You Only Rock Once

Jerry Blavat's rockin' life story pulses with celebrity names, infamous episodes and "offers readers an insider's view into the golden era of rock and roll and pop music and entertainment" raves Publishers Weekly. The long-awaited autobiography of entertainment icon Jerry Blavat, You Only Rock Once is the wildly entertaining and unfiltered story of the man whose career began at the age of 13 on the TV dance show Bandstand and became a music legend. Lifelong friendships with the likes of Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra, a controversial relationship with Philadelphia Mafia boss Angelo Bruno that resulted in a decade-long FBI investigation, and much more colors this amazing journey from the early 60s through today. Now, some 50 years after his first radio gig, Blavat puts it all in perspective in this uniquely American tale of a "little cockroach kid" borne out of the immigrant experience who lived the American Dream.

The Philadelphia disc jockey and radio and television personality known as "The Geator with the Heator," recounts his career in rock from his days on "American Bandstand" to the present and his relationships with musicians and mobsters.

If Life Was Like a Song Nina Simmons' song would be "You Can't Always Eat What You Want." (Peanut allergies, ugh). But that's okay, because as her best friend Brianna always said, "We're All in This Together." Until the first day of the seventh grade, when Brianna dumps her to be BFFs with the popular new girl. Left all alone, Nina is forced to socialize with "her own kind"--banished to the peanut-free table with the other allergy outcasts. As a joke, she tells her new pals they should form a rock band called EpiPens. (Get it?) Apparently, allergy sufferers don't understand sarcasm, because the next thing Nina knows she's the lead drummer. Now Nina has to decide: adopt a picture-perfect pop personality to fit in with Bri and her new BFF or embrace her inner rocker and the spotlight. Well.. Call Me a Rock Star, Maybe.

In this wild, behind-the-scenes portrait of one of the biggest rock bands in history, Jo Wood comes clean about her three decades as the girlfriend and eventually the wife of Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood. This startlingly honest, laugh-out-loud memoir vividly describes life on tour, in the studio, at the legendary parties—and every raucous moment in between. From teenage model to hard-partying rock 'n' roll devotee, through motherhood, marriage, breakdown, and the challenge of starting over again, Jo Wood has had a roller-coaster ride of a life. At the age of sixteen, Jo burst onto the British modeling scene and became a fixture at London's most glamorous parties. A few years later, just twenty-two years old and a single mom, she met Ronnie Wood and her life changed forever. Holding nothing back, Jo paints an astonishing picture of the sex, drugs, booze, groupies, and—above all—the fun that filled her thirty years as a member of the Stones' inner circle. Telling never-before-heard stories about what life on the road with the Stones was really like, she offers intimate portraits of the band's legendary cast of characters, including Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Jerry Hall, and Patti Hansen. She recalls the excitement of getting to know international A-list celebrities like Kate Moss, Andy Warhol, Johnny Depp, and Slash. Jo also opens up about her family life with Ronnie: their passionate love affair, the demands of being a mother by day and a wild child by night, and eventually coping with Ronnie's increasingly difficult behavior as his addictions consumed him. For the first time, she reveals her heartbreaking account of what happened when Ronnie left her for an eighteen-year-old waitress, explaining how she was able to forgive, live without bitterness or regret, and find new happiness as an entrepreneur and organic beauty expert. Including never-before-seen photographs from Jo's personal collection, It's Only Rock 'n' Roll is a compelling piece of rock 'n' roll history from a woman with a backstage pass and front-row seat. Enchanting, candid, and moving, this page-turning fairy tale of fame and fortune has the best of the era's many euphoric and reckless moments within its pages.

A tell-all memoir from the lead singer of the 1980s hair-metal band Ratt reveals all the aspects of rock star excess, including the groupies, the trashed hotel rooms, and the drugs.

Beth Morgan is a young woman who's just been given the 'once in a lifetime' opportunity to meet her favorite band, Traveler. That meeting leads to a chance encounter with her idol, the band's lead singer, Andy Stevens. What follows is a love story. A journey through the peaks, valleys and trials of a relationship lived in the public eye; the miles they traveled together through his career in the music business, and her struggles to stay obscure in a world she never really settled into comfortably. In the end it's all about love, fate, and what the heart can't hold back.

Winner of the 2016 Miles Franklin Literary Award A powerful debut novel about two refugees starting over after losing everything Jovan and Suzana have fled war-torn Sarajevo. They have lost their children, their standing as public intellectuals, and their connection to each other. Now working as cleaners in a suburb of Melbourne, they struggle to rebuild their lives under the painful hardships of immigrant life. During a hot Melbourne summer Jovan's janitorial work at a hospital is disrupted by mysterious acts of vandalism. But as the attacks become more violent and racially charged, he feels increasingly targeted, and taunted to interpret their meaning. Under tremendous pressure the couple struggle to keep their marriage together, but fear that they may never find peace from the ravages of war . . . Black Rock White City is an essential story of displacement and immediate threat—the new reality of suburban life—and the deeply personal responses of two refugees seeking redemption.

The first biography of Yo La Tengo, the massively influential band who all but defined indie music. Yo La Tengo has lit up the indie scene for three decades, part of an underground revolution that defied corporate music conglomerates, eschewed pop radio, and found a third way. Going behind the scenes of one of the most remarkable eras in American music history, Big Day Coming traces the patient rise of husband-and-wife team Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley, who—over three decades—helped forge a spandex-and-hairspray-free path to the global stage, selling millions of records along the way and influencing countless bands. Using the continuously vital Yo La Tengo as a springboard, Big Day Coming uncovers the history of the legendary clubs, bands, zines, labels, record stores, college radio stations, fans, and pivotal figures that built the infrastructure of the now-prevalent indie rock world. Journalist and freeform radio DJ Jesse Jarnow draws on all-access interviews and archives for mesmerizing trip through contemporary music history told through one of its most creative and singular acts.