Willie Was Different


Book Description

Realizing that he is different from other wood thrushes, Willie sets out on his own and becomes famous when he creates his own songs to accompany a flautist who is his devoted friend.




North Toward Home


Book Description

The story of the author's life, first in Mississippi, then going to school in Texas, and then writing in New York.




Willie


Book Description

Nelson, self-proclaimed "outlaw'' of country music, is depicted from many angles in this rambling account of his trajectory into celebrity. Written with freelancer Shrake in salty and sometimes vulgar language, Nelson's reflections on his three wives, children, his country music peers and others in his large, floating entourage reveal a hard-living man. The singer toiled in the fields as a child during the Depression, was left by his teenage parents with grandparents who raised him and his sister in Texas. The experience was pivotal to his career: "My desire to escape from manual labor started in the cotton fields of my childhood and cannot be overstated.'' Nelson began his road life as "an itinerant singer and guitar picker'' on trips punctuated with alcohol, drugs and sex as he climbed to eminence in the world of country music. Now "crossed over,'' popular with national audiences, Nelson notes that he enjoys all the personal perquisites of his success. Among his revelations here, the singer recalls smoking pot on the roof of the White House after entertaining at a Carter state dinner. Photos not seen by PW. BOMC and QPBC alternates; first serial to Texas Monthly and Golf Digest; paperback rights to Pocket Books. (October) - Publishers Weekly.




Wee Willie Winkie


Book Description

Relates the familiar nursery rhyme of a boy who runs through the town checking to see that all children are in bed.




Willie's Game


Book Description

A “fascinating” memoir by America’s greatest professional billiards player, a child prodigy in the pool halls of the 1930s who became a world champion (Library Journal). Willie Mosconi’s father never wanted him to play billiards. At night, the boy would lie awake listening to the clatter of balls downstairs in the family pool hall, and when his father wasn’t around, he would climb onto an apple crate to practice his shots. When his dad started locking up the balls and cue, young Willie improvised with potatoes and a broom handle. By the time he was 7 years old, he was good enough to play against Ralph Greenleaf in a match billed as “The Child Prodigy vs. The World Champion.” It was the start of a magnificent career that would include an unprecedented 15 world championships and the record for most consecutive balls run without a miss: 526. Nicknamed “Mr. Pocket Billiards,” Mosconi was instrumental in popularizing pool in America, serving as a consultant for iconic films such as The Hustler and The Color of Money and facing off against the famed hustler Minnesota Fats in 2 celebrated matches. Cowritten with journalist Stanley Cohen, Willie’s Game is the colorful, captivating autobiography of an illustrious champion who lifted his sport to new heights and played by one simple rule: If you don’t miss, you don’t have to worry about anything else.




Dear Willie Rudd


Book Description

In this thoughtful epistolary picture book, a white woman fondly remembers the black housekeeper who raised her in the time of segregation and reflects on how the world has changed. Fifty years have passed since Miss Elizabeth was a girl, but she still remembers Willie Rudd, the black housekeeper who helped raise her. She remembers the feel of sitting in Willie Rudd’s lap while the housekeeper sang to her. And she remembers how Willie Rudd scrubbed the floor on her hands and knees. What would Miss Elizabeth say to Willie Rudd if she were alive today? She decides to write her a letter telling her how things would be different. Now Willie Rudd would come in the front door—not the back. She would ride in the front of the bus with Miss Elizabeth, and they could sit together at the movies. The two of them would have a wonderful time. And in her heartfelt letter, Miss Elizabeth has the chance to tell Willie Rudd something she never told her while she was alive—that she loved her.




Willie Wins


Book Description

Willie's father tells him there is something special in an old coconut bank brought from the Philippines, but Willie is embarrassed to take it to school for a contest, especially since he knows that one of his classmates will make fun of him.




Me and Sister Bobbie


Book Description

"Abandoned by their parents as toddlers, Willie and Bobbie Nelson found their love of music almost immediately through their grandparents, who raised them in a dusty small town in east Texas. Their close relationship ... is the longest-lasting bond in either of their lives. In alternating chapters, this ... dual memoir weaves together their lives as they experienced them both side-by-side and apart with powerful, emotional stories from growing up, playing music in public for the first time, and the trials they each faced in adulthood as Willie pursued a songwriting career and Bobbie faced a series of challenging relationships and a musical career that only took off when attitudes about women began to change in Texas"--




Wee Willie Winkie


Book Description




Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die


Book Description

In Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die, Willie Nelson muses about his greatest influences and the things that are most important to him, and celebrates the family, friends, and colleagues who have blessed his remarkable journey. Willie riffs on everything, from music to poker, Texas to Nashville, and more. He shares the outlaw wisdom he has acquired over the course of eight decades, along with favorite jokes and insights from family, bandmates, and close friends. Rare family pictures, beautiful artwork created by his son, Micah Nelson, and lyrics to classic songs punctuate these charming and poignant memories. A road journal written in Willie Nelson's inimitable, homespun voice and a fitting tribute to America’s greatest traveling bard, Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die—introduced by another favorite son of Texas, Kinky Friedman—is a deeply personal look into the heart and soul of a unique man and one of the greatest artists of our time, a songwriter and performer whose legacy will endure for generations to come.