'A masterpiece, as fresh and shocking as if it were written yesterday' Craig Brown "I've been told that no one sings the word 'hunger' like I do. Or the word 'love'." Lady Sings the Blues is the inimitable autobiography of one of the greatest icons of the twentieth century. Born to a single mother in 1915 Baltimore, Billie Holiday had her first run-in with the law at aged 13. But Billie Holiday is no victim. Her memoir tells the story of her life spent in jazz, smoky Harlem clubs and packed-out concert halls, her love affairs, her wildly creative friends, her struggles with addiction and her adventures in love. Billie Holiday is a wise and aphoristic guide to the story of her unforgettable life.

1) I have purchased the personalized back cover.

2) Also please add the Ghana Ambassador's Blurb:

An autobiography of a biracial child of a Ghanaian Ashanti chief's daughter and a Swiss. A candid account of her life in the two worlds, told with humour and reflecting the author's determination and resilience.

H.E. Mrs Ellen S. Nee-Whang

Ambassador of the Republic of Ghana

to Switzerland and Austria

(see attached copy sent with Flashdrive to Elaine Sinfield)

"So, I've written a book.

Having entertained the idea for years, and even offered a few questionable opportunities (‘It’s a piece of cake! Just do four hours of interviews, find someone else to write it, put your face on the cover, and voila!’), I have decided to write these stories just as I have always done, in my own hand. The joy that I have felt from chronicling these tales is not unlike listening back to a song that I’ve recorded and can’t wait to share with the world, or reading a primitive journal entry from a stained notebook, or even hearing my voice bounce between the Kiss posters on my wall as a child. This certainly doesn’t mean that I’m quitting my day job, but it does give me a place to shed a little light on what it’s like to be a kid from Springfield, Virginia, walking through life while living out the crazy dreams I had as young musician.

From hitting the road with Scream at 18 years old, to my time in Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, jamming with Iggy Pop or playing at the Academy Awards or dancing with AC/DC and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, drumming for Tom Petty or meeting Sir Paul McCartney at Royal Albert Hall, bedtime stories with Joan Jett or a chance meeting with Little Richard, to flying halfway around the world for one epic night with my daughters… the list goes on.

I look forward to focusing the lens through which I see these memories a little sharper for you with much excitement." - Dave Grohl

Pretty Mess meets #Girlboss in this part memoir, part entrepreneurial manifesto from The Real Housewives of New Jersey's "Powerhouse in Pigtails." Margaret Josephs is a hustler. She's a tough cookie. She speaks her mind. She never leaves the house without lipstick on. She's also a devoted wife, mother, daughter, businesswoman, lifestyle expert, and fan-favorite star of the reality TV series The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Sounds pretty glamorous, right? Well, things are never exactly as they seem. Before she arrived where she is today, "The Marge" was born to young immigrant parents. Raised by a single party-girl mother who left her physically abusive father when she was one and a half, she was taught that it was more important to look good than to feel good. No structure. No rules. No blueprint for future success or stability. But like most people who struggle through atypical childhoods, destructive relationships, and career challenges, she forced herself to wake up every morning and put one high heel in front of the other, even if she didn't know where she was going. Margaret took the cards she was dealt and eventually turned them into a winning hand, and she wants to arm fans with the ability to do the same. In Caviar Dreams, Tuna Fish Budget, she'll talk about how to launch a lifestyle brand, how to work with family members, and how to be an uncompromising woman in a man's world. She also spills stories from her personal life about the son Real Housewives viewers don't know exists, the time Joan Rivers gave her the best advice she ever got, the rendezvous she had with a famous rock star, and the affair with her contractor that ended her marriage but gave her the happily ever after. Caviar Dreams, Tuna Fish Budget takes fans along Margaret's wild, bumpy journey to entrepreneurial success and reality TV fame, written in her trademark no-nonsense, tongue-in-cheek voice with the perfect combination of grit and glitz.

An October 2022 IndieNext pick "[An] engaging and beautifully narrated quest for personal fulfillment and musical recognition...This is a fast-paced tale in which music and love always take center stage...A truly gifted musician, Price writes about her journey with refreshing candor."-Kirkus, starred review "Brutally honest...a vivid and poignant memoir."-The Guardian Country music star Margo Price shares the story of her struggle to make it in an industry that preys on its ingenues while trying to move on from devastating personal tragedies. When Margo Price was nineteen years old, she dropped out of college and moved to Nashville to become a musician. She busked on the street, played open mics, and even threw out her TV so that she would do nothing but write songs. She met Jeremy Ivey, a fellow musician who would become her closest collaborator and her husband. But after working on their craft for more than a decade, Price and Ivey had no label, no band, and plenty of heartache. Maybe We'll Make It is a memoir of loss, motherhood, and the search for artistic freedom in the midst of the agony experienced by so many aspiring musicians: bad gigs and long tours, rejection and sexual harassment, too much drinking and barely enough money to live on. Price, though, refused to break, and turned her lowest moments into the classic country songs that eventually comprised the debut album that launched her career. In the authentic voice hailed by Pitchfork for tackling "Steinbeck-sized issues with no-bullshit humility," Price shares the stories that became songs, and the small acts of love and camaraderie it takes to survive in a music industry that is often unkind to women. Now a Grammy-nominated "Best New Artist," Price tells a love story of music, collaboration, and the struggle to build a career while trying to maintain her singular voice and style.

A HISTORY OF THE MOST CONTROVERSAL MOTION PICTURE EVERY MADE A hundred years have passed since the masterpiece of David Wark Griffith, The Birth of a Nation, first appeared on the screens of America, in the winter of 1915. It demonstrated that the cinema, no less than literature and no less than the stage, could become a topic of serious critical, esthetic, intellectual, political, social, and technical discussion. In this way it brought the motion picture into a position of commanding influence in the social life of the American nation. The denunciation continues, and the storm over the film serves as a barometer of the global conflict, involving forces and issues set in motion by, but no means limited to, race. From the beginning it touched off several emotionally and politically explosive, interrelated, parallel controversies-controversy over Griffith; controversy over the film; controversy over the subject-matter and its treatment; controversy over the controversy. As Griffith's official biographer Seymour Sterns main purpose of his book was to assemble, as extensively as possible, the rapidly vanishing record of what happened. You'll find Stern's writing on the subject as controversial as the film itself.

Born into the famous, sometimes scandalous, theatrical clan of Colley Cibber, Charlotte was an actress destined for greatness. But she rebelled, and started dressing as a man. When her father disowned her, her life became an adventure extending from the pinnacles of London society to its dangerous depths. Kathryn Shevelow captures Charlotte - an artist and a survivor - in all her guises, from her time among the leading lights of glamorous Drury Lane Theatre to her trials as a strolling player and puppeteer, to her comeback as author of one of the first autobiographies written by a woman. "Charlotte" is the captivating story of an extraordinary woman, set against the rich tapestry of London's colorful theatre world, its history and savage political battles.

Most girls grow up fantasizing about the type of man they are going to marry and how their wedding will be, and they imagine things like the house with the white picket fence, two kids, and maybe a dog.

No girl grows up dreaming about a man who will want to marry her, control her, and nearly kill her. However, the truth is that many girls end up doing just that.

A modern take on a classical icon: this "luminous book" (Susan Orlean, New York Times bestselling author of The Library Book) tells the story of when, where, and how Chopin composed his most famous work, uncovering many surprises along the way and showing how his innovative music still animates and thrives in our culture centuries later. In this widely-praised book, Annik LaFarge presents a very different Frederic Chopin from the melancholy, sickly, Romantic figure that has predominated for so long. The artist she discovered is, instead, a purely independent-and endlessly relevant-spirit: an innovator who created a new musical language; an autodidact who became a spiritually generous, trailblazing teacher; a stalwart patriot during a time of revolution, pandemic, and exile. One of America's foremost pianists, Jeremy Denk, wrote in The New York Times: "It is almost impossible for me to imagine a world in which [Chopin's "Funeral March"] is both fresh and tragic, where its death is real. LaFarge's charming and loving new book attempts to recover this world...This book took me into many unexpected corners...For a book about death, it's bursting with life and lively research." In this "entertaining dual music history and memoir" (Publishers Weekly), a "seamless blend of the musical and literary verve" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) LaFarge "brilliantly traces the footsteps of Chopin's life" (Scott Yoo, host of PBS Now Hear This) during the three years, 1837-1840, when he composed the now-iconic Funeral March, using its composition story to illuminate the key themes of Chopin's life. As part of her research into Chopin's world, then and now, LaFarge visited piano makers, monuments, churches, and archives; she talked to scholars, jazz musicians, video game makers, music teachers, theater directors, and of course dozens of pianists. She has given us, says pianist, author, and New York Times columnist Michael Kimmelman, "a tour-de-force and journey of the soul." It is an engrossing, "impeccably researched" (Library Journal) work of musical discovery and an artful portrayal of a man whose work and life continue to inspire artists and cultural innovators in astonishing ways. An acclaimed companion website, WhyChopin, presents links to each piece of music mentioned in the book, organized by chapter, along with photos, resources, and more.

This reference work details Frank Sinatra's extensive creative accomplishments and includes biographical information as it relates to his art. A valuable tool for researchers and fans, this book provides access to extensive data, collected from disparate sources, including the first published listing of Internet resources. The information is divided into three parts, each arranged alphabetically, and covers his music, film, radio, and television appearances, and his concerts and humanitarian contributions. A thorough bibliography provides important information on locating additional resources. The only American performer to span seven decades of recording (1930s-1990s), Sinatra is regarded as an American icon. The wealth of information in this reference attests to Sinatra's well-earned reputation as an American musical legend. This reference aptly includes information not only about his creative endeavors but about his humanitarian efforts as well. Because Sinatra is recognized and admired for his musical talent, a large portion of this reference is devoted to his songs and recordings. The alphabetical arrangements of song entries includes information on the songs, record labels, arrangers, and recording dates. Three appendices at the end of the volume provide additional information about the recordings. The encyclopedia concludes with the many awards and honors bestowed upon Sinatra.

Spoken Words of EboniSkye, is a poetry book full of life. Share the true experiences of EboniSkye from her teenage years to present day as she fought to find her way to salvation in a dark cold world. Love, Loss and Life Lessons, The Female Hustler and The Virtuous One are three profound poems exposing the desperate search of unconditional love, acceptance, knowledge and understanding. This book is full of all types of poems and poetry. The philosphy is to obtain salvation, one must need to be saved and she needed it Love, Loss and Life Lessons, EboniSkye reveals the inhibitions of first loves, the passion and the heartaches. It allows the reader to know they are not alone in whatever they may endure. The Female Hustler describes the life of a woman making it happen in today's world. She exposes the reader to a real world that many women may be destined to live, through some of her personal experiences and the experiences of others. The Virtuous One is an inspirational poem. EboniSkye shares messages of the love she found and the cost of her journey. She writes prayers of true love and stands boldly as an inspiration to many.

The sex goddess's seemingly endless power to influence and fascinate, to achieve in a sense her own self-reproduction through many decades of "re-makeovers" reveals her positioning in American culture as not only a lasting image but also as a potentially powerful and subversive force. The sex goddess is often thought by feminist film theorists to be little more than a projection of the male imaginary. However, this book makes a necessary correction to this trend by demonstrating how the actresses performing the role of sex goddess in fact use the feminine imaginary to create their own agency. Through their performance of "hyper" femininity, and with their seductive power, they exert control not only over their filmic narrative "targets of seduction" but their viewers as well. The ability to hold their objects of seduction in such thrall suggests that the image of the sex goddess possesses a power far more subversive than what has been previously explored; in fact, to date there has not yet been a critical study of the sex goddess in film. Cinema becomes a place where the sex goddess's designation as sex itself can further suggest her bodily signification as a whole discourse on sex outside of her cinematic representation, thus loading her body to be read almost entirely in terms of sex and its corresponding contemporary social thought. During the period of Classical Hollywood Cinema, the construct of the sex goddess warrants especial attention because of what this study can reveal in broad terms about cultural ideas of feminine sexuality, American cinema, and visual culture. In the first critical study of the sex goddess in film, Jessica Hope Jordan illustrates how Jean Harlow uses her sexualized body to "affect" and seduce viewers away from any primary identification with those characters and their plotlines that are supposed to lead the film, to identifying instead with the kind of sexual empowerment and self-possession her characters consistently display. Linking the idea of sexual empowerment to the filmic and public celebration of hyper-feminine sexuality, the book additionally covers previous feminist discussions of Mae West's performances as "feminist camp" to argue that West sought to both celebrate and embody for women viewers what she viewed as cultural ideals of femininity and women's sexuality. With Lana Turner and the "cinematic code," the book considers the many problems inherent in both the filmic and public celebration of hyper-feminine sexuality in relation to censorship and considers the effects of the Hays Code on hyper-feminine sexuality as depicted in film noir. The book also importantly presents the first critical discussion of the actress Jayne Mansfield, suggesting that her 1950s open acceptance, celebration, and public promotion of her feminine sexuality, both onscreen and off, makes her not only a precursor of the more sexually liberated 60s, but also, like the other actresses discussed here, a kind of prescient performance artist, even theorist, of feminine sexuality in particular, and cultural ideas about sexuality more generally. Beyond recouping her image as feminist, the book demonstrates how the kind of desire aroused by the sex goddess, a desire which remains endlessly suspended, works as a supreme example of the aesthetic apparatus of cinema itself. This is an important book for inclusion in all film, film history, film theory, gender and sexuality studies, women's studies, and American studies collections.

(Amadeus). Born in Belgium as Clara Lardinois, the youngest of 17 children, Blanche Arral was destined for a life wilder than fiction. During her travels, Arral befriended such legendary figures as Sarah Bernhardt, Mata Hari, Harry Houdini, Victor Hugo, Franz Liszt, Camille Saint-Saens and Jack London, who based a character on her in his book Smoke Bellew . In Russia she met Rasputin, and in Turkey, the sultan Abdulhamid II. She describes her recording sessions with Thomas Edison and her run-ins with the difficult Nellie Melba. Writer and opera fan Ira Glackens discovered her living in a small New Jersey apartment and persuaded her to record her extraordinary stories. More than 60 years later, editor William R. Moran has confirmed the veracity of Arral's account and annotated this extraordinary memoir.