MOON UNIT ZAPPA

America Throne is living the good life in L.A. Her career is sprouting, and she is in love -- with Jasper Husch, a sexy-sultry artist from San Fran. But just as soon as theyve realized domestic bliss, Jasper has a change of heart, and America falters on the slippery slope of hope: hoping that he will come back, hoping that new sex will erase all evidence of him, and hoping that in nurturing a truce with her dead father she will make peace with all men. Americas trip from self-destruction to wholeness is a romp on the wilder shores of the West Coast. From a dodgy therapist to a silent retreat, America Thrones "aha" moment culminates with, "While we are all busy swimming upstream, the universe is conspiring to take us to something better." In America the Beautiful, Moon Zappa has taken the broken-heart story and given it a twist all her own through the emotional honesty and edginess of America Throne. Hailed as "brilliant" (Sunday Telegraph Magazine), America the Beautiful is the debut of an unforgettable and unfaltering new voice.

A creative honest and funny account of an LA childhood growing up as the first daughter in the wildly unconventional and dysfunctional Zappa family

The saying goes that "God only gives you what you can handle." Well God didnt grow up in my atheist, Wiccan, fame-laden, oversexed, teetotalling, drug-free, cloistered, chaotic, non-communicative, workaholic, feral-feeling house.For Moon Unit, daughter of musician Frank Zappa and his manager, Gail, processing a life so unique, so punctuated by the whims of creative urges, the tastes of popular culture and the calculus of celebrity, has at times been eviscerating. But it is her deep sense of humour and unshakeable humility that keeps her - and this memoir - pinned to the ground.A child-star at age 14 after her accidental international hit single (recorded with her father), Valley Girl, turned her into a reluctant celebrity, Moon Unit Zappas life has been utterly extraordinary from her birth in 1967 into a family that was already blessed/cursed as music royalty thanks to the acknowledged genius of Frank. But what are the consequences of growing up in a family who spend most of their time naked arguing about sexual/extra-marital liaisons and practising white magic in a free-for-all state of nonconformist, virtuoso abandon?Earth to Moon is a reckoning with self-esteem, the ghosts of the past and a mother and a father who, in the process of leaving their mark upon on the world, scarred their first daughter on home soil. Brutally self-deprecating and funny as hell, it belies a rose-tinted perspective on the 70s and 80s west coast American scene, from within the belly of the beast of the rock and roll world.

From Moon Unit Zappa, the daughter of musical visionary Frank Zappa, comes a candid celebrity memoir of growing up in her unconventional household in 1970s Los Angeles, coming of age in the Hollywood Hills in the 1980s as the Valley Girl, gaining momentum as an accidental VJ on a new network called MTV, and finding herself after losing her father, then her mother, and the testing of her most important relationships.How can you navigate life as the normal child of an extraordinary creative? What is it like to live in a hothouse of individuality that on one hand fosters freedom of expression, and on the other tamps down the basic desires of a child for boundaries and affection? Should you call your parents Frank and Gail from birth? For Moon Unit Zappa, processing a life so punctuated by the whims of genius, the tastes of popular culture, the calculus of celebrity, and the nature of love, was at times eviscerating, at times illuminatingbut mostly deeply confusing. Yes, this powerful coming-of-age memoir is about growing up in the shadow of Frank Zappa. Moon and her family were a source of constant curiosity, for their unique names and for their fathers reputation as a musical savant and fierce protector of the First Amendment, even though he was never a commercial success. Searching for her own path, first as her fathers inadvertent musical collaborator and public sidekick with their surprise mega radio hit, then as an actress, an artist, a spiritual person, a wife and mother, Moon Unit calculates ever-changing equations of fame, family, death and ultimately legacy when dealt the shocking news that Gails will established an unequal distribution among the remaining, tight-knit Zappas, catalyzing a quest for meaning and redemption. With love, humor, and humility, this moving Hollywood story reminds us that every family is faced with problems that are unique to their particular makeup, but the journey to growing into yourself with grace is as universal as it gets.Earth to Moon is a deeply personal Hollywood story that unflinchingly explores: An Unconventional Childhood: What it was really like to grow up Zappa in 1970s Los Angeles, calling your parents by their first names in a household that was a constant source of public curiosity. 1980s Pop Culture Icon: The inside story of becoming the Valley Girl, the accidental hit that defined a generation and launched Moon into the orbit of a brand-new network called MTV. Complex Family Dynamics: Navigating the shocking terms of her mother Gails will, a revelation that tested the tight-knit Zappa siblings and catalyzed a quest for meaning and redemption. Grief, Loss, and Legacy: A daughters journey of finding herself after losing her visionary father, Frank Zappa, then her mother, and grappling with the ever-changing equations of fame, family, and what it means to build a life on her own terms.