NCW Libraries

"India Allwood grew up wanting to be an actress. Armed with a stack of index cards and a hell of a lot of talent, she goes from awkward 16-year-old to Broadway ingenue to tv star. But while promoting her most recent project, a film about adoption, India does what you should never do--she tells a journalist the truth: it's a bad movie. Like so many movies about adoption, it tells only one story, a tragic one. But India's an adoptive mom herself and...

"This is a tale of murder. Or maybe that's not quite true. At its heart, it's a love story, isn't it? Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex-movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island. I tell you this because you may think you know this story. You probably read about it at the time -- it caused a real stir in the tabloids,...

"It's opening night, but far from glamorous. Alice is performing in a local Bay Area production of The Winter's Tale, the complete opposite of what she had envisioned for her career back home in Los Angeles. She doesn't have dreams of superstardom per se, but the basement theatre in a wildfire-choked town simply isn't ideal. To make matters worse, her best friend Sadie is not even coming. Pragmatic and serious Sadie and flighty, creative Alice have...

Nolly reveals the story of Noele 'Nolly' Gordon, one of the most famous faces on British TV in the 1960s and 70s, whose unceremonious firing from her hit show at the height of her career was front-page news. A bold exploration of how the establishment turns on women who refuse to play by the rules, Nolly is an enjoyable and wildly entertaining ride through Gordon's most tumultuous years, and a sharp, affectionate, and heart-breaking portrait of a...

"Oscar-winning actress Ardith Law is a Hollywood icon. Radiant at sixty-two, she is the epitome of glamour and a highly respected artist. But her success has come at a price: She has a strained relationship with her daughter, Morgan, who at thirty-eight still blames Ardith for putting her career before being a mother. Morgan is a successful plastic surgeon in New York City--and the distance from Ardith's Bel Air mansion is not lost on either of them....

"Lucy was not a proper little girl. She was sassy. She was bold. She was funny. She was a rule-breaking, chance-taking, comedy pioneer. Can't act? Can't sing? Can't dance? Lucy proves them all wrong - and then has the last laugh when she finally lets her inner funny girl shine. In 1951, the hit show I Love Lucy took television by storm, and has made millions laugh ever since. Lucy! is the true story of how Lucille Ball overcame the odds to become...

An intimate and deeply original exploration of the life and work of the television pioneer, the First Lady of Comedy, Lucille Bal--A.K.A. Lucy. With stories illuminating the many different facets of the woman, [this book] details how Ball transformed the face of comedy and the entertainment industry. -- adapted from back cover

Ardith Law, a revered Hollywood actress at 62, grapples with a strained relationship with her daughter, Morgan, who resents Ardith's prioritization of her career. Their emotional distance is accentuated by Morgan's success as a plastic surgeon in NYC. Ardith, a single mother since her husband's infidelity, finds companionship with actor Bill West. However, her world shifts when she hires a temporary assistant, Josh Gray, during Bill's absence.

"Meg works for a casino in LA, catching cheaters and popping a few too many pain pills to cope, following a far different path than her sister Haley, a famous actress. But suddenly reports surface of Haley dying at the remote rehab facility where she had been forced to go to get her addictions under control. There are whispers of suicide, but Meg can't believe it. She decides that the best way to find out what happened to her sister is to check in...

Kezia Cooper Hobson, recently widowed, arrives in New York from San Francisco. Determined to make a fresh start, she has just completed the sale of her Pacific Heights home, not to mention her husband's venture capital firm, and in doing so, is also freed from her responsibility as a board member of the company. Bringing with her only a few personal treasures, she is excited to move into the blank slate of a beautiful midtown penthouse, in the city...