Ed's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 29 Apr 2025 23:32:46 -0700 60 Ed's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Famous Last Words 212421066
From the author of Reese’s Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller Wrong Place Wrong Time comes an addictive thriller about a new mother’s world upended when her husband commits a terrifying crime. How well does she truly know the man she loves? And what danger does she face if her entire life has been built on a lie?

It is June 21st, the longest day of the year, and new mother Camilla’s life is about to change forever. After months of maternity leave, she will drop her infant daughter off at daycare for the first time and return to her job as a literary agent. Finally. But, when she wakes, her husband Luke isn’t there, and in his place is a cryptic note.

Then it starts. Breaking news: there's a hostage situation developing in London. The police arrive, and tell her Luke is involved. But he isn't a hostage. Her husband—doting father, eternal optimist—is the gunman.

What she does next is crucial. Because only she knows what the note he left behind that morning says...

Famous Last Words is the story of a crime, a marriage, and more secrets than Camilla ever could have imagined. This novel cements Gillian McAllister’s reputation as “the best at putting her characters in impossible situations and making her readers not only contemplate but feel what it would be like to find themselves in those situations.� (Emily Henry)]]> 336 Gillian McAllister 0063338424 Ed 0 currently-reading 3.71 2025 Famous Last Words
author: Gillian McAllister
name: Ed
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Woody Allen: A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham]]> 134283650 848 Patrick McGilligan Ed 5 4.09 2025 Woody Allen: A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham
author: Patrick McGilligan
name: Ed
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/28
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves:
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Two reasons I wanted to read another Woody bio. One, it was just written so it covers all his movies (to date). Two, Milligan’s bio of Hitchcock was great and I’m happy to report this is even better. This has got to be the most thoroughly researched work ever on Allen. There isn’t much else to say I haven’t said in my other reviews but this should be the essential text.
]]> <![CDATA[Ready When You are, Mr. Coppola, Mr. Spielberg, Mr. Crowe]]> 1826044 426 Jerry Ziesmer 0810836572 Ed 3 4.55 1999 Ready When You are, Mr. Coppola, Mr. Spielberg, Mr. Crowe
author: Jerry Ziesmer
name: Ed
average rating: 4.55
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves:
review:
I’ve never read a book written by an AD and there should be more because they are the total front line to how a movie gets made. Ziesmer has great stories up the yin yang but half of this is about Apocalypse Now. I’ve read and seen a lot about that famous production but this is the most granular account you could ever hope to find. This could’ve done with a tighter edit but it’s nothing if not authentic.
]]> <![CDATA[A Talent for Murder (Henry Kimball/Lily Kintner, #3)]]> 199116301
Martha Ratliff conceded long ago that she’d likely spend her life alone. She was fine with it, happy with her solo existence, stimulated by her job as an archival librarian, constantly surrounded by thought-provoking ideas and the books she loved. But then she met Alan, a charming and sweet-natured divorcee with a job that took him on the road for half the year. When he asked her to marry him, she said yes, even though he still felt a little bit like a stranger.

A year in and the marriage was good, except for that strange blood streak on the back of one of his shirts he’d worn to a conference in Denver. Her curiosity turning to suspicion, Martha investigates the cities Alan visited over the past year and uncovers a disturbing pattern—five unsolved cases of murdered women.

Is she married to a serial killer? Or could it merely be a coincidence? Unsure what to think, Martha contacts an old friend from graduate school for advice. Lily Kintner once helped Martha out of a jam with an abusive boyfriend and may have some insight. Intrigued, Lily offers to meet Alan to find out what kind of man he really is . . . but what Lily uncovers is more perplexing and wicked than they ever could have expected.]]> 255 Peter Swanson 0063205033 Ed 3 3.58 2024 A Talent for Murder (Henry Kimball/Lily Kintner, #3)
author: Peter Swanson
name: Ed
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
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I’ve been good about reading a Swanson every spring but this one came out later last year so I missed it. This got off to an unusually sluggish start but the second half kicked back into Swanson’s usual form. I had no clue we’d seen two of these characters in two other books but I guess that’s on me. I may rating this lower than any other Swanson but this is still way above most contemporary mysteries.
]]> <![CDATA[My Year of Flops: The A.V. Club Presents One Man's Journey Deep into the Heart of Cinematic Failure]]> 7841358 264 Nathan Rabin 1439153124 Ed 4 3.68 2010 My Year of Flops: The A.V. Club Presents One Man's Journey Deep into the Heart of Cinematic Failure
author: Nathan Rabin
name: Ed
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
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review:
I’ve read a lot of the column that makes this book but it was good to see the ones I missed. Plus, Rabin has SOME good supplemental stuff and some that’s pointless chuffah. The hook here is Rabin won’t just shit on stuff but will be funny and occasionally champion some of these movies. I’ll take this opportunity to say this column used to run in the AV Club, which used to be incredible and now deeply and depressingly sucks.
]]> <![CDATA[Slow Horses (Slough House, #1)]]> 56534999 Welcome to the thrilling and unnervingly prescient world of the slow horses. This team of MI5 agents is united by one common bond: They've screwed up royally and will do anything to redeem themselves.

This special tenth-anniversary deluxe edition of a modern classic includes a foreword by the author, discussion questions for book clubs, and an exclusive short story featuring the slow horses.

London, England: Slough House is where washed-up MI5 spies go to while away what’s left of their failed careers. The “slow horses,� as they’re called, have all disgraced themselves in some way to get relegated there. Maybe they botched an Op so badly they can’t be trusted anymore. Maybe they got in the way of an ambitious colleague and had the rug yanked out from under them. Maybe they just got too dependent on the bottle—not unusual in this line of work. One thing they have in common, though, is they want to be back in the action. And most of them would do anything to get there─even if it means having to collaborate with one another.

When a young man is abducted and his kidnappers threaten to broadcast his beheading live on the Internet, the slow horses see an opportunity to redeem themselves. But is the victim really who he appears to be?]]> 334 Mick Herron 1641292970 Ed 2 4.05 2010 Slow Horses (Slough House, #1)
author: Mick Herron
name: Ed
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2010
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves:
review:
I guess I’m being a little tough on this because I expected a layup. I’ve seen the show and figured that would give me a leg-up but instead it made me restless and a little bored. Obviously, a lot of the ingredients of the show are right here but this just didn’t click in the same way. Maybe the other books fare better but I’m not sure I’m so into that risk.
]]> <![CDATA[The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies]]> 38488114 A Los Angeles Times Bestseller
Winner of the Best Non-Fiction Book Prize at the 2018 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards

"Ben Fritz crafts an electrifying and essential book that carefully chronicles how Hollywood tradition is collapsing and new models are fueling the future. A must-read."--Ava DuVernay, director of A Wrinkle in Time, Selma, and 13th

The stunning metamorphosis of twenty-first-century Hollywood and what lies ahead for the art and commerce of film

Ben Fritz chronicles the dramatic shakeup of America's film industry, bringing equal fluency to both the financial and entertainment aspects of Hollywood. He offers us an unprecedented look deep inside a Hollywood studio to explain why sophisticated movies for adults are an endangered species while franchises and super-heroes have come to dominate the cinematic landscape. And through interviews with dozens of key players at Disney, Marvel, Netflix, Amazon, Imax, and others, he reveals how the movie business is being reinvented.

Despite the destruction of the studios' traditional playbook, Fritz argues that these seismic shifts signal the dawn of a new heyday for film. The Big Picture shows the first glimmers of this new golden age through the eyes of the creative mavericks who are defining what entertainment will look like in the new era.]]> 377 Ben Fritz 0544789776 Ed 5 4.02 2018 The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies
author: Ben Fritz
name: Ed
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves:
review:
Enraging and depressing account of the murder of cinema. Well written and breezy read though so good news/bad news I guess?
]]> <![CDATA[The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir]]> 203708995 400 Griffin Dunne 0593652827 Ed 5 4.01 2024 The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir
author: Griffin Dunne
name: Ed
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/05
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review:
Always been a fan of Dunne and was low-key excited to read this. Well, now I’m high-key raving about this is as one of the best memoirs I’ve ever read. The picture he paints the of Los Angeles of his young is vivid and fascinating. Tons of names are dropped but that’s called out as well as the point. The most visceral part of this chronicles his sister’s murder trial, which wrecked me. This ends with Dunne at about 35 or half his current age, which I pray means we’ll get a sequel. Counting the minutes.
]]> <![CDATA[The World Is Yours: The Story of Scarface]]> 64073632 The behind-the-scenes story of the iconic filmĚýScarface, featuring new interviews with the cast and crew.

An unflinching confrontation of humanity’s dark side, Brian De Palma’s crime drama film Scarface gave rise to a cultural revolution upon its release in 1983. Its impact was unprecedented, making globe-spanning waves as a defining portrait of the gritty Miami street life. From Al Pacino’s masterful characterization of Tony Montana to the iconic “Say hello to my little friend,� Scarface maintains its reputation as an unwavering game changer in cult classic cinema.

With brand-new interviews and untold stories of the film’s production, longtime film critic Glenn KennyĚýtakes us on an unparalleled journey through the making of American depictions of crime.ĚýThe World Is YoursĚýhighlights the influential characters and themes within Scarface, reflecting on how its storied legacy played such a major role in American culture.]]> 320 Glenn Kenny 1335449620 Ed 3 3.39 2024 The World Is Yours: The Story of Scarface
author: Glenn Kenny
name: Ed
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves:
review:
Having just read a De Palma book that ends before Scarface AND Pacino’s autobiography, this was a natural collision. Like Kenny’s Goodfellas book, this is a most anecdotal account. On that score it’s hit and miss but moves a reasonably good clip. Where I lost patience was the final stretch where Kenny lets Edwin Torres ramble on and on about Carlito’s Way or not even really that. I appreciate tying that movie to Scarface but it still really reeked of padding. On balance, this was pretty good enough.
]]> <![CDATA[The Ultimate James Bond Fan Book]]> 102998 464 Deborah Lipp 0976637286 Ed 4 3.65 2006 The Ultimate James Bond Fan Book
author: Deborah Lipp
name: Ed
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves:
review:
Read the first edition of this back in 2006 so four more movies were added (this was in the run-up to No Time To Die) plus new updated material. This is definitely the most thorough Bond book ever, I dare say dense. The only thing I can doc Lipp for are some opinions I frankly find fucking insane. I admire the hot takes but it did hold this back one star. Still, a must for hardcore fans if no one else. I don’t know how old Lipp is but I fear she may not be around to update the new edition.
]]> The Opportunist 59603040 A deliciously sly, compulsively readable tale about greed, power and the world’s most devious family.

When Alana Shropshire’s seventy-six-year-old father, Ed, starts dating Kelly, his twenty-eight-year-old nurse, a flurry of messages arrive from Alana’s brothers, urging her to help “protect Dad� from the young interloper. Alana knows that what Teddy and Martin really want to protect is their father’s fortune, and she tells them she couldn’t care less about the May–December romance. Long estranged from her privileged family, Alana, a hardworking single mom, has more important things to worry about.

But when Ed and Kelly’s wedding is announced, Teddy and Martin kick into hyperdrive and persuade Alana to fly to their father’s West Coast island retreat to perform one simple task in their plan to make the gold digger go away. Kelly, however, proves a lot more wily than expected, and Alana becomes entangled in an increasingly dangerous scheme full of secrets and surprises. Just how far will her siblings go to retain control?

Smart, entertaining and brimming with shocking twists and turns, The Opportunist is both a thrill ride of a story and a razor-sharp view of who wields power in the world.]]> 336 Elyse Friedman Ed 3 3.69 2022 The Opportunist
author: Elyse Friedman
name: Ed
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves:
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This was a real page turner and a good first novel of the year. I thought I had it figured it out in the final stretch but was happy to learn I didn’t. I think what held this back from true greatness was that it was increasingly just fucking gross. I’m neither squeamish nor a prude but I felt like the details were lurid to a juvenile degree. It reminded me of when characters in movies curse too much to show grit. This author has talent and potential so I’m curious to see more from her.
]]> Sonny Boy 209499400 From one of the most iconic actors in the history of film, an astonishingly revelatory account of a creative life in full. To the wider world, Al Pacino exploded onto the scene like a supernova. He landed his first leading role, in The Panic in Needle Park, in 1971, and by 1975, he had starred in four movies—The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon—that were not just successes but landmarks in the history of film. Those performances became legendary and changed his life forever. Not since Marlon Brando and James Dean in the late 1950s had an actor landed in the culture with such force. But Pacino was in his mid-thirties by then, and had already lived several lives. A fixture of avant-garde theater in New York, he had led a bohemian existence, working odd jobs to support his craft. He was raised by a fiercely loving but mentally unwell mother and her parents after his father left them when he was young, but in a real sense he was raised by the streets of the South Bronx, and by the troop of buccaneering young friends he ran with, whose spirits never left him. After a teacher recognized his acting promise and pushed him toward New York’s fabled High School of Performing Arts, the die was cast. In good times and bad, in poverty and in wealth and in poverty again, through pain and joy, acting was his lifeline, its community his tribe. Sonny Boy is the memoir of a man who has nothing left to fear and nothing left to hide. All the great roles, the essential collaborations, and the important relationships are given their full due, as is the vexed marriage between creativity and commerce at the highest levels. The book’s golden thread, however, is the spirit of love and purpose. Love can fail you, and you can be defeated in your ambitions—the same lights that shine bright can also dim. But Al Pacino was lucky enough to fall deeply in love with a craft before he had the foggiest idea of any of its earthly rewards, and he never fell out of love. That has made all the difference.]]> 384 Al Pacino 0593655117 Ed 4 3.98 2024 Sonny Boy
author: Al Pacino
name: Ed
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves:
review:
I was worried this would crumble under the weight of pretentious incoherence but it mostly sidesteps that landmine. Pacino is fairly self deprecating and honest, which is about all you can ask from a memoir. The stories are fairly good but he seems to sweat a guy to spill much tea. It is a true rag-to-riches-to-two-bankruptcies story. If you’re curious, you’ll most likely enjoy it.
]]> <![CDATA[The De Palma Decade: Redefining Cinema with Doubles, Voyeurs, and Psychic Teens]]> 204593688 JourneyĚýwith award-winning documentarian and author Laurent Bouzereau through acclaimed director Brian De Palma’s renowned—and controversial—horror and thriller films that redefined cinema in the 1970s and early 80s with new interviews and fresh takes. Ěý Among a crop of fresh filmmakers including Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, and Francis Ford Coppola in the 70s, Brian De Palma—a director from Philadelphia with a few small comedies under his belt—charted a cinematic path unlike any of his peers. ĚýAt times he was unfairly dismissed as a Hitchcock copycat; other times he was misunderstood for his peculiar mix of sexuality, humor, music, and violence. But, over the course of ten years, he created a new cinematic language, melding his signature themes with specific filmmaking techniques that are now synonymous with his name. Ěý Drawing from his lifelong love of De Palma, years of research, and new interviews, acclaimed documentarian Laurent Bouzereau explores the seven films that came to define The De Palma Decade—Sisters, Phantom of the Paradise, Obsession, Carrie, The Fury, Dressed to Kill, and Blow Out. He combines film analysis, detailed history of the filmsâ€� productions, and interviews with De Palma himself, his casts, and collaborators to present the definitive record on this unrivaled period of cinematic creativity and the emergence of an auteur who would continue to influence filmmaking in the decades that followed. Ěý]]> 320 Laurent Bouzereau 0762485574 Ed 4 3.61 The De Palma Decade: Redefining Cinema with Doubles, Voyeurs, and Psychic Teens
author: Laurent Bouzereau
name: Ed
average rating: 3.61
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves:
review:
De Palma is one of my heroes and Bouzereau is one of the great documentarians so this was the perfect combo of author and subject. A real treat. The discoveries in this are anecdotal but that’s all I was hoping for. I greedily want the next decade covered but until then, this is essential text for any De Palma fan.
]]> <![CDATA[Box Office Poison: Hollywood's Story in a Century of Flops]]> 214918704 Box Office Poison tells an alternative history of Hollywood, through a century of its most notable flops.

Freaks, Land of the Pharaohs, Dune, Speed 2, Catwoman, what can these films tell us about the Hollywood system, the public's appetite -- or lack of it -- and the circumstances that saw such box office disasters actually made? Away from the canon, here is the definitive take on these ill-fated, but essential celluloid failures.]]> 387 Tim Robey 0571381227 Ed 5 3.61 2024 Box Office Poison: Hollywood's Story in a Century of Flops
author: Tim Robey
name: Ed
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/09
date added: 2024/12/09
shelves:
review:
This is a really nice companion piece/continuation of Fiasco, which likewise covers various box office disasters. This was arguably more ambitious as it covers nothing that’s covered elsewhere and entails movies from 1916-2019 or 103 years. It’s also nice that not quite all of these films were considered bad. Mostly yes but not all. The author has a lot of snark but it kinda works for this in a way it didn’t in Biskind’s latest book. Since this is new, he ties it to the 2024 state of affairs, which is distressing but important. Tons of fun.
]]> <![CDATA[Red Dragon (Hannibal Lecter, #1)]]> 28877 454 Thomas Harris Ed 3 4.07 1981 Red Dragon (Hannibal Lecter, #1)
author: Thomas Harris
name: Ed
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1981
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/03
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves:
review:
Bought this from Book Bub 7 or 8 years ago and finally got the urge to read it after seeing Manhunter again. The only other Harris book I read was Hannibal 25 years ago, which was infamously not great. I leaned on the movie a lot but it was interesting what differed, successful or not. Hannibal has been stretched so thin, it was a little fun to go back to Patient Zero. What struck me was the bloat and repetitive nature of this, which I don’t think would fly today. Interesting.
]]> We Love the Nightlife 202468464 Locked in a toxic female friendship, two vampires careen toward catastrophe in this dark and dazzling page-turner, set amidst London's glittering disco scene.

London 1979. Two women with a deep love for disco meet one fateful night on the dance floor, changing the course of both their lives forever.

Nicola, a beautiful and brooding vampire for nearly two centuries, can’t resist fun-loving and feisty Amber from America,Ěýultimately offering an eternity together where the glamour of nightlife always takes center stage.

But not all is what it seems.

Nearly fifty years later, after an unexpected betrayal, Amber wants out from under Nicola’s thumb, but it won’t be so simple to break up this festering friendship when she learns others have done the same—and wound up dead.

Sensing Amber’s restlessness and in one last play to keep her close, Nicola proposes they open a nightclub of their very own, hearkening back to their best days as dancing queens.

Amber agrees but she’s secretly hatching a dangerous escape plan. And if she fails…the party is over for good.]]> 400 Rachel Koller Croft 0593547535 Ed 3 3.44 2024 We Love the Nightlife
author: Rachel Koller Croft
name: Ed
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/27
date added: 2024/11/27
shelves:
review:
So this is a strange one because this was very well written and I am seriously disappointed. The author’s last book was Stone Cold Fox, which was the best book of that year. Masterpiece. I was eagerly awaiting this one but when I realized it was about literal vampires, my excitement fell forty stories. Vampires? This just felt very late aughts to me. But the level of writing was very strong, which made me feel better AND worse. This reeks of an old book that got its shot because of the success of another book. Still a fan of the author but she needs to really come with the thunder next time.
]]> <![CDATA[Don't Look Back, You'll Trip Over: My Guide to Life: My Guide to Life]]> 212924087 The Hollywood screen legend brings his wit, insight, entertaining stories and wisdom to answer questions about every aspect of his long life - inspiring us all to Be More Michael Caine.

I'm always asked questions - by fans, by other actors and friends, by my grandchildren. They want to know how I've lasted so long, how I handle fame, why I chose to do some of my films, which films and actors I like best and so forth.

They also want to know what makes me tick, what makes me get up in the morning in my 90s, and whether I'll ever retire. (The answer to that one is "No!")

Over a long life, I've learnt a lot and had the opportunity to reflect. I've seen a new generation grow up, among them my own grandchildren, facing the world with all its challenges and problems.

I hope they'll find Don't Look Back, You'll Trip My Guide to Life helps them to be optimistic - and shows that anyone can blow the bloody doors off.

An iconic book, from one of our best-loved this is Michael Caine at his very best.]]> 320 Michael Caine 1399739972 Ed 3 3.93 Don't Look Back, You'll Trip Over: My Guide to Life: My Guide to Life
author: Michael Caine
name: Ed
average rating: 3.93
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/15
date added: 2024/11/15
shelves:
review:
This is one long interview but with the most charming presence in movies for 60 years. I can’t say I preferred this to Caine’s great autobiographies but it’s worth it to spend more time with him. There’s lots of wisdom in this book that we could all benefit from right about now. Especially poignant is his friend Quincy Jones just died so as current as this book is, it’s already not. Good diversion.
]]> Imperfect Strangers 307416 368 Stuart Woods 0061094048 Ed 4 3.76 1995 Imperfect Strangers
author: Stuart Woods
name: Ed
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/11
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves:
review:
OK, lots of caveating to do here. Read this about 29 years ago so nostalgia is the first caveat. I wanted a layup and a Stuart Woods that didn’t center around one of his bland recurring characters so the bullseye got small. The next caveat is that I desperately wanted something fast and easy even if it was a little stupid. This book is more fleet than smart and riddled with dues ex machinas up the yin yang. It’s also got to win an award for Least Fucks Given about the victim of a murder. The husband and son get over it faster than most people get over being cut off in traffic. Fuck Joan I guess. So, why four stars? It was quick and took my mind off The Bad News. So, I may be an easy lay for stuff like this the next 50 months. So fucking be it.
]]> <![CDATA[The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982]]> 58725001
In the summer of 1982, eight science fiction films were released within six weeks of one another. E.T., Tron, Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, Conan the Barbarian, Blade Runner, Poltergeist, The Thing, and Mad Max: The Road Warrior changed the careers of some of Hollywood's now biggest names―altering the art of movie-making to this day.

In The Future Was Now, Chris Nashawaty recounts the riotous genesis of these films, featuring an all-star cast of Hollywood luminaries and gadflies alike: Steven Spielberg, at the height of his powers, conceives E.T. as an unlikely family tale, and quietly takes over the troubled production of Poltergeist, a horror film he had been nurturing for years. Ridley Scott, fresh off the success of Alien, tries his hand at an odd Philip K. Dick story that becomes Blade Runner � a box office failure turned cult classic. Similar stories arise for films like Tron, Conan the Barbarian, and The Thing. Taken as a whole, these films show a precarious turning-point in Hollywood history, when baffled film executives finally began to understand the potential of high-concept films with a rabid fanbase, merchandising potential, and endless possible sequels.

Expertly researched, energetically told, and written with an unabashed love for the cinema, The Future Was Now is a chronicle of how the revolution sparked in a galaxy far, far away finally took root and changed Hollywood forever.]]> 304 Chris Nashawaty 1250827051 Ed 5 4.08 2024 The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982
author: Chris Nashawaty
name: Ed
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/30
date added: 2024/10/30
shelves:
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I was excited for this book not only for its subject matter but the author too. The Caddyshack book was fantastic and this belongs right along side it. I can’t say I care about all eight of these movies the same but no chapter sags or slogs. That alone is an astounding achievement. The thesis of this book is fascinating and the stories uncovered are incredible. Tight race but this may be the best non-fiction of the year.
]]> Lowdown Road 62066640
It’s the summer of �74…Richard Nixon has resigned from office, CB radios are the hot new thing, and in the great state of Texas two cousins hatch a plan to drive $1 million worth of stolen weed to Idaho, where some lunatic is gearing up to jump Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered motorcycle. But with a vengeful sheriff on their tail and the revered and feared marijuana kingpin of Central Texas out to get his stash back, Chuck and Dean are in for the ride of their lives � if they can make it out alive…]]> 352 Scott Von Doviak 1803361425 Ed 3 4.06 2023 Lowdown Road
author: Scott Von Doviak
name: Ed
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/26
date added: 2024/10/26
shelves:
review:
Charlesgate Confidential is the best novel I’ve read this year so far so I was anxious to check out the author’s other book. The writing and atmosphere are just as good but some of the hi jinx feel rote and it collapses a little under its own grit. Still, I’d eagerly snatch up whatever this author does next because his best books could still be ahead of him.
]]> <![CDATA[Quentin Tarantino: The Complete Unofficial Guide (Iconic Directors)]]> 206789750
Featuring insights into his inspirations - from martial-arts epics to Spaghetti Westerns - and dishing up fascinating details from his productions, this is an indispensable guide to Tarantino's thrilling and sometimes controversial body of work.

It takes in his searing debut Reservoir Dogs, the era-defining Pulp Fiction and the genre-subverting Django Unchained, among other modern classics, right up to his nostalgic masterpiece Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. Above all, this is a celebration of a filmmaker who has arguably made a bigger impact on modern pop culture than any other.]]> 224 Dan Jolin 1529438780 Ed 4 3.83 Quentin Tarantino: The Complete Unofficial Guide (Iconic Directors)
author: Dan Jolin
name: Ed
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/20
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves:
review:
So, I attacked The Shark Is Still Roaring as seemingly being pasted from a ton of sources. The same thing is true here (with works even cited) but the writing/editing is so smooth, I didn’t care. There was only the odd anecdote I didn’t know but it was nice having all of QT’s life and work all in one place. Maybe shitty books this year have made this a layup but breezy is breezy.
]]> <![CDATA[Ebert's Bests (Chicago Shorts)]]> 18910865 A treasury of year-by-year ten-best lists, plus personal reminiscences by the man whose name became synonymous with the movies. Ěý In Ebert’s Bests, the iconic Roger Ebert takes us through the journey of how he became a film critic, from his days at a student-run cinema club to his rise as a television commentator in At the Movies and Siskel & Ebert. Recounting the influence of the French New Wave; his friendships with Werner Herzog and Martin Scorsese; and travels to Sweden and Rome to visit Ingrid Bergman and Federico Fellini, Ebert never loses sight of film as a key component of our cultural identity. In considering the ethics of film criticism—why we should take all film seriously, without prejudgment or condescension—he argues that film critics ought always to engage in open-minded dialogue with a movie. Ěý All this is accompanied by decadesâ€� worth of annual ten-best lists, which showcase Roger Ebert’sĚý recommendations—while at the same time reminding us that hearts and minds, and even rankings, are bound to change.]]> 43 Roger Ebert 022604890X Ed 3 3.52 2012 Ebert's Bests (Chicago Shorts)
author: Roger Ebert
name: Ed
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/19
date added: 2024/10/19
shelves:
review:
Not much to say. I like Ebert and this is a (very) short little collection of essays about how he got his start. Very interesting his 10 Best lists from all his years on the beat.
]]> The Shark is Roaring 62847568
The Shark Is Roaring: The Story of Jaws: The Revenge will tell you all you need to know about the genesis of the film, its 9-month journey from script to screen, interviews with cast and crew who were there plus the notorious novelisation and video game, plus so much more. Read all about the film that cost Michael Caine an Oscars appearance.]]> 191 Paul Downey 1629339725 Ed 1 2.30 The Shark is Roaring
author: Paul Downey
name: Ed
average rating: 2.30
book published:
rating: 1
read at: 2024/10/18
date added: 2024/10/18
shelves:
review:
While I love books that cover a single movie, this one was really pasted together and lame. It seemed all of the research was just slapping together previous research and that’s when it wasn’t being obviously padded out. There’s a whole chapter recounting the movie as if Jaws 4 needs 2001 level analysis. A whole chapter is bounced to another person who just bloviates about how much Jaws 4 sucks. There is the odd interesting factoid but none worth reading this for. As Egon Spangler would say, “Short but pointless.�
]]> Dark Matter 27833670 A mindbending, relentlessly surprising thriller from the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy.

Jason Dessen is walking home through the chilly Chicago streets one night, looking forward to a quiet evening in front of the fireplace with his wife, Daniela, and their son, Charlie—when his reality shatters.

"Are you happy with your life?"

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before a man Jason's never met smiles down at him and says, "Welcome back, my friend."

In this world he's woken up to, Jason's life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that's the dream?

And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could've imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human--a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we'll go to claim the lives we dream of.]]> 342 Blake Crouch 1101904224 Ed 3 4.13 2016 Dark Matter
author: Blake Crouch
name: Ed
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/14
date added: 2024/10/14
shelves:
review:
This is a funny one because it was very inventive and well done and I cared about the characters. It also kept a potentially convoluted plot very clear. And yet I liked but didn’t love it. Not sure if it’s even the book so much as my being distracted but what was missing would’ve prevented me being distracted. Still, very original and well done so maybe it was me this time. Who knows?
]]> <![CDATA[Joyful Recollections of Trauma: A Hilariously Cathartic Memoir-in-Essays of Childhood Turmoil, Self Healing, and Finding Happiness]]> 197449225 256 Paul Scheer 0063293714 Ed 5 4.15 2024 Joyful Recollections of Trauma: A Hilariously Cathartic Memoir-in-Essays of Childhood Turmoil, Self Healing, and Finding Happiness
author: Paul Scheer
name: Ed
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/02
date added: 2024/10/02
shelves:
review:
This might be the best book that I absolutely didn’t need. I like Paul Scheer’s podcasts and The League so I’m a fan but I never thought I’d devour his memoir in 3 days. This was surprisingly poignant and gut wrenching even when funny throughout. Being the same generation, I found myself relating to this in more ways than I expected. Again, I didn’t need a book about Scheer but you get the sense he doesn’t really think I do either. There’s something to be said for everyone writing their stories down and deciding whether it’s worth our time. This truly was if you know of Scheer and might even be if you don’t.
]]> <![CDATA[The Nolan Variations: The Movies, Mysteries, and Marvels of Christopher Nolan]]> 51151761 An in-depth look at Christopher Nolan, considered to be the most profound, commercially successful director at work today, written with his full cooperation. A rare, revelatory portrait, as close as you're ever going to get to the Escher drawing that is Christopher Nolan's remarkable brain (Sam Mendes).

In chapters structured by themes and motifs (Time; Chaos; Dreams), Shone offers an unprecedented intimate view of the director. Shone explores Nolan's thoughts on his influences, his vision, his enigmatic childhood past--and his movies, from plots and emotion to identity and perception, including his latest blockbuster, the action-thriller/spy-fi Tenet (Big, brashly beautiful, grandiosely enjoyable--Variety).



Filled with the director's never-before-seen photographs, storyboards, and scene sketches, here is Nolan on the evolution of his pictures, and the writers, artists, directors, and thinkers who have inspired and informed his films.

Fabulous: intelligent, illuminating, rigorous, and highly readable. The very model of what a filmmaking study should be. Essential reading for anyone who cares about Nolan or about film for that matter.--Neal Gabler, author of An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood and Walt Disney, The Biography]]> 381 Tom Shone 0525655328 Ed 3 4.38 2020 The Nolan Variations: The Movies, Mysteries, and Marvels of Christopher Nolan
author: Tom Shone
name: Ed
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/29
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves:
review:
This oscillates from fascinating insight into Nolan’s work to head-up-its-ass blathering of the same. Nolan cooperated fully with this so the anecdotes and insights make up for said blathering. Can’t hold this against it obviously but this would’ve hit harder post Oppenheimer. On balance, a solid appraisal of an important filmmaker.
]]> Charlesgate Confidential 37823645 An ingenious debut-novel unraveling the heist of the century, in 1946, 1986 and present-day Boston

A group of criminals in 1946 pull off the heist of the century, stealing a dozen priceless works of art from a Boston museum. But while the thieves get caught, the art is never found. Forty years later, the last surviving thief gets out of jail and goes hunting for the loot, involving some innocent college students in his dangerous plan - and thirty years after that, in the present day, the former college kids, now all grown up, are drawn back into danger as the still-missing art tempts a deadly new generation of treasure hunters. A breathtakingly clever, twist-filled narrative that moves from 1946 to 1988 to 2014 and back again, CHARLESGATE CONFIDENTIAL establishes Scott Von Doviak as a storyteller of the first order, and will leave you guessing until the very last page.]]> 319 Scott Von Doviak 1785657186 Ed 5 4.11 2018 Charlesgate Confidential
author: Scott Von Doviak
name: Ed
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/17
date added: 2024/09/17
shelves:
review:
Well it took nine and a half months but I’ve finally found my first great novel of 2024. Hard Case Crime books have been all over the map but this is the best one since Later. This cuts between three different timelines and has a deep roster of great characters. There were 1000 ways this could’ve been a horrendous dumpster fire but it was riveting. The author does a great job of evoking pulp without it feeling like pastiche. He also balances the brutality and the fun, which others under this label usually fuck right up. Truly a breath of fresh air. Bravo.
]]> <![CDATA[The Academy and the Award: The Coming of Age of Oscar and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]]> 60557302 Ěý
For all the near-fanatic attention brought each year to the Academy Awards, the organization that dispenses those awards—the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—has yet to be understood. To date, no one has ever produced a thorough account of the Academy’s birth and its awkward adolescence, and the few reports on those periods from outside have always had a glancing, cursory quality. Yet the story of the Academy’s creation and development is a critical piece of Hollywood’s history.

Now that story is finally being told. Bruce Davis, executive director of the Academy for over twenty years, was given unprecedented access to its archives, and the result is a revealing and compelling story of the men and women, famous and infamous, who shaped one of the best-known organizations in the world. Davis writes about the Academy with as intimate a view of its workings, its awards, and its world-famous membership. Thorough and long overdue, The Academy and the Award fills a crucial gap in Hollywood history.]]> 512 Bruce Davis 1684581192 Ed 1 3.67 The Academy and the Award: The Coming of Age of Oscar and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
author: Bruce Davis
name: Ed
average rating: 3.67
book published:
rating: 1
read at: 2024/09/07
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves:
review:
This was a real big, dare I say painful disappointment. If Oscar Wars was a page turner, then these pages were made of lead. The big problem here is very dense dry and tangential writing. The attention to detail and research is astounding but this was real fucking homework. Some of those tangents are interesting like how the Oscar was designed and the Elia Kazan controversy. To be this boring on my favorite subject is a perverse trick.
]]> <![CDATA[The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity]]> 615570 The Artist’s Way is the seminal book on the subject of creativity. An international bestseller, millions of readers have found it to be an invaluable guide to living the artist’s life. Still as vital today—or perhaps even more so—than it was when it was first published one decade ago, it is a powerfully provocative and inspiring work. In a new introduction to the book, Julia Cameron reflects upon the impact of The Artist’s Way and describes the work she has done during the last decade and the new insights into the creative process that she has gained. Updated and expanded, this anniversary edition reframes The Artist’s Way for a new century.]]> 237 Julia Cameron 1585421464 Ed 3 3.93 2002 The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
author: Julia Cameron
name: Ed
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/20
date added: 2024/08/20
shelves:
review:
I guess this was tough in the first half because it wasn’t what I was expecting. I found it to be a little granola to downright cult-y like The Secret. In the second half or so when it got more practical and less homework-y, I related to it more. It was also legitimatized by Patty Lin who mentioned it in her book and convinced me to finally finish. On balance, worth a look if you squint a little in the front half.
]]> <![CDATA[End Credits: How I Broke Up with Hollywood]]> 123088295 310 Patty Lin 1958506060 Ed 5 3.73 2023 End Credits: How I Broke Up with Hollywood
author: Patty Lin
name: Ed
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/14
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves:
review:
I’m not even sure where I heard about this but I’m thrilled I did because this was riveting, powerful and a strong contender for best non-fiction book of the year. I didn’t know Patty Lin by name but reading this makes me feel like I know her totally. My knowledge of the horrors of TV writing has only been anecdotal but now it’s visceral. Like Burn It Down, this is a scathing example of workplace abuse above the waist. I love that Lin dropped a match and spilled the tea but remained righteous. At least to me. This is a must read for any writer and probably any artist period. Hope she keeps writing because I can’t wait to see what’s next.
]]> <![CDATA[Pandora’s Box: The Greed, Lust, and Lies that Broke Television]]> 62329959
Instead of focusing on one service, like HBO, Pandora’s Box asks, “What did HBO do besides give us The Sopranos?� The answer: It gave us a revolution. Biskind bites off a big chunk of entertainment history, following HBO from its birth to maturity, moving on to the basic cablers like FX and AMC, and ending with the streamers and their wars, pitting Netflix against Amazon Prime Video, Max, and the killer pluses—Disney, Apple TV, and Paramount.

Since the creative and business sides of TV are thoroughly entwined, Biskind examines both, and the interplay between them. Through frank and shockingly intimate interviews with creators and executives, Pandora’s Box investigates the dynamic interplay of commerce and art through the lens the game-changing shows they aired—not only old warhorses like The Sopranos, but recent shows like The White Lotus, Succession, and Yellow- (both -stone and -jackets)—as windows into the byzantine practices of the players as they use money and guile to destroy their competitors. With its long view and short takes—riveting snapshots of behind-the-scenes mischief�Pandora’s Box is the only book you’ll need to read to understand what’s on your small screen and how it got there.]]> 0 Peter Biskind 0241443903 Ed 4 3.49 Pandora’s Box: The Greed, Lust, and Lies that Broke Television
author: Peter Biskind
name: Ed
average rating: 3.49
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/05
date added: 2024/08/09
shelves:
review:
I was struck by how scoope.d Biskind was by It’s Not TV as far as HBO stuff. The differences here are anecdotal. Luckily, less has been written about the other streamers and that’s where this slaps. On the one hand, this is a very breezy, juicy read like all of Biskind’s books. But he gets so many nasty quotes from people, it starts to feel like gossip and he’s been attacked for accuracy in the past. Also, he inserts his own nasty comments too much, making this feel more screed than journalism. Still, the guy can write as bleak as he paints the future, it goes down smooth.
]]> <![CDATA[Everywhere an Oink Oink: An Embittered, Dyspeptic, and Accurate Report of Forty Years in Hollywood]]> 156374742 Award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and director David Mamet shares scandalous and laugh-out-loud tales from his four decades in Hollywood where he worked with some of the biggest names in movies.

David Mamet went to Hollywood on top—a super successful playwright summoned west in 1980 to write a vehicle for Jack Nicholson. He arrived just in time to meet the luminaries of old Hollywood and revel in the friendship of giants like Paul Newman, Mike Nichols, Bob Evans, and Sue Mengers. Over the next forty years, Mamet wrote dozens of scripts, was fired off dozens of movies, and directed eleven himself.

In Everywhere an Oink Oink, he revels of the taut and gag-filled professionalism of the film set. He depicts the ever-fickle studios and producers who piece by piece eat the artist alive. And he ponders the art of filmmaking and the genius of those who made our finest movies. With the bravado and flair of Mamet’s best theatrical work, this memoir describes a world gone by, some of our most beloved film stars with their hair down, and how it all got washed away by digital media and the woke brigade. The book is illustrated throughout with three-dozen of Mamet’s pungent cartoons and caricatures.]]> 247 David Mamet 1668026333 Ed 2 3.07 2023 Everywhere an Oink Oink: An Embittered, Dyspeptic, and Accurate Report of Forty Years in Hollywood
author: David Mamet
name: Ed
average rating: 3.07
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/08
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves:
review:
Love and revere Mamet but he really pushed it here. This is more a collection of mood swings than a collection of essays. While his intelligence and wit are on full display so is his anger and insensitivity. Also, there is mostly what sometimes feels like the ramblings of a lunatic. Anecdotally, this is strong as a guy with his career would have tons of great ones. I don’t know. This just felt like someone blowing off steam but to no end.
]]> <![CDATA[Surely You Can't Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane!]]> 65214162
Airplane! premiered on July 2nd, 1980. With a budget of $3.5 million it went on to make nearly $200 million in sales and has influenced a multitude of comedians on both sides of the camera.

Surely You Can’t Be Serious is the first-ever oral history of the making of Airplane! by the creators, and of the beginnings of the ZAZ trio (Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker) � charting the rise of their comedy troupe Kentucky Fried Theater in Madison, Wisconsin all the way to premiere night. The directors explain what drew them to filmmaking and in particular, comedy. With anecdotes, behind the scenes trivia, and never-before-revealed factoids � these titans of comedy filmmaking unpack everything from how they persuaded Peter Graves to be in the movie after he thought the script was a piece of garbage, how Lorna Patterson auditioned for the stewardess role in the back seat of Jerry’s Volvo, and how Leslie Nielsen’s pranks got the entire crew into trouble, to who really wrote the jive talk. The book also features testimonials and personal anecdotes from well-known faces in the film, television, and comedy sphere � proving how influential Airplane! has been from day one.

Four decades after its release, Airplane! continues to make new generations laugh. Its many one-liners and visual gags have worked their way into the mainstream culture. This fully organic expansion of the ZAZ trio’s fan-base, prompted solely by word-of-mouth, comes as no surprise to longtime fans. When all around us is in flux � laughter is priceless.]]> 352 David Zucker 1250289319 Ed 4 4.08 2023 Surely You Can't Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane!
author: David Zucker
name: Ed
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/21
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves:
review:
Airplane! is the funniest movie ever so I was eager to dig into this. I didn’t realize it is an oral history so that took a little adjusting. This lives or dies anecdotally and it mostly succeeds on that score. They also dig a bit into Kentucky Fried Movie, which was a bonus. If you like Airplane! this is a fun breezy read.
]]> Lost Man's Lane 176443476
For a sixteen-year-old, a summer internship working for a private investigator seems like a dream come true—particularly since the PI is investigating the most shocking crime to hit Bloomington, Indiana, in decades. A local woman has vanished, and the last time anyone saw her, she was in the backseat of a police car driven by a man impersonating an officer.

Marshall Miller’s internship puts him at the center of the action, a position he relishes until a terrifying moment that turns public praise for his sharp observations and uncanny memory into accusations of lying and imperiling the case. His detective mentor withdraws, friends and family worry and whisper, and Marshall alone understands that the darkness visiting his town this summer goes far beyond a single crime. Now his task is to explain it—and himself.

Lost Man's Lane is a coming-of-age tale of terror.]]> 516 Scott Carson 1982191457 Ed 2 4.14 2024 Lost Man's Lane
author: Scott Carson
name: Ed
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/03
date added: 2024/07/03
shelves:
review:
I learned about this book because Stephen King touted it so he was on my mind as I read it. This reminded me a lot of The Outsider in good ways and bad. It had an intriguing mystery but crumbled under its own bloat and mythology. It’s a shame because the characters are vivid and relatable even when they’re being crushed by the plot. This The Outsider and Shining Girls make a trilogy of stories I desperately want to avoid from here on out.
]]> <![CDATA[How to Solve Your Own Murder (Castle Knoll Files, #1)]]> 181350367 For fans of Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club, an enormously fun mystery about a woman who spends her entire life trying to prevent her foretold murder only to be proven right sixty years later, when she is found dead in her sprawling country estate.... Now it's up to her great-niece to catch the killer.

It’s 1965 and teenage Frances Adams is at an English country fair with her two best friends. But Frances’s night takes a hairpin turn when a fortune-teller makes a bone-chilling prediction: One day, Frances will be murdered. Frances spends a lifetime trying to solve a crime that hasn’t happened yet, compiling dirt on every person who crosses her path in an effort to prevent her own demise. For decades, no one takes Frances seriously, until nearly sixty years later, when Frances is found murdered, like she always said she would be.

In the present day, Annie Adams has been summoned to a meeting at the sprawling country estate of her wealthy and reclusive great-aunt Frances. But by the time Annie arrives in the quaint English village of Castle Knoll, Frances is already dead. Annie is determined to catch the killer, but thanks to Frances’s lifelong habit of digging up secrets and lies, it seems every endearing and eccentric villager might just have a motive for her murder. Can Annie safely unravel the dark mystery at the heart of Castle Knoll, or will dredging up the past throw her into the path of a killer?

As Annie gets closer to the truth, and closer to the danger, she starts to fear she might inherit her aunt’s fate instead of her fortune.]]> 358 Kristen Perrin 0593474015 Ed 1 3.76 2024 How to Solve Your Own Murder (Castle Knoll Files, #1)
author: Kristen Perrin
name: Ed
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2024/06/16
date added: 2024/06/16
shelves:
review:
Not sure I’ve read a more boring mystery ever. I hate when books have too many pointless characters but this is an all-time fucking offender. Tonally, it sometimes strives for a fun Knives Out vibe but that conflicts with the grit it also fails at. That the main character is an aspiring mystery novelist is further galling. Hopefully, I’ll forget this mess two or three books from now.
]]> <![CDATA[Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood]]> 176443727 Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai, Legends of the Fall, About Last Night, and Glory, creator of the show thirtysomething, and executive producer of My So-Called Life, gives a dishy, behind-the-scenes look at working with some of the biggest names in Hollywood.

“I’ll be dropping a few names,� Ed Zwick confesses in the introduction to his book. “Over the years I have worked with self-proclaimed masters-of-the-universe, unheralded geniuses, hacks, sociopaths, savants, and saints.�

He has encountered these Hollywood types during four decades of directing, producing, and writing projects that have collectively received eighteen Academy Award nominations (seven wins) and sixty-seven Emmy nominations (twenty-two wins). Though there are many factors behind such success, including luck and the contributions of his creative partner Marshall Herskovitz, he’s known to have a special talent for bringing out the best in the people he’s worked with, especially the actors. In those intense collaborations, he’s sought to discover the small pieces of connective tissue, vulnerability, and fellowship that can help an actor realize their character in full.

Talents whom he spotted early include Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Denzel Washington, Claire Danes, and Jared Leto. Established stars he worked closely with include Leonardo DiCaprio, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Daniel Craig, Jake Gyllenhaal, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, and Jennifer Connelly. He also sued Harvey Weinstein over the production of Shakespeare in Love —and won. He shares personal stories about all these people, and more.

Written mostly with love, sometimes with rue, this memoir is also a meditation on working, sprinkled throughout with tips for anyone who has ever imagined writing, directing, or producing for the screen. Fans with an appreciation for the beautiful mysteries—as well as the unsightly, often comic truths—of crafting film and television won’t want to miss it.]]> 304 Ed Zwick 1668046997 Ed 5 3.97 2024 Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood
author: Ed Zwick
name: Ed
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/08
date added: 2024/06/08
shelves:
review:
While I like a lot of Zwick’s movies, he never makes my list of great auteurs, which is the power of this book. His 50 years in the industry are a valuable record and history. He also spills a lot of tea without ever coming off petty save for Harvey Weinstein but fuck him. Zwick seems positive but grounded and truthful about his setbacks. If this is the kind of thing you like, you’ll love it. If not, some good stories about some really famous people.
]]> The New Couple in 5B 128007059 A couple inherits an apartment with a spine-tingling past in this binge-worthy thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six.

Rosie and Chad Lowan are barely making ends meet in New York City when they receive life-changing news: Chad’s late uncle has left them his luxury apartment at the historic Windermere in glamorous Murray Hill. With its prewar elegance and impeccably uniformed doorman, the building is the epitome of old New York charm. One would almost never suspect the dark history lurking behind its perfectly maintained facade.

At first, the building and its eclectic tenants couldn’t feel more welcoming. But as the Lowans settle into their new home, Rosie starts to suspect that there’s more to the Windermere than meets the eye. Why is the doorman ever-present? Why are there cameras everywhere? And why have so many gruesome crimes occurred there throughout the years? When one of the neighbors turns up dead, Rosie must get to the truth about the Windermere before she, too, falls under its dangerous spell.]]> 384 Lisa Unger 0778333345 Ed 2 3.55 2024 The New Couple in 5B
author: Lisa Unger
name: Ed
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/06/05
date added: 2024/06/05
shelves:
review:
Tonally, this was hard to get a handle on. Rosemary’s Baby was a huge influence but it never went for straight horror. The early going was interesting and a lot of the writing went down smooth. But plot wise, this got increasingly absurd while somehow still being predictable. A common problem I’m having with fiction this year is really insipid characters and here is another offender. A good novel? Maybe someday.
]]> The Heiress 126919284
But to everyone’s surprise, Cam wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.

Ten years later, Camden is a McTavish in name only, but a summons in the wake of his uncle’s death brings him and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but coming home reminds Cam why he was so quick to leave in the first place.

Jules, however, has other ideas, and the more she learns about Cam’s estranged family—and the twisted secrets they keep—the more determined she is for her husband to claim everything Ruby once intended for him to have.

But Ruby’s plans were always more complicated than they appeared. As Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will—and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.]]> 294 Rachel Hawkins 1250280036 Ed 3 3.80 2024 The Heiress
author: Rachel Hawkins
name: Ed
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/27
date added: 2024/05/27
shelves:
review:
As I have loved the three Rachel Hawkins books I’ve read, I was hoping this would be the first great novel of 2024. It isn’t. Compared to Hawkins other books, a lot of this was choppy, repetitive, languid and generic. The good news is this does pick up a lot of steam in the last third or so. It didn’t totally make up for all of the above but it did change it for the better. I guess if this is as bad as it gets for Hawkins, that’s pretty good but I know she can do better.
]]> The Colorado Kid 10574 But that's just the beginning of the mystery. Because the more they learn about the man and the baffling circumstances of his death, the less they understand. Was it an impossible crime? Or something stranger still...?

No one but Stephen King could tell this story about the darkness at the heart of the unknown and our compulsion to investigate the unexplained. With echoes of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon and the work of Graham Greene, one of the world's great storytellers presents a surprising tale that explores the nature of mystery itself...

]]> 178 Stephen King 0843955848 Ed 1 3.35 2005 The Colorado Kid
author: Stephen King
name: Ed
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2005
rating: 1
read at: 2024/04/27
date added: 2024/04/27
shelves:
review:
Hard Case Crime has always been a mixed bag. Stephen King has always been a mixed bag. So, I guess it’s fitting the Stephen King Hard Case Crime books have been a VERY mixed bag. Later was a masterpiece, Joy Land was half OK but this one just sucks. My heart sank pretty early on in this short book when I realized this would be three dull people talking about a dull mystery. This felt like some kind of writing experiment and I guess successful if the goal was to combat insomnia.
]]> The Firm (The Firm, #1) 1941607 Ěý
For a young lawyer on the make, it was an offer Mitch McDeere couldn’t a position at a law firm where the bucks, billable hours, and benefits are over the top. It’s a dream job for an up-and-comer—if he can overlook the uneasy feeling he gets at the office. Then an FBI investigation into the firm’s connections to the Mafia plunges the straight and narrow attorney into a nightmare of terror and intrigue.ĚýWith no choice but to pit his wits, ethics, and legal skills against the firm’s deadly secrets—if he hopes to stay alive…]]> 448 John Grisham 0385319053 Ed 2 4.33 1991 The Firm (The Firm, #1)
author: John Grisham
name: Ed
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1991
rating: 2
read at: 2023/10/28
date added: 2024/04/26
shelves:
review:
I’ve been wanting to reread this for a while because I was curious how it would be after 30 years. Sadly, this was like when I reread, Rising Sun. I was stunned how much work it was and how the writing wasn’t as fleet as I remembered. Read a ton of Grisham in the 90s and wonder if this is a low card or par. I don’t wonder enough to read any more. Still, it was interesting to see how much nastier it is than the movie but it’s also way more sluggish. I do admire as I remembered what a prick Mitch is which the movie watered down but that’s it. I thought this would be a layup but it was a disappointing slog.
]]> <![CDATA[How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk]]> 769016 Recently revised and updated with fresh insights and suggestions, How to Talk so Kids Will Listen & Listen so Kids Will Talk is full of practical, innovative ways to solve common problems and build foundations for lasting relationships.]]> 286 Adele Faber 0380811960 Ed 3 4.26 1980 How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk
author: Adele Faber
name: Ed
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1980
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/19
date added: 2024/04/19
shelves:
review:
Not as current and insightful as No Drama Discipline but a solid companion filled with useful advice. Small ding but the artwork for the cartoons has aged a little creepily in 40 odd years.
]]> <![CDATA[No-Drama Discipline: The Whole-Brain Way to Calm the Chaos and Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind]]> 40873423 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER •ĚýThe pioneering experts behindĚýThe Whole-Brain Child—Tina Payne Bryson and Daniel J. Siegel, theĚýauthor of Brainstorm—now explore the ultimate child-raising discipline.

Highlighting the fascinating link between a child’s neurological development and the way a parent reacts to misbehavior, No-Drama Discipline provides an effective, compassionate road map for dealing with tantrums, tensions, and tears—without causing a scene.
Ěý
Defining the true meaning of the “d� word (to instruct, not to shout or reprimand), the authors explain how to reach your child, redirect emotions, and turn a meltdown into an opportunity for growth. By doing so, the cycle of negative behavior (and punishment) is essentially brought to a halt, as problem solving becomes a win/win situation. Inside this sanity-saving guide you’ll discover
Ěý
� strategies that help parents identify their own discipline philosophy—and master the best methods to communicate the lessons they are trying to impart
� facts on child brain development—and what kind of discipline is most appropriate and constructive at all ages and stages
� the way to calmly and lovingly connect with a child—no matter how extreme the behavior—while still setting clear and consistent limits
� tips for navigating your child through a tantrum to achieve insight, empathy, and repair
� twenty discipline mistakes even the best parents make—and how to stay focused on the principles of whole-brain parenting and discipline techniques
Ěý
Complete with candid stories and playful illustrations that bring the authors� suggestions to life, No-Drama Discipline shows you how to work with your child’s developing mind, peacefully resolve conflicts, and inspire happiness and strengthen resilience in everyone in the family.

Praise for No-Drama Discipline
Ěý
“With lucid, engaging prose accompanied by cartoon illustrations, Siegel and Bryson help parents teach and communicate more effectively.��Publishers Weekly
Ěý
“A lot of fascinating insights . . . an eye-opener worth reading.��Parents
Ěý
“Insightful . . . The ideas presented in this latest book can actually be applied to all of our relationships, as it will help us in many circumstances to be able to calm down, have empathy for another person, and then communicate in a constructive way about our concerns and proposed solutions. What works to help children learn and behave better might also help our world’s leaders and large groups of people get along better, as many of us adults failed to develop these mindsight skills as we were growing up and we tend to sabotage our relationships with others as a result. Whether you are a parent, a teacher, or just a person who wishes to learn to get along better with others, you may find some valuable insights in No-Drama Discipline.��Examiner.com

“Wow! This book grabbed me from the very first page and did not let go. Daniel Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson explain extremely well why punishment is a dead-end strategy. Then they describe what to do instead. By making the latest breakthroughs in brain science accessible to any parent, they show why empathy and connection are the royal road to cooperation, discipline, and family harmony.�—Lawrence J. Cohen, Ph.D., author of The Opposite of Worry


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 290 Daniel J. Siegel 0345548051 Ed 5 4.26 2014 No-Drama Discipline: The Whole-Brain Way to Calm the Chaos and Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind
author: Daniel J. Siegel
name: Ed
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/13
date added: 2024/04/13
shelves:
review:
Insightful, user friendly and, most importantly, realistic.
]]> The Silent Patient 40097951
Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....

The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.]]> 336 Alex Michaelides 1250301696 Ed 4 4.17 2019 The Silent Patient
author: Alex Michaelides
name: Ed
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/06
date added: 2024/04/06
shelves:
review:
This may be a case of great writing triumphing over plot but this was a lot of fun so who the fuck cares? Very curious to check out other books by this author to see if this is the best he has or the runt of his litter. The setting threatens to be oppressive and miserable but the propulsive pulp glides right over that. The pacing here is what all authors of all genres should bow down to: short chapters and getting the hell on with it. Really nasty fun.
]]> Wise Guy 865792 Wiseguy is Nicholas Pileggi's remarkable bestseller, the most intimate account ever printed of life inside the deadly high-stakes world of what some people call the Mafia. Wiseguy is Henry Hill's story, in fascinating, brutal detail, the never-before-revealed day-to-day life of a working mobster -- his violence, his wild spending sprees, his wife, his mistresses, his code of honor. Henry Hill knows where a lot of bodies are buried, and he turned Federal witness to save his own life. The mob is still hunting him for what he reveals in Wiseguy: hundreds of crimes including arson, extortion, hijacking, and the $6 million Lufthansa heist, the biggest successful cash robbery in U.S. history, which led to ten murders. A firsthand account of the secret world of the mob, Wiseguy is more compelling than any novel.]]> 0 Nicholas Pileggi 0671683500 Ed 3 4.29 1985 Wise Guy
author: Nicholas Pileggi
name: Ed
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1985
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/01
date added: 2024/04/01
shelves:
review:
Goodfellas is on of my Top 10 favorite movies so it’s inextricably linked to this book. So, a lot of things played like extended and deleted scenes but I have to say unsurprisingly, the movie is better. I wasn’t expecting to like the book better but it wasn’t as rich as reading The Godfather, the movie of which I like better also. Still, Pileggi has a huge hand in both the film and book and his journalistic eye for rich detail makes this solidly entertaining.
]]> <![CDATA[Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever]]> 65650231
You asked whether Siskel & Ebert had given it “two thumbs up.�

On a cold Saturday afternoon in 1975, two men (who had known each other for eight years before they’d ever exchanged a word) met for lunch in a Chicago pub. Gene Siskel was the film critic for the Chicago Tribune . Roger Ebert had recently won the Pulitzer Prize—the first ever awarded to a film critic—for his work at the Chicago Sun-Times. To say they despised each other was an understatement.

When they reluctantly agreed to collaborate on a new movie review show with PBS, there was at least as much sparring off-camera as on. No decision—from which films to cover to who would read the lead review to how to pronounce foreign titles—was made without conflict, but their often-antagonistic partnership (which later transformed into genuine friendship) made for great television. In the years that followed, their signature “Two thumbs up!� would become the most trusted critical brand in Hollywood.

In Opposable Thumbs , award-winning editor and film critic Matt Singer eavesdrops on their iconic balcony set, detailing their rise from making a few hundred dollars a week on local Chicago PBS to securing multimillion-dollar contracts for a syndicated series (a move that convinced a young local host named Oprah Winfrey to do the same). Their partnership was cut short when Gene Siskel passed away in February of 1999 after a battle with brain cancer that he’d kept secret from everyone outside his immediate family—including Roger Ebert, who never got to say goodbye to his longtime partner. But their influence on in the way we talk about (and think about) movies continues to this day.]]> 352 Matt Singer 0593540158 Ed 5 met with tragic ends but the arc of their relationship is what’s fascinating here. Despite their petty competition, they matured enough to be a powerful voice for great films we sorely need today. Like last year’s Oscar Wars, this is the non-fiction book to beat in 2024.]]> 4.03 2023 Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever
author: Matt Singer
name: Ed
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/21
date added: 2024/03/21
shelves:
review:
Fiction or non, this is the great book I’ve been waiting for this year. I always admired Siskel & Ebert so I knew this would be a slam dunk but I wasn’t prepared for how it would slay me emotionally. Both men
met with tragic ends but the arc of their relationship is what’s fascinating here. Despite their petty competition, they matured enough to be a powerful voice for great films we sorely need today. Like last year’s Oscar Wars, this is the non-fiction book to beat in 2024.
]]> Five Bad Deeds 62792245 A gripping tale of revenge, loyalty, and the secrets hidden between the walls of the most beautiful home in town. Ellen Walsh has done something very, very bad. If only she knew what it was...

Teacher, mother, wife, and all-around good citizen Ellen is juggling nonstop commitments, from raising a teen and two toddlers to job-hunting to finally renovating her dream home, the Meadowhouse. Amidst the chaos, an ominous note arrives in the mail, People have to learn there are consequences, Ellen. And I’m going to teach you that lesson. Right under your nose.

Why would someone send her this? Ellen has no clue. She’s no angel—a white lie here, an occasional sharp tongue there—but nothing to incur the wrath of an anonymous enemy. She’d never intentionally hurt anyone. But intention doesn’t matter to someone. Someone blames this supposed “good personâ€� for all the bad they’ve experienced. And maybe they have reason to? Because few of us get through life without leaving a black mark on someone else’s. Could the five bad deeds that come to haunt Ellen explain why things have gone so horribly wrong?ĚýAs she races to discover who’s set on destroying her reputation and her future, Ellen continues to receive increasingly threatening messages... each one hitting closer to everything she cherishes.]]> 416 Caz Frear 0063091119 Ed 1 3.36 2023 Five Bad Deeds
author: Caz Frear
name: Ed
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2024/03/16
date added: 2024/03/16
shelves:
review:
This is a case study in how to fuck up a potentially good premise. These characters were drippy bores and there were at least two too many of them. I appreciate low stakes if they’re real but not when they’re dull and miserable. A lot is made about whether Ellen is a good person but her biggest crime is being the annoying center of an annoying book. Just a limp whiff of a fucking waste of time.
]]> The Catcher in the Rye 5107 It's Christmas time and Holden Caulfield has just been expelled from yet another school...

Fleeing the crooks at Pencey Prep, he pinballs around New York City seeking solace in fleeting encounters—shooting the bull with strangers in dive hotels, wandering alone round Central Park, getting beaten up by pimps and cut down by erstwhile girlfriends. The city is beautiful and terrible, in all its neon loneliness and seedy glamour, its mingled sense of possibility and emptiness. Holden passes through it like a ghost, thinking always of his kid sister Phoebe, the only person who really understands him, and his determination to escape the phonies and find a life of true meaning.

The Catcher in the Rye is an all-time classic in coming-of-age literature- an elegy to teenage alienation, capturing the deeply human need for connection and the bewildering sense of loss as we leave childhood behind.

J.D. Salinger's (1919�2010) classic novel of teenage angst and rebellion was first published in 1951. The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923. It was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. It has been frequently challenged in the court for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and in the 1950's and 60's it was the novel that every teenage boy wants to read.]]> 277 J.D. Salinger 0316769177 Ed 1 3.81 1951 The Catcher in the Rye
author: J.D. Salinger
name: Ed
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1951
rating: 1
read at: 2024/03/03
date added: 2024/03/03
shelves:
review:
Never read this and only had a vague sense of what it was even about. I was afraid I’d be bored and this would be a slog and…I was and it was. I know people will say, “For its time abba dabba do� but this was just dull. Holden is just a whiny fucking brat and I’d say the same thing if I were half my age. That he goes off about digression is really rich considering he is a walking digression. I’m not saying any of the above to be contrary or controversial but if this is the great American novel, count me out.
]]> <![CDATA[The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story]]> 62047954 400 Sam Wasson 006303784X Ed 3 3.74 2023 The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story
author: Sam Wasson
name: Ed
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/21
date added: 2024/02/21
shelves:
review:
Started this thinking it was just about Apocalypse Now but it was pretty much a Coppola bio. It was tricky going at first as it was nonlinear but then really spent a lot of time on One From The Heart. Knowing very little about that movie, that was stuff was fascinating. I was a little disappointed how it seemed to pass over the later part of his life but the story seems to end when Zoetrope ends. Coppola comes off as erratic, brave, a little bit of a prick and above all else, a passionate genius. If he’s of any interest, then this is worth a look.
]]> The Exchange (The Firm, #2) 123285511 #1 New York Times bestselling author John Grisham delivers high-flying international suspense in a stunning new legal thriller that marks the return of Mitch McDeere, the brilliant hero of The Firm.

What became of Mitch and Abby McDeere after they exposed the crimes of Memphis law firm Bendini, Lambert & Locke and fled the country? The answer is in The Exchange, the riveting sequel to The Firm, the blockbuster thrillerĚýthat launched the careerĚýof America’s favorite storyteller. It is now fifteen years later, and Mitch and Abby are living in Manhattan, where Mitch is a partner at the largest law firmĚýin the world. When a mentor in Rome asks him for a favor that will take him far from home, Mitch finds himself at the center of a sinister plot that has worldwideĚýimplications—and once again endangers his colleagues, friends, and family. Mitch has becomeĚýa master at staying one step ahead of his adversaries, but this time there’s nowhereĚýto hide.]]> 338 John Grisham 0385548958 Ed 3 3.39 2023 The Exchange (The Firm, #2)
author: John Grisham
name: Ed
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/05
date added: 2024/02/05
shelves:
review:
So, I re-read The Firm last year and was bummed how had it fallen in my memory. That made this an odd curiosity that I wasn’t exactly excited about. I thought this would be a continuation of The Firm and it seemed that way in the early going but then it either took a turn or not reading the description paid off for me. This turned out to be a fairly taut international political thriller with Mitch McDeere at the center. I don’t know how typical or not this is for modern Grisham but it was a nice little surprise.
]]> The Manor House 62949018
Be careful what you wish for...

Childhood sweethearts Nicole and Tom are a normal, loving couple—until a massive lottery win changes their lives overnight.

Soon they’ve moved into a custom-built state-of-the-art Glass Barn on the stunning grounds of Lancaut Manor in Gloucestershire. They have fancy cars, expensive hobbies, and an exclusive lifestyle they never could have imagined.

But this dream world quickly turns into a nightmare when Tom is found dead in the swimming pool.

Nicole is devastated. Tom is her rock. And their beautiful barn —with all its smart features that never seem to work for her—is beginning to feel very lonely. But she’s not entirely by herself out there in the country. There’s a nice young couple who live in the Manor itself along with their middle-aged housekeeper who has the Coach House. And an old friend of Tom’s from school has turned up to help her get through her grief.

But big money can bring big problems and big threats. Was Tom’s death a tragic accident or was it something worse? And is her life in danger as well?

Nicole’s beginning to feel like a little fish in a big glass fishbowl.

Surrounded by piranhas.]]> 327 Gilly Macmillan 0063074389 Ed 1 3.65 2023 The Manor House
author: Gilly Macmillan
name: Ed
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2024/01/27
date added: 2024/01/27
shelves:
review:
At first I thought this whole book was just going to be introducing new characters. Most of the characters are an insipid bore save for the villains who are more annoying than menacing. Despite short chapters and split perspectives, a rotting bloat sinks this whole thing. One character shows signs of life but it’s too little far too late. This is the second shitty novel and it’s only February.
]]> The Fiction Writer 63325817 The Fiction Writer follows a writer hired by a handsome billionaire to write about his family history with Daphne du Maurier and finds herself drawn into a tangled web of obsession, marital secrets, and stolen manuscripts.

The once-rising literary star Olivia Fitzgerald is down on her luck. Her most recent novel—a retelling of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca—was a flop, her boyfriend of nine years just dumped her and she’s battling a bad case of writer’s block. So when her agent calls her with a high-paying ghostwriting opportunity, Olivia is all too willing to sign the NDA.

At first, the write-for-hire job seems too good to be true. All she has to do is interview Henry “Ash� Asherwood, a reclusive mega billionaire, twice named People’s Sexiest Man Alive, who wants her help in writing a book that reveals a shocking secret about his late grandmother and Daphne du Maurier. But when Olivia arrives at his Malibu estate, nothing is as it seems. The more Olivia digs into his grandmother’s past, the more questions she has—and before she knows it, she’s trapped in a gothic mystery of her own.

With as many twists and turns as the California coast, The Fiction Writer is a thriller that explores the boundaries of creative freedom and whose stories we have the right to tell.]]> 304 Jillian Cantor 077833418X Ed 1 3.16 2023 The Fiction Writer
author: Jillian Cantor
name: Ed
average rating: 3.16
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2024/01/13
date added: 2024/01/13
shelves:
review:
The first third of this really cooked which makes this the worst kind of bad book because it gets your hopes up. The whole meta Rebeca thing just made me miss Rebecca. This reeked of a writer not having an idea so they do an idea ABOUT ideas, which is a real drag. Maybe if the start wasn’t so promising, I’d be kinder.
]]> <![CDATA[The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage]]> 62192505
“This book takes you so close to the action that you can smell the sweat, cigar smoke, and bad cologne that brought these movies to life.”—Paul Scheer

The Last Action Heroes opens in May 1990 in Cannes, with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone waltzing together, cheered on by a crowd of famous faces. After years of bitter combat—Stallone once threw a bowl of flowers at Schwarzenegger’s head, and the body count in Schwarzenegger’s Commando was increased so the film would “have a bigger dick than Rambo ”—the world’s biggest action stars have at last made peace.

In this wildly entertaining account of the golden age of the action movie, Nick de Semlyen charts Stallone and Schwarzenegger’s carnage-packed journey from enmity to friendship against the backdrop of Reagan’s America and the Cold War. He also reveals fascinating untold stories of the colorful characters who ascended in their high-kickers Chuck Norris and Jackie Chan, glowering tough guys Dolph Lundgren and Steven Seagal, and quipping troublemakers Jean-Claude Van Damme and Bruce Willis. But as time rolled on, the era of the invincible action hero who used muscle, martial arts, or the perfect weapon to save the day began to fade. When Jurassic Park trounced Schwarzenegger’s Last Action Hero in 1993, the glory days of these macho men—and the vision of masculinity they celebrated—were officially over.

Drawing on candid interviews with the action stars themselves, plus their collaborators, friends, and foes, The Last Action Heroes is a no-holds-barred account of a period in Hollywood history when there were no limits to the heights of fame these men achieved, or to the mayhem they wrought, on-screen and off.]]> 352 Nick de Semlyen 059323880X Ed 4 4.10 2023 The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
author: Nick de Semlyen
name: Ed
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/06
date added: 2024/01/07
shelves:
review:
Reading this right after Wild & Crazy Guys highlights how structurally identical these books are. Just like with that one, this lives and dies anecdotally. While I don’t care about Van Damme and Norris, the writing was strong enough to carry me through. I grew up with these guys so a stubborn nostalgia really fueled my read. Happy to check out more like this as I find them.
]]> <![CDATA[Wild and Crazy Guys: How the Comedy Mavericks of the '80s Changed Hollywood Forever]]> 42880492 Animal House, Caddyshack, and Ghostbusters.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BYĚýNEW YORK.

"An enjoyable romp that vividly captures the manic ups and downs of the remarkable group of funny folk who gave us a golden age of small and big screen comedy, fromĚýSNL toĚýGroundhog Day."
—Peter Biskind,Ěýauthor of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls.

Wild and Crazy Guys opens in 1978 with Chevy Chase and Bill Murray taking bad-tempered swings at each other backstage at Saturday Night Live, and closes 21 years later with the two doing a skit in the same venue, poking fun at each other, their illustrious careers, triumphs and prat falls. In between, Nick de Semlyen takes us on a trip through the tumultuous '80s, delving behind the scenes of movies such as National Lampoon's Vacation, Beverly Hills Cop, The Blues Brothers, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and dozens more. Chronicling the off-screen, larger-than-life antics of Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, John Belushi, John Candy, and Rick Moranis, it's got drugs, sex, punch-ups, webbed toes, and Bill Murray being pushed into a swimming pool by Hunter S. Thompson while tied to a lawn chair. What's not to like?

Based on candid interviews from many of the stars themselves, as well as those in their immediate orbit, including directors John Landis, Carl Reiner, and Amy Heckerling, Wild and Crazy Guys is a fantastic insider account of the friendships, feuds, triumphs, and disasters experienced by these beloved comedians. Hilarious and revealing, it is both a hidden history of the most fertile period ever for screen comedy and a celebration of some of the most popular films of all time.

Praise for Wild and Crazy Guys:

"Eminently readable . . . Children of the 1980s, take note:Ěýthis is a fond, engrossing look back at the making of movies that became cultural touchstones."
â€�BooklistĚý(starred review).

"Nick de Semlyen smartly charts the pinballing career paths of the stars of this new comic wave. . . . His punchy, nonstop narrative . . . tells a [story] where art and commerce smash hard against each other, sometimes causing destruction, but sometimes making sparks fly."
�The Sunday Times (UK)]]> 352 Nick de Semlyen 1984826646 Ed 4 4.04 2019 Wild and Crazy Guys: How the Comedy Mavericks of the '80s Changed Hollywood Forever
author: Nick de Semlyen
name: Ed
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/02
date added: 2024/01/07
shelves:
review:
This is best looked at as anecdotal, which may be the point anyway. A lot of the SNL stuff I’d read about elsewhere but the movie stuff was a little less familiar and richer. All this is to say, some anecdotes I knew and some I didn’t so your mileage may vary. The John Candy stuff was the least familiar and most poignant. I don’t think I’d read this kind of book about another generation so I’m glad we have this one.
]]> You Belong to Me 31574745
Paul Reeves is a successful immigration lawyer, but his passion is collecting old New York City maps, tangible records of the city where he’s spent his life. One afternoon he attends an auction with his neighbor Jennifer Mehraz, the beautiful young wife of an Iranian-American financier-lawyer. Suddenly, a handsome man in fatigues appears and whisks Jennifer away.

YOU BELONG TO ME . . .

A long-lost lover from Jennifer’s rural Pennsylvania past, the man sets a series of alarming events in motion. Those close to Jennifer are desperate to figure out who he is and how the two are connected―especially her high-powered and possessive husband, whose ultimate goal is to make this embarrassing intrusion into his marriage disappear.

YOU BELONG TO ME . . .

At the same time, one of the world’s rarest, most inaccessible maps suddenly goes on sale, but before Paul can finalize a deal, an anonymous buyer snatches it out from under his nose. Maddened and perplexed by the loss, Paul must find out who beat him to it and how to get the map for himself.

Eight years after his last critically acclaimed thriller, The Finder, Colin Harrison returns with You Belong to Me. Filled with compelling characters and a loving but biting satire of New York City, You Belong to Me is an exceptional novel, and Colin Harrison is at the top of his game.]]> 336 Colin Harrison 0374299471 Ed 3 3.50 2017 You Belong to Me
author: Colin Harrison
name: Ed
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/14
date added: 2023/12/14
shelves:
review:
Really loved The Finder and The Havana Room but disliked Risk and Bodies Electric so I swore it’d be years before I read another Colin Harrison. True to my word, it’s been over seven years and this one is in the middle. It’s mostly all the things I liked about the first two books but there’s an escalating racial and sexual ickiness here. Maybe it’s always been this way with Harrison but it really jumped out this time. Still, this moved and stuff happened so bar mostly cleared.
]]> Criminal Conversation 165866 480 Evan Hunter 074342154X Ed 5 3.42 1994 Criminal Conversation
author: Evan Hunter
name: Ed
average rating: 3.42
book published: 1994
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2023/12/03
shelves:
review:
I re-read this book a few years ago but I first read it when I was in high school. Now, if I read anything in high school without a gun to my head, that meant it held my interest. If I were to outline the story here, it would all sound very familiar. But Hunter knows how to tell a story and get the hell on with it. Too many other authors fall too in love with their tangential prose and take me out of the story. This book presents three characters who are fascinating and deeply flawed. I can't be very erudite about why I liked this book so much other than to say it kicked ass. It's been years since I read it but it remains on the very short list of fiction I would re-read.
]]> To Live and Die in L.A. 759794 To Live and Die in L.A. is a harrowing tale, which has become a major motion picture, of cult status, depicting the dark underside of America's "West Coast" metropolis. Two U.S. Treasury agents, both partners and antagonists, are drawn into a matrix of violence and corruption, L.A. style, a journey through a sunlit hell. At the end, they become experts on the thin line which separates what it takes to live - and to die - in L.A.]]> 256 Gerald Petievich 0523423012 Ed 4 3.66 1984 To Live and Die in L.A.
author: Gerald Petievich
name: Ed
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1984
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/30
date added: 2023/11/30
shelves:
review:
Read this maybe in 2000 or so but my way into this was the movie. Unlike The Firm, this isn’t a worse version of the movie but a fascinating diversion from it. Whichever order you look at both, there will be some nice little surprises and different roads traveled. Onto itself, this is a fun read and only loses heat at the very end. Personally, this book marks my new record for most books read in a single year. So, this will always have a special place in my heart.
]]> The Christmas Guest 83814905 An American art student in London is invited to join a classmate for the holidays at Starvewood Hall, her family's Cotswold manor house. But behind the holly and pine boughs, secrets are about to unravel, revealing this seemingly charming English village's grim history.

Ashley Smith, an American art student in London for her junior year, was planning on spending Christmas alone, but a last-minute invitation from fellow student Emma Chapman brings her to Starvewood Hall, country residence of the Chapman family. The Cotswold manor house, festooned in pine boughs and crammed with guests for Christmas week, is a dream come true for Ashley. She is mesmerized by the cozy, firelit house, the large family, and the charming village of Clevemoor, but also by Adam Chapman, Emma's aloof and handsome brother.

But Adam is being investigated by the local police over the recent brutal slaying of a girl from the village, and there is a mysterious stranger who haunts the woodland path between Starvewood Hall and the local pub. Ashley begins to wonder what kind of story she is actually inhabiting. Is she in a grand romance? A gothic tale? Or has she wandered into something far more sinister and terrifying than she'd ever imagined?

Over thirty years later the events of that horrific week are revisited, along with a diary from that time. What began in a small English village in 1989 reaches its ghostly conclusion in modern-day New York, many Christmas seasons later.]]> 96 Peter Swanson 0063297450 Ed 4 3.58 2023 The Christmas Guest
author: Peter Swanson
name: Ed
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/25
date added: 2023/11/25
shelves:
review:
Big Swanson fan and read his new book every Spring so I was thrilled to find this one for Christmas. Swanson experiments a little right down to the length (this is a novella). This doesn’t take place in New England and the main character is college age. He crams a pretty juicy mystery in 100 pages or so and I was sorry he didn’t go farther. This is obviously a very quick read and I hope it doesn’t delay his next full book.
]]> <![CDATA[Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade]]> 21777 512 William Goldman 0747553173 Ed 4 4.02 2000 Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade
author: William Goldman
name: Ed
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/21
date added: 2023/11/21
shelves:
review:
I read this probably 22 years ago when it came out and I remember a lot of it. Goldman was the Dean Of American Screenwriting (Harper is my favorite and little known) and a world class snob. Like his first book, he goes into detail about the work since then. Some opinions and comments really don’t age well and Goldman would be in some hot water were he still living. Fans of Gwyneth Paltrow and Vertigo proceed with caution. The last chunk of this the first act of a script and four famous writers giving their notes. The script is a tough read but worth it to see it mostly shredded by the very people who idolize him. I admire the balls and humility Goldman shows in including this. I sure as fuck wouldn’t. This is a great companion to Adventures In The Screen Trade: a master class from a true master.
]]> <![CDATA[The Friedkin Connection: A Memoir]]> 11926015 497 William Friedkin 0061775126 Ed 4 4.14 2012 The Friedkin Connection: A Memoir
author: William Friedkin
name: Ed
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/18
date added: 2023/11/18
shelves:
review:
I always intended to read this but Friedkin’s death lit a fire under that. I saw him speak twice, which with countless interviews I’ve seen made it very easy to hear his voice. Infamously gruff, he’s a little softer and more humble here. As expected, this is packed with great stories and anecdotes about all his hits and flops. He only omits any mention of Deal Of The Century, which is funny given how candid he is about his other misfires. There aren’t a lot nor an enough of books like these so well worth checking out especially now that he’s gone.
]]> <![CDATA[Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow]]> 58784475 In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]> 401 Gabrielle Zevin 0735243344 Ed 4 4.12 2022 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Ed
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/10
date added: 2023/11/10
shelves:
review:
I was low-key tricked into reading this in that two people I knew recommended it without telling me a thing. I don’t often read things that aren’t thrillers or Hollywood non-fiction so this was out of my comfort zone. I don’t game and know nothing about it but the author does an incredible job immersing me in this world. The three main characters are so strong, I was compelled even when they were assholes. A few flights of fancy left me a little cold, which may be a product of my non-gaming background. That quibble aside, this was a very moving story I’m glad I wandered into.
]]> <![CDATA[Hit & Run * How John Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony For A Ride in Hollywood]]> 133294095 0 Nancy Griffin Ed 3 3.00 1996 Hit & Run * How John Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony For A Ride in Hollywood
author: Nancy Griffin
name: Ed
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at: 2023/10/19
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves:
review:
Maybe I’m a little Hollywooded out but this hit a really snag for me around the middle. The fun, brisk attention to detail got bogged down in the dull history of Sony. From there my interest was in an out depending on what disaster the book was covering. The Last Action Hero chapter was a real whopper that breathed life into the later part of this. On balance, any look at a studio’s inner workings is with a look but this fell from great to just good enough.
]]> <![CDATA[It's Not TV: The Spectacular Rise, Revolution, and Future of HBO]]> 60372321
HBO changed how stories could be told on TV. The Sopranos, Sex and the City, The Wire, Game of Thrones. The network's meteoric rise heralded the second golden age of television with serialized shows that examined and reflected American anxieties, fears, and secret passions through complicated characters who were flawed and often unlikable. HBO's own behind-the-scenes story is as complex, compelling, and innovative as the dramas the network created, driven by unorthodox executives who pushed the boundaries of what viewers understood as television at the turn of the century. Originally conceived by a small upstart group of entrepreneurs to bring Hollywood movies into living rooms across America, the scrappy network grew into one of the most influential and respected players in Hollywood. It's Not TV is the deeply reported, definitive story of one of America's most daring and popular cultural institutions, laying bare HBO's growth, dominance, and vulnerability within the capricious media landscape over the past fifty years.

Through the visionary executives, showrunners, and producers who shaped HBO, seasoned journalists Gillette and Koblin bring to life a dynamic cast of characters who drove the company's creative innovation in astonishing ways--outmaneuvering copycat competitors, taming Hollywood studios, transforming 1980s comedians and athletes like Chris Rock and Mike Tyson into superstars, and in the late 1990s and 2000s elevating the commercial-free, serialized drama to a revered art form. But in the midst of all its success, HBO was also defined by misbehaving executives, internal power struggles, and a few crucial miscalculations.

As data-driven models like Netflix have taken over streaming, HBO's artful, instinctual, and humanistic approach to storytelling is in jeopardy. Taking readers into the boardrooms and behind the camera, It's Not TV tells the surprising, fascinating story of HBO's ascent, its groundbreaking influence on American business, technology, and popular culture, and its increasingly precarious position in the very market it created.]]> 402 Felix Gillette 0593296192 Ed 5 3.99 2022 It's Not TV: The Spectacular Rise, Revolution, and Future of HBO
author: Felix Gillette
name: Ed
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/06
date added: 2023/10/06
shelves:
review:
This was everything I hoped it would be. It’s a well researched, breezily written 50 year chronicle of the most prestigious cable channel in history. I thought I knew about the early beginnings but I was thrilled to learn I didn’t. This didn’t shy away from exposing the misogyny and outright abuse from some of its male execs. Where Fly By Night crumbled under the weight of its own scale, this was a real page turner. Were it not for Oscar Wars, this would be the best non-fiction I read this year.
]]> Attempting Normal 15798363 People make a mess.

Marc Maron was a parent-scarred, angst-filled, drug-dabbling, love-starved comedian who dreamed of a simple life: a wife, a home, a sitcom to call his own. But instead he woke up one day to find himself fired from his radio job, surrounded by feral cats, and emotionally and financially annihilated by a divorce from a woman he thought he loved. He tried to heal his broken heart through whatever means he could find—minor-league hoarding, Viagra addiction, accidental racial profiling, cat fancying, flying airplanes with his mind—but nothing seemed to work. It was only when he was stripped down to nothing that he found his way back.

Attempting Normal is Marc Maron’s journey through the wilderness of his own mind, a collection of explosively, painfully, addictively funny stories that add up to a moving tale of hope and hopelessness, of failing, flailing, and finding a way. From standup to television to his outrageously popular podcast, WTF with Marc Maron, Marc has always been a genuine original, a disarmingly honest, intensely smart, brutally open comic who finds wisdom in the strangest places. This is his story of the winding, potholed road from madness and obsession and failure to something like normal, the thrillingly comic journey of a sympathetic f***up who’s trying really hard to do better without making a bigger mess. Most of us will relate.]]> 240 Marc Maron 0812992873 Ed 3 3.77 2013 Attempting Normal
author: Marc Maron
name: Ed
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/30
date added: 2023/09/30
shelves:
review:
I stumbled upon the very existence of this book while searching for Maron’s other book. I’m a fan so I mostly enjoyed this but the episodic nature had me liking some parts more than others. This is 10 years ago and I hope he writes a new book about the last 10 because that would be really rich and profound. Still, if you like him, you’ll like this.
]]> <![CDATA[Dark Corners (Rachel Krall, #2)]]> 61884922
When they hit a wall in the investigation, the FBI reluctantly asks for Rachel’s help in finding the missing influencer. Maddison seems only to exist on social media; she has no family, no friends, and other than in her posts, most people have never seen her. Who is she, really? Using a fake Instagram account, Rachel Krall goes undercover to BuzzCon, a popular influencer conference, where she discovers a world of fierce rivalry that may have turned lethal.

When police find the body of a woman with a tattoo of a snake eating its tail, the FBI must consider a chilling possibility: Bailey has an accomplice on the outside and a dangerous obsession with influencers, including Rachel Krell herself. Suddenly a target of a monster hiding in plain sight, Rachel is forced to confront the very real dangers that lurk in the dark corners of the internet.

Rachel Krall, the true crime podcaster star of Megan Goldin’s acclaimed Night Swim returns to search for a popular social media influencer who disappeared after visiting a suspected serial killer.]]> 343 Megan Goldin 1250280680 Ed 2 3.82 2023 Dark Corners (Rachel Krall, #2)
author: Megan Goldin
name: Ed
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2023/09/22
date added: 2023/09/22
shelves:
review:
A distressing trend is emerging. The Escape Room was masterful. The two books since were excellent and disappointing respectively. This one is really disappointing because it starts strong and gets increasingly talky and rote. This seems like a 90s serial killer thriller but updated with influencers. That could’ve been a good twist but everything here is a cliche. The shame is the writing itself is pretty strong but the story is just recycled. As this is the second Rachel Krall book, I fear Goldin will do nothing but her from now on. I really hope I’m wrong. Where Samantha Downing keeps upping the ante, this feels sadly like the opposite.
]]> Aurora 58984660 Cold Storage comes a riveting, eerily plausible thriller, told with the menace and flair of Under the Dome or Project Hail Mary, in which a worldwide cataclysm plays out in the lives of one complicated Midwestern family.

In Aurora, Illinois, Aubrey Wheeler is just trying to get by after her semi-criminal ex-husband split, leaving behind his unruly teenage son.

Then the lights go out--not just in Aurora but across the globe. A solar storm has knocked out power almost everywhere. Suddenly, all problems are local, very local, and Aubrey must assume the mantle of fierce protector of her suburban neighborhood.

Across the country lives Aubrey's estranged brother, Thom. A fantastically wealthy, neurotically over-prepared Silicon Valley CEO, he plans to ride out the crisis in a gilded desert bunker he built for maximum comfort and security.

But the complicated history between the siblings is far from over, and what feels like the end of the world is just the beginning of several long-overdue reckonings--which not everyone will survive . . .

Aurora is suspenseful storytelling--both large scale and small--at its finest.]]> 289 David Koepp 0062916475 Ed 4 3.71 2022 Aurora
author: David Koepp
name: Ed
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/17
date added: 2023/09/17
shelves:
review:
I had some conflicting expectations because I love Koepp as a screenwriter but didn’t love his last book. While I knew the premise here, I didn’t know how intimate and well drawn the characters would be. It takes maybe too long to get cooking but once it does, it’s largely great. My concerns about this triggering COVID memories in a negative way were thankfully mooted. Hopefully, this is the novel version of Koepp and if so, look forward to the next one.
]]> <![CDATA[What Just Happened?: Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line]]> 1113740
Whether he's trying to persuade an executive that Gwyneth Paltrow has enough chin to carry the lead in a movie, forcing an enraged Alec Baldwin to shave off his mountain-man beard, or sitting through an excruciating reading of a David Mamet script as Bob de Niro toys with the notion of heading up the cast, Art Linson gives us a brutally honest, funny, and comprehensive tour through the horrors of Hollywood, from script to screen.

In What Just Happened? we get to explore, at close range, finicky directors, clueless executives, shameless marketers, famous actors, battered screenwriters, and hapless producers crossing paths in such calamitous ways that it's a miracle these films get made at all. Linson is the ideal guide through this heavily land-mined, high-stakes industry, pausing for a moment here or there to explain some aspect or pitfall of the business, to wax nostalgic about film days past, or to serve up a compelling inside Hollywood tale of woe. Whether you love the movies or not, you won't be able to resist the stories behind them.]]> 208 Art Linson 1582342881 Ed 4 3.42 2002 What Just Happened?: Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line
author: Art Linson
name: Ed
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/06
date added: 2023/09/06
shelves:
review:
Read this I guess mid 2000s or so but I was curious to revisit it. After the shitstorm that was the last book, I read, I wanted to treat myself to a layup. This mostly held up in my memory as an honest, insightful and juicy read about a great producer. I’m withholding a fifth star because the the wraparound device with the annoying producer. I didn’t remember this but the book dies every time it goes to him. Otherwise, a very quick and terrific read.
]]> You Will Know Me 25251757 You Will Know Me is a breathless rollercoaster of a novel about the desperate limits of desire, jealousy, and ambition.]]> 345 Megan Abbott 031623107X Ed 1 3.42 2016 You Will Know Me
author: Megan Abbott
name: Ed
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2016
rating: 1
read at: 2023/09/02
date added: 2023/09/03
shelves:
review:
This has been sitting on my phone since the Book Bub days so I grabbed it for 99 cents. I overpaid. I didn’t realize this was YA until I finished but this is a horrendous whiff in ANY genre. This is the worst book I’ve read this year and maybe in many a year. The main character was an insipid bore and the rest of them were no bargain either. There’s a death in this but the young child in this is so annoying I wished it were him. This is the worst kind of bad book because it takes for-fucking-ever for NOTHING to happen.
]]> <![CDATA[Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood]]> 62365904 An exposé of patterns of harassment and bias in Hollywood, the grassroots reforms under way, and the labor and activist revolutions that recent scandals have ignited

It is never just One Bad Man.

Abuse and exploitation of workers is baked into the very foundations of the entertainment industry. To break the cycle and make change that sticks, it's important to stop looking at headline-making stories as individual events. Instead, one must look closely at the bigger picture, to see how abusers are created, fed, rewarded, allowed to persist, and, with the right tools, how they can be excised.

In Burn It Down, veteran reporter Maureen Ryan does just that. She draws on decades of experience to connect the dots and illuminate the deeper forces sustaining Hollywood's corrosive culture. Fresh reporting sheds light on problematic situations at companies like Lucasfilm and shows like Saturday Night Live, The Goldbergs, Lost, Sleepy Hollow, Curb Your Enthusiasm , and more. Interviews with actors and famous creatives like Evan Rachel Wood, Harold Perrineau, Damon Lindelof, and Orlando Jones abound. Ryan dismantles, one by one, the myths that the entertainment industry promotes about itself, which have allowed abusers to thrive and the industry to avoid accountability--myths about Hollywood as a meritocracy, what it takes to be creative, the value of human dignity, and more.

Weaving together insights from industry insiders, historical context, and pop-culture analysis, Burn It Down paints a groundbreaking and urgently necessary portrait of what's gone wrong in the entertainment world--and of how we can fix it.]]> 348 Maureen Ryan 0063269279 Ed 4 3.86 2023 Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood
author: Maureen Ryan
name: Ed
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/22
date added: 2023/08/22
shelves:
review:
As intended, this was brutal. I thought/hoped after the Scott Rudin story broke, there would be a MeToo movement for workplace abuse beyond just sexual misconduct. This book is bad news in some regard but does offer glimmers of hope for the future. The author is fearless in going after not only the assholes but the enablers and the equivocators, who are all complicit. As someone who’s worked in Hollywood, this was intense even though I haven’t endured the horrors covered here. The timeliness of this is impeccable nearly four months into a Hollywood strike which the author briefly predicts the outcome of (spoiler: she was wrong on THAT). Here’s hoping people pay attention to abuse where the survivors aren’t just famous women. Brutal but essential.
]]> Steven Spielberg: A Biography 1012668 544 Joseph McBride 0306809001 Ed 4 3.96 1997 Steven Spielberg: A Biography
author: Joseph McBride
name: Ed
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/17
date added: 2023/08/17
shelves:
review:
Every time I read a bio, I worry that the early childhood years will be dull. I thought that would be mitigated if not solved since The Fablemans would help carry me through. But this early section of this book is endless, nearly insufferable and took longer than ANY other bio I have ever read. I wondered if this thing was just gonna be about Spielberg’s childhood. When the author finally finally finally gets the merciful fuck on with it, this is a terrifically informative and insightful look at the world’s most famous filmmaker. The author calls out the flaws in the work, which was refreshing even if I didn’t always agree. This is a second edition but only goes up to about 2010 but obviously no bio is complete with the subject both still living and working. If you’re not the insane completist I am, jump in a little late and enjoy. Otherwise, pack a fucking lunch.
]]> <![CDATA[On His Majesty’s Secret Service]]> 136234284 161 Charlie Higson Ed 3 3.35 2023 On His Majesty’s Secret Service
author: Charlie Higson
name: Ed
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/07
date added: 2023/08/07
shelves:
review:
Haven’t read a Bond book in a long time but the hook of this really grabbed me. Tying this into King Charles’s coronation and making it of-this-moment could’ve been a real groaner but it was quite resonant. Being an ashamed American the last nearly seven years, it was enlightening to see the similar discord in England. I’ve never read Higson’s Young Bond books but I hope he tackles the modern one again soon.
]]> A Twisted Love Story 52379875 From the bestselling author of My Lovely Wife comes a reckless, delicious thriller about a young couple that gives a whole new meaning to the dangers of modern dating.

Wes and Ivy are madly in love. They've never felt anything like it. It's the kind of romance people write stories about.

But what kind of story?

Because when it's good, it's great. Flowers. Grand gestures. Deep meaningful conversations where the whole world disappears.

When it's bad, it's really bad. Vengeful fights. Damaged property. Arrest warrants.

But their vicious cycle of catastrophic breakups and head-over-heels reconnections needs to end fast. Because suddenly, Wes and Ivy have a common enemy--and she's a detective.

There's something Wes and Ivy never talk about--in good times or bad. The night of their worst breakup, when one of them took things too far, and someone ended up dead.

If they can stick together, they can survive anything--even the tightening net of a police investigation.

Because one more breakup might just be their last…]]> 390 Samantha Downing 0593101006 Ed 4 3.19 2023 A Twisted Love Story
author: Samantha Downing
name: Ed
average rating: 3.19
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/02
date added: 2023/08/02
shelves:
review:
I was eagerly awaiting this as Downing’s other three books were two masterpieces and one merely excellent respectively. This one falls into merely excellent but it was a fast and rich read like He Started It. I want to draw a distinction between that and the masterworks like My Lovely Wife and For Thier Own Good. This is a great look at a truly toxic relationship we’ve all either been in or witnessed so it’s powerfully relatable. Some of the plotting is a touch contrived in the last stretch but most authors should aspire to be this flawed. This seems to be as “bad� as Downing gets so merely because excellent is aces.
]]> <![CDATA[Cult Crime Movies: Discover the 35 Best Dark, Dangerous, Thrilling, and Noir Cinema Classics (Cult Movies)]]> 23718507 Cult Movies series, cult film specialist Danny Peary examines, dissects, defends, and exalts crime films from his unique and engaging perspective. His writing is a cornerstone of the cult film culture that continues to flourish today. New to this ebook series are Danny Peary’s cult movie checklists for each genre.ĚýEvery crime fan will walk away with newly discovered gems to watch, and a newfound appreciation of his or her favorites.]]> 500 Danny Peary 0761184333 Ed 2 4.04 2014 Cult Crime Movies: Discover the 35 Best Dark, Dangerous, Thrilling, and Noir Cinema Classics (Cult Movies)
author: Danny Peary
name: Ed
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2023/07/26
date added: 2023/07/26
shelves:
review:
This was disappointing. The movies I didn’t see weren’t covered in a way that really made me want to. The ones I had were the interesting chapters but I fell on the wrong side of some of the author’s opinions. So I was in and out in this but I guess your mileage will vary.
]]> <![CDATA[Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show That Defined a Television Era]]> 44786054
In September 1994, six friends sat down in their favorite coffee shop and began bantering. A quarter of a century later, new fans are still finding their way into the lives of Rachel, Ross, Joey, Chandler, Monica, and Phoebe, and thanks to a combination of talented creators, its intimate understanding of its youthful audience, and its reign during network television’s last moment of dominance, Friends has become the most influential and beloved show of its era.

Noted pop culture historian Saul Austerlitz is here to tell us how it happened. Utilizing exclusive interviews with creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman, executive producer Kevin Bright, director James Burrows, and many other producers, writers, and cast members, Generation Friends tells the story of Friends� creation, its remarkable decade-long run, and its astonishing Netflix-fueled afterlife. Readers will learn how the show was developed and cast, written and filmed. They’ll be reminded of episodes like the one about the trivia contest, the prom video, and the London trip. And, of course, the saga of Ross and Rachel. They’ll also discover surprising details—that Monica and Joey were the show’s original romantic couple, how Danielle Steel probably saved Jennifer Aniston’s career, and why Friends is still so popular that if it was a new show, its over-the-air broadcast reruns would be the ninth-highest-rated program on TV.

The show that defined the 1990s remains wildly popular today and has a legacy that has endured beyond wildest expectations. And in this hilarious, informative, and entertaining book, readers will now understand why.

“A treat for Friends fans, from OG Must See TV viewers to the new generation of streamers, full of insights into what made a quintessential �90s phenomenon into a lasting, international classic for the ages. You’ll get your share of juicy behind-the-scenes tidbits, from vicious writers�-room debates about Rachel and Joey’s romance to the time the producers almost moved the setting to Minneapolis (seriously). But you’ll also get a hit of nostalgia for a time when an entire nation hung on the fate of Ross and Rachel, and plenty of smart analysis of why Friends was the right show at the right time � and also continues to be the right show at an entirely different time.�
—Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, New York Times bestselling author of Seinfeldia]]> 352 Saul Austerlitz 1524743356 Ed 5 3.76 2019 Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show That Defined a Television Era
author: Saul Austerlitz
name: Ed
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/13
date added: 2023/07/13
shelves:
review:
While I’m not a Friends fanatic, I did watch every episode from 1994-2004 and the odd rerun since. It’s always intense to read about history you lived through and this was no different. The behind the scenes stuff is fascinating along with the calling out of what’s aged the worst. If you watched the show, you’ll burn through this in a few days. After the overwhelming intensity of Fly By Night, this was a real blast of fresh air.
]]> Defending Jacob 11367726
Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student.]]> 421 William Landay 0385344228 Ed 3 3.99 2012 Defending Jacob
author: William Landay
name: Ed
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/29
date added: 2023/07/07
shelves:
review:
This was solid and involving if not a page turner. After Dead Child, Is My Child A Killer? is the next biggest sub-genre. The specifics here make this just good enough and the home stretch was very close involving despite being ahead of some things. This is one of those books that may hit parents of sons a little harder so take that as a mild warning. Very curious to see how this author would do breaking new narrative ground.
]]> <![CDATA[Fly By Night: The Secret Story of Steven Spielberg, Warner Bros, and the Twilight Zone Deaths]]> 61338120 FLY BY NIGHT is about the helicopter crash on the set of "Twilight The Movie" � the Warner Bros. film co-produced by Steven Spielberg and John Landis � that killed actor Vic Morrow, and two children who had been hired illegally.

Confidential sources in the studios and in the private worlds of Spielberg and Landis � and in the DA's office, the sheriff's office, Interpol and the FBI � and newly uncovered internal Warner Bros. documents � let the author show the cover-up that ensued, a $5-million-dollar scheme to keep Landis out of jail and Spielberg out of the headlines, resulting in an unbelievable acquittal by a jury that had fallen under the spell of Hollywood. From John Huston, Jackie Cooper, Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche to Chevy Chase, George Lucas, Dan Aykroyd and Carrie Fisher, both old and new Hollywood found themselves party to this unprecedented event.]]> 469 Steven Chain 1634243668 Ed 3 3.50 Fly By Night: The Secret Story of Steven Spielberg, Warner Bros, and the Twilight Zone Deaths
author: Steven Chain
name: Ed
average rating: 3.50
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/07
date added: 2023/07/07
shelves:
review:
Before this, the only book on this subject was out of print so I was excited to see this new one. This tragedy is still the worst in movie history and I’ve always wanted to read about it. I’m of two minds here. On the one hand, this is incredibly well researched and comprehensive and I feel I know everything. On the other, the sheer volume here was occasionally overwhelming and I wondered how a Mark Harris or Karina Longworth could keep this moving. On balance, this is an important record of a senseless and brutal tragedy and worth a look if you can stomach it.
]]> <![CDATA[Making Tootsie: Inside the Classic Film with Dustin Hoffman and Sydney Pollack (Shooting Script)]]> 12122106 Back in print and now an ebook, the only book on the creation of the classic film that's ranked #2 on the American Film Institute list of 100 Best Comedies (after Some Like It Hot).

"Superb…worth a semester of film school." —David Brown, producer of Jaws

Susan Dworkin was the only writer given unprecedented access to the cast and crew during the shoot and editing of Tootsie in 1982 during the sweltering summer in New York City and editing bay in Los Angeles. A playwright, award-winning documentary writer, and Ms. contributing editor, Dworkin used her unique talent to tell how two superbly talented and driven men—actor Dustin Hoffman and director Sydney Pollack—actually made a movie about a serious actor, desperate for work, who takes on the challenge of playing a woman in a daily soap opera, becomes a star, and a better man for it.

Drawn from observation and interviews not only with Hoffman and Pollack, but with costume designer Ruth Morley, actors Teri Garr, Bill Murray, and Dabney Coleman, editors Fritz and Bill Steinkamp, and many others, Dworkin delivers an intimate view of the acting and filmmaking process, as well as insight into the release of comedy and the force of creative power.

]]> 160 Susan Dworkin 1557049661 Ed 4 3.75 1983 Making Tootsie: Inside the Classic Film with Dustin Hoffman and Sydney Pollack (Shooting Script)
author: Susan Dworkin
name: Ed
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1983
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/24
date added: 2023/06/24
shelves:
review:
So, this was written pretty much when the movie came out, which explains it’s promotional feel and it’s brief length. It’s almost as in depth as the best of these kind of books but doesn’t have the benefit of hindsight. A few little warts-and-all things slip through but I bet a more honest version of this would be better. That said, this is still a fascinating look at the artistic process of Dustin Hoffman and Sydney Pollack well worth the 120 odd pages of your time. Every examination of bringing a movie to the screen is worth it and this is no different.
]]> <![CDATA[The Man With The Getaway Face (Parker, #2)]]> 618604 225 Richard Stark Ed 3 4.00 1963 The Man With The Getaway Face (Parker, #2)
author: Richard Stark
name: Ed
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1963
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/18
date added: 2023/06/18
shelves:
review:
I forgot that Richard Stark = Donald Westlake and that this is the sequel to a story I know as the movie Point Blank. The sense of character, lingo and grit and strongest here. Westlake at his best really sells this as authentic or at least effortless pulp. As short as this is (maybe the shortest book I read this year) the pre-heist stuff is a little soggy. The back half of this is where it really picks up using what feels like a precocious narrative structure. Even though, I wanted more, this was mostly fun.
]]> The Studio 137365
Whether he is recounting a showdown between Fox's studio head and two suave shark-like agents, watching a producer's girlfriend steal a silver plate from a restaurant, or shielding his eyes against the glare of a Hollywood premiere where the guests include a chimp in a white tie and tails, Dunne captures his subject in all its showmanship, savvy, vulgarity, and hype. Not since F. Scott Fitzgerald and Nathanael West has anyone done Hollywood better.

"Reads as racily as a novel...(Dunne) has a novelist's ear for speech and eye for revealing detail...Anyone who has tiptoed along those corridors of power is bound to say that Dunne's impressionism rings true."--Los Angeles Times]]> 253 John Gregory Dunne 0375700080 Ed 3 3.81 1969 The Studio
author: John Gregory Dunne
name: Ed
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1969
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/14
date added: 2023/06/14
shelves:
review:
I’m a little on the fence here between two and three stars but there’s just enough more good than bad to recommend this. A year long chronicle of a major studio in 1967 is fascinating as much for how much as changed as what’s stayed the same. That’s what makes this mostly worth a look for film history buffs. I feel like this had to be a source for Mark Harris for the Dr. Dolittle stuff alone. What doesn’t work is the clear editorial influence the studio had on the final result. Also, there are these interstitial quotes and passages that are fucking nonsensical. But on balance, worth a look.
]]> The Witnesses 5013783 191 Anne Holden 0333126483 Ed 1 3.05 1971 The Witnesses
author: Anne Holden
name: Ed
average rating: 3.05
book published: 1971
rating: 1
read at: 2023/06/05
date added: 2023/06/05
shelves:
review:
There’s a good story in here, which I know because I saw The Bedroom Window, the 1987 film adaptation (the poster is the cover of this edition). I had an inkling this would be a lot different and was even a little charmed at first. But this is sluggishly paced but also in such a hurry to end that it doesn’t. 191 pages and it’s like the author ran out of paper. The core idea here is a banger and Curtis Hanson does an even more impressive job adapting than even LA Confidential (which had the opposite challenge of TOO much story). Hate to be a plebeian but skip the book and watch the flick. Sorry.
]]> <![CDATA[The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir]]> 60190681 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - The raw, candid, unvarnished memoir of an American icon. The greatest movie star of the past 75 years covers everything: his traumatic childhood, his career, his drinking, his thoughts on Marlon Brando, James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, John Huston, his greatest roles, acting, his intimate life with Joanne Woodward, his innermost fears and passions and joys. With thoughts/comments throughout from Joanne Woodward, George Roy Hill, Tom Cruise, Elia Kazan and many others.

A TIME BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

In 1986, Paul Newman and his closest friend, screenwriter Stewart Stern, began an extraordinary project. Stuart was to compile an oral history, to have Newman's family and friends and those who worked closely with him, talk about the actor's life. And then Newman would work with Stewart and give his side of the story. The only stipulation was that anyone who spoke on the record had to be completely honest. That same stipulation applied to Newman himself. The project lasted five years.

The result is an extraordinary memoir, culled from thousands of pages of transcripts. The book is insightful, revealing, surprising. Newman's voice is powerful, sometimes funny, sometimes painful, always meeting that high standard of searing honesty. The additional voices--from childhood friends and Navy buddies, from family members and film and theater collaborators such as Tom Cruise, George Roy Hill, Martin Ritt, and John Huston--that run throughout add richness and color and context to the story Newman is telling.

Newman's often traumatic childhood is brilliantly detailed. He talks about his teenage insecurities, his early failures with women, his rise to stardom, his early rivals (Marlon Brando and James Dean), his first marriage, his drinking, his philanthropy, the death of his son Scott, his strong desire for his daughters to know and understand the truth about their father. Perhaps the most moving material in the book centers around his relationship with Joanne Woodward--their love for each other, his dependence on her, the way she shaped him intellectually, emotionally and sexually.

The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man is revelatory and introspective, personal and analytical, loving and tender in some places, always complex and profound.]]> 297 Paul Newman 0593534506 Ed 3 3.83 2022 The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir
author: Paul Newman
name: Ed
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/11
date added: 2023/05/11
shelves:
review:
I’m not sure I’ve ever read a memoir like this but as a fan of Newman, I thought I’d give it a shot. His candor and insight is very rich along with a few great stories that could only come from the horse’s mouth. It did feel sort of padded out with a lot of anecdotes from other people, which seemed antithetical to a memoir. Between Shawn Levy’s book, Ethan Hawke’s doc and this, you can get a pretty good picture of Paul Newman.
]]> <![CDATA[Molly's Game: From Hollywood's Elite to Wall Street's Billionaire Boys Club, My High-Stakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker]]> 18090048
Molly wanted more, and she got more than she could have ever bargained for.

In Molly's Game, Molly Bloom takes the reader through her adventures running an exclusive high-stakes private poker game. Her clients ranged from iconic stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Affleck to politicians and financial titans so powerful they moved markets and changed the course of history. With rich detail, Molly describes a world that until now has been shrouded in glamour, privilege, and secrecy, one where she fearlessly took on the Russian and Italian mobs—until she met the one adversary she could not outsmart, even though she had justice on her side: the United States government.

Molly's Game is an incredible coming-of-age story about a young girl who rejected convention in pursuit of her version of the American dream. It's the story of how she gained—and then lost—her place at the table, and of everything she learned about poker, love, and life in the process.]]> 272 Molly Bloom 0062213075 Ed 4 3.72 2014 Molly's Game: From Hollywood's Elite to Wall Street's Billionaire Boys Club, My High-Stakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker
author: Molly Bloom
name: Ed
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/28
date added: 2023/04/28
shelves:
review:
Like many people, my entry into this was the movie, which enhanced this read tremendously. It’s fascinating not only how different the movie and the book are but how they complement each other. While I much prefer the movie, a few details are filled out here like who Player X really is (although it’s obvious if you followed the news back then) while the movie makes Molly more real. Onto itself, the book is a breezy smart read even if it ends a little abruptly. Check both out in either order and it’s a lot of fun.
]]> Just the Nicest Couple 60666845 Two couples, two close friends, one missing husband�

Jake Hayes is missing. This much is certain. At first, his wife, Nina, thinks he is blowing off steam at a friend’s house after their heated fight the night before. But then a day goes by. Two days. Five. And Jake is still nowhere to be found.

Lily Scott, Nina’s friend and coworker, thinks she may have been the last to see Jake before he went missing. After Lily confesses everything to her husband, Christian, the two decide that nobody can find out what happened leading up to Jake’s disappearance, especially not Nina. But Nina is out there looking for her husband, and she won’t stop until the truth is discovered.]]> 320 Mary Kubica 0778333116 Ed 1 3.51 2023 Just the Nicest Couple
author: Mary Kubica
name: Ed
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2023/04/24
date added: 2023/04/24
shelves:
review:
I was reluctant as the last Kubica book I read I didn’t love. It was 7 or 8 years ago so the details are long gone but my reluctance was validated. Really cool story but it’s weighed down by very slack repetitive plotting and dull characters. Both women are only distinguishable by circumstance. There was so much potential here but it seeped out like a deflating tire. I was gonna go two stars but it seeped to one as I typed this. Go figure.
]]> <![CDATA[Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears]]> 61190218
America does not have royalty. It has the Academy Awards. For nine decades, perfectly coiffed starlets, debonair leading men, and producers with gold in their eyes have chased the elusive Oscar. What began as an industry banquet in 1929 has now exploded into a hallowed ceremony, complete with red carpets, envelopes, and little gold men. But don’t be fooled by the the Oscars, more than anything, are a battlefield, where the history of Hollywood—and of America itself—unfolds in dramas large and small. The road to the Oscars may be golden, but it’s paved in blood, sweat, and broken hearts.

In Oscar Wars, Michael Schulman chronicles the remarkable, sprawling history of the Academy Awards and the personal dramas—some iconic, others never-before-revealed—that have played out on the stage and off camera. Unlike other books on the subject, each chapter takes a deep dive into a particular year, conflict, or even category that tells a larger story of cultural change, from Louis B. Mayer to Moonlight. Schulman examines how the red carpet runs through contested turf, and the victors aren't always as clear as the names drawn from envelopes. Caught in the crossfire are their thwarted ambitions, their artistic epiphanies, their messy collaborations, their dreams fulfilled or dashed.

Featuring a star-studded cast of some of the most powerful Hollywood players of today and yesterday, as well as outsiders who stormed the palace gates, this captivating history is a collection of revelatory tales, each representing a turning point for the Academy, for the movies, or for the culture at large.]]> 589 Michael Schulman 0062859013 Ed 5 4.08 2023 Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears
author: Michael Schulman
name: Ed
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/14
date added: 2023/04/14
shelves:
review:
It’s rare to be excited for something and still have it exceed your expectations. This is the best nonfiction book since probably something by Mark Harris, which this recalls the best of. What’s incredible is the epic scope: unions, race, McCarthyism, MeToo, shitty musical numbers. Even if you think you know a lot about Oscar history, this extends beyond just that. I didn’t know what each chapter would cover and how far into the future it would be so that was always a surprise. I was worried he wouldn’t talk about The Slap, which is only a year ago but it gets the Epilogue. Whew! I could go on and on but this was epic, insightful, juicy and everything the Oscars SHOULD be. Just fantastic.
]]> <![CDATA[The Kind Worth Saving (Henry Kimball/Lily Kintner, #2)]]> 60916172 In this spectacularly devious novel by New York Times bestselling author Peter Swanson—featuring the smart and complex Lily Kintner from his acclaimed novel, The Kind Worth Killing—a private eye starts to follow a possibly adulterous husband, but little does he know that the twisted trail will lead back to the woman who hired him.

There was always something slightly dangerous about Joan. So, when she turns up at private investigator Henry Kimball’s office asking him to investigate her husband, he can’t help feeling ill at ease. Just the sight of her stirs up a chilling memory: he knew Joan in his previous life as a high school English teacher, when he was at the center of a tragedy.

Now Joan needs his help in proving that her husband is cheating. But what should be a simple case of infidelity becomes much more complicated when Kimball finds two bodies in an uninhabited suburban home with a “for sale� sign out front. Suddenly it feels like the past is repeating itself, and Henry must go back to one of the worst days of his life to uncover the truth.

Is it possible that Joan knows something about that day, something she’s hidden all these years? Could there still be a killer out there, someone who believes they have gotten away with murder? Henry is determined to find out, but as he steps closer to the truth, a murderer is getting closer to him, and in this hair-raising game of cat and mouse only one of them will survive.]]> 303 Peter Swanson 0063204983 Ed 4 3.65 2023 The Kind Worth Saving (Henry Kimball/Lily Kintner, #2)
author: Peter Swanson
name: Ed
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/09
date added: 2023/04/09
shelves:
review:
Another Spring, another Swanson. This is a sequel to The Kind Worth Killing, which I loved but didn’t remember in great detail. Swanson does a good job of recapping what you need to know. Onto itself, this is another typically great Swanson: brisk, twisty and creepy. Two people in this book rank high with his best creeps ever. To pick nits, I didn’t love the role poetry played in this and the very end got a little sluggish. This kept it from being absolute top level but Swanson is so good most of his books are merely excellent. Now, I just have to wait another year but I know it’ll be worth it.
]]> <![CDATA[The Way They Were: How Epic Battles and Bruised Egos Brought a Classic Hollywood Love Story to the Screen]]> 61355450
It’s one of the greatest movie romances of all time. Fifty years on, the chemistry between Barbra Streisand as Jewish working-class firebrand Katie Worosky and Robert Redford as all-American golden boy Hubbell Gardiner remains potent. Yet the friction and controversy surrounding The Way We Were was so enormous, the movie was nearly never made at all.

Screenwriter Arthur Laurents wrote the role of Katie with Streisand in mind. Casting Hubble was another matter. Redford, already a superstar, was reluctant to play what he perceived as the “Ken doll� to Streisand’s lead, and demanded his role be changed and expanded. Laurents resisted, telling director Sydney Pollack, “You’ll ruin the movie if it ends up being about two people. It’s Katie’s story, not Hubbell’s.� Despite his protests, ten writers—among them Francis Ford Coppola—were brought on to rework the script.

Laurents’s fears were well founded, and the first preview was disastrous. Producer Ray Stark and Pollack, with Redford's approval, cut several scenes, upsetting Streisand and Laurents. Yet the edits worked. Such was the movie’s success that Redford was open to making a sequel, though Laurents’s script was never greenlit. Some of those "lost" scenes are now being restored to the film for its 50th anniversary.

It’s also the deep, surprising love story at the heart of The Way They Were that makes it so memorable, and Robert Hofler explores its inspiration—the relationship between Laurents, a Jewish Brooklyn-born college leftist, and his longtime partner, Tom Hatcher. Drawing on a vast trove of Laurents’s and Pollack’s unpublished writings, as well as interviews with Streisand, Redford, and other key players, this is the definitive account of a film that changed the rules of moviemaking and defined romance ever since.]]> 304 Robert Hofler 0806542322 Ed 2 3.12 The Way They Were: How Epic Battles and Bruised Egos Brought a Classic Hollywood Love Story to the Screen
author: Robert Hofler
name: Ed
average rating: 3.12
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2023/04/05
date added: 2023/04/05
shelves:
review:
I saw The Way We Were once maybe 30 years ago and liked it alright but I like to check out any deep dive into a single movie. There were some interesting insights into movie star ego but most of it fell short of, I guess, the great stories I was hoping for. The last chapter is rambling and ends so abruptly, I thought I missed it. Maybe if I had more invested in the movie, I’d dig this more but meh.
]]> <![CDATA[Thunderbook: The World of Bond According to Smersh Pod (The World of Film According to Smersh Pod)]]> 43970684
The Bond films have entertained annoyed, excited, bored, aroused and invigorated cinemagoers (and ITV4 viewers) for more than fifty years. Who hasn’t wanted to kick a big bloke with metal teeth in the groin? Fly a small plane out of a pretend horse’s bottom? Or push a middle-aged man into space? No one, that’s who.

The World of Bond According to Smersh Pod affectionately examines Bond with tongue firmly in cheek and elbow dug in ribs. Join John Rain as he goes film-by-film through the Bond saga as he points out all the good, the bad, and the double-taking pigeons contained within Bond’s half-century of world domination.

With one chapter for each of the twenty-five films, Thunderbook examines all the moments that are funny, silly, rubbish, nonsensical, bizarre and interesting, with the ultimate intention of celebrating Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and becoming the go-to companion book for the Bond fan at large.]]> 380 John Rain 0957507623 Ed 2 4.10 2020 Thunderbook: The World of Bond According to Smersh Pod (The World of Film According to Smersh Pod)
author: John Rain
name: Ed
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2023/03/30
date added: 2023/03/30
shelves:
review:
I’ve read a ton of books about Bond and will surely read more but I’ll need a better hook. This was sold as a humorous look at all the movies but I only laughed out loud sporadically. Otherwise, the jokes were either obviously lame or hyper specific British references that went over my head. The Bond movies are my favorite franchise so If I’m not tearing through a book about it, then that’s the review.
]]> Stone Cold Fox 61053935 A compelling debut novel about an ambitious woman who, after a lifetime of conning alongside her mother, wants to leave her dark past behind and marry the heir to one of the country's wealthiest families.

Like any enterprising woman, Bea knows what she’s worth and is determined to get all she deserves—it just so happens that what she deserves is to marry rich. After a lifetime of forced instruction in the art of swindling men by her mother, Bea wants nothing more than to escape her shadow, close the door on their sordid past, and disappear safely into old-money domesticity.

When Bea finds her final mark in the perfectly dull blue-blooded Collin, she’s ready to deploy all her tricks one last time. The challenge isn’t getting the ring, but rather the approval of Collin’s family and everyone else in their tax bracket, particularly his childhood best friend Gale. Going toe-to-toe with Gale isn’t a threat to an expert like Bea, but what begins as an amusing cat-and-mouse game quickly develops into a dangerous chase. As the truth of Bea’s past threatens to come roaring out, she finds herself racing against the clock to pass the finish line before everything is exposed.]]> 353 Rachel Koller Croft 0593547500 Ed 5 3.63 2023 Stone Cold Fox
author: Rachel Koller Croft
name: Ed
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/27
date added: 2023/03/27
shelves:
review:
Finally! The Villa was a great break in the shit-slew of bad novels but this shatters the backboard. I can’t remember ever knowing I was in good hands from the very first line of a book. I actually put off finishing a little because I know the next novel will only be half as good if I’m lucky. Bea is a great character with more nuance than expected and all the characters here are vividly drawn. Even the more sordid and disturbing aspects are handled so well they don’t harsh the fun vibe. I can go on and on but this was just delicious fun and it’s about fucking time.
]]> The Villa 60784641 From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins comes a deliciously wicked gothic suspense, set at an Italian villa with a dark history, for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware.

As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend.

Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce’s girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album––and ends in Pierce’s brutal murder.

As Emily digs into the villa’s complicated history, she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierce’s murder wasn’t just a tale of sex, drugs, and rock & roll gone wrong, but that something more sinister might have occurred––and that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind.

Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth, the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emerge––and it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends.]]> 279 Rachel Hawkins 125028001X Ed 4 3.59 2023 The Villa
author: Rachel Hawkins
name: Ed
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/19
date added: 2023/03/19
shelves:
review:
I was counting on Rachel Hawkins to end this rut of horrible novels this year (new and old). The first maybe third of this, I was worried the curse would claim an author who wrote two great novels I read last year. My patience was enthrallingly rewarded because the back half of this really starts to slap. A complex narrative structure and asshole characters could have (and again, for a time do) sink this but man does it come together. Trust in Rachel Hawkins. At least SOMEONE is on top of things.
]]> The Guest List 52656911
The bride � The plus one � The best man � The wedding planner � The bridesmaid � The body

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.

And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?]]> 319 Lucy Foley Ed 4 3.82 2020 The Guest List
author: Lucy Foley
name: Ed
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/03/14
shelves:
review:
Library availability dictated I read two books in a row featuring toxic masculinity on a remote island. This was recommended to me and is in some ways barely a thriller but I was surprised how engrossed I was. The characters here are vivid and intriguing and I had knots just from the human interaction. One or two of the thriller turns were a little contrived. I loved where it went just not how it got there. Still, this was a very juicy read and pairs nicely with Every Vow You Break so maybe everyone should rock that double feature. Between these books and Promising Young Woman...just men...oof.
]]> <![CDATA[The Burden of Proof (Kindle County Legal Thriller, #2)]]> 4035 640 Scott Turow 0446677124 Ed 1 4.06 1990 The Burden of Proof (Kindle County Legal Thriller, #2)
author: Scott Turow
name: Ed
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1990
rating: 1
read at: 2023/03/11
date added: 2023/03/11
shelves:
review:
This was a close call as I was heading for two stars but I just got so mad at this. Love Presumed Innocent and Innocent but this was a slog. Sandy Stern was a magnificent character but this proves if you’re getting a spin-off, you better be Saul Goodman. There was an interesting story here but it’s buried under very un-titillating sex and convoluted misery. And it just goes on for-fucking-ever. I was planning on reading all the Kindle County books but now I’d rather be on trial for murder myself.
]]> Nicholson: A Biography 17345198 Ěý
For five decades, Jack Nicholson has been part of film history. With twelve Oscar nominations to his credit and legendary roles in films like Easy Rider,ĚýFive Easy Pieces, Terms of Endearment, The Shining, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Nicholson creates original, memorable characters like no other actor of his generation. And his personal life has been no less of an adventure—Nicholson has always been at the center of the Hollywood elite and has courted some of the most famous and beautiful women in the world.
ĚýĚýĚý Relying on years of extensive research and interviews with insiders who know Nicholson best, acclaimed biographer Marc Eliot sheds new light on Nicholson's life on and off the screen. From Nicholson’s working class childhood in New Jersey, where family secrets threatened to tear his family apart, to raucous nights on the town with Warren Beatty and tumultuous relationships with starlets like Michelle Phillips, Anjelica Huston, and Lara Flynn Boyle, to movie sets working with such legendary directors and costars as Dennis Hopper, Stanley Kubrick, Meryl Streep, and Roman Polanski, Eliot paints a sweeping picture of the breadth of Nicholson’s fifty-year career in film, as well as an intimate portrait of his personal life.
ĚýĚýĚýĚý Equally at home on the bookshelves of serious film historians and fans of compulsively readable Hollywood biographies,Ěý Nicholson is both a comprehensive tribute to a film legend and an entertaining look at a truly remarkable life.]]> 351 Marc Eliot 0307888371 Ed 5 3.40 2013 Nicholson: A Biography
author: Marc Eliot
name: Ed
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/24
date added: 2023/02/24
shelves:
review:
Read another Nicholson bio seven years ago, which I liked a lot but I guess I liked this one just a little more. I think the early, pre-fame years pop more here and don’t drag the way the other book did. I liked this author’s books on Clint Eastwood and Michael Douglas so that was the tipping point for going down this road again. Tons of great stories and Nicholson comes off mostly like he does in the other book. The very last note of this is Nicholson’s moment with Jennifer Lawrence at the 2013 Oscars, which is odd and maybe mischaracterized. If not, it’s an abrupt and cruel final note to strike. Still liked the book but what the fuck?
]]> What Remains of Me 25817265 Nobody’s perfect. Everybody’s got a drawer somewhere with something hidden in it.

On June 28, 1980—the hottest night of the year—Kelly Michelle Lund shoots and kills Oscar-nominated director John McFadden at a party in his home. . . . And instantly becomes a media sensation, her chilling smile fodder for national nightmares. For years, speculation swirls over the enigmatic seventeen-year-old’s motives, information she’s refused to share. Convicted of the murder, she loses her youth and her freedom—but keeps her secrets to herself.
Thirty years later—and five years after her release from prison—the past has come back to haunt Kelly. Her father-in-law, movie legend Sterling Marshall, is found in a pool of blood in his home in the Hollywood Hills—dead from a shot to the head, just like his old friend John McFadden.
Once again, Kelly is suspected of the high profile murder. But this time, she’s got some unexpected allies who believe she’s innocent—of both killings—and want to help her clear her name. But is she?
Written with masterful precision and control, What Remains of Me brilliantly moves forward and back in time, playing out the murders side by side—interweaving subtle connections and peeling away layers of events to reveal the shocking truth.]]> 384 Alison Gaylin 0062369857 Ed 2 3.69 2016 What Remains of Me
author: Alison Gaylin
name: Ed
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at: 2023/02/19
date added: 2023/02/19
shelves:
review:
OK so, I guess this is twice as good as all the shitty novels this year but that’s only two stars. The characters and set-up have a ton of potential but it slowly seeps out the closer we get to the end. Slow is the key word here because the pace kills this thing deader than hell. I swear I may have added another star if it just got the hell on with it. This is an old Book Bub blind buy and a reminder why I don’t do that anymore.
]]> An Honest Living 60149570 "Like the best noir practitioners, Murphy uses the mystery as scaffolding to assemble a world of fallen dreams and doom-bitten characters . . . Murphy's hard-boiled rendering of the city is nothing short of exquisite . . . For anyone who wants a portrait of this New York, few recent books have conjured it so vividly." --The New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice

A sharp and stylish debut from the editor-in-chief of CrimeReads in which an unwitting private eye gets caught up in a crime of obsession between a reclusive literary superstar and her bookseller husband, paying homage to the noir genre just as smartly as it reinvents it

After leaving behind the comforts and the shackles of a prestigious law firm, a restless attorney makes ends meet in mid-2000s Brooklyn by picking up odd jobs from a colorful assortment of clients. When a mysterious woman named Anna Reddick turns up at his apartment with ten thousand dollars in cash and asks him to track down her missing husband Newton, an antiquarian bookseller who she believes has been pilfering rare true crime volumes from her collection, he trusts it will be a quick and easy case. But when the real Anna Reddick--a magnetic but unpredictable literary prodigy--lands on his doorstep with a few bones to pick, he finds himself out of his depth, drawn into a series of deceptions involving Joseph Conrad novels, unscrupulous booksellers, aspiring fl�neurs, and seedy real estate developers.

Set against the backdrop of New York at the tail end of the analog era and immersed in the worlds of literature and bookselling, An Honest Living is a gripping story of artistic ambition, obsession, and the small crimes we commit against one another every day.]]> 288 Dwyer Murphy 0593489241 Ed 1 3.10 2022 An Honest Living
author: Dwyer Murphy
name: Ed
average rating: 3.10
book published: 2022
rating: 1
read at: 2023/02/06
date added: 2023/02/06
shelves:
review:
This has to be the most boring PI story ever. Not even sure this guy even WAS a PI but he was an investigator of some kind. The low stakes had potential but this was such an insufferable slog I was praying for more traditional ones. The lead makes reference to Chinatown but in a way that did this no favors. Plus, he kept going to the movies. I wish I had dropped this and done the same. Oof with the shitty novels this year.
]]> On Directing Film 12517 107 David Mamet 0140127224 Ed 3 3.84 1991 On Directing Film
author: David Mamet
name: Ed
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/26
date added: 2023/01/26
shelves:
review:
This has such a notorious rap, I’ve always wanted to check it out. On that score, the only juice is Mamet’s assertions about the actor’s role in film. Beyond that, there’s some wisdom, some blow-harding and the rest in between. I wouldn’t take this as instruction as much as what we would now call a hot take. People’s mileage varies when it comes to Mamet so keep that in mind. Either way, this won’t take long to get through so credit where it’s due.
]]> Take No Names 59333181 304 Daniel Nieh 0062886673 Ed 1 3.39 2022 Take No Names
author: Daniel Nieh
name: Ed
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2022
rating: 1
read at: 2023/01/22
date added: 2023/01/22
shelves:
review:
The first half of this is well detailed and depicts a subsection of a world I knew nothing about. The problem was the characters were total drips. The second half becomes an increasingly convoluted geo-political thriller I cared less and less about the longer it went on. I guess nothing to be too mad about, I was just bored.
]]> Cinema Speculation 55922488 The long-awaited first work of nonfiction from the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: a deliriously entertaining, wickedly intelligent cinema book as unique and creative as anything by Quentin Tarantino.

In addition to being among the most celebrated of contemporary filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino is possibly the most joyously infectious movie lover alive. For years he has touted in interviews his eventual turn to writing books about films. Now, with Cinema Speculation, the time has come, and the results are everything his passionate fans—and all movie lovers—could have hoped for. Organized around key American films from the 1970s, all of which he first saw as a young moviegoer at the time, this book is as intellectually rigorous and insightful as it is rollicking and entertaining. At once film criticism, film theory, a feat of reporting, and wonderful personal history, it is all written in the singular voice recognizable immediately as QT’s and with the rare perspective about cinema possible only from one of the greatest practitioners of the artform ever.]]> 391 Quentin Tarantino 0063112582 Ed 5 4.04 2022 Cinema Speculation
author: Quentin Tarantino
name: Ed
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/11
date added: 2023/01/11
shelves:
review:
I had pretty high hopes for this but I’m happy to report even those were exceeded. I liked QT’s novel but felt it a little indulgent in some chapters. Well, he super indulges here but QT is as famous for talking movies as he is for making them. I was worried I’d be bored or lost when he covered movies I haven’t seen but his enthusiasm carried me through. The biggest surprise is how critical and even harsh he is on some of these movies. The chapter on Hardcore is really rough but fascinating. It’s very easy to hear QT’s voice here and your mileage may vary but as a film book, this is must-read.
]]> The Shining Girls 16131077 The girl who wouldn't die hunts the killer who shouldn't exist.

"The future is not as loud as war, but it is relentless. It has a terrible fury all its own."

Harper Curtis is a killer who stepped out of the past. Kirby Mazrachi is the girl who was never meant to have a future.

Kirby is the last shining girl, one of the bright young women, burning with potential, whose lives Harper is destined to snuff out after he stumbles on a House in Depression-era Chicago that opens onto other times.

At the urging of the House, Harper inserts himself into the lives of the shining girls, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. He's the ultimate hunter, vanishing into another time after each murder, untraceable—until one of his victims survives.

Determined to bring her would-be killer to justice, Kirby joins the Chicago Sun-Times to work with the ex-homicide reporter Dan Velasquez, who covered her case. Soon Kirby finds herself closing in on the impossible truth. . . .

The Shining Girls is a masterful twist on the serial killer tale: a violent quantum leap featuring a memorable and appealing heroine in pursuit of a deadly criminal.]]> 368 Lauren Beukes 0316216852 Ed 1 3.53 2013 The Shining Girls
author: Lauren Beukes
name: Ed
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2013
rating: 1
read at: 2023/01/06
date added: 2023/01/06
shelves:
review:
Oof. Rough start to 2023. I tried and tried but I swear new characters were introduced for 85% of this thing. The core idea was interesting but it collapsed because under the weight of its own sprawl. The most interesting character was dealed to the bottom of the deck too much and it became real work to get through this. This had a little going for it but it blew my good will and held me prisoner instead of enthralled.
]]> <![CDATA[The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man]]> 403452 Salon called “a bonanza of wild but credible stories, told concisely with deadpan humor, as sly and rich in atmosphere as anything this side of Mark Twain.�

“Of all the grifters, the confidence man is the aristocrat,� wrote David Maurer, a proposition he definitely proved in The Big Con, one of the most colorful, well-researched, and entertaining works of criminology ever written. A professor of linguistics who specialized in underworld argot, Maurer won the trust of hundreds of swindlers, who let him in on not simply their language but their folkways and the astonishingly complex and elaborate schemes whereby unsuspecting marks, hooked by their own greed and dishonesty, were “taken off� � i.e. cheated—of thousands upon thousands of dollars.

The Big Con is a treasure trove of American lingo (the write, the rag, the payoff, ropers, shills, the cold poke, the convincer, to put on the send) and indelible characters (Yellow Kid Weil, Barney the Patch, the Seldom Seen Kid, Limehouse Chappie, Larry the Lug). It served as the source for the Oscar-winning film The Sting.]]> 315 David W. Maurer 0385495382 Ed 3 3.80 1940 The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man
author: David W. Maurer
name: Ed
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1940
rating: 3
read at: 2022/12/27
date added: 2022/12/27
shelves:
review:
Pretty much a Bible for anyone who wants to learn the history of cons long and short. Crazy thing is that this was written in 1940 and is still mostly relevant. What’s shocking is the clear influence on The Sting to the point of a settled plagiarism lawsuit. As for the book itself, mostly fascinating but overwhelmingly dense which hurt the pace a bit. The history of how con men mostly avoid prosecution is incredible. Fun. Worth a look.
]]> <![CDATA[Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live]]> 55095 608 Tom Shales 0316781460 Ed 5 4.07 2002 Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live
author: Tom Shales
name: Ed
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/16
date added: 2022/12/16
shelves:
review:
Been an SNL watcher since I was a kid and stuck through in good times and bad. Although barely at all right now ironically. I’ve heard about this book since it came out and got inspired to read this as I listen to the Fly On The Wall podcast (which pairs nicely with this). It’s an oral history but very well organized in terms of covering 40 years. Of course, SNL is closer to 50 but no record was ever going to be complete. I liked how honest people were about the bad times and a lot of tea is spilled, which made this a real page turner despite those pages being 600 plus. Lorne Michaels is the center of this as he should be and it’s fascinating how while most admire him, his haters get thier say as well. What’s clear is there would be no show without him then or now and even those who rag on it would be gutted to see it go. Not to be too burbly but this is an detailed and epic dive into a unique American institution.
]]> Luckiest Girl Alive 22609317
As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, she’s this close to living the perfect life she’s worked so hard to achieve.

But Ani has a secret.

There’s something else buried in her past that still haunts her, something private and painful that threatens to bubble to the surface and destroy everything.

With a singular voice and twists you won’t see coming, Luckiest Girl Alive explores the unbearable pressure that so many women feel to “have it all� and introduces a heroine whose sharp edges and cutthroat ambition have been protecting a scandalous truth, and a heart that's bigger than it first appears.

The question remains: will breaking her silence destroy all that she has worked for—or, will it at long last, set Ani free?]]> 338 Jessica Knoll 1476789630 Ed 3 3.50 2015 Luckiest Girl Alive
author: Jessica Knoll
name: Ed
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2022/12/06
date added: 2022/12/06
shelves:
review:
This is a little tricky because this wasn’t what I was expecting but I may have been deeply misinformed. This has been sitting blind bought on my phone from the old Book Bub days and I thought it was a thriller. It barely is and through that lens, it’s frustrating. As a look at a damaged person, it fares way better while still being too long for its own good. A few super heavy tropes are mostly dealt with pretty well and I rooted for Ani in the end. So, I guess this is a good one NOT to go into blind.
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