William Mann, a part-time resident of Palm Springs, has written a new biography, Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing), on sale Oct. 9. The book follows Streisand’s climb to fame in New York from 1960 through 1964. Mann’s other biographies are Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn and How to be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood.
Lisa Figus of Palm Desert has published The Merry Lives of Lisa (CreateSpace). The memoir tells of her privileged life growing up in Ohio, moving to New York, living in Italy for 25 years, returning to America to pursue her acting career (finding success as Nurse Georgia on the daytime soap General Hospital ), and ultimately moving to the desert. The book also covers her extensive travels. Ten percent of book proceeds are being donated to College of the Desert to help underprivileged students with tuition costs.