"An expedition into the troubled soul of one of the world's greatest songwriters."-- Haaretz "A fascinating and intense account of Leonard Cohen's time in Israel during the 19-day Yom Kippur War of 1973. A must for any Leonard Cohen completist."--Suzanne Vega A Vanity Fair Best Book of 2022 * Mosaic Magazine Best Book of 2022 The untold story of Leonard Cohen's concert tour to the front lines of the Yom Kippur War, including never-before-seen selections from an unfinished manuscript by Cohen and rare photographs In October 1973, the poet and singer Leonard Cohen--thirty-nine years old, famous, unhappy, and at a creative dead end--traveled to the chaos and bloodshed of the Sinai desert when Egypt attacked Israel on the Jewish high holiday of Yom Kippur. Moving around the front with a group of local musicians, Cohen sang for hundreds of young soldiers, men and women at the worst moment of their lives. Those who survived never forgot the experience. And the war transformed Cohen, reigniting his creativity and inspiring him to compose some of his most memorable songs. Who by Fire provides a riveting account of those weeks in the Sinai, drawing on Cohen's previously unpublished writing and original reporting to create a kaleidoscopic depiction of a harrowing, existential moment for both a young country at war and a singer at a crossroads.

" And so begins the adventure of J.J. Smith, the keeper of the records for The Book of Records, and ordinary man searching for the extraordinary. He has verified the longest continuous kiss, the lenghiest single unbroken apple peel, the furthest flight of a champagne cork"... "But J.J. has a problem: his boss says his records are getting dull. Either he comes up with something special, or he's fired." - front inside dustcover.

Kenneth Turan brings to life the extraordinary partnership of Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg and their role in creating the film industry as we know it "Sharply observant."--Farran Smith Nehme, Wall Street Journal A New Yorker Best Book of the Year One was a tough junkman's son, the other a cosseted mama's boy, but they dreamed the same mighty dream: that the right movies could make a profit and change both the culture and individual lives. Sharing a religion and an evangelical zeal for film, Louis B. Mayer (1884-1957) and Irving Thalberg (1899-1936) were unlikely partners in one of the most significant collaborations in movie history. Over the course of their decade-long relationship, as key players at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and major players in Hollywood, they joined forces in redefining and mastering the template for the film industry. Mayer, older by more than a dozen years, was the business-minded face of the studio, while Thalberg worked closely with the creative corps, especially writers; together they rarely set a foot wrong. And while Mayer initially viewed Thalberg as the son he never had, the two would go from passionate friends to near enemies before Thalberg's shocking death at the age of thirty-seven. In the first joint biography of the two men in fifty years, film critic Kenneth Turan traces their fraught relationship while examining the complicated history of Jewish identity in Hollywood.

Best-selling author Richard Lederer offers a chorus of praise to those who change our lives one day and one lesson at a time. Readers will meet great teachers throughout history, as well as educators captured in literature, film, and comic strips. Offering compelling proof that teachers really do make a difference in the English, math, history, and science classrooms, A Tribute to Teachers celebrates the most unheralded, exhausting, income-challenged, and ultimately rewarding of all professions.

The Moment of Cubism is one of John Berger’s most important collections of art criticism. Whether considering Vermeer in his studio, Poussin’s poignant meditation on death, or the complexities of Rodin’s sculpture, Berger draws together the threads that bind individual artists to their social and political context. Here Berger argues that Cubism was a moment rather than a movement, one that came and went without the consent of its key figures – Picasso and Braque above all. He makes a case for Cubism’s revolutionary influence. As always, Berger helps us see the world in new ways

In I Never Got a Dinner Red Buttons gives us the details of his long and fascinating life. From his Jewish-immigrant upbringing in New York City, to his glory days as host of his own prime-time television variety show, to his big-screen triumphs alongside such film giants as Marlon Brando, Ginger Rogers, and Jane Fonda, Buttons tackles his personal and professional life with sometimes hilarious, at other times devastating, sincerity.

"In this darkly humorous memoir-in-essays, singer-songwriter Lola Kirke untangles an extraordinary upbringing in a family of eccentric, messy artists and how a girl from the big city went a little bit country." --

The new book from Jimmy Barnes, the award-winning author of the number-one bestsellers Working Class Boy, Working Class Man and Killing Time From larger-than-life adventures to vivid and poignant tales of the imagination, Highways and Byways is a collection of stories taking readers on an enthralling tour (complete with the odd detour) through the raucous, well-lived life of one of this country's most successful and beloved artists. Told with Jimmy's signature verve and flair, and richly coloured by his distinctive voice and wit, Highways and Byways sees him sharing a 1970s Texas stage with a dream line-up of US musicians; flirting with disaster in a Hawaiian high-rise; discovering a life-changing cassette tape; unearthing shattering family secrets in Glasgow; encountering charismatic and not-so-endearing superstars, ghosts of the recent and distant past, superfan traffic cops and shady salesmen; and confronting his own mortality - while pondering the more amusing effects of hospital medication. Charming, personal and poignant, Highways and Byways is a collection that celebrates Jimmy's Scottish heritage, family, friends, music and the adventure of a grand life.

Many people think they know who Ben Elton is – but does he? For the first – and only – time, Ben tackles this question head on in his frank, forthright and entertaining autobiography. Taking a deep dive into his life and times, both private and public, to reveal the true stories behind iconic hits such as The Young Ones , Blackadder and We Will Rock You , his pioneering routines hosting Saturday Live , which birthed a revolution in stand-up comedy, and so much more. Ben recounts his life and uniquely varied career from his Catford childhood and being the BBC’s youngest ever sit com writer at 21 right up to the present day, with yet another hit sit com, Upstart Crow; a surprise late-life BAFTA; and his most critically acclaimed stand-up comedy show to date. Alongside unique insights into his ground-breaking work, Ben talks honestly and hilariously about his personal and professional relationships with two generations of brilliant friends, inspiring contemporaries, occasional foes, and the times in which they all lived. And Ben’s life has been just as challenging, rewarding and funny off screen as it has been on. He unpacks it all with wit, insight and complete honesty. And of course, there’s a ‘little bit of politics’. After living sixty five years on the planet, forty-five of them in public, tickling many funny bones and getting on a respectable number of wicks, Ben has a lot of stories to tell, and he tells them unvarnished and uncensored – because that’s who he is.

"Growing up in Beverly Hills, Diller was neglected by his parents, abused by his brother, and overwhelmed by insecurity. Diller began his career in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency and had one of the most extraordinary ascents in show business history, inventing the TV Movie of the Week for ABC at age twenty-seven, becoming CEO of Paramount Pictures at age thirty-two, and launching the Fox TV network at age forty-four. . . . Diller shares his provocative and at times counterintuitive insights about advancing in a company; becoming a manager and a leader; and the value of confrontation. He describes his relentless quest for good ideas along with what he learned from the bad ones. For the first time, Diller also tells the story of his unconventional and very private personal life, describing relationships with men and the woman he calls his 'unique and complete love,' designer Diane von Furstenberg. Diller writes, 'I would have secrets, but I would tell no lies'"--

To movie audiences, the work of Andrew Marton (born in Hungary in 1904) is memorable: the famous chariot race in Ben-Hur and the meticulously accurate Normandy invasion in The Longest Day are two of his important achievements. But because his credits were very often "Second Unit Director" or "Co-Director," Marton is often not immediately associated with his work. For the first time this oral history reveals just what were Andrew Marton's contributions to the cinema. This extensive interview, filled with great detail on how he did his movie magic, covers Marton's 55-year career. Technically clever, he always retained his humanity, humor, and humaneness.

Covering every aspect of the genre, this book presents more than 400 of the best, most original, historically significant and even worst works of horror from film and literature.

Here, freshly picked from a brilliant connoisseur (and practitioner) of humor, are the finest, funniest writings of everyone who makes us laugh today - from Thurber to Woody Allen, from Benchley to Joseph Heller, from Leacock (Stephen) to Lebowitz (Fran)... the names (they're all on the front of the jacket) tell the story !

"Telling Larry Charles's life story is telling the story of modern American comedy. Over the last 40 years, few comedians have been a part of so many iconic, beloved projects. Larry was one of the original writers and producers on the first five seasons of Seinfeld, directed over 20 episodes each of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage, and served as the showrunner for Mad About You. His film directing credits include Borat, Bruno, and The Dictator, Bill Maher's Religulous, and Bob Dylan's Masked and Anonymous. In Comedy Samurai, Charles pulls back the curtain on the making of his successful projects, offering often sharp, never-before-told anecdotes about Jerry Seinfeld, Sacha Baron Cohen, Bill Maher, Nic Cage, Mel Brooks, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, and Larry David, among many others. Perfect for fans of Seinfeldia and lovers of comedy in general, Larry promises to offer new insights into and about many of the most beloved shows, films, and actors of all time"--

When FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover reported to the Nixon White House in 1972 about the Bureau's surveillance of John Lennon, he began by explaining that Lennon was a "former member of the Beatles singing group." When a copy of this letter arrived in response to Jon Wiener's 1981 Freedom of Information request, the entire text was withheld—along with almost 200 other pages—on the grounds that releasing it would endanger national security. This book tells the story of the author's remarkable fourteen-year court battle to win release of the Lennon files under the Freedom of Information Act in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. With the publication of Gimme Some Truth , 100 key pages of the Lennon FBI file are available—complete and unexpurgated, fully annotated and presented in a "before and after" format. Lennon's file was compiled in 1972, when the war in Vietnam was at its peak, when Nixon was facing reelection, and when the "clever Beatle" was living in New York and joining up with the New Left and the anti-war movement. The Nixon administration's efforts to "neutralize" Lennon are the subject of Lennon's file. The documents are reproduced in facsimile so that readers can see all the classification stamps, marginal notes, blacked out passages and—in some cases—the initials of J. Edgar Hoover. The file includes lengthy reports by confidential informants detailing the daily lives of anti-war activists, memos to the White House, transcripts of TV shows on which Lennon appeared, and a proposal that Lennon be arrested by local police on drug charges. Fascinating, engrossing, at points hilarious and absurd, Gimme Some Truth documents an era when rock music seemed to have real political force and when youth culture challenged the status quo in Washington. It also delineates the ways the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations fought to preserve government secrecy, and highlights the legal strategies adopted by those who have challenged it.

Humorist Amy Krouse Rosenthal's hilarious and nail-on-the-head writing has struck again. Her latest book, The Same Phrase Describes My Marriage and My Breasts, spotlights the lighter side of parenting with a sharp wit reminiscent of the late Erma Bombeck, but with a modern twist. Rosenthal reassures parents that the insanity that comes with raising a child is perfectly normal. It is a delightful book for any parent who has realized that stain-free baby clothes and perfectly behaved children only exist on commercials for Kodak and Downy. Rosenthal's endearing collection of humorous anecdotes and reflections is drawn from her illuminating first years as a mother of three. Being a pregnant working mom means occasionally having a urine specimen hidden in your briefcase for your mid-day checkup. No matter how anal you get, no matter how methodically you put away the toys, the Candyland cards end up in the Lego bin, and Lion King puzzle pieces turn up in your shoes. Daylight savings means that on one Sunday, when it's 7:30 A.M., you still have something like 80 more hours until they go to bed. Forget the instructions of Dr. Spock and open your heart to a woman who proudly survives life with three kids-granted not a single glass from her bridal registry remains intact-and relishes being a mom. At times touching, at other times hysterical, The Same Phrase Describes My Marriage and My Breasts is a must for parents who long ago realized that parenting is just like The Brady Bunch if you eliminate the neatly-wrapped solutions and toss in complete unpredictability and random vomiting.