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  Billie Holiday and Etta James:...

  Editors Charles River

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  If Billie Holiday wanted to become a jazz singer, she chose the best of all eras in which to attempt it. A wave of great jazz and jazz/pop crossover artists swept over the United States from the 1920s through the 1950s, generating a golden age for the genre. This wondrous jazz era was well represented by both black and white master artists, men, women, vocalists, and instrumentalists, and Billie Holiday has stood the test of time as well as any, despite struggling with an environment that easily could have doomed such aspirations. Holiday “rewrote the rules” of jazz singing by using her voice not to imitate other singers, but by taking on the style of movement and sound common to jazz instruments. On top of that, she took the moderately employed practice of singing off the beat and brought it to the rhythmic forefront of virtually everything she sang. 
  Etta James, the legendary jazz, gospel, rhythm & blues, and soul singer, was perfectly positioned to reign as the supreme artist in the emerging soul genre of the ‘40s and ‘50s in America. No one ever doubted her talent, the highly distinctive and versatile nature of her voice, or her drive to succeed, and yet, she has been “woefully overlooked” in the history of indigenous rock and blues music in the United States. She is famous and recognized for several iconic hits with which she is eternally associated, such as “I’d Rather Go Blind” and “At Last,” but her place in the pantheon of great soul artists is unsteady and not always instantly recognizable by those outside of a knowledgeable group of devotees. For the rest of soul music’s listeners, mention of her name will result in a hasty inclusion into the inner circle of leading artists, as though James had been momentarily forgotten. Once the object of focus, however, she is revered as one of the titans of the genre, and those who had allowed her to slip from their minds are immediately reawakened to her powerful vocal and interpretive gifts.

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  Clipped - A mom invents a way to...

  Adrienne Alitowski

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  Clipped is a quirky memoir about a new mother whose desperation to get her baby to sleep catapulted her into becoming an inventor and a small business owner—just before the world fell apart in 2008. As a full-time mother and entrepreneur, Adrienne Alitowski rolled out her invention, blankyclip, to retailers across the country, including over thirty stores in the Buy Buy Baby national chain. LA Parent Expecting and Kids Today both made blankyclip a “Top Pick''. The United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded her three utility patents and a trademark. All that fabulous glory aside, Adrienne also learned what it’s like to fly halfway around the world to a Chinese factory and to be pregnant, throwing up on the street just before an investor meeting. These experiences led her down a path to write this memoir about sticking to your vision and being open to finding gold in the muck.

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  A Murder in Hollywood - The...

  Casey Sherman

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  The dark story behind the bright lights of Tinseltown 
   
  From the outside, Hollywood starlet Lana Turner seemed to have it all—a thriving film career, a beautiful daughter, and the kind of fame and fortune that most people could only dream of. But when the famous femme fatale began dating mobster Johnny Stompanato, thug for the infamous West Coast mob boss Mickey Cohen, her personal life became violent and unpredictable. Lana’s teenage daughter, Cheryl, watched her beloved mother’s life deteriorate as Stompanato’s intense jealousy took over. Eventually, the physical and emotional abuse became too much to bear, and Lana attempted to break it off with Johnny—with disastrous consequences. The details of what happened that fateful night remain foggy, but it ended in a series of frantic phone calls and Stompanato dead on Lana’s bedroom floor, with Cheryl claiming to have plunged a knife into his abdomen in an attempt to protect her mother. The subsequent investigation made for the biggest headlines of the year, its drama eclipsing every Hollywood movie. 
   
  New York Times bestselling author Casey Sherman pulls back Tinseltown’s velvet curtain to reveal the dark underbelly of celebrity, rife with toxic masculinity and casual violence against women, and tells the story of Lana Turner and her daughter, who finally stood up to the abuse that plagued their family for years. A Murder in Hollywood transports us back to the golden age of film and illuminates one of the twentieth century’s most notorious true crime tales. 
   
  “A must-read for fans of true crime and Hollywood history, A Murder in Hollywood never disappoints! Casey Sherman deftly serves just the right mix of glamour, glitz, and grit to keep the reader turning pages. It’s a stunner from start to finish.”—Kristin Dilley, cohost of the Mind over Murder podcast

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  World’s Most Famous Physicists...

  Editors Charles River

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  It would be impossible to overstate the accomplishments and legacy of a man history has dubbed the “Father of Modern Science”. In his lifetime, Galileo straddled the epochs of the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution, and it was his work and technological advances that helped usher in a brand new understanding of the solar system and the scientific method. Stephen Hawking himself has asserted, “Galileo, perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science." 
  Sir Isaac Newton is widely considered the most influential scientist in history, best known for the discovery of gravity and the subsequent laws of motion that he theorized. Schoolchildren around the world are still taught the famous legend about an apple falling on Newton’s head, but that colorful story and the preoccupation with Newton’s work in physics tend to make people forget Newton’s work in other fields.  
  Michael Faraday, an endlessly luminous mind equipped with an unflagging hunger for knowledge, possessed a hunger so ungovernable that not even poverty or social norms could stand in the way of his ambitions. Indeed, it was reportedly Albert Einstein's expertise in the lives of Maxwell and Faraday, as well as his mastery of their work and accomplishments, that landed him his first job. 
  Nikola Tesla was one of history’s greatest scientists, and though he is best known for his pioneering work with electricity, the fact that he is mostly remembered solely for that actually does a disservice to his legacy. Born a Serb in the Austrian Empire, Tesla came to the United States and worked in a laboratory for none other than the Wizard of Menlo Park, Thomas Edison.  
  Albert Einstein needs no formal introduction. He is known around the world as one of history’s most brilliant geniuses, and one of its most influential scientists. Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics.

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  His Name Is George Floyd: Book...

  Alexander Pike

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  This content is an independent and unofficial summary created for informational and educational purposes only. It is not affiliated with, authorized, approved, licensed, or endorsed by the original author or publisher. All rights to the original work belong to its respective copyright holders. This summary is not intended to substitute the original book, but to offer a concise overview and interpretation of its main ideas. 
   
  His death shook the world. His life tells a deeper story. 
  His Name Is George Floyd is not just a retelling of tragedy—it’s a powerful, intimate journey through the full humanity of a man whose name sparked a global reckoning. Through vivid storytelling and courageous honesty, this audiobook explores Floyd’s life from childhood dreams to adult struggles, revealing how one man’s experiences illuminate the systemic forces that shape millions. 
  Raised in Houston’s Third Ward, George Floyd lived at the crossroads of hope and hardship. He battled poverty, addiction, incarceration—and still held onto faith, family, and the belief that better was possible. His life was not perfect. It was real. And in that truth lies its power.

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  NR Narayana Murthy

  S.R. Shukla

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  Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy is known to the world as Narayana Murthy. He raised a huge IT empire like Infosys by borrowing ten thousand rupees from his computer scientist wife Sudha Murthy in 1981. He had then brought a revolution in the Indian IT world by establishing a successful Silicon Valley style start-up on the lines of the US. Coming from a middle class family, Murthy not only achieved his place in business with his mind and hard work but also became a role model overnight for the 21st century Indian entrepreneurs.

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