Biography

By Dean N. Jensen

A real lifestyles Water for Elephants, Queen of the Air brings the circus international to existence throughout the gorgeously written, actual tale of popular trapeze artist and circus performer Leitzel, Queen of the Air, the main well-known lady on the earth on the flip of the 20 th century, and her star-crossed love affair with Alfredo Codona, of the well-known Flying Codona Brothers.

Like today's Beyonce, Madonna, and Cher, she used to be recognized to her big public by way of only one identify, Leitzel. There can have been a few areas on the earth the place her identify was once no longer a loved ones expression, but when so, they have been most likely on polar ice caps or within the darkest, inner most jungles.

Leitzel used to be born into Dickensian situations, and have become a princess after which a queen. She was once no longer a lot larger than an exceptional measurement fairy, simply four-foot-ten and no more than a hundred kilos. within the first a part of the 20 th century, she presided over a sawdust fiefdom of unending magic. She used to be the most important superstar ever of the largest circus ever, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the best exhibit on Earth.

In her existence, Leitzel had many suitors (and 3 husbands), yet just one guy ever totally captured her middle. He was once the good-looking Alfredo Codona, the best trapeze flyer that had ever lived, the single one in his time who, evening after evening, carried out the deadliest of all big-top feats, The Triple--three somersaults in midair whereas touring at 60 m.p.h. The Triple, the salto mortale, because the Italians known as it, took the lives of extra daredevils than the other circus stunt.

By Brigitte Nielsen

Brigitte Nielsen warfare die markante Schauspiel-Ikone der 80er-Jahre. speedy zwei Meter groß, mit platinblondem Bürstenhaarschnitt, spielte sie nach ihrer Tätigkeit als version für Armani und Versace Rollen in Filmen wie Rocky IV, crimson Sonja und Beverly Hills Cop II. Doch ihr Leben verlief nicht immer nur glamourös. In ihrer Autobiografie zeigt sie eine ganz andere Frau als die Trash-Queen, die mit zweitklassigen Filmen, einer skandalumwitterten Ehe mit Sylvester Stallone und zahllosen Affären, u. a. mit Arnold Schwarzenegger, Stoff für die Klatschpresse lieferte. Abseits der Scheinwerfer kämpfte sie mit Alkoholproblemen, finanziellen Problemen und der Sorge, wie sie ihre drei Kinder durchbringen sollte. All dies gipfelte in einem Selbstmordversuch, den sie glücklicherweise unbeschadet überstand. Brigitte Nielsen erzählt eine Lebensgeschichte mit Rückschlägen, Verletzungen und dem Kampf mit Männern, die ihr nicht guttun – eine Geschichte additionally, in der sich viele Frauen wiedererkennen. Sie ist erschütternd und spannend zu lesen, macht aber auch Mut und vermittelt die Weisheit, die aus überstandenen Krisen erwächst. Kurz: das Leben einer Frau, die sich trotz aller Höhen und Tiefen selbst treu geblieben ist und nun ihr Glück gefunden hat.

By Tom McNichol

AC/DC tells the little-known tale of ways Thomas Edison wrongly guess within the fierce battle among supporters of alternating present and direct present. The savagery of this electric conflict can hardly ever be imagined this day. The showdown among AC and DC started as a slightly ordinary clash among technical criteria, a conflict of competing how you can convey basically an identical product, electrical energy. however the skirmish quickly metastasized into anything greater and darker. within the AC/DC conflict, the worst facets of human nature in some way bought stuck up within the wires; a silent, lethal movement of vanity, vainness, and cruelty. Following the trail of least resistance, the battle of currents quickly settled round that almost all primal of human feelings: worry. AC/DC serves as an item lesson in undesirable enterprise method and terrible determination making. Edison's lack of ability to work out his mistake was once a key think about his lack of keep an eye on over the "operating system" for his destiny inventions--not to say the corporate he based, normal electrical.

By Bodanis D.

By Antonia Fraser

The tale of King Charles II is one in all enduring fascination. The golden adolescence of the boy Prince within the Van Dyck photographs gave solution to an adventurous formative years in Civil battle England and overseas, finishing traumatically whilst his father used to be carried out in 1649. Charles II, King at eighteen, succeeded to `nothing however the name'. After his valiant try and regain the throne was once defeated through Cromwell at Worcester, the King made his epic get away - to years of exile, poverty and humiliation in Europe. The `miraculous' recovery ushered in a reign colored via a sequence of both dramatic occasions: the good Plague, the fireplace of London, Dutch Wars, the unusual Popish Plot, and eventually the efforts of the Whigs to exclude his Catholic brother James from the succession, culminating within the King's unforeseen conquer them on the Oxford Parliament of 1681.

A lover of girls, passionate planner of parks and palaces and pal of the humanities, this used to be the guy who was once to beat the numerous difficulties of his reign and die not just accountable for his state yet within the affection of his countrymen. during this meticulously researched biography, Antonia Fraser deals vital decisions and reassessments on vital questions of the reign, resembling Charles's relationships, his perspective to Kingship, his patriotism and his non secular ideals. principally she has succeeded in writing a unconditionally compelling narrative, either relocating and fascinating, and displaying all of the abilities and insights that have secured her position as one of many superior biographers of our time.

By Kris Needs

The 1st in-depth biography of 1 of music's such a lot interesting, vibrant and leading edge characters. This ebook is the main finished background but of the lifestyles, tune and cultural importance of the final of the nice black tune pioneers and the period which spawned him.

Clinton stands along James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone as essentially the most influential black artists of all time who, together with his titanic P-Funk military took black funk into the united states charts and offered out stadiums by way of the mid Seventies together with his remarkable indicates and mythical Mothership extravaganzas.

The publication includes first hand interview fabric with Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Jerome Bigfoot Brailey, Junie Morrison, Bobby Gillespie, Afrika Bambaataa, Jalal Nuriddin (Last Poets), Juan Atkins, John Sinclair, Rob Tyner (MC5), Ed Sanders (The Fugs), Chip Monck ("The Voice of Woodstock ) plus different P-Funk affiliates and pals. The booklet provides an insiders' view of the increase of Parliament and Funkadelic from the doowop period and LSD-crazed early indicates via to P-Funk s large upward thrust, the period of the Mothership and past.

By Sam Faiers

Welcome to the glam and fab global of Sam Faiers - celebrity of the hit television programme The in simple terms manner is Essex. learn directly to discover what it takes to be a true Essex lady. The Oxford Dictionary definition of an 'Essex Girl': A brash, materialistic younger girl of a kind supposedly present in Essex or surrounding components within the south-east of britain.

The Sam Faiers definition of an 'Essex Girl': a trendy, hard-working, big-hearted and family-minded younger lady present in Brentwood or within reach components (and Marbs). first and foremost of 2010 Sam Faiers was once a regular 19-year-old lady from Brentwood: she used to be operating in an area financial institution, plotting a glamour modelling profession and making plans what outfit to put on to Sugar Hut. Then the 1st episode of TOWIE aired, and without warning Sam used to be catapulted right into a global of champagne cocktails, television studios, nightclubs and paparazzi.

In residing existence the Essex Way, Sam lifts the lid on her early life, her upward push to popularity and her attractiveness regime, in addition to her courting ideas, facing immediate popularity, the boys in her lifestyles and what rather is going on behind the curtain at the hit ITV2 exhibit.

By Simone de Beauvoir, Quentin Hoare

In 1983 de Beauvoir released Sartre's letters, protecting that her personal letters to him were misplaced. They have been came across through de Beauvoir's followed daughter, and released to a typhoon of controversy in France. Tracing the emotional and triangular issues of her existence with Sartre, the letters display her not just as manipulative and established, but additionally as susceptible, passionate, jealous and dedicated.

By Kim Heacox

A twin biography of 2 of the main compelling components within the narrative of untamed the USA, John Muir and Alaska.

John Muir was once a desirable guy who was once many stuff: inventor, scientist, progressive, druid (a modern-day Celtic priest), husband, son, father and good friend, and a shining son of the Scottish Enlightenment -- either in temperament and intellect.  Kim Heacox, writer of The simply Kayak, bring us a narrative that evolves as Muir’s existence did, from one in every of outdoors experience into one among ecological guardianship---Muir went from impassioned writer to best activist. The ebook isn't just an interesting and dramatic profile of Muir, yet an divulge on glaciers, and their value on this planet this present day. Muir indicates us how one individual replaced the US, helped it include its wasteland, and in flip, gave us a greater world.

December 2014 will mark the one hundredth anniversary of Muir’s loss of life. Muir died of a damaged middle, a few say, whilst Congress voted to approve the development of Hetch Hetchy Dam in Yosemite nationwide Park. maybe within the maximum piece of environmental symbolism within the U.S. in decades, at the California poll this November is a degree to dismantle the Hetch Hetchy Dam.

Muir’s legacy is that he reordered our priorities and contributed to a brand new medical revolution that was once picked up a new release later via Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson, and is championed at the present time through influential writers like E.O. Wilson and Jared Diamond. Heacox will take us into how Muir replaced our global, complex the technological know-how of glaciology and popularized geology. How he acquired humans out there. How he gave the US a brand new imaginative and prescient of Alaska, and of itself.

By Brigid Brophy

This examine units Mozart, specially his 4 so much celebrated operas (Il Seraglio, Cosi Fan Tutte, Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute) within the context of Enlightenment literature and notion. For this new version, the writer has revised a few passages and has inquisitive about Idomeneo and los angeles Clemenza di Tito.