biography

… Laverne DeFazio from TV’s Laverne & Shirley? In the new biography, My Mother Was Nuts by Penny Marshall, you get a quirky look at Penny Marshall as she struggled to grow up in what she considered a very crazy, yet normal family. As in a lot of celebrity biographies, you hear about the dysfunctional family life, the drugs and the famous people.

… Maverick or The Rockford Files? Actor James Garner, with Jon Winokur, wrote The Garner Files, the long awaited biography on everyone’s favorite actor.

…Vinnie Bump? In Melanie Benjamin’s The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb you’ll find out how the amazing Mercy Lavinia ‘Vinnie’ Warren Bump came to knock the Civil War off the front pages of the newspaper. This tiny, 2 ft.

… acclaimed actor Dick Van Dyke?  You can read all about him in his new memoir, My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business.  Simply and to the point, Dick Van Dyke writes like he talks.

… the hardships endured by the Dalai Llama and Tibet?