I chose to use the image of a tile as the cover of Fortuna because, for me, that's how the story began - with a small piece of red tile that washed up on the beach on Long Beach Island, New Jersey in 1970. More than half a century before, the Fortuna, loaded with roofing tiles for ballast, set sail on a two-year voyage to New York. Just short of her final destination, she became one more shipwreck off the coast of Long Beach Island. Those tiles were her calling cards. Fortuna almost ended the same as it started. While photographing the tile for the cover of this book, a huge wave came in and washed the tile back into the sea. But, like all the other pieces of this story that landed at my feet, the tile washed back onto the beach five days later.

'Birkin's diary entries ultimately expose the toxic reality behind one of the 20th century's most glamorous couples' Sunday Times Jane Birkin - actor, singer, songwriter and model - attained international fame with her decade-long musical and personal relationship with Serge Gainsbourg that featured their internationally controversial hit song 'Je t'aime...moi no plus'. She has also enjoyed a notable career as a movie actress in Blow-Up, Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun. Munkey Diaries re-creates the flamboyant era of Swinging London and Saint-Germain-des-Pres in the 1970s, and lets us into the everyday life of an exceptional woman. There are intimate revelations about Jane's tumultuous life with her first husband, the composer John Barry, and her romantic and professional collaboration with Gainsbourg, as well as keen insights into a working life as an actor, singer and songwriter.

In an acting career of more than seventy years, Hollywood legend Maureen O'Hara came to be known as "the queen of Technicolor" for her fiery red hair and piercing green eyes. She had a reputation as a fiercely independent thinker and champion of causes, particularly those of her beloved homeland, Ireland. In "'Tis Herself, " O'Hara recounts her extraordinary life and proves to be just as strong, sharp, and captivating as any character she played on-screen.
O'Hara was brought to Hollywood as a teenager in 1939 by the great Charles Laughton, to whom she was under contract, to costar with him in the classic film The Hunchback of Notre Dame. She has appeared in many other classics, including "How Green Was My Valley, Rio Grande, The Quiet Man, " and "Miracle on 34th Street." She recalls intimate memories of working with the actors and directors of Hollywood's Golden Age, including Laughton, Alfred Hitchcock, Tyrone Power, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, and John Candy. With characteristic frankness, she describes her tense relationship with the mercurial director John Ford, with whom she made five films, and her close lifelong friendship with her frequent costar John Wayne. Successful in her career, O'Hara was less lucky in love until she met aviation pioneer Brigadier General Charles F. Blair, the great love of her life, who died in a mysterious plane crash ten years after their marriage.
Candid and revealing, "'Tis Herself" is an autobiography as witty and spirited as its author.

The only book Michael Jackson ever wrote about his life It chronicles his humble beginnings in the Midwest, his early days with the Jackson 5, and his unprecedented solo success. Giving unrivalled insight into the King of Pop's life, it details his songwriting process for hits like Beat It, Rock With You, Billie Jean, and We Are the World; describes how he developed his signature dance style, including the Moon Walk; and opens the door to his very private personal relationships with his family, including sister Janet, and stars like Diana Ross, Berry Gordy, Marlon Brando, Quincy Jones, Paul McCartney, and Brooke Shields. At the time of its original publication in 1988, MOONWALK broke the fiercely guarded barrier of silence that surrounded Michael Jackson. Candidly and courageously, Jackson talks openly about his wholly exceptional career and the crushing isolation of his fame, as well as the unfair rumours that have surrounded it. MOONWALK is illustrated with rare photographs from Jackson family albums and Michael's personal photographic archives, as well as a drawing done by Michael exclusively for the book. It reveals and celebrates, as no other book can, the life of this exceptional and beloved musician.

Rheumatic fever came at an early age and took several of his cousins and caused him to be confined to bed for many months while recovering. This confinment and curtailment caused Jack to develop his artistic talent in a more acute way. While always being a jokester, he has had a funny way of telling a yarn and he hopes you enjoy reading about some of the funny things that happened to him on the way to the forum.

Whether it was at President Reagan's Inaugural Ball in Washington, D.C., the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco, or the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu, Del Courtney's Orchestra has been a favorite of dancing and listening America since the Big Band Era. Del Courtney has enjoyed one of the most rewarding careers that music has ever offered to anyone - as his musical life span has extended over the Big Band Era of the 30s, 40s and 50s, through the rock craze, to the current nostalgic Big Band Sounds. Success grew as he became a favorite of the airwaves and dancing America; wherever he appeared - night clubs, hotels, theatres and major ballrooms: such renown spots as Coconut Grove Ambassador Hotel (Los Angeles), Palmer House, Blackhawk Restaurant (Chicago) Aragon-Trianon Ballrooms, Paramount Theatre (New York), Glen Island Casino (Long Island). During this period Del established many lifelong professional relations with virtually every name entertainer from Frank Sinatra on down. He has been quite a Talent Scout as well. He discovered Johnny Mathis and signed him for his KPIX - TV Show. While on radio, he spotted an office girl with an unusual wit, and a $75 a week salary. After a few side- splitting interviews on Radio KSFO, Phyllis Diller rocketed into night club and television stardom. Dave Brubeck credits Del with first inspiring him to play jazz, emerging as one of the greats in jazz. The original Kingston Trio dominated top-selling album lists after getting their acclaim on Del's show. Del also gave Hollywood a whirl. He appeared in "It Came From Beneath The Sea," "Chicago at Night" and "John Loves Mary." Del was a successful producer of National Television Shows after starring in"San Francisco Beat" and" Harbor Command." Being married at one time to Yvonne King of The King Sisters, he produced and co-hosted "The King Family" TV Show on ABC. In the 1960s, Del served as Administration Director and Entertainment Director, producing all half-time shows for the Oakland Raiders. His Raider Band was acclaimed the best in the NFL. His music was selected for the ''In-Flight Sound" on all United Airlines Flights and his albums were played aboard all flights of President Reagan's Air Force One. Del Courtney and his Orchestra surely set the mood and delight all musical ears and all toe-tapping feet

The story of The Wailers is a litany of betrayal and greed that's rarely been reported elsewhere. Written in collaboration with Family Man and other surviving members, "The Wailers' Story" reveals the truth behind the Marley legacy. The Wailers played with Bob Marley on all of his hit singles and albums - records that have sold an estimated 250 million copies worldwide, and established Marley himself as a cultural and musical icon. This book traces the early lives of the Barrett brothers before they joined Marley in the '60s and discusses how reggae artists like Lee 'Scratch' Perry influenced the band. It includes insider accounts of the assassination attempt on Marley's life and his exile in London. It examines how hits like 'Exodus', 'Waiting In Vain', 'No Woman No Cry', and 'I Shot The Sheriff' were made - songs that have helped change the face of popular music.

A biography that crackles with as much energy as the great bluesman's songs."
-Ted Drozdowski, Boston Phoenix

The epic, rollicking, up-and-down life of Muddy Waters-who went from Mississippi farmhand to musical legend, invented electric blues, and created the template for the rock-and-roll band and its wild lifestyle-is chronicled with rare vividness in Robert Gordon's widely praised biography.

Carlos Acosta, the Cuban dancer considered to be one of the world's greatest performers, fearlessly depicts his journey from adolescent troublemaker to international superstar in his captivating memoir, "No Way Home."

Carlos was just another kid from the slums of Havana; the youngest son of a truck driver and a housewife, he ditched school with his friends and dreamed of becoming Cuba's best soccer player. Exasperated by his son's delinquent behavior, Carlos's father enrolled him in ballet school, subjecting him to grueling days that started at five thirty in the morning and ended long after sunset.

The path from student to star was not an easy one. Even as he won dance competitions and wowed critics around the world, Carlos was homesick for Cuba, crippled by loneliness and self-doubt. As he traveled the world, Carlos struggled to overcome popular stereotypes and misconceptions; to maintain a relationship with his family; and, most of all, to find a place he could call home.

This impassioned memoir is about more than Carlos's rise to stardom. It is about a young man forced to leave his homeland and loved ones for a life of self-discipline, displacement, and physical hardship. It is also about how the heart and soul of a country can touch the heart and soul of one of its citizens. With candor and humor, Carlos vividly depicts daily life in communist Cuba, his feelings about ballet -- an art form he both lovesand hates -- and his complex relationship with his father. Carlos Acosta makes dance look effortless, but the grace, strength, and charisma we see onstage have come at a cost. Here, in his own words, is the story of the price he paid.

WINNER OF THE THURBER PRIZE

The compelling, inspiring, (often comic) coming-of-age story of Trevor Noah, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed.

One of the comedy world's brightest new voices, Trevor Noah is a light-footed but sharp-minded observer of the absurdities of politics, race and identity, sharing jokes and insights drawn from the wealth of experience acquired in his relatively young life. As host of the US hit show The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, he provides viewers around the globe with their nightly dose of biting satire, but here Noah turns his focus inward, giving readers a deeply personal, heartfelt and humorous look at the world that shaped him.

Noah was born a crime, son of a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother, at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents' indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the first years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, take him away.

A collection of eighteen personal stories, Born a Crime tells the story of a mischievous young boy growing into a restless young man as he struggles to find his place in a world where he was never supposed to exist. Born a Crime is equally the story of that young man's fearless, rebellious and fervently religious mother - a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence and abuse that ultimately threatens her own life.

Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Noah illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and an unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a personal portrait of an unlikely childhood in a dangerous time, as moving and unforgettable as the very best memoirs and as funny as Noah's own hilarious stand-up. Born a Crime is a must read.