Glitterati

A Tale of Two Valleys: Wine, Wealth and the Battle for the Good Life in Napa and Sonoma , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 409min

When acclaimed journalist Alan Deutschman came to the California wine country as the lucky houseguest of very rich friends, he was surprised to discover a raging controversy. A civil war was being fought between the Napa Valley, which epitomized elitism, prestige and wealthy excess, and the neighboring Sonoma Valley, a rag-tag bohemian enclave so stubbornly backward that rambunctious chickens wandered freely through town. But the antics really began when new-money invaders began pushing out Sonoma's poets and painters to make way for luxury resorts and trophy houses that seemed a parody of opulence. A Tale of Two Valleys captures these stranger-than-fiction locales with the wit of a Tom Wolfe novel and uncorks the hilarious absurdities of life among the wine world's glitterati. Deutschman found that on the weekends the wine country was like a bunch of gracious hosts smiling upon their guests, but during the week the families feuded with each other and their neighbors like the Hatfields and McCoys. Napa was a comically exclusive club where the super-rich fought desperately to get in. Sonoma's colorful free spirits and iconoclasts were wary of their bohemia becoming the next playground for the rapacious elite. So, led by a former taxicab driver and wine-grape picker, a cheese merchant and an artist who lived in a barn surrounded by wild peacocks, they formed a populist revolt to seize power and repel the rich invaders. Deutschman's cast of characters brims with eccentrics, egomaniacs and a mysterious man in black who crashed the elegant Napa Valley Wine Auction before proceeding to pay a half-million dollars for a single bottle. What develops is nothing less than a battle for the good life, a clash between old and new, the struggle for the soul of one of America's last bits of paradise. A Tale of Two Valleys is also available in hardcover from Broadway Books. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Michael Cerveris. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/rhau/000114/bk_rhau_000114_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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Price: 9.95 EUR excl. shipping

Captain Fantastic: Elton John's Stellar Trip Through the '70s , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 582min

The true story of Elton John’s meteoric rise from obscurity to worldwide celebrity in the weird, wild 1970s, based on rare one-on-one interviews with the Rocket Man himself - now the subject of a major motion picture. In August 1970, Elton John achieved overnight fame with a rousing performance at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. Over the next five years, the artist formerly known as Reginald Dwight went from unheard of to unstoppable, scoring seven consecutive number-one albums and 16 Top Ten singles in America. By the middle of the decade, he was solely responsible for two percent of global record sales. One in 50 albums sold in the world bore his name. Elton John's live shows became raucous theatrical extravaganzas, attended by all the glitterati of the era. But beneath the spangled bodysuits and oversized eyeglasses, Elton was a desperately shy man, conflicted about his success, his sexuality, and his narcotic indulgences. In 1975, at the height of his fame, he attempted suicide. After coming out as bisexual in a controversial Rolling Stone interview that nearly wrecked his career, and announcing his retirement from live performance in 1977 at the age of 30, he gradually found his way back to the thing he cared about most: the music. Captain Fantastic gives listeners a behind-the-scenes look at the rise, fall, and return to glory of one of the world's most mercurial performers. Rock journalist Tom Doyle's insider account of the Rocket Man's turbulent ascent is based on a series of one-on-one interviews in which Elton laid bare many previously unrevealed details of his early career. Here is an intimate exploration of Elton's working relationship with songwriting partner Bernie Taupin, whose lyrics often chronicled the ups and downs of their life together in the spotlight. Through this book passes a parade of legends whose paths crossed with Elton's during the decade - including John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Groucho Marx, Katha ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Tom Taylorson. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/rand/005025/bk_rand_005025_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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Price: 9.95 EUR excl. shipping