Maison d'édition: BookRix
This is a story about a personal 10-year long childhood journey on living with epilepsy. After trying numerous medications and a special diet, brain surgeries played a significant role in beating epilepsy for good. Overcoming a battle like this gives her hope to inspire others with her story and encourages others to never stop fighting your battles
From the stages of Berlin to anti-Nazi efforts and silver-screen stardom, Marlene Dietrich was an icon who embodied glamour and sophistication for audiences around the globe. In a grand and sweeping biography that will stand as the ultimate authority on this singular star, Steven Bach reveals the fascinating woman behind the myth. Based on six years of meticulous research and hundreds of interviews— including conversations with Dietrich— this is the life story of one of the 20th century's greatest movie actresses and performers.Voir livre
King Arthur, a legendary figure rooted in medieval history and romance, is often depicted as the British leader who defended Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. However, the story of King Arthur is primarily a blend of Welsh and English mythology with elements of literary invention. Most modern historians agree that Arthur is more of a mythical construct than a historical figure. Early sources such as the Annales Cambriae, the Historia Brittonum, and the works of the monk Gildas provide glimpses into Arthur's supposed historical context. Additionally, references to Arthur appear in early poetic works like Y Gododdin, though these allusions remain ambiguous and open to interpretation. Arthur’s significance as a cultural and legendary figure solidified in the corpus of stories known as the "Matter of Britain." Geoffrey of Monmouth’s 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain) was instrumental in elevating Arthur to international fame. Geoffrey’s imaginative narrative portrayed Arthur as a heroic warrior who defended Britain from both human and supernatural foes. Earlier Welsh and Breton tales, predating Geoffrey’s work, often described Arthur as a semi-magical figure associated with the Welsh otherworld, Annwn. However, the extent to which Geoffrey relied on earlier sources versus his own creativity remains unclear.Voir livre
When the Trinidadian novelist, Harold Sonny Ladoo was found dead soon after the publication of his classic novel, No Pain Like This Body, for Christopher Laird, it became an obsession to try to discover the writer behind the work and what had brought about his untimely end. Equal to Mystery – words written by Ladoo – is the record of that pursuit. When, as the editor of a Trinidadian literary journal in the radical years of the early 1970s, Christopher Laird was sent Harold Sonny Ladoo's novel, No Pain Like This Body (1973) to review, he knew he was looking at something revolutionary in Caribbean fiction. It is a novel that has recently been republished as a Penguin Modern Classic. But the next news Laird heard of Ladoo was that he had returned to Trinidad from Canada and had been found dead – very probably murdered – in the canefields outside his family's village of McBean. Laird follows in the path of Ladoo to Canada, where he went to make a name for himself as a writer, and tracks him as a student and young married man through conversations with his widow and other family members. He looks in detail at his relationships with two Canadian writers, Dennis Lee and Peter Such, who supported his work, and in Lee's case published him. Here there is an acute account of their meetings across the line of race, of the mix of generous contact and elusive flight in their relationship. Above all, with access to Ladoo's unpublished material -- short stories and fragments of the vast body of fiction he announced he was writing -- Laird offers acute analysis of what is there, honest bafflement about just what Ladoo was up to, with a tragic sense of the talent that was lost through his untimely death.Voir livre
A Guardian Guide Cultural Book of the Year 2023An Irish Times Music Book of the Year 2023'A deep, engrossing history' The Observer'A fascinating deep dive' Jeremy DellerFrom the illicit reggae blues dances and acid-rock free festivals of the 1970s, through the ecstasy-fuelled Second Summer of Love in 1988, to the increasingly corporate dance music culture of the post-Covid era, Party Lines is a groundbreaking new history of UK dance music, exploring its pivotal role in the social, political and economic shifts on which modern Britain has been built.Taking in the Victorian moralism of the Thatcher years, the far-reaching restrictions of the Criminal Justice Act in 1994, and the resurgence of illegal raves during the Covid-19 pandemic, Party Lines charts an ongoing conflict, fought in basement clubs, abandoned warehouses and sunlit fields, between the revolutionary potential of communal sound and the reactionary impulses of the British establishment. Brought to life with stunning clarity and depth, this is social and cultural history at its most immersive, vital and shocking.____'Excellent' The Sunday Times'Reminds us why the dance floor matters . . . fascinating' TelegraphVoir livre
NO RULES. NO PROBLEM. Bruce Lee remains the gold standard that all martial artists are compared to. But could he actually fight? World Champions in karate competition have gone on record to point out that he never once competed in tournaments. Were his martial abilities merely a trick of the camera? For the first time ever, Bruce Lee authority and bestselling author John Little takes a hard look at Bruce Lee’s real-life fights to definitively answer these questions with over 30 years of research that took him thousands of miles. Little has tracked down over 30 witnesses to the real fights of Bruce Lee as well as those who were present at his many sparring sessions (in which he was never defeated) against the very best martial artists in the world. From the mean streets of Hong Kong, to challenge matches in Seattle and Oakland, to the sets of his iconic films where he was challenged repeatedly, this is the incredible real-life fighting record of the man known as the “Little Dragon,” who may well have been the greatest fighter of the 20th century.Voir livre
In 1999, the American Film Institute released its list of the 50 greatest Hollywood stars of the 20th century, and selecting the best actresses out of the bunch was certainly a tall task. The competition was so stacked that women like Ginger Rogers, Grace Kelly and Rita Hayworth were not even among the Top 10. So who were the Top 5 women selected by the AFI? Aside from being one of the most recognized and acclaimed actresses in history, Katharine Hepburn’s career is also of great importance because she forced Americans to reevaluate their expectations for female behavior, both in films themselves and off the movie set as well. Bette Davis presided over Hollywood at a time in which the film industry was at its most influential. Every actress from Katharine Hepburn to Ingrid Bergman and Ginger Rodgers, themselves now considered among Hollywood’s greatest icons, lived in the shadow of Bette Davis. For someone whose career ended over 30 years ago, Audrey Hepburn continues to retain her popularity and exert a strong influence over how people view beauty and sophistication. She remains an American icon, despite the fact that she did not even move to the United States until 1953 (at the age of 24) and spent the majority of her life living in Europe. At times during her career, Bergman was the darling of Hollywood, but at other times she was literally a pariah. It is all too common to remember Bergman for her performance in Casablanca, forgetting the fact that she was effectively exiled from Hollywood for several years during her romance with Roberto Rossellini. Of all the great movie stars, there may be none more enigmatic than Greta Garbo, who remains internationally famous despite the fact her life and career raise more questions than answers. How did a Swedish actress with very little film acting experience in her native land arrive in the United States and achieve instant stardom?Voir livre
