Other books that might interest you

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  The Great Miscalculation - The...

  Michael M. Greenburg

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  The Citicorp Center, a fifty-nine-story skyscraper built in 1977, immediately became one of the most recognizable features on the New York City skyline with its distinctive inclined roof and oddly placed support columns. Designed by one of the top structural engineers in the field, William LeMessurier, the tower would become the crown jewel of his professional career; In essence, he created a skyscraper on stilts. The building was a modern marvel—until it was revealed that it had a one in sixteen chance of collapse. 
   
   
   
  The Great Miscalculation tells the riveting story of LeMessurier's discovery of a fatal flaw in his building's design and his decision to blow the whistle on himself, putting his reputation on the line in a race to save this iconic skyscraper. With hurricane season rapidly approaching, the structural design flaws of the Citicorp Tower posed a menacing danger. Meanwhile, the economic hardships and political turmoil of 1970s New York only compounded the obstacles to a massively expensive, never-before-seen structural redesign in the heart of downtown Manhattan. 
   
   
   
  A fascinating piece of overlooked New York City history, The Great Miscalculation tells the gripping narrative of a catastrophe averted in the nick of time.

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  Stephen Sondheim - Art Isn't Easy

  Daniel Okrent

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  A revelatory look at the complex inner world of one of the twentieth century’s most beloved theatrical composers 
  Stephen Sondheim (1930–2021) was a towering figure in American musical theater. Celebrated for such iconic Broadway shows as Company, Sweeney Todd, and Into the Woods, his accolades include eight Tony Awards, multiple Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Pulitzer Prize. In this intimate biography, Daniel Okrent follows Sondheim through the tumult of his upbringing and his parents’ divorce, his life-changing relationship with Oscar Hammerstein II and subsequent immersion in musical theater, and his rise to fame as both a lyricist and composer.Okrent shines new light on Sondheim’s complicated emotional life, wavering self-confidence, and alcoholism, drawing on the artist’s intimate correspondence with such notable figures as Hal Prince, Leonard Bernstein, and Arthur Laurents; exclusive interviews with his close friends and collaborators, including James Lapine and John Weidman; and Sondheim’s own oral history, which remained closed until his death. He also reveals a previously unknown (and crucial) aspect of the infamous letter from Sondheim’s mother that made him believe she regretted his birth. As Okrent explores the ways Sondheim’s music and lyrics express the inner man, he shows us a life that was defined by two parallel arcs: the movement from alienation to connection, and from ambivalence to resolution.

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  Subsidence

  Helen O'Leary

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  SubsidenceA daughter longs to guide her mother through the hardest of journeys of memory loss, paving a way with her own remembrance; for memory is an actor’s most powerful tool. Before the settling and subsidence of life, Hayley prepares to perform a show to honour her mother, Joan. Death is never convenient and despite the theatre being booked, posters printed, and tickets sold, it comes for Joan just before opening night. Subsidence gives grace to deep wounds laid bare as memory fails but love endures; deep, fathomless, patient love. A love that has come full circle, filled with hope and promise. The actor strides across grey days of grief, into the all-conquering silver spotlight of centerstage, to share a life well-loved and lived. Endorsement:	'Subsidence is a beautiful and tender rendering of memoir, driven by the author’s need to remember and honour her mother, who lived with dementia. O’Leary pulls the threads of memory together in a mesmerising weave: a gossamer spell. Her lived experience of theatre and her childhood with her mother are woven across timelines both past and present in this stunning experimental work. Subsidence is vital reading for those with loved ones experiencing memory loss.'–	Anna Jacobson (Author of Amnesia Findings)

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  Hickory Dickory Dock

  Kim Mitzo Thompson, Karen Mitzo...

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  Kids will love this sweet story/song combination as they listen to “Hickory, Dickory Dock,” and follow along word-for-word in the adorably illustrated eBook. This classic nursery rhyme has an original twist as the mouse has quite an adventure running up and down the clock. Little ones will learn rhyming words and counting from one to five as they sing and read-along. This adorable story/song encourages learning through music and introduces children to important early childhood skills they will need for the school years ahead. With this perfect combination of education and entertainment, kids and parents alike will sing and read “Hickory, Dickory Dock” over and over again!

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  Desperate Living - A Screenplay

  John Waters

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  A grotesque and hilarious satire about the American dream, suburban living, and the corrupting influence of power, set in a world that could only have sprung from the unhinged and brilliant mind of John Waters. Listen as Waters himself acts out each role!On the verge of a suburban mental health crisis, frazzled and wildly unstable housewife Peggy (immortalized by Mink Stole on-screen) runs away from home with her maid and partner in crime, Grizelda (played with spectacular gumption by the sizzling Jean Hill), only to end up in Mortville, a shantytown filled with society’s rejects. Mortville is run by the evil Queen Carlotta, who parades through the cardboard streets taunting and terrorizing her subjects.John Waters’s wild and visionary fable lampoons everything from the staid conservatism of the American dream to race and class relations. The New York Times ranked Desperate Living at “the highest peak atop [John Waters’] trash heap of a filmography.” High praise indeed!A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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  We Oughta Know - How Céline...

  Andrea Warner

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  A lively collection of essays that re-examines the extraordinary legacies of the four Canadian women who dominated ’90s music and changed the industry forever
  		 
  Fully revised and updated, with a foreword by Vivek Shraya
  		 
  “A fascinating, fun, and infuriating read.” — Tegan Quin, Tegan and Sara 
  		 
  In this of-the-moment essay collection, celebrated music journalist Andrea Warner explores the ways in which Céline Dion, Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette, and Sarah McLachlan became bonafide global superstars while revolutionizing ’90s music. In an era when male-fronted musical acts dominated radio and were given serious critical consideration, these four women were reduced, mocked, and disparaged by the media and became pop culture jokes, even as their albums were topping the charts and demolishing sales records.
  		 
  With empathy, humor, and reflections on her own teenaged perceptions of Céline, Shania, Alanis, and Sarah, Andrea offers us a revised and expanded edition of her 2015 book, providing a new perspective on the legacies of the four Canadian women who dominated the ’90s airwaves and influenced an entire generation of current day popstars with their voices, fashion, and advocacy. As the world is now reconsidering the treatment and reputations of key women in ’90s entertainment, We Oughta Know is definitively entering the chat.

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