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- Ella A Novel [electronic resource] : by Richards, Diane.aut; cloudLibrary;
In the vein of The Paris Wife and The Personal Librarian comes this debut novel, a magnificent work of “biographical fiction” that reimagines the turbulent and triumphant early years of Ella Fitzgerald, arguably the greatest singer of the twentieth century. When fifteen-year-old Ella Fitzgerald’s mother dies at the height of the Depression in 1932, the teenager goes to work for the mob to support herself and her family. When the law finally catches up, the “ungovernable” adolescent is incarcerated in the New York Training School for Girls in upstate New York—a wicked prison infamous for its harsh treatment of inmates, especially Black ones. Determined to be free, Ella escapes and makes her way back to Harlem, where she is forced to dance for pennies on the street. Looking for a break into show business, Ella draws straws to appear at the Apollo Theater’s Amateur Night on November 21, 1934. Rather than perform a dance routine directly after “The World Famous Edwards Sisters” number, the homeless Ella, wearing men’s galoshes a size too big, risks everything when she decides to sing Judy instead. Four years later, at barely twenty-one, Ella Fitzgerald has become the bestselling female vocalist in America. Diane Richards’ Ella Fitzgerald is inspiring and intriguing—an emotionally rich, psychologically complex character, a flawed mother and wife who struggles with deep emotional scars and trauma and battles racism, sexism, and colorism as she learns to find her voice on the stage. Ella takes us from the brothels, speakeasys, and streets of Depression-era New York City to the grand hotel suites where Ella, now older and wiser, looks back on her life and finally confronts the demons from childhood that torment her. Compelling and rich in historical detail, Ella is a remarkable debut novel about an extraordinary woman.- Subjects: Electronic books.; Contemporary Women; Biographical; Historical; Contemporary Women;
- © 2024., HarperCollins,
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- Maybe once, maybe twice : a novel / by Greenberg, Alison Rose,author.;
"You know that old saying, "if we are still single when we're 35, we should get married?" Well, Maggie Vine made that vow with two different people, at two very different stages of her life. And they both showed up. Maggie Vine's life is going extra-medium. At 35 she's pursuing her dreams of being a singer and being a mother-though neither are successfully panning out. So when Garett Scholl-stifled hedge fund manager by day but electrifying aspiring rock singer by night -- comes to her 35th birthday party with the intention to kiss Maggie senseless, it feels like one piece might click into place. Except he's engaged to someone else, and Maggie knows she won't fit into the cookie-cutter life he's building for himself. Enter Asher Reyes. Her first boyfriend from summer camp, turned into heartthrob actor, he's lived a successful yet private life ever since he got famous. When a career-changing opportunity is presented to Maggie after her reconnection with Asher, it feels like everything-music, love, family -- will fall into place. But her past won't let her move on without a fight"--- Subjects: Romance fiction.; Novels.; Man-woman relationships; Self-realization in women; Single men; Single mothers; Triangles (Interpersonal relations);
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Silêncio - Voices of Lisbon. by Coste, Céline,film director.; Klamár, Judit,film director.; Auditorium Films (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Originally produced by Auditorium Films in 2020.Following the footsteps of Céline - a local foreigner who has lived in Portugal for 20 years - we are introduced to Ivone Días and Marta Miranda, two female artists from different generations who fight for the survival of their art and their community. Their common language is Fado, a traditional style of music that talks about the daily struggle of living. With the lyrics of fado songs taking us through the story, the film explores the relationship between fado singers and the ever changing world around them.Mode of access: World Wide Web.- Subjects: Documentary films.; Arts.; Social sciences.; Music.; Balts (Indo-European people).; Foreign study.; Sociology.; Documentary films.; Women's studies.; Artists.; History.;
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- The high notes : a novel / by Steel, Danielle,author.;
Iris Cooper has been singing ever since she can remember, hitting the high notes like no one else. When she is twelve, her father convinces the owner of a bar in Lake City, Texas, to let her perform, and she stuns the audience. In the ensuing years, never staying anywhere for long, father and daughter move from one dusty town to the next, her passion for music growing every time she takes the mike in another roadhouse. But it is not an easy life for Iris with her father in charge and using her income to pay for gambling, women, and booze. When she starts to tour at age eighteen, she takes on a real manager. Yet he exploits her too, and the singers and musicians she tours with are really the only family she has. It is they who give Iris the courage to finally fly free, leave the tour, and follow her dreams. After years of enduring the hardships of the road, exploitation, and abuse to do what she loves, Iris's big chance comes as her talent soars. But at the top at last, Iris still has to fight every step of the way. In The High Notes, Danielle Steel delivers an inspiring story about finding the strength to stand up for yourself and your dreams, no matter what it takes.- Subjects: Novels.; Exploitation; Fathers and daughters; Singers;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 3
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- Blink of an eye / by Johansen, Iris,author.; Johansen, Roy,author.;
"Kendra Michaels was blind for the first twenty years of her life. Then she gained her sight through a revolutionary surgical procedure. Her former disability has left her incredibly observant and insightful--able to detect what other investigators may not. So when a world-famous pop star is kidnapped mid-show, investigator Kendra leads a pulse-pounding race to rescue the young woman from a deadly foe. This time Kendra gets assistance from recurring character Jessie Mercado, a private investigator and army veteran who was the singer's former bodyguard. But as the abductor's true purpose becomes clear, Kendra and Jessie uncover a plot more terrifying than anyone could have imagined. They must beat the odds stacked against them before lives are lost and the predator's grand scheme is executed"--- Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Celebrities; Kidnapping; Women private investigators;
- Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 3
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- Traveling On the Path of Joni Mitchell [electronic resource] : by Powers, Ann.aut; cloudLibrary;
*An Observer Best New Biographies of 2024* Celebrated NPR music critic Ann Powers explores the life and career of Joni Mitchell in a lyrical style as fascinating and ethereal as the songs of the artist herself. “What you are about to read is not a standard account of the life and work of Joni Mitchell. Instead, it’s a tale of long journeying through a life that changed popular music: of a homesick wanderer forging ahead on routes of her own invention, and of me on her trail, heading toward the ringing of her voice.” —From the introduction For decades, Joni Mitchell’s life and music have enraptured listeners. One of the most celebrated artists of her generation, Mitchell has inspired countless musicians—from peers like James Taylor, to inheritors like Prince and Brandi Carlile—and authors, who have dissected her music and her life in their writing. At the same time, Mitchell has always been a force beckoning us still closer, as—with the other arm—she pushes us away. Given this, music critic Ann Powers wondered if there was another way to draw insights from the life of this singular musician who never stops moving, never stops experimenting. In Traveling, Powers seeks to understand Mitchell through her myriad journeys. Through extensive interviews with Mitchell's peers and deep archival research, she takes readers to rural Canada, mapping the singer’s childhood battle with polio. She charts the course of Mitchell’s musical evolution, ranging from early folk to jazz fusion to experimentation with pop synthetics. She follows the winding road of Mitchell’s collaborations with other greats, and the loves that emerged along the way, all the way through to the remarkable return of Mitchell to music-making after the 2015 aneurysm that nearly took her life. Along this journey, Powers’ wide-ranging musings on the artist’s life and career reconsider the biographer’s role and the way it twines against the reality of a fan. In doing so, Traveling illustrates the shifting nature of biography, and the ultimate contradiction of celebrity: that an icon cannot truly, completely be known to a fan. Kaleidoscopic in scope, and intimate in its detail, Traveling is a fresh and fascinating addition to the Joni Mitchell canon, written by a biographer in full command of her gifts who asks as much of herself as of her subject. - Subjects: Electronic books.; Women Authors; Composers & Musicians; 20th Century; Women; Folk & Traditional;
- © 2024., HarperCollins,
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- Matriarch : a memoir / by Knowles-Lawson, Tina,1954-author.; O'Leary, Kevin Carr,author.;
"Tina Knowles, the mother of iconic singer-songwriters Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Solange Knowles, and bonus daughter Kelly Rowland, is known the world over as a Matriarch with a capital M: a determined, self-possessed, self-aware, and wise woman who raised and inspired some of the great artists of our time. But this story is about so much more than that. Matriarch begins with a precocious, if unruly, little girl growing up in 1950s Galveston, the youngest of seven. She is in love with her world, with extended family on every other porch and the sounds of Motown and the lapping beach always within earshot. But as the realities of race and the limitations of girlhood set in, she begins to dream of the world beyond. Her instincts and impulsive nature drive her far beyond the shores of Texas to discover the life awaiting her on the other side of childhood. That life's journey -- through grief and tragedy, creative and romantic risks and turmoil, the nurturing of superstar offspring and of her own special gifts -- is the remarkable story she shares with readers here. This is a page-turning chronicle of family love and heartbreak, of loss and perseverance, and of the kind of creativity, audacity, and will it takes for a girl from Galveston to change the world. It's one brilliant woman's intimate and revealing story, and a multigenerational family saga that carries within it the story of America -- and the wisdom that women pass on to each other, mothers to daughters, across generations"--- Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Knowles-Lawson, Tina, 1954-; Beyoncé, 1981-; Mothers of celebrities; Singers;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Junie / by Knight, Chelene,1981-author.;
"A riveting exploration of the complexity within mother-daughter relationships and the dynamic vitality of Vancouver's former Hogan's Alley neighbourhood. 1930s, Hogan's Alley--a thriving Black and immigrant community located in Vancouver's East End. Junie is a creative, observant child who moves to the alley with her mother, Maddie: a jazz singer with a growing alcohol dependency. Junie quickly makes meaningful relationships with two mentors and a girl her own age, Estelle, whose resilient and entrepreneurial mother is grappling with white scrutiny and the fact that she never really wanted a child. As Junie finds adulthood, exploring her artistic talents and burgeoning sexuality, her mother sinks further into the bottle while the thriving neighbourhood--once gushing with potential--begins to change. As her world opens, Junie intuits the opposite for the community she loves. Told through the fascinating lens of a bright woman in an oft-disquieting world, this book is intimate and urgent--not just an unflinching look at the destruction of a vibrant community, but a celebration of the Black lives within."--- Subjects: Bildungsromans.; Historical fiction.; Novels.; Interpersonal relations; Mothers and daughters; Women, Black;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- If I knew then : finding wisdom in failure and power in aging / by Arden, Jann,author,illustrator.;
"Jann Arden--bestselling author, recording artist and late-blooming TV star--is back with this funny, heartfelt and fierce memoir on becoming a woman of a certain age. The power, gravity and freedom she's found at fifty-seven are superpowers she believes all of us can unleash. Digging deep into her strengths, her failures and her losses, Jann Arden brings us an inspiring account of how she has surprised herself, in her fifties, by at last becoming completely her own person. Like many women, it took Jann a long time to realize that trying to be pleasing and likeable and beautiful in the eyes of others was a loser's game. Letting it rip, and damning the consequences, is not only liberating, it's a hell of a lot of fun: "Being the age I am--that so many women are--is just the best time of my life." Jann weaves her own story together with tales of her mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, and the father she came close to hating, to show her younger self--and all of us--that fear and avoidance is no way to live. "What I'm thinking about now aren't all the ways I can try to hang on to my youth or all the seconds ticking by in some kind of morbid countdown to death," she writes, "but rather how I keep becoming someone I always hoped I could be. If I'm lucky one day a very old face will look back at me from the mirror, a face I once shied away from. I will love that old woman ferociously, because she has finally figured out how to live a life of purpose--not in spite of but because of all her mistakes and failures.""--- Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Arden, Jann.; Actresses; Aging.; Singers;
- Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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- Sinatra and me : in the wee small hours / by Oppedisano, Tony,author.; Ross, Mary Jane,author.;
"An intimate, revealing portrait of Frank Sinatra-from the man closest to the famous singer during the last decade of his life. More than a hundred books have been written about legendary crooner and actor Frank Sinatra. Every detail of his life seems to captivate: his career, his romantic relationships, his personality, his businesses, his style. But a hard-to-pin-down quality has always clung to him-a certain elusiveness that emerges again and again in retrospective depictions. Until now. From Sinatra's closest confidant and an eventual member of his management team, Tony Oppedisano, comes an extraordinarily intimate look at the singing idol. Deep into the night, for more than two thousand nights, Frank and Tony would converse-about music, family, friends, great loves, achievements and successes, failures and disappointments, the lives they'd led, the lives they wished they'd led. In these full-disclosure conversations, Sinatra spoke of his close yet complex relationship with his father, his conflicts with record companies, his carousing in Vegas, his love affairs with some of the most beautiful women of his era, his triumphs on some of the world's biggest stages, his complicated relationships with his talented children, and, most important, his dedication to his craft. Toward the end, no one was closer to the singer than Oppedisano, who kept his own rooms at the Sinatra residences for many years, often brokered difficult conversations between family members, and held the superstar entertainer's hand when he drew his last breath. Featuring never-before-seen photos and offering startlingly fresh anecdotes and new revelations that center on some of the most famous people of the past fifty years-including Jackie Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Sam Giancana, Madonna, and Bono-Sinatra and Me pulls back the curtain to reveal a man whom history has, in many ways, gotten wrong"--- Subjects: Biographies.; Sinatra, Frank, 1915-1998.; Sinatra, Frank, 1915-1998; Oppedisano, Tony.; Singers;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Results 121 to 130 of 146 | « previous | next »