Other books that might interest you

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  Mellencamp - American Troubadour

  David Masciotra

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  An in-depth biography of “a major artist whose work is sometimes obscured by the shadows of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen” (Craig Werner, author of Up Around the Bend: An Oral History of Creedence Clearwater Revival).   Despite his numerous hits and Grammy nominations—and his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame—John Mellencamp remains one of America’s most underrated songwriters. In Mellencamp, David Masciotra explores the life and career of this important talent, persuasively arguing that he deserves to be celebrated alongside artists like Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, and Bob Dylan. Starting with his modest beginnings in Seymour, Indiana, Masciotra details Mellencamp’s road to fame, examining his struggles with the music industry and his persistent dedication to his midwestern roots as he found success by remaining true to where he came from. From a cultural critic who has contributed to the Washington Post, Atlantic, and Los Angeles Review of Books and who “writes with the precision and integrity and humanity of a great journalist” (New York Times–bestselling author James Lee Burke), this thoughtful analysis highlights four decades of the artist’s music, which has consistently elevated the dignity of everyday people and honored the quiet heroism of raising families and working hard.

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  Tallulah Bankhead: The Colorful...

  Charles River Editors

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  "I'm as pure as the driven slush." – Tallulah Bankhead 
  	Exhibitionism and narcissism coupled with talent are not the sole property of modern entertainment, as some might suppose. From the beginnings of American theater and film, various personality types prone to self-intoxication by the status of their own careers have acted-out at will in their public lives. For them there is no barrier between the professional and the private. 
  	In the early years of the 20th century, members of a clique residing at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City were emblematic of a shocking behavioral rebellion against societal norms. Led by humorist Dorothy Parker and others, they defended and glorified extremes of outspoken sexual expression and contrary lifestyles. In doing so, they became a popular source of entertainment in themselves, with behavior flying in the face of the normal decorum of the time. To those most staid in society, they represented the perfect foil for the righteously indignant, while to the titillated masses, they were a constant presence in the news of the day, and perversely admired for their brazenness.  
  	Tallulah Bankhead was a latecomer to the Algonquin Circle, and even the most hardened social rebels were not sure what to make of her. Demonstrating an early talent for the stage, Bankhead went on to stardom in live theater, film, radio, and early television. She was among the most parodied public figures of her time and could always be counted upon to shock by bringing her private behavior into the public arena of entertainment.  
  	At the same time, Bankhead had no qualms voicing her opinions about current events and hot button political topics, which often came at the expense of her own family, a fixture in Alabama politics. She became an avid supporter of the Civil Rights Movement, and that, along with her background in show business, helped land her on various lists.

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  My Secret Life Vol 3 Chapter 20

  Dominic Crawford Collins

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  My Secret Life, the gargantuan erotic autobiography of a wealthy Victorian English gentleman has been described as 'the strangest book ever written'. Comprising one-hundred-and-eighty-four chapters and over one million words, the epic confessional describes in eloquent and explicit detail the exploits of a man (who refers to himself simply as 'Walter'), whose life was devoted to the pursuit of erotic adventure and carnal pleasure.Now for the first time in the history of this infamous erotic masterpiece, film composer Dominic Crawford Collins is producing a fully scored narration of the complete unabridged text. More 'audiofilm' than audiobook, each chapter and scene has its own unique musical accompaniment, reflecting the author's changing emotional landscape and offering the listener a truly immersive erotic audio experience.

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  Captains Courageous

  Rudyard Kipling

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  Real men don't take guff from snotty kids. Neither does Disko Troop, skipper of the "We're Here", a fishing schooner out of Gloucester, Massachusetts, when his crew fishes Harvey Cheyne out of the Atlantic. There's no place on the Grand Banks for bystanders, so Harvey is press-ganged into service as a replacement for a man lost overboard and drowned. Harvey is heir to a vast fortune, but his rescuers believe none of what he tells them of his background. 
  Disko won't take the boat to port until it is full of fish, so Harvey must settle in for a season at sea. Hard, dangerous work and performing it alongside a grab-bag of characters in close quarters is a life-changing experience. And when Harvey at last is reunited with his parents, who have thought him dead for months, he must face the hard decisions of how he will allow his experience to change his life.

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  My Body Is A Big Fat Temple - An...

  Alena Dillon

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  My Body Is A Big Fat Temple, a memoir of pregnancy and early motherhood, follows a writer as she debates having children, miscarries, faces morning sickness, uncertainty, physical impairments, labor, breastfeeding, the "baby blues," the heartache of not loving her son as she thinks she should, parenting through a plague, until finally (basically, mostly) blossoming into her new identity.Creating life is a primal phenomenon. It requires grit, resilience, and a lot of bathroom breaks. There are dry heaves and darkened nipples, crotch lightning and brain fuzz, milk stains, sleep regressions, and equal amounts of despair and joy. It's a complicated magic. The undertaking is airbrushed to preserve the ideal of motherhood, and exacerbated by a culture that dictates what women can do and how they should feel. We don't get the full story, so mothers with unromantic experiences feel like aberrations, and worse, alone. This is why the voices of women matter. The voices of mothers matter. Here's one to remind you of the important things.

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  Abbreviated Life An - A Memoir

  Ariel Leve

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  A beautiful, startling, and candid memoir about growing up without boundaries, in which Ariel Leve recalls with candor and sensitivity the turbulent time she endured as the only child of an unstable poet for a mother and a beloved but largely absent father, and explores the consequences of a psychologically harrowing childhood as she seeks refuge from the past and recovers what was lost. 
  Ariel Leve grew up in Manhattan with an eccentric mother she describes as “a poet, an artist, a self-appointed troublemaker and attention seeker.” Leve learned to become her own parent, taking care of herself and her mother’s needs. There would be uncontrolled, impulsive rages followed with denial, disavowed responsibility, and then extreme outpourings of affection. How does a child learn to feel safe in this topsy-turvy world of conditional love? 
  Leve captures the chaos and lasting impact of a child’s life under siege and explores how the coping mechanisms she developed to survive later incapacitated her as an adult. There were material comforts, but no emotional safety, except for summer visits to her father’s home in South East Asia—an escape that was terminated after he attempted to gain custody. Following the death of a loving caretaker, a succession of replacements raised Leve—relationships which resulted in intense attachment and loss. It was not until decades later, when Leve moved to other side of the world, that she could begin to emancipate herself from the past. In a relationship with a man who has children, caring for them yields clarity of what was missing. 
  In telling her haunting story, Leve seeks to understand the effects of chronic psychological maltreatment on a child’s developing brain, and to discover how to build a life for herself that she never dreamed possible: An unabbreviated life.

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