In My TBR Stack:

Hard Rivers: The Untold Saga of La Salle: Expedition II
by Craig P. Howard
River Grove Books
Trade Paperback

From the author's website:

In Hard Rivers, author Craig P. Howard recounts the harrowing journey of La Salle: Expedition II, a reenactment of the 1681–82 voyage of La Salle from Montreal to the Gulf of Mexico. The crew, made up of sixteen teenage boys and seven adults led by one charismatic teacher, set out on August 11, 1976, from Canada and arrived on April 9, 1977, at the Gulf, 3,300 miles later. Lake Michigan and Midwest rivers froze solid in record cold, forcing the teens to march 500 miles, first from Chicago to St. Joseph, Michigan and then across Indiana and Illinois. Despite temperatures of twenty-seven below and wind chills of seventy-eight below, near fatalities outside Green Bay, and a truck accident in Indiana that hospitalized four, they achieved something that had never been done before and will never be done again

In My TBR Stack:

Words with Steve Jobs
by Brian Barton
TFC
Trade Paperback

From the book publicity:

What happens when you enter Apple’s top secret design lab without permission? What did Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, write in his short email to the author? And, what’s the scene really like at Apple’s Cupertino campus? The answers are in Words with Steve Jobs. 

Join the author, an ex-Apple freelance employee, on a joyous (non-proprietary) romp through his tenure at the company’s Cupertino headquarters. You’ll get a unique view on Macworld, the “Get a Mac” ad campaign, and the lunchtime crowd at Caffé Macs—even Apple’s hip designers. Words with Steve Jobs is an essay about Apple during its salad days. 

Brian Barton (@realbrianbarton) is a USA Today featured author whose work has been featured inEsquire, The Times of London, and Time. He lives in New York City with his family and one adorable Labrador retriever.

In My TBR Stack:

Abandoned in Search of Rainbows
by A.K. Driggs
Book Publishers Network
Trade Paperback

From the book publicity:

Discovered inside a brown paper bag left on a toilet seat in a Rochester, New York, bar-and-grill washroom, newborn A.K. Driggs made headlines from the start. Adopted by a loving couple, she continued making waves on her extraordinary life journey--animal communicator, musical prodigy, bisexual lover, phone-sex superstar, recording artist.... Welcome to the colorful world of A.K. Driggs.

From abandonment and betrayal to unconditional love and trust, Abandoned in Search of Rainbowschronicles Driggs's incredible life. Her provocative, often sizzling, candor lets us experience the whole spectrum of emotions as Driggs searches for a meaningful life. By finally finding her place in the world--personally and professionally, romantically and sexually, musically and spiritually--Driggs illuminates a magical path for each of us to follow to get there too. As she says in her song, "I Found the Rainbow":In perfect harmony/my answers are clear. With my eyes finally open/And now I can see. For I found the rainbow/And the rainbow is.... ME.

In My TBR Stack:

Wolf Boys: Two American Teenagers and Mexico's Most Dangerous Drug Cartel
by Dan Slater
Simon & Schuster
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

The story of two American teens recruited as killers for a Mexican cartel, and their pursuit by a Mexican-American detective who realizes the War on Drugs is unwinnable.

What’s it like to be an employee of a global drug-trafficking organization? And how does a fifteen-year-old American boy go from star quarterback to trained assassin, surging up the cartel corporate ladder?

At first glance, Gabriel Cardona is the poster boy American teenager: great athlete, bright, handsome, and charismatic. But the streets of his border town of Laredo, Texas, are poor and dangerous, and it isn’t long before Gabriel abandons his promising future for the allure of the Zetas, a drug cartel with roots in the Mexican military. His younger friend Bart, as well as others from Gabriel’s childhood, join him in working for the Zetas, boosting cars and smuggling drugs, eventually catching the eye of the cartel’s leadership.

Meanwhile, Mexican-born Detective Robert Garcia has worked hard all his life and is now struggling to raise his family in America. As violence spills over the border, Detective Garcia’s pursuit of the boys, and their cartel leaders, puts him face to face with the urgent consequences of a war he sees as unwinnable.

In Wolf Boys Dan Slater shares their stories, taking us from the Sierra Madre mountaintops to the dusty, dark alleys of Laredo, Texas, on a harrowing, often brutal journey into the heart of the Mexican drug trade. Gabriel’s evolution from good-natured teenager into a feared assassin is as inevitable as Garcia’s slow realization of the futile nature of his work. A nonfiction thriller, Wolf Boys depicts more than just Gabriel, Bart, and the officers who took them down. It shows, through vivid detail and rich, often moving, narrative, the way in which the border itself is changing, disappearing, and posing new, terrifying, and yet largely unseen threats to American security. Ultimately though, Wolf Boys is the intimate story of the “lobos” themselves: boys turned into pawns for cartels. Their stories show how poverty, ideas about identity, and government ignorance have warped the definition of the American dream.

On My Radar:

Born to Run
by Bruce Springsteen
Simon & Schuster
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl’s halftime show. The experience was so exhilarating that Bruce decided to write about it. That’s how this extraordinary autobiography began.

Over the past seven years, Bruce Springsteen has privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life, bringing to these pages the same honesty, humor, and originality found in his songs.

He describes growing up Catholic in Freehold, New Jersey, amid the poetry, danger, and darkness that fueled his imagination, leading up to the moment he refers to as “The Big Bang”: seeing Elvis Presley’s debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, and the rise of the E Street Band. With disarming candor, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work, and shows us why the song “Born to Run” reveals more than we previously realized.

Born to Run will be revelatory for anyone who has ever enjoyed Bruce Springsteen, but this book is much more than a legendary rock star’s memoir. This is a book for workers and dreamers, parents and children, lovers and loners, artists, freaks, or anyone who has ever wanted to be baptized in the holy river of rock and roll.

Rarely has a performer told his own story with such force and sweep. Like many of his songs (“Thunder Road,” “Badlands,” “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” “The River,” “Born in the U.S.A.,” “The Rising,” and “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” to name just a few), Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography is written with the lyricism of a singular songwriter and the wisdom of a man who has thought deeply about his experiences.

In My TBR Stack:

Sell With a Story: How to Capture Attention, Build Trust, and Close the Sale

by Paul Smith

AMACOM

Hardcover

From the authorr's website:

Stories sell. Great SALES STORIES sell even more.

Despite all the high-tech tools available to salespeople, the most personal method still works best.

Storytelling packs the emotional punch to turn routine presentations into productive relationships. It explains products or services in ways that resonate; it connects people and creates momentum. Stories speak to the part of the brain where decisions are made.

Paul Smith, author of the acclaimed Lead with a Story, shifts his best-selling formula to the sales arena. In Sell with a Story, he identifies the ingredients of the most effective sales stories and reveals how to:

• Select the right story
• Craft a compelling and memorable narrative
• Incorporate challenge, conflict, and resolution
• Use stories to introduce yourself, build rapport, address objections, add value, bring data to life, create a sense of urgency, and more

Complete with model stories, skill-building exercises, and enlightening examples from Microsoft, Costco, Xerox, Abercrombie & Fitch, Hewlett Packard, and other top companies, this powerful and practical guide gives you the tools you need to turn your experiences into stories that sell.

On My Radar:

A Truck Full of Money: One Man's Quest to Recover From Great Success
by Tracy Kidder
Random House
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Tracy Kidder, the “master of the nonfiction narrative” (The Baltimore Sun) and author of the bestselling classic The Soul of a New Machine,now tells the story of Paul English, a kinetic and unconventional inventor and entrepreneur, who as a boy rebelled against authority. Growing up in working-class Boston, English discovers a medium for his talents the first time he sees a computer. As a young man, despite suffering from what would eventually be diagnosed as bipolar disorder, he begins his pilgrim’s journey through the ups and downs in the brave new world of computers. Relating to the Internet as if it’s an extension of his own mind, he discovers that he has a talent for conceiving innovative enterprises and building teams that can develop them, becoming “a Pied Piper” of geeks. His innovative management style, success, and innate sense of fair play inspire intense loyalty. Early on, one colleague observes: “Someday this boy’s going to get hit by a truck full of money, and I’m going to be standing beside him.” Yet when English does indeed make a fortune, when the travel website Kayak is sold for almost two billion dollars—the first thing he thinks about is how to give the money away: “What else would you do with it?” The second thing he thinks is, What’s next?

With the power of a consummate storyteller, Tracy Kidder casts a fresh, critical, and often humorous eye on the way new ideas and new money are reshaping our culture and the world. A Truck Full of Money is a mesmerizing portrait of an irresistibly endearing man who is indefatigable, original, and as unpredictable as America itself.

Fiction Friday:

Infamy
(Book #28 of A Butch Karp - Marlene Ciampi Thriller
by Robert K. Tanenbaum
Gallery Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

The “rock-solid” (Kirkus Reviews) prosecutor Butch Karp and his wife, Marlene Ciampi, return to solve the suspicious murder of a US Army colonel and battle corruption at the highest levels of the United States government in this novel by New York Times bestselling author Robert K. Tanenbaum.

Intrigue, murder, corruption, and dramatic courtroom battles combine to make Infamy another must-read in Robert K. Tanenbaum’s “tightly-written” (Booklist) legal thrillers. When a former Army veteran suddenly murders a colonel in New York, he claims that he had to do it because he was being used in mind control experiments. Surprisingly, a top Wall Street criminal defense lawyer, one with ties to the White House, decides to defend the killer, arguing that his client suffered from post-traumatic stress from his tours in Afghanistan and that it’s his patriotic duty to assist him.

As New York District Attorney Roger “Butch” Karp prepares a murder case against the veteran, he meets with investigative reporter Ariadne Stupenagel, who suspects that one of her sources for a story on high-level government corruption was a victim in the shooting. This points not to a random act of violence, but a hired killing that goes to the top levels of our nation.

In this fast-paced thriller, Karp goes up against corruption so powerful that he, his family, and his friends are in danger if he intends to prosecute those responsible for the murder of an FBI whistle-blower. Filled with edge-of-your-seat action, stunning plot twists, and, “solid courtroom scenes” (Kirkus Reviews), Infamy will keep you guessing until the very end.

nd.

In My TBR Stack:

Treyf: My Life as an Unorthodox Outlaw
by Elissa Altman
New American Library
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Treyf: According to Leviticus, unkosher and prohibited, like lobster, shrimp, pork, fish without scales, the mixing of meat and dairy. Also, imperfect, intolerable, offensive, undesirable, unclean, improper, broken, forbidden, illicit.
 
Fans of Augusten Burroughs and Jo Ann Beard will enjoy this kaleidoscopic, universal memoir in which Elissa Altman explores the tradition, religion, family expectations, and the forbidden that were the fixed points in her Queens, New York, childhood. Every part of Altman’s youth was laced with contradiction and hope, betrayal and the yearning for acceptance: synagogue on Saturday and Chinese pork ribs on Sunday; bat mitzvahs followed by shrimp-in-lobster-sauce luncheons; her old-country grandparents, whose kindness and love were tied to unspoken rage, and her bell-bottomed neighbors, whose adoring affection hid dark secrets.
 
While the suburban promise of The Brady Bunch blared on television, Altman searched for peace and meaning in a world teeming with faith, violence, sex, and paradox. Spanning from 1940s wartime Brooklyn to 1970s Queens to present-day rural New England, Treyf captures the collision of youthful cravings and grown-up identities. It is a vivid tale of what it means to come to yourself both in spite and in honor to your past.

In My TBR Stack:

Marrow: A Love Story
by Elizabeth Lesser
Harper Wave
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

The author of the New York Times bestseller Broken Open returns with a visceral and profound memoir of two sisters who, in the face of a bone marrow transplant—one the donor and one the recipient—begin a quest for acceptance, authenticity, and most of all, love.

A mesmerizing and courageous memoir: the story of two sisters uncovering the depth of their love through the life-and-death experience of a bone marrow transplant. Throughout her life, Elizabeth Lesser has sought understanding about what it means to be true to oneself and, at the same time, truly connected to the ones we love. But when her sister Maggie needs a bone marrow transplant to save her life, and Lesser learns that she is the perfect match, she faces a far more immediate and complex question about what it really means to love—honestly, generously, and authentically.

Hoping to give Maggie the best chance possible for a successful transplant, the sisters dig deep into the marrow of their relationship to clear a path to unconditional acceptance. They leave the bone marrow transplant up to the doctors, but take on what Lesser calls a "soul marrow transplant," examining their family history, having difficult conversations, examining old assumptions, and offering forgiveness until all that is left is love for each other’s true selves. Their process—before, during, and after the transplant—encourages them to take risks of authenticity in other aspects their lives.

But life does not follow the storylines we plan for it. Maggie’s body is ultimately too weak to fight the relentless illness. As she and Lesser prepare for the inevitable, they grow ever closer as their shared blood cells become a symbol of the enduring bond they share. Told with suspense and humor, Marrow is joyous and heartbreaking, incandescent and profound. The story reveals how even our most difficult experiences can offer unexpected spiritual growth. Reflecting on the multifaceted nature of love—love of other, love of self, love of the world—Marrow is an unflinching and beautiful memoir about getting to the very center of ourselves.

On My Radar:

The Fortress: A Love Story
by Danielle Trussoni
Dey Street Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

The critically acclaimed, bestselling author of Falling Through the Earth and Angelology returns with this much-anticipated memoir of love and transformation in France. The Fortress is Peter Mayle meets Eat, Pray, Love, a gorgeously written account of one woman's journey to the other side of the romantic fairytale.

"If I had been another woman, I might have been skeptical. But I wasn't another woman. I was a woman ready to be swept away. I was a woman ready for her story to begin. As a writer, story was all that mattered. Rising action, dramatic complication, heroes and villains and dark plots. I believed I was the author of my life, that I controlled the narration."

From their first kiss, twenty-seven-year-old writer Danielle Trussoni is spellbound by a novelist from Bulgaria. The two share a love of jazz and books and travel, passions that intensify their whirlwind romance.

Eight years later, hopeful to renew their marriage, Danielle and her husband move to the south of France, to a picturesque medieval village in the Languedoc. It is here, in a haunted stone fortress built by the Knights Templar, that she comes to understand the dark, subterranean forces that have been following her all along.

While Danielle and her husband eventually part, Danielle's time in the fortress brings precious wisdom about life and love that she could not have learned otherwise. Ultimately, she finds the strength to overcome her illusions, and start again.

An incisive look at romantic love, The Fortress is one woman's fight to understand the complexities of her own heart, told by one of the best writers of her generation.

On My Radar:

Based on a True Story: A Memoir
by Norm MacDonald
Spiegel & Grau
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

As this books' title suggests, Norm Macdonald tells the story of his life -- more or less -- from his origins on a farm in the-back-of-beyond Canada and an epically disastrous appearance on Star Search to his account of auditioning for Lorne Michaels and his memorable run as the anchor of Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live -- until he was fired because a corporate executive didn't think he was funny. But Based on a True Story is much more than a memoir; it's the hilarious, inspired epic of Norm's life.

In dispatches from a road trip to Las Vegas (part of a plan hatched to regain the fortune he'd lost to sports betting and other vices) with his sidekick and enabler, Adam Eget, Norm recounts the milestone moments, the regrets, the love affairs, the times fortune smiled on his life, and the times it refused to smile. As the clock ticks down, Norm's debt reaches record heights, and he must find a way to evade the hefty price that's been placed on his head by one of the most dangerous loan sharks in the country.

As a comedy legend should, Norm peppers these pages with classic jokes and fondly mythologized Hollywood stories. This wildly adventurous, totally original, and absurdly funny saga turns the conventional "comic's memoir" on its head and gives the reader an exclusive pass into the mad, glorioius mind of Norm Macdonald.

On My Radar:

The Tao of Bill Murray:  Real-Life Stories of Joy, Enlightenment, and Party Crashing
by Gavin Edwards
Random House
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

This collection of the most epic, hilarious, and strange Bill Murray stories, many of which have never before been reported, spotlights the star’s extraordinary ability to infuse the everyday with surprise, absurdity, and wonder.

No one will ever believe you.

New York Times bestselling author Gavin Edwards, like the rest of us, has always been fascinated with Bill Murray—in particular the beloved actor’s adventures off-screen, which rival his filmography for sheer entertainment value. Edwards traveled to the places where Murray has lived, worked, and partied, in search of the most outrageous and hilarious Bill Murray stories from the past four decades, many of which have never before been reported. Bill once paid a child five dollars to ride his bike into a swimming pool. The star convinced Harvard’s JV women’s basketball team to play with him in a private game of hoops. Many of these surreal encounters ended with Bill whispering, “No one will ever believe you” into a stranger’s ear. But The Tao of Bill Murray is more than just a collection of wacky anecdotes. This volume puts the actor’s public clowning into a larger context, as Edwards distills Murray’s unique way of being into a set of guiding principles. A sideways mix of comedy and philosophy, full of photo bombs, late-night party crashes, and movie-set antics, this is the perfect book for anyone who calls themselves a Bill Murray fan—which is to say, everyone.

On My Radar:

After Further Review: My Life Including the Infamous, Controversial, and Unforgettable Calls That Changed the NFL
by Mike Pereira
Triumph Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

A former NFL ref and acclaimed rules expert shares his insights and thoughts on the rules of the sport  Only recently in the world of NFL media have "rules experts" become an essential part of a fan's viewing experience. As the league continues to implement rule changes that have more and more of an impact on games and, sometimes, the final outcome, it's become imperative that fans understand the rules and how they're applied. But often, they need help. Mike Pereira, hired by Fox Sports in 2010 as the rules expert for both the NFL and college football, was not only the first to rise to prominence in the role, but he is consistently lauded as being the best by his peers and even rival media networks. Viewers have come to rely on Pereira, the former vice president of NFL officiating, to provide entertaining, informative, and reliable explanations of the league's often baffling and controversial rulings during games. Now, Pereira digs a little deeper and gives NFL fans and casual viewers alike insight into NFL rules, their applications, and some of the most controversial calls in recent memory, in terms both can understand. In this book, Pereira draws on professional experience and his personal life, both his years of work at the pinnacle of the officiating world and his upbringing as the child of longtime official, Al Pereira.

On My Radar:

On Someone Else's Nickel: A Life in Television, Sports, and Travel
by Tim Ryan
Diversion Books
Hardcover

From the book publicity:


Tim Ryan is no doubt the only sportscaster who has crash-landed in the Namib desert, been charged by a rhino in Zimbabwe, herded sheep at the beginning of a Winter Olympics telecast, and dodged flying bottles at a professional boxing match.

In his new memoir, On Someone Else’s Nickel, Ryan recounts all of these tales and more in the lively, trustworthy voice that sports fans will recognize from televised sporting events of the past fifty years. Armchair travelers and sports enthusiasts alike will be taken on a riveting journey as Ryan shares anecdotes from his adventures in broadcasting that span thirty sports in more than twenty countries over fifty years. And while the events themselves are impressive―ten Olympic Games, more than three hundred championship boxing matches, Wimbledon and U.S. Open tennis, World Cup Skiing, just to name a few―it’s the lesser-known stories that happened along the way to the big events that really stand out in Ryan’s telling. As he details how he came to call the first Ali-Frazier fight for the Armed Forces Network, or hosted a tennis tournament featuring the McEnroe brothers to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Association, Ryan shines a light on sports and the world beyond sports―the world of family, friends, colleagues, and connections that endure when the game has been won, the medals awarded, the champion crowned, and the mic turned off.

In My TBR Stack:

My Life with Earth, Wind & Fire
by Maurice White with Herb Powell
Amistad Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

The late Grammy-winning founder of the legendary pop/R&B/soul/funk/disco group tells his story and charts the rise of his legendary band in this sincere memoir that captures the heart and soul of an artist whose groundbreaking sound continues to influence music today. With an introduction by Steve Harvey and a foreword by David Foster.

"To the readers of this book you need to know that EW&F is simply the greatest living group in my lifetime. No one put together lyrics to a melody like they did; no one put harmony to sound and rhythm like they did; no one added horns in the way that they did and no one, but no one, messed with our minds about love and life like they did...EARTH because they grow on you; WIND because it moves you in one loving direction and FIRE because they consume your heart in a single flame of love." -- Steve Harvey

With its dynamic horns, contrasting vocals, and vivid stage shows, Earth, Wind & Fire was one of the most popular acts of the late twentieth century -- the band "that changed the sound of black pop" (Rolling Stone) -- and its music continues to inspire modern artists including Usher, Jay-Z, Cee-Lo Green, and Outkast. At last, the band's founder, Maurice White, shares the story of his success.

White reflects on the great blessings music has brought to his life and the struggles he's endured: his mother leaving him behind in Memphis when he was four; learning to play the drums with Booker T. Jones moving to Chicago at eighteen and later Los Angeles after leaving the Ramsey Lewis Trio; forming EWF, only to have the original group fall apart; working with Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond; his diagnosis of Parkinson's; and his final public performance with the group at the 2006 Grammy Awards. Through it all, White credits his faith for his amazing success and guidance in overcoming his many challenges.

My Life with Earth, Wind & Fire is an intimate, moving, and beautiful memoir from a man whose creativity and determination carried him to great success, and whose faith enabled him to savor every moment.

On My Radar:

Fun and Games: My 40 Years Writing Sports
by Dave Perkins
ECW Press
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

Dave Perkins was once told by a bluntly helpful university admissions officer: “You don’t have the looks for TV or the voice for radio. You should go into print.” Which he did, first at the Globe and Mail, and then for 36 well-travelled years at the Toronto Star.

In Fun and Games, Perkins recounts hysterical, revealing, and sometimes embarrassing personal stories from almost every sport and many major championships. After 40 years of encountering a myriad of athletes, fans, team managers, and owners, Perkins offers unique observations on the Blue Jays and Raptors, 58 major championships’ worth of golf, 10 Olympic Games, football, hockey, boxing, horse racing, and more.

Learn why Tiger Woods asked Perkins if he was nuts, why he detected Forrest Gump in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and why Super Bowl week is the worst week of the year. Perkins exposes the mistakes he made in both thought and word — once, when intending to type “the shot ran down the goalie’s leg,” he used an “i” instead of an “o” — and to this day, he has never found a sacred cow that didn’t deserve a barbecue.

On My Radar:

Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy
by Mike Love with James S. Hirsch
Blue Rider Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

As a founding member of The Beach Boys, Mike Love has spent an extraordinary fifty-five years, and counting, as the group’s lead singer and one of its principal lyricists. The Beach Boys, from their California roots to their international fame, are a unique American story — one of overnight success and age-defying longevity; of musical genius and reckless self-destruction; of spirituality, betrayal, and forgiveness — and Love is the only band member to be part of it each and every step. His own story has never been fully told, of how a sheet-metal apprentice became the quintessential front man for America’s most successful rock band, singing in more than 5,600 concerts in 26 countries.

Love describes the stories behind his lyrics for pop classics such as “Good Vibrations,” “California Girls,” “Surfin’ USA,” and “Kokomo,” while providing vivid portraits of the turbulent lives of his three gifted cousins, Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson. His partnership with Brian has few equals in American pop music, though Mike has carved out a legacy of his own — he co-wrote the lyrics to eleven of the twelve original Beach Boy songs that were top 10 hits while providing the lead vocals on ten of them. The band’s unprecedented durability also provides a glimpse into America’s changing cultural mores over the past half century, while Love himself has experienced both the diabolical and the divine — from Charles Manson’s “family” threatening his life to Maharishi instilling it with peace. A husband, a father, and an avid environmentalist, Love has written a book that is as rich and layered as the Beach Boy harmonies themselves.

On My Radar:

In Such Good Company: Eleven Years of Laughter, Mayhem, and Fun in the Sandbox
by Carol Burnett

Crown Archetype
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Comedy legend Carol Burnett tells the hilarious behind-the-scenes story of her iconic weekly variety series, The Carol Burnett Show.

Who but Carol Burnett herself has the timing, talent, and wit to pull back the curtain on the Emmy-Award winning show that made television history for eleven glorious seasons?In Such Good Company delves into little-known stories of the guests, sketches and antics that made the show legendary, as well as some favorite tales too good not to relive again. Carol lays it all out for us, from the show’s original conception to its evolution into one of the most beloved primetime programs of its generation.

Written with all the charm and humor fans expect from a masterful entertainer like Carol Burnett, In Such Good Company skillfully highlights the elements that made the show so successful in a competitive period when TV variety shows ruled the air waves. Putting the spotlight on everyone from her talented costars to her amazing guest stars—the most celebrated and popular entertainers of their day—Carol crafts a lively portrait of the talent and creativity that went into every episode.

Here are all the topics readers want to know more about, including:
 • how the show almost didn’t air due to the misgivings of certain CBS vice presidents;
 • how she discovered and hired Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway;
 • anecdotes about guest stars and her close freindships with many of them, including Lucille Ball, Roddy Mcdowell, Jim Nabors, Bernadette Peters, Betty Grable, Steve Lawrence, Eydie Gorme, Gloria Swanson, Rita Hayworth, and Betty White;
 • the people behind the scenes from Bob Mackie, her costume designer and partner in crime, to the wickedly funny cameraman who became a fixture during the show’s opening Q&A;
 • and Carol’s takes on her favorite sketches and the unpredictable moments that took both the cast and viewers by surprise.

This book is Carol’s love letter to a golden era in television history through the lens of her brilliant show which won no less than 25 Emmy Awards! Get the best seat in the house as she reminisces about the outrageous tales that made working on the show as much fun as watching it.

On My Radar:

Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rap
by Ben Westhoff

Hachette Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Amid rising gang violence, the crack epidemic, and police brutality, a group of unlikely voices cut through the chaos of late 1980s Los Angeles: N.W.A. Led by a drug dealer, a glammed-up producer, and a high school kid, N.W.A gave voice to disenfranchised African Americans across the country. And they quickly redefined pop culture across the world. Their names remain as popular as ever--Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, and Ice Cube. Dre soon joined forces with Suge Knight to create the combustible Death Row Records, which in turn transformed Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur into superstars.


Ben Westhoff explores how this group of artists shifted the balance of hip-hop from New York to Los Angeles. He shows how N.W.A.'s shocking success lead to rivalries between members, record labels, and eventually a war between East Coast and West Coast factions. In the process, hip-hop burst into mainstream America at a time of immense social change, and became the most dominant musical movement of the last thirty years. At gangsta rap's peak, two of its biggest names--Tupac and Biggie Smalls--were murdered, leaving the surviving artists to forge peace before the genre annihilated itself.

Featuring extensive investigative reporting, interviews with the principal players, and dozens of never-before-told stories, Original Gangstas is a groundbreaking addition to the history of popular music.

In My TBR Stack:

Love, Loss, and Awakening: (Mis)adventures on the Way Back to Joy
by Dennis P. Freed
Tolawaken Press
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

The death of a loved one is devastating, and can leave us questioning our new path. Will I ever want to find love again, and if so, how do I find it? What is appropriate behavior for a widowed fifty-four-year-old senior? Should I explore dating sites? Meet women in bars? Rely on introductions from friends? The questions far outnumber the answers.

Dennis and Hope Freed had a fulfilling marriage. Over the course of thirty-two years they built a home, created a loving family, and shared all their dreams with one another and their two sons. Then Hope got cancer. She fought a long, brave battle, but it was one she couldn’t win. Dennis Freed’s beloved wife and best-trusted friend had gone, leaving him alone to figure out a future he’d never imagined.

On My Radar:

Bedlam's Door: True Tales of Madness and Hope
by Mark Rubinstein, MD
Thunder Lake Press
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

Why would a man born in Hungary and living on Manhattan's Lower East Side run down Delancey Street ranting "I'm king of the Puerto Rican's"?

What would compel a physically healthy woman to persuade surgeons to operate on her more than a dozen times?

How was it possible for a man wearing a straitjacket to commit suicide within a locked psychiatric ward while in the company of a well-trained guard?

Though these and the other stories in this volume read like fiction, each is true.

Former practicing psychiatrist Mark Rubinstein opens the door and takes the reader deep into the world of mental illness. From the chaos of a psychiatric emergency room to the bowels of a maximum security prison, the stories range from bizarre to poignant and the people from noble to callously uncaring.

Bedlam's Door depicts the challenges mental illness poses for patients, their families, health-care professionals, and society. More importantly, it demystifies the subject while offering real hope for the future.

On My Radar:

The Rookie Handbook: How to Survive the First Season in the NFL
by Ryan Kalil, Jordan Gross, and Geoff Hangartner
Regan Arts
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

Congratulations, you just got drafted into the NFL. Now what?

Here’s what’s ahead of you: rigorous training, complicated playbooks, financial conundrums, intense pressure to perform—and temptation. Welcome to the big leagues.

Informative, smart, funny, and beautifully illustrated, The Rookie Handbook has everything NFL rookies need to know to survive their first season of pro football, straight from veterans Ryan Kalil, Jordan Gross, and Geoff Hangartner. The three authors have a combined thirty years of NFL experience, but they too were rookies themselves, once upon a time.
 
Much like rookies, NFL fans only know what they see on TV or read—obsessively following Rich Eisen and scouring obscure blogs for fantasy football info. But when it comes to what goes on in the inner sanctum, behind the locker room doors, it’s a mystery. The Rookie Handbook is the insider’s guide to that exclusive club, pulling back the curtain to reveal how players act and think—and what they do when no one is watching.

On My Radar:

All These Things That I've Done: My Insane, Improbable Rock Life
by Matt Pinfield with Mitchell Cohen
Scribner
Hardcover


From the publisher's website:

“The most trusted opinion in rock music” (Billy Corgan, The Smashing Pumpkins), Matt Pinfield offers the ultimate music fan’s memoir, a chronicle of the songs and artists that inspired his improbable career alongside some of the all-time greats, from The Beatles to KISS to U2 to The Killers.

Matt Pinfield is the ultimate music fan. He’s the guy who knows every song, artist, and musical riff ever recorded, down to the most obscure band’s B-side single on its vinyl-only EP import. As a child, music helped Pinfield make sense of the world. Later, as a teenager, Pinfield would approach his music idols after concerts and explain why he loved their music. As an adult, rock music inspired his career, fueled relationships, and, at times, became a life raft.

In this expansive, no-holds-barred memoir Pinfield traces his lifelong music obsession—from the heavy metal that infused his teenage years, to his first encounters with legends like Lou Reed and The Ramones and how, through his post-MTV years, he played a major role in bringing nineties alt rock mainstream. Over his long career Pinfield has interviewed everyone from Paul McCartney to Nirvana to Jay-Z, earning the trust and admiration of artists and fans alike. Now, for the first time, Pinfield shares his five decades of stories from the front lines of rock and roll, exploring how, with nothing more than passion and moxy, he became a sought-after reporter, unlikely celebrity, and the last word in popular music. Featuring a rousing collection of best-of lists, favorite tracks, and artist profiles,All These Things That I’ve Done explains how a born outsider wound up in the inner circle.

On My Radar:

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race
by Margot Lee Shetterly
William Morrow
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space.

Among these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching math in the South’s segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America’s aeronautics industry was in dire need of anyone who had the right stuff. Suddenly, these overlooked math whizzes had a shot at jobs worthy of their skills, and they answered Uncle Sam’s call, moving to Hampton, Virginia and the fascinating, high-energy world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory.

Even as Virginia’s Jim Crow laws required them to be segregated from their white counterparts, the women of Langley’s all-black “West Computing” group helped America achieve one of the things it desired most: a decisive victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and complete domination of the heavens.

Starting in World War II and moving through to the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement and the Space Race,Hidden Figures follows the interwoven accounts of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Christine Darden, four African American women who participated in some of NASA’s greatest successes. It chronicles their careers over nearly three decades they faced challenges, forged alliances and used their intellect to change their own lives, and their country’s future.

In My TBR Stack:

The Gatekeeper: Missy LeHand, FDR, and the Untold Story of the Partnership That Defined a Presidency
by Kathryn Smith
Touchstone Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

The first biography of arguably the most influential member of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration, Marguerite “Missy” LeHand, FDR’s de facto chief of staff, who has been misrepresented, mischaracterized, and overlooked throughout history…until now.

Widely considered the first female presidential chief of staff, Marguerite “Missy” LeHand was the right-hand woman to Franklin Delano Roosevelt—both personally and professionally—for more than twenty years. Although her official title as personal secretary was relatively humble, her power and influence were unparalleled. Everyone in the White House knew one truth: If you wanted access to Franklin, you had to get through Missy. She was one of his most trusted advisors, affording her a unique perspective on the president that no one else could claim, and she was deeply admired and respected by Eleanor and the Roosevelt children.

With unprecedented access to Missy’s family and original source materials, journalist Kathryn Smith tells the captivating and forgotten story of the intelligent, loyal, and clever woman who had a front-row seat to history in the making. The Gatekeeper is a thoughtful, revealing unsung-hero story about a woman ahead of her time, the true weight of her responsibility, and the tumultuous era in which she lived—and a long overdue tribute to one of the most important female figures in American history.

On My Radar:

Around the World in 50 Years: My Adventure to Every Country on Earth
by Albert Podell
Thomas Dunne Books / St. Martin's Griffin
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

Around the World in 50 Years is the inspiring story of an ordinary guy who achieved two great goals that others had told him were impossible. First, he set a record for the longest automobile journey ever made around the world, during which he blasted his way out of minefields, survived a serious accident atop the Peak of Death, came within seconds of being lynched, and lost three of the five men who started with him: two to disease, one to the Vietcong.

After that, Albert Podell set another record by going to every country on earth. He survived riots, revolutions, civil wars, trigger-happy child soldiers, voodoo priests, jihadists, robbers, corrupt cops, and Cape buffalo. He traveled through every kind of earthquake, cyclone, tsunami, volcanic eruption, snowstorm, and sandstorm that nature threw at him. He ate everything from old camel meat and African field rats to dung beetles and the brain of a live monkey. And he overcame encounters with crocodiles, hippos, anacondas, giant leeches, flying crabs—and several beautiful women who insisted that he stop this nonsense and marry them.

Around the World in 50 Years is a remarkable and meaningful tale packed with some of the most memorable, frightening, and hilarious adventure stories you have ever read.

On My Radar:

Never Say No to a Rock Star: In the Studio with Dylan, Sinatra, Jagger, and More....
by Glenn Berger
Schaffner Press
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

In 1974, at the age of seventeen, author Glenn Berger served as "Schlepper" and apprentice to the legendary recording engineer Phil Ramone at New York City's A&R Studios, and was witness to music history on an almost daily and nightly basis as pop and rock icons such as Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Frank Sinatra, Burt Bacharach, Bette Midler, and James Brown performed their hit-making magic, honed their sound, strutted their stuff, bared their souls, and threw epic tantrums. In this memoir, full of revelatory and previously unknown anecdotal observations of these musical giants, Glenn recounts how he quickly learned the ropes to move up from schlepperhood to assistant to the tyrannical Ramone, and eventually, to become a recording engineer superstar himself. Not only is Never Say No to A Rock Star a fascinating, hilarious and poignant behind-the-scenes look of this musical Mecca, but Berger, now a prominent psychologist, looking back through the prism of his youthful experience and his years working as a counselor and therapist, provides a telling and honest examination of the nature of fame and success and the corollaries between creativity, madness and self-destruction.