Elizabeth Perry Popular Books

Elizabeth Perry Biography & Facts

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. She is known for her influence on modern pop music and her camp style, being dubbed the "Queen of Camp" by Vogue and Rolling Stone. At 16, Perry released a gospel record titled Katy Hudson (2001) under Red Hill Records, which was commercially unsuccessful. She moved to Los Angeles at 17 to venture into secular music, and later adopted the stage name "Katy Perry" from her mother's maiden name. She recorded an album while signed to Columbia Records, but was dropped before signing to Capitol Records. Perry rose to fame with One of the Boys (2008), a pop rock record containing her debut single "I Kissed a Girl" and follow-up single "Hot n Cold", which reached number one and three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 respectively. The disco-influenced pop album Teenage Dream (2010) spawned five U.S. number one singles—"California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework", "E.T.", and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)"— the only album by a female singer to do so. A reissue of the album titled Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection (2012) subsequently produced the U.S. number one single "Part of Me". Her empowerment-themed album Prism (2013) had two U.S. number one singles, "Roar" and "Dark Horse". Both their respective music videos made Perry the first artist to have multiple videos reach one billion views on Vevo and YouTube. The electropop album Witness (2017) featured themes of feminism and a political subtext, while Smile (2020) was influenced by motherhood and her mental health journey. Afterwards, she embarked on her Las Vegas concert residency titled Play (2021–2023), receiving critical acclaim and commercial success. Perry is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold over 143 million records worldwide. She has the most U.S. diamond certified singles for any female artist (4). All of her studio albums released under Capitol have individually surpassed one billion streams on Spotify. She has nine U.S. number one singles, three U.S. number one albums and has received various accolades, including a Billboard Spotlight Award (currently the only female artist to have one), four Guinness World Records, five Billboard Music Awards, five American Music Awards, a Brit Award, and a Juno Award. Perry has been included in the annual Forbes lists of highest-earning women in music from 2011 to 2019. Outside of music, she released an autobiographical documentary titled Katy Perry: Part of Me in 2012, voiced Smurfette in The Smurfs film series, and launched her own shoe line Katy Perry Collections in 2017. Perry began serving as a judge on American Idol during its sixteenth season in 2018. She is also the second most-followed woman and the sixth most-followed person on Twitter, with over 106.7 million followers. Life and career 1984–1999: Early life and family Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson was born on October 25, 1984, in Santa Barbara, California, to Pentecostal pastors Mary Christine (née Perry) and Maurice Keith Hudson. Both of her parents turned to religion after a "wild youth". Perry has English, German, Irish, and Portuguese ancestry. Through her mother, she is a niece of film director Frank Perry. She has a younger brother named David, who is also a singer, and an older sister, Angela. From ages three to 11, Perry frequently moved across the country as her very strict parents set up churches before settling again in Santa Barbara. Growing up, she attended religious schools and camps, including Paradise Valley Christian School in Arizona and Santa Barbara Christian School in California during her elementary years. The family struggled financially, sometimes using food stamps and eating food from the food bank which also fed the congregation at her parents' church. Growing up, Perry and her siblings were not allowed to eat the cereal Lucky Charms as the word "luck" reminded their mother of Lucifer, and were also required to call deviled eggs "angeled eggs". Perry primarily listened to gospel music, as secular music was generally discouraged in the family's home. She discovered popular music through CDs she sneaked from her friends. Perry later recalled a story about how a friend of hers played "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette, which impacted her songwriting and singing. While not strictly identifying as religious, she has stated, "I pray all the time – for self-control, for humility." Wanting to be like her sister Angela, Perry began singing by practicing with her sister's cassette tapes. She performed the tracks in front of her parents, who let her take vocal lessons like Angela was doing at the time. She began training at age nine and was incorporated into her parents' ministry, singing in church from ages nine to 17. At 13, Perry was given her first guitar for her birthday, and publicly performed songs she wrote. She tried to "be a bit like the typical Californian girl" while growing up, and started rollerskating, skateboarding, and surfing as a teenager. Her brother David described her as a "tomboy" during her adolescence, which Perry talks about on her song "One of the Boys". She took dancing lessons and learned how to swing, Lindy Hop, and jitterbug. Perry completed her General Educational Development (GED) requirements early at age 15, during her first year of high school, and left Dos Pueblos High School to pursue a music career. 2000–2006: Career beginnings, Katy Hudson, and Fingerprints Perry briefly had vocal lessons with a woman named Agatha Danoff in facilities rented from the Music Academy of the West. Her singing caught the attention of rock artists Steve Thomas and Jennifer Knapp from Nashville, Tennessee, who brought her there to improve her writing skills. In Nashville, she started recording demos and learned how to write songs and play guitar. Perry signed with Red Hill Records and recorded her debut album, a contemporary Christian record titled Katy Hudson, which was released on March 6, 2001. She also went on tour that year as part of Phil Joel's Strangely Normal Tour and embarked on other performances of her own in the United States. Katy Hudson received mixed reviews from critics and was commercially unsuccessful, selling an estimated 200 copies before the label ceased operations in December. Transitioning from gospel music to secular music, Perry started working with producer Glen Ballard, and moved to Los Angeles at age 17. She opted to work with Ballard due to his past work with Alanis Morissette, one of her major inspirations. In 2003, she briefly performed as Katheryn Perry, to avoid confusion with actress Kate Hudson, and later adopted the stage name "Katy Perry", using her mother's maiden name. In 2010, she recalled that "Thinking of You" was one of the first songs she wrote after moving to Los Angeles. Perry would also perform at the Hotel Café, performing new music while she was be.... Discover the Elizabeth Perry popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Elizabeth Perry books.

Best Seller Elizabeth Perry Books of 2024

  • A Funny Thing About Love synopsis, comments

    A Funny Thing About Love

    The Estate of Rebecca Farnworth

    The funny thing about love is that just when you think you've got it sorted, it turns round and bites you on the behind.Which is exactly what's happened to Carmen Miller.Her ex hus...

  • The Secret Life of Elizabeth I synopsis, comments

    The Secret Life of Elizabeth I

    Paul Doherty

    A secret that could have changed the course of English history... Acclaimed historian Paul Doherty offers an insightful interpretation of one of the most fascinating English monarc...

  • The Visitors synopsis, comments

    The Visitors

    Caroline Scott

    From the highly acclaimed author of The Photographer of the Lost, a BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick, comes a tale of a young war widow and one lifechanging, sundrenched visit to Co...

  • Surface With Daring synopsis, comments

    Surface With Daring

    Douglas Reeman

    Hiding, lying in wait on the sea bed, is EX16.Though one of the most important ships in the Royal Navy, she's not much to look at; she's only 54 feet long, with no defensive armame...

  • Want it All synopsis, comments

    Want it All

    Elizabeth Perry

    When the biggest player on the field finally meets his match... I'm going to be honest, here. The moment that I met Brock Edwards, I was pretty sure that I had drawn the short stra...

  • Married Past Redemption synopsis, comments

    Married Past Redemption

    Stanley Middleton

    From the BookerPrizewinning author of Holiday. Rejacketed and reissued by Windmill to mark the 40th anniversary of Middleton's Booker Prize win.David and Alison are a successful yo...

  • Imaginings Of Sand synopsis, comments

    Imaginings Of Sand

    André Brink

    THE BOOK: A narrative counterpoint between two women, two South Africas. Kristien Muller returns from London to her homeland to fulfil a promise. Her grandmother lies on her deathb...

  • Bet On It synopsis, comments

    Bet On It

    Elizabeth Perry

    He has one month to seal the deal. She was only supposed to be a bet. The Carolina Rays baseball team is known for their endless partying, and their owner? Is sick and tired of i...

  • The Forsyte Saga synopsis, comments

    The Forsyte Saga

    John Galsworthy

    The Forsyte Saga is the first part of John Galsworthy’s magnificent, wellloved Forsyte Chronicles, which trace the changing fortunes of the wealthy Forsyte dynasty through fifty ye...

  • Hard to Fall synopsis, comments

    Hard to Fall

    Elizabeth Perry

    Love. Hate. Lies. That basically sums up my last failed attempt at a relationship. A guy in my position has a lot to lose, and I've already struck out in love once. No way will I e...

  • Hard Pass synopsis, comments

    Hard Pass

    Elizabeth Perry

    They say hate the player, don’t hate the game. Good thing that I don’t listen to what other people tell me to do. I choose to hate them both. Wyatt Anderson is still the number one...

  • Effi Briest synopsis, comments

    Effi Briest

    Theodor Fontane & Hugh Rorrison

    Unworldly young Effi Briest is married off to Baron von Innstetten, an austere and ambitious civil servant twice her age, who has little time for his new wife. Isolated and bored, ...

  • The Smallest Man synopsis, comments

    The Smallest Man

    Frances Quinn

    ‘I want you to remember something, Nat. You’re small on the outside. But inside you’re as big as everyone else. You show people that and you won’t go far wrong in life.’  A co...

  • The Vanishing synopsis, comments

    The Vanishing

    Sophia Tobin

    'Think Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre, but ten times darker, and you have The Vanishing … as dark and eerie and gothic as the Yorkshire Moors it is set on. One ...

  • Protection synopsis, comments

    Protection

    Helen Dunmore

    Penguin Specials are designed to fill a gap. Written to be read over a long commute or a short journey, they are original and exclusively in digital form. This is a chilling tale...

  • If You Should Fail synopsis, comments

    If You Should Fail

    Joe Moran

    'There is an honesty and a clarity in Joe Moran's book If You Should Fail that normalises and softens the usual blows of life that enables us to accept and live with them rather th...

  • Youth synopsis, comments

    Youth

    Joseph Conrad

    'Then, on a fine moonlight night, all the rats left the ship.'Five men sit around a mahogany table, drinking claret. As the wine loosens their tongues, one tells a story from his y...

  • Worth Repeating synopsis, comments

    Worth Repeating

    Elizabeth Perry

    Our worlds couldn't have been any different. They sure as hell were never supposed to collide. I come from the streets, where I've had to use my fists to survive. She may as well h...

  • Rivals synopsis, comments

    Rivals

    Jilly Cooper OBE

    Who will take the Cotswold Crown?Into the cutthroat world of Corinium television comes Declan O'Hara, a megastar of great glamour and integrity with a radiant feckless wife, a hand...

  • The Black Tulip synopsis, comments

    The Black Tulip

    Alexandre Dumas & Robin Buss

    Set at the height of the "tulipomania" that gripped Holland in 17th century, this is the story of Cornelius van Baerle, a humble grower whose sole desire is to grow the perfect spe...

  • The Other Mother synopsis, comments

    The Other Mother

    Jen Brister

    I'm Jen Brister: standup comedian, middleaged adolescent, and mum. But not that mum I'm the other one.'Hysterical, important, moving, wonderful' Sara PascoeConfused? Two years ago...

  • Running Away synopsis, comments

    Running Away

    Leslie Thomas

    Written with the characteristic wit and good humour, Leslie Thomas's novel tells the story of a grown man who runs away from home, and the adventures that befall him in his que...

  • The Spirit of Covington synopsis, comments

    The Spirit of Covington

    Joan Medlicott

    “Settle back in a comfortable chair and enjoy your visit to Covington, a town rich with charm and character” (Debbie Macomber, New York Times bestselling author) with this continua...

  • Gone to Ground synopsis, comments

    Gone to Ground

    BRONWYN HALL

    HUNTED. ALONE. AFRAID... A heartinthemouth and utterly addictive adventure thriller from a phenomenal debut Australian talent.UN surgeon Rachel Forester is posted at a remote medic...

  • Mask of Night synopsis, comments

    Mask of Night

    Philip Gooden

    'Another clever criminal plunge into history' GuardianElizabeth I approaches the end of her illustrious reign, the plague is raging in London, and the Privy Council has ordered the...

  • Liveforever synopsis, comments

    Liveforever

    Andres Caicedo

    Andrés Caicedo's novel Liveforever is a wild celebration of youth, hedonism and the transforming power of music.María del Carmen Huerta lives a respectable middleclass life in Colo...

  • How to Work Without Losing Your Mind synopsis, comments

    How to Work Without Losing Your Mind

    Cate Sevilla

    'Genuinely empowering' Daisy Buchanan'An invaluable guide to surviving professional life' Viv Groskop'Comforting during these uncertain times' Yomi AdegokeAwardwinning journalist a...

  • That Bonesetter Woman synopsis, comments

    That Bonesetter Woman

    Frances Quinn

    Preorder UNSINKABLE, the astonishing new novel by Frances Quinn, coming February 2025. ‘What a heroine Endurance Proudfoot is! I loved her from the start. An unconventional woman w...

  • Getting the Goods synopsis, comments

    Getting the Goods

    Elizabeth Perry

    The plan was simple. Meet a hot guy, take him back to a hotel, get busy... Steal the sperm. I know, I know. It sounds ridiculous, right? But I swear in the moment and after a lot o...

  • The Lark synopsis, comments

    The Lark

    Edith Nesbit

    'A charming and brilliantly entertaining novel... shot through with the lighthearted Nesbit touch' Penelope Lively, from the introduction"When did two girls of our age have such a ...

  • The History of Pendennis synopsis, comments

    The History of Pendennis

    J. I. M. Stewart & William Thackeray

    Written immediately after Vanity Fair, Pendennis has a similar atmosphere of brooding disillusion, tempered by the most jovial of wits. But here Thackeray plunders his own past to ...

  • Whatever It Takes synopsis, comments

    Whatever It Takes

    Elizabeth Perry

    A first love. The ultimate betrayl. A heart wrenching question of how much a heart can forgive. He put me through hell, and I called that shit love. There are some things in life ...

  • The Story of Us synopsis, comments

    The Story of Us

    Felicity Everett

    It is 1982 and Thatcher is in Downing Street, Human League is in the charts and Dallas is on the telly.But the girls of Albacore Street are too busy to notice. For Stella, Bridget,...

  • Rule Play synopsis, comments

    Rule Play

    Elizabeth Perry

    Hello rock? Meet hard place. This time, I'm in deep. My only defense is that it all happened in a moment of weakness. I'd literally just wiped a Ben & Jerry's stain from my thr...

  • The Missing One synopsis, comments

    The Missing One

    Lucy Atkins

    'A gripping pageturner' Sunday Times 'Beautifully written and compelling' Sabine Durrant 'Satisfyingly creepy' Sunday MirrorThe loss of her mother has left Kali McKenzie with too...

  • If Not Now ... synopsis, comments

    If Not Now ...

    Denyse Devlin

    Just when she has resigned herself to being alone longterm, Marina Ffench, a widow in her forties, meets a man and falls in love all over again. A midlife relationship, she thinks,...

  • No Touch Zone synopsis, comments

    No Touch Zone

    Elizabeth Perry

    Do you know what happens when you sleep with your best friend’s little sister? Yeah, me either. But I’m about to find out. It never should have happened. That girl has been offlimi...

  • Great Achievers and Characters in Australian Cricket synopsis, comments

    Great Achievers and Characters in Australian Cricket

    Roland Perry

    From the turbulent life of the late Shane Warne to the skill, mentality and character behind Pat Cummins’ newlook captaincy, and through the decades to the wit, wisdom and genius o...

  • The Beast in the Jungle synopsis, comments

    The Beast in the Jungle

    Henry James

    'Something or other lay in wait for him, amid the twists and turns of the months and the years, like a crouching beast in the jungle.'Henry James's devastating and profoundly movin...

  • Turn Right At The Spotted Dog synopsis, comments

    Turn Right At The Spotted Dog

    Jilly Cooper OBE

    After going to live in the country Jilly Cooper wrote regularly for the Mail on Sunday for several years and this is a selection of her best pieces written at that time. The topics...

  • Soothe Your Nerves synopsis, comments

    Soothe Your Nerves

    Angela Neal-Barnett

    Do you or someone you love suffer from "bad nerves"?Denise is constantly on edge. She's convinced something bad is going to happen.Ruth will drive an hour out of her way to avoid d...

  • While The Sun Shines synopsis, comments

    While The Sun Shines

    John Harding

    At fifty the guarantee runs out...About to hit the big fiveoh, obsessed with sex, cocainefuelled and gripped by a crippling fear of death, Professor Michael Cole is finding life a ...

  • The Drowned City synopsis, comments

    The Drowned City

    K. J. Maitland

    'A gripping thriller' THE TIMES'Dark and enthralling' ANDREW TAYLOR'Goes right to the heart of the Jacobean court' TRACY BORMANGunpowder and treason changed England forever. But th...

  • The Bone Hunters synopsis, comments

    The Bone Hunters

    Joanne Burn

    'An engrossing tale of a woman striving for the recognition she deserves in the face of male indifference and betrayal' SUNDAY TIMES 'Best historical fiction for February 2024'THE ...

  • The Wild Laughter synopsis, comments

    The Wild Laughter

    Caoilinn Hughes

    An exhilarating dark comedy about two brothers confronting their father's fate in contemporary Ireland, from a critically acclaimed Irish author'Brilliant. A hilarious, poetical bl...

  • South Riding synopsis, comments

    South Riding

    Winifred Holtby

    The community of South Riding, like the rest of the country, lives in the long shadow of war. Blighted by recession and devastated by the loss, they must also come to terms with si...