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.

This memoir takes a look into the heart and mind of one man who suffers from schizoaffective and bipolar disorders.

Jeffrey Hochstedler's life has seen its share of twists and turns-a culmination of the many choices and decisions made at any one time. In this memoir, he shares revelations and meditations from events in his daily life and how these occurrences shaped the man he is today.

Written in diary format, "Forty Days from the Diary of a Delusional Man" illustrates how his mind thinks, feels, and perceives. He reveals details from many parts of his life-his birth in 1957; growing up in Indiana with his parents and brother; battling depression in his teen years; enlisting in the Army in 1981; dealing with his relationships and his schizoaffective and bipolar disorders; and finding solace in art.

With many examples of Hochstedler's art included, "Forty Days from the Diary of a Delusional Man" shows how he was affected by confusion and despair. But it also communicates how he leaned on art and God to survive each day.

Her memoirs cover the pre WWII period of the 1930's in her birth country, Bulgaria and her growing up in the German and Russian cultures of her parents and that of Bulgaria. The uprooting of her family because of WWII and subsequent events tells of the increasing horrors and dislocations not only of her family but that of countless others.

""On the night of February 10, 1943, at the moment I was born, my identity was sent into exile. At age 53 I learned for the first time what my mother had never before told me: I am Frank Sinatra's daughter." Julie Sinatra" Imagine what you would do as this shocking news about who you are comes as the spotlights are rapidly fading from your legendary father's life-you have missed all of this man who has lived larger than life. Julie's story is both fascinating and compelling. Her desire to meet her father fuels her determination to out the facts surrounding her birth and establish her rights. She meets with resistance from Sinatra family members on all fronts. They work to block her efforts to meet her father and become legally recognized in the courts. As the outsider child longing to know the man behind the mystique, Julie provides a new provocative look at Frank Sinatra-their shared temperaments, philosophies and spirituality. Hers is a very moving and inspirational story about the unknown blue-eyed daughter's journey to her own identity . she had to find him to find her.

Born in a small railroad city in the far corner of Northern Vermont on a bitter cold January day, Cora and her twin sister were births number twelve and thirteen to an already over populated family that was suffering from poverty, mental, verbal, manipulation and incest abuse. At a very young age Cora learned how to become extremely loyal to disloyal people in her life. Feeling like she was always a shadow behind her twin sister, Cora grew up feeling like she did not exist even though she knew she was very much alive. Even when she had doubt, she knew she was alive by placing her hand on her chest to feel her heart beat just to reassure herself. After years of humilation Cora decides to head into Canada to escape, only to find herself so conditioned to a disloyal and abusive life that she returns back to Vermont and marries right into the life she struggled so hard to get away from. After thirty years of living with a replica of her father, Cora finally with the help of Alanon and several counselors learns that she has been addicted to addicts her whole entire life. finally breaking free she removes herself from the only life she ever knew. Today Cora still lives in that small railroad city that is once again in ression and is in a shockingly state of prescription drug abuse and is still home to some families who suffer from the same unfortunate fate as she did. Even though she does not feel like a shadow any longer, she struggles every day to stay focused in her own recovery while she fights anexity and heart ache over watching her own sibblings and loved ones who struggle to fight their own addictions and recovery.

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.

No woman in the three-hundred-year history of the karyukai has ever come forward in public to tell her story -- until now.

"Many say I was the best geisha of my generation," writes Mineko Iwasaki. "And yet, it was a life that I found too constricting to continue. And one that I ultimately had to leave." Trained to become a geisha from the age of five, Iwasaki would live among the other "women of art" in Kyoto's Gion Kobu district and practice the ancient customs of Japanese entertainment. She was loved by kings, princes, military heroes, and wealthy statesmen alike. But even though she became one of the most prized geishas in Japan's history, Iwasaki wanted more: her own life. And by the time she retired at age twenty-nine, Iwasaki was finally on her way toward a new beginning.

Geisha, a Life is her story -- at times heartbreaking, always awe-inspiring, and totally true.

Come round to Louis Theroux's house, where the much-loved documentary-maker finds himself in unexpected danger . . . Louis's latest TV series about weirdness - the one involving the American far right, home-grown jihadis, and SoundCloud rappers - has been unexpectedly derailed by the onset of a global pandemic. Now he finds himself locked down in a location even more full of pitfalls, surprises and hostile objects of inquiry: his own home. Theroux the Keyhole is the candidly honest and hilarious diary of a man attempting to navigate the perils of work and family life, locked down in Covid World with his wife, two teenagers and a Youtube-addict fiver year-old. Why is his wife so intolerant of his obsession with Joe Wicks's daily workouts? Can he reinvent himself as a podcast host? Why has the internet gone nuts for his old journalistic compadre Joe Exotic? And will his teenage sons ever see him as anything other than 'cringe'? This is Louis at his insightful best, as month-by-month he documents his year of unforeseen new challenges - and wonders why it took a pandemic for him to learn that what really matters in life is right in front of him.

Biography turn novel of Vladislaus III... Dracula Find out how this discredited character was in real life a Jesus Christ worshiper and a truly Christian Knight who defended until his last brief and with passion his faith. Live his real history, his environment, family, passions, loves, prisons and his brave and fierce fight against oppressors of his beloved people. Attend comfortably and with no risks to cruel, savages, fierce, inhuman, violently and justice impalements; and same as Wallachians... enjoy them Find out the motif by one of his best friends, the Hungary King Matthias Corvinus betray him with the help of the Catholic Church monks and his bitter enemy Emperor of the Roman Empire Frederick III, they imprison him 12 years; meanwhile, with the help of the newly imprint they publish the book HISTORY OF A BLOODTHIRSTY AND CRAZY MAN CALLED DRACULA OF WALLACHIA turning him into the meanest and cruel man in history, assuring he overcome in perversion to the most savages roman emperors. In 1897 a man of theater, based in this book, in THE POLIDORI VAMPIRE and some similar, he wrote the terror novel DRACULA, transforming him from a monster to a bloodthirsty vampire. What is the Christians Church debt to Dracula...? And how they can maybe sell of Does Jesus Christ owe his divinity to Dracula in Occident...? Said it in other way: Is Jesus Christ God in Occident thanking Dracula? The documented deeds are the history's voice in the history acquis of humanity; after knowing them, you become in judge and offer the verdict, is Dracula the holiest Saint in Christendom; or is only a bloodthirsty vampire... your sentence will shock you

"Gene, you are going to go places you never dreamt of seeing and you will minister to people you never could imagine you would reach. Don't be afraid. I will be your seal of approval and, as long as you yield to My will, I will be with you. " This was the word given to an unlikely recipient, a self conscious young boy who was awaiting such a word to bring direction to his future. That prophetic message would begin a journey which has spanned over forty years and taken him from storefront churches and concert halls in the sixties, as part of one of America's first integrated Gospel groups, to ministry opportunities (to this day) both in the United States and abroad. Within the pages of this book, Gene, chronicles that journey in a frank, intimate and inspiring manner. He shares as an encouragement to his readers, the way God took a willing ordinary vessel and used it in unimaginable ways.