Weird Biography

The very strange but nevertheless true story of the dark underbelly of a 1960s hippie utopia. Laurel Canyon in the 1960s and early 1970s was a magical place where a dizzying array of musical artists congregated to create much of the music that provided the soundtrack to those turbulent times. But there was a dark side to that scene as well. Many didn't make it out alive, and many of those deaths remain shrouded in mystery to this day.

A veteran music journalist explores how four legendary rock bands—KISS, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, and Starz—laid the foundation for two diametrically opposed subgenres: hair metal in the '80s and grunge in the '90s. It was the age when heavy-footed, humorless dinosaurs roamed the hard-rock...

He died believing his own name would be forgotten within a generation. Today it sits on the same shelf as Melville, Hawthorne, and Twain. Howard Phillips Lovecraft spent forty-six years convinced he had accomplished nothing of lasting value. He died nearly penniless in a Providence hospital ward, known to a few thousand readers of pulp magazines nobody expected to outlive the decade. He had no idea that the god he invented in a cheap magazine story would one day be recognized by people who had never read a word he wrote, or that writers, filmmakers, and game designers would spend the next ...

Music Professor Lily Hirsch dives deeper into the world of the iconic man who has made a career out of making us laugh. Hirsch weaves together her interviews with the prince of parody himself and reveals the deeper meaning of Yankovic’s jests, addressing such topics as bullying, celebrity, and racial and gender stereotypes.

Every Legend Was Once Just a Kid With a Ball. Show Your Young Player How It Starts. Long before the trophies and millions of fans, they were simply boys with a dream. Some were told they were too small. Others grew up with little money. But they overcame life’s challenges and rose to greatness. This book brings their true and inspiring journeys to life. Inside you'll find: Inspiring Stories: Meet the players who reshaped the game. Discover how Cristiano Ronaldo left home at just 12 years old to pursue his dream at a soccer academy, and how Lamine Yamal became one of the youngest players ...

Is Your Young Slugger Ready for the Wildest, Truest Baseball Stories Ever Told? Give your child or teen a book that finally makes baseball thrilling. Packed with the impossible moments that turned ordinary kids into the greatest players. A boy who could not stop growing. A rookie in bright Brooklyn white told not to swing back. A two-way star who would not pick between hitting and pitching. Legends. Records that refuse to die. All in one book. Inside you'll find: Greatest Stories: Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Ronald Acuña Jr., Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso, and more. True biographies ...

Break free from the norm to lead a radically abnormal (and endlessly more fulfilling) life. In our over busy, unprincipled, oversexed world; lust, debt, guilt, and shame are far more common than a healthy relationship to time, money, and relationships. Simply put, normal isn't working. In WEIRD...

Read all about how a young boy from California who listened to polka music and played the accordion became a comedian, parody songwriter, and Grammy winner in this biography for young readers about “Weird Al” Yankovic! When Alfred Yankovic was seven years old, a salesman knocked on the door...

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AN APPLE BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH Singer-songwriter Neko Case paints a vivid portrait of an extraordinary life—one forged through a poverty-stricken childhood, obsessive desire, bursts of comedy, and indispensable friendships—reflecting on the way art, music, and a...

Since 1997, young men have walked out of bars alone and turned up in rivers. Two retired New York detectives say the police have been calling murder an accident. They have a name for it–serial murder. They have a map–the first thirty-five cases fell along one stretch of Interstate 94, from Michigan to Montana. They have smiley faces spray-painted near the water where the men went in, and a victim count that started at forty and eventually passed seven hundred. The FBI says there is no evidence any of it is connected.

In accessible language and with periodic references to Star Trek, motorcycle daredevils, and near-classic movies of the '80s, developmental molecular biologist John Medina explores the neurological and evolutionary factors that drive teenage behavior and can affect both achievement and engagement. Then he proposes a research-supported counterattack: a bold redesign of educational practices and learning environments to deliberately develop teens' cognitive capacity to manage their emotions, plan, prioritize, and focus.

An honest, sharp-witted, practical guide to help you get and keep the job you want—from an outsider whose been there and done it, a woman who went from being a broke, divorced, college dropout to running some of the biggest websites in the world. Jennifer Romolini started her career as an...

“Craig Pittman has a remarkable talent for telling stories set in the Sunshine State that never fail to fascinate and entertain. Sure, Cat Tale has plenty of laughs and Florida weirdness, but Pittman has written a truly inspirational story about the panther’s brush with extinction, and the...

ARE YOU SICK OF "Trivia" Books filled with UNVERIFIED internet rumors and JUVENILE jokes that INSULT your intelligence? If so, The Distinguished Bathroom Reader is your new essential companion. Welcome to the only room in your house where you are permitted to lock the door and ignore your family. In a world of noise and distraction, the bathroom is your last haven of solitude. My name is Viscount Loo, and I represent a syndicate of rigorously educated individuals dedicated to saving the modern gentleman from the indignity of boredom. We have curated a gentleman's guide to productive privacy...

If the saints have never made you laugh or drop your jaw, they will in this book. Best-selling author Shaun McAfee (Reform Yourself!, Filling Our Father’s House) and guest writers illustrate how the saints were not just stone-faced old men. Some of them had quirky habits and outrageous personalities and did breathtaking deeds...but they all had epic faith.

When Peter Flom was five years old, his parents were told that he had "minimal brain dysfunction" and would never go to college. Peter skipped twelfth grade, did college in three years, and got his BA at twenty. He now has a Ph.D. He also has a new diagnosis: Twice Exceptional (2E). He has nonverbal learning disabilities but is also gifted. In Twice as Weird: A Memoir about Twice Exceptionality, he tells what it was like to grow up with a diagnosis that didn't exist yet, and to discover what he was.

Birth control. Body hair removal cream. Boobs. It’s all weird, but also pretty normal. Navigating racial identity, gender roles, workplace dynamics, and beauty standards, Mia Mercado's hilarious essay collection explores the contradictions of being a millennial woman, which usually means being...

Briarcliff Mansion and the land it occupies are owned by Emory University, which refers to it as its "Briarcliff Campus." Fortune and Folly, in part, illuminates the largely lost story of how the mansion, and the entire surrounding neighborhood, got its name. But in order to understand the mansion, we have to understand the man who built it. Briarcliff Mansion once belonged to a man named Asa Candler, Jr.—also known as Buddie. The second son and namesake of Coca-Cola founder Asa Griggs Candler, Buddie was a wealthy real estate developer of great successes and greater failures.

Foreword read by Melissa McCarthy and featuring the voices of Stephen, Margaret, and Flynn Falcone. A funny and intimate look at fatherhood from the actor and writer/director of The Boss and Tammy that combines stories about his own larger-than-life dad and how his experiences raising two...

How the Washington sausage really gets made: a brutally honest, outrageous memoir by former GOP congressman Trey Radel. "Radel, the former congressman busted on cocaine charges, has published a memoir that delves into the forgotten concept of shame." - Huffington Post "DEMOCRAZY is the most...