The Entertainment & Celebrities category has 1,571 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 47,373 ratings. The most-rated is Born a Crime.
Van Gogh
Summary
Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith galvanized audiences with their astonishing Jackson Pollock: An American Saga, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for biography, a book acclaimed for its miraculous research and overwhelming narrative power. Now Naifeh and Smith have written another tour de force - an exquisitely detailed, compelling, and ultimately heartbreaking portrait of creative genius Vincent van Gogh. Working with the full cooperation of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Naifeh and Smith have accessed a wealth of previously untapped materials. While drawing liberally from the artist's famously eloquent letters, they have also delved into hundreds of unpublished family correspondences, illuminating with poignancy the wanderings of Van Gogh's troubled, restless soul. Naifeh and Smith bring a crucial understanding to the larger-than-life mythology of this great artist - his early struggles to find his place in the world; his intense relationship with his brother Theo; his impetus for turning to brush and canvas; and his move to Provence, where in a brief burst of incandescent productivity he painted some of the best-loved works in Western art. The authors also shed new light on many unexplored aspects of Van Gogh's inner world: his deep immersion in literature and art; his erratic and tumultuous romantic life; and his bouts of depression and mental illness. Though countless books have been written about Van Gogh, and though the broad outlines of his tragedy have long inhabited popular culture, no serious, ambitious examination of his life has been attempted in more than 70 years. Naifeh and Smith have re-created Van Gogh's life with an astounding vividness and psychological acuity that bring a completely new and sympathetic understanding to this unique artistic genius whose signature images of sunflowers and starry nights have won a permanent place in the human imagination.
©2011 Woodward/White, LLC (P)2019 Tantor
You're Lucky You're Funny
Summary
For nearly 10 years no TV comedy was a popular or beloved as Everybody Loves Raymond. In You're Lucky You're Funny, Phil Rosenthal, the creator and executive producer of the show, tells the behind-the-scenes story of the making of a number one smash-hit sitcom. Based on Ray Romano's actual life, the show also took much of its material from Phil's equally, and hysterically, dysfunctional family characters and experiences. Besides being one of the funniest books ever written about television, You're Lucky You're Funny is one of the most illuminating, Phil offers an unprecedented look at the making of a hit show, considering everything from casting to writing to production to managing egos to keeping a series fresh after it has comfortably settled in for the long haul. For anyone who loves comedy, for the millions of devoted fans of Everybody Love Raymond, and for all the aspiring writers who are edging their way toward Hollywood, You're Lucky You're Funny will be a gift and an inspiration.
©2006 Phil Rosenthal (P)2006 Phoenix Audio
Not Taco Bell Material
Summary
In his second book, Adam Carolla - chart-topping podcaster and author of New York Times best seller In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks - reveals all the stories behind how he came to be the angry middle-aged man he is today. Funnyman Adam Carolla is known for two things: hilarious rants about things that drive him crazy and personal stories about everything from his hardscrabble childhood to his slacker friends to the hypocrisy of Hollywood. He tackled rants in his first book, and now he tells his best stories and debuts some never-before-heard tales as well. Organized by the myriad "dumps" Carolla called home as a child - through the flophouse apartments he rented in his 20s, up to the homes he personally renovated after achieving success in Hollywood - the anecdotes here follow Adam's journey and the hilarious pitfalls along the way. Adam Carolla started broke and blue collar and has now been on the Hollywood scene for over 15 years. Yet he never lost his underdog demeanor. He's still connected to the working class guy he once was, and delivers a raw and edgy, fish-out-of-water take on the world in which he lives (but with which he mostly disagrees), telling all the stories, no matter who he offends - family, friends or the famous.
©2012 Adam Carolla (P)2012 Random House Audio
Living in Color
Summary
Abandoned as an infant on the streets of Greenville, Mississippi, and rescued by a loving white family, Tommy Davidson spent most of his childhood unaware that he was different from his brother and sister. All that changed as he came of age in a society of racial barriers - ones that he was soon to help break. On a fledgling network, Tommy joined the cast of In Living Color, alongside other relative newcomers including Jim Carrey, Rosie Perez, Jamie Foxx, and Jennifer Lopez - all united by an ingenious throng of Wayans siblings, poised to break new ground. Tommy gives listeners the never-before-told behind-the-scenes story of the first show born of the Hip Hop Nation: from its incredible rise, to his own creation of such unforgettable characters as Sweet Tooth Jones and appearing in such classic sketches as "Homie the Clown" and the unforgettable "Ugly Woman", through guest-star skirmishes to backstage tensions and the eventual fall of this pop-culture touchstone. And he also shares his very personal story of living with - and being inspired and empowered by - two distinct family histories. Told with humor and hard-won honesty by a singular voice whose family and friendships help him navigate a life of personal and professional highs and lows, Living in Color is a bracing, illuminating, and remarkable success story.
©2020 Tommy Davidson (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Endgame
Summary
From Frank Brady, who wrote one of the best-selling books on Bobby Fischer of all time and who was himself a friend of Fischer’s, comes an impressively researched biography that for the first time completely captures the remarkable arc of Bobby Fischer’s life. When Bobby Fischer passed away in January 2008, he left behind a confounding legacy. Everyone knew the basics of his life—he began as a brilliant youngster, then became the pride of American chess, then took a sharp turn, struggling with paranoia and mental illness. But nobody truly understood him. What motivated Fischer from such a young age, and what was the source of his remarkable intellect? How could a man so ambivalent about money and fame be so driven to succeed? What drew this man of Jewish descent to fulminate against Jews, and how was it that a mind so famously disciplined could unravel so completely? From Fischer’s meteoric rise, to an utterly dominant prime unequaled by any American chess player, to his eventual descent into madness, the book draws upon hundreds of newly discovered documents and recordings and numerous firsthand interviews conducted with those who knew Fischer best. It paints, for the very first time, a complete picture of one of America’s most enigmatic icons. This is the definitive account of a fascinating man and an extraordinary life, one that at last reconciles Fischer’s deeply contradictory legacy and answers the question, who was Bobby Fischer?
©2011 Frank Brady (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Maximum Volume: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin
Summary
Maximum Volume offers a glimpse into the mind, the music, and the man behind the sound of the Beatles. George Martin's working-class childhood and musical influences profoundly shaped his early career in the BBC's Classical Music department and as head of the EMI Group's Parlophone Records. Out of them flowed the genius behind his seven years producing the Beatles' incredible body of work, including such albums as Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Abbey Road. The first book of two, Maximum Volume traces Martin's early years as a scratch pianist, his life in the Fleet Air Arm during the Second World War, and his groundbreaking work as the head of Parlophone Records, when Martin saved the company from ruin after making his name as a producer of comedy recordings. In its most dramatic moments, Maximum Volume narrates the story of Martin's unlikely discovery of the Beatles and his painstaking efforts to prepare their newfangled sound for the British music marketplace. As the story unfolds, Martin and the band craft numerous number one hits, progressing toward the landmark album Rubber Soul - all of which bear Martin's unmistakable musical signature.
©2017 Kenneth Womack (P)2017 Tantor
Great Masters: Shostakovich - His Life and Music
Summary
Dmitri Shostakovich is without a doubt one of the central composers of the 20th century. His symphonies and string quartets are mainstays of the repertoire. But Shostakovich is also a figure whose story raises challenging and exciting issues that go far beyond music: they touch on questions of conscience, the moral role of the artist, the plight of humanity in the face of total war and mass oppression, and the inner life of history's bloodiest century. And though he was not without flaws, he was a faithful witness to the survival of the human spirit under totalitarianism. And now you can discover the extraordinary life, times, and music of Shostakovich in a probing series of eight lectures from an acclaimed conductor, teacher, and music historian. Drawing on both the flood of declassified documents from the Soviet Union that began in 1991 and Shostakovich's own extraordinarily frank posthumous reminiscences, Professor Greenberg shows how Shostakovich, who, in the words of a friend, "did not want to rot in a prison or a graveyard" was still unwilling to become a docile instrument of the Soviet regime. You'll learn how what he would not say publicly in words, he instead said through his music - messages from a buried life of his experiences during the terror of Stalin, the Nazi destruction of his country, postwar reconstruction, and the arms race. In work after work, often composed under crushing difficulty and anxiety, you'll hear how he used a brilliant arsenal of ironic conceits, musical quotes from un-Soviet sources such as American jazz or Jewish klezmer tunes, and other techniques to assert the integrity of his art in the face of totalitarian oppression, and to pay, as he said, "homage to the dead." PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2002 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2002 The Great Courses
The Operas of Mozart
Summary
When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in 1791 at the age of just 35, he nonetheless left behind the defining composition in every available musical genre of his time: symphony, chamber music, masses, and above all - opera. Opera was the prestige genre of the era, and the thought of it, Mozart wrote, made him "beside myself at once." It was a form he loved dearly, depending on it heavily for personal, professional, artistic, and financial reasons of the greatest weight. Artistically, the world of the operatic stage spoke deeply to his primal instinct for play, his taste for fantasy, and his restless creative imagination. And in this rich series of eight entertaining lectures, you'll learn how his operas vied with one another for the acclaim reserved for the greatest achievements of human artistic striving: Idomeneo, The Abduction from the Harem, The Marriage of Figaro, Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, and The Magic Flute, which premiered only ten weeks before his untimely death. In addition to summarizing Mozart's life and artistic development, the lectures focus on two of his greatest masterpieces, Così fan tutte and The Magic Flute, to help you understand more fully the height of Mozart's operatic achievement. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2003 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2003 The Great Courses
All I Ever Wanted
Summary
At 21, Kathy Valentine was at the Whisky in Los Angeles when she met a guitarist from a fledgling band called the Go-Go's - and the band needed a bassist. The Go-Go's became the first multi-platinum-selling, all-female band to play instruments themselves, write their own songs, and have a number one album. Their debut, Beauty and the Beat, spent six weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 and featured the hit songs "We Got the Beat" and "Our Lips Are Sealed". The record's success brought the pressures of a relentless workload and schedule culminating in a wild, hazy, substance-fueled tour that took the band from the club circuit to arenas, where fans, promoters, and crew were more than ready to keep the party going. For Valentine, the band's success was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream - but it's only part of her story. All I Ever Wanted traces the path that took her from her childhood in Texas - where she all but raised herself - to the height of rock n' roll stardom, devastation after the collapse of the band that had come to define her, and the quest to regain her sense of self after its end. Valentine also speaks candidly about the lasting effects of parental betrayal, abortion, rape, and her struggles with drugs and alcohol - and the music that saved her every step of the way. Populated with vivid portraits of Valentine's interactions during the 1980s with musicians and actors from the Police and Rod Stewart to John Belushi and Rob Lowe, All I Ever Wanted is a deeply personal reflection on a life spent in music.
©2020 Kathy Valentine (P)2020 Hachette Original
Great Masters: Mahler - His Life and Music
Summary
More than many other composers, Gustav Mahler's works are highly personal expressions of his inner world, a world of overwhelming alienation and loneliness - "thrice homeless," in his own words, "as a Bohemian in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, as a Jew throughout the world - everywhere an intruder, never welcomed." Incredibly, Mahler was able to draw upon the diversity of this world that offered him no true home, as well as his often tortured inner world, to create rich and original music. It's a music whose power you will be able to appreciate fully after experiencing this eight-lecture exploration of the life and work of this titan of post-Romantic musical history, a complex, anxiety-bound visionary whose continual search for perfection and the answers to life's mysteries is profoundly reflected in his symphonies and songs. You'll learn, through both lectures and musical excerpts, how his symphonies are vast repositories of his intellectual, emotional, and spiritual expression that made him the first exponent of Expressionism, the early 20th-century art movement that celebrates inner reality as the only reality - but explored by Mahler using the musical language of the century just ended. And you'll learn how Mahler's music is, ultimately, about himself: the lonely, isolated individual.
©2001 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2001 The Great Courses
It Takes Two
Summary
It Takes Two: Our Story shares never-before-revealed tales of the Scott brothers' childhood and rise to fame - from starting their first business at seven years old and their years modeling and acting to their first house purchase at the impressive young age of 18. They soon found their true passion in life, combining their natural gifts for entertaining with the skills they learned from buying, renovating, and selling homes. Complete with hilarious behind-the-scenes stories from set, Jonathan and Drew discuss how their family and upbringing have led to their success in life. Throughout, the brothers keep fans laughing with the clever - and sometimes zany - sibling banter for which they're known best.
©2017 SB Publications LLC (P)2017 HighBridge, a Division of Recorded Books
The Joke Man
Summary
For the first time, Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling opens up about his life as a cast member and head writer for the comedy powerhouse The Howard Stern Show. In The Joke Man: Bow to Stern, Jackie tells of his beginnings as a working comedian and writer and his climb to the top on The Howard Stern Show. Jackie saw it all, and in The Joke Man: Bow to Stern he shares personal stories as well a look from behind the scenes at one of the highest-rated radio shows of all time. You'll also get his take on his falling out with Howard and the show, and plenty of the raunchy, laugh-out-loud humor that Jackie "The Joke Man" is famous for. So sit back, relax, and enjoy as "The Joke Man" riffs on his one-of-a-kind career in show business, Howard Stern and the gang, and his very unique life - an American success story like no other. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2017 Jackie Martling (P)2017 Audible, Inc.
Whatever You Say I Am
Summary
On assignment for his first cover story for Rolling Stone, the very first national cover story on Eminem, Anthony Bozza met a young blond kid, a rapper who would soon take the country by storm. But back in 1999, Eminem was just beginning to make waves among suburban white teenagers as his first single, "My Name Is," went into heavy rotation on MTV. Who could have predicted that in a mere two years, Eminem would become the most reviled and controversial hip-hop figure ever? Or that twelve months after that, Eminem would sit firmly at the pinnacle of American celebrity, a Grammy winner many times over and the recipient of an Oscar? Since their first meeting, Bozza has been given a level of access to Eminem that no other journalist has enjoyed. In Whatever You Say I Am, never-before-published excerpts from Bozza's interviews with Eminem are combined with the insight of hip-hop figures, music critics and journalists to look behind the mask of this enigmatic celebrity. With an eye toward Eminem's place in American popular culture, Bozza creates a thoughtful portrait of one of the most successful artists of our time. This is more than a biography of a thoroughly well-documented life. It is a close-up look at a conflicted figure who has somehow spoken to the heart of America.
©2003 Anthony Bozza (P)2003 Random House, Inc., Random House Audio, A Division of Random House, Inc.
Yes, My Accent Is Real
Summary
In the spirit of Mindy Kaling's best-seller Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, a collection of humorous, autobiographical essays from Kunal Nayyar, best known as Raj on CBS' number-one hit comedy The Big Bang Theory. Of all the charming misfits on television, there's no doubt Raj from The Big Bang Theory - the sincere yet incurably geeky Indian American astrophysicist - ranks among the misfittingest. Now we meet the actor who is every bit as loveable as the character he plays on TV. In this revealing collection of essays written in his irreverent, hilarious, and self-deprecating voice, Kunal Nayyar traces his journey from a little boy in New Delhi who mistakes an awkward first kiss for a sacred commitment, gets nosebleeds chugging Coca-Cola to impress other students, and excels in the sport of badminton to the confident, successful actor on the set of TV's most-watched sitcom since Friends. Full of heart, but never taking itself too seriously, this witty and often inspiring collection of underdog tales follows a young man as he traverses two continents in search of a dream, along the way transcending culture and language (and many, many embarrassing incidents) to somehow miraculously land the role of a lifetime.
©2015 Kunal Nayyar. All rights reserved. (P)2015 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.
Poker Brat
Summary
If you know Phil Hellmuth then you either love him or hate him! His rants, tirades, and lines like "I can dodge bullets, baby" and "If it weren't for luck, I'd win them all" are epic and have earned him the nickname "Poker Brat." However, whether you love him or hate him, he is undoubtedly the greatest poker player of our time. Phil is a global poker icon who holds every record at the World Series of Poker, including an extraordinary 14 world championships. In Poker Brat Phil paints a picture of his early Midwestern life, in which he struggled mightily in grade school and high school, but always had aspirations to do something great. Phil takes you from the low lows of his life to the high highs, and shows you how he developed an unhealthy ego along the way, which eventually turned into his "Poker Brat" persona. In Poker Brat, Phil shares his own powerful tips and techniques, the ones that he used to set his goals, and then he shows how he achieved those goals as he climbed to the summit of the poker world.
©2017 D&B Publishing (P)2017 D&B Publishing
Or Is That Just Me?
Summary
More of the wry, honest and often hilarious chronicles of Richard Hammond - TV presenter, adventurer, and general drawer of the Short Straw. Continuing where As You Do and Did I Just Say That? left off, this one focuses on just a few of the many hair-raising stunts, expeditions, and encounters experienced by Richard Hammond over the last eventful year.
©2009 Richard Hammond (P)2009 Orion Publishing Group
![Cover art for Vivir para contarla [Live to Tell]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51lQ6g40WJL._SL500_.jpg)
Vivir para contarla [Live to Tell]
Summary
Las memorias de Gabriel García Márquez: un recorrido por los días de su infancia y juventud en los que se fundó el imaginario que se reflejaría después en sus obras. Vivir para contarla es, probablemente, el libro más esperado de la primera década del siglo, compendio y recreación de un tiempo crucial en la vida de Gabriel García Márquez. En este apasionante relato, el Nobel colombiano ofrece la memoria de sus años de infancia y juventud, aquellos en los que se fundaría el imaginario que, con el tiempo, daría lugar a algunos de los relatos y novelas fundamentales en la literatura en lengua española del siglo XX. Estamos ante la novela de una vida, a través de cuyas páginas García Márquez va descubriendo ecos de personajes e historias que han poblado obras como Cien años de soledad, El amor en los tiempos del cólera, El coronel no tiene quien le escriba o Crónica de una muerte anunciada y que convierten Vivir para contarla en una guía de lectura para toda su obra, en acompañante imprescindible para iluminar pasajes inolvidables que, tras la lectura de estas memorias, adquieren una nueva perspectiva. "Mi madre me pidió que la acompañara a vender la casa. Había llegado a Barranquilla esa mañana desde el pueblo distante donde vivía la familia y no tenía la menor idea de cómo encontrarme. Preguntando por aquí y por allá entre los conocidos, le indicaron que me buscara en la librería Mundo o en los cafés vecinos, donde iba dos veces al día a conversar con mis amigos escritores. El que se lo dijo le advirtió: "Vaya con cuidado porque son locos de remate". Llegó a las doce en punto. Se abrió paso con su andar ligero por entre las mesas de libros en exhibición, se me plantó enfrente, mirándome a los ojos con la sonrisa pícara de sus días mejores, y antes que yo pudiera reaccionar, me dijo: "Soy tu madre"."Carlos Fuentes dijo... "A los que un día le dirán: "Esto fuiste", "esto hiciste" o "esto imaginaste", Gabo se les adelanta y dice simplemente: soy, seré, imaginé. Esto recuerdo. Gracias por la memoria." Please note: This audiobook is in Spanish.
©2002 Gabriel García Márquez (P)2016 Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, S.A.U.
Most Talkative
Summary
Audie Award Nominee, Narration by the Author or Authors, 2013 The man behind the Real Housewives writes about his lifelong love affair with pop culture that brought him from the suburbs of St. Louis to his own television show. From a young age, Andy Cohen knew two things: He was gay, and he loved television. Now presiding over Bravo's reality-TV empire, he started out as an overly talkative pop-culture obsessive, devoted to Charlie's Angels and All My Children - and to his mother, who received daily letters from him while he was at summer camp, usually reminding her to tape the soaps. In retrospect, it's hard to believe that everyone didn't know that Andy was gay; still, he remained in the closet until college. Finally out, he embarked on making a career out of his passion for television. The journey begins with Andy interviewing his all-time idol Susan Lucci for his college newspaper and ends with him in a job where he has a hand in creating today's celebrity icons. In the witty, no-holds-barred style of his show Watch What Happens: Live, Cohen tells tales of absurd network-news mishaps, hilarious encounters with the heroines of his youth, and the real stories behind the Real Housewives. Dishy, funny, and full of heart, Most Talkative provides a one-of-a-kind glimpse into the world of television, from a fan who grew up watching the screen and is now inside the TV, both making shows and hosting his own.
©2012 Andrew Cohen (P)2012 Macmillan Audio
Mao's Last Dancer
Summary
This is the true story of how one moment in time, by the thinnest thread of a chance, changed the course of a small boy's life in ways that are beyond description. One day he would dance with some of the greatest ballet companies of the world. One day he would be a friend to a president and first lady, movie stars, and the most influential people in America. One day he would become a star: Mao's last dancer, and the darling of the West. Here is Li Cunxin's own story, a beautiful, rich account of an inspirational life, told with honesty, dignity, and pride.
©2003 Li Cunxin (P)2004 Bolinda Publishing Pyt Ltd by arrangement with Penguin Group (Australia)
Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions
Summary
His journey is meticulously documented through detailed accounts of his time secluded behind the doors of the recording studio as well as his days on tour. With unprecedented access to the musicians, singers, and studio engineers who knew Prince best, including members of the Revolution and the Time, Duane Tudahl weaves an intimate saga of an eccentric genius and the people and events who helped shape the groundbreaking music he created. From Sunset Sound Studios' daily recording logs and the Warner Bros. vault of information, Tudahl uncovers hidden truths about the origins of songs such as "Purple Rain", "When Doves Cry", and "Raspberry Beret" and also reveals details about Prince's unreleased outtakes. This definitive chronicle of Prince's creative brilliance during 1983 and 1984 provides a new experience of the Purple Rain album as an integral part of Prince's life and the lives of those closest to him.
©2018 Duane Tudahl (P)2018 Tantor