Hollywood Bliss - My Life So Far


Chloë Rayban - 2007
    Pitch-perfect and hilarious role-reversal featuring Hollywood Bliss Winterman, daughter of a pop idol - enormously rich, hugely famous and impressively high maintenance

That's My Story and I'm Sticking to It


Spike Lee - 2005
    With unprecedented access to the Lee family and new interviews with stars and celebrities—including Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Rosie Perez, Adrien Brody, John Turturro, and many others—film critic Kaleem Aftab chronicles Spike Lee's explosive rise to stardom, exploring such important issues as Black Nationalism, Hollywood stereotyping, and the rise of a powerful black middle class. Lee's prominence in American culture continues in 2006 with the release of The Inside Man and a forthcoming documentary on Hurricane Katrina. Spike Lee tells us as much about the last two decades of American social history as it does about the life of this fascinating director.

Lost Humanity: The Mythology and Themes of LOST (Kindle Edition)


Pearson Moore - 2011
    Pearson Moore goes to the heart of LOST, uncovering and explaining the fascinating core concepts: Faith versus Science, the Numbers, the nature of good and evil, and the struggle between free will and destiny. He will lead you to ideas and conclusions you never imagined, opening the world of LOST in fresh and exciting ways.Whether you understood LOST or were completely baffled, whether you loved it or hated it, Moore will show you concepts and ways of thinking about LOST you will find nowhere else.Moore's innovative thoughts and vibrant prose will keep you engaged as he explores the Island and its characters. He approaches LOST from four "nonlinear" points of view: Disorientation, Metadrama, Literary Analysis, and Chaos Theory. This is in-depth analysis that never lets go, keeping you immersed in the LOST world from cover to cover.There's no filler here. No interviews with stars about the cars they drive or the planes they fly. No weird theories. Just solid, thoroughly-researched, rapid-fire analysis from one of the most cited LOST authorities on the Internet. You may feel exhausted after a chapter. You may be shocked. You may become upset. But you will never be bored.This in-depth exploration spans nineteen chapters across roughly 350 pages. The first chapter sets up the problem, focussing on the complexities of LOST and identifying the means Moore will use to make the concepts accessible. The second chapter defines the thesis of LOST, which acts as a guide to understanding the major themes. Chapters Three through Nine cover major "linear" topics.The heart of the book begins with Chapter Ten. It is here that Moore unleashes the four "nonlinear" tactical devices to reveal the hidden meanings of LOST. He discusses the need for disorientation, and how this is essential to understanding LOST. He proposes the idea that LOST is metadrama, and he explains how understanding LOST in this way is useful to unraveling its secrets. He makes fresh use of literary theory, in ways never before applied to LOST. Finally, Moore brings an astounding, completely new perspective on television analysis with his concept of the Strange Attractor, an idea borrowed from chaos theory. It is here that Moore's analysis shines, allowing a depth of understanding never before achieved.For less than the cost of a cup of coffee, you can explore the stimulating world of LOST with an animated, engaging, thought-provoking guide. The Island awaits. Prepare to get LOST.

The Playground


Shannon Heuston - 2017
    Then sixth grade happened. Suddenly finding herself a favorite target of bullies, Rachel endures an endless year of escalating abuse. Adults turn a blind eye, or worse, blame her. At the end of that year, she vows to forget what happened at George Washington Elementary and move on with her life. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done, as she finds herself caught in a life long trap, continuously seeking validation from abusive men who remind her of her long gone bullies. The Playground illustrates the lasting trauma caused by childhood bullying, demonstrating how it continues to adversely affect the life of its victims many years after the bullies have vanished. Note: This book contains some sexually explicit scenes. It is intended for mature audiences only.

Just Don't Call Me Ma'am: How I Ditched the South, Forgot My Manners, and Managed to Survive My Twenties with (Most of) My Dignity Still Intact


Anna Mitchael - 2010
    In fact, she may even be a lot like you. In her fast-moving world, she might be called on as a friend, coworker, daughter, girlfriend, confidante, brat, cynic, or domestic-goddess-in-training. She's willing to juggle pretty much anything that gets thrown her way, but the one label she simply won't embrace is ma'am.Like so many bright-eyed college graduates before her, Mitchael begins her twenties armed with the conviction that the world is hers for the taking. And she discovers that it is, mostly—only no one told her just how often she’d have to pick herself up off the floor along the way.Written for every woman who’s experienced the ups and downs of trying to figure out who you’re really meant to be, Just Don’t Call Me Ma’am is a story of one woman and the choices that add up to be her twentysomething life—and of how sometimes you have to remember where you came from before you can figure out where you’re going.

Home Sweet Witch


Bettina M. Johnson - 2020
    An aspiring artist who is living in New York State and discovers a mystery unfolding around her when a letter from her deceased mother shatters everything she has ever believed about herself. When Lily opens the package left to her by her mom, she finds an ornate key, a careworn journal, old photos, and a peculiar letter with curious instructions to head to Sweet Briar, Georgia. Lily not only discovers her birthplace, and a plethora of new relatives but also come to realize they are all witches. She is, in fact, a witch herself. A dark one. As she humorously wanders her way through discovering her new reality, Lily manages to find a place to call home, makes a new best friend, meets a bevy of great looking men to keep her distracted and learns to deal with her whacky relations. Throw in a decades-old murder along with a new body to cross her path, and Lily is embroiled in a tale that tests her resolve and has her questioning whether or not being a little wicked can make everything right in her world! Book one of the Lily Sweet Mysteries is here for you to enjoy...with many more in the series to follow!

Madoff with the Money


Jerry Oppenheimer - 2009
    From the values Madoff was taught growing up in the working class town of Laurelton, Queens to his high-life on Wall Street and the super-rich enclaves of Palm Beach and the French Riviera, bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer follows the disgraced money manager's trail as he works his way up the social and economic ladder, and eventually scams his trusting clients in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.Through Oppenheimer's in-depth reporting, you'll discover new revelations in this startling case, and become familiar with the trusting victims-ranging from non-profit Jewish charities to the likes of seemingly sophisticated individuals such as actress Jane Fonda who would "like to shake Madoff until his teeth fall out," the scion of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream empire who lost a bundle and was forced to rent out rooms in his house, and New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg. There's even Madoff's own sister-in-law and talk show host Larry King, who apparently didn't ask the right questions when he invested. All lost their much-needed life savings, while others saw fortunes small and large evaporate in the greedy financial operations of one of history's all-time charlatans.Madoff With the MoneyDelves into the details of the illusive man that lost investors billions Weaves stories of Madoff's past with those of the present in an engaging and accessible style Explores how the financial scam that Madoff ran cost individuals and institutions billions of dollars Other titles by Oppenheimer: Toy Monster: The Big, Bad World of Mattel, and Just Desserts: Martha Stewart the Unauthorized BiographyWhile there may be other books on the Bernie Madoff debacle, none digs as deep or goes as far to uncover the truth behind the man, and his incredible scam.

Dark Harbor: The War for the New York Waterfront


Nathan Ward - 2010
    Johnson’s hard-hitting investigative series won a Pulitzer Prize, inspired a screenplay by Arthur Miller, and prompted Elia Kazan’s Oscar-winning film On the Waterfront. And yet J. Edgar Hoover denied the existence of organized crime - even as the government’s dramatic hearings into waterfront misdeeds became mustsee television.Nathan Ward tells this archetypal crime story as if for the first time, taking the reader back to a city, and an era, at once more corrupt and more innocent than our own.

We Want Fish Sticks: The Bizarre and Infamous Rebranding of the New York Islanders


Nicholas Hirshon - 2018
    Hoping for a new start, the Islanders swapped out their distinctive logo, which featured the letters NY and a map of Long Island, for a cartoon fisherman wearing a rain slicker and gripping a hockey stick. The new logo immediately drew comparisons to the mascot for Gorton’s frozen seafood, and opposing fans taunted the team with chants of “We want fish sticks!” During a rebranding process that lasted three torturous seasons, the Islanders unveiled a new mascot, new uniforms, new players, a new coach, and a new owner that were supposed to signal a return to championship glory. Instead, the team and its fans endured a twenty-eight-month span more humiliating than what most franchises witness over twenty-eight years. The Islanders thought they had traded for a star player to inaugurate the fisherman era, but he initially refused to report and sulked until the general manager banished him. Fans beat up the new mascot in the stands. The new coach shoved and spit at players. The Islanders were sold to a supposed billionaire who promised to buy elite players; he turned out to be a con artist and was sent to prison. We Want Fish Sticks examines this era through period sources and interviews with the people who lived it.

Perforated Heart


Eric Bogosian - 2009
    Now financially comfortable and artistically embittered, Richard is at his home upstate recuperating from heart surgery and nursing resentment toward his publisher and his reading public who have found new, more exciting writers and left his star to wane. In his attic, Richard comes across a stack of notebooks, the journals he began keeping when he arrived in New York in the late '70s. He is alternately fascinated and repelled by the young man he meets in these pages: hilariously naive and egotistically misguided, the younger Richard compulsively absorbs everything around him from art and creativity to sex and drugs. As he reads more about himself, written by himself, Richard discovers that the pivotal moments of self-invention -- and self-realization -- occur far outside the conventional chronology of a lifetime."Perforated Heart" explores two wholly different characters -- a young, ambitious artist and his older self, jaded by both success and failure -- and creates an unforgettable portrait of the two men who inhabit the one individual. By turns meditative, deftly observant, and scathingly analytical, Eric Bogosian re-creates the landscape and atmosphere of 1970s New York City with fresh, vivid imagery and reveals a powerful commentary on the dynamic between creativity and commerce in the artistic world. Perforated Heart is his most rewarding and penetrating novel yet, with prose that reflects an equally astonishing range of experience and emotion.

Theodore Roosevelt on Leadership: Executive Lessons from the Bully Pulpit


James Strock - 2003
    Thrown headfirst into the presidency by the assassination of his predecessor, he led with courage, character, and vision in the face of overwhelming challenges, whether busting corporate trusts or building the Panama Canal. Roosevelt has been a hero to millions of Americans for over a century and is a splendid model to help you master today's turbulent marketplace and be a hero and a leader in your own organization.

Can't Knock the Hustle: Inside Brooklyn's Season of Hope: How Basketball Helped Us Survive Power, Politics, and a Global Pandemic


Matt Sullivan - 2021
    . . all of whom just so happened to play professional basketball. The 2019-20 Nets were the team of tomorrow—a player-first franchise, in a star-first city, at a nation-first moment—and anything was possible. As soon as the mega-stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving arrived, the Nets were destined to become a dynasty for the ages.Then came the wildest year in modern NBA—and world—history.Can't Knock the Hustle is the definitive chronicle of the season when basketball's status as a force for progress in society was put to the ultimate test, and Matt Sullivan had a courtside seat: Deal-making with Kyrie and Jay-Z. Rehabbing with KD at the Nets' world-class health facility. International intrigue between LeBron James and the Chinese government. The final days of Kobe Bryant, front-row at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The first days of Covid-19, when the Nets found themselves at the epicenter of a virus—and integral to a comeback of the very culture they had come to define.Hundreds of interviews—with NBA Hall-of-Famers, All-Stars, coaches, owners and power-brokers from across the globe—provide a lasting portrait of an unforgettable time, as sports brought people back together again, like never before.

Trust: The Collective Season Two, Episode 6


Riley Edwards - 2018
    I’m a dead woman walking; there’s a target on my back and a million-dollar price tag on my head. I shouldn’t have fallen in love, not if I wanted to stay alive. I’m a liar, a con, I’ve changed my name so many times I can barely remember who I am. They’ve found me and I have to leave. I keep telling myself it’s better this way. He’s too good for me. The detective and the mafia princess, can you imagine? She ran like a thief in the night taking my heart with her. The city I’ve sworn to protect is in chaos; buildings are burning and there are riots in the streets. Innocent people are being killed and all I can think about is her. I’ve uncovered her secrets. Now all I have to do is find her and convince her I can keep her safe. Easier said than done—the woman has trust issues. Are you ready to find out what all the buzz is about? We’ve set the stage, created the characters, and fashioned a world full of twists and turns. Now it’s your turn to sit back and immerse yourself in this incredible series. Each episode weaves the characters and storylines of our standalone novels together to give you an epic crossover series. No one is safe as corrupt politicians and dirty cops rule the street. A child’s death puts targets on the backs of those in law enforcement and sets two cities ablaze with riots. When the police chief’s daughter is kidnapped amid the chaos, will the Collective solve the case and rescue her in time? Featured authors in order of appearance- Absolution—B.R. Bradley Ensnared—Leona Windwalker Gravity—J.L. Leslie Swayed—Erin Trejo Flawed—Jade Royal Trust—Riley Edwards Angst—Samantha A. Cole Redemption—Ellie Masters

The Last Chance


Rona Jaffe - 1976
    And in this particular year of their lives, three of them will come closer to redirecting their lives -- and one will die.

The Handfasting


David Burnett - 2013
    Kneeling before the high altar, they were handfasted in the Celtic custom, engaged to be married. A rose bush had bloomed beside the ruined altar. Steven had reached out to caress one of the flowers. “I’ll find you,” he had said. “In ten years, when we have finished school, when we are able to marry, I’ll find you. Until then, whenever you see a yellow rose, remember me. Remember I love you.”In those ten years, Katherine had finished college, completed med school, and become a doctor. For a decade, she had been waiting, hoping, praying, and, today ─ her birthday─ she finds a vase of yellow roses when she reaches home.Steven, though, is not Katherine’s only suitor. Bill Wilson has known her since they were in high school, and he has long planned to wed her. While Steven and Katherine are falling in love again,he finally decides to stake his claim. His methods leave a lot to be desired, the conflict turns violent, and Katherine must choose the future that she wants.