5053 results for "Biography"

Alice's book: how the Nazis stole my grandmother's cookbook

Urbach, Karina
"What happened to the books that were too valuable to burn? Alice Urbach had her own cooking school in Vienna, but in 1938 she was forced to flee to England, like so many others. Her younger son was imprisoned in Dachau, and her older son, having emigrated to the United States, became an intelligence officer in the struggle against the Nazis. Returning to the ruins of Vienna in the late 1940s, she discovers that her bestselling cookbook has been published under someone else's name. Now, eighty years later, the historian Karina Urbach - Alice's granddaughter - sets out to uncover the truth behind the stolen cookbook, and tells the story of a family torn apart by the Nazi regime, of a woman who, with her unwavering passion for cooking, survived the horror and losses of the Holocaust to begin a new life in America. Impeccably researched and incredibly moving, Alice's Book sheds light on an untold chapter in the history of Nazi crimes against Jewish authors"--Publisher's description.
Maclehose Press/Quercus 2022 413 pages

25 questions for a Jewish mother

Gold, Judy,Ryan, Kate Moira
"There's a little Jewish mother in every mother," as comedienne Judy Gold reveals in her achingly hilarious and poignant book For a Jewish girl who remembers the first book ever read to her as a child was the pop-up version of The Diary of Anne Frank, learning how to be a Jewish mother who wasnt a carbon copy of HER Jewish mother wasnt easy. Here, Emmy Awardwinning comedienne Judy Gold asks, "Are there any Jewish mothers out there like me, or are they all, G-d forbid, like my mother" In 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother, she incorporates her own adventures in Jewish motherdom and her memories of growing up Jewish in suburban New Jersey -- communicating with her mother by putting Ann Landers articles on the fridge ("Dear Ann, My mother wont let me walk alone to school and Im 16! Please help." "Dear Ann, The crossing guard drinks. Please help.") -- with the voices of the fifty other Jewish mothers, she and her co-author, Kathleen Moira Ryan, interviewed. They asked homemakers, lawyers, Holocaust survivors twenty-five questions, including: --Who's your favorite Jewish mother (Judy's is Barbra Streisand.)? --How many times a day do you talk to your children or mother (for Judy, it's anywhere from one to the high double digits)? --Are Jewish mothers really more paranoid (or, "Why do I have to write an entire itinerary with names, addresses, and phone numbers every time I leave the house")? And so on. The culmination of these extraordinary stories confirms that there is ultimately something strong, courageous, and loving in every Jewish mother -- a hopeful -- and very funny -- message to mothers and their children everywhere.
Voice/Hyperion 2007-04-25 226 pages

A circle of sisters: Alice Kipling, Georgiana Burne-Jones, Agnes Poynter and Louisa Baldwin

Flanders, Judith
The Macdonald sisters -- Alice, Georgiana, Agnes and Louisa -- started life among the ranks of the lower-middle classes, with little prospect of social advancement. But as wives and mothers they made a single family of the poet Rudyard Kipling, the Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones, Edward Poynter, President of the Royal Academy, and the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin. In telling their remarkable story, Judith Flanders displays the fluidity of Victorian society, and explores the life of the family in the 19th century.
Penguin 2002-05-02 320 pages

Colored lights: forty years of words and music, show biz, collaboration, and all that jazz

Kander, John
The autobiography, in dialogue, of the composer and lyricist of Chicago and Cabaret as well as a wise and witty memoir of forty years of American musicals. Composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb are the longest-running composer-lyricist team in Broadway history, having first joined forces in 1962. The creators of such groundbreaking musicals as Chicago , Cabaret , and Kiss of the Spider Woman , Kander and Ebb have helped to push American musical theater in a more daring direction, both musically and dramatically. Their impact on individual performers has been great as well, starting with the handpicked star of their first musical: an untested nineteen-year-old named Liza Minnelli (who writes of this experience in her introduction). Colored Lights covers the major shows of Kander and Ebb's partnership, from Flora, The Red Menace (starring a then-unknown Liza) to The Visit , due to open on Broadway in 2004. The pages and musicals in between reveal what has made theirs such a long-lived musical partnership--and one so valued by the artists they have worked with. In recounting the genesis and controversies of Cabaret , reflecting on the superstar mentality of such artist as Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand, and recalling their work with Bob Fosse on Chicago (as well as their views on the blockbuster 2002 film), John Kander and Fred Ebb provide a history not only of their own lives but also of the American musical theater of the late twentieth century. The autobiography, in dialogue, of the composer and lyricist of Chicago and Cabaret as well as a wise and witty memoir of forty years of American musicals. Composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb are the longest-running composer-lyricist team in Broadway history, having first joined forces in 1962. The creators of such groundbreaking musicals as Chicago , Cabaret , and Kiss of the Spider Woman , Kander and Ebb have helped to push American musical theater in a more daring direction, both musically and dramatically. Their impact on individual performers has been great as well, starting with the handpicked star of their first musical: an untested nineteen-year-old named Liza Minnelli (who writes of this experience in her introduction). Colored Lights covers the major shows of Kander and Ebb's partnership, from Flora, The Red Menace (starring a then-unknown Liza) to The Visit , due to open on Broadway in 2004. The pages and musicals in between reveal what has made theirs such a long-lived musical partnership--and one so valued by the artists they have worked with. In recounting the genesis and controversies of Cabaret , reflecting on the superstar mentality of such artist as Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand, and recalling their work with Bob Fosse on Chicago (as well as their views on the blockbuster 2002 film), John Kander and Fred Ebb provide a history not only of their own lives but also of the American musical theater of the late twentieth century.
Faber and Faber 2003 231 pages

The party's over now. Reminiscences of the fifties, New York's artists, writers, musicians, and their friends

Gruen, John
"Such painters as Larry Rivers, Elaine de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, and Marisol, critics Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg, composers Virgil Thomson and Ned Rorem, writers such as Jack Gelber and John Ashbery, and art dealers Sidney Janis and Betty Parsons all describe in ... interviews how they 'made the scene,' with whom, and why. Poet Bill Berkson talks about his close friend Frank O'Hara, Lee Krasner recalls her life with Jackson Pollock, and the late William Flanagan, composer and music critic, describes the early days of Edward Albee."
Viking Press 1972-02-14 282 pages

Unspeakable: the autobiography

Bercow, John
When Bercow retired as Speaker of the House of Commons on 31st October, he had become one of the most recognisable and iconoclastic figures in British politics, and had created a vacancy of huge importance. As Speaker since 2009 he had a ringside seat during one of the most febrile periods in modern British history, presiding over the Commons while it had to contend with key issues such as austerity in the light of the financial crisis; the coalition government between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats; and of course the most intractable problem of all, how to deliver on the 2016 referendum decision that Britain should leave the EU.
Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2021 438 pages

Unspeakable: the autobiography

Bercow, John
When Bercow retired as Speaker of the House of Commons on 31st October, he had become one of the most recognisable and iconoclastic figures in British politics, and had created a vacancy of huge importance. As Speaker since 2009 he had a ringside seat during one of the most febrile periods in modern British history, presiding over the Commons while it had to contend with key issues such as austerity in the light of the financial crisis; the coalition government between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats; and of course the most intractable problem of all, how to deliver on the 2016 referendum decision that Britain should leave the EU.
Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2021 451 pages

Tiny ladies in shiny pants: based on a true story

Soloway, Jill
From the creator and director of Transparent and Emmy-nominated writer for Six Feet Under comes a hilarious and unforgettable memoir. When Jill Soloway was just thirteen, she and her best friend donned the tightest satin pants they could find, poufed up their hair and squeezed into Candies heels, then headed to downtown Chicago in search of their one-and-only true loves forever: the members of whichever rock band was touring through town. Never mind that both girls still had braces, coke-bottle-thick glasses and had only just bought their first bras—they were fabulous, they felt beautiful, they were tiny ladies in shiny pants . Now that Jill is all grown up and a successful writer and producer, she can look back on her tiny self and share her shiny tales with fondness, absurdity, and obsessive-compulsive attention to even the most embarrassing details. From the highly personal (conflating her own loss of virginity and the Kobe Bryant accusations), to the political (what she has in common with Monica and Chandra), to the outrageously Los Angelean (why women wear huge diamonds and what they must do to get them), Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants is a genre-defying combination of personal essay and memoir, or a hilarious, unruly and unapologetic evaluation of society, religion, sex, love, and—best of all—Jill.
Free Press 2006-10-17 258 pages

When I stop talking, you'll know I'm dead: useful stories from a persuasive man

Weintraub, Jerry
Here is the story of Jerry Weintraub: the self-made, Brooklyn-born, Bronx-raised impresario, Hollywood producer, legendary deal maker, and friend of politicians and stars. No matter where nature has placed him--the club rooms of Brooklyn, the Mafia dives of New York's Lower East Side, the wilds of Alaska, or the hills of Hollywood, with Elvis or Sinatra, Robert Altman or George Clooney--he has found a way to put on a show and sell tickets at the door. "All life was a theater and I wanted to put it up on a stage," he writes. "I wanted to set the world under a marquee that read: 'Jerry Weintraub Presents.'" With wit, wisdom, and the cool confidence that has colored his remarkable career, Jerry chronicles a quintessentially American journey, one marked by luck, love, and improvisation. The stories he tells and the lessons we learn are essential, not just for those who love movies and music, but for businessmen, entrepreneurs, artists--everyone.--From publisher description.
Twelve 2010-04-07 291 pages

Not funny: essays on life, comedy, culture, et cetera

Friedman, Jena
"NOT FUNNY is a FUNNY, whipsmart essay collection on gender, politics, the entertainment industry, and work. Jena Friedman is an acclaimed writer and performer, with multiple credits to her name in the fields of tv comedy (The Daily Show and The Late Show with David Letterman), film (an Academy Award nomination for writing on Sacha Baron Cohen's 2020 blockbuster Borat Subsequent Moviefilm), humor writing (The New Yorker), and live performance. More recently, her skill for keen social observation is seen in her acclaimed tv series Indefensible-a comedic takedown of the true-crime tv craze. With incisive cultural criticism, acerbic wit, and an interdisciplinary mind, Jena sheds light on her life as a millennial woman, treated as too smart, brash, and fearless for her own good through this collection of essays. We see her at her highest highs and lowest lows. We see her struggle to accept mistreatment in exchange for career advancement. We see her cope with "cancel culture" first-hand, as mentors she trusts are called to account for misdeeds she herself did not witness. We watch her unpack the roots of humor, and her lifelong goal to change minds through political incitement. And we see a bright-lights big-city version of a classic young women's career struggle; an immensely talented creative who refuses to soften herself for others. In her debut essay collection NOT FUNNY, Friedman fearlessly jousts with a label so often placed on women like her-perceptive, opinionated, ready to call out hypocrisy wherever she finds it, and... funny! Friedman pushes just past the edge of comfort on matters of gender, politics, decency, and class: Why do we look to celebrities to decide whether other celebrities deserve forgiveness? Why don't we ask men whether their careers might get in the way of starting a family? What does it mean to still hold admiration for a mentor you learn in hindsight to have been a predator? And what's so wrong with telling a dead baby joke? As she notes, one of the first jokes in recorded history was just that. Friedman challenges us to reconsider why we do and do not laugh, with whom we choose to empathize, and when we decide to grant attention in a world that demands we laugh to keep from crying. At once brainy, insightful, and absurd, NOT FUNNY reclaims power using the sharpest tool in bold satirist's arsenal: humor"--
One Signal publishers/Atria 2023-04-18 239 pages