Billie Morgan

Shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 2005, 'Billie Morgan' is a blistering thriller and an exhilarating read. Billie is in her forties, but now her youth is about to catch up with her...

Un jour, lors de sa folle jeunesse à Bradford, entre sa mère indigne, son gang de motards et la drogue, Billie Morgan commet un acte terrible envers un membre du gang. Un acte qui lui coûte son mariage et une partie de sa raison. Un acte qui la pousse à suivre et aider Jas, la compagne du disparu plongée dans l’enfer de la drogue, et son fils Natty, devenu un adolescent obsédé par ce père disparu qu’il espère voir revenir un jour. Rongée par la culpabilité, Billie Morgan va tout faire pour leur venir en aide. Mais comment aider qui ne veut pas l’être ? Billie trouvera-t-elle la rédemption ? Et d’abord, est-elle vraiment si coupable que ça ? Cette histoire ne se raconte pas, elle se lit. Parce que transparaît sans cesse la profondeur, la réflexion sur l’humanité, le regard sur une société en déshérence, la quête de l’amour, la compréhension de l’autre ; et parce qu’il y a aussi beaucoup de sensibilité, de beauté et de poésie. La noirceur du récit lui donne également un réalisme dérangeant qui captive le lecteur.

Association of Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence Best Research in Record Labels–Certificate of Merit (2012) The Starday Story: The House That Country Music Built is the first book entirely dedicated to one of the most influential music labels of the twentieth century. In addition to creating the largest bluegrass catalogue throughout the 1950s and '60s, Starday was also known for its legendary rockabilly catalogue, an extensive Texas honky-tonk outpouring, classic gospel and sacred recordings, and as a Nashville independent powerhouse studio and label. Written with label president and co-founder Don Pierce, this book traces the label's origins in 1953 through the 1968 Starday-King merger. Interviews with artists and their families, employees, and Pierce contribute to the stories behind famous hit songs, including "Y'all Come," "A Satisfied Mind," "Why Baby Why," "Giddy-up Go," "Alabam," and many others. Gibson's research and interviews also shed new light on the musical careers of George Jones, Arlie Duff, Willie Nelson, Roger Miller, the Stanley Brothers, Cowboy Copas, Red Sovine, and countless other Starday artists. Conversations with the children of Pappy Daily and Jack Starns provide a unique perspective on the early days of Starday, and extensive interviews with Pierce offer an insider glance at the country music industry during its golden era. Weathering through the storm of rock and roll and, later, the Nashville Sound, Starday was a home to traditional country musicians and became one of the most successful independent labels in American history. Ultimately, The Starday Story is the definitive record of a country music label that played an integral role in preserving our nation's musical heritage.

Alaska State Trooper Dan Patterson fears a serial killer is murdering women on Kodiak Island. A woman was found floating in the boat harbor in May. In October, an off-duty trooper stumbled upon the body of an 18-year-old girl in the woods, and later that month, two young boys discovered the bones of Deanna Kerr entwined in a pile of kelp on the beach. When a park ranger discovers the body of a fourth woman, Patterson calls the FBI for assistance, and FBI Special Agent Nick Morgan flies to Kodiak to aid in the investigation. Morgan quickly realizes they have too many suspects and too little evidence. Could the killer be the crab boat captain who knew two of the victims, or is the murderer one of the coaches at the high school? As the investigation proceeds, Patterson even begins to fear the killer could be someone on his task force. When the murderer strikes again, tensions escalate, and Patterson and Morgan know they must catch this monster before another woman dies.

The Captive Trail is second in a six-book series about four generations of the Morgan family living, fighting, and thriving amidst a turbulent Texas history spanning from 1845 to 1896. Although a series, each book can be read on its own. Taabe Waipu has run away from her Comanche village and is fleeing south in Texas on a horse she stole from a dowry left outside her family’s teepee. The horse has an accident and she is left on foot, injured and exhausted. She staggers onto a road near Fort Chadbourne and collapses. On one of the first runs through Texas, Butterfield Overland Mail Company driver Ned Bright carries two Ursuline nuns returning to their mission station. They come across a woman who is nearly dead from exposure and dehydration and take her to the mission. With some detective work, Ned discovers Taabe Waipu identity. He plans to unite her with her family, but the Comanche have other ideas, and the two end up defending the mission station. Through Taabe and Ned we learn the true meaning of healing and restoration amid seemingly powerless situations.

Soulful jazz singer Billie Holiday is remembered today for her unique sound, troubled personal history, and a catalogue that includes such resonant songs as “Strange Fruit” and “God Bless the Child.” Holiday and her music were also strongly shaped by religion, often in surprising ways. Religion Around Billie Holiday examines the spiritual and religious forces that left their mark on the performer during her short but influential life. Mixing elements of biography with the history of race and American music, Tracy Fessenden explores the multiple religious influences on Holiday’s life and sound, including her time spent as a child in a Baltimore convent, the echoes of black Southern churches in the blues she encountered in brothels, the secular riffs on ancestral faith in the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance, and the Jewish songwriting culture of Tin Pan Alley. Fessenden looks at the vernacular devotions scholars call lived religion—the Catholicism of the streets, the Jewishness of the stage, the Pentecostalism of the roadhouse or the concert arena—alongside more formal religious articulations in institutions, doctrine, and ritual performance. Insightful and compelling, Fessenden’s study brings unexpected materials and archival voices to bear on the shaping of Billie Holiday’s exquisite craft and indelible persona. Religion Around Billie Holiday illuminates the power and durability of religion in the making of an American musical icon.

With her customary alchemist's skill, Joolz Denby has conjured forth a modern, magical fable, brimming with ribald wit, shimmering prose and characters who cast a mean glamour.

Annie Wynter has sworn off love. Then a brutal killing turns her life upside-down and Annie has to choose - will she break the rules she lives by? The decision she makes will change her life forever.