7 results for "Memoir"

Troublemaker: surviving Hollywood and Scientology

Remini, Leah,Paley, Rebecca
"Leah Remini has never been the type to hold her tongue. That willingness to speak her mind, stand her ground, and rattle the occasional cage has enabled this tough-talking girl from Brooklyn to forge an enduring and successful career in Hollywood. But being a troublemaker has come at a cost. That was never more evident than in 2013, when Remini loudly and publicly broke with the Church of Scientology. Now, in this frank memoir, the former 'King of Queens' star opens up about that experience, revealing the details of her painful split with the church and its controversial practices. Indoctrinated into the church as a child while living with her mother and sister in New York, Remini eventually moved to Los Angeles, where her dreams of becoming an actress and advancing Scientology's causes grew increasingly intertwined. She found the success she'd worked so hard for, and with it a prominent place in the hierarchy of celebrity Scientologists alongside people such as Tom Cruise, Scientology's most high-profile adherent. But when she began to raise questions about some of the church's actions, she found herself a target. In the end, she was declared by the church to be a threat to their organization and therefore a "Suppressive Person," and all of her fellow parishioners --including members of her own family --were told to disconnect from her. Forever. Bold, brash, and bravely confessional, [this book] reveals the hard-won truths of a life lived honestly-- from an author unafraid of the consequences."-- Provided by publisher.
Ballantine Books 2016-09-20 246 pages

Going there

Couric, Katie
From an award-winning American journalist and bestselling author comes a tell-all memoir about breaking boundaries, persevering, and witnessing the reckoning in media. For more than forty years, Katie Couric has been an iconic presence in the media world. In her brutally honest, hilarious, heartbreaking memoir, she reveals what was going on behind the scenes of her sometimes tumultuous personal and professional life - a story she's never shared, until now. Of the medium she loves, the one that made her a household name, she says, Television can put you in a box; the flat-screen can flatten. On TV, you are larger than life but smaller, too. It is not the whole story, and it is not the whole me. This book is. Beginning in early childhood, Couric was inspired by her journalist father to pursue the career he loved but couldn't afford to stay in. Balancing her vivacious, outgoing personality with her desire to be taken seriously, she overcame every obstacle in her way: insecurity, an eating disorder, being typecast, sexism . . . challenges, and how she dealt with them, setting the tone for the rest of her career. Couric talks candidly about adjusting to sudden fame after her astonishing rise to co-anchor of the TODAY show, and guides us through the most momentous events and news stories of the era, to which she had a front-row seat: Rodney King, Anita Hill, Columbine, the death of Princess Diana, 9/11, the Iraq War . . . In every instance, she relentlessly pursued the facts, ruffling more than a few feathers along the way. She also recalls in vivid and sometimes lurid detail the intense pressure on female anchors to snag the latest get --often sensational tabloid stories like Jon Benet Ramsey, Tonya Harding, and OJ Simpson. Couric's position as one of the leading lights of her profession was shadowed by the shock and trauma of losing her husband to stage 4 colon cancer when he was just 42, leaving her a widow and single mom to two daughters, 6 and 2. The death of her sister Emily, just three years later, brought yet more trauma--and an unwavering commitment to cancer awareness and research, one of her proudest accomplishments. Couric is unsparing in the details of her historic move to the anchor chair at the CBS Evening News--a world rife with sexism and misogyny. Her welcome was even more hostile at 60 Minutes, an unrepentant boys club that engaged in outright hazing of even the most established women. In the wake of the MeToo movement, Couric shares her clear-eyed reckoning with gender inequality and predatory behavior in the workplace, and downfall of Matt Lauer--a colleague she had trusted and respected for more than a decade. Couric also talks about the challenge of finding love again, with all the hilarity, false-starts, and drama that search entailed, before finding her midlife Mr. Right. Something she has never discussed publicly--why her second marriage almost didn't happen. If you thought you knew Katie Couric, think again. Going There is the fast-paced, emotional, riveting story of a thoroughly modern woman, whose journey took her from humble origins to superstardom. In these pages, you will find a friend, a confidante, a role model, a survivor whose lessons about life will enrich your own.
Back Bay Books/Little, Brown and Company 2022-06-28 508 pages

How do you want me?

Wax, Ruby
The autumn 2002 publication of Ruby Wax's memoirs was greeted with shock - and delighted acclaim. In the tradition of the best memoirs, such as The Moon's a Balloon and Billy , Ruby Wax revealed, surprised and captured the public more than was ever predicted. How Do You Want Me? was critically acclaimed as brutally honest, vivid and gripping. Ruby Wax's unflinching revelation of a childhood poisoned, and a youth spoiled, culminates in a moving account of her breakdown and recovery. But How Do You Want Me? is also funny, rude and irreverent. It's unusually honest about fame and celebrity and happy to burst ego-balloons and golden myths. A brilliantly fast, furious and surprising read from the inimitable Ruby Wax.
Ebury Press 2020-05-26 241 pages

The game show king: a confession

Barris, Chuck
Chuck Barris reinvented television. And when he was through, he moved to the south of France. This memoir is about becoming king of the game show and why Peter Mayle got it all wrong. So how does a boy from south Philadelphia, the fellow who created the Dating Game, the Newlywed Game, and the Gong Show find happiness on the Cote d' Azur - especially if he fractures the language, is homesick for football, and knows in his heart of hearts that he's got at least one more prime-time hit in him struggling for air time? Painfully candid, remarkably informative, and alive with spark, wit, and intelligence, this chronicle may well be the funniest confession ever written. The end began a few years ago with the Popsicle Twins, an act performed by a pair of nubile Valley Girls on the Gong Show that almost shut down NBC. Chuck Barris was not only the creator and producer of the program, he was also its host, and therefore, the man responsible. He had, finally, gone too far. So, he sold Chuck Barris Productions and decamped with his beautiful wife to the hills above Saint-Tropez. He soon had a villa, a classic speedboat, lots of unwanted guests, and was being kicked toward the conclusion that the charm of the country would be considerably enhanced if one could only figure out how to get rid of the French people. The new beginning ended when Chuck Barris realized that having all your dreams come true isn't what it's cracked up to be. So, back to Los Angeles and the real dream-makers. Can't a guy who wrote a rock and roll standard, a guy who made himself into a champion boule player make the legend live again? The answer to that, and to why Bill Clinton would rather talk with Nicole Kidman (Mrs. TomCruise), can be found in these pages, a confession that would make St. Augustine and Jean-Jacques Rousseau envious. But before then, in 1972, Chuck Barris wrote a love story (You and Me Babe, which spent seven weeks on the New York Times best-seller list). At that time he was the most successful television producer in America. Now he's older, smarter, and a lot richer, and what he admits to here could only come from someone very much his own man.
Carroll & Graf 1993 301 pages

I thought he was dead: a spiritual memoir

Benmergui, Ralph
"When Ralph Benmergui discovered he was literally hours away from a deadly heart attack he realized his life had changed. He was entering the autumn of his life, as he saw it, and he was being dragged into it by his heels. What follows this awakening is a funny, profound and generous look at where he has come from - from his childhood as the youngest son of Moroccan immigrants, to his experiences during the early years of YukYuks, to his long and storied career at CBC, along with much more - to where he is now, with stents in his arteries, having survived two bouts of cancer, hosting a much-loved podcast and a with practice in Hashpa'ah, Jewish Spiritual Direction. Along the way Benmergui looks critically at what it means to grow old in our society and challenges the reader to push against the stereotypes, to find a new purpose, and to claim the title and role of elder in a society that demands we strive to stay 'forever young.'"--
James Street North Books 2021 289 pages