en-US Sat, 28 Sep 2024 20:39:02 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 61964555 207 Jenifer Lewis 0063079682 Kevin 5
One chapter movingly pays tribute to growing up with her favorite cousin Ronnie (“part cousin, part sibling, part soulmate,� she clarifies). “Ronnie [who was gay] was the beginning, and since then it has been me and a hundred million gay boys running around any town I set foot in,� she writes. After Ronnie’s death in the 1990s, Lewis’s grief almost swallowed her, she writes, until she came to realize that “my pain was merely the receipt, the proof that I had loved.� A decade later, Lewis met a young, eager fan named DJ, to whom she felt an instant connection. (“He had been sent to me. Maybe by Ronnie,� she writes.�) DJ would fast become Lewis’s assistant and move into her basement (and, soon after, win a spot on RuPaul’s Drag Race, competing as his drag persona, Shangela).

Lewis’s WALKING IN MY JOY is also forthright about her activism (climate change, pro-LGBTQ+ and Black Lives Matter, anti-Trump), written with conviction and power. Lewis’s tales are heartfelt, impassioned, and uplifting, but with a pleasing undercurrent of irreverence.

The latest memoir by fierce and fabulous Lewis easily switches between moving confessionals and fiery calls to eradicate oppression.]]> 4.33 2022
author: Jenifer Lewis
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/07/24
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves:
review:
Lewis, the outspoken, hilariously profane, and wildly entertaining actress and activist, follows up her no-holds-barred memoir MOTHER OF BLACK HOLLYWOOD with a new and equally entertaining collection of autobiographical essays, WALKING IN MY JOY.

One chapter movingly pays tribute to growing up with her favorite cousin Ronnie (“part cousin, part sibling, part soulmate,� she clarifies). “Ronnie [who was gay] was the beginning, and since then it has been me and a hundred million gay boys running around any town I set foot in,� she writes. After Ronnie’s death in the 1990s, Lewis’s grief almost swallowed her, she writes, until she came to realize that “my pain was merely the receipt, the proof that I had loved.� A decade later, Lewis met a young, eager fan named DJ, to whom she felt an instant connection. (“He had been sent to me. Maybe by Ronnie,� she writes.�) DJ would fast become Lewis’s assistant and move into her basement (and, soon after, win a spot on RuPaul’s Drag Race, competing as his drag persona, Shangela).

Lewis’s WALKING IN MY JOY is also forthright about her activism (climate change, pro-LGBTQ+ and Black Lives Matter, anti-Trump), written with conviction and power. Lewis’s tales are heartfelt, impassioned, and uplifting, but with a pleasing undercurrent of irreverence.

The latest memoir by fierce and fabulous Lewis easily switches between moving confessionals and fiery calls to eradicate oppression.
]]> 63546964 A New Yorker writer's illuminating and deeply personal collection of interviews with the late Stephen Sondheim, conducted in the last years of the artist's life--conversations that reveal the legendary composer-lyricist as he was rarely seen in public.

In February 2022, The New Yorker published an exclusive online issue which featured excerpts from interviews longtime staff writer D. T. Max conducted with Stephen Sondheim over the last years of his life. Max was working on a major New Yorker profile timed to the eventual premiere of the new musical Sondheim was writing. The article generated an astonishing response from readers who praised it as one of--if not the best--interviews with Sondheim ever produced; that Max had elicited a candor and vulnerability in the celebrated artist little shown before.

Now, Max brings together those unedited conversations in this commemorative collection. This book reveals this cultural icon--a star who shunned the spotlight--at his most relaxed, thoughtful, sardonic, and engaging, as he talks about his work, music, movies, family, New York City, aging, the creative process, and much more. Throughout, Max sets the scenes of the interviews, shares his impressions of Sondheim during each session, and explains how their unusual relationship evolved over the course of their "pas de deux."

This is a beautiful, surprising, and indelible portrait of an artist in his twilight, offering remarkable insight into the mind and heart of a genius whose work has defined and indelibly influenced modern American musical theater and popular culture.]]> 234 D.T. Max 0063279835 Kevin 4
Besides the sharp interviews, Max demonstrates the finesse used in wooing a reticent interview subject, writing, "I had never tried to be his friend, but I had tried to be his ideal conversational partner." He describes the friendly but prickly Sondheim as "humorous, sardonic, and appealing, beloved but not lovable, in the Shavian way." A large portion of these interviews mines Sondheim's creative process and how he worked with collaborators. But Max also coaxed some childhood tales out of Sondheim, with a few caustic remarks about his mother, who sent him to boarding school: "She didn't want me in the first place, so it was to her taste to get rid of me--and to my taste to get rid of her."

There are some fun random opinions, such as that he enjoyed the Beatles and Radiohead but wasn't a fan of jazz music or social media. "At my age, what I don't want to do is meet anybody else," he told Max. As Sondheim neared 90 and his pace slowed, he also reflected on his mortality: "I don't mind dying. I just hate--I just don't want it to be uncomfortable. And I don't want it to be prolonged."

These tantalizing interviews should delight theater fans.]]> 3.73 2022
author: D.T. Max
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/27
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves:
review:
FINALE is an entertaining expansion on the four interviews New Yorker writer D.T. Max (Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace) conducted between 2016 and 2019 with Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021). At the time, the composer was working on a musical based on two Luis Buñuel movies, a project that was never completed.

Besides the sharp interviews, Max demonstrates the finesse used in wooing a reticent interview subject, writing, "I had never tried to be his friend, but I had tried to be his ideal conversational partner." He describes the friendly but prickly Sondheim as "humorous, sardonic, and appealing, beloved but not lovable, in the Shavian way." A large portion of these interviews mines Sondheim's creative process and how he worked with collaborators. But Max also coaxed some childhood tales out of Sondheim, with a few caustic remarks about his mother, who sent him to boarding school: "She didn't want me in the first place, so it was to her taste to get rid of me--and to my taste to get rid of her."

There are some fun random opinions, such as that he enjoyed the Beatles and Radiohead but wasn't a fan of jazz music or social media. "At my age, what I don't want to do is meet anybody else," he told Max. As Sondheim neared 90 and his pace slowed, he also reflected on his mortality: "I don't mind dying. I just hate--I just don't want it to be uncomfortable. And I don't want it to be prolonged."

These tantalizing interviews should delight theater fans.
]]> 54109166 208 Boze Hayleigh 1626015473 Kevin 5
This is the kind of book you'll read in one or two sittings because it's nothing but quotes (artfully arranged so that in most cases, you can see a clear line from one quotation to the next). I had a great time reading it and even learned new things (how is this the first time I've ever read that Mike Nichols was gay?).

But, of course, just because someone alleged something doesn't always mean it was true...even if that someone is Yvonne DeCarlo saying that Rock Hudson's lesbian wife backmailed him after their divorce. There's also a music legal executive at Paramount Pictures who says that not only did Jodie Fister and Kelly McGillis have an affair during the making of THE ACCUSED, but that McGillis was also having an affair with Whitney Houston at the same time. And Jodie punched Kelly in the jaw when she found out. TV director Jeffrey Hayden is just one of the many people outing Cary Grant. But, his assertion has a little more weight because Hayden is married to Grant's NORTH BY NORTHWEST co-star Eva Marie Saint. (Even George Burns has a quote about Grant being gay.) Arthur Laurents outs Paul Reubens; THE FRONT RUNNER author Patricia Nell Warren outs Paul Newman.

Dick Sargent (BEWITCHED's second Darren) remembers filming OPERATION PETTICOAT: "Whereas Cary Grant flirted with me, its director Blake Edwards, actually came on to me."

Judy Carne, of LAUGH-IN fame and first wife of Burt Reynolds: "You can't print tuis, but I think his battering me was frustration over his being say, AC/DC. Burt was definately drawn to men."

Oscar winner Claire Trevor says, "It's been revealed that Cary Grant beat his first wife, an actress who worked with Charlie Chaplin but gave up acting after marriage. Grant was very angry at having to marry, he was very involved with Randolph Scott, the real love of his life before, during and some say after all the wives."

Jack Larson (SUPERMAN's Jimmy Olson and longtime partner of director James Bridges): "And then there's the opposite of outing: inning. Like Robert Wagner alleging that he had an affair with older-woman costar Barbara Stanwyck in TITANIC."

I also liked...

Boy George's line "Stop asking permission from the straight world to be who we are. It has nothing to do with them."

Tallulah Bankhead's "Daddy warned me about men and alcohol. But he never said a thing about women and cocaine."

George Michael: "Tabloids on both sides of the Atlantic are ignorant and arch-conservative, which is redundant."

Stephen Fry: "The heterosexual majority has always demanded a 100-percent monopoly. Historically, our three Western religions have practiced the opposite of live and let live."

Groucho Marx: "Ever since they found out that Lassie was a boy, the public has believed the worst about Hollywood."

INSIDE THE HOLLYWOOD CLOSET is irresistible fun. You may have to take a few quotes with a grain of salt, but they sure are delectible!



Merged review:

I absolutely loved Hadleigh's HOLLYWOOD GAYS and HOLLYWOOD LESBIANS books that collected assorted interviews had conducted with a number of stars and often promised that the interviews wouldn't see print until after their deaths. They're dishy, highly quotable and compulsively readable. A few years ago, he collected a book full of quotes concerning gays in Hollywood. It was called HOLLYWOOD BABBLE ON. He's now updated, expanded (and deleted a few) this book and now we have INSIDE THE HOLLYWOOD CLOSET.

This is the kind of book you'll read in one or two sittings because it's nothing but quotes (artfully arranged so that in most cases, you can see a clear line from one quotation to the next). I had a great time reading it and even learned new things (how is this the first time I've ever read that Mike Nichols was gay?).

But, of course, just because someone alleged something doesn't always mean it was true...even if that someone is Yvonne DeCarlo saying that Rock Hudson's lesbian wife backmailed him after their divorce. There's also a music legal executive at Paramount Pictures who says that not only did Jodie Fister and Kelly McGillis have an affair during the making of THE ACCUSED, but that McGillis was also having an affair with Whitney Houston at the same time. And Jodie punched Kelly in the jaw when she found out. TV director Jeffrey Hayden is just one of the many people outing Cary Grant. But, his assertion has a little more weight because Hayden is married to Grant's NORTH BY NORTHWEST co-star Eva Marie Saint. (Even George Burns has a quote about Grant being gay.) Arthur Laurents outs Paul Reubens; THE FRONT RUNNER author Patricia Nell Warren outs Paul Newman.

Dick Sargent (BEWITCHED's second Darren) remembers filming OPERATION PETTICOAT: "Whereas Cary Grant flirted with me, its director Blake Edwards, actually came on to me."

Judy Carne, of LAUGH-IN fame and first wife of Burt Reynolds: "You can't print tuis, but I think his battering me was frustration over his being say, AC/DC. Burt was definately drawn to men."

Oscar winner Claire Trevor says, "It's been revealed that Cary Grant beat his first wife, an actress who worked with Charlie Chaplin but gave up acting after marriage. Grant was very angry at having to marry, he was very involved with Randolph Scott, the real love of his life before, during and some say after all the wives."

Jack Larson (SUPERMAN's Jimmy Olson and longtime partner of director James Bridges): "And then there's the opposite of outing: inning. Like Robert Wagner alleging that he had an affair with older-woman costar Barbara Stanwyck in TITANIC."

I also liked...

Boy George's line "Stop asking permission from the straight world to be who we are. It has nothing to do with them."

Tallulah Bankhead's "Daddy warned me about men and alcohol. But he never said a thing about women and cocaine."

George Michael: "Tabloids on both sides of the Atlantic are ignorant and arch-conservative, which is redundant."

Stephen Fry: "The heterosexual majority has always demanded a 100-percent monopoly. Historically, our three Western religions have practiced the opposite of live and let live."

Groucho Marx: "Ever since they found out that Lassie was a boy, the public has believed the worst about Hollywood."

INSIDE THE HOLLYWOOD CLOSET is irresistible fun. You may have to take a few quotes with a grain of salt, but they sure are delectible!]]> 4.38
author: Boze Hayleigh
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.38
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves:
review:
I absolutely loved Hadleigh's HOLLYWOOD GAYS and HOLLYWOOD LESBIANS books that collected assorted interviews had conducted with a number of stars and often promised that the interviews wouldn't see print until after their deaths. They're dishy, highly quotable and compulsively readable. A few years ago, he collected a book full of quotes concerning gays in Hollywood. It was called HOLLYWOOD BABBLE ON. He's now updated, expanded (and deleted a few) this book and now we have INSIDE THE HOLLYWOOD CLOSET.

This is the kind of book you'll read in one or two sittings because it's nothing but quotes (artfully arranged so that in most cases, you can see a clear line from one quotation to the next). I had a great time reading it and even learned new things (how is this the first time I've ever read that Mike Nichols was gay?).

But, of course, just because someone alleged something doesn't always mean it was true...even if that someone is Yvonne DeCarlo saying that Rock Hudson's lesbian wife backmailed him after their divorce. There's also a music legal executive at Paramount Pictures who says that not only did Jodie Fister and Kelly McGillis have an affair during the making of THE ACCUSED, but that McGillis was also having an affair with Whitney Houston at the same time. And Jodie punched Kelly in the jaw when she found out. TV director Jeffrey Hayden is just one of the many people outing Cary Grant. But, his assertion has a little more weight because Hayden is married to Grant's NORTH BY NORTHWEST co-star Eva Marie Saint. (Even George Burns has a quote about Grant being gay.) Arthur Laurents outs Paul Reubens; THE FRONT RUNNER author Patricia Nell Warren outs Paul Newman.

Dick Sargent (BEWITCHED's second Darren) remembers filming OPERATION PETTICOAT: "Whereas Cary Grant flirted with me, its director Blake Edwards, actually came on to me."

Judy Carne, of LAUGH-IN fame and first wife of Burt Reynolds: "You can't print tuis, but I think his battering me was frustration over his being say, AC/DC. Burt was definately drawn to men."

Oscar winner Claire Trevor says, "It's been revealed that Cary Grant beat his first wife, an actress who worked with Charlie Chaplin but gave up acting after marriage. Grant was very angry at having to marry, he was very involved with Randolph Scott, the real love of his life before, during and some say after all the wives."

Jack Larson (SUPERMAN's Jimmy Olson and longtime partner of director James Bridges): "And then there's the opposite of outing: inning. Like Robert Wagner alleging that he had an affair with older-woman costar Barbara Stanwyck in TITANIC."

I also liked...

Boy George's line "Stop asking permission from the straight world to be who we are. It has nothing to do with them."

Tallulah Bankhead's "Daddy warned me about men and alcohol. But he never said a thing about women and cocaine."

George Michael: "Tabloids on both sides of the Atlantic are ignorant and arch-conservative, which is redundant."

Stephen Fry: "The heterosexual majority has always demanded a 100-percent monopoly. Historically, our three Western religions have practiced the opposite of live and let live."

Groucho Marx: "Ever since they found out that Lassie was a boy, the public has believed the worst about Hollywood."

INSIDE THE HOLLYWOOD CLOSET is irresistible fun. You may have to take a few quotes with a grain of salt, but they sure are delectible!



Merged review:

I absolutely loved Hadleigh's HOLLYWOOD GAYS and HOLLYWOOD LESBIANS books that collected assorted interviews had conducted with a number of stars and often promised that the interviews wouldn't see print until after their deaths. They're dishy, highly quotable and compulsively readable. A few years ago, he collected a book full of quotes concerning gays in Hollywood. It was called HOLLYWOOD BABBLE ON. He's now updated, expanded (and deleted a few) this book and now we have INSIDE THE HOLLYWOOD CLOSET.

This is the kind of book you'll read in one or two sittings because it's nothing but quotes (artfully arranged so that in most cases, you can see a clear line from one quotation to the next). I had a great time reading it and even learned new things (how is this the first time I've ever read that Mike Nichols was gay?).

But, of course, just because someone alleged something doesn't always mean it was true...even if that someone is Yvonne DeCarlo saying that Rock Hudson's lesbian wife backmailed him after their divorce. There's also a music legal executive at Paramount Pictures who says that not only did Jodie Fister and Kelly McGillis have an affair during the making of THE ACCUSED, but that McGillis was also having an affair with Whitney Houston at the same time. And Jodie punched Kelly in the jaw when she found out. TV director Jeffrey Hayden is just one of the many people outing Cary Grant. But, his assertion has a little more weight because Hayden is married to Grant's NORTH BY NORTHWEST co-star Eva Marie Saint. (Even George Burns has a quote about Grant being gay.) Arthur Laurents outs Paul Reubens; THE FRONT RUNNER author Patricia Nell Warren outs Paul Newman.

Dick Sargent (BEWITCHED's second Darren) remembers filming OPERATION PETTICOAT: "Whereas Cary Grant flirted with me, its director Blake Edwards, actually came on to me."

Judy Carne, of LAUGH-IN fame and first wife of Burt Reynolds: "You can't print tuis, but I think his battering me was frustration over his being say, AC/DC. Burt was definately drawn to men."

Oscar winner Claire Trevor says, "It's been revealed that Cary Grant beat his first wife, an actress who worked with Charlie Chaplin but gave up acting after marriage. Grant was very angry at having to marry, he was very involved with Randolph Scott, the real love of his life before, during and some say after all the wives."

Jack Larson (SUPERMAN's Jimmy Olson and longtime partner of director James Bridges): "And then there's the opposite of outing: inning. Like Robert Wagner alleging that he had an affair with older-woman costar Barbara Stanwyck in TITANIC."

I also liked...

Boy George's line "Stop asking permission from the straight world to be who we are. It has nothing to do with them."

Tallulah Bankhead's "Daddy warned me about men and alcohol. But he never said a thing about women and cocaine."

George Michael: "Tabloids on both sides of the Atlantic are ignorant and arch-conservative, which is redundant."

Stephen Fry: "The heterosexual majority has always demanded a 100-percent monopoly. Historically, our three Western religions have practiced the opposite of live and let live."

Groucho Marx: "Ever since they found out that Lassie was a boy, the public has believed the worst about Hollywood."

INSIDE THE HOLLYWOOD CLOSET is irresistible fun. You may have to take a few quotes with a grain of salt, but they sure are delectible!
]]> 29607641 The first fully annotated edition of Raymond Chandler's 1939 classic The Big Sleep, with an introduction by Jonathan Lethem and hundreds of illuminating notes and photographs alongside the full text, is an essential addition to any crime fiction fan's library.
A masterpiece of noir, Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep helped to define a genre and remains one of the most celebrated and stylish novels of the twentieth century. Now, this comprehensive annotated edition offers a fascinating look behind the scenes of the novel, bringing the gritty and seductive world of Chandler's iconic private eye Philip Marlowe into full color. Notes on the historical context of Chandler's Los Angeles; excerpts from the author's personal letters and source texts; explorations of the issues of gender, sexuality, and race that permeate the story; and important interpretations and clarifications enrich the reader's understanding and situate the novel within the tradition of crime fiction that Chandler both built upon and made new.]]> 508 Raymond Chandler 080416889X Kevin 0 to-read 4.20 1939
author: Raymond Chandler
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1939
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 176442577 The McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts - a luxurious, clandestine college dedicated to the fine art of murder where earnest students study how best to "delete" their most deserving victim.


Who hasn’t wondered for a split second what the world would be like if a person who is the object of your affliction ceased to exist? But then you’ve probably never heard of The McMasters Conservatory, dedicated to the consummate execution of the homicidal arts. To gain admission, a student must have an ethical reason for erasing someone who deeply deserves a fate no worse (nor better) than death. The campus of this “Poison Ivy League� college—its location unknown to even those who study there—is where you might find yourself the practice target of a classmate…and where one’s mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world a much better place to live.

Prepare for an education you’ll never forget. A “fiendishly funny� (Booklist) mix of witty wordplay, breathtaking twists and genuine intrigue, Murder Your Employer will gain you admission into a wholly original world, cocooned within the most entertaining book about well-intentioned would-be murderers you’ll ever read.]]> 395 Rupert Holmes 1451648227 Kevin 0 to-read 3.86 2023
author: Rupert Holmes
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 205843762 “What if Carol Burnett had starred in Murder, She Wrote? Jordan answers that question with a wink and a giggle in his debut mystery starring Polly Pepper. The dish on real-life Hollywood, past and present, enlivens the start of a promising series.� –PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Hollywood icon Polly Pepper receives the ultimate tribute when she inherits a rundown English castle from a devoted fan. But owning a castle is no fairy tale, especially when it comes with a resident ghost and a murder investigation. Polly’s dream of turning the castle into a lucrative tourist destination and up-scale wedding venue hits a snag when the loathsome housekeeper, Gwellyn Clogg, is found dead in the larder. The police write it off as a heart attack, but Polly’s convinced there’s something more sinister at play. With the help of her sassy maid Tiara, her adult but still-living-at-home son Tim, an arrogant cat named Mr. Boots, and a cast of curious characters from the village, Polly sets out on a heart-pounding and hilarious quest to uncover the truth and catch the killer � before she becomes the next victim.]]> 294 Richard Tyler Jordan Kevin 5
Polly, a raunchier Jessica Fletcher mixed with a more tart-tongued Carol Burnett and boozy Edina Monsoon, won awards decades ago for her variety TV series. But now the TV star (who cautiously admits to being “sixtysomething�) spends most of her time sipping champagne with her domestic companion Tiara and doting on her gay son Tim.

This new outing finds Polly inheriting a castle in Abbots Clover, England. With dreams of turning it into a lucrative tourist trap, Polly, Tim, and Tiara travel abroad to inspect the place. When the castle’s disagreeable housekeeper is discovered dead in the kitchen’s larder, Polly is certain she’s been murdered and begins investigating the village’s inhabitants for the culprit.

Suspects include the castle’s hunky gardener, a gossip-loving vicar, and a local author whose PEYTON PLACE–like novel is a bit too closely based on local residents. The castle has hidden passageways to be navigated, stolen jewelry to be recovered, and even a nosy ghost.

Filled with bright and sarcastic dialogue and smart plotting, this clever cozy is an excellent reintroduction to Polly Pepper.]]> 4.26
author: Richard Tyler Jordan
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.26
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/05/01
shelves: cozy, cozy-mystery, murder-she-wrote
review:
After over a decade, Jordan (Set Sail for Murder) has resurrected his delightfully comedic amateur sleuth Polly Pepper for her fifth cozy mystery.

Polly, a raunchier Jessica Fletcher mixed with a more tart-tongued Carol Burnett and boozy Edina Monsoon, won awards decades ago for her variety TV series. But now the TV star (who cautiously admits to being “sixtysomething�) spends most of her time sipping champagne with her domestic companion Tiara and doting on her gay son Tim.

This new outing finds Polly inheriting a castle in Abbots Clover, England. With dreams of turning it into a lucrative tourist trap, Polly, Tim, and Tiara travel abroad to inspect the place. When the castle’s disagreeable housekeeper is discovered dead in the kitchen’s larder, Polly is certain she’s been murdered and begins investigating the village’s inhabitants for the culprit.

Suspects include the castle’s hunky gardener, a gossip-loving vicar, and a local author whose PEYTON PLACE–like novel is a bit too closely based on local residents. The castle has hidden passageways to be navigated, stolen jewelry to be recovered, and even a nosy ghost.

Filled with bright and sarcastic dialogue and smart plotting, this clever cozy is an excellent reintroduction to Polly Pepper.
]]> 181109983
A profound introspection of his life, relationships, and identity,Ěý The House of Hidden Meanings Ěýis a self-portrait of the legendary icon on the road to global fame and changing the way the world thinks about drag. Central to RuPaul’s success has been his chameleonic adaptability. From drag icon to powerhouse producer of one of the world’s largest television franchises, RuPaul’s ever-shifting nature has always been part of his brand as both supermodel and supermogul.

Yet that adaptability has made him enigmatic to the public. In this memoir, his most intimate and detailed book yet, RuPaul makes himself truly known. Stripping away all artifice, RuPaul recounts the story of his life with breathtaking clarity and tenderness, bringing his signature wisdom and wit to his own biography. From his early years growing up as a queer Black kid in San Diego navigating complex relationships with his absent father and temperamental mother, to forging an identity in the punk and drag scenes of Atlanta and New York, to finding enduring love with his husband Georges LeBar and self-acceptance in sobriety, RuPaul excavates his own biography, uncovering new truths and insights in his personal history.

Here in RuPaul’s singular and extraordinary story is a manual for living—a personal philosophy that testifies to the value of chosen family, the importance of harnessing what makes you different, and the transformational power of facing yourself fearlessly. If we’re all born naked and the rest is drag, then this is RuPaul totally out of drag. This is RuPaul stripped bare.Ěý]]> 256 RuPaul 0063263904 Kevin 0 currently-reading 3.79 2024
author: RuPaul
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/12
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 55178018 Journey into the universe through the most spectacular sights in astronomy in stereoscopic 3D

Welcome to the Universe in 3D takes you on a grand tour of the observable universe, guiding you through the most spectacular sights in the cosmos―in breathtaking 3D. Presenting a rich array of stereoscopic color images, which can be viewed in 3D using a special stereo viewer that folds easily out of the cover of the book, this book reveals your cosmic environment as you have never seen it before.

Astronomy is the story of how humankind's perception of the two-dimensional dome of the sky evolved into a far deeper comprehension of an expanding three-dimensional cosmos. This book invites you to take part in this story by exploring the universe in depth, as revealed by cutting-edge astronomical research and observations. You will journey from the Moon through the solar system, out to exoplanets, distant nebulas, and galaxy clusters, until you finally reach the cosmic microwave background radiation (or CMB), the most distant light we can observe. The distances to these celestial wonders range from 1.3 light-seconds to 13.8 billion light-years. Along the way, the authors explain the fascinating features of what you are seeing, including how the 3D images were made using the same technique that early astronomers devised to measure distances to objects in space.

The dramatic 3D images in this one-of-a-kind book will astonish you, extending your vision out to the farthest reaches of the universe. You will never look up into the night sky the same way again.]]> 208 Neil deGrasse Tyson 0691194076 Kevin 3
Neil deGrasse Tyson (Astrophysics for People in a Hurry; StarTalk) and three other astrophysicists--J. Richard Gott, Michael A. Strauss and Robert J. Vanderbei--succinctly explain each dazzling image, which include Earth's neighboring planets, a black hole, the Coma cluster of galaxies and a quasar two billion light years away.

A helpful glossary explains such concepts as the Big Bang, exploding supernovas and white dwarfs. Cheaper than a telescope, this is a marvelous introduction to astronomy.]]> 4.40 2016
author: Neil deGrasse Tyson
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/27
date added: 2023/10/03
shelves:
review:
"Welcome to the Universe in 3D", the ideal gift for star gazers of all ages, brings readers a built-in stereo viewer--a portable Hubble Space Telescope of sorts, built into a fold-out section of the book--that enables a 3D tour of the universe. Armchair astronomers can peer through the stereo viewer, page through nearly 60 double images of the solar system and take in three-dimensional images from as far away as 13.8 billion light years.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (Astrophysics for People in a Hurry; StarTalk) and three other astrophysicists--J. Richard Gott, Michael A. Strauss and Robert J. Vanderbei--succinctly explain each dazzling image, which include Earth's neighboring planets, a black hole, the Coma cluster of galaxies and a quasar two billion light years away.

A helpful glossary explains such concepts as the Big Bang, exploding supernovas and white dwarfs. Cheaper than a telescope, this is a marvelous introduction to astronomy.
]]> 102188677 Ěý
Holly Sherwin has been a struggling playwright for years, but now, after receiving a grant to develop her play, The Witch of Edmonton, she may finally be close to her big break. All she needs is time and space to bring her vision to life. When she stumbles across Hill House on aĚýweekend getaway upstate, she is immediately taken in by the ornate, if crumbling, gothic mansion, nearly hidden outside a remote village. It’s enormous, old, and ever-so eerie—the perfect place to develop and rehearse her play.
Ěý
Despite her own hesitations, Holly’s girlfriend, Nisa, agrees to join Holly in renting the house out for a month, and soon a troupe of actors, each with ghosts of their own, arrive. Yet as they settle in, the house’s peculiarities are made known: strange creatures stalk the grounds, Ěýdisturbing sounds echo throughout the halls, andĚýtime itself seems to shift. ĚýAll too soon, Holly and her friends find themselves at odds not just with one another, butĚýwith the house itself. It seems something has been waiting in Hill House all these years, and itĚýno longer intendsĚýtoĚýwalk alone . . .Ěý
Ěý]]> 326 Elizabeth Hand 0316527327 Kevin 0 to-read 3.27 2023
author: Elizabeth Hand
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 65214661
All Hallows� Eve. Samhain. Dia De Los Muertos. Fiesta de Los Aguizotes. No matter its name or occasion, Halloween is more than a Hallmark holiday, it’s a symbol of transformation. NIGHT OF THE LIVING QUEERS is a YA horror anthology that explores how Halloween can be more than just candies and frights, but a night where anything is possible. Each short story will be told through the lens of a different BIPOC teen and the Halloween night that changes their lives forever. Creative, creepy, and queer, this collection will bring fresh terror, heart, and humor to young adult literature.

Contributors include editors Alex Brown and Shelly Page, Kalynn Bayron, Ryan Douglass, Sara Farizan, Maya Gittelman, Kosoko Jackson, Em Liu, Vanessa Montalban, Ayida Shonibar, Tara Sim, Trang Thanh Tran, and Rebecca Kim Wells.]]> 304 Shelly Page 1250892988 Kevin 0 to-read 3.77 2023
author: Shelly Page
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 123027172
Now, I’m gonna be honest: Some of the details might be vague because a b*tch is fifty-five and she’s smoked a ton of weed. But while bits might be a touch hazy, I can promise you the underlying truth is REAL. Whether I’m talking about my childhood growing up in the South, my early stand-up days driving from gig to gig through the darkest parts of our country and praying I wouldn’t get murdered, what Chris Rock told Lorne Michaels, that time I wanted to shoot Whoopi Goldberg on SNL, and yeah, I’ll tell you all about Ghostbusters and the nudes and Supermarket Sweep and The Daily Show . . . I’m sharing it all in these pages. It’s not easy being a woman in comedy, especially when you’re a tall-*ss Black woman with a trumpet voice. I have to fight so that no one takes me for granted, and no one takes advantage. These are the stories that explain why. (Cue the Law & Order theme.)]]> 288 Leslie Jones 1538706490 Kevin 0 to-read 4.09 2023
author: Leslie Jones
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62066190 From three-time Shirley Jackson, World Fantasy, and Nebula Award-winning author Elizabeth Hand comes the first-ever authorized novel set in the world of Shirley Jackson'sĚýThe Haunting of Hill House.
Ěý
Holly Sherwin has been a struggling playwright for years, but now, after receiving a grant to develop her play Witching Night, she may finally be close to her big break. All she needs is time and space to bring her vision to life. When she stumbles across Hill House on a weekend getaway upstate, she is immediately taken in by the mansion, which is nearly hidden outside a remote village. It’s enormous, old, and ever-so eerie—the perfect place to develop and rehearse her play.

Despite her own hesitations, Holly’s girlfriend, Nisa, agrees to join her in renting the house for a month, and soon a troupe of actors, each with ghosts of their own, arrive. Yet as they settle in, the house’s peculiarities are made known: strange creatures stalk the grounds, disturbing sounds echo throughout the halls, and time itself seems to shift. All too soon Holly and her friends are at odds not just with one another but with the house itself. It seems something has been waiting in Hill House all these years, and it no longer intends to walk alone.]]> 336 Elizabeth Hand 1408729571 Kevin 0 to-read 3.40 2023
author: Elizabeth Hand
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62673108 From the Academy Award-winning actor and best-selling author: a novel about the making of a star-studded, multimillion-dollar superhero action film . . . and the humble comic books that inspired it. Funny, touching, and wonderfully thought-provoking, while also capturing the changes in America and American culture since World War II.

Part One of this story takes place in 1947. A troubled soldier, returning from the war, meets his talented five-year-old nephew, leaves an indelible impression, and then disappears for twenty-three years.

Cut to 1970: The nephew, now drawing underground comic books in Oakland, California, reconnects with his uncle and, remembering the comic book he saw when he was five, draws a new version with his uncle as a World War II fighting hero.

Cut to the present day: A commercially successful director discovers the 1970 comic book and decides to turn it into a contemporary superhero movie.

Cue the cast: We meet the film's extremely difficult male star, his wonderful leading lady, the eccentric writer/director, the producer, the gofer production assistant, and everyone else on both sides of the camera.

Bonus material: Interspersed throughout are three comic books that are featured in the story--all created by Tom Hanks himself--including the comic book that becomes the official tie-in to this novel's major motion picture masterpiece.]]> 448 Tom Hanks 052565559X Kevin 3
Ostensibly a Hollywood novel about the daunting process of developing, casting, and shooting a major motion picture (under COVID-precautionary guidelines), the book and its characters are bathed in so much backstory and idiosyncratic detail that Hanks often adds footnotes at the bottom of the page to squeeze in even more minutia.

Sprawling across seven decades, the novel opens in 1947 with World War II veteran Bob Falls visiting his artistic nephew Robby Anderson, encouraging his drawing talents, and then abruptly abandoning him. When Falls resurfaces in the 1970s, Robby (now drawing under the pseudonym TREV-VORR) creates an underground comic book based on his uncle, who used a flamethrower during the war. Decades later, Robby’s comic is turned into a big-budget, high-profile superhero movie.

Hanks’s attention to detail and quirky, full-blooded characters make this novel an ideal choice for fans of both James A. Michener and John Irving. It’s an old-fashioned “big� novel that book clubs will love getting lost inside.]]> 3.64 2023
author: Tom Hanks
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/31
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves:
review:
Actor Hanks’s sprawling and engaging debut novel (following his 2017 short story collection "Uncommon Type") takes fictional worldbuilding to a new level.

Ostensibly a Hollywood novel about the daunting process of developing, casting, and shooting a major motion picture (under COVID-precautionary guidelines), the book and its characters are bathed in so much backstory and idiosyncratic detail that Hanks often adds footnotes at the bottom of the page to squeeze in even more minutia.

Sprawling across seven decades, the novel opens in 1947 with World War II veteran Bob Falls visiting his artistic nephew Robby Anderson, encouraging his drawing talents, and then abruptly abandoning him. When Falls resurfaces in the 1970s, Robby (now drawing under the pseudonym TREV-VORR) creates an underground comic book based on his uncle, who used a flamethrower during the war. Decades later, Robby’s comic is turned into a big-budget, high-profile superhero movie.

Hanks’s attention to detail and quirky, full-blooded characters make this novel an ideal choice for fans of both James A. Michener and John Irving. It’s an old-fashioned “big� novel that book clubs will love getting lost inside.
]]> 61419643 656 William J. Mann 0063026392 Kevin 5
By stripping away the barnacles of fake Bogart lore that vintage publicity agents created to carefully manufacture a he-man image, Mann (“Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn� and “How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood�) unveils a fresh, complex, and empathetic portrait. Readers learn about Bogart’s affluent but rocky childhood, raised by a drug-addicted physician father and an affection-withholding mother.

Mann also sorts through decades of erroneous mythmaking that cast Bogart’s first three wives as villains and alcoholics to better serve the propaganda of his loving but idealized fourth marriage to Bacall, who was 25 years his junior.

Mann treats Bogart’s high-functioning alcohol addiction with sympathy and nuance but illustrates how it controlled his life.

This sweeping biography tilts its focus a little more toward Bogart (1899�1957), but Bacall (1924�2014) is an integral half of this dual biography, including her affair with Frank Sinatra and her second marriage to Jason Robards.

This magnificent biography is splendidly written, reads fast, and is impossible to put down.
]]> 3.67
author: William J. Mann
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.67
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/31
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves:
review:
This revelatory dual chronicle of the lives of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall is the definitive biography fans have been waiting for and deserve.

By stripping away the barnacles of fake Bogart lore that vintage publicity agents created to carefully manufacture a he-man image, Mann (“Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn� and “How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood�) unveils a fresh, complex, and empathetic portrait. Readers learn about Bogart’s affluent but rocky childhood, raised by a drug-addicted physician father and an affection-withholding mother.

Mann also sorts through decades of erroneous mythmaking that cast Bogart’s first three wives as villains and alcoholics to better serve the propaganda of his loving but idealized fourth marriage to Bacall, who was 25 years his junior.

Mann treats Bogart’s high-functioning alcohol addiction with sympathy and nuance but illustrates how it controlled his life.

This sweeping biography tilts its focus a little more toward Bogart (1899�1957), but Bacall (1924�2014) is an integral half of this dual biography, including her affair with Frank Sinatra and her second marriage to Jason Robards.

This magnificent biography is splendidly written, reads fast, and is impossible to put down.

]]> 74886003 A definitive history and celebration of the groundbreaking show RuPaul's Drag Race in its first decade, from a Burbank basement set all the way to the Emmy's, and every weave in-between, as told by its stars, producers and fans.

Told over the first ten years of a television mainstay, And Don't F&%k It Up tells a cultural history through the stories of the people who lived the creators of the RuPaul's Drag Race, the contestants, the crew, the judges, and even some key (famous) fans. It begins with RuPaul's decades-long friendship and business relationship with World of Wonder Productions, the entertainment company that helped launch him into superstardom, and later talked him into giving a drag reality show a chance. From there, it follows the growth and evolution of the show—and its queens—through a decade of gag-worthy seasons, serving up all kinds of behind-the-scenes realness. With a history as shady and funny as it is dramatic and inspiring, And Don't F&%k It Up shows how RuPaul's Drag Race is a mirror reflecting the cultural and political mores of our time. Its meteoric rise to becoming a once-in-a-generation success story is explored here as never before, in intimate, exuberant, unfettered detail.
Ěý]]> 453 MarĂ­a Elena Fernández 1538717670 Kevin 5
This epic compilation offers first-hand observations from virtually all of the first 10 seasons� contestants as well as RuPaul, Michelle Visage, Carson Kressley, Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, Ronan Farrow, and others. Each season gets its own exhaustive chapter explaining the science of casting as well as eyewitness memories of meltdowns, catfights, conspiracy theories, and camaraderies.

As Bianca Del Rio notes, “It’s a pressure cooker of a show. It makes people crazy.� Discover the origin story of the phrase “She’d already done had herses�; Sasha Velour’s alternative plans for her iconic rose petal reveal; and the real story behind Willam being kicked off season four.

Loaded with heartbreaking and hilarious first-person confessions, this book’s a winner, baby! DRAG RACE fans and pop culture buffs will find this show bible irresistible.
]]> 4.10 2023
author: María Elena Fernández
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/31
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves:
review:
Fernandez’s oral history of the first 10 seasons of RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE is an immensely entertaining look at how a little TV show shot in a basement studio went from a cult favorite to a taste-making cultural juggernaut and global success.

This epic compilation offers first-hand observations from virtually all of the first 10 seasons� contestants as well as RuPaul, Michelle Visage, Carson Kressley, Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, Ronan Farrow, and others. Each season gets its own exhaustive chapter explaining the science of casting as well as eyewitness memories of meltdowns, catfights, conspiracy theories, and camaraderies.

As Bianca Del Rio notes, “It’s a pressure cooker of a show. It makes people crazy.� Discover the origin story of the phrase “She’d already done had herses�; Sasha Velour’s alternative plans for her iconic rose petal reveal; and the real story behind Willam being kicked off season four.

Loaded with heartbreaking and hilarious first-person confessions, this book’s a winner, baby! DRAG RACE fans and pop culture buffs will find this show bible irresistible.

]]> 125025424 Further to this, the two volumes of 1000 Vampires on Screen also features 30+ exclusive interviews with the writers, directors, and actors that have brought these undead creatures to life. Jim Wynorski, Henry Rollins, Robert Bierman, Debbie Rochon, Neil Jordan, Anna Silk, Doug Jones, Leonor Varella, Catherine Hardwicke, and James Woods amongst many others discuss what glamoured them about the vampire, how they became them on screen, and why, so many of them, returned to its embrace again and again. Many of them also share exclusive and personal onset photographs, design images, and publicity shots to give new perspectives on themselves and on the vampires they created.
All of this is supported by cross-reference notes on all the entries and extensive Film, and Actor and Director Indexes making 1000 Vampires on Screen not only an indispensable reference tool for professionals and enthusiasts alike, but one of the most inventive and important books on the vampire genre of 2023.

1000 Vampires offers a delectable buffet of screen vampires, full of prime cuts and rare meats. It ranges from Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein to Zoltan , Hound of Dracula, via vamps both famous and obscure and from the first flickers of celluloid to the latest undead streaming shows from around the world. Simon Bacon’s compendious knowledge and enthusiasm leaps off every page. A bloody valuable resource for every budding vampirologist .
-Professor Roger Luckhurst, editor of Oxford World’s Classics edition of Dracula and the Cambridge Companion to Dracula

This monstrous tome is the Ancestry.com of vampire chroniclings. Barnabas Collins, Eric Northman, Alexander Lucard, and hundreds more undead you probably haven’t heard of haunt the halls of Simon Bacon’s indispensable new reference work. Readers and fans of vampires will come to this reunion expecting to see old familiar faces, but they’ll leave for Dracula’s afterparty with a carload of new fanged friends they didn’t know they always wanted.
- John Edgar Browning, Ph.D., co-author of Dracula in Visual Media and co-editor of Dracula (Norton Critical Editions) (2nd ed.)]]> 338 Simon Bacon Kevin 4
This volume covers vampires from K to Z, specifically from "BloodRayne"’s Kagan, played by Ben Kingsley, to Zorina, queen of the vampires, played by Lorena Velázquez, in "Santo vs. the Vampire Women."

For readers who can’t remember Sharon Tate’s character’s name in "The Fearless Vampire Killers" (it’s Sarah Shagal) or the vampire who invades Stephen King’s "Salem’s Lot" (it’s Kurt Barlow), there are two exhaustive and extremely helpful indexes where readers can find their way via titles and by actors/directors.

Each entry lists the vampire character, gives their mini-biography, tells the actor or actress who portrayed them, the title and release year of the film or TV series they inhabit, and, most helpful, the names of other vampires they interact with.

As with the first volume, this one contains 20 Q&A interviews with actors, directors, and screenwriters, including Mitchell Lichtenstein, Michael Cerveris, Robert Bierman, James Woods, Henry Rollins, and scream queen Debbie Rochon. Horror fans will find this two-volume set irresistible.]]> 4.00
author: Simon Bacon
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/31
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves:
review:
The second part of Bacon’s impressive two-volume reference guide to vampire characters in movies, TV series, miniseries, and even failed TV pilots continues to list vampire characters alphabetically by their first names.

This volume covers vampires from K to Z, specifically from "BloodRayne"’s Kagan, played by Ben Kingsley, to Zorina, queen of the vampires, played by Lorena Velázquez, in "Santo vs. the Vampire Women."

For readers who can’t remember Sharon Tate’s character’s name in "The Fearless Vampire Killers" (it’s Sarah Shagal) or the vampire who invades Stephen King’s "Salem’s Lot" (it’s Kurt Barlow), there are two exhaustive and extremely helpful indexes where readers can find their way via titles and by actors/directors.

Each entry lists the vampire character, gives their mini-biography, tells the actor or actress who portrayed them, the title and release year of the film or TV series they inhabit, and, most helpful, the names of other vampires they interact with.

As with the first volume, this one contains 20 Q&A interviews with actors, directors, and screenwriters, including Mitchell Lichtenstein, Michael Cerveris, Robert Bierman, James Woods, Henry Rollins, and scream queen Debbie Rochon. Horror fans will find this two-volume set irresistible.
]]> 125040423 Further to this, the two volumes of 1000 Vampires on Screen also features 30+ exclusive interviews with the writers, directors, and actors that have brought these undead creatures to life. Jim Wynorski, Henry Rollins, Robert Bierman, Debbie Rochon, Neil Jordan, Anna Silk, Doug Jones, Leonor Varella, Catherine Hardwicke, and James Woods amongst many others discuss what glamoured them about the vampire, how they became them on screen, and why, so many of them, returned to its embrace again and again. Many of them also share exclusive and personal onset photographs, design images, and publicity shots to give new perspectives on themselves and on the vampires they created.
All of this is supported by cross-reference notes on all the entries and extensive Film, and Actor and Director Indexes making 1000 Vampires on Screen not only an indispensable reference tool for professionals and enthusiasts alike, but one of the most inventive and important books on the vampire genre of 2023.

“It is seldom that we find scholarship that simultaneously informs and entertains, but Simon Bacon, a leading figure in the new generation of academic appraisal of the penetration of Dracula and vampire lore into the popular culture, does just that in his 1000 Vampires on the Screen . He immerses the reader into one of the major realms through which vampires in all their diversity take up residence in our mundane existence, enlarge our consciousness, and drive boredom from day-to-day routines. Then, by repeatedly assuming the vampire’s POV, he forces us to consider our personal appropriation and integration of our favorite bloodsuckers as we suck the life out of the movies we love.�

J. Gordon Melton
Author of The Vampire The Compete History (2022)


“A highly original approach to a vampire encyclopedia, which makes it all the more necessary for every bookshelf, even those storing garlic cookbooks.�

Gary D. Rhodes, Ph.D., author of The Birth of the American Horror Film and writer-director of Hollywood's Dracula]]> 336 Simon Bacon Kevin 4
The entries are listed alphabetically by the vampire’s first name (A–J in Volume 1; K–Z in Volume 2). Each entry lists the vampire character, gives their mini-biography, tells the actor or actress who portrayed them, the title and release year of the film or TV series they inhabit, and, most helpful, the names of other vampires they interact with. Thankfully, the volumes offer extensive and helpful indexes, one for titles and the other for actors/directors. These benefit readers when 17 screen appearances and actors, including Jack Palance, Rutger Hauer, and Adam Sandler are listed under “Dracula,� and 33 entertainers, such as Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Leslie Nielson, and Gary Oldman, are listed under “Count Dracula.�

The second half of these volumes contains nearly 40 interviews with actors, directors, and writers, including Catherine Hardwicke, Neil Jordan, Michael Rymer, Doug Jones, Anna Silk, and scream queen Debbie Rochon. Libraries with strong film and horror sections will find this irresistible two-volume reference an essential purchase.]]> 4.00
author: Simon Bacon
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/31
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves:
review:
Most horror fans agree that vampires are the sexiest monsters on the big and the small screen. Bacon’s ("Vampires from Another World") two-volume reference offers biographies and plotlines for 1,000 vampires appearing in films, TV series, miniseries, and even failed TV pilots. The two volumes cover 126 years of on-screen vampires, from 1896’s "The House of the Devil" to 2022’s "Morbius."

The entries are listed alphabetically by the vampire’s first name (A–J in Volume 1; K–Z in Volume 2). Each entry lists the vampire character, gives their mini-biography, tells the actor or actress who portrayed them, the title and release year of the film or TV series they inhabit, and, most helpful, the names of other vampires they interact with. Thankfully, the volumes offer extensive and helpful indexes, one for titles and the other for actors/directors. These benefit readers when 17 screen appearances and actors, including Jack Palance, Rutger Hauer, and Adam Sandler are listed under “Dracula,� and 33 entertainers, such as Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Leslie Nielson, and Gary Oldman, are listed under “Count Dracula.�

The second half of these volumes contains nearly 40 interviews with actors, directors, and writers, including Catherine Hardwicke, Neil Jordan, Michael Rymer, Doug Jones, Anna Silk, and scream queen Debbie Rochon. Libraries with strong film and horror sections will find this irresistible two-volume reference an essential purchase.
]]> 123005374 A poignant, deliciously anecdotal account of a talented artist's dramatic journey in the worlds of Off-Broadway, Broadway, and Hollywood.

Charles Busch dreamed of being on stage from the time he was a young boy, but it wasn’t until his college years that he finally found a way to let his full talent shine—as a Leading Lady.

Shocking his midwestern University theater department by playing a glamorous bawdy female role in his own play, he discovered that performing in drag for the first time he felt comfortable on stage. It would certainly not be the last.

Charles Busch, a Tony Award-nominated writer, has created a unique place in the entertainment world as playwright, LGBT icon, drag actor, director, and cabaret performer, with his extraordinary gift for connecting with and channeling the leading ladies of show business.

A born storyteller, Charles has a powerful journey to share. He was only seven years old when his mother died unexpectedly from a massive heart attack, and since then, Charles has been searching for loving, emotionally complex mother figures. In his teens, Charles moved to lower Park Avenue in Manhattan to live with his Aunt Lil, who was rather like a Jewish Auntie Mame. Lil encouraged Charles� artistic talents and dreams and eventually he discovered his gifts for writing plays and performing as a “male actress.�

In short, pithy chapters, Charles writes of his close friendship with the brilliant Joan Rivers, who was his mother figure after Lil’s death, as well as his colorful interactions with such show business luminaries as Angela Lansbury (who observed her first Passover seder with Charles), Debbie Reynolds, Greta Garbo, Elaine Stritch, Linda Lavin, Carol Channing, Marian Seldes, Rosie O’Donnell, Claudette Colbert, Valerie Harper, Kim Novak, Bea Arthur, and many others.

Full of humor and heart, and including 16 pages of photographs, Leading Lady is perfect for theatre fans new and old, as well as anyone who knows the joy of finally finding the craft that makes their soul sing.]]> 288 Charles Busch 1637744145 Kevin 5
A born raconteur, Busch spins enthralling tales into short, buoyant chapters. Occasionally the chronological storytelling is interrupted with flash-forward chapters, which sweep readers off to dine with Claudette Colbert, interview Liza Minnelli, ghostwrite for Joan Rivers, or run into Kim Novak at an event. After the death of his mother, the author was taken under the wing of his Aunt Lil who moved him into her Manhattan apartment and enrolled him in an arts high school. Later, Busch found his artistic voice by writing his own plays and casting himself as the lead woman. His play "Vampire Lesbians of Sodom" ran for five years and brought him acclaim; two other plays�"Psycho Beach Party" and "Die, Mommie, Die!"—were later adapted for the screen with Busch as their leading lady.

He writes with great fondness about his Tony-nominated hit, "The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife", and with honesty about his “miserable� experience working on the Broadway flop "Taboo", produced by Rosie O’Donnell and starring Boy George.

This joyful, upbeat, and witty memoir will likely capture the hearts of theater and movie buffs.]]> 4.35 2023
author: Charles Busch
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/31
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves:
review:
Busch, a prolific and award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and actor, has written an absolutely captivating memoir.

A born raconteur, Busch spins enthralling tales into short, buoyant chapters. Occasionally the chronological storytelling is interrupted with flash-forward chapters, which sweep readers off to dine with Claudette Colbert, interview Liza Minnelli, ghostwrite for Joan Rivers, or run into Kim Novak at an event. After the death of his mother, the author was taken under the wing of his Aunt Lil who moved him into her Manhattan apartment and enrolled him in an arts high school. Later, Busch found his artistic voice by writing his own plays and casting himself as the lead woman. His play "Vampire Lesbians of Sodom" ran for five years and brought him acclaim; two other plays�"Psycho Beach Party" and "Die, Mommie, Die!"—were later adapted for the screen with Busch as their leading lady.

He writes with great fondness about his Tony-nominated hit, "The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife", and with honesty about his “miserable� experience working on the Broadway flop "Taboo", produced by Rosie O’Donnell and starring Boy George.

This joyful, upbeat, and witty memoir will likely capture the hearts of theater and movie buffs.
]]> 78302651 240 Dan Lalande 1476692548 Kevin 5 4.60
author: Dan Lalande
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.60
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves:
review:
Lalande (Reel Ottawa: A Memoir) persuasively argues the 1970s “might have been American film comedy’s greatest era since the screwball 1930s,� when audiences wanted to see “a reflection of their own confused times.� Chronologically, the book includes reviews of 136 comedies released from 1970�79. It’s the decade containing the best works of Academy Award–nominated writer Neil Simon, Mel Brooks (writing/directing Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles in the same year, 1974), director Carl Reiner (Where’s Poppa?, Oh, God!, and The Jerk), and Woody Allen, directing seven films mentioned in this book, including 1977’s Best Picture Oscar winner Annie Hall. It’s the decade that marked directorial debuts of Joan Rivers (Rabbit Test) and Elaine May (A New Leaf), and Peter Sellers starred in several Pink Panther films, Murder by Death, and Being There. Lalande is an astute and thoughtful critic, who offers tasty behind-the-scenes tales of how the films were made and weighs their merits—ranging from hits (M*A*S*H, Up in Smoke, What’s Up Doc?), cult films (Rock’n’Roll High School, Harold and Maude), lesser-known treasures (The Landlord, Made for Each Other), and misses (Scavenger Hunt). A knowledgeable, entertaining, and useful critical review of comedy films of the 1970s.
]]> 643481 0 Whitney Stine 156054080X Kevin 3 3.87 1990
author: Whitney Stine
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1990
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/07/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 643482 374 Whitney Stine 0801551846 Kevin 5 3.80 1974
author: Whitney Stine
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1974
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/07/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 62949075 704 Pat Conroy 0063321831 Kevin 0 to-read 4.36 1986
author: Pat Conroy
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 39327093 492 Mark Griffin Kevin 5
After a stint in the navy, the Illinois-born aspiring actor moved to Los Angeles. Talent scout Henry Wilson seduced him, added him as a client and changed his name from Roy Fitzgerald to Rock Hudson. Just seven years after his film debut, he earned a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for GIANT in 1956. From 1957 to 1964, Hudson was ranked among the top five U.S. box office draws. Hudson's homosexuality was an open secret within Hollywood for decades, but it's surprising to find out just how open he was (after a brief arranged marriage). He lived with numerous men over the years and was remarkably forthright about surrounding himself with gay friends and visiting gay bars and sex clubs.

Griffin ("A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli") interviewed Hudson's costars, family members, former boyfriends and close friends (who also gave him access to diaries and unpublished memoirs). This chorus of insiders widens the biography's scope and paints a vivid, empathic and fascinating portrait of Hudson's private life, alcoholism and workaholic nature. Rock Hudson was a complex man who nurtured friendships for decades but briskly dissolved romantic relationships. Griffin offers an unforgettable, richly nuanced and psychologically intriguing portrait of a gay film star who survived within and outside the confines of his oppressive times and didn't lead a tortured life.

A complex, intimate and engaging portrait of Rock Hudson, his prolific film career, decades-long friendships and numerous gay relationships.]]> 3.90 2018
author: Mark Griffin
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2018/12/08
date added: 2023/06/30
shelves:
review:
Since Rock Hudson's death from AIDS in 1985, there have been numerous books about him published (including his own posthumous as-told-to autobiography). But Mark Griffin's intimate, engaging and superbly researched ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS is by far the definitive biography Rock Hudson and his fans deserve.

After a stint in the navy, the Illinois-born aspiring actor moved to Los Angeles. Talent scout Henry Wilson seduced him, added him as a client and changed his name from Roy Fitzgerald to Rock Hudson. Just seven years after his film debut, he earned a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for GIANT in 1956. From 1957 to 1964, Hudson was ranked among the top five U.S. box office draws. Hudson's homosexuality was an open secret within Hollywood for decades, but it's surprising to find out just how open he was (after a brief arranged marriage). He lived with numerous men over the years and was remarkably forthright about surrounding himself with gay friends and visiting gay bars and sex clubs.

Griffin ("A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli") interviewed Hudson's costars, family members, former boyfriends and close friends (who also gave him access to diaries and unpublished memoirs). This chorus of insiders widens the biography's scope and paints a vivid, empathic and fascinating portrait of Hudson's private life, alcoholism and workaholic nature. Rock Hudson was a complex man who nurtured friendships for decades but briskly dissolved romantic relationships. Griffin offers an unforgettable, richly nuanced and psychologically intriguing portrait of a gay film star who survived within and outside the confines of his oppressive times and didn't lead a tortured life.

A complex, intimate and engaging portrait of Rock Hudson, his prolific film career, decades-long friendships and numerous gay relationships.
]]> 91331968
Have you noticed something about every �100 Greatest Movies Ever Made� list? The people in those movies . . . they’re almost all straight, white men. With so much incredible cinema to choose from, those lists only begin to peer into the cinematic and wider world.

It’s time to push past the gatekeepers of what makes a movie “great� or “culturally significant� and get a broader view of what’s out there. Kyle Turner has selected 100 of cinema’s greatest queer films that are often overlooked but foundational to the art form and the wider culture.

Starting in early cinema with trailblazers like Making a Man of Her and Different from Others , the list progresses through the eras, from Hitchcock’s Rope to cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show to today’s fast-growing list of queer films, including Carol , The Duke of Burgundy , and Moonlight . From lesser-known names to Academy Award winners, The Queer Film Guide offers a fresh take on what defines great cinema, lending a voice to the diverse creators and characters who’ve shaped the art form.]]> 208 Kyle Turner 1922754293 Kevin 5
Arranged in chronological order, from the 1919 German-language "Different from the Others" to 2022’s Jane Austen–inspired comedy "Fire Island," each film is celebrated over a two-page spread containing Warren’s vibrantly colored illustrations and Turner’s sharp, critical assessments, plot summaries, the background on the making of the film, fascinating tidbits, and an additional film it could be paired with.

The wide-ranging list of films is impressive and often surprising; it contains classics ("Victim", "The Children’s Hour", "Tea and Sympathy"), underground films ("Pink Flamingos", "The Raspberry Reich", "Scorpio Rising"), documentaries ("The Queen", "The Times of Harvey Milk", "Southern Comfort"), and foreign movies ("Knife + Heart", "Stranger by the Lake", "Happy Together"). There are also surprises, such as "Bringing Up Baby", "Seed of Chucky", and "The Fly", whose inclusions are persuasively argued.

Represented directors include Alfred Hitchcock, Pedro AlmodĂłvar, David Lynch, Barbra Streisand, Bob Fosse, George Cukor, Angela Robinson, Ed Wood, Lizzie Borden, Ang Lee, and Lana and Lily Wachowski.

An enjoyable, concise, and well-written international guide to a century of queer-themed films.]]> 4.04 2023
author: Kyle Turner
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/16
date added: 2023/05/16
shelves:
review:
Paste Magazine contributor Turner proves himself an affable, knowledgeable, and succinct tour guide, offering a broad overview of 100 recommended queer-themed films.

Arranged in chronological order, from the 1919 German-language "Different from the Others" to 2022’s Jane Austen–inspired comedy "Fire Island," each film is celebrated over a two-page spread containing Warren’s vibrantly colored illustrations and Turner’s sharp, critical assessments, plot summaries, the background on the making of the film, fascinating tidbits, and an additional film it could be paired with.

The wide-ranging list of films is impressive and often surprising; it contains classics ("Victim", "The Children’s Hour", "Tea and Sympathy"), underground films ("Pink Flamingos", "The Raspberry Reich", "Scorpio Rising"), documentaries ("The Queen", "The Times of Harvey Milk", "Southern Comfort"), and foreign movies ("Knife + Heart", "Stranger by the Lake", "Happy Together"). There are also surprises, such as "Bringing Up Baby", "Seed of Chucky", and "The Fly", whose inclusions are persuasively argued.

Represented directors include Alfred Hitchcock, Pedro AlmodĂłvar, David Lynch, Barbra Streisand, Bob Fosse, George Cukor, Angela Robinson, Ed Wood, Lizzie Borden, Ang Lee, and Lana and Lily Wachowski.

An enjoyable, concise, and well-written international guide to a century of queer-themed films.
]]> 58842737 It is M's funeral. One man is missing from the graveside: the traitor who pulled the trigger and who is now in custody, accused of M's murder - James Bond.

Behind the Iron Curtain, a group of former Smersh agents want to use the British spy in an operation that will change the balance of world power. Bond is smuggled into the lion's den - but whose orders is he following, and will he obey them when the moment of truth arrives?

In a mission where treachery is all around and one false move means death, Bond must grapple with the darkest questions about himself. But not even he knows what has happened to the man he used to be.]]> 288 Anthony Horowitz Kevin 0 to-read 3.74 2022
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 74769014
A modern American classic and a family saga that spans decades, this is the story of the volatile Tom Wingo, his brilliant but troubled twin sister, Savannah, and the complex and damaging family legacy they share. Moving between the sparkling glamour of New York City and the vanishing beauty of the South Carolina low country, The Prince of Tides is Pat Conroy’s masterwork.

“A big, sprawling saga of a novel…the kind you hole up with and spend some days with and put down feeling you have emerged from a terrible, wonderful spell.� —San Francisco Chronicle

“A literary gem . . . The Prince of Tides is in the best tradition of novel writing. It is an engrossing story of unforgettable characters.� —The Pittsburgh Press]]> 701 Pat Conroy 0063322013 Kevin 0 to-read 4.62 1986
author: Pat Conroy
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.62
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60320445 Ěý
John Farrow was Hollywood royalty. An Academy Award-winning director and screenwriter, he was married to the talented and beautiful actress Maureen O'Sullivan, best known for playing Jane in Tarzan films with Johnny Weissmuller. Together they had seven children, including esteemed actress Mia Farrow, mother of journalist Ronan Farrow. From the outside, they were a fairytale Hollywood family. But all was not as it seemed.

The Farrows of Their Dark Side of Paradise reveals that Mia Farrow's allegations of sexual molestation by Woody Allen of their seven-year-old adopted daughter, Dylan, has roots in Farrow’s childhood relationship with her father, John Farrow. John was often an abusive father to his children, his wife, and to his co-workers in Hollywood. Called the most disliked man in Hollywood, John Farrow was a tortured, tragic artist and father. He left his children a legacy of trauma and pain that the family kept hidden. It erupted only years later when Mia Farrow unknowingly revealed her pain through her words and behavior in her allegations aimed at Allen.

The book includes new research, never-before-revealed interviews with actors who worked with John Farrow, and an original theory from author, biographer, and documentarian Marilyn Ann Moss.]]> 312 Marilyn Ann Moss 1510768831 Kevin 5
Marilyn Ann Moss (Raoul Walsh) then backtracks to the volatile household Farrow grew up in as the daughter of film director John Farrow and actress Maureen O'Sullivan, who both understood that "you could find fiction to make real life bearable."

Moss describes the home Mia and her six siblings grew up in as "a tense, rigid, tightly wound and religiously bound environment where the children hardly saw their parents." John Farrow's numerous affairs led to separate bedrooms and separate lives.

"Maureen loved having children," writes Moss, "but after giving birth she had absolutely no idea what to do with them." Mia, who would later have four biological children and adopt 10 more, remembers her father drunkenly chasing her mother with a long knife before running off into the night. Her mother's "maternal" response: put young Mia in the bed Maureen and John shared, while Maureen fled to sleep elsewhere behind a locked door.

Moss expertly sifts through the Farrow family's struggles and tragedies: one of Mia's brothers and two of her adopted children died by suicide, and another brother was imprisoned for molesting two boys and later claimed he was molested by their father.

This is a deeply researched, attention-grabbing, and previously untold tale of generations of dysfunction in one Hollywood family. ]]> 2.52
author: Marilyn Ann Moss
name: Kevin
average rating: 2.52
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/14
date added: 2023/04/14
shelves:
review:
THE FARROWS OF HOLLYWOOD opens in 1992 with Mia Farrow finding smiling nude photos of her adopted 19-year-old daughter in current boyfriend Woody Allen's apartment. Six months later, Farrow accused Allen of molesting the seven-year-old daughter they co-adopted. Allen denied all allegations. The case was investigated repeatedly over the next three decades and no evidence of a crime was found; Allen was never charged.

Marilyn Ann Moss (Raoul Walsh) then backtracks to the volatile household Farrow grew up in as the daughter of film director John Farrow and actress Maureen O'Sullivan, who both understood that "you could find fiction to make real life bearable."

Moss describes the home Mia and her six siblings grew up in as "a tense, rigid, tightly wound and religiously bound environment where the children hardly saw their parents." John Farrow's numerous affairs led to separate bedrooms and separate lives.

"Maureen loved having children," writes Moss, "but after giving birth she had absolutely no idea what to do with them." Mia, who would later have four biological children and adopt 10 more, remembers her father drunkenly chasing her mother with a long knife before running off into the night. Her mother's "maternal" response: put young Mia in the bed Maureen and John shared, while Maureen fled to sleep elsewhere behind a locked door.

Moss expertly sifts through the Farrow family's struggles and tragedies: one of Mia's brothers and two of her adopted children died by suicide, and another brother was imprisoned for molesting two boys and later claimed he was molested by their father.

This is a deeply researched, attention-grabbing, and previously untold tale of generations of dysfunction in one Hollywood family.
]]> 61775756 Night of the Living Queers is a YA horror anthology that explores a night when anything is possible exclusively featuring queer authors of color putting fresh spins on classic horror tropes and tales.

No matter its name or occasion, Halloween is more than a Hallmark holiday, it’s a symbol of transformation. NIGHT OF THE LIVING QUEERS is a YA horror anthology that explores how Halloween can be more than just candies and frights, but a night where anything is possible. Each short story will be told through the lens of a different BIPOC teen and the Halloween night that changes their lives forever. Creative, creepy, and queer, this collection will bring fresh terror, heart, and humor to young adult literature.

Contributors include editors Alex Brown and Shelly Page, Kalynn Bayron, Ryan Douglass, Sara Farizan, Maya Gittelman, Kosoko Jackson, Em Liu, Vanessa Montalban, Ayida Shonibar, Tara Sim, Trang Thanh Tran, and Rebecca Kim Wells.]]> 282 Shelly Page 1250892961 Kevin 0 to-read 3.88 2023
author: Shelly Page
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62296528
For Harry, this is that story at last.

Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness—and, because he blamed the press for his mother’s death, he struggled to accept life in the spotlight.

At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. The discipline gave him structure, and two combat tours made him a hero at home. But he soon felt more lost than ever, suffering from post-traumatic stress and prone to crippling panic attacks. Above all, he couldn’t find true love.

Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple’s cinematic romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, their safety and mental health at risk, Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country. Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother. . . .

For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.]]> 410 Prince Harry 0593593804 Kevin 5
When Princess Diana wanted to tell her side of history, she had to speak through Andrew Morton in "Diana: Her True Story" (1992). Thirty-one years later, her youngest son, Harry, is traveling the same path but courageously putting his name on the project (assisted by ghostwriter J.R. Moehringer). Even further, he reads the absolutely captivating 15.5-hour unabridged audiobook.

Listeners are literally getting the inside scoop on the Royal Family as Prince Harry tells his story, in his own words and with his own voice. Written with disarming candor and a sly sense of humor, the narration matches perfectly. Listeners can hear the smile in the Prince’s voice when he mutters asides. But when he’s recounting the night his father woke him to tell him his mother had been killed in a car accident, the retelling is heartbreaking in its restraint.

There are not a lot of vocal acrobatics—members of the Royal Family have been raised and trained to never show emotion in public. This eye-opening memoir is both historical and openheartedly personal.

An irresistible and supremely eloquent look inside the Royal Family by the son of the King who was forced to escape its stranglehold.

]]> 3.78 2023
author: Prince Harry
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/31
date added: 2023/03/31
shelves:
review:
REVIEW OF THE UNABRIDGED AUDIOBOOK READ BY THE AUTHOR.

When Princess Diana wanted to tell her side of history, she had to speak through Andrew Morton in "Diana: Her True Story" (1992). Thirty-one years later, her youngest son, Harry, is traveling the same path but courageously putting his name on the project (assisted by ghostwriter J.R. Moehringer). Even further, he reads the absolutely captivating 15.5-hour unabridged audiobook.

Listeners are literally getting the inside scoop on the Royal Family as Prince Harry tells his story, in his own words and with his own voice. Written with disarming candor and a sly sense of humor, the narration matches perfectly. Listeners can hear the smile in the Prince’s voice when he mutters asides. But when he’s recounting the night his father woke him to tell him his mother had been killed in a car accident, the retelling is heartbreaking in its restraint.

There are not a lot of vocal acrobatics—members of the Royal Family have been raised and trained to never show emotion in public. This eye-opening memoir is both historical and openheartedly personal.

An irresistible and supremely eloquent look inside the Royal Family by the son of the King who was forced to escape its stranglehold.


]]> 61322006 From renowned chef and beloved food personality Ronnie Woo, a cookbook of over 100 craveable all-American Asian-inspired recipes.

If you were ever to visit Ronnie Woo, chef and beloved food personality, the first words out of his mouth would be “Did you eat yet?”—just like how his mom would greetĚýhim and express her love. While not everyone would be so lucky to experience a Ronnie-cooked meal or his mood-lifting humor firsthand,ĚýDid You Eat Yet?Ěýis the next best thing, with more than 100 of his surprisingly achievable, effortlessly stylish recipes celebrating an All-American Asian pantry. With chapters spanning from breakfast to dessert, and everything in between, you can start your day with Chicken Congee with Pork Floss & X.O. Sauce or a Big Ass Buttermilk Cinnamon Roll, snack on Blistered Miso Butter Green Beans, have a healthy lunch of Hawaiian Inspired Chicken Vermicelli Bun Bowl, feast on Gochujang Grilled Skirt Steak, and end on a sweet note withĚýhis Caramelized Hong Kong-Inspired Egg Tart.

Sexy SaucesBreakfast All Day, Errâ€� dayHealthy IshI Love NoodsDid Someone Say Snacks?Eat Your VeggiesFrickinâ€� ChickenFor the Love of SeafoodBring Out the MeatSweet Lovin’ĚýWhether it’s a healthy carb-conscious recipe, an overly indulgent cheat meal, or stunning happy-hour fare, Ronnie’s over-the-top book delivers on flavor with memorable humor —plus mouthwatering photographs throughout—and offers a serious array of recipes to easily elevate your home cooking and stuff your loved ones with great food.]]> 529 Ronnie Woo 0358581869 Kevin 4
The recipes are wide-ranging. "I've never fit into a single box, and neither do my recipes," writes Woo. He divides his cookbook into chapters on sauces, breakfast (including breakfast tacos, pancakes and cinnamon rolls), healthy food (sweet potato chowder, coconut curry chickpea and cherry tomato stew, salads), noodles (garlic noodles, rice cakes, burrata, wontons), snacks (puff pastry bites, sushi, bao, chicken wings, pork sliders) and vegetarian fare (crispy fried onions, eggplant adobo, asparagus and chorizo stir-fry). Three chapters cover various recipes for chicken, seafood and meat dishes. And the final chapter explores desserts (including blackberry ice cream, sushi-rice pudding, salted upside-down buttermilk banana cake, flourless chocolate cake and caramelized egg tart). Each recipe (spread over two or three pages) contains a list of ingredients, a three- or four-step set of baking/assembly instructions, Woo's autobiographical memory of that food and an appetizing photo of the final product.

Woo's charming and funny intros to each dish broaden the appeal of this cookbook. This is not just a collection of recipes; it's a friendly and endearing conversation with an exuberant and playful foodie and chef--and a tasty treat for gourmands and gourmets alike.]]> 3.93
author: Ronnie Woo
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.93
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/31
date added: 2023/03/31
shelves:
review:
Self-described "model turned therapist turned globetrotting chef who also happens to be Asian, American, and gay," Ronnie Woo brings readers his first cookbook. DID YOU EAT YET? is a delicious combination of tasty recipes, autobiographical stories and photos of mouthwatering meals. Most of the photos are of the dishes Woo creates, but for thirsty foodie fans there's enough dishy photos of Woo in short shorts or shirtless to rival QUEER EYE chef Antoni Porowski.

The recipes are wide-ranging. "I've never fit into a single box, and neither do my recipes," writes Woo. He divides his cookbook into chapters on sauces, breakfast (including breakfast tacos, pancakes and cinnamon rolls), healthy food (sweet potato chowder, coconut curry chickpea and cherry tomato stew, salads), noodles (garlic noodles, rice cakes, burrata, wontons), snacks (puff pastry bites, sushi, bao, chicken wings, pork sliders) and vegetarian fare (crispy fried onions, eggplant adobo, asparagus and chorizo stir-fry). Three chapters cover various recipes for chicken, seafood and meat dishes. And the final chapter explores desserts (including blackberry ice cream, sushi-rice pudding, salted upside-down buttermilk banana cake, flourless chocolate cake and caramelized egg tart). Each recipe (spread over two or three pages) contains a list of ingredients, a three- or four-step set of baking/assembly instructions, Woo's autobiographical memory of that food and an appetizing photo of the final product.

Woo's charming and funny intros to each dish broaden the appeal of this cookbook. This is not just a collection of recipes; it's a friendly and endearing conversation with an exuberant and playful foodie and chef--and a tasty treat for gourmands and gourmets alike.
]]> 75000105 'Like a superheated kernel of corn, the world has gone Pop... Drag has become mainstream. Being gay became cool. From being the criminal outsider, being queer has even become representative of the way the outsider voice is common to us all.'

When he moved to New York in 1982, Fenton Bailey saw the world go Pop. Together with filmmaking partner Randy Barbato, their production company World of Wonder would pioneer the genre of Reality TV and chronicle the emerging Screen Age through their extraordinary programs and outrageous subjects - from Bible Belt televangelists and conspiracy theories to pioneering drag queens.

Working with icons such as Britney Spears, Tammy Faye Bakker and RuPaul, the production company's shows tell a wider story of how television has fundamentally shifted our reality.

Packed with glorious insider gossip and amazing celebrity stories, these are the riotous tales behind the shows that would make ScreenAgers of us all.]]> 375 Fenton Bailey Kevin 5
Bailey describes how the TV landscape changed, beginning with the birth of MTV, the Home Shopping Network, infomercials, and the commercialization of true crime (the coverage of Rodney King, the Los Angeles riots, murder trials featuring the Menendez brothers and O.J. Simpson). “Reality TV, that most maligned of all genres in that most maligned of all mediums, has done to television what rap did to rock and roll—taken it over and reinvented it,� writes Bailey.

The author became part of that scene when he and partner Randy Barbato created the film and TV company World of Wonder in 1991 and "RuPaul’s Drag Race" in 2009. Bailey offers loving tributes to pop and queer culture icons, including Andy Warhol, RuPaul, and Tammy Faye Baker.

This is an eye-opening exploration and essential reading for readers interested in pop or queer culture.]]> 3.95
author: Fenton Bailey
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.95
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/03/11
shelves:
review:
Award-winning director/producer/writer Bailey’s combination memoir and social commentary examines how TV and other small screens have impacted, expanded, and changed the way people see the world and queer culture. In the introduction, Graham Norton calls Bailey “the Forrest Gump of popular and tabloid culture. If it created headlines, he was there.�

Bailey describes how the TV landscape changed, beginning with the birth of MTV, the Home Shopping Network, infomercials, and the commercialization of true crime (the coverage of Rodney King, the Los Angeles riots, murder trials featuring the Menendez brothers and O.J. Simpson). “Reality TV, that most maligned of all genres in that most maligned of all mediums, has done to television what rap did to rock and roll—taken it over and reinvented it,� writes Bailey.

The author became part of that scene when he and partner Randy Barbato created the film and TV company World of Wonder in 1991 and "RuPaul’s Drag Race" in 2009. Bailey offers loving tributes to pop and queer culture icons, including Andy Warhol, RuPaul, and Tammy Faye Baker.

This is an eye-opening exploration and essential reading for readers interested in pop or queer culture.
]]> 61398984 Ěý
“I love that movie!�
Ěý
“But have you read the book?�
Ěý
Within these pages, Turner Classic Movies offers an endlessly fascinating look at 52 beloved screen adaptations and the great reads that inspired them. Some films, like Clueless —Amy Heckerling’s interpretation of Jane Austen’s Emma —diverge wildly from the original source material, while others, like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , shift the point of view to craft a different experience within the same story. Author Kristen Lopez explores just what makes these works classics of both the page and screen, and why each made for an exceptional adaptation—whether faithful to the book or exemplifying cinematic creative license.ĚýĚý

Other featured works
Children of Men · The Color Purple · Crazy Rich Asians · Dr. No · Dune · Gentlemen Prefer Blondes · Kiss Me Deadly · The Last Picture Show · Little Women · Passing · The Princess Bride · The Shining · The Thin Man · True Grit · Valley of the Dolls · The Virgin Suicides · Wuthering Heights
Ěý]]> 240 Kristen Lopez 0762480971 Kevin 4
Lopez finds Ira Levin's novel ROSEMARY'S BABY and its film adaptation by Roman Polanski "equally terrifying" but points out that the book, much more extensively than the film, "establishes Rosemary's autonomy in raising her son." Comparing Mario Puzo's novel THE GODFATHER with the screen adaptation he co-wrote with Francis Ford Coppola, she writes, "the film [is] just as deliciously watchable as the novel is page-turning to read." This smart, compact guide for book and film lovers also includes entries for FRANKENSTEIN, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, MILDRED PIERCE, CRAZY RICH ASIANS, BLADE RUNNER, FIGHT CLUB, JAWS, IN COLD BLOOD, THE SHINING, THE COLOR PURPLE, PSYCHO, DUNE, THE HUNGER GAMES, Dune and more.]]> 3.37 2023
author: Kristen Lopez
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/10
date added: 2023/03/10
shelves:
review:
Kristen Lopez's BUT HAVE YOU READ THE BOOK? is a fun and handy guide for book lovers who wonder if they should watch the film adaptation, and for movie lovers who wonder if they should read the source material for a favorite flick. Lopez calls the 52 books she highlights a "starter course, not just for good movies to enjoy, but for great books to get lost in." The selected books run the gamut from very faithful adaptions--she calls the Coen brothers' NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN "practically a copy of Cormac McCarthy's book"--to very loose: "Patricia Highsmith's THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY shares little more than the basic framework of the 1999 feature." Lopez points out the difficulty screenwriters had in adapting Jacqueline Susann's 400-page novel VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, which spans two decades, into a two-hour movie.

Lopez finds Ira Levin's novel ROSEMARY'S BABY and its film adaptation by Roman Polanski "equally terrifying" but points out that the book, much more extensively than the film, "establishes Rosemary's autonomy in raising her son." Comparing Mario Puzo's novel THE GODFATHER with the screen adaptation he co-wrote with Francis Ford Coppola, she writes, "the film [is] just as deliciously watchable as the novel is page-turning to read." This smart, compact guide for book and film lovers also includes entries for FRANKENSTEIN, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, MILDRED PIERCE, CRAZY RICH ASIANS, BLADE RUNNER, FIGHT CLUB, JAWS, IN COLD BLOOD, THE SHINING, THE COLOR PURPLE, PSYCHO, DUNE, THE HUNGER GAMES, Dune and more.
]]> 20980441 336 Robert Galbraith 8983924985 Kevin 5 4.14
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/03/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 60144955
When frantic, disheveled Edie Ledwell appears in the office begging to speak to her, private detective Robin Ellacott doesn’t know quite what to make of the situation. The co-creator of a popular cartoon, The Ink Black Heart, Edie is being persecuted by a mysterious online figure who goes by the pseudonym of Anomie. Edie is desperate to uncover Anomie’s true identity.

Robin decides that the agency can’t help with this—and thinks nothing more of it until a few days later, when she reads the shocking news that Edie has been tasered and then murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the location of The Ink Black Heart.

Robin and her business partner, Cormoran Strike, become drawn into the quest to uncover Anomie’s true identity. But with a complex web of online aliases, business interests and family conflicts to navigate, Strike and Robin find themselves embroiled in a case that stretches their powers of deduction to the limits � and which threatens them in new and horrifying ways . . .]]> 1391 Robert Galbraith 0316473537 Kevin 0 to-read 4.07 2022
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 42283287
Trying to get to the bottom of Billy's story, Strike and Robin Ellacott � once his assistant, now a partner in the agency � set off on a twisting trail that leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside.

And during this labyrinthine investigation, Strike's own life is far from straightforward: his newfound fame as a private eye means he can no longer operate behind the scenes as he once did. Plus, his relationship with his former assistant is more fraught than it ever has been � Robin is now invaluable to Strike in the business, but their personal relationship is much, much trickier than that.

The most epic Robert Galbraith novel yet, Lethal White is both a gripping mystery and a page-turning next instalment in the ongoing story of Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott.]]> 650 Robert Galbraith 0316422770 Kevin 5 4.22 2018
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/03/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 51807232
Strike has never tackled a cold case before, let alone one forty years old. But despite the slim chance of success, he is intrigued and takes it on; adding to the long list of cases that he and his partner in the agency, Robin Ellacott, are currently working on. And Robin herself is also juggling a messy divorce and unwanted male attention, as well as battling her own feelings about Strike.

As Strike and Robin investigate Margot's disappearance, they come up against a fiendishly complex case with leads that include tarot cards, a psychopathic serial killer and witnesses who cannot all be trusted. And they learn that even cases decades old can prove to be deadly . . .]]> 944 Robert Galbraith 0751579939 Kevin 5 4.32 2020
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/03/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 40611999 Cormoran Strike is back, with his assistant Robin Ellacott, in a mystery based around soldiers returning from war.

When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg.

Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible � and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of sustained and unspeakable brutality.

With the police focusing on the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into their own hands, and delve into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time is running out for the two of them�

Career of Evil is the third in the series featuring private detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott. A mystery and also a story of a man and a woman at a crossroads in their personal and professional lives.]]> 609 Robert Galbraith 0316349925 Kevin 5 4.22 2015
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/03/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 18214414 Private investigator Cormoran Strike returns in a new mystery from Robert Galbraith, author of the #1 international bestseller The Cuckoo's Calling.

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days—as he has done before—and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives—meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced.

When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before...]]> 464 Robert Galbraith 0316206873 Kevin 3 4.02 2014
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/03/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 61408309 480 Dijanna Mulhearn 1760763020 Kevin 5
There's "tulle wrapped" Marilyn Monroe in 1951 at her only appearance at an Oscar ceremony (wearing a borrowed gown from "All About Eve"); Eva Marie Saint, two days before giving birth, collecting her 1955 Oscar for "On the Waterfront"; and the achingly beautiful final Oscar appearance from Audrey Hepburn, 10 months before her death in 1993. The book is filled with iconic images, including Billy Porter's gender-bending velvet tuxedo gown in 2019; Björk's 2001 swan dress; Barbra Streisand's transparent "party pajamas" in 1969; Lee Grant's 1976 attire, which she referred to as "an old wedding dress"; Celine Dion's reversed suit jacket in 1999; Lupita Nyong'o's blue chiffon dress in 2014; and Prince's black lace shirt and lace gloves under a purple beaded hooded top and matching pants in 1985.

The handy index allows fans to track their preferred stars (Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda and Audrey Hepburn are photographed in five different decades) or find favorite designers like Givenchy, Armani, Dior and, of course, eight-time Oscar-winner Edith Head. The crisp (often full-page) photos highlight not only the glamourous styles but often the eyebrow-raising pairings: Madonna and Michael Jackson; Joe Namath and Raquel Welch; Rock Hudson and Yvonne De Carlo.]]> 4.40
author: Dijanna Mulhearn
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/03/02
shelves:
review:
For many, the highlight of the yearly Academy Awards is the pre-show fashion parade of celebrities on the red carpet. Dijanna Mulhearn's RED CARPET OSCARS will delight both film buffs and fashionistas, as it provides brief capsule summaries of what went on at each year's celebration along with photos of Hollywood's biggest and most glamorous stars as they approached the awards ceremony. At nearly 500 pages, this hefty photography book covers a wide array of attendees at the Academy Awards from 1929 to 2022.

There's "tulle wrapped" Marilyn Monroe in 1951 at her only appearance at an Oscar ceremony (wearing a borrowed gown from "All About Eve"); Eva Marie Saint, two days before giving birth, collecting her 1955 Oscar for "On the Waterfront"; and the achingly beautiful final Oscar appearance from Audrey Hepburn, 10 months before her death in 1993. The book is filled with iconic images, including Billy Porter's gender-bending velvet tuxedo gown in 2019; Björk's 2001 swan dress; Barbra Streisand's transparent "party pajamas" in 1969; Lee Grant's 1976 attire, which she referred to as "an old wedding dress"; Celine Dion's reversed suit jacket in 1999; Lupita Nyong'o's blue chiffon dress in 2014; and Prince's black lace shirt and lace gloves under a purple beaded hooded top and matching pants in 1985.

The handy index allows fans to track their preferred stars (Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda and Audrey Hepburn are photographed in five different decades) or find favorite designers like Givenchy, Armani, Dior and, of course, eight-time Oscar-winner Edith Head. The crisp (often full-page) photos highlight not only the glamourous styles but often the eyebrow-raising pairings: Madonna and Michael Jackson; Joe Namath and Raquel Welch; Rock Hudson and Yvonne De Carlo.
]]> 61272658 The McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts - a luxurious, clandestine college dedicated to the fine art of murder where earnest students study how best to "delete" their most deserving victim.


Who hasn’t wondered for a split second what the world would be like if a person who is the object of your affliction ceased to exist? But then you’ve probably never heard of The McMasters Conservatory, dedicated to the consummate execution of the homicidal arts. To gain admission, a student must have an ethical reason for erasing someone who deeply deserves a fate no worse (nor better) than death. The campus of this “Poison Ivy League� college—its location unknown to even those who study there—is where you might find yourself the practice target of a classmate…and where one’s mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world a much better place to live.

Prepare for an education you’ll never forget. A “fiendishly funny� (Booklist) mix of witty wordplay, breathtaking twists and genuine intrigue, Murder Your Employer will gain you admission into a wholly original world, cocooned within the most entertaining book about well-intentioned would-be murderers you’ll ever read.]]> 400 Rupert Holmes 1451648219 Kevin 0 to-read 3.79 2023
author: Rupert Holmes
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 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 Kevin 5
Individual chapter topics also include the Hollywood blacklist period; why Citizen Kane won only one Oscar out of its nine nominations; and how Bette Davis in ALL ABOUT EVE and Gloria Swanson in SUNSET BOULEVARD lost the 1951 Best Actress Oscar to Judy Holliday in BORN YESTERDAY. One of the funniest chapters covers caftan-loving "Glittermeister" Allan Carr's production of the 1989 awards show, the camp-fest that resulted in the Academy issuing a public apology.

In the final chapters, Schulman deftly covers recent gaffes, such as when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were handed the wrong envelope in 2017 and LA LA LAND was announced as Best Picture, only to have the Oscar stage managers leap into action to reveal that the winner was actually MOONLIGHT. He also dissects Harvey Weinstein's award show tactics and how SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE won the Best Picture Oscar over SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. The book ends with Schulman's firsthand account from the Dolby Theatre's mezzanine of the live 2022 ceremony when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock. Film buffs will savor this tantalizing and gossip-filled overview of the Academy Awards.]]> 4.08 2023
author: Michael Schulman
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/02/24
shelves:
review:
Michael Schulman ("Her Again: Becoming Meryl Streep") offers a tasty overview of the Academy Awards, namely the scandals, upsets, wrong decisions and juicy gossip. Unlike Mason Wiley and Damien Bona's "Inside Oscar," which devoted a chapter to each year's Oscar ceremonies, Schulman's massive (600+ pages) Oscar Wars is more selective, and its chapters are organized by topics, such as "Tokens," which discusses how Oscar wins for Hattie McDaniel, Sidney Poitier and Halle Berry broke the Oscar color barriers in 1940, 1964 and 2002.

Individual chapter topics also include the Hollywood blacklist period; why Citizen Kane won only one Oscar out of its nine nominations; and how Bette Davis in ALL ABOUT EVE and Gloria Swanson in SUNSET BOULEVARD lost the 1951 Best Actress Oscar to Judy Holliday in BORN YESTERDAY. One of the funniest chapters covers caftan-loving "Glittermeister" Allan Carr's production of the 1989 awards show, the camp-fest that resulted in the Academy issuing a public apology.

In the final chapters, Schulman deftly covers recent gaffes, such as when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were handed the wrong envelope in 2017 and LA LA LAND was announced as Best Picture, only to have the Oscar stage managers leap into action to reveal that the winner was actually MOONLIGHT. He also dissects Harvey Weinstein's award show tactics and how SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE won the Best Picture Oscar over SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. The book ends with Schulman's firsthand account from the Dolby Theatre's mezzanine of the live 2022 ceremony when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock. Film buffs will savor this tantalizing and gossip-filled overview of the Academy Awards.
]]> 60320221 The ultimate collection of must-have recipes, stories, and behind-the-scenes photos from the beloved Netflix show Somebody Feed Phil.

Phil Rosenthal, host of the beloved Netflix series Somebody Feed Phil, really loves food and learning about global cultures, and he makes sure to bring that passion to every episode of the show. Whether he’s traveling stateside to foodie-favorite cities such as San Francisco or New Orleans or around the world to locations like Saigon, Tel Aviv, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, or Marrakesh, Rosenthal includes a healthy dose of humor to every episode—and now to this book.

In Somebody Feed Phil the Book, Rosenthal presents never-before-heard stories from every episode of the first four seasons of the series, along with more than sixty of viewers� most requested recipes from acclaimed international chefs and local legends alike (including Rosenthal’​s favorite sandwich finds from San Francisco to Tel Aviv), so you can replicate many of the dishes from the show right at home. There are also “scripts� from some of Rosenthal’s video phone calls from the road with his family making this the ultimate companion guide for avid fans of the show as well as armchair travelers and adventurous at-home chefs.]]> Phil Rosenthal 1797144561 Kevin 5
Each of the TV episodes focuses on the cuisine of one international or U.S. location, including Bangkok, Venice, Lisbon, Hawai�i, Marrakesh, Mexico City, New York City, New Orleans, San Francisco, and more. Each of the 22 chapters covers one location/episode. Rosenthal readily admits he’s not a cook, so the tempting recipes in this book come directly from the chefs and restaurants he visited.

This beautifully designed book is filled with color photographs of delicious meals and alluring locations. Recipes range from meat and fish dishes to vegetarian and vegan treats and include mouthwatering desserts, appetizers, and drinks. Few cooks will be able to resist the collard-green melt or pastrami ribs.

An irresistible hybrid cookbook/travel book, ideal for readers planning a trip or a meal.]]> 4.19
author: Phil Rosenthal
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.19
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/01/28
shelves:
review:
Rosenthal’s (You’re Lucky You’re Funny) tasty companion book to his Netflix travel series "Somebody Feed Phil" exudes the same charm, wit, and sweet-and-savory goodness that makes the show must-see comfort food viewing.

Each of the TV episodes focuses on the cuisine of one international or U.S. location, including Bangkok, Venice, Lisbon, Hawai�i, Marrakesh, Mexico City, New York City, New Orleans, San Francisco, and more. Each of the 22 chapters covers one location/episode. Rosenthal readily admits he’s not a cook, so the tempting recipes in this book come directly from the chefs and restaurants he visited.

This beautifully designed book is filled with color photographs of delicious meals and alluring locations. Recipes range from meat and fish dishes to vegetarian and vegan treats and include mouthwatering desserts, appetizers, and drinks. Few cooks will be able to resist the collard-green melt or pastrami ribs.

An irresistible hybrid cookbook/travel book, ideal for readers planning a trip or a meal.
]]> 60693470 Aristotle. Socrates. Descartes. And now, Chenoweth. (How about some women, am I right?)

From television actress, Broadway star, and New York Times bestselling author Kristin Chenoweth comes I'm No Philosopher, But I Got Thoughts, an inspiring high-design, colorful book featuring philosophical-ish musings on connection, creativity, loss, love, faith, and closure. Just like Kristin’s grandmother inspired her to trust her heart and develop her own belief system, you'll be inspired to develop your own life philosophies, as you journey through some of Kristin's most vulnerable and humorous personal stories, in her constant pursuit to make the most out of life.

In each chapter, you'll find:


Behind-the-scenes stories from Kristin's personal life
High-design, colorful pages of inspirational quotes
Engaging prompts, prayers, and inspiring quotes

Oh, and a warning: There will be Bible verses. There will be f-bombs. Read responsibly.

I'm No Philosopher, But I Got Thoughts is the perfect book to pick up on days when you need an extra shot of encouragement, a little laughter, and a gentle reminder that kindness can take you a long way. This is a great gift to give for birthdays, holidays, graduations, Mother's Day, or for fans of Kristin Chenoweth, known for her Emmy Award–winning role in the ABC hit series Pushing Daisies and Broadway's Wicked.]]> 224 Kristin Chenoweth 1400228492 Kevin 5
Much of her philosophy is reminding readers there is rarely perfection: "no one gets through life perfectly in place like a bubble at the center of a carpenter's level," she writes. "Who would even want that?" But there are measures that can be used to help keep one's equilibrium, such as cultivating a circle of supportive friends and creating a lifestyle of self-care. Her Christian faith supports her, but she also discusses thinking beyond spoon-fed dogma and writes: "We should always be ready to question our faith."

Although she usually leans toward humor--"When in doubt: Think WW DOUBLE D! (What would Dolly do?")--Chenoweth also shares her own stories of growing up adopted and dealing with depression and loss. She writes of a longtime friend taking his own life during the Covid-19 quarantine. "The magnitude of this loss laid my bones bare," she writes. "The magnitude of my anger scared me." It took her a while to realize: "Pain is our invitation to the privilege of empathy. And loss--that brutal SOB--is evidence of love."

Her chapter on screwing up includes a hilarious tale of sending a basket of cookies and a note reading "Congratulations!" to what she thought was an event honoring an old friend, only to later find out it was the friend's funeral.

This breezy and buoyant self-help guide should find a lot of eager followers.]]> 3.51 2023
author: Kristin Chenoweth
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/01/28
shelves:
review:
Pint-sized powerhouse performer and Emmy and Tony award-winner Kristin Chenoweth (A Little Bit Wicked) offers upbeat and heartfelt philosophical musings in "I'm No Philosopher, But I Got Thoughts."

Much of her philosophy is reminding readers there is rarely perfection: "no one gets through life perfectly in place like a bubble at the center of a carpenter's level," she writes. "Who would even want that?" But there are measures that can be used to help keep one's equilibrium, such as cultivating a circle of supportive friends and creating a lifestyle of self-care. Her Christian faith supports her, but she also discusses thinking beyond spoon-fed dogma and writes: "We should always be ready to question our faith."

Although she usually leans toward humor--"When in doubt: Think WW DOUBLE D! (What would Dolly do?")--Chenoweth also shares her own stories of growing up adopted and dealing with depression and loss. She writes of a longtime friend taking his own life during the Covid-19 quarantine. "The magnitude of this loss laid my bones bare," she writes. "The magnitude of my anger scared me." It took her a while to realize: "Pain is our invitation to the privilege of empathy. And loss--that brutal SOB--is evidence of love."

Her chapter on screwing up includes a hilarious tale of sending a basket of cookies and a note reading "Congratulations!" to what she thought was an event honoring an old friend, only to later find out it was the friend's funeral.

This breezy and buoyant self-help guide should find a lot of eager followers.
]]> 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 Kevin 5
THE BOOK:

There was nothing ordinary about Paul Newman (1925-2008), the Oscar-winning actor, prize-winning race car driver and philanthropist who gave away more than $570 million to charities. In "The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man", Newman never dwells on his accomplishments and, instead, uses the memoir like a long therapy session for soul-searching. Plagued with chronic insecurity, he felt for most of his life like an impostor who achieved success through luck rather than talent.

Between 1986 and 1991, Newman (In Pursuit of the Common Good, with A.E. Hotchner) taped conversations with friend and screenwriter Stewart Stern, who also interviewed many of Newman's family, friends and coworkers. Newman lost interest. The audiotapes were transcribed and forgotten. This posthumous memoir is a chronological, multi-voiced oral history, distilled from the 14,000 transcript pages. Although there are tales of filming "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", "Hud" and "The Sting", Newman is more interested in discussing such serious issues as his alcoholism. Joanne Woodward, his wife of 50 years, says, "I used to think the only peace Paul ever found was that peace he used to find in being dead drunk." The addictive personality was passed down to his son, Scott, who died of a drug overdose at age 28. Newman writes with heartbreaking insight and guilt about his son's long descent into addiction, rehab and death.

This unforgettable and extraordinary memoir, one of the best and most compelling books of 2022, is a breathtakingly honest mea culpa from a complicated man striving to excavate his demons; according to Newman's daughter Clea, who writes the memoir's afterword, he succeeded in his final decades.

The UNABRIDGED AUDIOBOOK:

The multi-voiced audio production boasts a superb Jeff Daniels doing most of the heavy lifting, narrating the majority of the book as Paul Newman. Daniels captures the world-weariness and fragility of a world class actor who was still plagued with self-doubts, insecurities and alcohol use disorder. Newman’s daughters Melissa Newman and Clea Newman Soderlund read the book’s foreword and afterword. John Rubinstein reads Stern’s contributions, while Ari Fliakos reads other male voices (including directors Sidney Lumet and George Roy Hill), and Emily Wachtel and January LaVoy read the various women in Newman’s life (including Joanne Woodward, Patricia Neal, and Piper Laurie).

This gripping and emotionally wrenching memoir is given a top-notch multi-narrator production.]]> 3.83 2022
author: Paul Newman
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/10/21
date added: 2023/01/28
shelves:
review:
A REVIEW OF THE BOOK & THE AUNABRIDGED AUDIOBOOK

THE BOOK:

There was nothing ordinary about Paul Newman (1925-2008), the Oscar-winning actor, prize-winning race car driver and philanthropist who gave away more than $570 million to charities. In "The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man", Newman never dwells on his accomplishments and, instead, uses the memoir like a long therapy session for soul-searching. Plagued with chronic insecurity, he felt for most of his life like an impostor who achieved success through luck rather than talent.

Between 1986 and 1991, Newman (In Pursuit of the Common Good, with A.E. Hotchner) taped conversations with friend and screenwriter Stewart Stern, who also interviewed many of Newman's family, friends and coworkers. Newman lost interest. The audiotapes were transcribed and forgotten. This posthumous memoir is a chronological, multi-voiced oral history, distilled from the 14,000 transcript pages. Although there are tales of filming "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", "Hud" and "The Sting", Newman is more interested in discussing such serious issues as his alcoholism. Joanne Woodward, his wife of 50 years, says, "I used to think the only peace Paul ever found was that peace he used to find in being dead drunk." The addictive personality was passed down to his son, Scott, who died of a drug overdose at age 28. Newman writes with heartbreaking insight and guilt about his son's long descent into addiction, rehab and death.

This unforgettable and extraordinary memoir, one of the best and most compelling books of 2022, is a breathtakingly honest mea culpa from a complicated man striving to excavate his demons; according to Newman's daughter Clea, who writes the memoir's afterword, he succeeded in his final decades.

The UNABRIDGED AUDIOBOOK:

The multi-voiced audio production boasts a superb Jeff Daniels doing most of the heavy lifting, narrating the majority of the book as Paul Newman. Daniels captures the world-weariness and fragility of a world class actor who was still plagued with self-doubts, insecurities and alcohol use disorder. Newman’s daughters Melissa Newman and Clea Newman Soderlund read the book’s foreword and afterword. John Rubinstein reads Stern’s contributions, while Ari Fliakos reads other male voices (including directors Sidney Lumet and George Roy Hill), and Emily Wachtel and January LaVoy read the various women in Newman’s life (including Joanne Woodward, Patricia Neal, and Piper Laurie).

This gripping and emotionally wrenching memoir is given a top-notch multi-narrator production.
]]> 60653928 A celebration of and behind-the-scenes look at Jerry Seinfeld’s groundbreaking streaming series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.

In his streaming show, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Jerry Seinfeld has engaged with some of the funniest people in history in classic cars, coffee shops, and diners. He has reminisced with Larry David; bantered with legends Steve Martin, Tina Fey, and Eddie Murphy; reunited with the cast of Seinfeld; and even paid a visit to President Barack Obama in the Oval Office. These and dozens of other guests talked about the intricacies of stand-up, the evolution of their careers and personal lives, and whatever else popped into their brilliant minds. Seinfeld’s carefully crafted episodes have reimagined the talk show format, each one a unique, hilarious, and yet intimate conversation—a rare opportunity for viewers to witness their favorite performers unscripted and unvarnished. But in producing eighty-four episodes over eleven seasons, he has also created arguably the most important historical archive about the art of comedy ever amassed, with episodes featuring Garry Shandling, Jerry Lewis, Don Rickles, Carl Reiner, and Norm McDonald already serving as permanent shrines for legendary comedians.

Timed to the 10th anniversary of the show’s debut and with an introduction from Jerry Seinfeld, this book isn’t just a record of the show but instead an inventive tribute full of behind-the-scenes photos and anecdotes. The book dives into the inspiration and creation of segments, the most unforgettable lines from guests, an index of the cars, and some of the most memorable moments from crew members. Originally conceived as an “anti-talk show,� Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee earned multiple Emmy nominations and helped lead the streaming revolution.

The Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee Book is a beautifully designed book with iconic, never-before-seen production photos.]]> 352 Jerry Seinfeld 198211276X Kevin 5
The book opens with a fascinating oral history of the series� origin, including that Starbucks and Netflix both passed on sponsoring the show. Packed with color images, the book assembles back-and-forth banter between Seinfeld and other comedians in chapters devoted to topics like “Growing Up,� “Relationships,� “TV & Movies,� “Music,� “Money,� “Other Comedians,� “Sports,� and more.

It includes interviews with a roster of comedians who range from the veteran (Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Jerry Lewis, Don Rickles) to the contemporary (Steve Martin, Tina Fey, Howard Stern, Margaret Cho, David Letterman, Sarah Silverman, Chris Rock).

The conversations are hilarious, but the book is also rich with autobiographical tales of seeking a life on stage. This is not comedians trading jokes; they’re having real conversations filled with witty and astute observations.

Seinfeld collects funny and introspective conversations with several generations of world-class comedians. Ideal for those interested in stand-up comedy orclever observations about the world.]]> 3.75 2022
author: Jerry Seinfeld
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/01/27
shelves:
review:
Comedian Seinfeld’s (Is This Anything??) oversized photobook is a valentine to his 11-season TV series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (2012�19) and to the comedians he admired whom he interviewed on the show.

The book opens with a fascinating oral history of the series� origin, including that Starbucks and Netflix both passed on sponsoring the show. Packed with color images, the book assembles back-and-forth banter between Seinfeld and other comedians in chapters devoted to topics like “Growing Up,� “Relationships,� “TV & Movies,� “Music,� “Money,� “Other Comedians,� “Sports,� and more.

It includes interviews with a roster of comedians who range from the veteran (Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Jerry Lewis, Don Rickles) to the contemporary (Steve Martin, Tina Fey, Howard Stern, Margaret Cho, David Letterman, Sarah Silverman, Chris Rock).

The conversations are hilarious, but the book is also rich with autobiographical tales of seeking a life on stage. This is not comedians trading jokes; they’re having real conversations filled with witty and astute observations.

Seinfeld collects funny and introspective conversations with several generations of world-class comedians. Ideal for those interested in stand-up comedy orclever observations about the world.
]]> 61065813 Bono--artist, activist, and the lead singer of Irish rock band U2--has written a memoir: honest and irreverent, intimate and profound, Surrender is the story of the remarkable life he's lived, the challenges he's faced, and the friends and family who have shaped and sustained him.

"When I started to write this book, I was hoping to draw in detail what I'd previously only sketched in songs. The people, places, and possibilities in my life. Surrender is a word freighted with meaning for me. Growing up in Ireland in the seventies with my fists up (musically speaking), it was not a natural concept. A word I only circled until I gathered my thoughts for the book. I am still grappling with this most humbling of commands. In the band, in my marriage, in my faith, in my life as an activist. Surrender is the story of one pilgrim's lack of progress ... With a fair amount of fun along the way." --Bono

As one of the music world's most iconic artists and the cofounder of the organizations ONE and (RED), Bono's career has been written about extensively. But in Surrender, it's Bono who picks up the pen, writing for the first time about his remarkable life and those he has shared it with. In his unique voice, Bono takes us from his early days growing up in Dublin, including the sudden loss of his mother when he was fourteen, to U2's unlikely journey to become one of the world's most influential rock bands, to his more than twenty years of activism dedicated to the fight against AIDS and extreme poverty. Writing with candor, self-reflection, and humor, Bono opens the aperture on his life--and the family, friends, and faith that have sustained, challenged, and shaped him.

Surrender's subtitle, 40 Songs, One Story, is a nod to the book's forty chapters, which are each named after a U2 song. Bono has also created forty original drawings for Surrender, which appear throughout the book.]]> 564 Bono 0525521046 Kevin 5
Not content with writing one of the best memoirs of 2022, Bono has turned the creativity amp to 11 by making the memoir’s audiobook version into a rapturous blend of music, sound effects, vintage sound clips, and of course, his own mesmerizing narration.

For instance, when Bono talks about dreaming that he’s in a movie, listeners hear an old film projector begin to spin and old-timey movie music plays under his narration. Bono begins his memoir in 2016, as he’s about to undergo an eight-hour surgery to correct his heart’s aortic valve.

Each of the 40 subsequent chapters is named after a U2 song, and each chapter begins with or stripped-down acoustic or live versions of those songs, in music clips that run between 20 and 90 seconds. Bono provides the vocals, although musician the Edge pops up periodically, including singing the falsetto lead on “Desire.� Although these musical snippets are short, they sound newly recorded, rather than clipped from existing album tracks. When Bono remembers watching the 1969 moon landing, Neil Armstrong’s “one small step for man� speech plays quietly under Bono’s narration.

An innovative and wildly entertaining audiobook.

Bono’s epic, introspective memoir is given an impressive music-filled production. It’s certainly one of the best audiobooks of the year.]]> 4.19 2022
author: Bono
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/01/27
shelves:
review:
REVIEW OF BONO READING HIS EPIC MEMOIR.

Not content with writing one of the best memoirs of 2022, Bono has turned the creativity amp to 11 by making the memoir’s audiobook version into a rapturous blend of music, sound effects, vintage sound clips, and of course, his own mesmerizing narration.

For instance, when Bono talks about dreaming that he’s in a movie, listeners hear an old film projector begin to spin and old-timey movie music plays under his narration. Bono begins his memoir in 2016, as he’s about to undergo an eight-hour surgery to correct his heart’s aortic valve.

Each of the 40 subsequent chapters is named after a U2 song, and each chapter begins with or stripped-down acoustic or live versions of those songs, in music clips that run between 20 and 90 seconds. Bono provides the vocals, although musician the Edge pops up periodically, including singing the falsetto lead on “Desire.� Although these musical snippets are short, they sound newly recorded, rather than clipped from existing album tracks. When Bono remembers watching the 1969 moon landing, Neil Armstrong’s “one small step for man� speech plays quietly under Bono’s narration.

An innovative and wildly entertaining audiobook.

Bono’s epic, introspective memoir is given an impressive music-filled production. It’s certainly one of the best audiobooks of the year.
]]> 60382859 240 Millie De Chirico 0762480009 Kevin 5
Celebrating movies that critics have often dismissed as “bad,� the authors cast a very wide net, from popular cult directors including John Waters (Polyester), William Castle (I Saw What You Did), David Cronenberg (The Brood), and Roger Corman (The Trip), to the more obscure auteurs like Andy Milligan (Fleshpot on 42nd Street), Lizzie Borden (Born in Flames), and Jamaa Fanaka (Emma Mae). Genres include Blaxploitation (Blacula), film noir (Shack Out on 101), dark comedies (Eating Raoul), teen sex comedies (Little Darlings), musicals (Xanadu), slasher films (Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker), foreign horror (Japan’s Hausu; Italy’s The House By the Cemetery), and documentaries (Penelope Spheeris’s Decline of Western Civilization trilogy).

These are films the authors are passionate about, and although they lampoon the camp aspects of some of the films (one of their best summations is “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is like an episode of The Monkees with boobs.�), they are never dismissive.

Adventurous film buffs will enjoy the keen-eyed observations and backstories about these obscure, odd, and underappreciated films.]]> 4.02
author: Millie De Chirico
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.02
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/01/27
shelves:
review:
De Chirico, chief programmer for TCM Underground, and film critic Murry have compiled a supremely knowledgeable, thoughtfully astute, and good-humored guide to 50 campy, bizarre and weird movies.

Celebrating movies that critics have often dismissed as “bad,� the authors cast a very wide net, from popular cult directors including John Waters (Polyester), William Castle (I Saw What You Did), David Cronenberg (The Brood), and Roger Corman (The Trip), to the more obscure auteurs like Andy Milligan (Fleshpot on 42nd Street), Lizzie Borden (Born in Flames), and Jamaa Fanaka (Emma Mae). Genres include Blaxploitation (Blacula), film noir (Shack Out on 101), dark comedies (Eating Raoul), teen sex comedies (Little Darlings), musicals (Xanadu), slasher films (Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker), foreign horror (Japan’s Hausu; Italy’s The House By the Cemetery), and documentaries (Penelope Spheeris’s Decline of Western Civilization trilogy).

These are films the authors are passionate about, and although they lampoon the camp aspects of some of the films (one of their best summations is “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is like an episode of The Monkees with boobs.�), they are never dismissive.

Adventurous film buffs will enjoy the keen-eyed observations and backstories about these obscure, odd, and underappreciated films.
]]> 60420671
In this nuanced mix of memoir, photographs, motivational musings, and wisdom, legendary celebrity stylist Ty Hunter recounts both the trying times and brightest moments of his life. Faced with physical, mental, and emotional obstacles that range from a gunshot wound to caring for his sick parents to simply existing as a Black, gay man in America, Ty channeled his energy into surmounting the unconquerable, along the way developing a resilient spirit—one that begs to be shared with the world.

In overcoming his own hardships and blossoming in his career as a stylist, where he worked with superstars like Beyoncé and Billy Porter, Ty has developed a knack for inspiring self-confidence in others. Perfect for the unstoppable badass in your life, this book tells the story of a vibrant soul who defeated the odds and whose goal is to guide you to a brighter and more positive future.

DISTINGUISHED Ty Hunter was Beyoncé's stylist for 18 years, currently works as Billy Porter's head stylist, and launched a fashion line with A Cloud. Ty's substantial following on Instagram, where he shares motivational life advice, demonstrates high demand for his words of wisdom.
Ěý
SUPERSTAR Featuring a foreword by multi-platinum Grammy award–winning singer, songwriter, and actress Beyoncé and afterword by multi-award-winning actor, singer, and author Billy Porter.
Ěý
A GREAT READ AND This gorgeous book is perfect for birthdays, holidays, Pride celebrations, or any other day that needs some positive energy.
Ěý
INSPIRING This book sends a bold and inspiring message to underdogs everywhere that they can overcome the impossible and thrive.Ěý
Ěý
Perfect ]]> 208 Ty Hunter 1797217526 Kevin 3
In 2012, a conversation with President Barack Obama convinced him to step back and look for new challenges. He designed shirts, fitness apparel and shoes for Foot Locker, created a clothing line for Hyundai and developed a phone case designed to provide perfectly lit selfies. He also found fulfillment in motivational speaking. Sprinkled throughout the book are encouraging "Ty's Takeaways," including: "There are no rehearsals for life, so live as if the spotlight is on you" and "Dark times give you what you need to become who you were meant to be."

Hunter reveals that his life wasn't always so upbeat. Despite the strong women in his life--his mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, who supported him as a Black, gay and sensitive young man--he was plagued for years by internalized homophobia. He survived a shooting at age 20, but it took several months before he could learn to walk again. His coming out was extremely messy. In his early 20s, he was dating both a man and a woman. His worlds collided when his girlfriend got pregnant and his boyfriend began blackmailing him when he chose to stay with the baby's mother.

Although his life has been littered with setbacks, Hunter's winning optimism makes this a truly inspiring memoir. ]]> 3.79
author: Ty Hunter
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.79
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/27
date added: 2023/01/27
shelves:
review:
Ty Hunter's buoyant personality shines brightly in "Makeover from Within", a combination of a memoir and a motivational pep talk, cowritten with Eila Mell and packed with color photos. Hunter originally gained fame for his attention-grabbing work styling Destiny's Child in 1999 and, later, for working as Beyonce's stylist when she became a solo artist.

In 2012, a conversation with President Barack Obama convinced him to step back and look for new challenges. He designed shirts, fitness apparel and shoes for Foot Locker, created a clothing line for Hyundai and developed a phone case designed to provide perfectly lit selfies. He also found fulfillment in motivational speaking. Sprinkled throughout the book are encouraging "Ty's Takeaways," including: "There are no rehearsals for life, so live as if the spotlight is on you" and "Dark times give you what you need to become who you were meant to be."

Hunter reveals that his life wasn't always so upbeat. Despite the strong women in his life--his mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, who supported him as a Black, gay and sensitive young man--he was plagued for years by internalized homophobia. He survived a shooting at age 20, but it took several months before he could learn to walk again. His coming out was extremely messy. In his early 20s, he was dating both a man and a woman. His worlds collided when his girlfriend got pregnant and his boyfriend began blackmailing him when he chose to stay with the baby's mother.

Although his life has been littered with setbacks, Hunter's winning optimism makes this a truly inspiring memoir.
]]> 60321064
Long before Gene Roddenberry put him on a starship to explore the galaxy, long before he actually did venture to space, William Shatner was gripped by his own quest for knowledge and meaning. Though his eventful life has been nothing short of extraordinary, Shatner is still never so thrilled as when he experiences something that inspires him to simply say, “Wow.�

Within these affecting, entertaining, and informative essays, he demonstrates that astonishing possibilities and true wonder are all around us. By revealing stories of his life—some delightful, others tragic—Shatner reflects on what he has learned along the way to his ninth decade and how important it is to apply the joy of exploration to our own lives. “A refreshingly self-aware portrait of a man determined to live every moment to the fullest� ( Publishers Weekly ), Boldly Go is an unputdownable celebration of all that our miraculous universe holds for us.]]> 256 William Shatner 1668007320 Kevin 5 At 91 years old, Shatner narrates with vitality and the same wry humor fans have loved for decades. There’s no mistaking his strong and distinct voice. He keeps listeners alert with his pacing—a great gush of words followed by a slower cadence that accentuates specific phrases. Classic Shatner.

This is Shatner’s 11th nonfiction book, and it’s a mix of memoir and ruminations about life, regrets, and his quest to make himself a better person even in his ninth decade. The audiobook opens with Shatner swimming with sharks after his 90th birthday. “I have an inverted instinct for danger,� he says. “My mind doesn’t run screaming away from it; it somehow forces me to run toward danger.� Essays range from attending "Star Trek" conventions, grappling with the death of Leonard Nimoy while they were estranged, the importance of family, and his spiritual (rather than religious) beliefs.

He also discusses how he and his fourth wife of more than 20 years divorced in 2020. “But only on paper,� he explains—for inheritance purposes. “Some may call it modern,� he says. “Others may call it strange.�

Shatner’s upbeat collections of thoughtful musings is read with verve and good humor.]]> 3.82 2022
author: William Shatner
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/27
date added: 2023/01/27
shelves:
review:
A REVIEW OF THE AUDIOBOOK READ BY WILLIAM SHATNER.
At 91 years old, Shatner narrates with vitality and the same wry humor fans have loved for decades. There’s no mistaking his strong and distinct voice. He keeps listeners alert with his pacing—a great gush of words followed by a slower cadence that accentuates specific phrases. Classic Shatner.

This is Shatner’s 11th nonfiction book, and it’s a mix of memoir and ruminations about life, regrets, and his quest to make himself a better person even in his ninth decade. The audiobook opens with Shatner swimming with sharks after his 90th birthday. “I have an inverted instinct for danger,� he says. “My mind doesn’t run screaming away from it; it somehow forces me to run toward danger.� Essays range from attending "Star Trek" conventions, grappling with the death of Leonard Nimoy while they were estranged, the importance of family, and his spiritual (rather than religious) beliefs.

He also discusses how he and his fourth wife of more than 20 years divorced in 2020. “But only on paper,� he explains—for inheritance purposes. “Some may call it modern,� he says. “Others may call it strange.�

Shatner’s upbeat collections of thoughtful musings is read with verve and good humor.
]]> 955725
W szczerej do bólu książce Priscilla Presley zdradza sekrety małżeństwa z królem rock'n'rolla.

Blisko pół wieku po śmierci Elvis nadal ma miliony fanów na całym świecie. Potrafimy zanucić niejeden jego przebój, ale czy wiemy, jaki był, gdy gasły światła reflektorów? Czy to możliwe, że seksowny i czarujący piosenkarz pod cekinowymi strojami skrywał niebezpieczne oblicze maniaka?

Nikt nie był z nim tak blisko jak żona. Zakochali się w sobie, gdy Priscilla miała czternaście lat, młodzieńcza fascynacja szybko zakończyła się bajkowym ślubem w Las Vegas, a uwieńczeniem gorącego romansu było przyjście na świat Lisy Marie.

Idylla nie trwała jednak długo. Im dłużej byli razem, tym bardziej Priscilla traciła kontrolę nad własnym życiem. Elvis mówił jej, jak ma się ubierać, malować, jak chodzić. Traktował jak lalkę, którą może ukształtować według swojego gustu. Otoczona tłumami, skandującymi fanami i blaskiem legendy kobieta przez lata walczy z samotnością.

Priscilla opowiada o wielkiej miłości, ale i zdradach męża, jego nałogach i słabościach. O toksycznej relacji, skandalach, zamknięciu w złotej klatce. Mówi o rozwodzie oraz więzi, która łączyła ich aż do tragicznej śmierci Elvisa. A w końcu o emancypacji i wyjściu z cienia ikony seksu. Fakty, które ujawnia szokują i budzą kontrowersje.

Lektura obowiązkowa � nie tylko dla fanów Elvisa.]]> 320 Priscilla Beaulieu Presley 0425091031 Kevin 5
It took 37 years, but Presley’s best-selling autobiography has finally become an unabridged audiobook with the 77-year-old actress reading her own story in a strong, expressive, and seductive voice that sounds exactly as she did three decades ago on TV’s "Dallas."

This memoir of her 18-year relationship with Elvis Presley was pretty juicy reading back in 1985, and her story still packs a punch. She met the swivel-hipped singer when she was 14. Early on, she saw his daily prescription drug use: sedatives to fight his insomnia, amphetamines to combat his grogginess, and (encouraged by his movie studio) diet pills to keep weight off.

They wed in 1967 when she was 21. “Over the years,� she says, “he became my father, my husband, and very nearly my god.� Both were prone to jealousy and numerous affairs. She tells and reads her tale with compassion for her ex-husband (who died at age 42 in 1977) and mourns the numerous reasons their marriage failed.

Presley’s smooth, expressive, and confidential reading gives listeners the feeling that she’s revealing this very intimate portrait of a troubled man and their not-so fairy-tale marriage to their ears only.]]> 3.95 1985
author: Priscilla Beaulieu Presley
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1985
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/27
date added: 2023/01/27
shelves:
review:
A REVIEW OF THE AUDIOBOOK READ BY PRISCILLA.

It took 37 years, but Presley’s best-selling autobiography has finally become an unabridged audiobook with the 77-year-old actress reading her own story in a strong, expressive, and seductive voice that sounds exactly as she did three decades ago on TV’s "Dallas."

This memoir of her 18-year relationship with Elvis Presley was pretty juicy reading back in 1985, and her story still packs a punch. She met the swivel-hipped singer when she was 14. Early on, she saw his daily prescription drug use: sedatives to fight his insomnia, amphetamines to combat his grogginess, and (encouraged by his movie studio) diet pills to keep weight off.

They wed in 1967 when she was 21. “Over the years,� she says, “he became my father, my husband, and very nearly my god.� Both were prone to jealousy and numerous affairs. She tells and reads her tale with compassion for her ex-husband (who died at age 42 in 1977) and mourns the numerous reasons their marriage failed.

Presley’s smooth, expressive, and confidential reading gives listeners the feeling that she’s revealing this very intimate portrait of a troubled man and their not-so fairy-tale marriage to their ears only.
]]> 59366226
Elliott appears to be living the dream as a successful TV writer with a doting boyfriend. But behind his Instagram filter of a life, he’s grappling with an intensifying alcohol addiction, he can’t seem to stop cheating on his boyfriend with various sex workers, and his cerebral palsy is making him feel like gay Shrek.

After falling down a rabbit hole of sex, drinking, and Hollywood backstabbing, Elliott decides to limp his way towards redemption. But facing your demons is easier said than done.

“With his singular voice and unforgettable wit� (Steven Rowley, author of The Guncle ), Ryan O’Connell presents a candid, biting, and refreshingly real commentary on gay life, laugh-out-loud exploration of self, and a rare insight into life as a person with disabilities.]]> 304 Ryan O'Connell 1982178582 Kevin 5
O’Connell’s (I’m Special) debut novel has been turned into a firecracker of an audiobook, thanks to O’Connell’s lively, energetic, and sardonic reading. He is a superb reader. Whether he’s laughing, yelling, or sighing, his adroit vocal acrobatics have been well honed by his acting roles on "Special" and the updated reboot of "Queer as Folk".

Elliott, a gay TV writer with cerebral palsy, seems to be having a quarter-life crisis. He hates his job writing for a mindless sitcom, and says that he and his overly accommodating boyfriend, Gus, are “baseline happy together.� He’s beginning to realize “You could love someone and want to lose them at the same time.� His drinking has accelerated and he’s begun hiring sex workers (including one named River, whose online profile handle is “A River runs through you.�).

Elliott is furious at people prejudging him by the physical evidence of his cerebral palsy (what he calls his “booby trap�filled body�), but he prejudges overly attractive men. Although there’s a lot of sex (a lot of sex), this comedic novel is not frivolous—it tackles alcoholism, self-love, chronic diseases, and complicated relationships.

O’Connell’s high-spirited reading makes this one of the most entertaining audiobooks of the year.]]> 3.71 2022
author: Ryan O'Connell
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/27
date added: 2023/01/27
shelves:
review:
Review of the AUDIOBOOK read by the author.

O’Connell’s (I’m Special) debut novel has been turned into a firecracker of an audiobook, thanks to O’Connell’s lively, energetic, and sardonic reading. He is a superb reader. Whether he’s laughing, yelling, or sighing, his adroit vocal acrobatics have been well honed by his acting roles on "Special" and the updated reboot of "Queer as Folk".

Elliott, a gay TV writer with cerebral palsy, seems to be having a quarter-life crisis. He hates his job writing for a mindless sitcom, and says that he and his overly accommodating boyfriend, Gus, are “baseline happy together.� He’s beginning to realize “You could love someone and want to lose them at the same time.� His drinking has accelerated and he’s begun hiring sex workers (including one named River, whose online profile handle is “A River runs through you.�).

Elliott is furious at people prejudging him by the physical evidence of his cerebral palsy (what he calls his “booby trap�filled body�), but he prejudges overly attractive men. Although there’s a lot of sex (a lot of sex), this comedic novel is not frivolous—it tackles alcoholism, self-love, chronic diseases, and complicated relationships.

O’Connell’s high-spirited reading makes this one of the most entertaining audiobooks of the year.
]]> 60883116
Songs that sell the most copies become hits, but some of those hits become something more—iconic recordings that not only inspire a generation but also change the direction of music. In Anatomy of 55 More Songs, based on his column for the Wall Street Journal, music journalist and historian Marc Myers tells the story behind fifty-five rock, pop, R&B, country, and soul-gospel hits through intimate interviews with the artists who wrote and recorded them.

Part oral history, part musical analysis, Anatomy of 55 More Songs ranges from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising� to Dionne Warwick’s “Walk On By,� the Beach Boys� “Good Vibrations,� and Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid.� Bernie Taupin recalls how he wrote the lyrics to Elton John’s “Rocket Man�; Joan Jett remembers channeling her rage against how she had been unfairly labeled and treated as a female rocker into “Bad Reputation�; and Ozzy Osbourne, Elvis Costello, Bob Weir, Sheryl Crow, Alice Cooper, Roberta Flack, John Mellencamp, Keith Richards, Carly Simon, and many others reveal the emotions and technique behind their major works.

Through an absorbing, chronological, song-by-song analysis of the most memorable post-war hits, Anatomy of 55 More Songs provides a sweeping look at the evolution of pop music between 1964 and today. This book will change how you listen to music and evaluate the artists who create it.]]> 384 Marc Myers 0802160204 Kevin 5
Joan Jett recalls "Bad Reputation" being written in a rage when--after her first group, the Runaways, disbanded--record labels were wary of her bad-girl image. Blondie cofounders Debbie Harry and Chris Stein remember adding a rap to "Rapture" in 1980. "Rap was an anomaly then," Stein notes. "It hadn't become mainstream." Discussing the difference between performing the song "Truckin'" live and recording in a studio, the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir says: "This is one of the reasons why we famously didn't make good studio records. We played too goddamn loud in there."

Myers's interviews offer a wealth of fun and illuminating anecdotes for songs, including The Band's "The Weight," T. Rex's "Bang a Gong (Get It On)," Elton John's "Rocket Man," Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly with His Song," The Spinners' "I'll Be Around" and The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations."

Audiophiles will love this tasty collection of oral histories of great songs, told by those who created them.]]> 3.84 2022
author: Marc Myers
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/27
date added: 2023/01/27
shelves:
review:
Marc Myers's follow-up to "Anatomy of a Song" collects 55 additional oral histories of songs that are both beloved and iconic. Each of the profiled songs are arranged chronologically. Myers (Rock Concert) first places the song's impact within its genre and shares its importance to the artist or group who recorded it. For the second part of each oral history, Myers interviews musicians, composers, producers and others who tell the story of each song's development and creation. The songs profiled range in date from 1964 (Dionne Warwick's "Walk on By" and Martha and the Vandellas' "Dancing in the Streets") to 1996 (Sheryl Crow's "If It Makes You Happy").

Joan Jett recalls "Bad Reputation" being written in a rage when--after her first group, the Runaways, disbanded--record labels were wary of her bad-girl image. Blondie cofounders Debbie Harry and Chris Stein remember adding a rap to "Rapture" in 1980. "Rap was an anomaly then," Stein notes. "It hadn't become mainstream." Discussing the difference between performing the song "Truckin'" live and recording in a studio, the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir says: "This is one of the reasons why we famously didn't make good studio records. We played too goddamn loud in there."

Myers's interviews offer a wealth of fun and illuminating anecdotes for songs, including The Band's "The Weight," T. Rex's "Bang a Gong (Get It On)," Elton John's "Rocket Man," Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly with His Song," The Spinners' "I'll Be Around" and The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations."

Audiophiles will love this tasty collection of oral histories of great songs, told by those who created them.
]]> 60316996
"There's an art to making toast and Prue Leith knows it."--Yotam Ottolenghi

75 delicious things on toast from beloved British foodie Prue Leith.

There is nothing more comforting and delicious than toast. And when you top it with a few cleverly paired ingredients, it becomes a full meal―not to mention pure bliss. In Bliss on Toast , Great British Baking Show judge Prue Leith toasts sourdoughs, focaccias, baguettes, flatbreads and more, then pairs them with everything from seasonal vegetables to meat and fish. The collection spans healthy, hearty, salty, and sometimes sweet. Ideal for a busy home cook who loves a full and balanced plate, the recipes are incredibly versatile and perfect for any time of the tomatoes, shallots, and oregano on black olive toas t ; grilled chicken tikka with yogurt on naan ; smoked salmon, wasabi, and avocado on multigrain bread ; and bananas and ice cream with brandy syrup on panettone . Bliss on Toast is as much a toolkit for quick fridge-raids as it is inspiration for seasonal delights. With 82 years� experience of good eating and 60 years of cooking, writing about and judging food, there is no one who better knows what makes a meal bliss than Prue Leith.]]> 192 Prue Leith 1639730710 Kevin 3
Her tasty recipes are divided into chapters for dishes that include cheese and eggs; vegetarian and vegan ingredients; fish; meat and poultry; and desserts. The cookbook's simple but stylish layout presents one full-page photo of the dish opposite a one-page recipe with tips. Particularly mouthwatering and tempting are scrambled eggs with fried prosciutto on sourdough; fried halloumi cheese in pita pockets; ham and burrata on toasted croissants; and bananas and ice cream with brandy syrup on panettone. Delicious!]]> 3.47
author: Prue Leith
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.47
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/27
date added: 2023/01/27
shelves:
review:
Prue Leith (The Vegetarian Kitchen) is best known for judging "The Great British Bake Off." BLISS ON TOAST is a salute to her favorite Sunday night comfort food--hot food served on toasted bread. Novice cooks will love her laid-back attitude about using bottled, canned and ready-made ingredients in her recipes.

Her tasty recipes are divided into chapters for dishes that include cheese and eggs; vegetarian and vegan ingredients; fish; meat and poultry; and desserts. The cookbook's simple but stylish layout presents one full-page photo of the dish opposite a one-page recipe with tips. Particularly mouthwatering and tempting are scrambled eggs with fried prosciutto on sourdough; fried halloumi cheese in pita pockets; ham and burrata on toasted croissants; and bananas and ice cream with brandy syrup on panettone. Delicious!
]]> 60708721
Horror movies hold a complicated space in the hearts of the queer community: historically misogynist, and often homo- and transphobic, the genre has also been inadvertently feminist and open to subversive readings. Common tropes—such as the circumspect and resilient “final girl,� body possession, costumed villains, secret identities, and things that lurk in the closet—spark moments of eerie familiarity and affective connection. Still, viewers often remain tasked with reading themselves into beloved films, seeking out characters and set pieces that speak to, mirror, and parallel the unique ways queerness encounters the world.

"It Came from the Closet" features twenty-five original essays by writers speaking to this relationship, through connections both empowering and oppressive. From Carmen Maria Machado on "Jennifer’s Body", Jude Ellison S. Doyle on "In My Skin", Addie Tsai on "Dead Ringers", and many more, these conversations convey the rich reciprocity between queerness and horror.]]> 298 Joe Vallese 1952177790 Kevin 5
Sachiko Ragosta explains how "Eyes Without a Face" parallels their own transition story. Will Stockton sorts through his mixed emotions as a kid who loved horror films but is now unsettled by his troubled son's new Chucky doll. Interpreting "Halloween" as a coming-out story, Richard Scott Larson reflects on the physical and emotional masks people wear to hide their identities. Laura Maw recalls her girlhood crush on the character Annie, a teacher played by Suzanne Pleshette, in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds." Tosha R. Taylor compares Lon Chaney Jr.'s character in "The Wolf Man"--someone who can't contain the monster inside himself and whose father believes he can be cured--with her own childhood under her homophobic father and placating mother. S. Trimble's thoughtful essay on "The Exorcist" admits rooting for the monster; she writes: "Horror helped me love my terrible truths, the things about me that disquieted others."

Other films examined include "Hereditary", "Pet Sematary", "The Blob", "Godzilla", "A Nightmare on Elm Street", "Get Out", the "Friday the 13th" franchise and "Sleepaway Camp", which editor Joe Vallese (What's Your Exit?, with Alicia A. Beale) calls "the at once deeply transphobic and effusively homoerotic cult slasher."

This entertaining essay collection is filled with smart observations and touching autobiographical tales.]]> 4.16 2022
author: Joe Vallese
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/27
date added: 2023/01/27
shelves:
review:
IT CAME FROM THE CLOSET is a highly engaging and thought-provoking collection of 25 essays by LGBTQ+ writers relating how horror films are seen through their queer gaze and how those films informed their gay identities. Many of the essays read as memoir pieces as much as film profiles, but they're all fascinating and well written.

Sachiko Ragosta explains how "Eyes Without a Face" parallels their own transition story. Will Stockton sorts through his mixed emotions as a kid who loved horror films but is now unsettled by his troubled son's new Chucky doll. Interpreting "Halloween" as a coming-out story, Richard Scott Larson reflects on the physical and emotional masks people wear to hide their identities. Laura Maw recalls her girlhood crush on the character Annie, a teacher played by Suzanne Pleshette, in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds." Tosha R. Taylor compares Lon Chaney Jr.'s character in "The Wolf Man"--someone who can't contain the monster inside himself and whose father believes he can be cured--with her own childhood under her homophobic father and placating mother. S. Trimble's thoughtful essay on "The Exorcist" admits rooting for the monster; she writes: "Horror helped me love my terrible truths, the things about me that disquieted others."

Other films examined include "Hereditary", "Pet Sematary", "The Blob", "Godzilla", "A Nightmare on Elm Street", "Get Out", the "Friday the 13th" franchise and "Sleepaway Camp", which editor Joe Vallese (What's Your Exit?, with Alicia A. Beale) calls "the at once deeply transphobic and effusively homoerotic cult slasher."

This entertaining essay collection is filled with smart observations and touching autobiographical tales.
]]> 61328377 304 Ken Feil 0814346049 Kevin 5
The first two chapters examine VALLEY OF THE DOLLS and THE LOVE MACHINE, the latter being Susann's only novel with a happy ending. Feil then looks at how Susann tweaked and challenged taste and gender norms and was "the product of numerous closets." Only in her novels could she write about her bisexuality, non-monogamous marriage, being Jewish, having an autistic son, managing addictions and living with breast cancer. Feil also examines several biographical movies and plays about Susann, including Paul Rudnick's "Isn't She Great" and Michele Gallery's "Scandalous Me." The final chapter looks at the legacy of Susann's sensibility, most notably in SEX AND THE CITY, Lee Daniels's TV series STAR and the work of Carrie Fisher. Fisher's heroine in POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE is named Suzanne Vale, a playful combination of Susann and valley.

Feil expertly exposes how Susann planted her most subversive material and queer insights into the margins of her novels. This is literary criticism at its most eloquent, impressively researched and saucy.]]> 3.14
author: Ken Feil
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.14
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/27
date added: 2023/01/27
shelves: jacqueline-susann, valley-of-the-dolls, camp, queer
review:
When Jacqueline Susann died at age 56 in 1974, The Guinness Book of World Records declared her first novel, VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, the bestselling novel in the world. Her undisputed popularity with readers was matched by the hostility critics heaped upon her. Ken Feil (Dying for a Laugh) skillfully rehabilitates her critical reputation with this persuasive reevaluation of her work, which undermines the sanitized wholesomeness of Hollywood heterosexual romance with a "comedy of bad manners." As Feil notes in FEARLESS VULGARITY: "Overlooking humor in Jackie Susann's work negates the core of her queer, feminist agency and the complicated delights her bestsellers furnished."

The first two chapters examine VALLEY OF THE DOLLS and THE LOVE MACHINE, the latter being Susann's only novel with a happy ending. Feil then looks at how Susann tweaked and challenged taste and gender norms and was "the product of numerous closets." Only in her novels could she write about her bisexuality, non-monogamous marriage, being Jewish, having an autistic son, managing addictions and living with breast cancer. Feil also examines several biographical movies and plays about Susann, including Paul Rudnick's "Isn't She Great" and Michele Gallery's "Scandalous Me." The final chapter looks at the legacy of Susann's sensibility, most notably in SEX AND THE CITY, Lee Daniels's TV series STAR and the work of Carrie Fisher. Fisher's heroine in POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE is named Suzanne Vale, a playful combination of Susann and valley.

Feil expertly exposes how Susann planted her most subversive material and queer insights into the margins of her novels. This is literary criticism at its most eloquent, impressively researched and saucy.
]]> 60409964 In this first of a groundbreaking multivolume set, THE MCCARTNEY LEGACY, VOL 1: 1969-73 captures the life of Paul McCartney in the years immediately following the dissolution of the Beatles, a period in which McCartney recreated himself as both a man and a musician. Informed by hundreds of interviews, extensive ground up research, and thousands of never-before-seen documents THE MCCARTNEY LEGACY, VOL 1 is an in depth, revealing exploration of McCartney’s creative and personal lives beyond the Beatles.

When Paul McCartney issued a press release in April 1970 announcing that the world’s most beloved band, the Beatles, had broken up no one could have predicted that McCartney himself would go on to have one of the most successful solo careers in music history. Yet in the years after the Fab Four disbanded, Paul McCartney became a legend in his own right. Now journalist and world-renowned Beatles� historian Allan Kozinn and award-winning documentarian Adrian Sinclair chronicle in technicolor McCartney’s pivotal years from 1969 to 1973, as he recreated himself in the immediate aftermath of the Beatles breakup � a period when, newly married and with a growing family, he conquered depression and self-doubt, formed a new band, Wings, and recorded five epochal albums culminating in the triumphant smash, Band on the Run.

Part 1 of a multivolume set, THE MCCARTNEY LEGACY, VOL. 1 documents a pivotal moment in the life of a man whose legacy grows increasingly more relevant as his influence on music and pop culture remains as relevant as ever. It is the first truly comprehensive biography, and the most finely detailed exploration of McCartney’s creative life beyond the Beatles, ever undertaken.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.]]> 720 Allan Kozinn 0063000709 Kevin 5
This fascinating, deeply detailed and comprehensive look at McCartney's post-Beatles work and his struggles to create it also examines the alcohol-fueled depression he suffered after the Beatles broke up, exacerbated by "a year of business disputes that had been a live third rail within the band's dynamic." Newly wed to Linda Eastman, McCartney kept writing and recording at her encouragement. The love song "Maybe I'm Amazed" was written for her and was the first single released from his debut solo album, McCartney.

McCartney wasn't interviewed for this bio, but Kozinn interviewed him numerous times over the years, and the two authors use thousands of radio and TV Q&As and tens of thousands of print interviews. They also talked to hundreds of people in the music business who worked closely with McCartney. Though countless books have been written about the Beatles and their individual members, most focus on the group's decade-long life span rather than the productive five decades that followed the break-up.

"The McCartney Legacy" is a great achievement, extensively researched to correct errors that have become legend, and paints a fascinating portrait of an artist re-creating himself.]]> 4.48
author: Allan Kozinn
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.48
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/27
date added: 2023/01/27
shelves:
review:
Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair explain that "The McCartney Legacy: Volume 1: 1969-73" began as a sessionography of Paul McCartney's music after the Beatles, but they ended up creating a biography "by mistake." Some mistake! This 720-page book covers just five years in McCartney's life: his period of rebirth and reinvention between 1969 and 1973. During this time, the Beatles broke up and, in 1971, McCartney formed Wings. In five years, he released five albums.

This fascinating, deeply detailed and comprehensive look at McCartney's post-Beatles work and his struggles to create it also examines the alcohol-fueled depression he suffered after the Beatles broke up, exacerbated by "a year of business disputes that had been a live third rail within the band's dynamic." Newly wed to Linda Eastman, McCartney kept writing and recording at her encouragement. The love song "Maybe I'm Amazed" was written for her and was the first single released from his debut solo album, McCartney.

McCartney wasn't interviewed for this bio, but Kozinn interviewed him numerous times over the years, and the two authors use thousands of radio and TV Q&As and tens of thousands of print interviews. They also talked to hundreds of people in the music business who worked closely with McCartney. Though countless books have been written about the Beatles and their individual members, most focus on the group's decade-long life span rather than the productive five decades that followed the break-up.

"The McCartney Legacy" is a great achievement, extensively researched to correct errors that have become legend, and paints a fascinating portrait of an artist re-creating himself.
]]> 63035127 Everyone has the same questions about best friends Owen and Luna: What binds them together so tightly? Why weren't they ever a couple? And why do people around them keep turning up dead? In this riveting novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Passenger, every answer raises a new, more chilling question.

Owen Mann is charming, privileged, and chronically dissatisfied. Luna Grey is secretive, cautious, and pragmatic. Despite their differences, they begin forming a bond the moment they meet in college. Their names soon become indivisible--Owen and Luna, Luna and Owen--and stay that way even after an unexplained death rocks their social circle.

Years later, they're still best friends when Luna finds Owen's wife brutally murdered. The police investigation sheds some light on long-hidden secrets, but it can't penetrate the wall of mystery that surrounds Owen. To get to the heart of what happened and why, Luna has to dig up the one secret she's spent her whole life burying.
The Accomplice examines the bonds of shared history, what it costs to break them, and what happens when you start wondering if you ever truly knew the only person who truly knows you.]]> 384 Lisa Lutz 1984818287 Kevin 0 to-read 3.71 2022
author: Lisa Lutz
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 54801701
“A meticulously reported volume that clearly benefits from the author’s extraordinary access . . . [a] startling dissection of the Trump presidency.”� The New York Times

Donald Trump v. The United States tells the dramatic, high-stakes story of those who felt compelled to confront and try to contain the most powerful man in the world as he shredded norms and sought to expand his power. Michael S. Schmidt takes readers inside the defining events of the presidency, chronicles them up close, and records the clash between an increasingly emboldened president and those around him, who find themselves trying to thwart the president they had pledged to serve, unsure whether he is acting in the interest of the country, his ego, his family business, or Russia. Through their eyes and ears, we observe an epic struggle.
Ěý
Drawing on secret FBI and White House documents and confidential sources inside federal law enforcement and the West Wing, Donald Trump v. The United States is vital journalism from a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter that records the shocking reality of a presidency like no other. It is a riveting contemporary history and a lasting account of just how fragile and vulnerable the institutions of American democracy really are.]]> 448 Michael S. Schmidt 1984854666 Kevin 0 to-read 4.15 2020
author: Michael S. Schmidt
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61913612
Max Moody thought he had everything figured out. He's trying to live his best life in New York City and has the best friend a gay guy could ask for: Paige. She and Max grew up next door to each other in the suburbs of Chicago. She can light up any party. She finishes his sentences. She's always a reliable splunch (they don't like to use the word brunch) partner. But then Max's whole world is turned upside down when Paige suddenly announces some huge news: she's engaged and wants Max to be her man of honor. Max was always the romantic one who imagined he would get married before the unpredictable Paige and is shocked to hear she's ready to settle down. But it turns out there's not just one new man in Paige's life--there are two.

There's the groom, Austin, who's a perfectly nice guy. Then there's his charming, fun and ridiculously handsome gay younger brother, Chasten, who is Austin's best man. As Paige's wedding draws closer, Max, the introverted Midwesterner, and Chasten, the social butterfly East Coaster, realize they're like oil and water. Yet they still have to figure out how to coexist in Paige's life while not making her wedding festivities all about them. But can the tiny romantic spark between these two very different guys transform their best man supporting roles into the leading best men in each other's lives?]]> 341 Sidney Karger 0593439481 Kevin 0 to-read 3.30 2023
author: Sidney Karger
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60199571 A San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller

2023 Southwest Book of the Year Selection

"The arid land that starts in Arizona and stretches into Mexico's west coast is Ronstadt's foothold in the world. It's a story she has told through music, and now wants to tell through food."� The New York Times

"The book is many things at once. It’s a portrait of a place, the Sonoran Desert, and it’s a genealogy of sorts, an archival romp through Ronstadt’s family history."� Vogue

"An album of loves for the high desert of Sonora and Ronstadt's hometown of Tucson."�NPR

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Linda Ronstadt takes readers on a journey to the place her soul calls home, the Sonoran Desert, in this candid new memoir.

In Feels Like Home, Grammy award-winning singer Linda Ronstadt effortlessly evokes the magical panorama of the high desert, a landscape etched by sunlight and carved by wind, offering a personal tour built around meals and memories of the place where she came of age. Growing up the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants and a descendant of Spanish settlers near northern Sonora, Ronstadt’s intimate new memoir celebrates the marvelous flavors and indomitable people on both sides of what was once a porous border whose denizens were happy to exchange recipes and gather around campfires to sing the ballads that shaped Ronstadt’s musical heritage. Following her bestselling musical memoir, Simple Dreams, this book seamlessly braids together Ronstadt’s recollections of people and their passions in a region little understood in the rest of the United States. This road trip through the desert, written in collaboration with former New York Times writer Lawrence Downes and illustrated throughout with beautiful photographs by Bill Steen, features recipes for traditional Sonoran dishes and a bevy of revelations for Ronstadt’s admirers. If this book were a radio signal, you might first pick it up on an Arizona highway, well south of Phoenix, coming into the glow of Ronstadt’s hometown of Tucson. It would be playing something old and Mexican, from a time when the border was a place not of peril but of possibility.]]> 304 Linda Ronstadt 1597145807 Kevin 5
She grew up surrounded by music. “Music was the homegrown magic we all learned to conjure,� she writes. She writes she was “saturated in song from earliest childhood, when melodies and harmonies and chords enter your body through your ears and skin, mingle with your brain cells, and nestle in your heart .�

Sprinkled throughout the photo-filled book are twenty recipes ranging from Ronstadt Family Meatballs, Sonoran Hot Dogs (the caption under the photo of the final product reads: “Somewhere under that avalanche of toppings is a hot dog wrapped in bacon. It’s all too much, which is why it’s so good.�), El Minuto’s Cheese Crisps and her grandmother’s “knock-you-flat� eggnog.

Linda Ronstadt celebrates her roots in this engaging, personal and entertaining hybrid family memoir/cookbook and social history.]]> 4.19
author: Linda Ronstadt
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.19
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/12/15
shelves:
review:
Co-author Downes (There Is Just Us) calls this book a “historical-musical-edible memoir.� While it’s not a straight-forward autobiography like Ronstadt’s "Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir" from 2013, FEELS LIKE HOME is a beautifully written celebration of her extended family, the Sonoran Desert (that straddles her hometown of Tucson, Arizona and northern Mexico) and the food and culture that shaped her.

She grew up surrounded by music. “Music was the homegrown magic we all learned to conjure,� she writes. She writes she was “saturated in song from earliest childhood, when melodies and harmonies and chords enter your body through your ears and skin, mingle with your brain cells, and nestle in your heart .�

Sprinkled throughout the photo-filled book are twenty recipes ranging from Ronstadt Family Meatballs, Sonoran Hot Dogs (the caption under the photo of the final product reads: “Somewhere under that avalanche of toppings is a hot dog wrapped in bacon. It’s all too much, which is why it’s so good.�), El Minuto’s Cheese Crisps and her grandmother’s “knock-you-flat� eggnog.

Linda Ronstadt celebrates her roots in this engaging, personal and entertaining hybrid family memoir/cookbook and social history.
]]> 63692323
The book is part coming-of-age memoir and part collection of Sam’s vintage 1970s interviews and encounters with Vincent Price , Christopher Lee , Peter Cushing , Donald Pleasence , Diana Rigg , John Carradine , Ingrid Pitt , Jane Seymour , Alec Guinness , Stephanie Beacham , Linda Hayden , Madeline Smith , Ralph Bates , Shane Briant , Michael York , Margaret Leighton , Robert Morley , Jonathan Frid , Patrick Magee , Joan Collins , Robert DeNiro , Hervé Villechaize , Terence Fisher , Robert Fuest , Brian De Palma , William Friedkin , Brian Clemens , Sir James Carreras , Michael Carreras , Freddie Francis , Roy Ward Baker , James Bernard , Forrest J Ackerman and scores of others.

You will be astounded by Sam’s intrepid adventures, including spending a day on the set of the James Bond film THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN as a personal guest of Christopher Lee � and the crazy limo ride they took back to London with a very drunk Hervé Villechaize ! Or the time Vincent Price recognized Sam at a West End theatre and took him backstage to meet Diana Rigg ! And that all happened on the very same day!

350 pages, 200,000 words, 600 photos (many in color), 25 color cartoons by Dan Gallagher (illustrator of SAM’S TOILET PAPER CAPER!), and a special Foreword by Cassandra Peterson aka Elvira, Mistress of the Dark !

All profits from this book are being donated to The Trevor Project , the world’s largest nonprofit organization that supports LGBTQ youth.

Available in hardcover and paperback editions. There is also an unabridged audiobook edition (over 21 hours long!), sold separately, narrated by the author Sam Irvin , with guest stars voices of Cassandra Peterson , Jane Seymour , Stephanie Beacham , Olivia d’Abo , Juliet Mills , Maxwell Caulfield , Linda Hayden , Madeline Smith , Chloe Franks , Alex Hyde-White and Julie Brown!]]> 352 Sam Irvin Kevin 5
This enthralling over-sized book (packed with color photos) collects those surprisingly astute and knowledgeable interviews while weaving in his own delightfully dishy memories as a closeted gay boy coming of age.

Horror fans will greedily devour his encounters and conversations with Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Ingrid Pitt, Diana Rigg, and more.

Gossip fans will delight in Irvin’s naked encounter with Hammer Films heartthrob Shane Briant and chatting with a nude John Carradine at a NYC gay bathhouse in 1975. There’s also a (discretely described) sexual encounter with Jonathan Frid (TV’s Barnabas Collins in "Dark Shadows"). Irvin can also vouch for Vincent Price’s bisexuality.

A juicy, absolutely spellbinding collection of vintage interviews and amiable gossip. Sam Irvin is an engaging raconteur with a star-studded cast of interview subjects. A terrific reference resource for horror movie fans.]]> 4.67
author: Sam Irvin
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.67
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/12/15
shelves:
review:
As a teenager in the 1970s, Irvin, biographer (Kay Thompson) and film director (Elvira’s Haunted Hills), created his own horror movie fanzine called BIZARRE. It only lasted four issues, but Irvin managed to conduct an amazing number of interviews with horror movie stars, directors, producers and composers.

This enthralling over-sized book (packed with color photos) collects those surprisingly astute and knowledgeable interviews while weaving in his own delightfully dishy memories as a closeted gay boy coming of age.

Horror fans will greedily devour his encounters and conversations with Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Ingrid Pitt, Diana Rigg, and more.

Gossip fans will delight in Irvin’s naked encounter with Hammer Films heartthrob Shane Briant and chatting with a nude John Carradine at a NYC gay bathhouse in 1975. There’s also a (discretely described) sexual encounter with Jonathan Frid (TV’s Barnabas Collins in "Dark Shadows"). Irvin can also vouch for Vincent Price’s bisexuality.

A juicy, absolutely spellbinding collection of vintage interviews and amiable gossip. Sam Irvin is an engaging raconteur with a star-studded cast of interview subjects. A terrific reference resource for horror movie fans.
]]> 58699210
Available here:
















Hammer Complete: The Films, the Personnel, the Company PDF by Howard Maxford
Read Hammer Complete: The Films, the Personnel, the Company PDF from McFarland,Howard Maxford
Download Howard Maxford’s PDF E-book Hammer Complete: The Films, the Personnel, the Company]]> Howard Maxford Kevin 0 to-read 5.00
author: Howard Maxford
name: Kevin
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60279786
In Working Girls , Trixie and Katya dole out both savvy and satirical advice for every stage of working life, from choosing a career path to sailing into a blissful retirement, in step-by-step guides, quizzes, the world’s most bizarre aptitude test, and more. Searching for the perfect interview outfit? Agonizing over how to get that raise? Suspicious that your colleague doesn’t really hope their email “finds you well�? Trixie and Katya have got you covered. They also share personal stories from their own remarkable careers and their philosophies on everything from mastering office lingo to getting fired with dignity, all alongside hilarious, gorgeous photos.

Witty, beautiful, and packed with wisdom, Working Girls is the ultimate guide for the working woman.]]> 224 Trixie Mattel 0593186117 Kevin 5
The duo covers all aspects of work, from job interviews to retirement. They offer delightfully droll responses to interview questions. "What is your biggest weakness?" could be met with "I can only hold my breath underwater for two minutes." And the best response to "Where do you see yourself in five years?" is: "In your chair, wearing your clothes, and asking these very questions." They translate office lingo; provide advice for navigating discussions about raises; and profile notable "girlbosses," such as Miranda Priestly ("every gay masochist's MOMMIE DEAREST fantasy") and Elvira ("basically the first mainstream drag queen"). And they explain office politics, remote work and firing someone (in a chapter subtitled "It's Not Me, It's You."). Trixie also walks readers through every job she's been fired from: "Pretty much the only job I haven't been fired from is this one, and that's because I'm self-employed," she writes.

Albert Sanchez and Pedro Zalba's vibrant photographs are a visual treat. Katya is especially chameleon-like when spoofing the looks of the leading ladies of BASIC INSTINCT, WORKING GIRL and MAD MEN.

This side-splitting guide to finding, keeping and leaving a job is a total delight and written with charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent! ]]> 4.13
author: Trixie Mattel
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.13
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/10/28
shelves:
review:
WORKING GIRLS, the second book from "RuPaul's Drag Race" alumnae Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova, is hilarious and offers, according to Katya, "the most innovative and cutting-edge techniques and practices for professional advancement, from two trustworthy titans of talent." Trixie and Katya ("Trixie and Katya's Guide to Modern Womanhood")--the drag personas of Brian Michael Firkus and Brian Joseph McCook, respectively--are polished, clever writers and, with every book, gain a stronger foothold on Miss Manners's throne. They offer outrageously funny advice that is often surprisingly thoughtful and practical.

The duo covers all aspects of work, from job interviews to retirement. They offer delightfully droll responses to interview questions. "What is your biggest weakness?" could be met with "I can only hold my breath underwater for two minutes." And the best response to "Where do you see yourself in five years?" is: "In your chair, wearing your clothes, and asking these very questions." They translate office lingo; provide advice for navigating discussions about raises; and profile notable "girlbosses," such as Miranda Priestly ("every gay masochist's MOMMIE DEAREST fantasy") and Elvira ("basically the first mainstream drag queen"). And they explain office politics, remote work and firing someone (in a chapter subtitled "It's Not Me, It's You."). Trixie also walks readers through every job she's been fired from: "Pretty much the only job I haven't been fired from is this one, and that's because I'm self-employed," she writes.

Albert Sanchez and Pedro Zalba's vibrant photographs are a visual treat. Katya is especially chameleon-like when spoofing the looks of the leading ladies of BASIC INSTINCT, WORKING GIRL and MAD MEN.

This side-splitting guide to finding, keeping and leaving a job is a total delight and written with charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent!
]]> 26893182 604 Matthew Rettenmund 0692515577 Kevin 5
Madonna, the best-selling female recording artist of all time, has fascinated music and gossip lovers for more than 40 years owing to her constant reinvention of herself and reach expansion (from music to producing, writing, and directing films and her activism and philanthropic outreach).

The spectacular visual layout of this encyclopedia gives this reference book the feel of an art book. The A to Z entries cover all of Madonna’s artistic output (albums, songs, videos, motion pictures, TV appearances) and even includes her August 2022 50-track album release Finally Enough Love.

Entries also cover her friends, lovers, husbands, children, producers, and coworkers and tackles topics like ageism, cultural appropriation, and cosmetic surgery. There are also new interviews with her former publicist Liz Rosenberg, her Desperately Seeking Susan director Susan Seidelman, and other collaborators.

With more than 60 English-language books written about Madonna, this comprehensive and opinionated encyclopedia stands out as an essential one-stop reference tool for all fans and libraries.]]> 4.91 2015
author: Matthew Rettenmund
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.91
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/10/18
shelves:
review:
Originally released in 1995 at a mere 207 pages by blogger and novelist Rettenmund (Boy Culture: A Novel), this revised and totally rewritten Madonna encyclopedia now runs 676 pages, and there’s not a padded or dull page in it.

Madonna, the best-selling female recording artist of all time, has fascinated music and gossip lovers for more than 40 years owing to her constant reinvention of herself and reach expansion (from music to producing, writing, and directing films and her activism and philanthropic outreach).

The spectacular visual layout of this encyclopedia gives this reference book the feel of an art book. The A to Z entries cover all of Madonna’s artistic output (albums, songs, videos, motion pictures, TV appearances) and even includes her August 2022 50-track album release Finally Enough Love.

Entries also cover her friends, lovers, husbands, children, producers, and coworkers and tackles topics like ageism, cultural appropriation, and cosmetic surgery. There are also new interviews with her former publicist Liz Rosenberg, her Desperately Seeking Susan director Susan Seidelman, and other collaborators.

With more than 60 English-language books written about Madonna, this comprehensive and opinionated encyclopedia stands out as an essential one-stop reference tool for all fans and libraries.
]]> 62819406
Within these bloodstained pages, you’ll discover that vampires of the silver screen are far more complex and diverse than variations on Dracula and other staples like Carmilla and the Countess Elizabeth Bathory. All the icons are here, from Bela Lugosi and Max Schreck’s pioneering fiends to the heyday of Hammer Films, but that’s just a sanguinary taste of what’s to come as you explore macabre offerings from Hong Kong, India, Italy, France, Germany, and more. Along the way you’ll meet vampire-fighting musclemen, rock �n� roll bloodsuckers, plasma-craving infants, creepy canines, and supernatural strippers.

It’s all served up on a blood-spattered silver platter by author and film historian Nathaniel Thompson, who also delivers a globetrotting introduction to the history and evolution of vampire cinema from the silent era to the modern age of undead heartthrobs and vampire assassins.

Sweetening the bloody deal is a foreword by legendary writer and monster expert Kim Newman, who dragged vampire literature into the daylight of the modern age with his Anno Dracula series. Take our hand, if you dare, and accept our invitation to explore the dizzying array of frightening, hilarious, and often beautiful sights and sounds of the undead on film.

Following the success of the previous five The FrightFest Guide to Exploitation Movies, Monster Movies, Ghost Movies, Werewolf Movies and Grindhouse Movies, this is the latest in a series of wide appeal books for both the curious spectator and the cult connoisseur.]]> 240 Nathaniel Thompson 191305120X Kevin 5
Film historian Thompson (Fear Without Frontiers) begins with a 27-page overview of the history of vampire films that offers a rollicking journey through the decades, touching on Universal’s classics, Hammer Films, vampire-porn films in the 1970s and 1980s, TV series, and more.

The majority of the book is devoted to highlighting 200 vampire films (including TV movies). Listed chronologically from 1922’s Nosferatu to 2021’s Night Teeth, each film gets a beautifully designed full page with color stills and poster art. Thompson rarely dismisses a film as unworthy and admirably finds fun facts to enliven even risible films like Billy the Kid vs. Dracula.

Although some of the sumptuous images contain gore and nudity, this splendid encyclopedia of vampire films is an essential reference for horror film fans.]]> 4.44
author: Nathaniel Thompson
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.44
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/10/18
shelves:
review:
This sixth volume in the “FrightFest Guides� series spotlights vampire films with the same exhaustive research and biting wit of the previous volumes, which showcased werewolves, ghosts, monsters, grindhouse, and exploitation movies. The UK-based FrightFest film festival has been essential viewing for horror fans since 2000, which gives gravitas to this book’s outstanding selection of films ranging from classics to very obscure films.

Film historian Thompson (Fear Without Frontiers) begins with a 27-page overview of the history of vampire films that offers a rollicking journey through the decades, touching on Universal’s classics, Hammer Films, vampire-porn films in the 1970s and 1980s, TV series, and more.

The majority of the book is devoted to highlighting 200 vampire films (including TV movies). Listed chronologically from 1922’s Nosferatu to 2021’s Night Teeth, each film gets a beautifully designed full page with color stills and poster art. Thompson rarely dismisses a film as unworthy and admirably finds fun facts to enliven even risible films like Billy the Kid vs. Dracula.

Although some of the sumptuous images contain gore and nudity, this splendid encyclopedia of vampire films is an essential reference for horror film fans.
]]> 62634510 The Columbo Companion � your indispensable deep-dive into the thrilling highs (and occasional devastating lows) of the greatest detective show of all time.
From the acclaimed creator of the popular �Columbophile Blog�, The Columbo Companion offers fully revised and updated exploration of all 45 �classic era� Columbo episodes that aired between 1968-78,
� The highs and lows of each episode’s crimes, clues and gotchas
� Critiques of the cast, performances and production values
� Key milestones in the evolution of the Columbo character
� Behind-the-scenes snippets and fascinating facts about the production
Whether you’re a long-term fan or a recent convert, The Columbo Companion is the ideal accompaniment to the viewing experience to help maximise your appreciation and understanding of the series and its leading man.]]> 346 The Columbophile 1937878171 Kevin 5
There are spoilers galore, but this book was not written for the uninitiated, but for Columbo lovers who want a deep dive into their favorite sleuth. Arranged chronologically, each episode is broken down to “The Killing,� “The Gotcha,� a lengthy “Episode Analysis,� and “Best Moment.� The Columbophile’s keen critical eye is not blind to flaws in some episodes or pointing out absurdities (like Roddy McDowall’s skin-tight pants or Ray Milland’s terrible toupee).

He also shares juicy production tales, including Peter Falk’s power play, when he feigned illness while filming “Dead Weight� and forced his disgruntled crew and costars to film most of the episode with his stand-in. An affectionate, critical, and immensely entertaining guide to the classic TV series.]]> 4.40
author: The Columbophile
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/10/18
shelves:
review:
The anonymous creator of the popular Colombophile blog has reorganized, revised, and updated blog entries to produce a pithy, astute, and essential guide for fans of the TV detective series Columbo. This book concentrates on the two pre-series TV movies (Prescription: Murder and Ransom for a Dead Man) and the first 43 episodes, covering the TV series� first seven seasons. There was an 11-year gap after the seventh season before the series returned in 1989 and continued until 2003.

There are spoilers galore, but this book was not written for the uninitiated, but for Columbo lovers who want a deep dive into their favorite sleuth. Arranged chronologically, each episode is broken down to “The Killing,� “The Gotcha,� a lengthy “Episode Analysis,� and “Best Moment.� The Columbophile’s keen critical eye is not blind to flaws in some episodes or pointing out absurdities (like Roddy McDowall’s skin-tight pants or Ray Milland’s terrible toupee).

He also shares juicy production tales, including Peter Falk’s power play, when he feigned illness while filming “Dead Weight� and forced his disgruntled crew and costars to film most of the episode with his stand-in. An affectionate, critical, and immensely entertaining guide to the classic TV series.
]]> 59788746 Ěý
But while his talent took center stage, the public knew little of Lehman himself, a native of Manhattan's Upper West Side and the Five Towns of Long Island devoted to his wife of 50 years. His relentless perfectionism, hypochondria and all-night writing sessions fueled by tequila and grilled cheese sandwiches were some of the quirks that made Lehman a legend in the Hollywood community.
Ěý
InĚý Ernest The Sweet Smell of Success , author Jon Krampner lays bare the life of this lauded yet elusive character. Moving seamlessly from post-production meetings to sound stages and onto the locations of Lehman's greatest films, Krampner's extensive biography brings to life the genius and singularity of the revered screenwriter's personality and the contributions he made to the world of cinema.

Find out more at]]> 396 Jon Krampner 0813195950 Kevin 5
In the 1960s, Lehman was the most bankable screenwriter in Hollywood, but he was seldom happy on set or at home. His wife of 50 years called him "a psychosomatic invalid" and openly engaged in an affair with another man for nearly a decade. Lehman was a hypochondriac who withheld affection to his troubled son and increased tensions on movie sets because of his paranoia and insecurities. The chapter on "Portnoy's Complaint," the sole movie Lehman both directed and scripted, is a jaw-dropping compilation of instances of an oversized ego and constant directorial missteps. Five decades later, the film's leading man, Richard Benjamin, refused to be interviewed. Costar Lee Grant succinctly describes Lehman's directorial style as "a cross between Cecil B. DeMille and Caligula."

Krampner's access to the 400-page journal Lehman kept while making "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" unearths a mother lode of infighting and bad behavior. (Ironically, stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton come off best.) This is a superbly written, flat-out boffo Hollywood tell-all. ]]> 3.86
author: Jon Krampner
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.86
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2022/09/30
date added: 2022/09/30
shelves:
review:
Who would have expected the juiciest Hollywood biography of the year to be about a screenwriter? The meticulously researched ERNEST LEHMAN: THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS, written by Jon Krampner ("Female Brando: The Legend of Kim Stanley"), is so delectable that it's impossible to put down. Lehman's top-tier screenplays include "North by Northwest," "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," "The Sound of Music," "West Side Story," "The King and I" and "Hello, Dolly!" Even film buffs who have read countless biographies of the directors with whom Lehman collaborated, such as Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Mike Nichols, will discover delicious new tales of on-set fights, feuds and firings.

In the 1960s, Lehman was the most bankable screenwriter in Hollywood, but he was seldom happy on set or at home. His wife of 50 years called him "a psychosomatic invalid" and openly engaged in an affair with another man for nearly a decade. Lehman was a hypochondriac who withheld affection to his troubled son and increased tensions on movie sets because of his paranoia and insecurities. The chapter on "Portnoy's Complaint," the sole movie Lehman both directed and scripted, is a jaw-dropping compilation of instances of an oversized ego and constant directorial missteps. Five decades later, the film's leading man, Richard Benjamin, refused to be interviewed. Costar Lee Grant succinctly describes Lehman's directorial style as "a cross between Cecil B. DeMille and Caligula."

Krampner's access to the 400-page journal Lehman kept while making "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" unearths a mother lode of infighting and bad behavior. (Ironically, stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton come off best.) This is a superbly written, flat-out boffo Hollywood tell-all.
]]> 58604518 320 Kelly Ripa 0063073307 Kevin 5
Readers will find a saltier Ripa on these pages than on her morning show--complete with f-bombs and sexually straightforward tales. (One account begins with her and Mark's first attempt at sex after she gave birth to their first child and ends with a trip to the hospital.) Fans will love the nuggets of advice sprinkled throughout her essays, including "I think it's important never to fake illness or orgasm." Essay topics include Botox and plastic surgery ("My neck was aging in dog years compared to my face"); the transition to empty-nest parenthood; when Mark broke up with her five days before their wedding; and her relationship with tabloids. She writes gingerly of her relationship with the curmudgeonly Philbin, realizing belatedly that he may not have thought they were as close as she thought they were.

LIVE WIRE is a splendid, fast-moving autobiographical essay collection with polished bon mots and real heart]]> 3.72 2022
author: Kelly Ripa
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/09/30
date added: 2022/09/30
shelves:
review:
"LIVE WIRE: Long-Winded Short Stories," the first book from Emmy Award-winning actress and talk show host Kelly Ripa, is not a memoir. Instead, it's an enjoyable and brightly written collection of personal essays that allows her to cherry-pick the highs and lows of her life. At age 20, she joined the daytime soap opera "All My Children," where she met and married her costar Mark Consuelos. She began cohosting the morning talk show "Live with Regis and Kelly" in 2001. When Philbin retired a decade later, she became the head of the show. "Playing yourself on television is the hardest role I've ever had," writes Ripa, "especially when I started before I even knew who I really was."

Readers will find a saltier Ripa on these pages than on her morning show--complete with f-bombs and sexually straightforward tales. (One account begins with her and Mark's first attempt at sex after she gave birth to their first child and ends with a trip to the hospital.) Fans will love the nuggets of advice sprinkled throughout her essays, including "I think it's important never to fake illness or orgasm." Essay topics include Botox and plastic surgery ("My neck was aging in dog years compared to my face"); the transition to empty-nest parenthood; when Mark broke up with her five days before their wedding; and her relationship with tabloids. She writes gingerly of her relationship with the curmudgeonly Philbin, realizing belatedly that he may not have thought they were as close as she thought they were.

LIVE WIRE is a splendid, fast-moving autobiographical essay collection with polished bon mots and real heart
]]> 58502662 A riveting, inspiring memoir of one woman's escape from an extremist religious sect and an extraordinary rise from housewife to shoe designer, to CEO and co-owner of the modeling agency Elite World Group

Ever since she was a child, every aspect of Julia Haart's life--what she wore, what she ate, what she thought--was controlled by the dictates of ultra-orthodox Judaism. At nineteen, after a lifetime spent caring for her seven younger siblings, she was married off to a man she barely knew. For the next twenty-three years, he would rule her life. Eventually, when Julia's youngest daughter Miriam started to question why she wasn't allowed to sing, run, or ride a bike, Julia reached a breaking point. She knew that if she didn't find a way to leave, her daughters would be forced into the same unending servitude that had imprisoned her.

So Julia created a double life. When no one was looking, she'd sneak looks at fashion magazines and sketch designs for the clothes she dreamed about wearing in the world beyond her orthodox suburb. In the ultra-orthodox world, clothing has one purpose: to cover the body, head to toe. Giving any thought to one's appearance beyond that is considered sinful, an affront to God. She started clandestinely selling life insurance to save her "freedom" money. At the age of forty-two, she finally mustered the courage to flee the fundamentalist life that was strangling her soul.

Within a week of her escape, Julia started a shoe brand, and within nine months she was at Paris for fashion week. A year later, she became creative director of La Perla, the world-leading lingerie brand. And now, she is the co-owner and CEO of Elite World Group, and one of the most powerful people in the fashion industry.

Propulsive and unforgettable, Julia's story is the journey from a world of "no" to a world of "yes," and an inspiration for women everywhere to find their freedom, their purpose, and their voice.]]> 416 Julia Haart 0593239164 Kevin 5
Haart’s narration of her gripping and jaw-dropping memoir is so relaxed and intimate that rather than reading, she sounds like she’s chatting with friends. She not only tells her tale but also patiently explains the customs of the oppressive ultra-Orthodox religious world she escaped. Early on, she explains that her Netflix reality TV series MY UNORTHODOX LIFE “is about my present defined by my past. Brazen, however, is my whole story as I remember it.� And what a story!

The first two-thirds of this 19-hour unabridged audiobook detail Haart’s upbringing in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Monsey, New York, where she was raised to follow tznius. “It means �modesty, but it doesn’t just mean modest clothes,� Haart says. “It means being totally unseen and never being special or exceptional in any way.� Married at 19 to a man she barely knew, she soon had four children. More than two decades later and after months of contemplating suicide, she escaped the fundamentalist community. She was 42.

The audiobook ends before she marries her second husband and became CEO and co-owner of Elite World Group, the talent-management company. A compelling story, well told by Haart in a friendly and ingratiating manner.]]> 3.52 2022
author: Julia Haart
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/09/20
date added: 2022/09/20
shelves:
review:
AUDIOBOOK REVIEW:

Haart’s narration of her gripping and jaw-dropping memoir is so relaxed and intimate that rather than reading, she sounds like she’s chatting with friends. She not only tells her tale but also patiently explains the customs of the oppressive ultra-Orthodox religious world she escaped. Early on, she explains that her Netflix reality TV series MY UNORTHODOX LIFE “is about my present defined by my past. Brazen, however, is my whole story as I remember it.� And what a story!

The first two-thirds of this 19-hour unabridged audiobook detail Haart’s upbringing in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Monsey, New York, where she was raised to follow tznius. “It means �modesty, but it doesn’t just mean modest clothes,� Haart says. “It means being totally unseen and never being special or exceptional in any way.� Married at 19 to a man she barely knew, she soon had four children. More than two decades later and after months of contemplating suicide, she escaped the fundamentalist community. She was 42.

The audiobook ends before she marries her second husband and became CEO and co-owner of Elite World Group, the talent-management company. A compelling story, well told by Haart in a friendly and ingratiating manner.
]]> 59366286
Maitland Ward got her start in acting as a teenager when she was cast in The Bold and the Beautiful , but it wasn’t until she joined the later seasons of the sitcom Boy Meets World that she got her first taste of fame. As the loveable, sexy (but not too sexy) co-ed Rachel McGuire, Ward soon found herself being typecast as the good girl next door and was repeatedly denied darker, more intriguing roles. So she made a career change—one that required her to turn away from the Disney universe—and eventually established herself as one of the most-respected actresses in the porn industry today.

Now, Ward reveals the ups and downs of her fascinating career, including personal stories from her time on one of the most beloved shows of the 1990s, in this anything but a run-of-the-mill memoir. By showing Hollywood and triple-X stardom in a whole new light, she offers a fresh and stirring perspective on the sex industry. Ultimately a story of hope and triumph, Rated X is a sharp and provocative look at a former Disney princess who found her fairy tale in porn.]]> 256 Maitland Ward 1982195894 Kevin 4
Acting roles dried up. "To be expendable is to be a woman in Hollywood," Ward writes. She attended Comic-Con-like events, which led to cosplay and the awakening of her exhibitionist desires. She also took erotic cosplay photos that she sold online, which led to the making of X-rated films--all with the support and encouragement of her husband. Her role in 2019's Drive--a plot-driven, X-rated film requiring acting--won her acclaim and awards recognition, created a mainstream media firestorm and set her up financially for life.

An aggressively sexual memoir not for the faint of heart, RATED X is a gripping, empowering and contrarian narrative of finding self-worth and escaping victimhood by embracing the porn industry.]]> 3.62 2022
author: Maitland Ward
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/09/20
date added: 2022/09/20
shelves:
review:
An alternative subtitle to RATED X, Maitland Ward's memoir, could be "How an Ex-Disney Sitcom Star Found Happiness and Self-Respect in the Porn Industry." Ward was cast when just a junior in high school in the daytime TV soap opera "The Bold and the Beautiful." She engaged in an emotionally unhealthy relationship with one of her costars that slowly gnawed away at her self-esteem. After two years on the soap, her character was raped, kidnapped and nearly burned alive before being written out of the series. She became a series regular two years later on the ABC/Disney sitcom "Boy Meets World" and struggled to find roles when the series ended. During this time period, she investigated her sexuality with men, women, threesomes, toys and BDSM. Her account of it all does not shirk the details; some of this memoir reads like a letter to Penthouse magazine.

Acting roles dried up. "To be expendable is to be a woman in Hollywood," Ward writes. She attended Comic-Con-like events, which led to cosplay and the awakening of her exhibitionist desires. She also took erotic cosplay photos that she sold online, which led to the making of X-rated films--all with the support and encouragement of her husband. Her role in 2019's Drive--a plot-driven, X-rated film requiring acting--won her acclaim and awards recognition, created a mainstream media firestorm and set her up financially for life.

An aggressively sexual memoir not for the faint of heart, RATED X is a gripping, empowering and contrarian narrative of finding self-worth and escaping victimhood by embracing the porn industry.
]]> 60021203
His deeply personal memoir vividly describes and brings you inside the music, the politics, and the lifestyle of a generation, an epoch of cultural change that swept America and beyond. The age of rock and roll in an era of consequence, what will be considered one of the great watersheds in modern history. Wenner writes with the clarity of a journalist and an essayist. He takes us into the life and work of Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Bono, and Bruce Springsteen, to name a few. He was instrumental in the careers of Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe, and Annie Leibovitz. His journey took him to the Oval Office with his legendary interviews with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, leaders to whom Rolling Stone gave its historic, full-throated backing. From Jerry Garcia to the Dalai Lama, Aretha Franklin to Greta Thunberg, the people Wenner chose to be seen and heard in the pages of Rolling Stone tried to change American culture, values, and morality.

Like a Rolling Stone is a beautifully written portrait of one man’s life, and the life of his generation.

Ěý]]> 592 Jann S. Wenner 0316415197 Kevin 5
In addition to lengthy interviews and music articles, ROLLING STONE ran long-form journalism pieces on Charles Manson; the 1968 Chicago riots; Karen Silkwood's suspicious death; and, later, AIDS, wars, climate change, prison reform and politics. Wenner digs deep into the magazine's political side. He delights in sharing his friendships with Springsteen, Bono, Dylan, John Lennon and Yoko Ono. He also gives concise insight into his friendships with Jacqueline Onassis ("She was a gossip, and I heard some rarefied stuff") and John F. Kennedy Jr.: "he was polite, funny, and an all-around terrific guy. He also had a temper, was impetuous, and sometimes reckless." In 1995, Wenner ended his marriage of more than 25 years when he fell in love with Matt Nye and came out as gay. In 2019, he sold ROLLING STONE.

Wenner's enormously influential life is masterfully told and should be a treat for pop culture fans and historians alike.]]> 3.66
author: Jann S. Wenner
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.66
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2022/09/16
date added: 2022/09/16
shelves:
review:
Few people have interacted with more celebrities, rock stars and politicians than Jann Wenner, founder of ROLLING STONE. Even fewer possess Wenner's prodigious wordsmanship; in his soaring memoir, LIKE A ROLLING STONE (clocking in at nearly 600 pages), he captures these encounters, fights and friendships with much verve and economy. A Berkeley dropout, Wenner founded ROLLING STONE in 1967. It was revolutionary in that, amid a sea of music fanzines, it took music, especially rock 'n' roll, seriously--particularly when Wenner began to fill his writing staff with such future heavyweights as Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe. Photographer Annie Leibovitz joined the staff in 1970.

In addition to lengthy interviews and music articles, ROLLING STONE ran long-form journalism pieces on Charles Manson; the 1968 Chicago riots; Karen Silkwood's suspicious death; and, later, AIDS, wars, climate change, prison reform and politics. Wenner digs deep into the magazine's political side. He delights in sharing his friendships with Springsteen, Bono, Dylan, John Lennon and Yoko Ono. He also gives concise insight into his friendships with Jacqueline Onassis ("She was a gossip, and I heard some rarefied stuff") and John F. Kennedy Jr.: "he was polite, funny, and an all-around terrific guy. He also had a temper, was impetuous, and sometimes reckless." In 1995, Wenner ended his marriage of more than 25 years when he fell in love with Matt Nye and came out as gay. In 2019, he sold ROLLING STONE.

Wenner's enormously influential life is masterfully told and should be a treat for pop culture fans and historians alike.
]]> 58743412
That night the enigmatic fortune teller � and chief accuser � is found dead in an impossible locked-room setup, casting suspicion onto Grant and striking doubt into the heart of her lover. Lured by the scent of the impossible case, Dr Gideon Fell arrives from London to examine the perplexing evidence and match wits with a meticulous killer at large.]]> 254 John Dickson Carr 0712353798 Kevin 5
After an introduction by CWA Diamond Dagger Award-winning author Martin Edwards, the story begins at an outdoor fair where local celebrity and playwright Dick Markham and his new fiancée, Lesley Grant, visit a fortune-teller. Lesley has a very agitating solo session and leaves in a panic. Before the fortune-teller--who is really Sir Harvey Gilman, "one of the greatest living authorities on crime"--can reveal anything to Dick, Lesley shoots Dick in the shoulder. Gilman summons Dick to his home and tells him that his fiancée is actually a murderer who killed two husbands and a boyfriend. But she evaded conviction by somehow convincing the men to inject themselves with poison while inside locked rooms. The following morning, Gilman is found dead in a locked and sealed room, a hypodermic syringe lying near him. This brings amateur sleuth Dr. Fell to town.

This skillfully plotted, thoroughly enchanting, crackerjack entertainment will have mystery fans rejoicing that Poisoned Pen Press has reissued a neglected treasure.]]> 3.84 1944
author: John Dickson Carr
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1944
rating: 5
read at: 2022/08/12
date added: 2022/08/12
shelves:
review:
John Dickson Carr (1906-1977), author of "The Corpse in the Waxworks" and many other books and stories, was considered by the New York Times to be "a master of the locked-door mystery." His 1944 whodunit, "Till Death Do Us Part", is a doozy of an impossible mystery, and it is beautifully written, ingeniously plotted and compelling. Best of all, it doesn't cheat with the clues, which are all laid out in plain sight. But few readers will be able to put these puzzle pieces together before Carr's master detective, Dr. Gideon Fell, gathers everyone around to reveal all.

After an introduction by CWA Diamond Dagger Award-winning author Martin Edwards, the story begins at an outdoor fair where local celebrity and playwright Dick Markham and his new fiancée, Lesley Grant, visit a fortune-teller. Lesley has a very agitating solo session and leaves in a panic. Before the fortune-teller--who is really Sir Harvey Gilman, "one of the greatest living authorities on crime"--can reveal anything to Dick, Lesley shoots Dick in the shoulder. Gilman summons Dick to his home and tells him that his fiancée is actually a murderer who killed two husbands and a boyfriend. But she evaded conviction by somehow convincing the men to inject themselves with poison while inside locked rooms. The following morning, Gilman is found dead in a locked and sealed room, a hypodermic syringe lying near him. This brings amateur sleuth Dr. Fell to town.

This skillfully plotted, thoroughly enchanting, crackerjack entertainment will have mystery fans rejoicing that Poisoned Pen Press has reissued a neglected treasure.
]]> 60461888 New York Times bestselling author Anthony Horowitz’s ingenious fourth literary whodunit following The Word is Murder, The Sentence is Death and A Line to Kill, Horowitz becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation� and only one man can prove his innocence: his newly estranged partner in solving crime, Detective Hawthorne.

“I’m sorry but the answer’s no.� Reluctant author, Anthony Horowitz, has had enough. He tells ex-detective Daniel Hawthorne that after three books he’s splitting and their deal is over. The truth is that Anthony has other things on his mind.

His new play, a thriller called Mindgame, is about to open at the Vaudeville Theatre in London’s West End. Not surprisingly, Hawthorne declines a ticket to the opening night. The play is panned by the critics. In particular, Sunday Times critic Margaret Throsby gives it a savage review, focusing particularly on the writing. The next day, Throsby is stabbed in the heart with an ornamental dagger which turns out to belong to Anthony, and has his fingerprints all over it.

Anthony is arrested by an old enemy... Detective Inspector Cara Grunshaw. She still carries a grudge from her failure to solve the case described in the second Hawthorne adventure, The Sentence is Death, and blames Anthony. Now she’s out for revenge. Thrown into prison and fearing for both his personal future and his writing career, Anthony is the prime suspect in Throsby’s murder and when a second theatre critic is found to have died in mysterious circumstances, the net closes in. Ever more desperate, he realizes that only one man can help him. But will Hawthorne take the call?]]> 373 Anthony Horowitz 0062938185 Kevin 0 currently-reading 4.02 2022
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/08/12
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 59070134 Stardom fades fast when you’re on the line for murder, in this debut cozy mystery perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Jenn McKinlay.

Jay Allan and Cindy Cooper were soap opera stars in the late �90s, a wholesome young husband-and-wife duo who combined musical talent with humor and charisma. When the truth about their sexual orientations came to light, their marriage and TV careers ended, but decades later they have remained friends. Together, they open Palm Springs� chicest movie memorabilia store, Hooray for Hollywood--but no customers and dwindling finances spell trouble.

A Hail Mary arrives in the form of Yana Tosh, a ninety-year-old diva of the silver screen who has amassed a valuable collection of costumes and props and is looking to sell. But first, Jay and Cindy have to beat their competition, a vice president from a mega-auction house with ten times their resources. And when he winds up dead, they become prime suspects in the murder.

With their freedom and livelihoods on the line, Jay and Cindy desperately need to clear their names. There are plenty of other potential suspects, but they'll have to solve it soon before they're forced to trade in their vintage costume collection for two orange jumpsuits.]]> 320 Zac Bissonnette 1639100873 Kevin 4
Decades later, the two best friends live together in a two-family home with Jay's cat, Mae West, and Cindy's German shepherd, Bob Hope. They also pooled their resources to open a movie memorabilia store, Hooray for Hollywood, in a Palm Springs strip mall. The two meet with Yana Tosh, a 90-year-old retired screen actress who wants to sell some of her movie memorabilia. Her son, Warren, seems averse to selling her treasures. Yana also meets with a rival memorabilia company. When the head of that rival company ends up murdered, Jay and Cindy join the list of suspects. The two amateur sleuths try to clear their names by solving the murder of their competitor.

Mystery buffs will enjoy this lively paced whodunit and its fully realized characters. Who stole a prop painting from the movie "The Mirror Crack'd"? Who sent the duo a letter containing a poisonous substance? Who poisoned a delicious pastry? Who has been siphoning money out of Yana's bank account and where is her missing financial adviser? A gay homicide detective works the case and eyes Jay. This fun ride will keep even the most eagle-eyed readers guessing until the final pages.]]> 3.67 2022
author: Zac Bissonnette
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/08/12
date added: 2022/08/12
shelves:
review:
Cozy mystery fans will find a lot to enjoy in A KiILLING IN COSTUNMES, the sparkling fiction debut from Zac Bissonnette (The Great Beanie Baby Bubble). In the late 1990s, Jay Allan and Cindy Cooper were married and starring together on a daytime soap opera. When both realized they were gay, they decided to split amicably and come out publicly, which saved their friendship but cost them their TV careers.

Decades later, the two best friends live together in a two-family home with Jay's cat, Mae West, and Cindy's German shepherd, Bob Hope. They also pooled their resources to open a movie memorabilia store, Hooray for Hollywood, in a Palm Springs strip mall. The two meet with Yana Tosh, a 90-year-old retired screen actress who wants to sell some of her movie memorabilia. Her son, Warren, seems averse to selling her treasures. Yana also meets with a rival memorabilia company. When the head of that rival company ends up murdered, Jay and Cindy join the list of suspects. The two amateur sleuths try to clear their names by solving the murder of their competitor.

Mystery buffs will enjoy this lively paced whodunit and its fully realized characters. Who stole a prop painting from the movie "The Mirror Crack'd"? Who sent the duo a letter containing a poisonous substance? Who poisoned a delicious pastry? Who has been siphoning money out of Yana's bank account and where is her missing financial adviser? A gay homicide detective works the case and eyes Jay. This fun ride will keep even the most eagle-eyed readers guessing until the final pages.
]]> 59364173
Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,� eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?� She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.

In I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly , she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!�), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.

Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.]]> 320 Jennette McCurdy Kevin 4
Her mother's control was staggering. She was still bathing her daughter and wiping her in public bathrooms when McCurdy was eight years old. When Jennette developed breasts at the age of 11, her mother taught her eating disorders to keep her small and thin. "The only thing worse than a cancer diagnosis is a growing-up diagnosis," McCurdy writes. Her fame, at age 15, after earning a costarring role on the Nickelodeon TV series iCarly, only worsened her mother's control issues and Jennette's "venomous self-loathing." After her mother's death, her downward spiral into alcoholism, anorexia, binge-and-purge bulimia and disastrous romantic relationships accelerated.

This is a brutally frank, no-holds-barred memoir that answers a lot of questions about why so many child stars end up miserable, broke or dead. McCurdy's hard-won victory over her demons will leave many readers exhausted, but her excellent writing will compel them to stay with her on her torturous journey.]]> 4.45 2022
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/08/12
date added: 2022/08/12
shelves:
review:
I'M GLAD MY MOM DIED, a memoir from actress and singer Jennette McCurdy, has a shocking title, but the destructive actions directed toward her by her late mother are even more shocking. "My mom emotionally, mentally, and physically abused me in ways that will forever impact me," McCurdy writes. At age six, she was pushed into an acting career she didn't want by her narcissistic mother, who was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer when Jennette was two. It would be a diagnosis her mother would use to emotionally manipulate everyone from casting directors to her four children. "Mom reminisces about cancer the way most people reminisce about vacations," writes McCurdy.

Her mother's control was staggering. She was still bathing her daughter and wiping her in public bathrooms when McCurdy was eight years old. When Jennette developed breasts at the age of 11, her mother taught her eating disorders to keep her small and thin. "The only thing worse than a cancer diagnosis is a growing-up diagnosis," McCurdy writes. Her fame, at age 15, after earning a costarring role on the Nickelodeon TV series iCarly, only worsened her mother's control issues and Jennette's "venomous self-loathing." After her mother's death, her downward spiral into alcoholism, anorexia, binge-and-purge bulimia and disastrous romantic relationships accelerated.

This is a brutally frank, no-holds-barred memoir that answers a lot of questions about why so many child stars end up miserable, broke or dead. McCurdy's hard-won victory over her demons will leave many readers exhausted, but her excellent writing will compel them to stay with her on her torturous journey.
]]> 61311668 Anna May Wong remains one of Hollywood’s best-known Chinese American actors.
Ěý
Between 1919 and 1960, Anna May Wong starred in over fifty movies, sharing billing with stars such as Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Ramon Novarro, and Warner Oland. Her life, though, is the prototypical story of an immigrant’s difficult path through the prejudices of American culture.
Ěý
Born in Los Angeles in 1905, she was the second daughter of seven children born to a laundryman and his wife. Childhood experience fueled her fascination with Hollywood. By 1919 she secured a small part in her first film, The Red Lantern, and she continued to act up until her death. Her most famous film roles were in The Toll of the Sea, Peter Pan, The Thief of Baghdad, Old San Francisco, and Shanghai Express.
Ěý
But discrimination against Asians, in both in the film industry and society, was commonplace, and when it came time to make a film version of Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth, she was passed over for the Chinese female lead role, which was ultimately given to the white actor Luise Rainer.

In a narrative that recalls the pathos of life in Los Angeles’s Chinese neighborhoods and the glamour of Hollywood’s pleasure palaces, Graham Russell Gao Hodges recovers the life of a Hollywood legend.]]> 304 Graham Russell Gao Hodges 1641608838 Kevin 0 to-read 3.49
author: Graham Russell Gao Hodges
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.49
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/08/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60297961
An Asian and Asian American icon of unimaginable stature and influence, Bruce Lee revolutionized the martial arts by combining influences drawn from around the world. Uncommonly determined, physically gifted, and artistically brilliant, Lee rose to fame as part of a wave of transpacific globalization that bridged the nearly seven thousand miles between Hong Kong and California. Like Water unpacks Lee’s global impact, linking his legendary status as a martial artist, actor, and director to his continual traversals across the newly interconnected Asia and America.

Daryl Joji Maeda’s multifaceted account of Bruce Lee’s legacy uniquely traces how movements and migrations across the Pacific Ocean structured the cultures Bruce Lee inherited, the milieu he occupied, the martial art he developed, the films he made, and the world he left behind. A unique blend of cultural history and biography, Like Water unearths the cultural strands that Lee intertwined in his rise to a new kind of global stardom. Moving from the gold rush in California and the British occupation of Hong Kong, to the Cold War and the deployment of American troops across Asia, Maeda builds depth and complexity to this larger-than-life figure. His cultural chronology of Bruce Lee reveals Lee to be both a product of his time and a harbinger of a more connected future.

Nearly half a century after his tragic death, Bruce Lee remains an inspiring symbol of innovation and determination, with an enduring legacy as the first Asian American global superstar.]]> 352 Daryl Joji Maeda 1479812862 Kevin 0 to-read 3.77
author: Daryl Joji Maeda
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.77
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/08/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> 758011 336 Keith Haring 0140234462 Kevin 5
Graffiti artist and pop culture icon Haring kept engaging and extensive journals from 1977 until September 1989 (five months before his death in February 1990), and David Pittu brings them to life with his relaxed and emotive narration of the unabridged audiobook.

These journals cover not only Haring’s meteoric rise in the art world but also his friendships, rivalries, opinions, and activism. An extended entry in February 1987, after the death of Andy Warhol, is a love letter to Warhol (a friend and mentor to Haring) that succinctly and emotionally captures him as an artist and person. Later in 1987, Haring muses on his mortality; “I am quite aware of the chance that I have or will have AIDS,� he writes and Pittu reads with heartbreaking simplicity. “I’m sure that what will live on after I die is important enough to make sacrifices of my personal luxury and leisure time now.�

Unlike THE ANDY WARHOL DIARIES, which is gossipy fun but rarely introspective, Haring’s journal is beautifully written, thoughtful, and filled with passionate opinions and very personal details]]> 4.25 1996
author: Keith Haring
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/07/24
shelves:
review:
I both read the book and listened to the unabridged audiobook.

Graffiti artist and pop culture icon Haring kept engaging and extensive journals from 1977 until September 1989 (five months before his death in February 1990), and David Pittu brings them to life with his relaxed and emotive narration of the unabridged audiobook.

These journals cover not only Haring’s meteoric rise in the art world but also his friendships, rivalries, opinions, and activism. An extended entry in February 1987, after the death of Andy Warhol, is a love letter to Warhol (a friend and mentor to Haring) that succinctly and emotionally captures him as an artist and person. Later in 1987, Haring muses on his mortality; “I am quite aware of the chance that I have or will have AIDS,� he writes and Pittu reads with heartbreaking simplicity. “I’m sure that what will live on after I die is important enough to make sacrifices of my personal luxury and leisure time now.�

Unlike THE ANDY WARHOL DIARIES, which is gossipy fun but rarely introspective, Haring’s journal is beautifully written, thoughtful, and filled with passionate opinions and very personal details
]]> 57293647 A wonderfully candid memoir from one of the most recognizable faces of a generation, actor, writer, Youtuber, and television superstar, Josh Peck. In his warm and inspiring book, Josh reflects on the many stumbles and silver linings of his life and traces a zigzagging path to redemption. Written with such impressive detail and aching honesty, Happy People are Annoying is full of surprising life lessons for anyone seeking to accept their past and make peace with the complicated face in the mirror.

Josh Peck rose to near-instant fame when he starred for four seasons as the comedic center of Nickelodeon's hit show Drake & Josh. However, while he tried to maintain his role as the funniest, happiest kid in every room, Josh struggled alone with the kind of rising anger and plummeting confidence that quietly took over his life.

For the first time, Josh reflects on his late teens and early twenties. Raised by a single mother, and coming of age under a spotlight that could be both invigorating and cruel, Josh filled the cratering hole in his self-worth with copious amounts of food, television, drugs, and all of the other trappings of young stardom. Until he realized the only person standing in his way...was himself. Today, with a string of lead roles on hit television shows and movies, and one of the most enviable and dedicated fanbases on the internet, Josh Peck is more than happy, he's finally, enthusiastically content.

Happy People are Annoying is the culmination of years of learning, growing, and finding bright spots in the scary parts of life. Written with the kind of humor, strength of character, and unwavering self-awareness only someone who has mastered their ego can muster, this memoir reminds us of the life-changing freedom on the other side of acceptance.]]> 272 Josh Peck 0063073633 Kevin 5
Peck’s audio memoir gets off to a hilarious start as he introduces the book in a whispery posh accent and then breaks into his real, jovial voice saying, “Sorry, I swear to God, I’m not going to read the whole book in that voice!� Listeners can hear the smile in Peck’s amiable and droll narration as the former child star of Nickelodeon’s Drake & Josh recounts transitioning into a successful adult acting career and becoming an accomplished writer.

In the chapter “Too Fat for Commercials,� he recalls losing out on auditions as a preteen because of his first love: food. While Peck’s memoir produces a lot of laughs, he’s also candid about the perils and pressures of teenage stardom; at 18, he discovered “drugs and alcohol were like a water truck in the middle of a desert for me—a respite from a life trudging along dehydrated.�

His recollections of years of addiction and getting sober are harrowing and heartening. Peck’s memoir is an irresistible and delightful mix of candor and comedy.]]> 4.04 2022
author: Josh Peck
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/07/24
shelves:
review:
I read the book and listened to the audiobook.

Peck’s audio memoir gets off to a hilarious start as he introduces the book in a whispery posh accent and then breaks into his real, jovial voice saying, “Sorry, I swear to God, I’m not going to read the whole book in that voice!� Listeners can hear the smile in Peck’s amiable and droll narration as the former child star of Nickelodeon’s Drake & Josh recounts transitioning into a successful adult acting career and becoming an accomplished writer.

In the chapter “Too Fat for Commercials,� he recalls losing out on auditions as a preteen because of his first love: food. While Peck’s memoir produces a lot of laughs, he’s also candid about the perils and pressures of teenage stardom; at 18, he discovered “drugs and alcohol were like a water truck in the middle of a desert for me—a respite from a life trudging along dehydrated.�

His recollections of years of addiction and getting sober are harrowing and heartening. Peck’s memoir is an irresistible and delightful mix of candor and comedy.
]]> 59568441
When the use of Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock� turned 1955’s Blackboard Jungle into a teen sensation and a box-office smash, it proved the opening shot in a cinematic and cultural revolution. Starting with Elvis Presley and the teensploitation films of the �50s and �60s, in Rock on Film award-winning author and former Rolling Stone editor Fred Goodman takes readers on a wide-ranging journey through film and pop history. Along the way, he measures the transformative impact of the mid-�60s landmarks A Hard Day’s Night and Dont Look Back and how they seeded an almost unbelievably broad genre of films made by increasingly ambitious musicians and filmmakers across the past seven decades.

From the carefree to the complex, the mindless to the mind-bending, rock films have staked out their own turf by simultaneously celebrating innocence and challenging artistic and social conventions. With an insightful round-up of fifty must-see rock films spanning crowd-pleasers, art-house favorites, underground gems, and undisputed classics, Rock on Film surveys the nearly seventy-year canon of a genre like no other.

A series of original interviews with Cameron Crowe, Jim Jarmusch, Penelope Spheeris, Taylor Hackford, and John Waters illuminates how rock has influenced the work of some of the most divergent and thoughtful directors in movie history. Illustrated throughout by more than 150 full-color and black-and-white images, Rock on Film brings the history of music in the movies to vivid life.]]> 288 Fred Goodman 0762478438 Kevin 5
Goodman ("Why Lhasa de Sela Matters") expertly blends backstage tales of how the films were made with commentary on how they resonate with him. Jam-packed with beautiful, full-color photos, this guide also includes Goodman's excellent interviews with five film directors. Taylor Hackford recalls firing Phil Spector from THE IDOLMAKER; Jim Jarmusch explains why he casts so many rockers in acting roles; Cameron Crowe discusses directing ALMOST FANOUS and SINGLES; Penelope Spheeris talks about her punk documentary trilogy, THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION; and John Waters chats about the music of his films.

Profiled films include tongue-in-cheek treasures (THIS IOS SPINAL TAP, RROCK 'N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL, HAIRPRAY, THE BLUES BROTHERS, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW); outstanding documentaries (THE BLACK GODFATHER, STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN, 20 FEET FROM STARDOM); concert films (STOP MAKING SENSE, WOODSTOCK, THE LAST WALTZ); and films that are merely set in the music world. ROCK ON FILM is a delightful and illuminating photography book.]]> 4.17
author: Fred Goodman
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2022/07/24
date added: 2022/07/24
shelves:
review:
ROCK ON FILM--Fred Goodman's breezy, opinionated and affectionate salute to the ever-expanding sensibilities, attitudes, ethos and excitement of rock music in motion pictures--is a lavishly illustrated coffee-table book, showcasing both crowd-pleasers and buried treasures. Although he profiles 50 films, twice as many are introduced, given that each entry is paired with a brief write-up of another film in a "Make it a double feature" sidebar. Elvis Presley's JAILHOUSE ROCK is paired with HUSTLE & FLOW; AMERICAN GRAFFITI with THAT THING YOU DO!; and the James Brown biopic GET ON UP with Tina Turner's WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT.

Goodman ("Why Lhasa de Sela Matters") expertly blends backstage tales of how the films were made with commentary on how they resonate with him. Jam-packed with beautiful, full-color photos, this guide also includes Goodman's excellent interviews with five film directors. Taylor Hackford recalls firing Phil Spector from THE IDOLMAKER; Jim Jarmusch explains why he casts so many rockers in acting roles; Cameron Crowe discusses directing ALMOST FANOUS and SINGLES; Penelope Spheeris talks about her punk documentary trilogy, THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION; and John Waters chats about the music of his films.

Profiled films include tongue-in-cheek treasures (THIS IOS SPINAL TAP, RROCK 'N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL, HAIRPRAY, THE BLUES BROTHERS, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW); outstanding documentaries (THE BLACK GODFATHER, STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN, 20 FEET FROM STARDOM); concert films (STOP MAKING SENSE, WOODSTOCK, THE LAST WALTZ); and films that are merely set in the music world. ROCK ON FILM is a delightful and illuminating photography book.
]]> 58532167
The ultimate baking book from internationally beloved baker Paul Hollywood, judge of The Great British Baking Show.

In BAKE, Paul Hollywood shares his best ever recipes for classic cakes, biscuits and cookies, breads and flatbreads, pizza and doughnuts, pastries and pies, and showstopping desserts. From classic cakes like Victoria Sandwich and Chocolate Fudge Cake, through brilliant breads like foolproof Sourdough , to savoury and sweet pastries like Sausage Rolls and Danish Pastries , these are the only recipes you’ll need to create perfectly delicious bakes time and time again.

With more years as a professional baker than he’d care to remember and over 10 years judging the best baking show on TV, Paul has created, tested and tasted a huge number of bakes. He has also traveled widely and learnt so much about the craft he loves. For Paul, one of the most joyful things about baking is how it evolves as we discover new techniques, ingredients and influences. As our knowledge improves, so do our recipes.

Paul combines every tip and trick he has learned together with his incredible technical know-how to create the ultimate collection of incredible bakes.]]> 304 Paul Hollywood 1635579295 Kevin 5
BAKE: MY BEST EVER RECIPES FOR THE CLASSICS presents 88 recipes in six chapters: Cakes; Cookies and Scones; Breads and Flatbreads; Pastry and Pies; Desserts; and Pizzas and Doughnuts. ("If I were to choose my last meal on Earth, it would be very difficult not to include a good pizza and a doughnut.") Recipes include Victoria Sandwich ("If you're new to baking, this should be your very first cake. If you get it right, everything else will be easy"); Lemon Drizzle Cake ("my favorite cake of all time"); and Chocolate Brownies ("the best brownies you'll ever taste"). His bread recipes are for two loaves instead of one, with Hollywood noting: "If you're going to the effort of making bread, then it's often worth making two at a time and keeping one in the freezer." He explains the role of gluten in flour and ways to avoid pie crusts with soggy bottoms--for one, by dusting cornstarch on the pie's crust. He updates traditional bread pudding by adding white chocolate and raspberries and breaks with tradition by making pigs in blankets with rough puff pastry rather than shortcrust pastry.

Beautifully illustrated with color photos, these are easy-to-follow recipes with charming anecdotes from a trusted baker.]]> 4.27
author: Paul Hollywood
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2022/07/24
date added: 2022/07/24
shelves:
review:
Paul Hollywood (A BAKER'S LIFE), who has been a judge on "The Great British Bake Off" since 2010, brings readers his 10th book, a compendium of his favorite recipes. "These are the recipes I enjoy, that I have refined and perfected over the years," he writes. "This collection brings together all my ultimate versions of the recipes that are special to me."

BAKE: MY BEST EVER RECIPES FOR THE CLASSICS presents 88 recipes in six chapters: Cakes; Cookies and Scones; Breads and Flatbreads; Pastry and Pies; Desserts; and Pizzas and Doughnuts. ("If I were to choose my last meal on Earth, it would be very difficult not to include a good pizza and a doughnut.") Recipes include Victoria Sandwich ("If you're new to baking, this should be your very first cake. If you get it right, everything else will be easy"); Lemon Drizzle Cake ("my favorite cake of all time"); and Chocolate Brownies ("the best brownies you'll ever taste"). His bread recipes are for two loaves instead of one, with Hollywood noting: "If you're going to the effort of making bread, then it's often worth making two at a time and keeping one in the freezer." He explains the role of gluten in flour and ways to avoid pie crusts with soggy bottoms--for one, by dusting cornstarch on the pie's crust. He updates traditional bread pudding by adding white chocolate and raspberries and breaks with tradition by making pigs in blankets with rough puff pastry rather than shortcrust pastry.

Beautifully illustrated with color photos, these are easy-to-follow recipes with charming anecdotes from a trusted baker.
]]> 59742373 The definitive biography of George Michael, offering an expansive look at the troubled life of the legendary singer, songwriter, and pop superstar.

George Michael was an extravagantly gifted, openhearted soul singer whose work was both pained and smolderingly erotic. He was a songwriter of true craft and substance, and his music swept the world, starting in the mid-1980s. His fabricated image—that of a hypermacho sex god—loomed large in the pop culture of his day. It also hid—for a time—the secret he fought against revealing: Michael was gay. Soon his obsession with fame would start to backfire. As one of the industry’s most privileged yet tortured men began to self-destruct, the press showed little sympathy. George Michael: A Life explores the compelling story of a superstar whose struggles, as well as his songs, continue to touch fans all over the world.

Acclaimed music biographer James Gavin traces Michael’s metamorphosis from the shy and awkward Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou into the swaggering, dominant half of the leading British pop duo of the 1980s Wham!; he then details Michael’s sensational solo career and its subsequent unraveling. With deep analysis of the creative process behind Michael’s albums, tours, and music videos, as well as interviews with hundreds of his friends and colleagues, George Michael: A Life is a probing, definitive portrait of a pop legend.]]> 528 James Gavin 1647006732 Kevin 5
At 18, he and Andrew Ridgeley formed the pop group Wham! Five years later, Michael went solo and found even greater success with the release of his 1987 solo album, Faith. Playing the swaggering and sexually alluring pop star on stage (and singing "I Want Your Sex") was a double-edged sword for Michael, because it encouraged the media to speculate about his sexuality. In an attempt to kill that persona, Michael all but sabotaged his career by suing his record company, accelerating his drug use and refusing to promote his albums or appear in his own music videos. He was forced out of the closet in 1998 when his arrest for public lewdness garnered national headlines, a scandal that his career, already faltering, couldn't overcome. Alcohol, drugs, antidepressants, vocal damage, writer's block, suicide attempts and rehab littered the rest of his heartbreaking 18 years.

This is a sad story of illusion versus reality. Although he writes with compassion, Gavin doesn't let Michael off the hook for his self-destructive tendencies. ]]> 3.76 2022
author: James Gavin
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/07/01
date added: 2022/07/01
shelves:
review:
James Gavin's truly definitive, epic-sized biography of mega pop star George Michael, who lived from 1963 to 2016, is emotionally satisfying and meticulously researched. GEORGE MICHAEL: A LIFE focuses squarely on how Michael's closeted sexuality and constant fear of being found out affected his psyche, career and relationships. Michael grew up gay "under the disapproving eye of a homophobic Greek orthodox father," writes Gavin (Is That All There Is?: The Strange Life of Peggy Lee). With poor self-esteem--"I was fat and ugly and I had glasses," Michael told interviewers--he began cruising for secretive sex at age 16.

At 18, he and Andrew Ridgeley formed the pop group Wham! Five years later, Michael went solo and found even greater success with the release of his 1987 solo album, Faith. Playing the swaggering and sexually alluring pop star on stage (and singing "I Want Your Sex") was a double-edged sword for Michael, because it encouraged the media to speculate about his sexuality. In an attempt to kill that persona, Michael all but sabotaged his career by suing his record company, accelerating his drug use and refusing to promote his albums or appear in his own music videos. He was forced out of the closet in 1998 when his arrest for public lewdness garnered national headlines, a scandal that his career, already faltering, couldn't overcome. Alcohol, drugs, antidepressants, vocal damage, writer's block, suicide attempts and rehab littered the rest of his heartbreaking 18 years.

This is a sad story of illusion versus reality. Although he writes with compassion, Gavin doesn't let Michael off the hook for his self-destructive tendencies.
]]> 58667496
Prelude and Foreword written by fashion icon Miss J Alexander and drag superstar Sasha Velour

Drag has officially transcended the underground and exploded into the mainstream. Queens have more visibility than ever, and it’s been hard won through decades of perseverance, imagination, and intergenerational support within local drag communities. It’s time to honor the queens who paved the way for the new generation of drag and are still carrying out their work today.

To create Legends of Drag , a photo book and archive of living drag history, authors Harry James Hanson and Devin Antheus traveled coast to coast, visiting 16 cities to meet 80 legendary entertainers who shared boundless wisdom and powerful anecdotes from their lives. These queens are featured in stunning portraits shot on location and styled with unique floral elements.

“Through its attention to archiving drag history and capturing the precious and fleeting moments with our queer elders, Legends of Drag will go down in history itself. It is essential reading, and in this day and age, when LGBTQ+ literature, chronicles, and history are being banned, this book is more important than ever.� � Bust magazine]]> 240 Harry James Hanson 1419758470 Kevin 5
In addition to fascinating origin stories and anecdotes about entertaining, the queens have stories involving decades of LGBTQ+ activism. In the early 1990s, Joan Jett Blakk ran for mayor of Chicago. Chilli Pepper, another legendary Chicago queen, boasts appearances in the 1980s and '90s on talk shows hosted by Oprah Winfrey, Phil Donahue and Joan Rivers. The subjects of these profiles are both inspiring and funny. New York City's Flotilla DeBarge says, "I always start off the show looking like Halle Berry and by the end I wind up looking like Chuck Berry. Get into the delusion, darling!" Kitty Litter calls her home state of Texas "the button-fly on the bible belt."

The book ends with a "non-exhaustive chronology" of international attacks on gender normality--from a rebellion in Greece in 390 after the passing of a law that punished "male effeminacy" to the 1970 opening of a house for homeless drag queens and queer youth in New York City.]]> 4.52
author: Harry James Hanson
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.52
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2022/06/24
date added: 2022/06/24
shelves:
review:
Harry James Hanson and Devin Antheus's beautifully designed photography book, LEGENDS OF DRAG, is a tribute to 79 legendary drag elders who paved the way for the new generation of drag. Though a few died after being photographed and interviewed, the majority of the subjects of this lavish book are still working today. The profiles are arranged regionally, covering 15 cities across the United States, making it easy for readers to find their hometown (s)heroes. "No two queens define the art form the same way," write the authors. "By highlighting this wide-ranging cast of queens, we intend to offer many entry points into this varied and category-defying tradition."

In addition to fascinating origin stories and anecdotes about entertaining, the queens have stories involving decades of LGBTQ+ activism. In the early 1990s, Joan Jett Blakk ran for mayor of Chicago. Chilli Pepper, another legendary Chicago queen, boasts appearances in the 1980s and '90s on talk shows hosted by Oprah Winfrey, Phil Donahue and Joan Rivers. The subjects of these profiles are both inspiring and funny. New York City's Flotilla DeBarge says, "I always start off the show looking like Halle Berry and by the end I wind up looking like Chuck Berry. Get into the delusion, darling!" Kitty Litter calls her home state of Texas "the button-fly on the bible belt."

The book ends with a "non-exhaustive chronology" of international attacks on gender normality--from a rebellion in Greece in 390 after the passing of a law that punished "male effeminacy" to the 1970 opening of a house for homeless drag queens and queer youth in New York City.
]]> 59485896 â€�Grease, Tell Me More, Tell Me More is a fabulous rockinâ€� and rollinâ€� origin story with every juicy inspiration that went into creating it. . . .ĚýA must read for all Grease fans.â€� —Didi Conn, Grease’s “Frenchyâ€�
Ěý

What started as an amateur play with music in a converted trolly barn in Chicago hit Broadway fifty years ago—and maintains its cultural impact today.Ěý

Grease opened downtown in the Eden Theatre February 14, 1972, short of money, short of audience, short of critical raves, and seemingly destined for a short run. But like the little engine that could, this musical of high school kids from the 1950s moved uptown. On December 8, 1979, it became the longest running show—play or musical—in Broadway history.Ěý

Grease: Tell Me More, Tell Me MoreĚýis a collection of memories and stories from over one hundred actors and musicians, including the creative team and crew who were part of the original Broadway production and in the many touring companies it spawned.

Here are stories—some touching, some hilariously funny—from names you may recognize: Barry Bostwick, John Travolta, Adrienne Barbeau, Treat Williams, Marilu Henner, Peter Gallagher, and others you may not: Danny Jacobson, creator of Mad About You; Tony-winning Broadway directors Walter Bobbie and Jerry Zaks; bestselling authors Laurie Graff and John Lansing; television stars Ilene Kristen, Ilene Graff, and Lisa Raggio, and many, many more.Ěý

Read about the struggles, the battles, and the ultimate triumphs achieved in shaping the story, characters, and music into the iconic show now universally recognized the world over.
Ěý]]> 352 Tom Moore 1641607580 Kevin 5
This oral history, as told by the original actors and crew, is skillfully assembled by Tom Moore (the musical's original Broadway director), Adrienne Barbeau (who earned a Tony nomination playing bad-girl Rizzo) and Ken Waissman (who co-produced the show with Maxine Fox). The producers auditioned 2,000 actors to find the original 16 cast members. Barry Bostwick, who played the original Danny Zuko, recalls that the "cruelty of the process was unnerving." Ilene Graff reminisces about playing Sandy during her two-and-a-half-year run, starring opposite 11 actors who played the role of Zuko, including Bostwick, Richard Gere, Jeff Conaway and Treat Williams. Eighteen-year-old John Travolta remembers taking a role in the touring company against advice from other industry professionals. There's also a funny and delightfully starstruck round-robin of memories from the 1976 cast, who recalls the time Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton attended performances and invited the cast out to Sardi's for a drunken gathering.

Five decades haven't dimmed the memories of the cast and crew members of GREASE, who have built affectionate friendships. Packed with photos (most are backstage pictures taken by the actors) and warm memories, this engaging oral history is a treat for theatre buffs and earns its standing ovation.]]> 4.27 2022
author: Tom Moore
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/06/18
date added: 2022/06/18
shelves:
review:
The history of the Broadway production of GREASE is a case of a plucky original musical that beat all the odds. Word-of-mouth made GREASE--which opened to mixed reviews on February 14, 1972--a popular show. Later in the year, it garnered seven Tony nominations. When it closed after 3,388 performances on April 13, 1980, it had broken the record as the longest-running play or musical on Broadway.

This oral history, as told by the original actors and crew, is skillfully assembled by Tom Moore (the musical's original Broadway director), Adrienne Barbeau (who earned a Tony nomination playing bad-girl Rizzo) and Ken Waissman (who co-produced the show with Maxine Fox). The producers auditioned 2,000 actors to find the original 16 cast members. Barry Bostwick, who played the original Danny Zuko, recalls that the "cruelty of the process was unnerving." Ilene Graff reminisces about playing Sandy during her two-and-a-half-year run, starring opposite 11 actors who played the role of Zuko, including Bostwick, Richard Gere, Jeff Conaway and Treat Williams. Eighteen-year-old John Travolta remembers taking a role in the touring company against advice from other industry professionals. There's also a funny and delightfully starstruck round-robin of memories from the 1976 cast, who recalls the time Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton attended performances and invited the cast out to Sardi's for a drunken gathering.

Five decades haven't dimmed the memories of the cast and crew members of GREASE, who have built affectionate friendships. Packed with photos (most are backstage pictures taken by the actors) and warm memories, this engaging oral history is a treat for theatre buffs and earns its standing ovation.
]]> 59465354
There is no love lost between the president of the United States and Ellen Adams, his new secretary of state. But it’s a canny move on the part of the president. With this appointment, he silences one of his harshest critics, since taking the job means Adams must step down as head of her multinational media conglomerate.

As the new president addresses Congress for the first time, with Secretary Adams in attendance, Anahita Dahir, a young foreign service officer (FSO) on the Pakistan desk at the State Department, receives a baffling text from an anonymous source.

Too late, she realizes the message was a hastily coded warning.

What begins as a series of apparent terrorist attacks is revealed to be the beginning of an international chess game involving the volatile and Byzantine politics of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran; the race to develop nuclear weapons in the region; the Russian mob; a burgeoning rogue terrorist organization; and an American government set back on its heels in the international arena.

As the horrifying scale of the threat becomes clear, Secretary Adams and her team realize it has been carefully planned to take advantage of four years of an American government out of touch with international affairs, out of practice with diplomacy, and out of power in the places where it counts the most.

To defeat such an intricate, carefully constructed conspiracy, it will take the skills of a unique team: a passionate young FSO; a dedicated journalist; and a smart, determined, but as yet untested new secretary of state.

State of Terror is a unique and utterly compelling international thriller cowritten by Hillary Rodham Clinton, the 67th secretary of state, and Louise Penny, a multiple award-winning #1 New York Times bestselling novelist.]]> 495 Hillary Rodham Clinton 1982173688 Kevin 0 to-read 4.05 2021
author: Hillary Rodham Clinton
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/06/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58988413 "Being directed by the Jimmy Burrows, while on Friends, was like hitting the jackpot. I'm delighted that everyone can now share in his incredible insight with this book."--JENNIFER ANISTON

From the director of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends, and Will & Grace comes an insightful and nostalgic memoir that offers a bounty of behind-the-scenes moments from our favorite shows, peeling away the layers behind how a successful sitcom comes together--and stays that way.

Legendary sitcom director James Burrows has spent five decades making America laugh. Here readers will find never revealed stories behind the casting of the dozens of great sitcoms he directed, as well as details as to how these memorable shows were created, how they got on the air, and how the cast and crew continued to develop and grow. Burrows also examines his own challenges, career victories, and defeats, and provides advice for aspiring directors, writers, and actors. All this from the man who helped launch the careers of Ted Danson, Kelsey Grammer, Woody Harrelson, Jennifer Aniston, Debra Messing, and Melissa McCarthy, to name a few.

Burrows talks fondly about the inspiration he found during his childhood and young adult years, including his father, legendary playwright and Broadway director Abe Burrows. From there he goes on to explain his rigorous work ethic, forged in his early years in theater, where he did everything from stage managing to building sets to, finally, directing. Transitioning to television, Burrows locked into a coveted job with The Mary Tyler Moore Show, where he first observed and then started to apply his craft. Directing most of the episodes of Taxi came next, where he worked closely with writers/producers Glen and Les Charles. The three formed a remarkable creative partnership that helped Burrows achieve his much sought-after goal of ownership and agency over a project, which came with the creating and directing of the seminal and beloved hit Cheers. Burrows has directed more than seventy-five pilots that have gone to series and over a thousand episodes, more than any other director in history.

Directed by James Burrows is a heart-and-soul master class in sitcom, revealing what it truly takes to get a laugh.]]> 368 James Burrows 0593358244 Kevin 5
Packed with hilarious dialogue and jokes from classic sitcoms, DIRECTED BY JAMES BURROWS is also brimming with sound advice for actors, directors and writers hoping to work in television. Burrows also fills the book with entertaining behind-the-scenes anecdotes. He succinctly explains why on The MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW spinoff, PHYLISS, Cloris Leachman's narcissistic and self-absorbed character didn't work as a lead role, while the writers of Cheers were able to rewrite and spin off FRASIER with a lead character possessing the same traits. After directing eight episodes, he turned down the role of primary director for LAVERNE & SHIRLEY, because he didn't like the tension and turmoil on the set. TAXI fans will delight in discovering that Danny DeVito took bribes from coworkers to announce the names of friends and family when dispatching cabs.

DIRECTED BY JAMES BURROWS is a treasure trove of brilliant advice, stories and uproarious routines from classic TV shows.]]> 3.80 2022
author: James Burrows
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/06/10
date added: 2022/06/10
shelves:
review:
James Burrows, one of the most prolific and successful TV sitcom directors ever, presents a side-splittingly hilarious tell-all that is part memoir and part master class on working in television. His impressive résumé includes directing THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW (four episodes), THE BOB NEWHART SHOW (11 episodes), TAXI (75 episodes), CHEERS (243 episodes), FRASIER (32 episodes), FRIENDS (15 episodes), MIKE & MOLLY (49 episodes) and all 246 episodes of WILL & GRACE. "The hours of laughter that I got on WILL & GRACE added years to my life," he writes. He is also the go-to director for TV pilots, having directed more than 75 that were picked up as series.

Packed with hilarious dialogue and jokes from classic sitcoms, DIRECTED BY JAMES BURROWS is also brimming with sound advice for actors, directors and writers hoping to work in television. Burrows also fills the book with entertaining behind-the-scenes anecdotes. He succinctly explains why on The MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW spinoff, PHYLISS, Cloris Leachman's narcissistic and self-absorbed character didn't work as a lead role, while the writers of Cheers were able to rewrite and spin off FRASIER with a lead character possessing the same traits. After directing eight episodes, he turned down the role of primary director for LAVERNE & SHIRLEY, because he didn't like the tension and turmoil on the set. TAXI fans will delight in discovering that Danny DeVito took bribes from coworkers to announce the names of friends and family when dispatching cabs.

DIRECTED BY JAMES BURROWS is a treasure trove of brilliant advice, stories and uproarious routines from classic TV shows.
]]> 60257873 Nocturnal Admissions is a timely, nonconventional look at one of pop culture’s most outwardly glamorous, yet misunderstood industries, bringing the reader backstage into the world of nightlife at its highest level.



Wearing the multiple hats of ringmaster, entrepreneur, guidance counselor, multimillion-dollar dealmaker, and music soothsayer, Adelman chronicles an improbable journey from small town to big city, filled with a cast of characters he could never have People named Hedda Lettuce, Jenetalia, Maxi Min, Jiggy, who collide with and around the likes of Jack Nicholson, Bruce Willis, Sir Richard Branson, Leonardo DiCaprio, RuPaul, Rudy Giuliani, and Snoop Dogg, among many, many others.



Navigating city crackdowns, crazed partners, and cultural differences, Adelman relates how he watched his Nana out-dance an ex-NFL lineman, was chastised by Bob Dylan, launched the EDM musical movement, helped created the “mash up� with Perry Farrell, butted heads with Jerry Falwell, rang in the New Year with Matt Damon’s mother, leveraged porn star Jenna Jameson, relied on advice from felons, almost pancaked Prince, and built the world’s most lavish nightclub.



Nocturnal Admissions is a hilarious, adrenaline-filled ride through the peak decades of the world's most famous nightclubs and nightlife scenes.]]> 249 Steve Adelman 1595807802 Kevin 4
After explaining how daytime jobs are governed by basic sets of principles, Adelman invites readers into the nocturnal world of working nightclubs. "If your day begins at 9 p.m., and you throw alcohol, drugs, second jobs, and half-naked people into the mix, those principles go to hell pretty quickly," he writes. The attendees at opening night for his Los Angeles nightclub Avalon included Prince, Leonardo DiCaprio, Justin Timberlake and Hugh Hefner. But Adelman also details working with promoters to bring in celebrities. While VIPs drink for free, the club recoups its costs by alerting the paparazzi and milking the tabloid publicity.

In an attempt to keep the 20-year-old club Limelight fresh to blasé New York club-goers, club owners created Wednesday "Disco 2000" parties that became legendary for their kitschy outrageousness. Among the highlights: a kissing booth featuring Gilligan's Island's Tina Louise, and a Beverly Hillbillies hoedown hosted by Donna Douglas, as well as spiked Ecstasy Punch. Adelman sprinkles pithy business advice in the form of what he calls "learned axioms" (or "laxioms") throughout the book, including "hire slow, fire quick" and "Prepare for the most discerning, and others will follow." NOCTURNAL ADMISSIONS is an eye-opening look at the art of running a successful nightclub. ]]> 3.60
author: Steve Adelman
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.60
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2022/06/10
date added: 2022/06/10
shelves:
review:
Steve Adelman's captivating memoir about his years as the director and owner of some of the most legendary nightclubs and dance clubs in the world lives up to its deliriously wicked play-on-words title: NOCTURNAL ADMISSIONS. By the time he was 30, Adelman was the director of five of New York City's largest and most successful nightclubs. This, the 1990s and 2000s, was considered the "golden era" of nightclubs.

After explaining how daytime jobs are governed by basic sets of principles, Adelman invites readers into the nocturnal world of working nightclubs. "If your day begins at 9 p.m., and you throw alcohol, drugs, second jobs, and half-naked people into the mix, those principles go to hell pretty quickly," he writes. The attendees at opening night for his Los Angeles nightclub Avalon included Prince, Leonardo DiCaprio, Justin Timberlake and Hugh Hefner. But Adelman also details working with promoters to bring in celebrities. While VIPs drink for free, the club recoups its costs by alerting the paparazzi and milking the tabloid publicity.

In an attempt to keep the 20-year-old club Limelight fresh to blasé New York club-goers, club owners created Wednesday "Disco 2000" parties that became legendary for their kitschy outrageousness. Among the highlights: a kissing booth featuring Gilligan's Island's Tina Louise, and a Beverly Hillbillies hoedown hosted by Donna Douglas, as well as spiked Ecstasy Punch. Adelman sprinkles pithy business advice in the form of what he calls "learned axioms" (or "laxioms") throughout the book, including "hire slow, fire quick" and "Prepare for the most discerning, and others will follow." NOCTURNAL ADMISSIONS is an eye-opening look at the art of running a successful nightclub.
]]> 59348310
Four years ago, Colton Haynes woke up in a hospital. He’d had two seizures, lost the sight in one eye, almost ruptured a kidney, and been put on an involuntary psychiatry hold. Not yet thirty, he knew he had to take stock of his life and make some serious changes if he wanted to see his next birthday.

As he worked towards sobriety, Haynes allowed himself to become vulnerable for the first time in years and with that, discovered profound self-awareness. He had millions of social media followers who constantly told him they loved him. But what would they think if they knew his true story? If they knew where he came from and the things he had done?

Now, Colton bravely pulls back the curtain on his life and career, revealing the incredible highs and devastating lows. From his unorthodox childhood in a small Kansas town, to coming to terms with his sexuality, he keeps nothing back.

By sixteen, he had been signed by the world’s top modeling agency and his face appeared on billboards. But he was still a broke, lonely, confused teenager, surrounded by people telling him he could be a star as long as he never let anyone see his true self. As his career in television took off, the stress of wearing so many masks and trying to please so many different people turned his use of drugs and alcohol into full-blown addiction.

A lyrical and intimate confession, apology, and cautionary tale, Miss Memory Lane is an unforgettable story of dreams deferred and dreams fulfilled; of a family torn apart and rebuilt; and of a man stepping into the light as no one but himself.]]> 256 Colton Haynes 1982176172 Kevin 4
Haynes was raised in a highly dysfunctional and violent home. His parents met in a Texas rehab. His father had previously been married five times and had three children, and his mother had never been married but had two kids with two different men. From a very early age, Haynes was sexually active. His first sexual experience was at the age of six with his father's adult brother. "This was the first time I had ever felt wanted," Haynes writes. He craved "the feeling of being desired, the feeling of getting someone else's attention." At age 14, he began a sexual relationship with a 42-year-old policeman. "I thought once I'd had him, I would be satisfied," he writes. "But I wasn't. I wanted more." And he certainly gets more. "I was sleeping with anyone who locked eyes with me," he adds later. At 15, he joined a top modeling agency, which led to acting roles, including TEEN WOLF and ARROW. Agents and his support team encouraged him to go back into the closet and hide his sexuality. This left him feeling isolated, wrecked his already fragile self-worth and resulted in more drinking and Adderall abuse.

This unrelenting and compelling memoir is by an actor unafraid to unmask his demons.]]> 4.27 2022
author: Colton Haynes
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/06/04
date added: 2022/06/04
shelves:
review:
Most celebrity autobiographies seem written with one eye on keeping their public image untarnished, which makes Colton Haynes's memoir all the more jaw-dropping. MISS MEMORY LANE is a raw, emotionally vulnerable and shockingly frank tale of family malfunction, rampant drug and alcohol abuse and poor self-esteem that leads to trouble.

Haynes was raised in a highly dysfunctional and violent home. His parents met in a Texas rehab. His father had previously been married five times and had three children, and his mother had never been married but had two kids with two different men. From a very early age, Haynes was sexually active. His first sexual experience was at the age of six with his father's adult brother. "This was the first time I had ever felt wanted," Haynes writes. He craved "the feeling of being desired, the feeling of getting someone else's attention." At age 14, he began a sexual relationship with a 42-year-old policeman. "I thought once I'd had him, I would be satisfied," he writes. "But I wasn't. I wanted more." And he certainly gets more. "I was sleeping with anyone who locked eyes with me," he adds later. At 15, he joined a top modeling agency, which led to acting roles, including TEEN WOLF and ARROW. Agents and his support team encouraged him to go back into the closet and hide his sexuality. This left him feeling isolated, wrecked his already fragile self-worth and resulted in more drinking and Adderall abuse.

This unrelenting and compelling memoir is by an actor unafraid to unmask his demons.
]]> 57432612 An anthology of essays accompanied by beautiful black-and-white photography from a diverse group of women on the time they learned to fight for themselves—including Gloria Steinem, Lena Waithe, Joanna Gaines, Brandi Carlile, Beanie Feldstein, Cynthia Erivio, and Billie Jean King, among others.

This powerful essay collection is a natural extension of the #MeToo movement, revealing the interior experience of women after they’ve inevitably been underestimated or hurt—the epiphany that the world is different than they thought it to be—and how they’ve used this knowledge to make change.

In My Moment, Gloria Steinem tells the story of how a meeting with writer Terry Southern drew blood. Carol Burnett shares how CBS discouraged her from pursuing The Carol Burnett Show, because comedy variety shows were “a man’s game.� Joanna Gaines reveals how coming to New York City as a young woman helped her embrace her Korean heritage after enduring racist bullying as a child. Author Maggie Smith details a career crossroads when her boss declined her request to work from home after the birth of her daughter, leading her to quit and never look back.

Over and over again, when told “no� these women said “yes� to themselves. This hugely inspiring, beautiful book will move people of all ages and make them feel less alone. More than the sum of its parts, My Moment is also a handbook for young women (or any woman) making their way through the world.]]> Kristin Chenoweth 1797133748 Kevin 4
Rosie O'Donnell recounts how, a month after her mother died, she took over the caretaker role to her four siblings: "i left my childhood behind--/ to take my place in the world of adults/ where eleven-year-olds don't belong." Actress and musician Zosia Mamet discusses the turning point in her 24-year battle with anorexia. Ricki Lake's moment was going public about her significant hair loss, which she'd kept hidden for 25 years. Kristin Chenoweth relates being injured severely on the set of the TV show "The Good Wife" and keeping mum for fear the entertainment industry would perceive her as weak. Rosanna Arquette writes about being blacklisted in the 1990s after resisting Harvey Weinstein's advances, and her decision to go public in 2017. Chely Wright lived on the brink of suicide after wrestling for years with her place in country music as a closeted lesbian, and Brandi Carlile remembers a Baptist pastor who publicly refused to baptize her as a teenager. MJ Rodriguez was seven years old when she realized: "You're not the one catching up with the world, the world needs to catch up with you."

This stirring tribute to strength and perseverance will resonate with everyone, regardless of gender.]]> 3.80 2022
author: Kristin Chenoweth
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/27
date added: 2022/05/27
shelves:
review:
After seeing the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford at Brett Kavanaugh's 2018 Supreme Court confirmation hearings mocked, disregarded and silenced, Lauren Blitzer, Kristin Chenoweth, Kathy Najimy, Linda Perry and Chely Wright began gathering stories from women. They asked: "What was the moment in your life when you realized you were ready to fight for yourself?" The remarkable My Moment--moving, empowering and impossible to put down--collects those inspiring responses. Each of the more than 100 entries from a diverse group of women is paired with a striking black-and-white photograph of its author.

Rosie O'Donnell recounts how, a month after her mother died, she took over the caretaker role to her four siblings: "i left my childhood behind--/ to take my place in the world of adults/ where eleven-year-olds don't belong." Actress and musician Zosia Mamet discusses the turning point in her 24-year battle with anorexia. Ricki Lake's moment was going public about her significant hair loss, which she'd kept hidden for 25 years. Kristin Chenoweth relates being injured severely on the set of the TV show "The Good Wife" and keeping mum for fear the entertainment industry would perceive her as weak. Rosanna Arquette writes about being blacklisted in the 1990s after resisting Harvey Weinstein's advances, and her decision to go public in 2017. Chely Wright lived on the brink of suicide after wrestling for years with her place in country music as a closeted lesbian, and Brandi Carlile remembers a Baptist pastor who publicly refused to baptize her as a teenager. MJ Rodriguez was seven years old when she realized: "You're not the one catching up with the world, the world needs to catch up with you."

This stirring tribute to strength and perseverance will resonate with everyone, regardless of gender.
]]> 59366265
When Gwendy Peterson was twelve, a mysterious stranger named Richard Farris gave her a mysterious box for safekeeping. It offered treats and vintage coins, but it was dangerous. Pushing any of its seven colored buttons promised death and destruction. Years later, the button box entered Gwendy’s life again. A successful novelist and a rising political star, she was once again forced to deal with the temptation that box represented. Now, evil forces seek to possess the button box and it is up to Senator Gwendy Peterson to keep it from them at all costs. But where can you hide something from such powerful entities?

In Gwendy’s Final Task , “horror giants� (Publishers Weekly) Stephen King and Richard Chizmar take us on a journey from Castle Rock to another famous cursed Maine city to the MF-1 space station, where Gwendy must execute a secret mission to save the world. And, maybe, all worlds.]]> 288 Stephen King 1982191554 Kevin 0 to-read 3.91 2022
author: Stephen King
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/05/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59952114
"An emotionally articulate memoir…[and] an intimate insight into the good-hearted and talented young man behind the medals." � Attitude

A deeply personal and inspiring memoir from the celebrated Olympic gold medal diver and LGBTQ+ advocate

Tom Daley is one of the most beloved athletes of our time, having competed as a diver in four Olympics, garnering medals and finally, in 2021 in Tokyo, winning gold. But few people know the realities of his life beyond the pool—his struggles, his secret triumphs and the mindset he needed to cultivate to become a champion.

In this deeply personal book, Tom explores the experiences that have shaped him and the qualities that brought him success and joy—from the resilience he developed competing at a world-class level, to the courage he discovered while reclaiming the narrative around his sexuality, to the perspective that family life has brought him.

Inspiring, candid and compulsively readable, Coming Up for Air offers an intimate window into the life and mindset of an athlete and advocate who has left an indelible imprint on sports.]]> 240 Tom Daley 1335662561 Kevin 5
The memoir is broken into 11 chapters with titles such as "Perseverance," "Acceptance," "Motivation," "Endurance," etc., that focus on individual traits that helped Daley accomplish his goals. These chapters are both how-to and tell-all in nature. In the heartbreaking and tender "Courage" chapter, he recounts the experience of losing his father to a brain tumor and, before he can process his grief, returning to training. He also meets his future husband, Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who helps him confront his inability to let people get close to him. Black also helps him realize that "diving was something I could do but it wasn't who I was. This realisation brought with it a profound sense of freedom and release."

Few memoirs by athletes are as brutally candid as Daley's. He details his panic attacks, an eating disorder and body image issues as well as a plethora of physical illnesses, including pneumonia, a concussion, a Covid infection and a secret knee surgery several months before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Written with charm and an open heart, Daley's memoir is irresistible.]]> 3.98 2021
author: Tom Daley
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/05/20
date added: 2022/05/20
shelves:
review:
Olympic gold medal-winning diver Tom Daley's memoir, COMING UP FOR AIR, is an inspiring, moving and honest examination of a gay athlete's life. Daley (Tom's Daily Goals) was 14 when he participated in his first Olympics in 2008, and at age 15, he became Britain's first individual diving world champion, winning a gold medal at the FINA World Championships in Rome. There's a lot about diving and training in this memoir, but Daley is also very open about the debilitating physical and mental stress he experienced.

The memoir is broken into 11 chapters with titles such as "Perseverance," "Acceptance," "Motivation," "Endurance," etc., that focus on individual traits that helped Daley accomplish his goals. These chapters are both how-to and tell-all in nature. In the heartbreaking and tender "Courage" chapter, he recounts the experience of losing his father to a brain tumor and, before he can process his grief, returning to training. He also meets his future husband, Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who helps him confront his inability to let people get close to him. Black also helps him realize that "diving was something I could do but it wasn't who I was. This realisation brought with it a profound sense of freedom and release."

Few memoirs by athletes are as brutally candid as Daley's. He details his panic attacks, an eating disorder and body image issues as well as a plethora of physical illnesses, including pneumonia, a concussion, a Covid infection and a secret knee surgery several months before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Written with charm and an open heart, Daley's memoir is irresistible.
]]> 58537351
“I hope fans of comedy will get a kick out of the stories behind my work, and really enjoy taking this remarkable ride with me.”—Mel Brooks

For anyone who loves American comedy, the long wait is over. Here are the never-before-told, behind-the-scenes anecdotes and remembrances from a master storyteller, filmmaker, and creator of all things funny.

All About Me! charts Mel Brooks’s meteoric rise from a Depression-era kid in Brooklyn to the recipient of the National Medal of Arts. Whether serving in the United States Army in World War II, or during his burgeoning career as a teenage comedian in the Catskills, Mel was always mining his experiences for material, always looking for the perfect joke. His iconic career began with Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, where he was part of the greatest writers� room in history, which included Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, and Larry Gelbart. After co-creating both the mega-hit 2000 Year Old Man comedy albums and the classic television series Get Smart, Brooks’s stellar film career took off. He would go on to write, direct, and star in The Producers, The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, and Spaceballs, as well as produce groundbreaking and eclectic films, including The Elephant Man, The Fly, and My Favorite Year. Brooks then went on to conquer Broadway with his record-breaking, Tony-winning musical, The Producers.

All About Me! offers fans insight into the inspiration behind the ideas for his outstanding collection of boundary-breaking work, and offers details about the many close friendships and collaborations Brooks had, including those with Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Gene Wilder, Madeleine Kahn, Alfred Hitchcock, and the great love of his life, Anne Bancroft.

Filled with tales of struggle, achievement, and camaraderie (and dozens of photographs), readers will gain a more personal and deeper understanding of the incredible body of work behind one of the most accomplished and beloved entertainers in history.]]> 480 Mel Brooks 059315911X Kevin 5
Mel Brooks may be 95 years old, but his distinctive and familiar voice is still vigorous, ingratiating, and funny. He still lands a punchline with finesse. He should, since the stories he shares in this 15-hour unabridged audiobook of his memoir have been polished over decades of talk show appearances and TV specials. Brooks focuses on his professional life rather than his private life (although he begins with his Brooklyn childhood experiences and military life prior to writing for Sid Caesar, and tales from his 40-year marriage to Anne Bancroft occasionally pop up). Brooks offers behind-the-scenes tales of writing and filming such classic comedies as "The Producers", "Blazing Saddles", "Young Frankenstein", "High Anxiety", and "Spaceballs."

He also reads a lot of hilarious material from his films, his �2,000-Year-Old Man� comedy albums with Carl Reiner and classic "Your Show of Shows" skits, proving great comedy stands the test of time. He also offers insightful anecdotes about turning "The Producers" into a Broadway musical and its bumpy road to success.

VERDICT A comedy legend shares tales of making his classic movies, celebrity encounters, and some of his funniest material. This is a masterclass in comedy not to be missed.]]> 4.19 2021
author: Mel Brooks
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/05/09
shelves:
review:
THE UNABRIDGED AUDIOBOOK:

Mel Brooks may be 95 years old, but his distinctive and familiar voice is still vigorous, ingratiating, and funny. He still lands a punchline with finesse. He should, since the stories he shares in this 15-hour unabridged audiobook of his memoir have been polished over decades of talk show appearances and TV specials. Brooks focuses on his professional life rather than his private life (although he begins with his Brooklyn childhood experiences and military life prior to writing for Sid Caesar, and tales from his 40-year marriage to Anne Bancroft occasionally pop up). Brooks offers behind-the-scenes tales of writing and filming such classic comedies as "The Producers", "Blazing Saddles", "Young Frankenstein", "High Anxiety", and "Spaceballs."

He also reads a lot of hilarious material from his films, his �2,000-Year-Old Man� comedy albums with Carl Reiner and classic "Your Show of Shows" skits, proving great comedy stands the test of time. He also offers insightful anecdotes about turning "The Producers" into a Broadway musical and its bumpy road to success.

VERDICT A comedy legend shares tales of making his classic movies, celebrity encounters, and some of his funniest material. This is a masterclass in comedy not to be missed.
]]> 57771238
With a new Postscript by Ronnie Spector.

Ronnie Spector's first collaboration with producer Phil Spector, "Be My Baby," stunned the world and shot girl group the Ronettes to stardom. No one could sing as clearly, as emotively as Ronnie. But her voice was soon drowned out in Phil Spector's Wall of Sound, and lost in Ronnie and Phil's ensuing romance and marriage.

Ronnie had to fight tooth and nail to wrest back control of her life, her music, and her legacy. And while she regained her footing, Ronnie found herself recording with Stevie Van Zandt, partying with David Bowie, and touring with Bruce Springsteen.

Smart, humorous, and self-possessed, Be My Baby is a whirlwind account of the twists and turns in the life of an artist. More than anything, Be My Baby is a testament to the fact that it is possible to stand up to a powerful abuser and start on a second―or third, or fifth―act. In fact, almost six decades into her career, Ronnie Spector is still touring.

Includes photographs]]> 368 Ronnie Spector 1250837197 Kevin 4
Much of the memoir focuses on her courtship and eventual marriage to Phil Spector. She lost her virginity to him while listening to a Ronettes record. "And every two minutes and fifty seconds," she writes, "Phil would reach over from the bed and lift the needle back to the beginning of the record." Once married, his paranoia, rages and jealousies take over. Although he threatens to have her killed if she leaves, she is finally able to escape. And like Tina Turner, she attempts restarting a career while being viewed as a has-been.

Originally published in 1990, this revised edition includes a new foreword by Keith Richards (replacing Cher's original) and a very short, 11-page postscript covering the last 32 years. This includes winning a $2.6 million lawsuit against Phil Spector for back royalties; the Ronettes' induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; and Phil's 2021 death in prison. Ronnie Spector died at 78 in January 2022--before this republication but after recording the audiobook.]]> 4.10 1990
author: Ronnie Spector
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/09
date added: 2022/05/09
shelves:
review:
In BE MY BABY, Ronnie Spector presents a wild ride of a memoir that moves at a breakneck speed. Whether Ronnie, the lead singer of the 1960s girl group the Ronettes, describes hanging out with the Beatles at a 1964 sex party ("I may have been dumb back then, but I knew when it was time to get up off a guy's lap," she writes), having cocaine-laced sex with David Bowie or being kept prisoner in her 23-room mansion by husband Phil Spector for five years, Spector has a knack for compelling storytelling.

Much of the memoir focuses on her courtship and eventual marriage to Phil Spector. She lost her virginity to him while listening to a Ronettes record. "And every two minutes and fifty seconds," she writes, "Phil would reach over from the bed and lift the needle back to the beginning of the record." Once married, his paranoia, rages and jealousies take over. Although he threatens to have her killed if she leaves, she is finally able to escape. And like Tina Turner, she attempts restarting a career while being viewed as a has-been.

Originally published in 1990, this revised edition includes a new foreword by Keith Richards (replacing Cher's original) and a very short, 11-page postscript covering the last 32 years. This includes winning a $2.6 million lawsuit against Phil Spector for back royalties; the Ronettes' induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; and Phil's 2021 death in prison. Ronnie Spector died at 78 in January 2022--before this republication but after recording the audiobook.
]]> 56347312 From New York Times bestselling author Gary Janetti comes Start Without Me, a collection of hilarious, laugh out loud, true life stories about the small moments that add up to a big life.

Gary Janetti is bothered. By a lot of things. And thank God he’s here to tell us.

In Start Without Me, Gary returns with his acid tongue firmly in cheek to the moments and times that defined him. He takes us by the hand as we follow him through the summers he spends in his twenties, pursuing both the perfect tan and the perfect man to no avail and much regret. At his Catholic high school, he strikes up an unlikely friendship with a nun who shares Gary's love of soap operas, which becomes a salvation to them both. And don't get him started on how a bad hotel room can ruin even the best vacation. This laugh-out-loud collection of true-life stories from the man “behind his generation’s greatest comedy� (The New York Times) is for anyone who has felt the joy in holding a decade-long grudge.

Whether you are a new convert to Janetti or one of the million who follow him on social media for a daily laugh, Start Without Me will have you howling at Gary's frustrations and nodding along in agreement at the outrages of life's small slights. It's the literary equivalent of a night out with your funniest friend that you wish would never end.]]> 208 Gary Janetti 125022585X Kevin 5
One chapter details his childhood tradition of watching the once-a-year broadcast of THE WIZARD OF OZ, "the gayest motion picture ever made." What wasn't there to love for a gay kid? Dorothy gets to wear ruby slippers, kill two witches, "gets her hair blown out" and sings. "Do you know how hard it is to learn every line of a movie when you see it only once a year?" he asks. "Kids then had to WORK. No rewinding, no play it again." One gets the feeling Janetti was always wise (and wise-ass) beyond his years. Scamming a high school guidance counselor for an excuse slip to avoid gym class, he keeps her enthralled by inventing drama at home. "Eventually, I just start rehashing plotlines from KNOTS LANDING," he writes.

An abundantly funny and nostalgic collection of memories of growing up gay that leaves a sweet aftertaste.]]> 3.87 2022
author: Gary Janetti
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/04/26
date added: 2022/04/26
shelves:
review:
Gary Janetti's second collection of autobiographical essays, "Start Without Me (I'll Be There in a Minute)," is as funny as the first ("Do You Mind If I Cancel?"), but what is unexpected from the writer and producer of WILL & GRACE and FAMILY GUY is the tender poignancy that laces this one. His memories of the numerous gay restaurants in 1990s Manhattan are wistful and hilarious: "The food was terrible but it was a gay restaurant," he writes, "you didn't go for the food, you went for the gay." His religion also gets some of his best one-liners, including: "The Catholics are the RuPaul's Drag Race of religions. We put on a show, honey."

One chapter details his childhood tradition of watching the once-a-year broadcast of THE WIZARD OF OZ, "the gayest motion picture ever made." What wasn't there to love for a gay kid? Dorothy gets to wear ruby slippers, kill two witches, "gets her hair blown out" and sings. "Do you know how hard it is to learn every line of a movie when you see it only once a year?" he asks. "Kids then had to WORK. No rewinding, no play it again." One gets the feeling Janetti was always wise (and wise-ass) beyond his years. Scamming a high school guidance counselor for an excuse slip to avoid gym class, he keeps her enthralled by inventing drama at home. "Eventually, I just start rehashing plotlines from KNOTS LANDING," he writes.

An abundantly funny and nostalgic collection of memories of growing up gay that leaves a sweet aftertaste.
]]> 51230687 Please Note That The Following Individual Books As Per Original ISBN and Cover Image In this Listing shall be Dispatched Collectively:

Heartstopper Series Volume 1-3 Books Set By Alice Oseman:

Heartstopper Volume Three:
Charlie didn't think Nick could ever like him back, but now they're officially boyfriends. Nick's even found the courage to come out to his mum.But coming out isn't just something that happens once - there's Nick's older brother, and a school trip to Paris, not to mention all the other friends and family - and life can be hard, even with someone who loves you by your side. As their feelings get more serious, Charlie and Nick will need each other more than ever before.

Heartstopper Volume One:
Charlie and Nick are at the same school, but they've never met ... until one day when they're made to sit together. They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn't think he has a chance.But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is more interested in Charlie than either of them realised.Heartstopper is about love, friendship, loyalty and mental illness. It encompasses all the small stories of Nick and Charlie's lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us.

Heartstopper Volume Two:
Nick and Charlie are best friends. Nick knows Charlie's gay, and Charlie is sure that Nick isn't.But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is discovering all kinds of things about his friends, his family ... and himself.Heartstopper is about friendship, loyalty and mental illness. It encompasses all the small stories of Nick and Charlie's lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us.

]]> 0 Alice Oseman 9123971924 Kevin 0 to-read 4.56
author: Alice Oseman
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.56
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/04/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58667406
George Michael was an extravagantly gifted, openhearted soul singer whose work was both pained and smolderingly erotic. He was a songwriter of true craft and substance, and his music swept the world, starting in the mid-1980s. His fabricated image—that of a hypermacho sex god—loomed large in the pop culture of his day. It also hid—for a time—the secret he fought against Michael was gay. Soon his obsession with fame would start to backfire. As one of the industry’s most privileged yet tortured men began to self-destruct, the press showed little sympathy. George A Life explores the compelling story of a superstar whose struggles, as well as his songs, continue to touch fans all over the world.

Acclaimed music biographer James Gavin traces Michael’s metamorphosis from the shy and awkward Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou into the swaggering, dominant half of the leading British pop duo of the 1980s, Wham!; he then details Michael’s sensational solo career and its subsequent unraveling. With deep analysis of the creative process behind Michael’s albums, tours, and music videos, as well as interviews with hundreds of his friends and colleagues, George A Life is a probing, definitive portrait of a pop legend.]]> 528 James Gavin 1419747940 Kevin 0 to-read 3.85 2022
author: James Gavin
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/04/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 56921930
Before becoming the actor, producer, advocate, and model that people know today, Nyle DiMarco was half of a pair of Deaf twins born to a multi-generational Deaf family in Queens, New York. At the hospital one day after he was born, Nyle “failed� his first test—a hearing test—to the joy and excitement of his parents.

In this moving and engrossing memoir, Nyle shares stories, both heartbreaking and humorous, of what it means to navigate a world built for hearing people. From growing up in a rough-and-tumble childhood in Queens with his big and loving Italian-American family to where he is now, Nyle has always been driven to explore beyond the boundaries given him.

A college math major and athlete at Gallaudet—the famed university for the Deaf in Washington, DC—Nyle was drawn as a young man to acting, and dove headfirst into the reality show competitions America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars—ultimately winning both competitions.

Deaf Utopia is more than a memoir, it is a cultural anthem—a proud and defiant song of Deaf culture and a love letter to American Sign Language, Nyle’s primary language. Through his stories and those of his Deaf brothers, parents, and grandparents, Nyle opens many windows into the Deaf experience.

Deaf Utopia is intimate, suspenseful, hilarious, eye-opening, and smart—both a memoir and a celebration of what makes Deaf culture unique and beautiful.]]> 317 Nyle DiMarco 0063062356 Kevin 5
After graduating with a mathematics degree, DiMarco began freelance modeling and appeared onĚý"America's Next Top Model"Ěýin 2015 andĚý"Dancing with the Stars"Ěýthe following year. He won both competitions. (The chapter onĚý"DWTS"Ěýis a rollercoaster of emotions.)

He was outed by a Deaf vlogger at age 26 and came out on Twitter as "sexually fluid." This memoir affords him the space to explore his sexuality with much more depth and honesty.

Mixed in with his empowering autobiographical tales are fascinating historical facts and stories from Deaf history and culture. He explains the difference between ASL and Signed Exact English (SEE); how the average lip-reader captures only around 30% of a speaker's words; and the invention in the 1960s of the teletypewriter (TTY), which could be considered a kind of text messaging between Deaf people using the machine.Ěý

DEAF UTOPIAĚýis an empowering, eye-opening and beautifully expressed memoir. DiMarco's remarkably thoughtful, confident and inspiring memoir is a real treat. It's educational and unforgettable.
]]> 4.23 2022
author: Nyle DiMarco
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/04/19
date added: 2022/04/19
shelves:
review:
Nyle DiMarco's inspiring and inventive memoir beautifully captures his joy of growing up, along with his twin brother, in a home with three other generations of Deaf family members and the frustrations of navigating a world designed for and run by hearing people. The innovative way in which DiMarco and coauthor Robert Siebert tell these stories is by interspersing American Sign Language (ASL) into the English text. What is known as ASL gloss is a transcription, sign by sign, of ASL on the page, and it is represented in the memoir in ALL CAPS. ASL gloss has its own style rules, so it can be read initially as broken English. But it reminds readers that ASL is syntactically different from spoken or written English.

After graduating with a mathematics degree, DiMarco began freelance modeling and appeared onĚý"America's Next Top Model"Ěýin 2015 andĚý"Dancing with the Stars"Ěýthe following year. He won both competitions. (The chapter onĚý"DWTS"Ěýis a rollercoaster of emotions.)

He was outed by a Deaf vlogger at age 26 and came out on Twitter as "sexually fluid." This memoir affords him the space to explore his sexuality with much more depth and honesty.

Mixed in with his empowering autobiographical tales are fascinating historical facts and stories from Deaf history and culture. He explains the difference between ASL and Signed Exact English (SEE); how the average lip-reader captures only around 30% of a speaker's words; and the invention in the 1960s of the teletypewriter (TTY), which could be considered a kind of text messaging between Deaf people using the machine.Ěý

DEAF UTOPIAĚýis an empowering, eye-opening and beautifully expressed memoir. DiMarco's remarkably thoughtful, confident and inspiring memoir is a real treat. It's educational and unforgettable.

]]> 58684300 The bestselling, beloved writer of romantic comedies like You've Got Mail tells her own late-in-life love story, complete with a tragic second act and joyous resolution.

Delia Ephron had struggled through several years of heartbreak. She’d lost her sister, Nora, and then her husband, Jerry, both to cancer. Several months after Jerry’s death, she decided to make one small change in her life—she shut down his landline, which crashed her internet. She ended up in Verizon hell.
Ěý
She channeled her grief the best way she knew: by writing a New York Times op-ed. The piece caught the attention of Peter, a Bay Area psychiatrist, who emailed her to commiserate. Recently widowed himself, he reminded her that they had shared a few dates fifty-four years before, set up by Nora. Delia did not remember him, but after several weeks of exchanging emails and sixties folk songs, he flew east to see her. They were crazy, utterly, in love.
Ěý
But this was not a rom-com: four months later she was diagnosed with AML, a fierce leukemia.
Ěý
In Left on Tenth, Delia Ephron enchants as she seesaws us between tears and laughter, navigating the suicidal lows of enduring cutting-edge treatment and the giddy highs of a second chance at love. With Peter and her close girlfriends by her side, with startling clarity, warmth, and honesty about facing death, Ephron invites us to join her team of warriors and become believers ourselves.]]> 304 Delia Ephron 0316267651 Kevin 5
A year after her husband's death, she reconnects with a widowed doctor Nora had set her up on a date with when she was eighteen. They quickly fall in love. Her life is suddenly like a rom-com script written by Nora and Delia Ephron. But then, Delia is diagnosed with AML. She undergoes chemotherapy but her remission lasts only eight months. A bone marrow transplant is her only option but her doctor says her survival rate is twenty percent. Her grueling and horrifying months-long hospitalization leaves her depleted, severely depressed and suicidal. The fact that she does indeed recover is remarkably uplifting and should give hope to others battling diseases.

The fact that Ephron doesn't portray herself as an ideal patient ratchets-up reader empathy and adds tremendous power to her brutally honest and moving memoir of her long battle with a very aggressive cancer. ]]> 3.99 2022
author: Delia Ephron
name: Kevin
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/04/12
date added: 2022/04/12
shelves:
review:
Ephron's beautifully controlled, eloquent and moving memoir of illness, death and the possibility of finding love later in life, is an emotional rollercoaster of a book. It begins in 2015 when she was 71. After a decade-long battle with prostate cancer, her husband of thirty-two years was entering hospice care. "He was my true home," she writes. "My first safe place." When he dies, she is left alone in their Tenth Street apartment in Greenwich Village. Two years earlier, her sister Nora Ephron, had died after a six-year secret fight with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Delia had lived through more than a decade of dealing with two family members' chronic illnesses and death.

A year after her husband's death, she reconnects with a widowed doctor Nora had set her up on a date with when she was eighteen. They quickly fall in love. Her life is suddenly like a rom-com script written by Nora and Delia Ephron. But then, Delia is diagnosed with AML. She undergoes chemotherapy but her remission lasts only eight months. A bone marrow transplant is her only option but her doctor says her survival rate is twenty percent. Her grueling and horrifying months-long hospitalization leaves her depleted, severely depressed and suicidal. The fact that she does indeed recover is remarkably uplifting and should give hope to others battling diseases.

The fact that Ephron doesn't portray herself as an ideal patient ratchets-up reader empathy and adds tremendous power to her brutally honest and moving memoir of her long battle with a very aggressive cancer.
]]> 58936287 From Danny Pellegrino, creator of the hugely successful podcast Everything Iconic! Stories that will make you laugh, cry, and dig up all your awkward middle-school pictures.

Growing up in small-town Ohio isn't easy, particularly when you're a closeted gay kid surrounded by... no one openly gay. Luckily, Danny Pellegrino grew up in the 90s, coming of age when the internet opened up a whole new world for a curious kid itching for life outside of Midwest suburbia. Danny escaped the pains of growing up by submerging himself in a sea of pop culture—bingeing The Nanny until he had the confidence of Fran Fine, belting out Brandy songs until his heartaches were healed, or watching every semi-clothed Ryan Phillippe scene known to man.

Now, as a successful podcaster interviewing the same iconic personalities that he idolized as a kid, Danny's life has only become more entertaining and delightfully chaotic.

Heartfelt and hilarious, How Do I Un-Remember This? is a collection of real-life stories exploring Danny's journey from feeling like the only gay kid in Ohio to becoming a big-time podcaster in Los Angeles, and all the amusing moments life threw at him in between. With remarkable honesty and his trademark humor, Danny discusses his struggles alongside his love for all things pop culture in a way that is equally emotional and uplifting. And of course, it's all sprinkled with a little 90s nostalgia and a whole lot of comedy.]]> 280 Danny Pellegrino 1728247985 Kevin 4
His rollicking tale of his family enduring an endless time-share tour for free vouchers to Florida theme parks is made even funnier by his frequent diversions, including why Diane Keaton, Alfre Woodard and Dianne Wiest should play superheroes in Marvel movies. In fact, every chapter in HOW DO I UN-REMEMBER THIS? includes a "Detour," in which Pellegrino sidetracks his story for tributes and tirades on everything from late-1990s boy bands to THE NANNY, MAGIC MIKE and some of his favorite places to shop: "Marie Kondo wants us to get rid of shit, but I can only assume that's because she's never been inside of a HomeGoods."

Readers will laugh when he postpones flying home to his grandmother's funeral for what became a bad first date. But then, as an example of how his stories perfectly blend hilarity and poignancy, he reveals years of unprocessed grief. This is a winning collection of tales from an unforgettable voice.

Danny Pellegrino's exuberantly funny and poignant stories of growing up gay are stuffed with loving pop-culture references and laced with real emotion. ]]> 4.23 2022
author: Danny Pellegrino
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/03/11
date added: 2022/03/11
shelves:
review:
Danny Pellegrino, comedian and podcast host, delivers a warm and humorous collection of stories about his childhood, his experience coming out and building a career out of his love of pop culture. Many readers will find a kindred spirit when reading "I've never had a second glass of wine that didn't end with me on Allison Janney's IMBD page." Although Pellegrino ("The Super Carb Diet," with Bob Harper) can't pinpoint when he realized he is gay, he does remember as a preteen recording THE FIRST WIVES CLUB on VHS tape over his brother's copy of THE TERMINATOR and his love for Chris O'Donnell in BATMAN & ROBIN.

His rollicking tale of his family enduring an endless time-share tour for free vouchers to Florida theme parks is made even funnier by his frequent diversions, including why Diane Keaton, Alfre Woodard and Dianne Wiest should play superheroes in Marvel movies. In fact, every chapter in HOW DO I UN-REMEMBER THIS? includes a "Detour," in which Pellegrino sidetracks his story for tributes and tirades on everything from late-1990s boy bands to THE NANNY, MAGIC MIKE and some of his favorite places to shop: "Marie Kondo wants us to get rid of shit, but I can only assume that's because she's never been inside of a HomeGoods."

Readers will laugh when he postpones flying home to his grandmother's funeral for what became a bad first date. But then, as an example of how his stories perfectly blend hilarity and poignancy, he reveals years of unprocessed grief. This is a winning collection of tales from an unforgettable voice.

Danny Pellegrino's exuberantly funny and poignant stories of growing up gay are stuffed with loving pop-culture references and laced with real emotion.
]]> 58977365
An intimate and light-hearted memoir by viral sensation and three-time Emmy-nominated musical comedian Randy Rainbow that takes readers through his life―the highs, the lows, the lipstick, the pink glasses, and the show tunes .

Randy Rainbow, the man who conquered the Internet with a stylish pair of pink glasses, an inexhaustible knowledge of Broadway musicals, and the most gimlet-eyed view of American politics this side of Mark Twain finally tells all in Playing with Myself, a memoir sure to cause more than a few readers to begin singing one of his greatest hits like “A Spoonful of Clorox� or “Cover Your Freakin� Face.�

As Randy has said, “There’s so much fake news out there about me. I can’t wait to set the record straight and finally give people a peek behind the green screen.� And set the record straight he does. Playing with Myself is a first-hand account of the journey that led Randy Rainbow from his childhood as the over-imaginative, often misunderstood little boy who carried a purse in the second grade to his first job on Broadway as the host at Hooters and on to the creation of his trademark comedy character. In chapters titled “Pajama Bottoms� (a look back at the days when he wore pajama bottoms on his head to pretend he was Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz ), “Yes, It’s My Real Name, Shut Up!� (no explanation necessary...) and “Pink Glasses� (a rose-colored homage to his favorite accessory), Playing with Myself is a memoir that answers the question “Can an introverted musical theatre nerd with a MacBook and a dream save the world, one show tune at a time?”]]> 256 Randy Rainbow 125027625X Kevin 0 to-read 4.26 2022
author: Randy Rainbow
name: Kevin
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

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