La Porte County Public Library System

An unauthorized biography examining the inspirational Cinderella story of the British TV talent show competitor who shocked the world. On Britain's Got Talent on 11 April 2009, forty-year-old spinster Susan Magdalane Boyle stepped out onto the stage to jeers and sniggers. As she announced she was going to sing "I Dreamed a Dream," the judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan didn't bother to hide their amusement. One minute later they,...

The rise and fall of the brothers Gibb-Barry, Robin, Maurice, and younger brother Andy-is perhaps the greatest saga in Australian music history. Although the Bee Gees enjoyed several rebirths in a career that spanned many decades, it seemed that tragedy followed the Gibbs like a curse. For every incredible career high there was a hefty personal downside: divorce, drunkenness, and death seemed as synonymous with the Gibbs as falsetto harmonies, flares,...

This subversively brilliant, one-of-a-kind rock autobiography ingeniously styled as a biography, is written by a nameless, faceless writer hired by an Orwellian entity called "the Corporation" to capture the essence of Ray Davies, lead singer and songwriter of The Kinks and one of the greatest rock and rollers of all time. The Kinks front man reveals his life and times to the young writer, often seemingly passing his stories directly into the writer's...

A candid, behind-the-scenes glimpse into the emotional, dynamic and often entertaining life of Ramona Singer, the spunky, tell-it-like-it-is reality star whose unfiltered personality viewers have adored through seven seasons of The Real Housewives of New York City. In this alternately heart-wrenching and hilarious memoir, Ramona offers readers a look at her dysfunctional childhood, her parents' abusive relationship, her inspiring journey of renewal,...

Marilyn Monroe remains the most provocative female legend of the twentieth century. What you may have known about her before was only the tip of the iceberg. For twenty years, the men and women who knew Marilyn best saw what they knew suppressed because certain important people were still living, and the tenor of the times prohibited frankness. Instead, rumors ballooned. This book finally sets the record straight. Fred Guiles-whom Norman Mailer...

Stan, surprisingly, is the first full-length biography of the legendary comic who was the creative half of the universally loved duo, Laurel and Hardy. Based upon scores of interviews with family and friends (including the intimate diaries of Virginia Ruth Laurel, whom Stan married three times) and enhanced by a magnificent collection of previously unpublished photographs, Stan tells the very human story of Laurel's struggle to survive against difficult...

Jane Fonda has been in the public eye since birth; just being Henry's daughter qualified her for celebrity status. However, her intelligence and talent compelled her to reach beyond this birthright to become an individual of extraordinary and diverse accomplishments. It would take a restless camera to document Jane Fonda's life for she is a woman of formidable energy, but Fred Lawrence Guiles' expert commentary captures her in motion. We pursue her...

The life and times of Warwick Davis, star of Ricky Gervais's forthcoming sitcom, Life's Too Short Actors work their entire careers hoping to achieve the kind of cult movie hero status that Davis achieved at the age of eleven playing Wicket W. Warrick, the lead Ewok in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. In this lively and down-to-earth memoir, Davis offers personal stories on the making of some of the most popular films of the last few decades-including...

The story in this book is about a young man who left his home and family in Tyler, Texas at the age of twenty three and moved to Los Angeles to follow his dream of becoming a big band singer or to be another Nat King Cole or Billy Esktine. Like fate had it, instead, he became the lead singer and founder of the first vocal group to be inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, along with other members, Billy Guy, Will Jones and Cornell Gunter...

He was one of the brightest stars in Hollywood, a hard-charging actor whose intensity on the screen was mirrored in his personal life. As Kirk Douglas grew older, he became less impetuous and more reflective. In this poignant and inspiring new memoir, Douglas contemplates what life is all about, weighing current events from his frame of mind at ninety while summoning the passions of his younger days. Kirk Douglas was a born storyteller, and throughout...