Official Book Club Selection

Official Book Club Selection
Author: Kathy Griffin
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2009-09-08
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0345518578

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Official Book Club Selection is Kathy Griffin unplugged, uncensored, and unafraid to dish about what really happens on the road, away from the cameras, and at the star party after the show. (It's also her big chance to score that coveted book club endorsement she's always wanted. Are you there, Oprah? It's me, Kathy.) Kathy Griffin has won Emmys for her reality show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, been nominated for a Grammy, worked and walked every red carpet known to man, and rung in the New Year with Anderson Cooper. But the legions of fans who pack Kathy's sold-out comedy shows have heard only part of her remarkable story. Writing with her trademark wit, the feisty comic settles a few old scores, celebrates the friends and mentors who helped her claw her way to the top, and shares insider gossip about celebrity behavior–the good, the bad, and the very ugly. She recounts the crazy ups and downs of her own career and introduces us to some of the supertalented people she encountered before they got famous (or, in some cases, after fame went to their heads). Word to the wise: If you've ever crossed Kathy Griffin at some point in your life, check the index for your name. Along the way, Kathy reveals intimate details about her life before and after she made the big time. She opens up about everything from growing up with a dysfunctional family in suburban Illinois to bombing as a young comedian in L.A., from her well-publicized plastic surgery disasters to her highly publicized divorce, and more. Only in this book will you learn how the dinner table is the best training ground for a career in stand-up, how speaking your mind can bite you on the ass and buy you a house, and which people in Kathy's life have taught her the most valuable lessons–both inside and outside the entertainment industry. And as if all that wasn't enough, there are also dozens of exclusive and somewhat embarrassing photos from Kathy's own collection–featuring the diva of the D List herself, with her old nose as well as her new one, plus celebrity friends, foes, frenemies, and hangers-on for you to gawk at. Refreshingly candid, unflinchingly honest, and full of hilarious "Did she really say that?" moments, Official Book Club Selection will make you laugh until you cry, or just puke up a little bit.

Life's Work

Life's Work
Author: David Milch
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2023-09-12
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0525510761

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The creator of Deadwood and NYPD Blue reflects on his tumultuous life, driven by a nearly insatiable creative energy and a matching penchant for self-destruction. Life’s Work is a profound memoir from a brilliant mind taking stock as Alzheimer’s loosens his hold on his own past. “This is David Milch’s farewell, and it will rock you.”—Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR, USA Today, Kirkus Reviews “I’m on a boat sailing to some island where I don’t know anybody. A boat someone is operating and we aren’t in touch.” So begins David Milch’s urgent accounting of his increasingly strange present and often painful past. From the start, Milch’s life seems destined to echo that of his father, a successful if drug-addicted surgeon. Almost every achievement is accompanied by an act of self-immolation, but the deepest sadnesses also contain moments of grace. Betting on racehorses and stealing booze at eight years old, mentored by Robert Penn Warren and excoriated by Richard Yates at twenty-one, Milch never did anything by half. He got into Yale Law School only to be expelled for shooting out streetlights with a shotgun. He paused his studies at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop to manufacture acid in Cuernavaca. He created and wrote some of the most lauded television series of all time, made a family, and pursued sobriety, then lost his fortune betting horses just as his father had taught him. Like Milch’s best screenwriting, Life’s Work explores how chance encounters, self-deception, and luck shape the people we become, and wrestles with what it means to have felt and caused pain, even and especially with those we love, and how you keep living. It is both a master class on Milch’s unique creative process, and a distinctive, revelatory memoir from one of the great American writers, in what may be his final dispatch to us all.

Skunk Works

Skunk Works
Author: Leo Janos
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2013-02-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 031624693X

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This classic history of America's high-stakes quest to dominate the skies is "a gripping technothriller in which the technology is real" (New York Times Book Review). From the development of the U-2 to the Stealth fighter, Skunk Works is the true story of America's most secret and successful aerospace operation. As recounted by Ben Rich, the operation's brilliant boss for nearly two decades, the chronicle of Lockheed's legendary Skunk Works is a drama of Cold War confrontations and Gulf War air combat, of extraordinary feats of engineering and human achievement against fantastic odds. Here are up-close portraits of the maverick band of scientists and engineers who made the Skunk Works so renowned. Filled with telling personal anecdotes and high adventure, with narratives from the CIA and from Air Force pilots who flew the many classified, risky missions, this book is a riveting portrait of the most spectacular aviation triumphs of the twentieth century. "Thoroughly engrossing." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

Democracy in One Book or Less

Democracy in One Book or Less
Author: David Litt
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 472
Release: 2020-06-16
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 0062879383

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“Wry, quickly readable, yet informed and edgy . . . whimsy and pop culture, enlisted toward the end of knowledge.” — The Atlantic “Brings Dave Barry-style humor to an illuminating book on what is wrong with American democracy — and how to put it right. . . . Litt’s playful stories and fun facts explode common wisdom. . . . In the book’s strongest contribution, Litt shows how radically our democracy has been altered in recent decades [, making] the case that nearly all of these negative trends are occurring by design.” — Washington Post “Strikingly timely. . . . [Litt] offers ways to fix governmental ills that stymie all Americans and does so with a breezy and accessible wit.” — The Guardian “Remarkably prescient and applicable. It's rare to feel good about the way things are going, but Litt's book will get you there.” — Elle, “23 Books That Will Put You in a Good Mood, Guaranteed” “Litt’s book laces his signature humor into his exploration of American Democracy and how it has transformed over the years.” — Time, “45 New Books You Need to Read This Summer” “Casts a welcome, cleansing beam of light on a subject that has become increasingly murky and frustratingly confusing . . . Litt has a breezy, often conversational tone, but that in no way diminishes the force of his argument. Politics has changed, and not in a good way. But there are ways American democracy can be fixed, and it is to Litt’s credit that he offers practical albeit challenging solutions to the problems confronting our system of governance.” — Booklist (starred review) “[A] snappy and well-informed dissection of the current state of American democracy. . . Both optimistic and clear-eyed, this quip-filled call to action will resonate strongly with young progressives.” — Publishers Weekly “A pleasure to read, even in its darkest moments, and refreshingly optimistic about the future of the republic.” — Kirkus Reviews “Hilarious and incisive. If you want to understand what happened to America and how to change it, Democracy in One Book or Less will make you laugh and think, all at the same time.” — David Axelrod, former senior advisor to Barack Obama and author of Believer: My Forty Years in Politics “You think you know about politics and the motivations and machinations of Washington—and then you read this book. A wildly entertaining and informative journey that peels back the curtain on how the Beltway functions, David Litt’s latest is a must-read for anyone who can’t look away from the ‘what’ of the news and wants to understand the ‘why.’” — Amie Parnes, co-author of Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign “If you want to understand how our government really works without having a panic attack or a migraine, read this book. The way David tells stories about politics is funny, informative, and, most important, hopeful. David Litt dares to remain inspired, and that is what the conversation around politics needs most.” — Ilana Glazer, co-creator and co-star of Broad City “I’m so relieved to have this book at this moment in our political climate, a guide to our democracy when we so desperately need one.” — Abbi Jacobson, co-creator and co-star of Broad City and author of I Might Regret This “David Litt’s book is equal parts how-to, historical, and hilarious as he takes us through the trials and travails of how the electorate and democracy in general works—and sometimes doesn’t—yet still lovingly shows us that it’s worth it all the same. A warm, pithy, and inspiring read.” — Keegan-Michael Key “I always look forward to David Litt’s fiercely intelligent and funny take on the current state of things. If ever there was a time we needed a hilarious and thought-provoking look at how our democracy got to this point—and how we can save it—it’s now!” — Billy Eichner “Democracy in One Book or Less is by turns funny and illuminating. Litt combines his trademark humor and witty writing with an urgent call to fix American democracy. It’s a tragicomedy that makes you a better citizen while you laugh and shake your head in disbelief at our broken system.” — Brian Klaas, assistant professor of global politics at University College London and columnist for the Washington Post

The Distance Between Us

The Distance Between Us
Author: Reyna Grande
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2012
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1451661789

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Traces the author's experiences as an illegal child immigrant, describing her father's violent alcoholism, her efforts to obtain a higher education, and the inspiration of Latina authors.

Welcome Home

Welcome Home
Author: Lucia Berlin
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2018-11-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0374718326

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"As the case with her fiction, Berlin's pieces here are as faceted as the brightest diamond." --Kristin Iversen, NYLON NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE. Named a Fall Read by Buzzfeed, Vulture, Newsday and HuffPost A compilation of sketches, photographs, and letters, Welcome Home is an essential nonfiction companion to the stories by Lucia Berlin Before Lucia Berlin died, she was working on a book of previously unpublished autobiographical sketches called Welcome Home. The work consisted of more than twenty chapters that started in 1936 in Alaska and ended (prematurely) in 1966 in southern Mexico. In our publication of Welcome Home, her son Jeff Berlin is filling in the gaps with photos and letters from her eventful, romantic, and tragic life. From Alaska to Argentina, Kentucky to Mexico, New York City to Chile, Berlin’s world was wide. And the writing here is, as we’ve come to expect, dazzling. She describes the places she lived and the people she knew with all the style and wit and heart and humor that readers fell in love with in her stories. Combined with letters from and photos of friends and lovers, Welcome Home is an essential nonfiction companion to A Manual for Cleaning Women and Evening in Paradise.

A Work in Progress

A Work in Progress
Author: Connor Franta
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2016-05-03
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1501145932

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YouTube personality Connor Franta shares the lessons he has learned on his journey from small-town boy to Internet sensation