Engelska

<p><b>From one of the most iconic actors in the history of film, an astonishingly revelatory account of a creative life in full</b><br/><br/>To the wider world, Al Pacino exploded onto the scene like a supernova. He landed his first leading role, in <i>The Panic in Needle Park</i>, in 1971, and by 1975, he had starred in four movies-<i>The Godfather</i> and <i>The Godfather Part II</i>, <i>Serpico</i>, and <i>Dog Day Afternoon</i>-that were not just successes but landmarks in the history of film. Those performances became legendary and changed his life forever. Not since Marlon Brando and James Dean in the late 1950s had an actor landed in the culture with such force.<br/><br/>But Pacino was in his mid thirties by then, and had already lived several lives. A fixture of avant-garde theater in New York, he had led a bohemian existence, working odd jobs to support his craft. He was raised by a fiercely loving but mentally unwell mother and her parents after his father left them when he was young, but in a real sense he was raised by the streets of the South Bronx, and by the troop of buccaneering young friends he ran with, whose spirits never left him. After a teacher recognized his acting promise and pushed him toward New York's fabled High School of Performing Arts, the die was cast. In good times and bad, in poverty and in wealth and in poverty again, through pain and joy, acting was his lifeline, its community his tribe.<br/><br/><i>Sonny Boy</i> is the memoir of a man who has nothing left to fear and nothing left to hide. All the great roles, the essential collaborations, and the important relationships are given their full due, as is the vexed marriage between creativity and commerce at the highest levels. The book's golden thread, however, is the spirit of love and purpose. Love can fail you, and you can be defeated in your ambitions-the same lights that shine bright can also dim. But Al Pacino was lucky enough to fall deeply in love with a craft before he had the foggiest idea of any of its earthly rewards, and he never fell out of love. That has made all the difference.<br/><br/>_________________________________________________________________________<br/><br/><b>Praise for Al Pacino:</b><br/><br/>'Al Pacino is magical' <b>Martin Scorsese</b><br/><br/>'A legend' <b>Francis Ford Coppola</b><br/><br/>'So unique and special' <b>Robert De Niro</b><br/><br/>'A singular, special talent, whose work stands the test of time' <b>Robin Williams</b><br/><br/>'A wicked sense of humour' <b>Oliver Stone</b><br/><br/>'Charming, hilarious, a nonstop talker. There is an aspect of him that is like a lost orphan, like this kind of crazy idiot savant' <b>Diane Keaton</b><br/><br/>'As Michael in The Godfather, Pacino was everything I wanted that character to be on screen. I couldn't believe it. It was, in my eyes, a perfect performance, a work of art' <b>Mario Puzo, author of <i>The Godfather </i></b><br/><br/>'Comedic, talented, and certifiably insane' <b>Johnny Depp</b><br/><br/>'Al is money, the man in charge, making it happen. I got to act with Al Pacino and it was worth more to me than anything' <b>Samuel L Jackson</b><br/><br/>'A marvellous actor and man' <b>Sean Connery</b><br/><br/>'The depth of Al Pacino's artistry is only more overwhelmed by the generosity of his spirit and his warmth. Al Pacino is Van Gogh. Modigliani' <b>Andy Garcia</b><br/><br/>'The greatest actor in the world' <b>Jamie Foxx</b></p>

Not Afraid - The Evolution Of Eminem [Bok / Pocket]

<p>Written with a searing honesty and originally published for the tenth anniversary of Amy Winehouse's death, My Amy is an evocative portrait of unbreakable lifelong friendship - and a devastating study into fame, addiction and self-sabotage. Only one person knows what really happened to Amy, other than Amy herself. He is Tyler James, Amy's best friend from the age of thirteen.</p><p>They met at stage school as two insecure outsiders, formed an instant connection and lived together from their late teenage years right up until the day she died, aged just twenty-seven. Tyler was there by her side through it all. From their carefree early years touring together to the creation of the multiple Grammy-winning Back To Black, which she wrote on their kitchen floor.</p><p>From her volatile marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil through her escalating addictions, self-harm and eating disorders as the toxic nature of fame warped Amy's reality. For the last three years of her life, Tyler was with her every day when she'd beaten drugs and was close to beating alcoholism too. He also knew better than anyone the real Amy Winehouse who the tabloid-reading public rarely saw - the hilarious, uncompromising force-of-nature busy taking care of everyone else.</p><p>We all think we know what happened to Amy Winehouse, but we don't. This definitive insider's story tells us all, finally, the truth. 'Heartbreaking' - The Times</p>

<p>Once heralded as a modern-day Edison, Elon Musk has taken up a new role in public consciousness, with his growing desire to both transform global politics and engage in online arguments.<br/><br/>What happened? In six short years, Musk turned Tesla into the world's most valuable automaker and cast himself as a saviour of humanity, an altruist whose fortune would stop climate change and colonize Mars. Now he is the most polarizing and perpetually distracted CEO on the planet.<br/><br/><i>Hubris Maximus</i> provides a gripping, detailed portrait of the billionaire's rapid ascent and his spectacular public implosion. Musk's audacity and erratic behaviour drove his success from the start; he spurned regulators and whistle blowers, and replaced those who dared question him with loyalists. As the scale of his wagers have grown in recent years, he alternately seems to be in either complete command or on the verge of a meltdown.<br/><br/>At a moment when the world's tech gods are more influential than ever, this is a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of magnetic leaders. <i>Washington Post </i>journalist Faiz Siddiqui offers a gripping and detailed portrait of a singularly messy and lucrative period in Musk's career, one which has seen him ascend into a key role in Trump's administration.</p>

<p><b>A <i>FINANCIAL TIMES</i> ECONOMICS BOOK OF THE YEAR</b><br/><b><br/>'An excellent book' Vince Cable | </b><b>'A must read' Jo Johnson | </b><b>'A fascinating read' Bill Dudley </b><br/><b>A timely manifesto on how digital currencies will win the New Cold War and the struggle for geopolitical supremacy in the twenty-first century.</b><br/><br/>A New Cold War is underway. Whereas the first Cold War was dominated by the threat of nuclear conflict, the new front line is economic and financial, but still dominated by technology. Who controls its future will help decide the outcome of the geopolitical struggle between China and the US.<br/><br/>Since the end of the Second World War, the US dollar has been the global reserve currency, which has ensured American dominance of the world economy. But no longer. More than a hundred countries are developing Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), digital equivalents to cash that will utterly transform how we do business at home and abroad.<br/><br/>China was the first country to recognise the potential of this new money. The West's media focused on the new currency's role in China's surveillance state, creating widespread concern about all CBDCs. But they have largely overlooked a more important aspect of its existence: as a tool through which to 'de-dollarise' the developing world at the speed of light. When China's President Xi Jinping officially launched the digital yuan in February 2022, he also agreed a pact of 'limitless co-operation' with Russia. Within days, Russia launched its war on Ukraine, secure in the knowledge it could bypass US sanctions.<br/><br/>Urgent, clear-eyed and groundbreaking, <i>Smart Money</i> shows us how CBDCs are going to impact all of our futures in ways that most of us have failed to even consider. If the West is to compete, it needs to act fast to develop its own global digital currencies that reflect the values of liberal democracies.</p>

<p>Tracing the fairytale-like rise of Antonin Careme from Parisian orphan to a household name synonymous with culinary luxury, <i>Careme </i>offers a below-stairs perspective on one of the most momentous, and sensuous, periods in European history: First Empire Paris, Georgian England, and the Russia of <i>War and Peace</i>.<br/><br/>Careme's ability to intuit the tastes of European royalty was an unendingly useful and astounding tool: he knew the favourite dishes of King George IV, the Rothschilds and the Romanovs; he knew Napoleon's fast-food requirements, and why Empress Josephine suffered halitosis.<br/><br/>Blending the incredible aetiology of Careme's stardom and recipes he curated which once graced the dining tables of monarchs of old and remain classics of French cuisine, Ian Kelly offers a window into a sumptuous world of casseroles and kings.</p>

<p><b>A <i>Financial Times</i> Book of the Year</b><br/><br/><b>'Thoroughly researched.'</b> <i>Sunday Times</i><br/><b>'To be devoured.' </b>Philip Mansel<br/><b>'This book is a treat for fans of well-told history.'</b> <i>Washington Post</i><br/><br/><b>A new biography of Catherine de' Medici, the most powerful woman in sixteenth-century Europe, whose author uses neglected primary sources to recreate the life and times of a remarkable - and remarkably traduced - woman.<br/></b><br/>History is rarely kind to women of power, but few have had their reputations quite so brutally shredded as Catherine de' Medici, Italian-born queen of France and influential mother of three successive French kings during that country's long sequence of sectarian wars in the second half of the sixteenth century. Thanks to the malign efforts of propagandists motivated by religious hatred, history tends to remember Catherine as a schemer who used witchcraft and poison to eradicate her rivals, as a spendthrift dilettante who wasted ruinous sums of money on building and embellishment of monuments and palaces, and most sinister of all, as instigator of the St Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572, in which thousands of innocent Protestants were slaughtered by Catholic mobs.<br/><br/>Mary Hollingsworth delves into contemporary archives to discover deeper truths behind these persistent myths. The correspondence of diplomats and Catherine's own letters reveal a woman who worked tirelessly to find a way for Catholics and Protestants to coexist in peace (a goal for which she continued to strive until the end of her life), who was well-informed on both literary and scientific matters, and whose patronage of the arts helped bring into being glorious chateaux and gardens, priceless works of art, and magnificent festivities combining theatre, music and ballet, which display the grandeur of the French court.</p>