Loretta Lynn: Coal Miner's Daughter

For the first four years of her life, Georgette had two adoring parents who showed her off at every opportunity, and between her parents, grandparents, older sisters, and cheering fans, Georgette’s feet seldom hit the ground.

But as in every fairy tale, dark forces were just around the corner. Her parents fought, and George drank. George and Tammy divorced when Georgette was four, and it would be years before she understood just what that meant.

The Three of Us is an honest and heartfelt look into the life of a broken family living in the glare of the public spotlight. Like so many of her generation, Georgette had to make sense of loving two parents who couldn’t love each other. With never-before-told stories about George and Tammy, it recounts Tammy’s descent into prescription pill addiction, her dependence on her fifth husband, George Richey, and her untimely death at the age of fifty-five. Georgette opens up about her broken relationship with her father and what it took for them to come back together. Lastly, Georgette discusses the ups and downs of her adult life: failed marriages, illness, an arrest, and now, an unexpected but thrilling career as a musician.

Alan and Denise Jackson's life seemed like a fairy tale: high school sweethearts marry young and leave small-town Georgia to pursue big dreams in Music City. They pay their dues, work hard, weather deep disappointments. Then their dreams come true.

In fairy tales, the Jacksons' material success?plus their "perfect" marriage, their three beautiful daughters, and their supportive families?would have signaled a happily-ever-after ending.

But real life is different from fairy tales.

At the pinnacle of their success, the Jacksons separated. For Alan, musical renown fame, and wealth still did not make up for the marital problems the Jacksons had struggled with for years. And for Denise, building her life around Alan and riding the tide of his success had somehow left her hollow, unsure of just who she really was.

You don't have to be rich and famous to go through struggles like these. Sooner or later, we all come to the point when we relize that real joy and peace isn't just around the corner of the next achievement, the next relationship, the next new thing.

That's why Alan and Denise Jackson's story isn't just a great read and a dramatic, intimate look at the golden world of celebrity. It's a story of the greatest love of all, the love that will never let you go . . . and how to find it, no matter who you are, where you live, or what you've done.

"Denise's story is an inside perspective on the results of the ups and downs of fame. Her personal struggles with life's ordinary and extraordinary consequences, her passion to have a stronger marriage, and her desire to have a closer walk with God make for a truly inspiring life." ?Carrie Underwood, 2005 American Idol Winner, ACM & CMA Female Vocalist of the Year

Shania Twain’s life has evolved from a series of pivotal moments, and in unflinching, heartbreaking prose, Shania spares no details as she takes us through the events that have made her who she is. She recounts her difficult childhood, her parents’ sudden death and its painful aftermath, her dramatic rise to stardom, her devastating betrayal by a trusted friend, and her joyful marriage to the love of her life. From these moments, she offers profound, moving insights into families, personal tragedies, making sense of one’s life, and the process of healing. Shania Twain is a singular, remarkable woman who has faced enormous odds and downfalls, and her extraordinary story will provide wisdom, inspiration, and hope for almost anyone.

Many myths and contradictions regarding the life of Johnny and his family have been perpetuated for decades in film and literature. Vivian exposes previously untold stories involving Johnny's drug addiction, his fraught family life, and their divorce in 1968, as well as the truth behind the writing of two of Johnny's most famous songs, "I Walk the Line" and "Ring of Fire."

Supplemented by a never-before-published archive of love letters and family photos, I Walked the Line offers a deeper look at one of the most sig- nificant artists in music history. Here, fans and readers can experience the extraordinary account of love and heartbreak between Johnny and Vivian, and come to understand Vivian's dignified silence over the years. Through this elegant, revealing, and powerful memoir, Vivian Cash's voice is finally heard.

In her delightful and moving memoir, Sissy Spacek writes about her idyllic, barefoot childhood in a small East Texas town, with the clarity and wisdom that comes from never losing sight of her roots. Descended from industrious Czech immigrants and threadbare southern gentility, she grew up a tomboy, tagging along with two older brothers and absorbing grace and grit from her remarkable parents, who taught her that she could do anything. She also learned fearlessness in the wake of a family tragedy, the grief propelling her "like rocket fuel" to follow her dreams of becoming a performer.

With a keen sense of humor and a big-hearted voice, she describes how she arrived in New York City one star-struck summer as a seventeen-year-old carrying a suitcase and two guitars; and how she built a career that has spanned four decades with films such as Carrie, Coal Miner’s Daughter, 3 Women, and The Help. She details working with some of the great directors of our time, including Terrence Malick, Robert Altman, David Lynch, and Brian De Palma—who thought of her as a no-talent set decorator until he cast her as the lead in Carrie. She also reveals why, at the height of her fame, she and her family moved away from Los Angeles to a farm in rural Virginia.

Whether she’s describing the terrors and joys of raising two talented, independent daughters, taking readers behind the scenes on Oscar night, or meditating on the thrill of watching a pair of otters frolicking in her pond, Sissy Spacek’s memoir is poignant and laugh-out-loud funny, plainspoken and utterly honest. My Extraordinary Ordinary Life is about what matters most: the exquisite worth of ordinary things, the simple pleasures of home and family, and the honest job of being right with the world. "If I get hit by a truck tomorrow," she writes, "I want to know I’ve returned my neighbor’s cake pan."

Praise for My Extraordinary Ordinary Life:

"My Extraordinary Ordinary Life is the book version of Sissy: warm, heartfelt, and very real. Perhaps most remarkable is that Sissy’s life—from the ordinary experiences of growing up in and raising a close-knit family to the extraordinary thrills of starring in some of the most iconic roles in Hollywood—unfolds as gracefully on the page as it does on the big screen and, as all of her readers will soon learn, in everyday life."
—Kathryn Stockett, New York Times bestselling author of The Help

"My Extraordinary Ordinary Life describes a remarkable woman’s journey from a baton-twirling East Texas gal to an Academy-Award winning star. Sissy Spacek tells her story with warmth and grace, never straying far from the small-town roots that shaped her."
—Jeannette Walls, bestselling author of The Glass Castle and Half Broke Horses

"[A] warm narrative Like a folk song, Spacek’s storytelling is tender and unhurried."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Sissy Spacek writes with the same bright animation and verve as she has lived her, indeed, extraordinary life."
—Sally Mann, artist and writer