Download or read book Thing of Beauty written by Stephen Fried and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-12-06 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inspiration behind the Emmy Award–winning HBO film Gia with Angelina Jolie, this “vivid…exhaustive” (The New York Times Book Review) account of the iconic and tragic life, career, and legacy of supermodel Gia Carangi features a new afterword by the author. At seventeen, Gia Carangi was working the counter at her father’s Philadelphia luncheonette. Within a year, she was one of the world’s top models, gracing the covers of Cosmopolitan and Vogue, partying at Studio 54, and redefining the fashion industry’s standard of beauty. But behind the glitz and fame, Gia was a young woman in pain, desperate for her mother’s approval and facing a drug addiction that quickly spun out of control. With dizzying speed, she went from $10,000-a-day fashion shoots to using drugs on the streets of New York and Atlantic City before finally being blackballed from modeling. At twenty-six, Gia once again made history as one of the first famous women to die of AIDS. This “chilling tale” (The Boston Globe), based on hundreds of interviews with friends, family, lovers, and fashionistas (the term author Stephen Fried coined for her industry colleagues), is comprehensively explored in this unputdownable biography that will introduce Gia to a new generation. It is also a powerful exploration of our society’s views of beauty and sexuality, fame and objectification, mothers and daughters, love and death.

Download or read book Born This Way written by Sacha Lanvin Baumann and published by . This book was released on 2015-10-31 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In February 1978, when the flawless Gia Carangi arrived in New York at the age of barely eighteen, she had already landed a contract with one of the most prestigious modeling agencies in the world. The future that lay before her seemed dazzling. Blessed with a magnetic beauty and a unique personality, the young Philadelphia native reached the peak of success in only a few months, quickly joining the elite ranks of "supermodels." One of the most requested models in her field, Gia appeared regularly in such magazines as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Cosmopolitan. For all intents and purposes, Gia's life quickly became a fairy tale-or so it seemed. In only a few years, Gia's destiny was complicated by unscrupulous individuals and by her inability to manage her cataclysmic success. Once on that road, the legendary model began a decline that led to her tragic end.Born This Way brings to light never-before-heard stories and unusual memories of Gia, offering new perspectives on her life, career, and personality. Through these previously unpublished accounts by those who knew and worked with Gia, Lanvin shines a spotlight on the woman herself, peering beneath the fast-lane glamor and the fame to capture the true essence of a supermodel who continues to mesmerize the world even decades after her death.

Download or read book Lil Sister written by Ana'Gia Wright and published by Kensington Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Resenting her parents for refusing to allow her to attend the funeral of her first love, Jerad, Krystal leaves home to seek sanctuary with Jerad's cousins while she struggles to deal with the demons in her life.

Download or read book The Tragedy of Gia written by Nathan Orgill and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2009-08 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An angel falls from heaven, to the desolate planet purgatory. This angel, named Gia must defeat the four "Kings of Purgatory" to release souls wrongfully imprisoned there, and to free himself. The kings are not the only things Gia has to fear in the dark, deep caves below the terrible planet's surface. A Tragic tale of Action, brotherhood, hope, and the strength of human will depicts the first book in the "Story of Gia" storyline.

Download or read book Appetite for America written by Stephen Fried and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2011-05-03 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Featured in the PBS documentary The Harvey Girls: Opportunity Bound The legendary life and entrepreneurial vision of Fred Harvey helped shape American culture and history for three generations—from the 1880s all the way through World War II—and still influence our lives today in surprising and fascinating ways. Now award-winning journalist Stephen Fried re-creates the life of this unlikely American hero, the founding father of the nation’s service industry, whose remarkable family business civilized the West and introduced America to Americans. Appetite for America is the incredible real-life story of Fred Harvey—told in depth for the first time ever—as well as the story of this country’s expansion into the Wild West of Bat Masterson and Billy the Kid, of the great days of the railroad, of a time when a deal could still be made with a handshake and the United States was still uniting. As a young immigrant, Fred Harvey worked his way up from dishwasher to household name: He was Ray Kroc before McDonald’s, J. Willard Marriott before Marriott Hotels, Howard Schultz before Starbucks. His eating houses and hotels along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad (including historic lodges still in use at the Grand Canyon) were patronized by princes, presidents, and countless ordinary travelers looking for the best cup of coffee in the country. Harvey’s staff of carefully screened single young women—the celebrated Harvey Girls—were the country’s first female workforce and became genuine Americana, even inspiring an MGM musical starring Judy Garland. With the verve and passion of Fred Harvey himself, Stephen Fried tells the story of how this visionary built his business from a single lunch counter into a family empire whose marketing and innovations we still encounter in myriad ways. Inspiring, instructive, and hugely entertaining, Appetite for America is historical biography that is as richly rewarding as a slice of fresh apple pie—and every bit as satisfying. *With two photo inserts featuring over 75 images, and an appendix with over fifty Fred Harvey recipes, most of them never-before-published.

Download or read book G I A written by Johm Stember and published by . This book was released on 2014-05-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Model written by Michael Gross and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-10-18 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Investigative journalist Michael Gross delves into the history of models and takes us into the private studios and hidden villas where models play and are preyed upon, going beyond modeling’s carefully constructed facade of glamour to expose the scandal and untold truths that permeate the seemingly glamorous business. Here for the first time is the complete story of the international model business—and its evil twin: legalized flesh peddling. It’s a tale of vast sums of money, rape both symbolic and of the flesh, sex and drugs, obsession and tragic death. At its heart is the most unholy combination in commerce: beautiful, young women and rich, lascivious men. Fashion insider Michael Gross has interviewed modeling’s pioneers, survivors, and hangers–on, and he tells the story of the greats: Lisa Fonssagrives; Anita Colby, Candy Jones; Dorian Leigh and her sister Suzy Parker; Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy; Veruschka and Lauren Hutton; and today’s supermodel trinity, Christy, Naomi and Linda.

Download or read book Come written by Rita Therese and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bold, brave and darkly funny, COME is the extraordinary story of Melbourne sex worker Rita Therese and the love, sex and death she has experienced in her life so far. Two selves intertwine and it leaves you, in the dance room, making a decision that winged liner is just for work. Because you don't know which self you are looking at right now, which person you are. The song stops and you break out of your trance and ask if he'd like to extend Rita is an escort, one of the best in Australia. It all began on a whim at 18, after she rang the number on a sign looking for nude models. Always the outsider, she quickly learns the sex industry is comprised of many other people just like her and she becomes immersed in this world: the drugs, the late nights, the glamour, being an outcast, the attention and validation from men. Mostly she thrives on how taboo her life has become. Following significant personal tragedy and trauma, the line between Rita's sex worker persona Gia and her real self begins to blur in a seemingly endless loop of grief, work, sex, love and heartbreak. In this achingly honest memoir, Rita learns that death and trauma do not always bring grand transformative experiences. Sometimes, in order to go forward, we have to write our own stories and choose to keep living. Unflinching, compelling and darkly funny, Come announces a fearless new talent in Australian writing.

Download or read book And I Don t Want to Live This Life written by Deborah Spungen and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2011-10-12 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Honest and moving . . . Her painful tale is engrossing.”—Washington Post Book World For most of us, it was just another horrible headline. But for Deborah Spungen, the mother of Nancy, who was stabbed to death at the Chelsea Hotel, it was both a relief and a tragedy. Here is the incredible story of an infant who never stopped screaming, a toddler who attacked people, a teenager addicted to drugs, violence, and easy sex, a daughter completely out of control—who almost destroyed her parents’ marriage and the happiness of the rest of her family.

Download or read book The Last Breath written by Kimberly Belle and published by MIRA. This book was released on 2014-09-30 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the internationally bestselling author of The Marriage Lie comes an emotionally searing drama about a woman who risks her life to discover the devastating truth about her family. Humanitarian aid worker Gia Andrews chases disasters around the globe for a living. It's the perfect lifestyle to keep her far away from her own personal ground zero. Sixteen years ago, Gia's father was imprisoned for brutally killing her stepmother. Now he's come home to die of cancer, and she's responsible for his care--and coming to terms with his guilt. Gia reluctantly resumes the role of daughter to the town's most infamous murderer, a part complete with protesters on the lawn and death threats that are turning tragedy into front-page news. Returning to life in small-town Tennessee involves rebuilding relationships that distance and turmoil have strained, though finding an emotional anchor in the attractive hometown bartender is certainly helping Gia cope. As the past unravels before her, Gia will find herself torn between the stories that her family, their friends and neighbors, and even her long-departed stepmother have believed to be real all these years. But in the end, the truth--and all the lies that came before--may have deadlier consequences than she could have ever anticipated....

Download or read book Bitter Pills written by Stephen Fried and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2011-04-27 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We take our medicines on faith. We assume our doctors are well-informed, our drug companies scrupulous, our FDA diligent—and our medications safe. All too often we're wrong. Just how wrong is documented in this critically acclaimed portrait of the international pharmaceutical industry by one of our most highly respected investigative journalists. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), adverse drug reactions are the fourth leading cause of death in America. Reactions to prescription and over-the-counter medications kill far more people annually than all illegal drug use combined. Stephen Fried's wife took a pill for a minor infection—and ended up in the emergency room. Some drug reactions go away in a few hours or days. Diane's did not. This emotionally wrenching experience launched Fried into a five-year examination of the entire pharmaceutical industry, the most profitable legal business in the world. Rigorously documented, Bitter Pills is a full-scale portrait of pill making and pill taking in America today, presented through the powerful human drama of doctors, patients, drug companies, the FDA, and government regulators as they war for control of our medicine cabinets.

Download or read book Gaia written by James Lovelock and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gaia, in which James Lovelock puts forward his inspirational and controversial idea that the Earth functions as a single organism, with life influencing planetary processes to form a self-regulating system aiding its own survival, is now a classic work that continues to provoke heated scientific debate.

Download or read book Taiz a Meaning to Life written by Olivier Clément and published by GIA Publications. This book was released on 1997 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Terry Nation s Blake s 7 written by Tony Attwood and published by London Bridge. This book was released on 1983 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blake's 7 is a classic BBC Television science fiction series, created by Terry Nation, the man who invented the most memorable aliens in Doctor Who--The Daleks. All 52 episodes have been sold worldwide on video, and this book is indispensible for any fan of cult. This book, packed with facts about the TV show, its stars, and its creators, is completely up to date. of photos.

Download or read book No Lifeguard on Duty written by Janice Dickinson and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Supermodel Dickinson's sex- and booze-soaked autobiography brings readers on a roller-coaster ride through the world of modeling” (Publishers Weekly). The life of Janice Dickinson is a story of extremes: uncontrolled energy, mad self-confidence and crushing insecurity, a boundless appetite for life and a ceaseless drive to self-destruct. During the 1970s she was the first lush-lipped, long-stemmed, dark-eyed brunette to break through and become not just a model but a supermodel—a term she coined for herself. She graced magazine covers from Vogue to Elle to Cosmopolitan, in photographs by Avedon and Irving Penn and fashions by Versace and Calvin Klein. She was voracious in everything: passionate affairs, endless partying, and a drug habit that dogged her through twenty years and three husbands. She spent her glory days with Gia Carangi and Christie Brinkley and her nights with Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, and Sylvester Stallone. Yet Dickinson’s life is no mere diva cartoon. Throughout her life she is haunted by the violent abuse she suffered at her father’s hands—a story she tells here for the first time. And as she careens from runway to rehab to rock bottom to recovery, readers will be captivated by her tale of survival.

Download or read book The New Rabbi written by Stephen Fried and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2003-08-26 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From award-winning journalist Stephen Fried comes a vividly intimate portrait of American Judaism today in which faith, family, and community are explored through the dramatic life of a landmark congregation as it seeks to replace its legendary retiring rabbi—and reinvent itself for the next generation. The New Rabbi The center of this compelling chronicle is Har Zion Temple on Philadelphia’s Main Line, which for the last seventy-five years has been one of the largest and most influential congregations in America. For thirty years Rabbi Gerald Wolpe has been its spiritual leader, a brilliant sermonizer of wide renown--but now he has announced his retirement. It is the start of a remarkable nationwide search process largely unknown to the lay world--and of much more. For at this dramatic moment Wolpe agrees to give extraordinary access to Fried, inviting him--and the reader—into the intense personal and professional life of the clergy and the complex behind-the-scenes life of a major Conservative congregation. These riveting pages bring us a unique view of Judaism in practice: from Har Zion’s strong-willed leaders and influential families to the young bar and bat mitzvahs just beginning their Jewish lives; from the three-days-a-year synagogue goers to the hard core of devout attendees. We are touched by their times of joy and times of grief, intrigued by congregational politics, moved by the search for faith. We witness the conflicts between generations about issues of belief, observance, and the pressures of secular life. We meet Wolpe’s vigorous-minded ailing wife and his sons, one of whom has become a celebrity rabbi in Los Angeles. And we follow the author’s own moving search for meaning as he reconnects with the religion of his youth. We also have a front-row seat at the usually clandestine process of choosing a new rabbi, as what was expected to be a simple one-year search for Rabbi Wolpe’s successor extends to two years and then three. Dozens of résumés are rejected, a parade of prospects come to interview, the chosen successor changes his mind at the last minute, and a confrontation erupts between the synagogue and the New York–based Conservative rabbis’ “union” that governs the process. As the time comes for Wolpe to depart, a venerated house of worship is being torn apart. And thrust onto the pulpit is Wolpe’s young assistant, Rabbi Jacob Herber, in his first job out of rabbinical school, facing the nearly impossible situation of taking over despite being technically ineligible for the position--and finding himself on trial with the congregation and at odds with his mentor. Rich in anecdote and scenes of wonderful immediacy, this is a riveting book about the search for personal faith, about the tension between secular concerns and ancient tradition in affluent America, and about what Wolpe himself has called “the retail business of religion.” Stephen Fried brings all these elements to vivid life with the passion and energy of a superbly gifted storyteller.

Download or read book A Death in November written by Ellen Joy Hammer and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1988 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Centering on the events of 1963 in Vietnam that led to the assassinations of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu, Ellen Hammer's riveting in-depth study demonstrates how this military coup transformed the Vietnam War into an American war. Having visited the embattled nation many times during the period and having interviewed key characters in the drama, she chronicles the series of misunderstandings between Vietnam and representatives of Western societies that preceded the events of 1963. Hammer's compelling account will provide readers with a fuller understanding of American involvement in Vietnam.