“The Life and Legend of the CoCo Bed Kid” This is the story of a modern day Robin Hood. The CoCo Bed Kid recalls his youth, and hardships of those that he grew up with. Although the Kid realized that a life of crime was not the right thing to do, he honestly felt the good would outweigh the bad. The Kid felt that by “paying it forward” his deeds would help many people. I tried to implement the names of many dear friends as characters, to make the story more entertaining. Although a work of fiction, I Pray that my inclusion of Louisiana landmarks will help the reader become more absorbed into the story. Although it has a Western flavor, I feel it would be appropriate in almost any time period. CoCo Bed is a real place, where I was born into a loving sharecroppers family. Those of us who claim CoCo Bed as home are the most fortunate people alive.
A heart warming collection of stories of a young man born into a loving share-croppers family and influenced by his family's love, this book details how family love can guide a young man through hard times into adulthood.
There's hardly a woman in the modern world today who hasn't heard of the Chanel brand. Yet, somewhat 50 years after Coco Chanel's death, her products and brand become more luxurious and expensive for those who can actually afford them. Coco Chanel's "simple, but sophisticated" fashion approach in the industry paved her way through difficult times of World Wars and depressions. Coco Chanel was not just a French fashion designer, she was a fighter who has mastered the art of advertising and self-promotion. Even though there was always somebody who helped her to open Chanel stores and distribute Chanel products, her talent and dedication to what she was doing was the obvious reason for her worldwide recognition among royalty families and businessmen. However, Coco Chanel was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth as she actually came from a very poor family background. That's why in this biography, you'll learn who Chanel was at an early age, and how she got up the ladder to a worldwide fame. It's a process that does not happen overnight and not easy to do, because of World War I, II, Nazis and the economic depressions in Europe and the United States. For few years Chanel was out of business, not because she failed bankruptcy, but because of the war and its dangers for Paris, France at this time, but just few years later she proved her "staying power" in the industry, and after a huge come back there was quite a demand and thirst for her products when things settled down for good. Perfume Chanel no. 5, Little Black Dress, Chanel Diamonds, Chanel Hats, Suits and Costumes were just a few of the most significant creations of the fashion designer. In fact, people like the former First Lady of the United States Jackie Kennedy wore a pink Chanel suit after the John F. Kennedy Assassination in Dallas, Texas. Chanel became a symbol of pain and horror after the terrifying events of the US President's assassination. Chanel also expanded her use of black colors over the years she felt that black was not only a symbol of mourning, but it also stood for a classic simplicity that was the hallmark of good taste and privilege. Chanel was also about elegance. It defined the fashion industry at this time as she invented completely different product lines and styles. She will forever have a place as an immortal icon in the fashion world. In this biography, you'll also learn more about Chanel's love affairs, relationships and some details of her personal life. Who really Chanel was as a person and what influenced her work to become extremely successful? Learn more about Chanel, it's more of just a brand or interlocked double C-logo, it's a legacy. Grab your copy now!
Filled with fresh new research and never-before-seen photos, this updated edition of the definitive biography of Coco Chanel deepens our understanding of the history and legacy of the incredible woman who shaped modern fashion and created an empire of haute couture. Coco Chanel was an extraordinary inventor, conjuring up the little black dress, bobbed hair, trousers for women, contemporary chic, bestselling perfumes, and the most successful fashion brand of all time. But she also invented herself, fashioning the myth of her own life with the same dexterity as her couture; and what lies beneath her own glossy surface is darker, more mysterious, and far more intriguing. Uncovering remarkable new details about Gabrielle Chanel’s humble early years, Justine Picardie picks up the legend Chanel where it began—in orphanhood and poverty. Throwing new light on her passionate and, at times, dark relationships and providing profound insights into her connections with Cocteau, Diaghilev, Picasso, and Dali, this beautifully constructed portrait gives a fresh and penetrating look at what made Coco Chanel the strong-spirited and powerful presence she became. An authoritative account, based on personal observations and interviews with Chanel’s last surviving friends, employees, and relatives, the book also unravels her coded language and symbols and tracks the influence of her formative years on her legendary style. Feared and revered by the rest of the fashion industry, Coco Chanel died in 1971 at the age of 87, but her legacy lives on. This special new edition has been extensively revised and updated and offers a uniquely authoritative account of the world’s greatest designer. Adding fresh new insights and discoveries, it comes complete with a compelling array of previously unseen images from the Chanel archives.
This book is about what life was like in the twentieth century as experienced by one who was born in a small farming and ranching community during the Great Depression and grew up with, lived among, played with, and worked with people of Hispanic descent like himself, and then in a small New Mexico city among people whose descendants came mostly from Europe, Asia, Central and South America, and the Indigenous People who were here first. Almost his entire life and career were spent living among, and/or working with, and for the people of the Navajo, Zuni, Acoma, Laguna, Apache, Hoopa and Yurok Tribes and served in an Administrative capacity with the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs. From a small boy herding sheep in the foothills of the San Pedro Mountains of Northern New Mexico to a country boy living in the city, to a young man serving his country during the Korean Conflict (sometimes referred to as The Forgotten War and Frozen Chosin), to working for his Country in a Branch of the Federal Government that provides human services and assistance to the Indigenous Peoples of this country, to raising a family of eight children, and the adventures he and his family had along the way while living and working in various Indian Reservations located throughout New Mexico, Arizona and California. This was a journey of Learning, Living, and Loving that taught the author and his family the true meaning of the word love; love of God, love of self, love for one and other, and love for others. It has been a life mostly happy, sometimes sad, sometimes funny, sometimes full of grief and tears, but always full of love and thankfulness to our Creator who is the source of our strength and who makes everything possible. Everything that’s written herein has been gleaned from the life and experiences of the author during his eighty-five (and counting) years on this planet, conversations with his parents and his numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, co-workers, and other native New Mexicans who have lived and experienced the kind of lives written about in this book. For accuracy and veracity, he has referenced the works of other New Mexico authors and on-line services such as Wikipedia. He has tried to be as true and accurate as possible in his account and asks for the readers forgiveness for any information which may be found to be erroneously and unintentionally presented.
"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." This line comes from director John Ford's film, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, but it also serves as an epigram for the life of the legendary filmmaker. Through a career that spanned decades and included work on dozens of films -- among them such American masterpieces as The Searchers, The Grapes of Wrath, The Quiet Man, Stagecoach, and How Green Was My Valley -- John Ford managed to leave as his legacy a body of work that few filmmakers will ever equal. Yet as bold as the stamp of his personality was on each film, there was at the same time a marked reticence when it came to revealing anything personal. Basically shy, and intensely private, he was known to enjoy making up stories about himself, some of them based loosely on fact but many of them pure fabrications. Ford preferred instead to let his films speak for him, and the message was always masculine, determined, romantic, yes, but never soft -- and always, always totally "American." If there were other aspects to his personality, moods and subtleties that weren't reflected on the screen, then no one really needed to know. Indeed, what mattered to Ford was always what was up there on the screen. And if it varied from reality, what did it matter? When you are creating legend, fact becomes a secondary matter. Now, in this definitive look at the life and career of one of America's true cinematic giants, noted biographer and critic Scott Eyman, working with the full participation of the Ford estate, has managed to document and delineate both aspects of John Ford's life -- the human being and the legend. Going well beyond the legend, Eyman has explored the many influences that were brought to play on this remarkable and complex man, and the result is a rich and involving story of a great film director and of the world in which he lived, as well as the world of Hollywood legend that he helped to shape. Drawing on more than a hundred interviews and research on three continents, Scott Eyman explains how a saloon-keeper's son from Maine helped to shape America's vision of itself, and how a man with only a high school education came to create a monumental body of work, including films that earned him six Academy Awards -- more than any filmmaker before or since. He also reveals the truth of Ford's turbulent relationship with actress Katharine Hepburn, recounts his stand for freedom of speech during the McCarthy witch-hunt -- including a confrontation with archconservative Cecil B. DeMille -- and discusses his disfiguring alcoholism as well as the heroism he displayed during World War II. Brilliant, stubborn, witty, rebellious, irascible, and contradictory, John Ford remains one of the enduring giants in what is arguably America's greatest contribution to art -- the Hollywood movie. In Print the Legend, Scott Eyman has managed at last to separate fact from legend in writing about this remarkable man, producing what will remain the definitive biography of this film giant.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Part love story, part workplace drama, this sharply observed novel is a witty critique of the false judgments we make in a social-media-obsessed world. “Sophie Kinsella keeps her finger on the cultural pulse, while leaving me giddy with laughter. I loved it.”—Jojo Moyes Everywhere Katie Brenner looks, someone else is living the life she longs for, particularly her boss, Demeter Farlowe. Demeter is brilliant and creative, lives with her perfect family in a posh townhouse, and wears the coolest clothes. Katie’s life, meanwhile, is a daily struggle—from her dismal rental to her oddball flatmates to the tense office politics she’s trying to negotiate. No wonder Katie takes refuge in not-quite-true Instagram posts, especially as she's desperate to make her dad proud. Then, just as she’s finding her feet—not to mention a possible new romance—the worst happens. Demeter fires Katie. Shattered but determined to stay positive, Katie retreats to her family’s farm in Somerset to help them set up a vacation business. London has never seemed so far away—until Demeter unexpectedly turns up as a guest. Secrets are spilled and relationships rejiggered, and as the stakes for Katie’s future get higher, she must question her own assumptions about what makes for a truly meaningful life. Sophie Kinsella is celebrated for her vibrant, relatable characters and her great storytelling gifts. Now she returns with all of the wit, warmth, and wisdom that are the hallmarks of her bestsellers to spin this fresh, modern story about presenting the perfect life when the reality is far from the truth.
A riveting and prismatic novel of the eternally enigmatic Coco Chanel in the aftermath of World War II. Though her name is synonymous with elegance and chic, the iconic Coco Chanel had a complicated dark side, and in late August 1944, as World War II drew to a close, she was arrested and interrogated on charges of treason to France. Many of the facts are lost to history, partly through Chanel's own obfuscation, but this much is known: the charges grew out of her war-time romance with a German spy, and one morning two soldiers from the French Forces of the Interior—the loose band of Resistance fighters, soldiers and private citizens who took up arms in the wake of the Liberation of Paris—led Chanel from her suite at the Ritz Hotel in Paris to an undisclosed location for questioning. What transpired during her interrogation, who was present, and why she was set free when so many other women who’d been involved with German men (willingly or otherwise) had their heads shaved or were imprisoned, remains a mystery. In this brilliantly insightful and compulsively readable novel from the author of I am Madame X, Gioia Diliberto explores the motivations of this complex woman and portrays the gripping battle of wits that could have been her interrogation. Was Chanel truly a collaborator? Though the Occupation of France offered a stark contrast between good and evil, few people are wholly heroes or villains in wartime. Most citizens, as the writer André Gide noted, were like old shoes floating in murky waters: battered and torn, riding the turbulent flow, just trying to survive. By turns raw and vulnerable, steely and flawed, Chanel emerges from these pages as a woman who owns her decisions, no matter the consequences. Rich with history and filled with emotional truths, Coco at the Ritz is a story about the choices one woman made when the stakes were the highest. In today’s world, it is a cautionary tale about the necessity of standing against evil when it stares you in the face.
Selected as One of the Best Books of the 21st Century by The New York Times Set amid the havoc of the War on Drugs, this New York Times bestseller is an "astonishingly intimate" (New York magazine) chronicle of one family’s triumphs and trials in the South Bronx of the 1990s. “Unmatched in depth and power and grace. A profound, achingly beautiful work of narrative nonfiction…The standard-bearer of embedded reportage.” —Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted In her classic bestseller, journalist Adrian Nicole LeBlanc immerses readers in the world of one family with roots in the Bronx, New York. In 1989, LeBlanc approached Jessica, a young mother whose encounter with the carceral state is about to forever change the direction of her life. This meeting redirected LeBlanc’s reporting, taking her past the perennial stories of crime and violence into the community of women and children who bear the brunt of the insidious violence of poverty. Her book bears witness to the teetering highs and devastating lows in the daily lives of Jessica, her family, and her expanding circle of friends. Set at the height of the War on Drugs, Random Family is a love story—an ode to the families that form us and the families we create for ourselves. Charting the tumultuous struggle of hope against deprivation over three generations, LeBlanc slips behind the statistics and comes back with a riveting, haunting, and distinctly American true story.
