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In this intimate and open account—nothing like any rock-and-roll memoir you’ve ever read—Alex Van Halen shares his personal story of family, friendship, music and brotherly love in a remarkable tribute to his beloved brother and band mate. In his rough yet sweet voice, Alex recounts the brothers’ childhood, first in the Netherlands and then in working class Pasadena, California, with an itinerant musician father and a very proper Indonesian-born mother.

In 1986 Darius Rucker cofounded Hootie & The Blowfish at the University of South Carolina. What began as a party band playing frat houses and dive bars quickly became a global pop rock phenomenon through their multiplatinum-selling debut album, cracked rear view, which featured era-defining hit songs like “Only Wanna Be with You,” “Let Her Cry,” and “Hold My Hand.” Later, Darius would chart a pioneering path as a solo country music artist, with classic anthems like “Wagon Wheel” and “Alright.”

A down-to-earth global pop star. A deeply spiritual, cerebral powerhouse. A famously outspoken introvert. For her millions of fans, and the few unacquainted, defining rock luminary Alanis Morissette is an exercise in dichotomies and nuance. And though her most formidable traits are seemingly at odds with one another, they are, oddly enough, completely emblematic of all of us: complex, conflicting, and, most importantly, ever evolving. With her striking command of language and profound emotional fluency, the 46-year-old covers an enormous amount of personal ground with listeners.

Nory Ryan's family has lived on Maidin Bay on the west coast of Ireland for generations, raising a pig and a few chickens, planting potatoes, getting by. Every year, Nory's father goes away on a fishing boat and returns with the rent money for the English lord who owns their cottage and fields, the English lord bent upon forcing the Irish from their land so he can tumble the cottages and clear the fields for grazing.