Off the Furrow


Book Description

Howard Mirth is a sixty-five-year-old son, husband, and father. He earns a decent living, pays his taxes, loves his family, and stays out of trouble. But one day he snaps, and he finds himself locked up in a mental hospital. Join Howard as he sorts through his confusing life and finds his way back to the real world.




American Idol


Book Description

The currency is fame, and it's bigger than money, more desired than power. Each season American Idol delivers on a promise whose epic scope is unparalleled in the annals of competition: to take an unknown dreamer from the middle of America and turn him or her into a genuine star. It has become not only the biggest show on television, but the biggest force in all of entertainment; its alumni dominate the recording charts and Broadway, win Academy Awards, and sweep up Grammys. In fact, American Idol has reshaped the very idea of celebrity. But it didn't start out that way. When the little singing contest debuted as a summer replacement on the U.S. airwaves, it was packed between reruns and low-cost filler. The promise that it would find America's next pop star produced a hearty round of guffaws from the country's media critics. Now, some ten years and millions of records later, no one is laughing. American Idol: The Untold Story chronicles the triumphs and travails, the harrowing backstage drama and the nail-biting onstage battles that built this revolutionary show. In this revealing book, veteran journalist Richard Rushfield goes deeper inside the circus than any reporter ever has. Candid interviews with Idol alumni, including Simon Fuller and Simon Cowell, shed new light on the show that changed the entertainment industry. And because Rushfield had full access to the people who created the show, starred in it, and kept it atop the pop culture pyramid, this book is the first to take Americans behind the curtain and tell what has really been happening on the world's most watched and speculated-about stage.




I Don't Know about You... But I'm Afraid to Die


Book Description

Unbeknownst to everyone I have ever come across; I have been living a double life. My public persona has been the "normal" person everyone sees and most like to be around. The guy, who teaches high school math, was a baseball star in college and has been a songwriter for the last thirty years. Yet in private, behind the mask I've so meticulously molded, I've been living with a deep and sometimes paralyzing fear. That fear is.... I'm afraid to die.... ....This book is about my journey into that world and my efforts to face that fear, a fear that I believe hides deep within the silent recesses of everyone's soul, and to see if there's a way out....




The State of the American Mind: Stupor and Pathetic Docility


Book Description

This book, The State of the American Mind: Stupor and Pathetic Docility Volume One begins to unravel some of the most obvious, perplexing, embarrassing and enduring problems and contradictions of American history and sociology, viz., how could the American revolution that started with the most ringing and most inspiring Declarations of human equality in world history end up establishing the most vicious, exploitative society the world ever knew Black chattel slavery and only ten percent white enfranchisement, etc. Further, how could men of such great wisdom and intellect like George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and others who were Enlightenment scholars and clearly knew that slavery was despicable and evil, because they had variously experienced white servitude and slavery themselves, collude to establish and institutionalize the horrible system of Negro chattel slavery in America; and also disenfranchised over 90 percent of people of their own race actions that racism could not explain. The structural/institutional slavery system they established, and the resultant consequent racism hobbles America today as it did in the past, and forced Eric Holder, the Attorney General to declare that, America is a nation of cowards, when it comes to race discussions. Thus, this book starts with serious critical discussions of race in America and reveals what no textbook has ever done, viz., that most early American whites and Blacks were slaves an uncomfortable fact that would shock most Americans because it contradicts the orthodoxy or the dominant narrative that only Blacks were brought here in chains. Further, the book also shows the year Black slavery started something almost, all textbooks got wrong. It also shows who, was the fi rst Black slave in America something no textbook ever mentions. It also shows when and how racism started in America and many other very sensitive and embarrassing but necessary issues that America avoids but must be frankly discussed for America to move forward. This book therefore shatters the two dominant themes of Americas history and sociology that Blacks were brought into America in chains as slaves while whites came to America in search of freedom, as Obama famously told us in his race speech. Thus, the crowning lesson of this book, in addition to discussing some critical policy issues like education, health care, etc., is that it discovers the centripetal force of the American society that eluded contemporary Americans because American bosses have laboriously concealed the facts from the public the scary but clearly healthy uniting fact that most Americans are united by their common ancestry, their universal history and experience of servitude, bond-indentures and slavery. Nothing is more universal, more common and more shared in American history and sociology than the fact that most of our ancestors, black and white, were servants, bond-indentures and slaves who were dominated and super-exploited by few overlords. Colonial America was the preferred dumping ground for British, outcasts, rejects, criminals, masterless class, vagabonds, bond-indentures, slaves, etc., until 1776 when Australia replaced America as the British dump for its rejects and surplus citizens. Thus, that America was a nation founded by British rejects and losers is inherently more rational than the prevailing orthodoxy or the Obama theory of Americas founders that they were great honorable men who journeyed across the ocean for freedom because of the obvious reason that good, powerful achieving citizens do not normally emigrate to new uncharted lands.




Cedricand's Truth


Book Description

Book Delisted




A Bitter Cup of Tea


Book Description

Andrew Rand of Wyland, Ohio, is a freshman Democratic representative at the start of the Obama administration. Deep in the corridors of political power, he will find a broken system: a liberal party in power and out of control, passing legislation that its constituents neither desire nor need, with its members under constant political and personal pressure to "fundamentally transform the nation." Soon, Andrew will struggle with the question of what he's willing to sacrifice in order to win reelection. Meanwhile, his wife, Carolyn-a brilliant, apolitical woman from a family of radical academics-will struggle not only with the emotional fallout of her husband's choices, but with her own awakening conservative conscience as well. Weaving contemporary political satire with an emotionally devastating plot, novelist Tim McDaniel imagines the rise of the conservative Tea Party to national prominence, a rise seen through the eyes of characters from all walks of American life: a housewife who decides to challenge the powers that be in her home district, a Texan radio host with a gift for caustic political insight, a campaign manager concealing a secret romantic ambition, student radicals, disenchanted factory workers, and more. A Bitter Cup of Tea serves up a bitterly funny vision of contemporary America: a land whose leaders have betrayed its people, and whose people are beginning to fight back.




Producing Hit Records: Secrets from the Studio


Book Description

Behind the scenes and topping the charts - today's most respected record producers share their secrets. From the Rolling Stones to Green Day to Norah Jones to the Dixie Chicks, record producers have always played an integral role in the success of an artist. In this fascinating account of how record producers shape the hits and the careers of major artists, author David Farinella talks to the men and women who've launched a thousand careers and pushed their collaborators to multi-Platinum success. He explores the chemistry between artist and producer and presents a treasure trove of sound practical tips for anyone wanting to produce. David John Farinella has been writing about music since 1990, concentrating his attention on performers, songwriters, record producers, and occasionally the personality that fuses them all. He's written for Rolling Stone, the San Francisco Chronicle, Billboard, Mix, Guitar Player, Spin, Alternative Press, Performing Songwriter, Modern Drummer, Hollywood Reporter and many others. Although Farinella has interviewed some legendary performers, it is the story behind the story that constantly fascinates him. Some of his most memorable professional moments have come in the studio as performers and producers put their hearts into the intricacies of a song.




How to American


Book Description

Standup comic, actor and fan favorite from HBO's Silicon Valley and the film Crazy Rich Asians shares his memoir of growing up as a Chinese immigrant in California and making it in Hollywood. "I turned down a job in finance to pursue a career in stand-up comedy. My dad thought I was crazy. But I figured it was better to disappoint my parents for a few years than to disappoint myself for the rest of my life. I had to disappoint them in order to pursue what I loved. That was the only way to have my Chinese turnip cake and eat an American apple pie too." Jimmy O. Yang is a standup comedian, film and TV actor and fan favorite as the character Jian Yang from the popular HBO series Silicon Valley. In How to American, he shares his story of growing up as a Chinese immigrant who pursued a Hollywood career against the wishes of his parents: Yang arrived in Los Angeles from Hong Kong at age 13, learned English by watching BET RapCity for three hours a day, and worked as a strip club DJ while pursuing his comedy career. He chronicles a near deportation episode during a college trip Tijuana to finally becoming a proud US citizen ten years later. Featuring those and many other hilarious stories, while sharing some hard-earned lessons, How to American mocks stereotypes while offering tongue in cheek advice on pursuing the American dreams of fame, fortune, and strippers.




Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?


Book Description

In much the same way that a cluttered home can stop you from living your best life, it can also sabotage your best efforts at controlling your weight. Most people who diet don't just go on one diet and succeed; they go on three or five or ten. And for most people, the diets fail because most diets are only about losing weight - they don't drill down into why you are carrying that weight around and why you want to lose it. In his years as a professional organiser, Walsh found time and time again that people hid their real problems behind their "stuff." Peter believes that the secret to understanding how you got here and how to fix it all starts with one simple question: "Are you living the life you imagined?" Weight loss is much simpler when you can focus not on the excess baggage of the kilos, but on how your weight is holding you back from being the person of your dreams. Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?will show you how to redefine your relationship to what you own and consume, and in so doing, redefine how you live your life. Once you understand the reasons behind the clutter and chaos in your home and your eating habits, you can take control of your kitchen, your pantry and your refrigerator to achieve a healthy balance. Often a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Peter Walsh is also the author of the New York Timesbestseller It's All Too Much.




American Idols


Book Description

Feeding off the frenzy of fleeting fame and image overload, Hostetler takes anecessary look at the false gods in modern society. This timely book can helpreaders realize and overcome their own idolatries.