Tom Carter

The Beijing Olympics focused the world's eyes on China. But despite increased tourism and rampant foreign investment, the cultural distance between China and the West remains as vast as the oceans that separate them. The Middle Kingdom is still relatively unknown by Westerners. China is in fact made up of 33 distinct regions populated by 56 ethnic groups -- and photojournalist Tom Carter has visited them all. This little book is a visual tribute to the People's Republic of China, with an ardent emphasis on the People.

Portrait of a People

China

Featuring entirely original writings written exclusively for this work, this anthology is filled with 28 essays from foreigners who live or have lived in China for a significant period of time. The book contains beautiful and enlightening stories about China from such noteworthy writers as Simon Winchester, Peter Hessler, Susan Conley, and Alan Paul, among others. Through their personal stories, they illustrate the many sides of Chinese life—the weird, the fascinating, and the appalling—and share what it’s like to live, learn, and love as an outsider in a land unlike any other in the world.

Stories of Foreigners on the Loose in China

Unsavory Elements

Down on his luck and disabled, cancer survivor Matthew Evans had nothing to lose by fleeing the farmsteads of Muscatine, Iowa, at age 21 to pursue his Chinese Dream. With all the makings of a classic folk tale, his curiosity became an epic five-year adventure that would find him homeless, stateless, posing as a professor, imprisoned, deported, and caught in the middle of the 2014 Hong Kong protests.

An American Bum in China: Featuring the Bumblingly Brilliant Escapes of Expatriate Matthew Evans

George Jones

Boozing. Womanizing. Brawling. Singing. For the last forty years George Jones has reigned as the country's king--the singer many have called the Frank Sinatra of country. And for most of that time, his career has been marked by hard-living, hard-loving, and hard luck. From his early east Texas recordings through his marriage with Tammy Wynette to his latest acclaim as a solid citizen and "high-tech red-neck," Americans have been fascinated with Jones, never even knowing whether he's going to show up for his next concert. Now, in I Lived To Tell It All, George Jones supplies a no-holds-barred account of his excesses and ecstasies. How alcohol ruled his life and performances. How violence marred many friendships and relationships. How money was something to be made but never held on to. And, finally, how the love of a good woman can ultimately change a man, redeem him, and save his life.

I Lived to Tell It All

Glen Campbell

The popular singer describes his rise to the top of the country music world and the hedonistic lifestyle that nearly cost him his life and career before a religious conversion transformed his life. 100,000 first printing. $100,000 ad/promo. Tour.

An Autobiography

Rhinestone Cowboy

Reba McEntire

With the same straightforward honesty that made her one of country’s top-selling female recording artists, Reba McEntire tells her phenomenal story. From her childhood in Oklahoma working cattle with her ranching family to her days on the rodeo competition circuit, from her early days as a performer in honky-tonks to her many awards and a sold-out appearance at Carnegie Hall, Reba relates her experiences with heartfelt emotion and down-to-earth humor. With the same warmth and generous spirit that infuses her music, she introduces us to the most important people in her life: the family and friends who sustain her and the musicians and producers who have inspired her and helped her realize her artistic vision. With great poignancy, she also recounts the lowest points of her life, the breakup of her first marriage and the plane crash that took the lives of eight of her band members; and the highest, her remarriage and the birth of her son Shelby. Her story is not only a chronicle of a remarkable life but a vivid testament of unshakable determination and faith in God. Reba: My Story is an intimate portrait of one of America’s most beloved and successful entertainers. NOTE: This edition does not include a photo insert.

My Story

Reba

Merle Haggard

Country music's award-winning and best-selling recording artist, Merle Haggard, brings us his long-awaited new autobiography, Merle Haggard's My House of Memories--a riveting account of Haggard's extremely turbulent and successful life. Picking up where his 1982 autobiography, Sing Me Back Home, left off, Haggard recounts his earliest childhood memories, revealing previously untold stories about his birth and troubled upbringing in a converted railroad boxcar. He recalls the innocence of the 1950s, when a boy could safely ride the rails with hobos and share their transient camps. He talks about his father's death when Merle was nine and how his childish disobedience soon erupted into full-blown delinquency. In a thrilling narrative, he takes us on several high speed getaways from the California law and straight inside the state's homes for the criminally delinquent. On his nineteenth birthday, we follow him inside San Quentin and read a chilling account about a cellmate who begs Merle to join him in an escape that ultimately ends with the man's death. Haggard also recalls his befriending of Caryl Chessman, the notorious 1950s serial rapist, and the time they shared before Chessman's execution. Having lived a life marked by violence, gambling, and drugs, Merle shares the lessons he learned and how he continues to pay for decades of reckless living. He discloses that after earning more than a hundred million dollars, he's virtually broke. Merle reflects on how he felt at that bittersweet hour seven years ago, as he stood at his wife's bedside during the delivery of their son--and was served bankruptcy papers. And he recalls his family's move into a house so decayed that cattle literally roamed inside. He still lives there, amid improvements, today. Haggard relives the painful memory of the death of his mother, who a year earlier, unbeknownst to him, had written her life story in longhand. He reveals his astonishment at learning of her 1906 covered-wagon journey at age four, from Arkansas to Oklahoma, and of how she had to live underground in an earthen dugout. Merle had never known of his mother's life in the Southwest and the fears and hardships she faced. As one of the industry's most respected artists, Merle Haggard still makes music for music's sake and does it with the enthusiasm of an apprentice. He plays several hours a day, every day, on and off the stage and speaks of the emotional salvation the eight notes of the music scale afford him. My House of Memories captures the triumph of the human spirit through the power of persistence, through the power of love he finally discovered during his fifth marriage, and through the unsurpassed the joy of reentering fatherhood at age fifty-four. It is an exciting and moving account of the tumultuous life of a songwriter, singer, guitarist, and arranger whose words have earned him international renown as the poet of the common man.

For The Record

Merle Haggard for the Record

In this riveting personal story, award-winning, bestselling country music recording artist Merle Haggard takes you on a tour through his house of memories, offering a fascinating look inside his turbulent yet successful life. Merle reveals the true stories about his birth and troubled upbringing in a converted railroad boxcar. He recalls the loss of his father when he was nine, after which his childhood disobedience transformed into full-blown delinquency that eventually landed him behind the cold walls of San Quentin. He gives tribute to his mother and relives the painful memory of her death. He shares the lessons he learned from a life shaped by violence, gambling, and drugs, never shying away from the fact that he continues to pay for decades of reckless living. And he talks about the music he loves—how, ultimately, it has defined the man he is.

My House of Memories

Ronnie Milsap

The blind Country and Western singer recounts his difficult childhood, describes the highlights of his professional career, and discusses the people and events that contributed to his success

Tom Carter

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