Download or read book The Torch Singer Book Two written by Robert Westbrook and published by Swan's Nest Canada. This book was released on 2014-09-15 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An Almost Perfect Ending" is book two in "The Torch Singer" trilogy, Robert Westbrook's epic Hollywood Thriller series. ""'An Almost Perfect Ending' ranks alongside the best Hollywood noir. It takes the reader on a journey which leads relentlessly towards a final, fatal conclusion."" "Daily Mail" "Book Two, An Almost Perfect Ending" opens with sultry heroine Sonya Saint-Amant at the height of her career-a glittering, triumphant appearance at Ciro's, the clubhouse for the stars in 1950s Hollywood where everyone wants to claim her as their friend. But in 1954, popular music is undergoing a revolution in which all but the biggest stars will be cast aside. With her looks and popularity fading, Sonya believes she has come up with the perfect plan to save her career...if only she can maneuver a tricky path through the many dangers that beset her, a vortex of politics, sex, blackmail, and murder... ""Pacy and unstoppable, the second book in the "The Torch Singer" series takes over where the first left off, grabbing your wrist, tugging you along, refusing to let go."" "Evening Standard" ""'The Torch Singer' exposes the fragility of fame. The higher the edifice the greater the risk that some element of deep-set animal emotion or human baseness will bring everything crashing down...and watching it happen is not just compulsive-it's addictive and unmissable."" "Event Magazine" ""Robert Westbrook is a born storyteller and a bit of a magician."" Ally Sheedy Ambition, blackmail, murder..."THE TORCH SINGER" is an unforgettable journey through the shadowlands of fame.
Download or read book The Torch Singer Book Two An Almost Perfect Ending written by Robert Westbrook and published by Swan's Nest Canada. This book was released on 2014-09-14 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Book Two in Robert Westbrook's epic "Hollywood Noir" Torch Singer Thriller series. “An Almost Perfect Ending ranks alongside the best Hollywood noir. It takes the reader on a journey which leads relentlessly towards a final, fatal conclusion.” Daily Mail Book Two, An Almost Perfect Ending opens with sultry heroine Sonya Saint-Amant at the height of her career—a glittering, triumphant appearance at Ciro’s, the clubhouse for the stars in 1950s Hollywood where everyone wants to claim her as their friend. But in 1954, popular music is undergoing a revolution in which all but the biggest stars will be cast aside. With her looks and popularity fading, Sonya believes she has come up with the perfect plan to save her career . . . if only she can maneuver a tricky path through the many dangers that beset her, a vortex of politics, sex, blackmail, and murder . . . “Pacy and unstoppable, the second book in the The Torch Singer series takes over where the first left off, grabbing your wrist, tugging you along, refusing to let go.” Evening Standard “The Torch Singer exposes the fragility of fame. The higher the edifice the greater the risk that some element of deep-set animal emotion or human baseness will bring everything crashing down . . . and watching it happen is not just compulsive—it’s addictive and unmissable.” Event Magazine “Robert Westbrook is a born storyteller and a bit of a magician.” Ally Sheedy Ambition, blackmail, murder . . . THE TORCH SINGER is an unforgettable journey through the shadowlands of fame.
Download or read book An Almost Perfect Ending written by Robert Westbrook and published by Speaking Volumes. This book was released on with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robert Westbrook Author of the Howard Moon Deer Mysteries An Almost Perfect Ending, Book Two, in The Torch Singer trilogy, Robert Westbrook's epic Hollywood Mystery series. "An Almost Perfect Ending ranks alongside the best Hollywood noir. It takes the reader on a journey which leads relentlessly towards a final, fatal conclusion." An Almost Perfect Ending opens with sultry heroine Sonya Saint-Amant at the height of her career—a glittering, triumphant appearance at Ciro’s, the clubhouse for the stars in 1950’s Hollywood where everyone wants to claim her as their friend. But in 1954, popular music is undergoing a revolution in which all but the biggest stars will be cast aside. With her looks and popularity fading, Sonya believes she has come up with the perfect plan to save her career . . . if only she can maneuver a tricky path through the many dangers that beset her, a vortex of politics, sex, blackmail, and murder. . . "Pacy and unstoppable, the second book in the The Torch Singer series takes over where the first left off, grabbing your wrist, tugging you along, refusing to let go." —Evening Standard "The Torch Singer exposes the fragility of fame. The higher the edifice the greater the risk that some element of deep-set animal emotion or human baseness will bring everything crashing down . . . and watching it happen is not just compulsive—it's addictive and unmissable." —Evening Magazine "Robert Westbrook is a born storyteller and a bit of a magician." —Ally Sheedy Ambition, blackmail, murder . . . THE TORCH SINGER is an unforgettable journey through the shadowlands of fame.
Download or read book An Overnight Sensation written by Robert Westbrook and published by Speaking Volumes. This book was released on with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Author of the Howard Moon Deer Mysteries “A brilliant, engaging and wholly unpredictable story of courage, survival and self-reinvention . . . I was completely taken by it . . .Interesting, complicated and wholly engaging characters. [Westbrook] is obviously a born storyteller and a bit of a magician.”–Ally Sheedy TORCH SINGER is an epic drama of Hollywood in its Golden Age: the rise and fall of Sonya Saint-Amant, a singer who schemes her way to fame and riches, breaking all the rules. An Overnight Sensation, Book One, starts in 1956 with a scandalous love nest murder, then rewinds to Sonya at the age of 17 in 1940, a dreamy girl in the Royal Box of the Krakow Opera. When Sonya’s mother is hanged by the Nazis, she must grow up quickly. Using her wits and beauty, Sonya escapes Poland with the help of partisan fighters and makes her way to London during the Blitz. In 1943, she finagles a passage to America on the Mauretania, a dangerous North Atlantic crossing on a troop ship full of men. As the ship steams north into Arctic waters evading enemy submarines, Sonya almost wins at a high-stakes game of love . . . only to arrive in New York alone and desperate, determined to outwit fortune and become a star. An Overnight Sensation is a dark comedy of manners: a tale of murder, blackmail, fortune-hunters and dreamers, and the price paid for living large.
Download or read book An Almost Perfect Ending written by Robert Westbrook and published by Speaking Volumes. This book was released on 2021-05-28 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Author of the Howard Moon Deer Mysteries An Almost Perfect Ending, Book Two, in The Torch Singer trilogy, Robert Westbrook's epic Hollywood Mystery series. "An Almost Perfect Ending ranks alongside the best Hollywood noir. It takes the reader on a journey which leads relentlessly towards a final, fatal conclusion." An Almost Perfect Ending opens with sultry heroine Sonya Saint-Amant at the height of her career-a glittering, triumphant appearance at Ciro's, the clubhouse for the stars in 1950's Hollywood where everyone wants to claim her as their friend. But in 1954, popular music is undergoing a revolution in which all but the biggest stars will be cast aside. With her looks and popularity fading, Sonya believes she has come up with the perfect plan to save her career . . . if only she can maneuver a tricky path through the many dangers that beset her, a vortex of politics, sex, blackmail, and murder. . . "Pacy and unstoppable, the second book in the The Torch Singer series takes over where the first left off, grabbing your wrist, tugging you along, refusing to let go." -Evening Standard "The Torch Singer exposes the fragility of fame. The higher the edifice the greater the risk that some element of deep-set animal emotion or human baseness will bring everything crashing down . . . and watching it happen is not just compulsive-it's addictive and unmissable." -Evening Magazine "Robert Westbrook is a born storyteller and a bit of a magician." -Ally Sheedy Ambition, blackmail, murder . . . THE TORCH SINGER is an unforgettable journey through the shadowlands of fame.
Download or read book The Torch Singer Book One written by Robert Westbrook and published by Swan's Nest Canada. This book was released on 2014-08-30 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Robert Westbrook's novel strips the gilt off the Hollywood Golden Age to reveal the seamier underside. "'The Torch Singer'" begins with an ending, a scene of murder and mayhem on St. Valentine's Night in 1956 Beverly Hills and unravels the many and various threads of the lives and careers that took them there." "Time Out" ""The Torch Singer"" is a sweeping historical saga that takes the reader from the horrors of Nazi-occupied Poland to the glittery excesses of Hollywood in the 1940s and 50s: the rise and fall of Sonya Saint-Amant, a singer who schemes her way to fame and glory breaking all the rules. Book One, ""An Overnight Sensation"," charts the rise of Sonya from the age of 17 in 1940, a girl dreaming of being an understudy at the Krakow Opera when Nazis raid the theater. After witnessing the summary execution of her mother by German soldiers she escapes Poland and makes her way to London. Using guile and beauty, she finds passage to America in 1943 on the ""Mauretania"," a dangerous North Atlantic crossing on a troop ship full of men. As the ship steams north into Arctic waters evading enemy submarines, Sonya almost wins at a high-stakes game of love...only to arrive in New York alone and desperate but determined to become a star. "A masterpiece of storytelling. A book of constant intrigue which from the outset creates that delicious paradox of it being immediately clear that nothing is ever quite as it seems." "Daily Mail" "Robert Westbrook is a born storyteller and a bit of a magician." Ally Sheedy ""The Torch Singer"" is an unforgettable journey through the shadowlands of fame.
Download or read book An End to Suffering written by Pankaj Mishra and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2010-08-24 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An End to Suffering is a deeply original and provocative book about the Buddha's life and his influence throughout history, told in the form of the author's search to understand the Buddha's relevance in a world where class oppression and religious violence are rife, and where poverty and terrorism cast a long, constant shadow. Mishra describes his restless journeys into India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, among Islamists and the emerging Hindu middle class, looking for this most enigmatic of religious figures, exploring the myths and places of the Buddha's life, and discussing Western explorers' "discovery" of Buddhism in the nineteenth century. He also considers the impact of Buddhist ideas on such modern politicians as Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. As he reflects on his travels and on his own past, Mishra shows how the Buddha wrestled with problems of personal identity, alienation, and suffering in his own, no less bewildering, times. In the process Mishra discovers the living meaning of the Buddha's teaching, in the world and for himself. The result is the most three-dimensional, convincing book on the Buddha that we have.
Download or read book The Prophets written by Robert Jones, Jr. and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-01-05 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Best Book of the Year NPR • The Washington Post • Boston Globe • TIME • USA Today • Entertainment Weekly • Real Simple • Parade • Buzzfeed • Electric Literature • LitHub • BookRiot • PopSugar • Goop • Library Journal • BookBub • KCRW • Finalist for the National Book Award • One of the New York Times Notable Books of the Year • One of the New York Times Best Historical Fiction of the Year • Instant New York Times Bestseller A singular and stunning debut novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation, the refuge they find in each other, and a betrayal that threatens their existence. Isaiah was Samuel's and Samuel was Isaiah's. That was the way it was since the beginning, and the way it was to be until the end. In the barn they tended to the animals, but also to each other, transforming the hollowed-out shed into a place of human refuge, a source of intimacy and hope in a world ruled by vicious masters. But when an older man—a fellow slave—seeks to gain favor by preaching the master's gospel on the plantation, the enslaved begin to turn on their own. Isaiah and Samuel's love, which was once so simple, is seen as sinful and a clear danger to the plantation's harmony. With a lyricism reminiscent of Toni Morrison, Robert Jones, Jr., fiercely summons the voices of slaver and enslaved alike, from Isaiah and Samuel to the calculating slave master to the long line of women that surround them, women who have carried the soul of the plantation on their shoulders. As tensions build and the weight of centuries—of ancestors and future generations to come—culminates in a climactic reckoning, The Prophets fearlessly reveals the pain and suffering of inheritance, but is also shot through with hope, beauty, and truth, portraying the enormous, heroic power of love.
Download or read book Acetylene Torch Songs written by Sue William Silverman and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2024 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At times writers—from the unpublished to jaded lifers—need a fire lit under them to pursue the complex work of self-exploration. Acetylene Torch Songs provides that spark for memoirists and essayists seeking mentor-based instruction and inspiration. Drawing on twenty-five years of teaching and mentoring writers, Sue William Silverman stresses practice over theory. She encourages craftiness as well as craft and urges writers to embark on emotional quests in pursuit of their art. Acetylene Torch Songs uniquely illustrates how the writer’s imaginative spirit comes alive on the page through metaphor, literary masks, sensory memories, voice, obsessions, and more. This holistic approach to writing emphasizes how the creative process brings together the heart, mind, and senses to illuminate the human condition through language. Featuring a personal essay in each chapter, Silverman uses her own work to model a specific concept or approach, demonstrating how obsessions, secrets, and memories can burn on the page. Through guided prompts, worksheets, checklists, publishing advice, personal essays, and strategies, Silverman encourages writers to find the confidence and courage to write stories that reach beyond the page through their intimacy, social engagement, and honesty.
Download or read book The Ruins written by Scott Smith and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2006-07-18 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Trapped in the Mexican jungle, a group of friends stumble upon a creeping horror unlike anything they could ever imagine in "the best horror novel of the new century" (Stephen King). Also a major motion picture! Two young couples are on a lazy Mexican vacation—sun-drenched days, drunken nights, making friends with fellow tourists. When the brother of one of those friends disappears, they decide to venture into the jungle to look for him. What started out as a fun day-trip slowly spirals into a nightmare when they find an ancient ruins site ... and the terrifying presence that lurks there. "The Ruins does for Mexican vacations what Jaws did for New England beaches.” —Entertainment Weekly “Smith’s nail-biting tension is a pleasure all its own.... This stuff isn’t for the faint of heart.” —New York Post “A story so scary you may never want to go on vacation, or dig around in your garden, again.” —USA Today
Download or read book Blackout written by Sarah Hepola and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2015-06-23 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A memoir of unblinking honesty and poignant, laugh-out-loud humor, Blackout is the story of a woman stumbling into a new kind of adventure -- the sober life she never wanted. For Sarah Hepola, alcohol was "the gasoline of all adventure." She spent her evenings at cocktail parties and dark bars where she proudly stayed till last call. Drinking felt like freedom, part of her birthright as a strong, enlightened twenty-first-century woman. But there was a price. She often blacked out, waking up with a blank space where four hours should be. Mornings became detective work on her own life. What did I say last night? How did I meet that guy? She apologized for things she couldn't remember doing, as though she were cleaning up after an evil twin. Publicly, she covered her shame with self-deprecating jokes, and her career flourished, but as the blackouts accumulated, she could no longer avoid a sinking truth. The fuel she thought she needed was draining her spirit instead. A memoir of unblinking honesty and poignant, laugh-out-loud humor, Blackout is the story of a woman stumbling into a new kind of adventure -- the sober life she never wanted. Shining a light into her blackouts, she discovers the person she buried, as well as the confidence, intimacy, and creativity she once believed came only from a bottle. Her tale will resonate with anyone who has been forced to reinvent or struggled in the face of necessary change. It's about giving up the thing you cherish most -- but getting yourself back in return.
Download or read book The Beginning of Infinity written by David Deutsch and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2011-03-31 with total page 571 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Science has never had an advocate quite like David Deutsch ... A computational physicist on a par with his touchstones Alan Turing and Richard Feynman, and a philosopher in the line of his greatest hero, Karl Popper. His arguments are so clear that to read him is to experience the thrill of the highest level of discourse available on this planet and to understand it' Peter Forbes, Independent In our search for truth, how far have we advanced? This uniquely human quest for good explanations has driven amazing improvements in everything from scientific understanding and technology to politics, moral values and human welfare. But will progress end, either in catastrophe or completion - or will it continue infinitely? In this profound and seminal book, David Deutsch explores the furthest reaches of our current understanding, taking in the Infinity Hotel, supernovae and the nature of optimism, to instill in all of us a wonder at what we have achieved - and the fact that this is only the beginning of humanity's infinite possibility. 'This is Deutsch at his most ambitious, seeking to understand the implications of our scientific explanations of the world ... I enthusiastically recommend this rich, wide-ranging and elegantly written exposition of the unique insights of one of our most original intellectuals' Michael Berry, Times Higher Education Supplement 'Bold ... profound ... provocative and persuasive' Economist 'David Deutsch may well go down in history as one of the great scientists of our age' Scotsman
Download or read book Daring to Hope written by Katie Davis Majors and published by Multnomah. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times bestseller How do you hold on to hope when you don’t get the ending you asked for? When Katie Davis Majors moved to Uganda, accidentally founded a booming organization, and later became the mother of thirteen girls through the miracle of adoption, she determined to weave her life together with the people she desired to serve. But joy often gave way to sorrow as she invested her heart fully in walking alongside people in the grip of poverty, addiction, desperation, and disease. After unexpected tragedy shook her family, for the first time Katie began to wonder, Is God really good? Does He really love us? When she turned to Him with her questions, God spoke truth to her heart and drew her even deeper into relationship with Him. Daring to Hope is an invitation to cling to the God of the impossible—the God who whispers His love to us in the quiet, in the mundane, when our prayers are not answered the way we want or the miracle doesn’t come. It’s about a mother discovering the extraordinary strength it takes to be ordinary. It’s about choosing faith no matter the circumstance and about encountering God’s goodness in the least expected places. Though your heartaches and dreams may take a different shape, you will find your own questions echoed in these pages. You’ll be reminded of the gifts of joy in the midst of sorrow. And you’ll hear God’s whisper: Hold on to hope. I will meet you here.
Download or read book Back to Black written by Donald Brackett and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Book). Be a fly on the wall of sound: get the inside history and behind-the-scenes events in the making of a masterpiece. In this refreshing book which focuses solely on Amy Winehouse's musical artistry, stylistic influences, and creative collaborations with great producers and musicians, instead of her personal problems Donald Brackett explores pertinent questions about the importance of pop music in contemporary culture. In this incisive and fascinating study of Amy Winehouse's second, and last, album (released in 2006), Back to Black , he opens the door not only to the full experience of this great record but also explores the seductive sonic hook that pop artists always strive for and unearths what makes the record unique, influential, and unforgettable. He reveals the creative steps in its inception and production, the technical virtuosity that makes it special, and why it deserves to be considered a pop classic. In an album that continually strips down the branches of popular music to draw from its muscular trunk, Amy Winehouse (with significant help from producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi) used the deep longing of '60s girl-group pop, such as the Ronettes, to fuel the torch sound she perfected in her debut. Brackett fully considers Winehouse's legacy ten years after her multi-Grammy winning album exploring the origins of a global cultural phenomenon by examining her roots as a storyteller; studying her swift arrival as a demonic pop diva; the crucially important creative role played by her gifted producers in the studio; the historical musical influences on her style; the soul magic of her superb backup band, the Dap-Kings; her live performance style onstage; and her magnetic public image as a video star. Back to Black is also explored song by song in an appreciation of its status as a true pop-art artifact. In the end, it's the songs that make up Back to Black which go far beyond our potentially prurient fascination with the unique singer's early demise five years ago and instead bring vibrantly to life the surprising pop majesty she personified.
Download or read book An Overnight Sensation written by Robert Westbrook and published by Speaking Volumes. This book was released on 2020-06-12 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robert Westbrook - Author of the Howard Moon Deer Mysteries "A brilliant, engaging and wholly unpredictable story of courage, survival and self-reinvention . . . I was completely taken by it . . .Interesting, complicated and wholly engaging characters. [Westbrook] is obviously a born storyteller and a bit of a magician."-Ally Sheedy TORCH SINGER is an epic drama of Hollywood in its Golden Age: the rise and fall of Sonya Saint-Amant, a singer who schemes her way to fame and riches, breaking all the rules. An Overnight Sensation, Book One, starts in 1956 with a scandalous love nest murder, then rewinds to Sonya at the age of 17 in 1940, a dreamy girl in the Royal Box of the Krakow Opera. When Sonya's mother is hanged by the Nazis, she must grow up quickly. Using her wits and beauty, Sonya escapes Poland with the help of partisan fighters and makes her way to London during the Blitz. In 1943, she finagles a passage to America on the Mauretania, a dangerous North Atlantic crossing on a troop ship full of men. As the ship steams north into Arctic waters evading enemy submarines, Sonya almost wins at a high-stakes game of love . . . only to arrive in New York alone and desperate, determined to outwit fortune and become a star. An Overnight Sensation is a dark comedy of manners: a tale of murder, blackmail, fortune-hunters and dreamers, and the price paid for living large.
Download or read book A Sky Beyond the Storm written by Sabaa Tahir and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-12-01 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prepare for the jaw-dropping finale of Sabaa Tahir's beloved New York Times bestselling An Ember in the Ashes fantasy series, and discover: Who will survive the storm? Picking up just a few months after A Reaper at the Gates left off... The long-imprisoned jinn are on the attack, wreaking bloody havoc in villages and cities alike. But for the Nightbringer, vengeance on his human foes is just the beginning. By his side, Commandant Keris Veturia declares herself Empress, and calls for the heads of any and all who defy her rule. At the top of the list? The Blood Shrike and her remaining family. Laia of Serra, now allied with the Blood Shrike, struggles to recover from the loss of the two people most important to her. Determined to stop the approaching apocalypse, she throws herself into the destruction of the Nightbringer. In the process, she awakens an ancient power that could lead her to victory—or to an unimaginable doom. And deep in the Waiting Place, the Soul Catcher seeks only to forget the life—and love—he left behind. Yet doing so means ignoring the trail of murder left by the Nightbringer and his jinn. To uphold his oath and protect the human world from the supernatural, the Soul Catcher must look beyond the borders of his own land. He must take on a mission that could save—or destroy—all that he knows.
Download or read book A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers written by Will Friedwald and published by Pantheon. This book was released on 2010-11-02 with total page 832 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Will Friedwald’s illuminating, opinionated essays—provocative, funny, and personal—on the lives and careers of more than three hundred singers anatomize the work of the most important jazz and popular performers of the twentieth century. From giants like Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, and Judy Garland to lesser-known artists like Jeri Southern and Joe Mooney, they have created a body of work that continues to please and inspire. Here is the most extensive biographical and critical survey of these singers ever written, as well as an essential guide to the Great American Songbook and those who shaped the way it has been sung. The music crosses from jazz to pop and back again, from the songs of Irving Berlin and W. C. Handy through Stephen Sondheim and beyond, bringing together straightforward jazz and pop singers (Billie Holiday, Perry Como); hybrid artists who moved among genres and combined them (Peggy Lee, Mel Tormé); the leading men and women of Broadway and Hollywood (Ethel Merman, Al Jolson); yesterday’s vaudeville and radio stars (Sophie Tucker, Eddie Cantor); and today’s cabaret artists and hit-makers (Diana Krall, Michael Bublé). Friedwald has also written extended pieces on the most representative artists of five significant genres that lie outside the songbook: Bessie Smith (blues), Mahalia Jackson (gospel), Hank Williams (country and western), Elvis Presley (rock ’n’ roll), and Bob Dylan (folk-rock). Friedwald reconsiders the personal stories and professional successes and failures of all these artists, their songs, and their performances, appraising both the singers and their music by balancing his opinions with those of fellow musicians, listeners, and critics. This magisterial reference book—ten years in the making—will delight and inform anyone with a passion for the iconic music of America, which continues to resonate throughout our popular culture.
