A New Tomorrow - The Silverchair Story (Jeff Apter)

A New Tomorrow - The Silverchair Story

Jeff Apter

Blurb: Andrew Denton: 'I think you're enjoying life now. Would I be right?'

Daniel Johns: 'Yeah, definitely, I love life, it's the best thing in the world.' - Enough Rope, 2004.

It's taken Daniel Johns a long time to be able to make such a simple statement. Having spent more than ten years as the frontman for Silverchair, Australia's biggest rock band of the past decade, he's endured teen stardom, depression, anorexia, crippling reactive arthritis and the slings and arrows of the music industry, only to emerge tattooed and renewed. And now, the Newcastle-born band have just completed their fifth album in the famed Laurel Canyon studios.

A New Tomorrow tells the complete and unexpurgated story of Silverchair. Jeff Apter documents how Johns and his two schoolmates, drummer Ben Gillies and bassman Chris Joannou, graduated from The Loft above the Gillies family's garage to centre stage at Madison Square Garden - all within the time it typically takes most bands to record their first single. When the dust settled and they discovered their debut album, Frogstomp, had sold almost three million copies, Silverchair were faced with an even bigger challenge as they attempted to prove they were much more than 'Nirvana in Pyjamas'.

With the release of their 2002 masterpiece, Diorama, Silverchair firmly established their own musical identity, while Johns has developed into a songwriter with few peers in modern music.

Featuring exclusive interviews with the band and all of those who have worked with Silverchair over their rollercoaster ride of a career, A New Tomorrow covers all of the band members' solo work, the Daniel Johns-Natalie Imbruglia nuptials, the band's 'rebirth' at the WaveAid fundraiser and a sneak preview of their new studio album.

ISBN: 1741664837 (Paperback)

Year: 2006

Publisher: Random House Australia

Pages: 360 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Publisher's page

3. Author's official site

4. Goodreads page

5. Band's official site

My Life With Asperger's (Megan Hammond)

My Life With Asperger's 

Megan Hammond

Blurb: Imagine finding yourself in another culture. One where the language is familiar but all the little signals such as facial expressions and body language are foreign. How do you make sense of that? How hard would it be to build friendships, keep a job or find love?

Welcome to the confusing world of those trying to cope with Asperger's.

Asperger's syndrome is one of the more common autistic spectrum disorders. ASDs have been identified in one in every 100 people. The diagnosis is given to individuals with impairments in social interaction and communication as well as restricted and repetitive interests in activities that are generally evident prior to three years of age.

Megan Hammond has had a lifetime of battling the condition, struggling with employers who don't understand, lovers who have taken advantage of her and a health system that does not fully comprehend the special needs of people with Asperger's syndrome.

In this painfully honest and inspiring account, Megan takes us into her world hoping it will bring understanding and tolerance. 

ISBN: 9781741107883 (Paperback)

Year: 2010

Publisher: New Holland

Pages: 160 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from the publisher

2. Article on the author

3. Interview with the author

4. Buy from Amazon

5. Blog on the book

Funny Things - The Best New & Classic Jokes Volume 1 (Marty Fields)

Funny Things - The Best New & Classic Jokes Volume 1

Marty Fields

Blurb: 'I was so sick of reading joke books that were hit and miss and were all one style. I decided to put together a collection of the finest gags from every genre of comedy; one liners, stand up bits, old stories, situational and just plain odd. The rule was simple, no matter what the style, if the gag didn't make me laugh I didn't use it. After 25 years of standup, I don't laugh easy.' 

Marty

ISBN: 9781921667459 (Paperback)

Year: 2010

Publisher: Wilkinson Publishing

Pages: 88 (Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from the Book Depository 

2. Author's official site

3. Wikipedia page for the author

4. Youtube clip of the author doing standup

5. Author's Twitter

Carrie (Stephen King)

Carrie

Stephen King

Blurb: Carrie White is no ordinary girl.

Carrie White has a gift - the gift of telekinesis.

To be invited to Prom Night by Tommy Ross is a dream come true for Carrie - the first step towards social acceptance by her high school colleagues.

But events will take a decidedly macabre turn on the horrifying and endless night as she is forced to exercise her terrible gift on the town that mocks and loathes her...

ISBN: 0450025179 (Paperback)

Year: 1974

Publisher: New English Library

Pages: 222 (Fiction)

Links

1. Wikipedia page for the book

2. IMDB page for the film adaption

3. Author's official page for the book

4. Buy from Amazon

5. Article on possible new film adaption of the book

The Gunslinger - The Dark Tower #1 (Stephen King)

The Gunslinger - The Dark Tower #1

Stephen King

Blurb: This newly revised and expanded edition of The Gunslinger, for which Stephen King has written a special introduction and forward, is the mesmerising first book in his spectacular, epic Dark Tower series.

In The Gunslinger, Stephen King introduces readers to one of his most enigmatic heroes, Roland of Gilead, the Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner, on a spellbinding journey into good and evil, in a desolate world which frighteningly echoes our own.

In his first step towards the powerful and mysterious Dark Tower, Roland encounters an alluring woman named Alice, begins a friendship with Jake, a kid from New York, and faces an agonising choice between damnation and salvation as he pursues the Man in Black.

Both grippingly realistic and eerily dreamlike, The Gunslinger leaves readers eagerly awaiting the next chapter.

Set in a world of extraordinary circumstances, filled with stunning visual imagery and unforgettable characters, The Dark Tower series is Stephen King's most visionary piece of storytelling that may well be his crowning achievement.

ISBN: 9780340832233 (Paperback)

Year: 1982

Publisher: New English Library

Pages: 238 (Fiction)

Links

1. Wikipedia page for the book

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Author's official page for the series

4. Goodreads page

5. Comic book adaption of the book

Sydney Bridge Upside Down (David Ballantyne)

Sydney Bridge Upside Down

David Ballantyne

Blurb: 'There was an old man who lived on the edge of the world and he had a horse called Sydney Bridge Upside Down. He was a scar-faced old man and his horse was a slow-moving bag of bones, and I start with this man and his horse because they were there for all the terrible happenings up the coast that summer, always somewhere around.'

Harry lives in Calliope Bay, on the edge of the world. His mother has gone to the city, perhaps just for the summer, perhaps longer. But while Harry wonders when she'll be back he is free to explore the forbidden and dangerous meatworks, a place where the cries of animals long ago slaughtered can be heard in the wind.

When his beautiful older cousin Caroline arrives, Harry is torn between childish games and his desire to protect her from the attentions of Wiggins the butcher. With terrible consequences.

A great, untamed New Zealand classic, Sydney Bridge Upside Down is a coming-of-age story, a disquieting family tragedy and a sinister gothic thriller.

ISBN: 9781921520020 (Paperback)

Year: 1968

Publisher: Text Publishing

Pages: 278 (Fiction)

Links

1. Publisher's page of the book

2. Goodreads page of the book

3. Google books page for the book

4. Blog on the book

5. Youtube clip on how important the book is to one person

Pandora - New Tales of the Vampires (Anne Rice)

Pandora - New Tales of the Vampires

Anne Rice

Blurb: In a cafe in modern-day Paris, in the aftermath of a fresh kill, the fearless and beautiful Pandora begins to tell her tale of treachery, vengeance and love stretching across two millennia. As a young mortal in Imperial Rome in the time of Caesar Augustus, Pandora was first introduced to the blood-tainted cult of Isis. Later, in exile in Antioch, she was drawn even further into the dark, ancient rites. Now, looking back across the centuries, Pandora decides to return once more to New Orleans, to find the love of her early life, Marius, and to see once again the Vampire Lestat...

ISBN: 9780099271086 (Paperback)

Year: 1998

Publisher: Arrow Books

Pages: 406 (Fiction)

Links

1. Anne Rice's Official Page for the book

2. Youtube clip of Anne Rice speaking about the book

3. Buy at Amazon

4. Wikipedia page for the series

5. Google books page

101 Cult Movies You Must See Before You Die (Steven Jay Schneider)

101 Cult Movies You Must See Before You Die

Edited by Steven Jay Schneider

Blurb: If you've ever spent a day in the company of Withnail or Barbarella, gone surreal with Un Chien Andalou, found yourself able to recite every line from The Blues Brothers, or rocked out with Spinal Tap and Hedwig then 101 Cult Movies You Must See Before You Die is the book for you. From the violent delights of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! to the fantastical fairy tale The Princess Bride, cult films have broken every rule and challenged every moviegoer's perception.

Stars who are cult in one movie may be definitely not in another; people ignored in their own time can become cult heroes after their death. Movies gain cult status for a wide array of reasons - for the iconic acting of stars such as John Belushi, for their witty scripts, their strange visuals, or because of a series of bizarre or macabre incidences. Plan 9 from Outer Space reached cult popularity despite being described as the worst film ever made.

With insights from critics, film historians, and academics, 101 Cult Movies You Must See Before You Die offers a breadth of knowledge, insight, and passion about the movies you simply can't help watching. This book is an homage to a century filled with kamikaze girls, toxic avengers, killer tomatoes, amazon women, and improbably large, time-travelling rabbits. It's time for an irreverent ride into cult culture.

ISBN: 9781845664916 (Hardback)

Year: 2010

Publisher: New Burlington Books

Pages: 416 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Official website for the book

2. Buy at Amazon

3. Discussion on the list of films in the book

4. Buy from Tesco Books

5. Wikipedia page for the book