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The music of silence: New Edition (Amadeus Ser.)
By Andrea Bocelli. 2011
Using a third-person narrative, opera singer Bocelli, who as a young boy lost his vision to congenital bilateral glaucoma, describes…
his childhood in Italy and his interest, education, and career in music. Relates challenges he faced and overcame. Originally published in Italian. 2011Piano starts here: the young Art Tatum
By Robert Andrew Parker, Robert A. Parker. 2008
Songs in the whirlwind
By June Masters Bacher, June M. Bacher. 1992
Poverty continues, and, regardless of their faith, a better life on their barren Texas land seems doubtful for Marvel Harrington…
and her family. The winds blow, the water becomes contaminated, and folks get typhoid. Yet in the midst of all this affliction, Marvel hears from Titus, and hope for a future with him becomes real--until her family decides to move to Oregon. Sequel to No Time for Tears (DB 36077)Chameleon: the March madness murders, a novel
By Matthew O'Brien. 1997
Bandbox: A Novel (Harvest Book Ser.)
By Thomas Mallon. 2004
From the author of Henry and Clara, a dazzling, hilarious novel that captures the heart and soul of New York…
in the Jazz Age.Bandbox is a hugely successful magazine, a glamorous monthly cocktail of 1920s obsessions from the stock market to radio to gangland murder. Edited by the bombastic Jehoshaphat "Joe" Harris, the magazine has a masthead that includes, among many others, a grisly, alliterative crime writer; a shy but murderously determined copyboy; and a burned-out vaudeville correspondent who's lovesick for his loyal, dewy assistant.As the novel opens, the defection of Harris's most ambitious protégé has plunged Bandbox into a death struggle with a new competitor on the newsstand. But there's more to come: a sabotaged fiction contest, the NYPD vice squad, a subscriber's kidnapping, and a film-actress cover subject who makes the heroines of Fosse's Chicago look like the girls next door. While Harris and his magazine careen from comic crisis to make-or-break calamity, the novel races from skyscraper to speakeasy, hops a luxury train to Hollywood, and crashes a buttoned-down dinner with Calvin Coolidge.Thomas Mallon has given us a madcap and poignant book that brilliantly portrays the gaudiest American decade of them all.From the Hardcover edition.Tiger Rag: A Novel
By Nicholas Christopher. 2013
The acclaimed author of Veronica and A Trip to the Stars returns with a dazzling new novel based on one…
of the great legends of musical history. New Orleans, 1900. The virtuoso cornet player Charles "Buddy" Bolden invents jazz, but after a life consumed by tragedy, the groundbreaking sound of his horn vanishes with him. Rumors persist, though, that Bolden recorded a phonograph cylinder, and over the course of a century it evolves into the elusive holy grail of jazz. Florida, the present day. Dr. Ruby Cardillo's life is falling apart. Her husband, a prominent cardiologist, has left her for a twenty-six-year-old. Her daughter, Devon, a once promising jazz pianist, has recently finished an enforced stint picking up trash along the interstate after a drug conviction. Ruby's estranged mother has just died, but not before conjuring up ghosts that Ruby thought she had put behind her long ago. After a long career as a well-respected anesthesiologist, Ruby suddenly jumps the tracks, forgetting to eat and sleep, indulging her every whim, wearing only purple, consuming only bottles of 1988 Château Latour. Then Ruby enlists Devon to accompany her on an impulsive road trip to New York, and both mother and daughter get more than they bargained for, discovering that their own shrouded family history is connected to the tantalizing search for Buddy Bolden's long-lost cylinder. Ranging from turn-of-the-century Louisiana to Roaring Twenties Chicago to contemporary Manhattan, Tiger Rag is at once a moving story of loss and redemption and an intricate historical mystery from one of our most brilliant storytellers. "A literary omnivore, Nicholas Christopher is versed in classical lore and pulp fiction, and his novels [provide] a thrilling amalgam of the two: erudite, lyrical and breathlessly paced."--The New York Times Book ReviewThe Moon Opera
By Howard Goldblatt, Bi Feiyu, Sylvia Li-chun Lin. 2007
The debut novel of one of China's rising young literary talents--a gem of a book that takes a piercing look…
into the world of Chinese opera and its female stars In a fit of diva jealousy, Xiao Yanqiu, star of The Moon Opera, disfigures her understudy with boiling water. Spurned by the troupe, she turns to teaching. Twenty years later, a rich cigarette-factory boss offers to underwrite a restaging of the cursed opera, but only on the condition that Xiao Yanqiu return to the role of Chang'e. So she does, this time believing she has fully become the immortal moon goddess. Set against the drama, intrigue, jealousy, retribution, and redemption of backstage Peking opera, The Moon Opera is a stunning portrait of women in a world that simultaneously reveres and restricts them. Bi Feiyu, one of China's young literary stars, re-creates all the temptations and triumphs of the stage the world over in this gem of a novel.The Moon Opera
By Howard Goldblatt, Bi Feiyu, Sylvia Li. 2007
The debut novel of one of China's rising young literary talents--a gem of a book that takes a piercing look…
into the world of Chinese opera and its female stars In a fit of diva jealousy, Xiao Yanqiu, star of The Moon Opera, disfigures her understudy with boiling water. Spurned by the troupe, she turns to teaching. Twenty years later, a rich cigarette-factory boss offers to underwrite a restaging of the cursed opera, but only on the condition that Xiao Yanqiu return to the role of Chang'e. So she does, this time believing she has fully become the immortal moon goddess. Set against the drama, intrigue, jealousy, retribution, and redemption of backstage Peking opera, The Moon Opera is a stunning portrait of women in a world that simultaneously reveres and restricts them. Bi Feiyu, one of China's young literary stars, re-creates all the temptations and triumphs of the stage the world over in this gem of a novel.Disgraceland: Musicians Getting Away with Murder and Behaving Very Badly
By Jake Brennan. 2019
From the creator of the popular rock 'n' roll true crime podcast, DISGRACELAND comes an off-kilter, hysterical, at times macabre…
book of stories from the highly entertaining underbelly of music history.You may know Jerry Lee Lewis married his thirteen-year-old cousin but did you know he shot his bass player in the chest with a shotgun or that a couple of his wives died under extremely mysterious circumstances? Or that Sam Cooke was shot dead in a seedy motel after barging into the manager's office naked to attack her? Maybe not. Would it change your view of him if you knew that, or would your love for his music triumph? Real rock stars do truly insane thing and invite truly insane things to happen to them; murder, drug trafficking, rape, cannibalism and the occult. We allow this behavior. We are complicit because a rock star behaving badly is what's expected. It's baked into the cake. Deep down, way down, past all of our self-righteous notions of justice and right and wrong, when it comes down to it, we want our rock stars to be bad. We know the music industry is full of demons, ones that drove Elvis Presley, Phil Spector, Sid Vicious and that consumed the Norwegian Black Metal scene. We want to believe in the myths because they're so damn entertaining.DISGRACELAND is a collection of the best of these stories about some of the music world's most beloved stars and their crimes. It will mix all-new, untold stories with expanded stories from the first two seasons of the Disgraceland podcast. Using figures we already recognize, DISGRACELAND shines a light into the dark corners of their fame revealing the fine line that separates heroes and villains as well as the danger Americans seek out in their news cycles, tabloids, reality shows and soap operas. At the center of this collection of stories is the ever-fascinating music industry--a glittery stage populated by gangsters, drug dealers, pimps, groupies with violence, scandal and pure unadulterated rock 'n' roll entertainment.An Unofficial Marriage: A Novel about Pauline Viardot and Ivan Turgenev
By Joie Davidow. 2021
For Fans of Alexander Chee's best-selling novel, The Queen of the Night and opera fans everywhere. Set against the backdrop of the…
tumultuous events of 19th century Europe, An Unofficial Marriage dramatizes the equally tumultuous real-life love affair of two great artists—the famous Russian author, Ivan Turgenev, and the celebrated French opera singer, Pauline Viardot. From the moment he encounters her on the St. Petersburg stage, Ivan falls completely for Pauline. Though Pauline returns his feelings, she is bound by her singular passion for her art and her devotion to her gentle, older husband, Louis. Nevertheless, Ivan pursues Pauline across countries and continents—from Russia to France to Germany to Prussia—and in the decades that follow their fateful meeting, the lives of Pauline, Ivan, and Louis remain permanently intertwined as the lovers face jealousy, separation, the French Revolution of 1848, the cholera epidemic of 1849, the Franco-Prussian War, Turgenev&’s arrest in Russia, Louis&’s heartbreak and resignation, and the highs and lows of their artistic careers. &“You know those unofficial marriages,&” Turgenev would write almost thirty years after meeting Pauline, &“They sometimes turn out more poisonous than the accepted form.&” With beautiful and compelling prose and employing multiple perspectives, Joie Davidow (who herself has a background in opera) illuminates not only the interior lives of these two intensely passionate artists, but also the grand historic moments that Pauline and Ivan experienced and the celebrated figures who moved in their circles—including George Sand, Leo Tolstoy, Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, and Ary Scheffer—providing insight into the dynamic worlds of 19th century opera, literature, art, and politics. Epic in the tradition of the Russian writers whom we encounter, and as romantic and tragic as the operas that Pauline Viardot performs in, An Unofficial Marriage brings to life with great scope and great humanity this captivating story from the past and explores timeless questions about the relationship between art and passion and the complex workings of the human heart.The Burial Hour: Lincoln Rhyme Book 13 (Lincoln Rhyme Thrillers #13)
By Jeffery Deaver. 2017
From the author of The Goodbye Man, discover Jeffery Deaver's chilling series that inspired the film starring Angelina Jolie and…
Denzel Washington, and is now a major NBC TV series Number one bestselling author and master of suspense Jeffery Deaver returns with the thirteenth Lincoln Rhyme thriller, which sees a crime go global . . .When a man is snatched from a New York street in broad daylight, the only clue is a miniature noose left on the pavement. By the time criminal forensic scientist Lincoln Rhyme is involved, a video of the missing man is already online, his dying breaths set to a grisly music by someone calling himself The Composer. Rhyme and fellow investigator Amelia Sachs must follow The Composer across the globe as he continues his horrifying creation, kidnapping further victims to add their last breaths to his piece. But with Rhyme and Sachs in a whole new world with its own rules, how can they possibly guess what danger they're in when the music finally stops?'If you want thrills, Deaver is your man' Guardian'One of the most consistent writers of clever, entertaining and often thought-provoking thrillers in the world' Simon Kernick'Deaver is a master of plot twists, and they are abundant in this story...essential for fans of the franchise' Daily MailChoral Mayhem
By Andrea Frazer. 2012
Who would believe that choral singing could prove such a deadly pastime? Virginia and Richard Grainger, new members of the…
Standchester Choral Society, are looking forward, nervously, to their first public performance with the choir, in a production of Berlioz's 'Romeo and Juliet'.As the performance opens, though, tragedy strikes in the form of a very public death. While coping with the repercussions of this, Virginia also has to tussle with the personal problems of her next-door neighbour, Caroline.As plans to re-schedule the concert are being made, another death occurs, and Virginia begins to realise that her own life may be in danger, as she feels the tangled web of deceit and malice tighten around her …Young Man with a Horn
By Gary Giddins, Dorothy Baker. 1938
Rick Martin loved music and the music loved him. He could pick up a tune so quickly that it didn't…
matter to the Cotton Club boss that he was underage, or to the guys in the band that he was just a white kid. He started out in the slums of LA with nothing, and he ended up on top of the game in the speakeasies and nightclubs of New York. But while talent and drive are all you need to make it in music, they aren't enough to make it through a life. Dorothy Baker's Young Man with a Horn is widely regarded as the first jazz novel, and it pulses with the music that defined an era. Baker took her inspiration from the artistry--though not the life--of legendary horn player Bix Beiderbecke, and the novel went on to be adapted into a successful movie starring Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, and Doris Day.Mesmerized
By Alissa Walser. 2010
Mozart's Vienna. A crucible for scientific experimentation and courtly intrigue, as Europe's finest minds vie for imperial favour. In a…
colourful, chaotic private hospital that echoes with the shrieks of hysterical patients, Franz Anton Mesmer is developing a series of controversial cure-alls for body and mind. When he is asked to help restore the sight of a blind musical prodigy favoured by the Empress herself, he senses that fame, and even immortality, is within his grasp. Mesmer knows that he will have to gain her trust if he is to open her eyes. But at what cost to her fragile talent? And will their intimacy result in scandal?Like A House On Fire: ‘Brilliantly funny - I loved it' Beth O'Leary, author of The Flatshare
By Caroline Hulse. 2019
'A joyously wicked read that will cheer you up no end. A genuine tonic. So clever, so funny and so…
refreshingly different. I loved it' RUTH JONES'Warm, witty & brilliantly realised' DAILY MAIL'Part Fleabag, part Agatha Christie' JOSIE SILVERTwo people trying to break up.One last family party.And no way out of it...* * * * *Things Stella and George have had blazing rows about:- Misquoting Jurassic Park.- Leaving a Coke can on the side of the bath.- Fitting car seats for their hypothetical kids.In other news, they're getting divorced.But first, Stella's mum is throwing a murder mystery party and - with her dad losing his job, her mum's recent diagnosis, and some very odd behaviour from her sister - now is not the time to tell everyone.All Stella and George have to do is make it through the day without their break-up being discovered - though it will soon turn out that having secrets runs in the family...* * * * *Praise for LIKE A HOUSE ON FIRE:'When it comes to personal relationships, Caroline Hulse dares to show us what we humans are really like. Her sparkling dialogue, astute observations and gloriously irreverent humour make Like A House On Fire a joyously wicked read that will cheer you up no end. A genuine tonic. So clever, so funny and so refreshingly different. I loved it' RUTH JONES'Acutely observed and brilliantly funny' CLARE MACKINTOSH'Funny and sad and relatable and deeply human' HARRIET TYCE'Part Fleabag, part Agatha Christie, Like A House On Fire is everything I love in a book...I was hooked from page one. Bravo, what a triumph!' JOSIE SILVER'Sheer delight from start to finish' LESLEY KARA'Painfully astute and brilliantly funny' BETH O'LEARY'Witty, whip-smart and wincingly observant, pure entertainment from start to finish. A Caroline Hulse book is a reading highlight of my year' CATHY BRAMLEY'Absolutely loved Like A House On Fire. A proper delight' RICHARD ROPER'Hilarious and brilliant and clever in that way only Caroline knows how to be. So compelling, I couldn't put it down' LUCY VINE'Caroline Hulse is a very funny writer and a wonderfully compassionate observer of human frailty' KATE EBERLEN'Funny, moving and astute. A triumph!' NICOLA MOSTYNChoral Mayhem
By Andrea Frazer. 2012
Who would believe that choral singing could prove such a deadly pastime? Virginia and Richard Grainger, new members of the…
Standchester Choral Society, are looking forward, nervously, to their first public performance with the choir, in a production of Berlioz's 'Romeo and Juliet'.As the performance opens, though, tragedy strikes in the form of a very public death. While coping with the repercussions of this, Virginia also has to tussle with the personal problems of her next-door neighbour, Caroline.As plans to re-schedule the concert are being made, another death occurs, and Virginia begins to realise that her own life may be in danger, as she feels the tangled web of deceit and malice tighten around her …Mesmerized
By Alissa Walser. 2010
Mozart's Vienna. A crucible for scientific experimentation and courtly intrigue, as Europe's finest minds vie for imperial favour. In a…
colourful, chaotic private hospital that echoes with the shrieks of hysterical patients, Franz Anton Mesmer is developing a series of controversial cure-alls for body and mind. When he is asked to help restore the sight of a blind musical prodigy favoured by the Empress herself, he senses that fame, and even immortality, is within his grasp. Mesmer knows that he will have to gain her trust if he is to open her eyes. But at what cost to her fragile talent? And will their intimacy result in scandal?'Reading this book for the second time' ***** Reader Review1965 - the heyday of Rock & Roll. Northern Lights are…
tipped to become as big as The Beatles. But after a gig in Newcastle, lead singer and creative genius, Gerry Crowther, vanishes into the foggy night. Later, his body is recovered from the River Tyne. Now, almost twenty years on, teen singing sensation Trudi Bell dominates the charts. As she prepares to release a new album, her manager Lew Pattison receives a demo tape from an unknown songwriter. Realising the music is unmistakeably the work of Gerry Crowther, Lew enlists the help of Adam and Eve to uncover the truth. But some people will stop at nothing to keep it buried . . .Vanishing Act is the third instalment in Bill Kitson's chilling and suspenseful Eden House mystery series. Perfect for fans of Peter James's Cold Hill series, Val McDermid and J M Dalgliesh.Readers are hooked on The Eden House Mysteries:'I couldn't sleep until I had finished this book' ***** Reader Review'The best book I have read in a while' ***** Reader Review'Captivating from start to finish. Brilliant page turner. I couldn't put it down' ***** Reader Review'Read the whole thing in a day' ***** Reader Review'One of the best authors I have come across' ***** Reader Review'More twists than a corkscrew' ***** Reader Review'The characters are brilliant and the story keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time. Would highly recommend this book!' ***** Reader Review'Reading this book for the second time' ***** Reader Review1965 - the heyday of Rock & Roll. Northern Lights are…
tipped to become as big as The Beatles. But after a gig in Newcastle, lead singer and creative genius, Gerry Crowther, vanishes into the foggy night. Later, his body is recovered from the River Tyne. Now, almost twenty years on, teen singing sensation Trudi Bell dominates the charts. As she prepares to release a new album, her manager Lew Pattison receives a demo tape from an unknown songwriter. Realising the music is unmistakeably the work of Gerry Crowther, Lew enlists the help of Adam and Eve to uncover the truth. But some people will stop at nothing to keep it buried . . .Vanishing Act is the third instalment in Bill Kitson's chilling and suspenseful Eden House mystery series. Perfect for fans of Peter James's Cold Hill series, Val McDermid and J M Dalgliesh.Readers are hooked on The Eden House Mysteries:'I couldn't sleep until I had finished this book' ***** Reader Review'The best book I have read in a while' ***** Reader Review'Captivating from start to finish. Brilliant page turner. I couldn't put it down' ***** Reader Review'Read the whole thing in a day' ***** Reader Review'One of the best authors I have come across' ***** Reader Review'More twists than a corkscrew' ***** Reader Review'The characters are brilliant and the story keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time. Would highly recommend this book!' ***** Reader ReviewThe Dark Lady
By Akala. 2020
A natural storyteller with a vision of his own, THE DARK LADY, Akala's debut novel for teens will enthuse and…
entertain teenagers and young adults, showing that reading is a true super-power. A PICKPOCKET WITH AN EXCEPTIONAL GIFTA PRISONER OF EXTRAORDINARY VALUE AN ORPHAN HAUNTED BY DREAMS OF THE MYSTERIOUS DARK LADYHenry is an orphan, an outsider, a thief. He is also a fifteen-year-old invested with magical powers ...This brilliant, at times brutal, first novel from the amazing imagination that is Akala, will glue you to your seat as you are hurled into a time when London stank and boys like Henry were forced to find their own route through the tangled streets and out the other side.