11 Best Personal Memoirs, Performing Arts Books
Personal Memoirs, Performing Arts is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top Personal Memoirs, Performing Arts audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 11 Personal Memoirs, Performing Arts audiobooks below.
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A Body of Work
- By: David Hallberg
- Narrator: Vikas Adam
- Length: 12 hours 11 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2017
- Language: English
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4.28(389 ratings)
4.28(389 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDDavid Hallberg, the first American to join the famed Bolshoi Ballet as a principal dancer and the dazzling artist the New York Times described as “the foremost classical stylist of our day,” presents an intimate journey through hisDavid Hallberg, the first American to join the famed Bolshoi Ballet as a principal dancer and the dazzling artist the New York Times described as “the foremost classical stylist of our day,” presents an intimate journey through his artistic life up to the moment he returns to the stage after a devastating injury almost cost him his career.
Beginning with his real-life Billy Elliot childhood–an all-American story marred by intense bullying–and culminating in his hard-won come-back, Hallberg’s brave memoir dives deep into life as an artist as he wrestles with ego, pushes the limits of his body, and searches for ecstatic perfection and fulfillment as one of the world’s most acclaimed ballet dancers.
While rich in detail ballet fans will adore, this is a book that anyone interested in a life of creativity will love. Hallberg reflects on themes like inspiration, self-doubt, and perfectionism as he takes listeners into daily class, rigorous rehearsals, and triumphant performances, searching for new interpretations of ballet’s greatest roles. He reveals the loneliness he felt as a teenager leaving America to join the Paris Opera Ballet, the ambition he had to tame as a new member of American Ballet Theatre, and the reasons behind his headline-grabbing decision to be the first American to join the top rank of Bolshoi Ballet, tendered by the artistic director who would later be the victim of a vicious acid attack. Then, as Hallberg performed throughout the world at the peak of his abilities, he suffered a crippling ankle injury and unsuccessful surgery leading to an agonizing retreat from ballet and an honest reexamination of his entire life.
Combining his powers of observation and memory with emotional honesty and artistic insight, Hallberg has written a great ballet memoir and an intimate portrait of an artist in all his vulnerability, passion, and wisdom.
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Magic Time
- By: Hawk Koch
- Narrator: Hawk Koch
- Length: 7 hours 28 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2020
- Language: English
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4.11(28 ratings)
4.11(28 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDHawk Koch is a renowned film producer who has served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He has produced some of the most iconic films of all time, including The Way We Were, Chinatown, Heaven Can Wait, Gorky Park, andHawk Koch is a renowned film producer who has served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He has produced some of the most iconic films of all time, including The Way We Were, Chinatown, Heaven Can Wait, Gorky Park, and Wayne’s World, among many others. He was born into the business, the son of legendary Howard W. Koch, who ran Frank Sinatra’s production company, was head of Paramount Studios, and was president of the Academy. Growing up, Hawk was dealt an immense amount of privilege and was met with the challenge of living up to his father’s name. Howard wasn’t communicative with his children, which left Hawk a sizable hole in the experience of who he was.
Just shy of his fiftieth birthday, Hawk realized that he was depressed, a mess, and unfulfilled. Following the advice of a friend, Hawk visited a rabbi. “Who are you?” the rabbi asked. Driving home, Hawk realized he was about to find out. Hawk was finally able to confront his inner demons and reevaluate his life, and he was bar mitzvah-ed for the first time.
Magic Time: My Life in Hollywood is the story of a father and a son and the lasting impact that that relationship carries, against the backdrop of the glitz and glamour of Hollywood.
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Little Miss Little Compton
- By: Arden Myrin
- Narrator: Arden Myrin
- Length: 7 hours 20 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: September 29, 2020
- Language: English
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4.1(357 ratings)
4.1(357 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDComedian and actress Arden Myrin delivers a hilarious and heartfelt memoir about navigating adulthood and her rise on the comedy scene despite an unconventional upbringing. Arden Myrin is the product of not one, but two hasty decisions. Her paternalComedian and actress Arden Myrin delivers a hilarious and heartfelt memoir about navigating adulthood and her rise on the comedy scene despite an unconventional upbringing.
Arden Myrin is the product of not one, but two hasty decisions. Her paternal grandparents ran off and got married twenty-four hours after they met. Arden’s parents did one better — they married on a dare. Growing up in Arden’s family, her dad ate nothing but sheet cake, while her mom was busy teaching a Cub Scout troop how to put on a Broadway musical. Oh, and she grew up in a small farm town called Little Compton, Rhode Island. Human population: 3,518. Cow population: 278. General Store: One. Stop Lights: Zero.
At nineteen, Arden packed her bags with stars in her eyes and landed at ImprovOlympic in Chicago, where for the first time in her life she felt like she finally made sense. After drinking in as much comedy experience (and Sea Breezes) as she could, Arden got her big break when she was cast on an NBC sitcom. She moved to Los Angeles, knowing no one, and quickly realized she had no clue how to be a fully-grown human adult on her own.
How do you date someone and not ruin it? How do you interact with people if you have a teeny bit of social anxiety? How do you stand up for yourself if you’re a people pleaser? And most of all, how do you start to believe that you are enough?
From small town Rhode Island to accidentally kicking Courteney Cox in the face on a soundstage in Hollywood, Arden’s hilarious, inspiring, and honest story shows readers how one totally unconventional upbringing might be the very thing one needs to thrive, all while showing up as your most outrageous, authentic self. Shout out to Little Compton!! Woot Woot!!!
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Chasing The Light
- By: Oliver Stone
- Narrator: Oliver Stone
- Length: 14 hours 26 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: July 21, 2020
- Language: English
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4.1(1032 ratings)
4.1(1032 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0031.99 USDAn intimate memoir by the controversial and outspoken, Oscar-winning director and screenwriter about his complicated New York childhood, volunteering for combat, and his struggles and triumphs making such films as Platoon, Midnight Express, andAn intimate memoir by the controversial and outspoken, Oscar-winning director and screenwriter about his complicated New York childhood, volunteering for combat, and his struggles and triumphs making such films as Platoon, Midnight Express, and Scarface.
Before the international success of Platoon in 1986, Oliver Stone had been wounded as an infantryman in Vietnam, and spent years writing unproduced scripts while driving taxis in New York, finally venturing westward to Los Angeles and a new life. Stone, now 73, recounts those formative years with in-the-moment details of the high and low moments: We see meetings with Al Pacino over Stone’s scripts for Scarface, Platoon, and Born on the Fourth of July; the harrowing demon of cocaine addiction following the failure of his first feature, The Hand (starring Michael Caine); his risky on-the-ground research of Miami drug cartels for Scarface; his stormy relationship with The Deer Hunter director Michael Cimino; the breathless hustles to finance the acclaimed and divisive Salvador; and tensions behind the scenes of his first Academy Award–winning film, Midnight Express.
Chasing the Light is a true insider’s look at Hollywood’s years of upheaval in the 1970s and ’80s. Narrated by the author.
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My Father Was Carmen Miranda!
- By: Nena Jover Kelty
- Narrator: Nena Jover Kelty
- Length: 5 hours 32 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2015
- Language: English
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4(4 ratings)
4(4 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDFind out what it was like to play the big UK theaters as the bombs fell … My Father Was Carmen Miranda! is the story of music hall showgirl Nena Jover Kelty—part of the renowned Jover family who entertained in circuses, theaters, andFind out what it was like to play the big UK theaters as the bombs fell …
My Father Was Carmen Miranda! is the story of music hall showgirl Nena Jover Kelty—part of the renowned Jover family who entertained in circuses, theaters, and music halls throughout the world for three generations. When her father’s act, “The Two Jovers,” broke up in 1939, Tommy Jover drafted his children to form a new act, “Tommy Jover with Nena and Raf.” They played all over Britain through the dark years of World War II, from 1939 to 1946.
Although buzz bombs were falling, food was scarce, and travel was often dangerous, nothing would frighten the Brits into giving up their evenings at the music hall. In the best tradition of British variety, Tommy Jover did a raucous turn as a female impersonator—music hall patrons screamed with delight when he topped his head with a fruit basket and made like Carmen Miranda—much to the embarrassment of young Nena, who played straight to her father’s comic antics.
My Father Was Carmen Miranda! offers glimpses of well-known British headliners like Max Miller, George Formby, Tommy Trinder, Vera Lynn, Flanagan and Allen, Dick Henderson, and Tessie O’Shea and is a vivid backstage look at the vanished world of the English music hall.
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Batman’s Batman
- By: Michael E. Uslan
- Narrator: Michael E. Uslan
- Length: 8 hours 46 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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3.98(271 ratings)
3.98(271 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDAn insider’s look at Hollywood and how movies and television shows are made In Batman’s Batman, Michael E. Uslan, executive producer of the Batman movie franchise, offers an insider’s look at Hollywood and the process of how moviesAn insider’s look at Hollywood and how movies and television shows are made
In Batman’s Batman, Michael E. Uslan, executive producer of the Batman movie franchise, offers an insider’s look at Hollywood and the process of how movies and television shows go from the drawing board to your screens.
Continuing the delightful tale of his adventures begun in The Boy Who Loved Batman, Uslan draws on both his successful and less successful attempts to bring ideas to the screen, offering a helpful, honest, and breezily told guide to producing films. From passion to promotion, from the initial pitch to selecting the best partners and packaging, Uslan reveals the thirteen qualities essential to would-be producers.
A lively memoir and a valuable glimpse inside Hollywood rarely seen by the public, Batman’s Batman is sure to please fans of Michael Uslan and the Batman franchise, but will also prove to be an invaluable resource for any aspiring producers, as he guides listeners through the Land of Bilk and Money.
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Judy and I
- By: Sid Luft
- Narrator: Joe Barrett
- Length: 14 hours 34 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2017
- Language: English
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3.66(205 ratings)
3.66(205 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.95 USDThe third of Judy Garland’s five husbands, Sid Luft was the one man in her life who stuck around. He was chiefly responsible for the final act of Judy’s meteoric comeback after she was unceremoniously booted off the MGM lot: he producedThe third of Judy Garland’s five husbands, Sid Luft was the one man in her life who stuck around. He was chiefly responsible for the final act of Judy’s meteoric comeback after she was unceremoniously booted off the MGM lot: he produced her iconic, Oscar-nominated vehicle A Star Is Born and expertly shaped her concert career.
Previously unpublished, Sid Luft’s intimate autobiography tells his and Judy’s story in hard-boiled yet elegant prose. It begins on a fateful night in New York City when the not quite divorced Judy Garland and the not quite divorced Sid Luft meet at Billy Reed’s Little Club and fall for each other.
The romance lasted Judy’s lifetime, despite the separations, the reconciliations, and the divorce. Under Luft’s management, Judy came back bigger than ever, building a singing career that rivaled Sinatra’s. However, her drug dependencies and suicidal tendencies put a tremendous strain on the relationship.
Sid did not complete his memoir; it ended in 1960 after Judy hired David Begelman and Freddie Fields to manage her career. But Randy L. Schmidt, acclaimed editor of Judy Garland on Judy Garland and author of Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter, seamlessly pieced together the final section of the book from extensive interviews with Sid, most previously unpublished.
Despite everything, Sid never stopped loving Judy and never forgave himself for not being able to ultimately save her from the demons that drove her to an early death at age forty-seven in 1969. Sid served as chief conservator of the Garland legacy until his death at the age of eighty-nine in 2005. This is his testament to the love of his life.
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Mr. Funny Pants
- By: Michael Showalter
- Length: 6 hours 30 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: February 22, 2011
- Language: English
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3.61(987 ratings)
3.61(987 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.98 USDThe writer and star of The State, Wet Hot American Summer, The Baxter, and Michael & Michael Have Issues brings readers his uniquely absurd humor in his hilarious first book.I was at my wit’s end. I’d had enough of this job, thisThe writer and star of The State, Wet Hot American Summer, The Baxter, and Michael & Michael Have Issues brings readers his uniquely absurd humor in his hilarious first book.... Read more
I was at my wit’s end. I’d had enough of this job, this life, and my relationship had broken up. Should I eat chocolate, or go to India, or fall in love? Then I had a revelation: Why not do all three, in that order? And so it was that I embarked on a journey that was segmented into three parts and was then made into a major motion picture. Later, I woke up on an airplane with a hole in my face and a really bad hangover. I was ushered brusquely off the plane by my parents who took me to a rehab where I tested positive for coke, classic coke, special k (the drug), Special K (the cereal), mushrooms, pepperoni, and Restless Leg Syndrome. It was there that I first began painting with my feet.
But rewind…the year was 1914. I was just a young German soldier serving in the trenches while simultaneously trying to destroy an evil ring with some help from an elf, a troll, and a giant sorcerer, all while cooking every recipe out of a Julia Child cookbook. What I’m trying to say is that there was a secret code hidden in a painting and I was looking for it with this girl who had a tattoo of a dragon! Let me clarify, it was the 1930s and a bunch of us were migrating out of Oklahoma, and I was this teenage wizard/CIA operative, okay? And, um then I floated off into the meta-verse as a ball of invisible energy that had no outer edge…
Ugh, okay. None of this is true. I’m just kind of a normal guy from New Jersey who moved to New York, got into comedy, wrote this book about trying to write this book, and then moved to Alaska, became the mayor of a small town, spent $30,000 on underwear, and now I’m going to rule the world!!! -
Brat
- By: Andrew McCarthy
- Narrator: Andrew McCarthy
- Length: 4 hours 55 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: May 11, 2021
- Language: English
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3.61(9367 ratings)
3.61(9367 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDFans of Patti Smith’s Just Kids and Rob Lowe’s StoriesI Only Tell My Friends will love this beautifully written, entertaining, and emotionally honest memoir by an actor, director, and author who found his start as an 80s Brat packFans of Patti Smith’s Just Kids and Rob Lowe’s StoriesI Only Tell My Friends will love this beautifully written, entertaining, and emotionally honest memoir by an actor, director, and author who found his start as an 80s Brat pack member.
Most people know Andrew McCarthy from his movie roles in Pretty in Pink, St. Elmo’s Fire, Weekend at Bernie’s, and Less than Zero, and as a charter member of Hollywood’s Brat Pack. That iconic group of ingenues and heartthrobs included Rob Lowe, Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, and Demi Moore, and has come to represent both a genre of film and an era of pop culture.In his memoir Brat: An ’80s Story, McCarthy focuses his gaze on that singular moment in time. The result is a revealing look at coming of age in a maelstrom, reckoning with conflicted ambition, innocence, addiction, and masculinity. New York City of the 1980s is brought to vivid life in these pages, from scoring loose joints in Washington Square Park to skipping school in favor of the dark revival houses of the Village where he fell in love with the movies that would change his life.Filled with personal revelations of innocence lost to heady days in Hollywood with John Hughes and an iconic cast of characters, Brat is a surprising and intimate story of an outsider caught up in a most unwitting success.... Read more -
Drinking and Dating
- By: Brandi Glanville
- Narrator: Brandi Glanville
- Length: 5 hours 6 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: February 11, 2014
- Language: English
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3.21(1968 ratings)
3.21(1968 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0018.99 USDOn the heels of her New York Times bestselling book Drinking and Tweeting, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Brandi Glanville takes readers on a wild ride through her dating life in this highly-entertaining relationship book. Drinking and DatingOn the heels of her New York Times bestselling book Drinking and Tweeting, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Brandi Glanville takes readers on a wild ride through her dating life in this highly-entertaining relationship book.
Drinking and Dating chronicles Glanville’s misadventures stumbling through today’s dating world. From social media blunders to bedroom escapades, Brandi withholds nothing. Each chapter is inspired by a relationship encounter she has had since her sensational divorce from actor Eddie Cibrian. Hilarious, surprising, vulnerable, and outspoken, Glanville’s unexpected take on dating after heartbreak – and life in general – is as unique as she is. Just like Brandi herself, Drinking and Dating is sexy, funny, and eyebrow-raising.
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Cat Whiskers and Talking Furniture
- By: John Rayburn
- Narrator: John Rayburn
- Length: 12 hours 29 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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3(1 ratings)
3(1 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDThe so-called Golden Age of Radio lasted little more than a quarter century from approximately 1926 to 1952-54. This is what it was like: “Of all the forms of theater, radio drama commanded the most effective stage. No medium–notThe so-called Golden Age of Radio lasted little more than a quarter century from approximately 1926 to 1952-54. This is what it was like:
“Of all the forms of theater, radio drama commanded the most effective stage. No medium–not theater, not film, not television–had more sheer space in which to achieve the basic goal of drama, telling a story. Theater is bounded by the bare boards and the footlights and the flats, film by the white screen, and television by the comparatively tiny tube. But radio … radio played itself out in boundless space … the listener’s mind … your mind. We in radio always called it the theater of imagination. We proudly traced our lineage back to the primitive campfire and the tribal storytellers as the passers-on of legend, heroic adventure, mysteries of nature. They told their stories orally and so did we. We did not show, we told you. We made you believe everything because it was happening before your mind’s eye. The basic appeal of radio drama was that you had to listen if you wanted to follow it. It wasn’t enough to merely hear it. You had to listen. The word listen implies a conscious effort to pay attention, to participate. Senses were activated, the curiosity was sparked, the imagination was fired, and the listener found himself participating. He was a collaborator. In his brain he matched a face and a body to the voice. In his mind he saw the action. And that was the basic difference between radio and every other visual medium. A good movie, a fine stage play, a television drama, excellent ballet … all those required an appreciative audience, but only radio called for a creative audience, a listener who really worked with the writer, the director, the actors, and technicians to give completeness to the creative process.”
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Cliff Weitzman
Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.
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