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  Roy Orbison - King of Hearts

  Jeff Apter

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  Clad in black with dark shades, Roy Orbison had a mystique, style, and voice that were unmistakable and singularly different from his famous peers of the 1950s and '60s. Born in Vernon, Texas, Roy was the son of a guitar-playing oil worker. Already a music fan by age six, Roy went on to form a high school band. Honky-tonk gigs followed. Then a contract at Elvis Presley's label, Sun Records, where Roy found mentors and friends among the likes of Carl Perkins. Following a shift to Monument Records, he shared a bill with a group called the Beatles, who were huge fans of his.After experimenting with different styles, Roy edged closer to a sound all his own. He found it with smash hits, including "Only the Lonely," "Crying," and "Oh, Pretty Woman," songs heavy with pathos and remarkable vocals. It was gold. But what lay ahead was a professional downswing, and personal tragedy with the death of his wife and two sons. Twenty lean years followed. Yet Roy Orbison was far from over. Amid the rockabilly revival of the 1980s and the formation of the British-American supergroup the Traveling Wilburys, Roy's comeback was legendary. Asked how he'd like to be remembered, Roy said, "One day when they are mentioning people who had an impact, if they just mention me among the rest of the guys and gals, it would be great." He got his wish. Roy Orbison: King of Hearts seals it.

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  Dvorak in Words and Music

  Davinia Caddy

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  The music of Bohemian composer Antonín Dvořák is suffused with natural nobility, fluency and freshness, and embodies the spirit of his native land. This revealing biography portrays Dvořák as a complex and wide-ranging composer, and explores the creation and performance of his music as well as its reception on both sides of the Atlantic, tracing his art in all its richness and variety. Musical excerpts include the Cello Concerto, the ‘New World’ Symphony and the Slavonic Dances, as well as selected chamber pieces, songs, opera excerpts, and more.

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  Looking Out - Welsh Painting...

  Peter Lord

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  The six sequential essays in this collection provide a narrative of a century and a half of Welsh painting, written with an emphasis on issues of social class and national identity. Through his earlier writing, Peter Lord has contributed to the establishment of an historical tradition of Welsh painting, but because it does not feature in the wider story of Western art history as presently told, the work revealed continues to be perceived as marginal, existing in isolation from ideas and movements in other countries. These essays break new ground by discussing the concerns of Welsh painters not only in domestic terms but also in the context of the ways in which artists in other parts of Europe and in the United States reacted to the common underlying causes of those concerns. The author challenges the idea that the work of Welsh painters is relevant only to the evolution of their own communities and, through confident and detailed analysis, validates their pictures also in terms of the arts of other Western cultures.

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  Combat Love - A Story of Leaving...

  Alisyn Camerota

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  CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota's memoir Combat Love is her story of growing up longing for stability and attachment as the foundation of her family crumbled. Set on the Jersey Shore in the free-range 1980s, Camerota finds the belonging she craves courtesy of a local punk rock band named Shrapnel and their diehard fans. Combat Love chronicles her near-misses and misadventures at clubs like CBGB and Max's Kansas City, coupled with the sex, drugs, and punk rock of 1980s New Jersey. By the time she leaves home at sixteen, it feels like home had left her long ago. 
   
    
   
  Combat Love is also the story of two women, mother and daughter, trying to forge their own paths and independence, and find their own happiness, success, and wholeness. Camerota's story searches for the line between shelter and risk, nurture and neglect, parenting and personal freedom. What are we willing to sacrifice for self-actualization and happiness? What if the answer is your mother, or your daughter? 
   
    
   
  The two-time Emmy-award-winning Camerota retraces her steps down an often gritty path toward her dream of becoming a journalist. At times heartbreaking and pulse-pounding, Combat Love is an inspiration for anyone who's ever searched for that elusive place called home.

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  The Tangut Kingdom - And Its...

  Rolf Hedger

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  The Tangut people, an ethnic group of uncertain origins, gradually emerged as a distinct force in northwestern China. They are believed to have descended from the Qiang tribes, a collection of nomadic and semi-nomadic groups that roamed the Tibetan Plateau and the Ordos region. Over centuries, they migrated and settled in what is now modern-day Ningxia and parts of Gansu and Inner Mongolia, where they established communities and developed a unique cultural identity. Their position between the Tibetan Plateau, the Central Asian steppes, and the Chinese heartland made them an important intermediary in regional affairs. 
  The Tangut rise to prominence was influenced by their interactions with the dominant powers of the region. The Tibetan Empire, which controlled vast areas of western China until its decline in the ninth century, played a significant role in shaping early Tangut culture and governance. The collapse of the Tibetan Empire created a power vacuum that allowed smaller groups like the Tangut to assert their independence. At the same time, the weakening of the Tang Dynasty left northern China vulnerable to fragmentation, further enabling the Tangut to carve out a space for themselves. 
  By the tenth century, the Tangut had developed into a formidable military and political entity, leveraging their strategic location along trade routes to establish economic and diplomatic ties with neighboring states. They maintained relations with the Song Dynasty to the east, the Tibetan remnants to the south, and the nomadic Khitan Liao Empire to the north. These interactions not only enriched Tangut society but also introduced them to a variety of political models, from the bureaucratic governance of the Chinese dynasties to the tribal confederations of the steppe.

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  Anna Pavlova

  Vera Krasovskaya

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  Episodes from life and work of the great ballerina Anna Pavlova.

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