudi Arabian king who ruled from 1964 until his assassination in 1975 and who became, during his reign, an important world leader through his control of his country's vast oil resources.
I Know Nothing!
Andrew Sachs - 2014
In a crowded restaurant a small boy watches fearfully as his Jewish father is arrested by HitlerOCOs Gestapo. Days later, as Nazis burn and loot Jewish shops, his resourceful Catholic mother prepares an escape plan to take her family to England. So began Andreas Siegfried SachsOCO life in London, a new life at times no less bizarre or madcap than the world of Fawlty Towers and its hapless Spanish waiter, Manuel. Now, as one of BritainOCOs best-loved actors, Andrew Sachs recounts tales of his hilarious struggle to come to terms with all things English and his early foray into the world of showbiz, and goes behind the scenes of the infamous Torquay hotel. In time conquering stage, screen and radio, Sachs has appeared alongside a galaxy of stars including Rex Harrison, Norman Wisdom, No1/2l Coward, Alec Guinness, Richard Burton and Peter Sellers, and written award-winning radio plays, proving his talent and versatility again and again. A charming, laugh-out-loud funny and utterly compelling memoir which promises to delight devotees of Fawlty Towers, I Know Nothing! reveals the twists and turns of the truly fascinating life of Andrew Sachs, whose dignified response to the distressing intrusion into his private life by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross has only served to enhance the British publicOCOs affection for him. "
Weed Man: The Remarkable Journey of Jimmy Divine
John McCaslin - 2009
political columnist John McCaslin's account of a law-abiding citizen turned swashbuckling Caribbean Robin Hood is an unbelievable, entertaining - and true - story of crime, high jinx on the high seas.It was on a secluded cay in the Bahamas one otherwise ordinary morning that Jimmy Moree went for his usual jog on the beach--one that changed his life forever. After all, how many people stumble upon several million dollars while exercising? Soon, millions more would fall into his lap. And with every million, Jimmy spins an amazing yarn, each more incredible than the last--like when he tried to poison a mean neighbor with a deadly barracuda; how ungodly deception caused him to steal the holy garments and identity of his Catholic school priest and principal; why several thousand pounds of particularly potent marijuana came to be stored in the crawl space of a church during its Easter services; his extreme generosity shown to the poor farmers and fishermen who helped care for his ailing mother; and his unlikely view as of one of the world's biggest drug smugglers from his pew at the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana.Endorsements"I'm delighted to see that John McCaslin has climbed out of his political trench in Washington long enough to set sail on this astonishing journey through the precarious Caribbean reefs, and beyond. Somehow, in typical McCaslin fashion, he manages to bring his readers back to the nation's capital in a chapter that will certainly have official tongues wagging in Washington." -- Katie Couric, anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News and former co-host of NBC's Today"This story is so compelling . . . John McCaslin has put it all together in a way that simply made me want to just keep on reading. Wow." --Wolf Blitzer, anchor and host of the CNN newscast ""The Situation Room"""For years everybody in Washington has turned to John McCaslin's ""Inside The Beltway ""column for the inside skinny on what is going on in our nation's capital. Now, in """Weed Man: The Remarkable Journey of Jimmy Divine""," McCaslin brings his exceptional reportorial talent to bear in a fascinating expose of the drug trade." --G. Gordon Liddy, " "Watergate figure and nationally-syndicated radio host"McCaslin was a 20-something White House correspondent covering my dad, Ronald Reagan, when I first read his unique musings. Maybe I'm not surprised, given the cast of characters and shenanigans he calls attention to every day in his Inside the Beltway column, that he's now somehow made his way to a distant tropical island and uncovered the colorful if not hilarious escapades of drug trafficker Jimmy Divine." --Michael Reagan," "presidential son and nationally syndicated radio host"This reads like a bestseller. It's about time we hear from a genuine pot smuggler of Jimmy Divine's caliber who opens our eyes to the high times and high jinks on the high seas." --Tommy Chong, comedian and actor of Cheech & Chong fame" ""Proof positive that the extras in James Bond movies are far more interesting than the films, the story of Harbour Island's Jimmy Divine is so colorful it is hard to believe ... or put down. Told in a breezy, witty style, McCaslin's book captures moments in relatively recent Caribbean history when it was again possible to make a fortune by the ability to steer a boat stealthily through dangerous seas." --Mark Bowden, author of "Black Hawk Down," Guests of the Ayatollah and Killing Pablo"Facts are easy. Anyone can find facts for a story. What McCaslin always finds is heart." --Brad Meltzer, " "author of New York Times best-selling mystery/suspense novels "The Tenth Justice," " Dead Even," " The First Counsel," " The Millionaires," " The Zero Game," " The Book of Fate," " The Book of Lies"
Crossing the Line: Losing Your Mind as an Undercover Cop
Christian Plowman - 2013
When he finally achieved his ambition, becoming one of only a dozen full-time undercover officers, the reality of covert work turned his life into a nightmare.To catch criminals, Christian bought and sold drugs with taxpayers' money, was beaten up, arrested at gunpoint and barricaded in a pub by a gang of marauding travellers - all in a day's work. At one stage, he was running almost a dozen mobile phones to keep track of his different identities and had so many aliases that he nearly forgot who he was. He put his life on the line for the job but was to find that being the 'best of the best' wasn't all it was cracked up to be. The pressure became so intense that he even contemplated suicide.Crossing the Line is a visceral, gripping account of what it really takes to be an undercover cop, going behind the scenes to reveal the harsh realities of modern covert police work.