The untold history of Beverly Hills and how, against all odds, it remained an independent, exclusive, and glamorous enclave through the efforts of Hollywood’s film pioneers. If you look at a map of the sprawling city lines of Los Angeles, you’ll notice a distinct hole in the middle. That is Beverly Hills, and there’s a reason why it remains an island in the sea of LA. It’s a tale inextricably linked with the dawn of cinema, a celebrity couple using their reputation to get what they wanted politically, and of course, the age old conundrum of California: water. For film stars who moved out to California in the early 20th century, Beverly Hills was a refuge from tabloid-heavy Los Angeles. It was also a societal blank slate: unlike Los Angeles, saddled with the East Coast caste system, Beverly Hills’ developers were not picky about who settled there. It was the perfect place for Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks who both came from mixed-ethnic, impoverished backgrounds. It allowed them to become among the first actors to reach ‘superstar status’ through hard-work and keen entrepreneurial instincts—and to keep their steamy affair out of the press. Today, listening to a celebrity advocating a cause doesn’t raise an eyebrow. But in 1923, it was something new. This is the story of how the stars battled to keep their city free from the clutches of a rapacious Los Angeles and lay the groundwork for celebrity influence and political power. With a nuanced eye and fantastic storytelling, The Battle for Beverly Hills is an irresistible tale of glamour, fame, gossip, and politics.

Paula Hope arrives in Los Angeles, penniless and on the run from a violent and tragic past. Her great taste and style catch the eye of an international interior designer--and her career and life seemed touched by the gods when she is asked to help redecorate the fabled Sunset Hotel. Then she finds a deep and passionate love with the owner of the hotel, superstar Robert Hartford--but happiness like this can't last forever. And there are those in Beverly Hills who threaten their love AND endanger their lives. The whole town is consumed in an epic battle to win the Sunset Hotel, while an ancient vow of revenge, a paranoid jealousy, and an act of betrayal cast a shadow over the happiness Paula has sworn will be her destiny. "[Pat Booth] roars down Rodeo Drive in a sex-fueled tale of movie stars, new age mystics and a battle to control one of the world's great hotels." USA TODAY "From the Paperback edition.

From the star of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills comes an emotional and eye opening behind-the-scenes look at her descent into uncovering the mystery of chronic Lyme disease. In early 2011, Yolanda was struck by mysterious symptoms including brain fog, severe exhaustion, migraines and more. Over the months and years that followed, she went from being an outspoken, multi-tasking, hands-on mother of three, reality TV star, and social butterfly, to a woman who spent most of her time in bed. Yolanda was turned inside out by some of the country’s top hospitals and doctors, but due to the lack of definitive diagnostic testing, she landed in a dark maze of conflicting medical opinions, where many were quick to treat her symptoms but could never provide clear answers to their possible causes. In this moving, behind the scenes memoir, Yolanda Hadid opens up in a way she has never been able to in the media before. Suffering from late stage Lyme, a disease that is an undeniable epidemic and more debilitating than anyone realizes, Yolanda had to fight with everything she had to hold onto her life. While her struggle was lived publicly, it impacted her privately in every aspect of her existence, affecting her family, friends and professional prospects. Her perfect marriage became strained and led to divorce. It was the strong bond with her children, Gigi, Bella and Anwar, that provided her greatest motivation to fight through the darkest days of her life. Hers is an emotional narrative and all-important read for anyone unseated by an unexpected catastrophe. With candor, authenticity and an unwavering inner strength, Yolanda reveals intimate details of her journey crisscrossing the world to find answers for herself and two of her children who suffer from Lyme and shares her tireless research into eastern and western medicine. Believe Me is an inspiring lesson in the importance of having courage and hope, even in those moments when you think you can’t go on.

This is a riveting story of the author's journey for survival as a war refugee and overcoming poverty. The story begins in Jerusalem as the British Empire crumbles and World War II ends. The ensuing turmoil in Palestine lead to Israel's War of Independence and the Arab siege of Jerusalem that shaped Eitan's childhood and the journey he travelled as a construction laborer, shepherd in a kibbutz, "Top Gun" fighter pilot in Israel Air Force, engineer for the Space Shuttle and a businessman in Beverly Hills. On his quest for independence and justice he endured family displacement, hunger, personal loss, and a government corruption scandal that nearly unraveled all he had worked to create. This compelling story, however, is ultimately one of triumph. Jerusalem, at once provincial and cosmopolitan, where lives of Christians, Jews and Arabs intermingle, is the colorful ground for a true story of a boy growing up during the tumultuous waning years of the British rule. The author describes scenes from the Arab-Israeli war, from a rare vantage point of a little boy, turned refugee in the ravaged city. As a teenager, he becomes a member of a socialist youth movement and joins his friends to establish a kibbutz. Toiling as a shepherd in the hills of Judea, and disappointed by the communal system, he leaves to join the Israel Air Force and becomes a fighter pilot. At the age of 22, he takes Dina, his wife, to Africa to create the newly independent Ghana Air Force. Fulfilling his lifelong dream, the author goes to America, but tragedy drives his young family back to Israel for eleven years. Following the Yom Kippur War, his keen sense of justice compels him to expose government corruption that inevitably teaches him that "no good deed goes unpunished," but at the end of the day makes him victorious. A memorable scene aboard an El Al flight provides an emotional end. Visit jerusalemtobeverlyhills.com

Assouline began with an idea and a belief: the first, a notion that beauty, perfected, has meaning that is capable of transforming our lives; and the second, that a book--artfully crafted and highly considered in its visual content--can open our eyes and minds. With our first book, La Colombe d'Or, we sought to convey the experience of a small hotel in the south of France, a tiny, sublime world of art, history, luxury, and inspiration unto itself. Over time, that world has been expanded to create a universe that is anchored by our books but no longer limited to paper and pages.

Ned Wynn is the son of film actor Keenan Wynn, and the grandson of immortal movie and radio comedian Ed Wynn. He was doted on in his childhood by the likes of Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, and Tyrone Power. In this lively, poignant memoir, Wynn recounts growing up in Hollywood's privileged inner circle. 28 photographs.

Documents the landmark tort case involving Beverly Hills High School and Erin Brockovich through which oil drilling practices behind the school's athletic fields were linked to cancer outbreaks among young graduates and a heavily debated legal battle that divided the community and incorporated dramatic scientific, political, and personal influences. 40,000 first printing.

Tobacco War charts the dramatic and complex history of tobacco politics in California over the past quarter century. Beginning with the activities of a small band of activists who, in the 1970s, put forward the radical notion that people should not have to breathe second-hand tobacco smoke, Stanton Glantz and Edith Balbach follow the movement through the 1980s, when activists created hundreds of city and county ordinances by working through their local officials, to the present--when tobacco is a highly visible issue in American politics and smoke-free restaurants and bars are a reality throughout the state. The authors show how these accomplishments rest on the groundwork laid over the past two decades by tobacco control activists who have worked across the U.S. to change how people view the tobacco industry and its behavior. Tobacco War is accessibly written, balanced, and meticulously researched. The California experience provides a graphic demonstration of the successes and failures of both the tobacco industry and public health forces. It shows how public health advocates slowly learned to control the terms of the debate and how they discovered that simply establishing tobacco control programs was not enough, that constant vigilance was necessary to protect programs from a hostile legislature and governor. In the end, the California experience proves that it is possible to dramatically change how people think about tobacco and the tobacco industry and to rapidly reduce tobacco consumption. But California's experience also demonstrates that it is possible to run such programs successfully only as long as the public health community exerts power effectively. With legal settlements bringing big dollars to tobacco control programs in every state, this book is must reading for anyone interested in battling and beating the tobacco industry.

The historian and author of The Army in British India analyzes the British Indian Army’s devastating loss to the Imperial Japanese during WWII. The defeat of 90,000 Commonwealth soldiers by 50,000 Japanese soldiers made the World War II Battle for Malaya an important encounter for both political and military reasons. British military prestige was shattered, fanning the fires of nationalism in Asia, especially in India. Japan’s successful tactics in Malaya—rapid marches, wide outflanking movement along difficult terrain, nocturnal attacks, and roadblocks—would be repeated in Burma in 1942–43. Until the Allied command evolved adequate countermeasures, Japanese soldiers remained supreme in the field. Looking beyond the failures of command, Kaushik Roy focuses on tactics of the ground battle that unfolded in Malaya between December 1941 and February 1942. His analysis includes the organization of the Indian Army—the largest portion of Commonwealth troops—and compares it to the British and Australian armies that fought side by side with Indian soldiers. Utilizing both official war office records and personal memoirs, autobiographies, and oral histories, Roy presents a comprehensive narrative of operations interwoven with tactical analysis of the Battle for Malaya.

In This Flame Within Manijeh Moradian revises conventional histories of Iranian migration to the United States as a post-1979 phenomenon characterized by the flight of pro-Shah Iranians from the Islamic Republic and recounts the experiences of Iranian foreign students who joined a global movement against US imperialism during the 1960s and 1970s. Drawing on archival evidence and in-depth interviews with members of the Iranian Students Association, Moradian traces what she calls “revolutionary affects”—the embodied force of affect generated by experiences of repression and resistance—from encounters with empire and dictatorship in Iran to joint organizing with other student activists in the United States. Moradian theorizes “affects of solidarity” that facilitated Iranian student participation in a wide range of antiracist and anticolonial movements and analyzes gendered manifestations of revolutionary affects within the emergence of Third World feminism. Arguing for a transnational feminist interpretation of the Iranian Student Association’s legacy, Moradian demonstrates how the recognition of multiple sources of oppression in the West and in Iran can reorient Iranian diasporic politics today.