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You would expect a book about hippies to be visually exciting, titillating even. After all, hippies were on the experimental edge of a ’60s youth culture that rejected the black-and-white world of the ’50s. Hippies came in colors everywhere. They danced naked in the streets. They took their trips on LSD. They launched a rock ‘n’ roll revolution. And they created vibrant, colorful, sometimes disorienting photographic and graphical styles to represent their experiences.

So it’s no real surprise that Barry Miles’ excellent book Hippie with its wealth of photographs, psychedelic album-cover art and exotic typefaces captures the dynamic visual energy of the youth culture of the ’60s, an energy that continues to influence the way we see things to this day. What is a surprise is that Hippie is so readable, so interesting and, for the most part, so good humored. Miles begins his look at hippie youth culture in 1965, "the first year in which a discernible youth movement began to emerge," and ends in 1971, the year "Jim Morrison joined Brian Jones, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix in the roll call of rock ‘n’ roll superhero deaths." Going year by year, Miles employs brief, sharply drawn vignettes to cover everything from the summer of love (which he wryly notes is now copyrighted by Bill Graham Enterprises) to the Manson family, from Timothy Leary’s LSD trips to George Harrison’s strange walk through Haight Ashbury, from the rise of the Grateful Dead to the end of the Beatles.

Miles dedicates his book "to all the old freaks and hippies everywhere." Yet the book seems remarkably free of nostalgia. Hippie winds up being a refreshing book that is not just for old freaks or young freaks, but rather for any reader with an interest in the look, the feel, the history of a special era.

 

You would expect a book about hippies to be visually exciting, titillating even. After all, hippies were on the experimental edge of a ’60s youth culture that rejected the black-and-white world of the ’50s. Hippies came in colors everywhere. They danced naked in the streets. They took their trips on LSD. They launched a rock […]
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Outta the park

The baseball books lead off with Harvey Frommer's timely Remembering Yankee Stadium: An Oral and Narrative History of the House That Ruth Built. Frommer provides a nostalgic, factually keen description of the formidable ball yard through its many baseball seasons, 1923 through 2008 (set to be replaced in 2009 by a new facility). He also interpolates hundreds of quotable quotes from dozens of ballplayers and managers (Yankees and otherwise), front – office executives, broadcasters, newspaper writers, team employees and even garden – variety fans, all of whom share their unique perspectives on the great games they witnessed and the specialness of the Yankee Stadium baseball experience. The photographs are even more gratifying: black – and – white and color stills stirringly evoke the Yankee legacy, from Ruth and Gehrig through Rodriguez and Rivera. The foreword is by longtime stadium PA announcer Bob Sheppard, a legend in his own right, who observed the Bronx Bombers firsthand for some 50 years, through good times and bad.

In a similar vein, but loaded with fan – friendly extras, comes Babe Ruth: Remembering the Bambino in Stories, Photos & Memorabilia. Co – authored by Julia Ruth Stevens (Ruth's adopted daughter) and versatile journalist Bill Gilbert, this volume basically avoids the Bambino's legendary excesses, instead focusing on his humble Baltimore youth, his meteoric rise as home – run king, his iconic Yankee status, his role as baseball ombudsman, his life as a family man, and his eventual decline and widely mourned death. The archival photos, some rarely seen, are fabulous, dramatically capturing Ruth the ballplayer at various career stages but just as often portraying his lovable self with loved ones, friends and fans (especially the kids). The book includes captivating reproductions of Ruth memorabilia, including his birth certificate, player contracts, game tickets and programs, and a signed team photo of the famed 1927 Yankees ballclub.

When World War II broke out, FDR made it a point to keep major league baseball going for morale purposes, never mind the hostilities' eventual impact on the game's talent pool. When Baseball Went to War, edited by Bill Nowlin and Todd Anton, serves as a tribute to those who traded the playing fields of America's pastime for the killing fields of Europe and Asia. The text primarily pulls together individual player profiles – Yogi Berra, Ted Williams, Bob Feller, Warren Spahn, etc. – detailing their war service and pre – and postwar careers. Even more interesting are the stories of lesser – known individuals such as Lou Brissie, who rebounded from war – related injuries to make the grade as a pro. Ancillary essays focus on the home front during wartime, including Merrie A. Fidler's piece on the All – American Girls Base Ball League, which sheds some factual light on an era immortalized in the film A League of Their Own. The book concludes with lists of major –

Pass the ball

Two seasons ago, Tom Callahan's excellent biography Johnny U included an exciting blow – by – blow account of the historic 1958 NFL sudden – death title game between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants. In The Glory Game: How the 1958 NFL Championship Changed Football Forever, Hall of Famer and former sportscaster Frank Gifford, with an assist from Peter Richmond, attempts the same idea but with an elaborate twist. Gifford, a Giants receiver and running back and member of the '58 squad, uses the game itself more as a jumping – off point to interview surviving members of the two teams and to reminisce about his own career and those of players who have passed on. The narrative toggles between personal reflections and game specifics, and Gifford brings in the memories of reporters, wives and other onlookers to help create a detailed and contextual overview of the contest itself. Recommended for "old school" football fans.

With the advent of the Web has come outr

Pop culture heroes

Devotees of the TV show "How I Met Your Mother" may best appreciate the humor of The Bro Code, compiled by sitcom screenwriter Matt Kuhn under the guise of the character Barney Stinson (as portrayed by actor Neil Patrick Harris). Yet it's definitely funny stuff, with Kuhn laying out all the do's and don'ts of contemporary brotherhood – with much of it having to do with the opposite sex. For example: "A Bro will drop whatever he's doing and rush to help his Bro dump a chick." Or, "A Bro shall never rack jack his wingman." (Translation: Steal a buddy's girl.) Much of this – etiquette on grooming, clothes, sports, channel – surfing, pizza – ordering, drinking and so on – will read like common sense to most regular stand – up guys, but it's codified here with hip style and features some humorous graphics. Bottom line? It's all about supporting one another, however best and most realistically possible. Article #1: "Bros before ho's."

Finally, for that guy who just may not want to grow up, there's The DC Vault: A Museum-in-a-Book Featuring Rare Collectibles from the DC Universe. Author Martin Pasko has fashioned an interesting, nuanced history of the comic – book giant, founded during the Great Depression and the eventual purveyor of beloved American superheroes – Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc. – as well as a long string of Westerns, Army adventures ("Sgt. Rock"), sci – fi tales and pop – culture – inspired ephemera. The main draw in this sturdy, ring – bound showcase are the marvelous photos – of cover art, story pages, early pencil sketches, company correspondence, internal memos, etc. – plus production stills from spinoff movies and TV shows. Hardcore fans will particularly relish the plastic – wrapped inserts containing reproduced memorabilia from the company's long history, including public service comics, promotional items, greetings cards, posters, bookmarks, stickers, etc. Pasko's final chapter tells of DC's corporate repositioning in 1989 as a part of the Warner Bros. movie studio, with a discussion of the marketing and new – media development that has gone on since. Paul Levitz, DC's current president and publisher, provides the foreword.

 

Outta the park The baseball books lead off with Harvey Frommer's timely Remembering Yankee Stadium: An Oral and Narrative History of the House That Ruth Built. Frommer provides a nostalgic, factually keen description of the formidable ball yard through its many baseball seasons, 1923 through 2008 (set to be replaced in 2009 by a new […]
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After exploring the dynamics of social change in The Tipping Point, and decision-making in Blink, Malcolm Gladwell turns to the subject of success in his new book, Outliers. Written in Gladwell's typical breezy, conversational style, Outliers seeks to discover what makes people smart, wealthy or famous. Gladwell argues that in studying successful people, we spend too much time on what they are like and not enough time on where they are from. In other words, he believes that it is "their culture, their family, their generation and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringings" which determines their success.

One of the joys of Gladwell's writing is the way he explains complex theories using everyday examples. In Outliers, he makes the case that success is sometimes shaped by the smallest factors. Take a person's birthday. The most successful Canadian hockey players are born in January, February and March, Gladwell writes, simply because the cut-off date for age class hockey in Canada is January 1. Thus, those born after that date are held back a year, giving them an age and size advantage.

Environment also plays a big role in success. Gladwell compares the lives of two geniuses: physicist Robert Oppenheimer and a little-known Missouri man named Christopher Langan. Both were tested and found to have high IQs. But Gladwell argues that Oppenheimer had a huge advantage being raised in a wealthy, educated family, while Langan was born into a poor, broken family. Oppenheimer went to Harvard and Cambridge and helped develop the nuclear bomb. Langan had poor grades in school, never finished college and makes money competing on TV game shows.

Then there is the factor of opportunity in shaping success. Why was Bill Gates successful? Well, he was smart, but he also grew up when the personal computer was coming of age, offering him opportunities to tinker and create new software. Gladwell's unique perspective challenges readers to think about intelligence, success and fame in a new way. Outliers is a clever, entertaining book that stimulates readers' minds and broadens their perspectives. It is, in its own way, genius.

After exploring the dynamics of social change in The Tipping Point, and decision-making in Blink, Malcolm Gladwell turns to the subject of success in his new book, Outliers. Written in Gladwell's typical breezy, conversational style, Outliers seeks to discover what makes people smart, wealthy or famous. Gladwell argues that in studying successful people, we spend […]
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Who got himself in a bit of a fix recently for describing Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek as a robot ? The answer, in case you’re not up on trivia, is Ken Jennings, who earned a burst of celebrity in 2004 when he won a record 74 straight competitions on television’s longest-running trivia show.

A self-described nerd, Jennings was a software engineer, a devout Mormon and a quiet family man who suddenly found himself talking to David Letterman and Barbara Walters about his game show prowess. A national watercooler phenomenon, he appeared on television so often that his one-year-old son began calling him Ken Jennings! instead of Daddy.

Jennings recounts the whole roller-coaster experience, and more, in Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs. Though he includes snippets of his trivia-crazed youth, his college quiz bowl triumphs and his success on Jeopardy! Brainiac isn’t really a memoir but a broader look at the culture of trivia competitions.

We’ll take software engineers for $200, Alex. Despite the fact that he made a living programming computers, what engineer managed to write a funny and engaging book? The answer, of course, is Jennings himself, who shows a pleasantly nerdy sense of humor throughout (he describes the contestants on the 1960s televised G.E. College Bowl as four heavily Brylcreemed white people with big ears ). Woven into the narrative are 170 trivia questions, with solutions at the end of each chapter. And, just like watching Jeopardy! you don’t have to know all the answers to be entertained.

Now, what’s all this about a feud with Trebek? As it turns out, Jennings saw very little of the host during the show’s tapings, but found him a little chilly, with a tendency toward saltine-dry impartiality. Jennings says a post on his blog implying that Trebek had died and been replaced by a robot was a misunderstood bit of satire. And a good piece of publicity for a smart new author.

 

Who got himself in a bit of a fix recently for describing Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek as a robot ? The answer, in case you’re not up on trivia, is Ken Jennings, who earned a burst of celebrity in 2004 when he won a record 74 straight competitions on television’s longest-running trivia show. A self-described […]

Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt have created coffee-table books that resonate with Americans, from A Day in the Life of America to Passage to Vietnam. The husband-and-wife duo's latest, America at Home: A Close-up Look at How We Live, sticks to the winning formula: large color photos (by pros and amateurs alike) with short, evocative captions. Thoughtful essays consider what home means: "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening ponders our "weird, mysterious connection" with home, tech writer David Pogue muses about home-as-workplace and novelist Amy Tan writes about her husband, their pets and their home life. All sorts of Americans are represented – from different states, age groups, ethnicities and lifestyles – and the concept of home is broad. America at Home visits a yurt, houseboats and comedian Rich Little's in-home theater, to name a few, and offers statistics on everything from homelessness to adoption rates. The book is fun to flip through, pore over or share.

The prolific, Pulitzer Prize-winning George F. Will offers his impressions of America's culture via a cross-country chronicling of the people, places and traditions that inform our national identity. In One Man's America: The Pleasures and Provocations of Our Singular Nation, the longtime Newsweek columnist writes about Hugh Hefner, Ronald Reagan, the Holocaust Memorial Museum and baseball. He also peers through the lens of his own experience to question what is accepted vs. what is right. In an essay about his son Jon, born with Down syndrome, Will bemoans "today's entitlement mentality—every parent's 'right' to a perfect baby." He also questions whether "green" companies are as eco-conscious as they claim, and rhapsodizes about his beloved baseball. The book is a mixed bag and, ultimately, an invitation to look at America in a skeptical but hopeful way.

EMBRACING CHANCE
Numismatists, history buffs and schoolchildren alike will enjoy A Pocketful of History: Four Hundred Years of America – One State Quarter at a Time. Jim Noles explores the meaning of what's shown on the coins, such as the Statue of Liberty, a cow, the Space Shuttle and Helen Keller. He reveals how the U.S. Mint came up with the idea (they were inspired by a Canadian program), and notes that, in some states, the governor chose the design, while others had citizens weigh in. Also interesting: thanks to recent legislation, Washington, D.C., and the five U.S. territories will get quarters, too. There's a lot to be learned here, but the quarter-by-quarter approach keeps the information manageable. It's clear, as Noles writes, "that new spare change jangling in our pockets . . . celebrates change and the history of change."

RUN IT UP THE FLAGPOLE
You may already know the Betsy Ross story has been consigned to myth, but did you know that, since 1998, the Smithsonian has been working to preserve the Star-Spangled Banner? The museum reopens this month, and visitors may enter the new flag room and see the American icon in all its dramatic, tattered glory. The Star-Spangled Banner: The Making of an American Icon by Lonn Taylor, Kathleen M. Kendrick and Jeffrey L. Brodie serves as a nice preview or alternative: it takes readers through the flag's history and considers its role as a symbol of American unity and democracy. The book covers a range of topics, from the day in 1814 when Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the national anthem to a biographical sketch of the woman who made the flag from linen, cotton and wool. There are plenty of photos, including the historic (raising the flag at Iwo Jima) and the pop cultural (images of '60s-era items adorned with stars and stripes).

Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt have created coffee-table books that resonate with Americans, from A Day in the Life of America to Passage to Vietnam. The husband-and-wife duo's latest, America at Home: A Close-up Look at How We Live, sticks to the winning formula: large color photos (by pros and amateurs alike) with short, evocative […]
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Reading through the material in Amanda Ripley’s The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes – and Why is grueling. And yet, Ripley examines each instance – stories of the 14th Street Bridge plane crash, hostage situations, murderous stampedes in Mecca, a wedding party trapped in a fire and 9/11 – not to marvel or mourn, but to learn from people’s reactions. Ripley wants to know how we respond to moments of extreme terror, and what those responses teach us. She shows how the way people tolerate and even use their fear response binds them together, but also demonstrates the highly individualized nature of disaster reaction.

Ripley, a Time magazine journalist, even puts herself under duress by undergoing both an MRI and a day of test-taking to investigate a theory suggesting that people who are subject to post-traumatic stress disorder have a smaller hippocampus (a part of the brain that helps us remember and learn). She wonders how much these biological factors matter: “Do we all walk into disasters with a probability attached to our names? Or do other things matter more – like our lifetimes of experience and the people fighting for survival right next to us?” Ripley’s under-the-microscope examination of how emotions and actions shift under extraordinary pressure shows that we all contain complex reaction potential in our everyday makeup.

Eliza McGraw writes from Washington, D.C.

Ripley's under-the-microscope examination of how emotions and actions shift under extraordinary pressure shows that we all contain complex reaction potential in our everyday makeup.
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What's Next: The Experts' Guide is the perfect title for Jane Buckingham's book forecasting the future because the reader never quite knows what topic will be tackled next. The "experts" interviewed here explore subjects as weighty as the environment, medicine and politics; and as fluffy as dating, reality television and plastic surgery.

This may be disappointing for readers looking for scholarly insight into the future, but for those who keep an open mind and don't take the topic too seriously, What's Next will be a fun read. After all, where else can you get analysis of the future of law from Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz in the same book where the future of fashion is explored by designers Chip & Pepper? And since What's Next is a page-flipper—with essays on 50 different topics—readers can browse to find topics of interest. Some sample predictions: NFL star Shaun Alexander thinks professional sports will become more international and offer increasing opportunities for women. MIT robotics professor Rodney A. Brooks says robots will be increasingly used in our homes, at work and by our military. Drug researcher Mitch Earleywine believes illegal drug use will be halted by a combination of legalization, regulation and taxation. Space researcher (and PayPal co-founder) Elon Musk thinks tourists could be traveling to the moon in the next decade. Columnist Liz Smith says that with the growth of the Internet, there seems to be no limit to Americans' appetite for gossip.

Buckingham, president of a trend forecasting firm, admits that the list of topics is not comprehensive: She just wants it to be thought provoking. Even if the predictions prove wrong, Buckingham writes, "We're all responsible for becoming better educated about the way things are, so that we can join our experts in clearing a path for the way things could be." What's Next is a sometimes educational, sometimes entertaining book worthy of anyone curious about what the future might hold for things both great and small.

John T. Slania is a journalism professor at Loyola University in Chicago.

What's Next: The Experts' Guide is the perfect title for Jane Buckingham's book forecasting the future because the reader never quite knows what topic will be tackled next. The "experts" interviewed here explore subjects as weighty as the environment, medicine and politics; and as fluffy as dating, reality television and plastic surgery. This may be […]
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If lunch was your favorite subject in school, or if you are a lifelong student of pop culture, don’t miss Lunchbox Inside and Out: From Comic Books to Cult TV and Beyond. Authors Jack Mingo and Erin Barrett start with an appetizer-portion of history, charting the transformation of lunchboxes from the utilitarian accessory of working-class men to the domain of children and marketing tool. “Planned obsolescence,” the concept of “convincing customers to habitually replace perfectly good products for the sake of novelty and style,” played a large role in the development of lunchboxes as we know them today, argue Mingo and Barrett. They say it all started with the introduction of Aladdin’s Hopalong Cassidy lunchbox, closely followed by American Thermos’ Roy Rogers and Dale Evans model. From there, things took off, leading to all sorts of tie-ins to TV shows, toys, movies and sports teams. Lunchbox Inside and Out covers the big players, among them King Seely, Aladdin, American Thermos, ADCO Liberty and Ohio Arts, as well as the evolution from low-resolution decals on metal boxes to elaborate total-box designs on plastic ones. This story of lunchboxes is told in bite-sized morsels, richly illustrated with pieces from the collection of Joe Soucy (examples of which are also crossing the country as part of the Smithsonian’s “Lunch Box Memories” show) and includes handy price codes should you stumble upon a treasure in your attic or at your neighbor’s yard sale. Among the delights found in the book: several Beatles boxes, a 1935 oval-shaped Disney “lunch kit” featuring Mickey and his cohorts and a host of designs that saw their share of PB&andJ over the years.

If lunch was your favorite subject in school, or if you are a lifelong student of pop culture, don’t miss Lunchbox Inside and Out: From Comic Books to Cult TV and Beyond. Authors Jack Mingo and Erin Barrett start with an appetizer-portion of history, charting the transformation of lunchboxes from the utilitarian accessory of working-class […]
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There won't be many more honest and revealing works this year than Clapton: The Autobiography. The man often termed a guitar god and considered an icon by many music fans isn't interested in affirming that notion. Instead he repeatedly cites his flaws and failures, doing so in graphic detail and without offering excuses for his lapses in judgment and behavior. Clapton writes about his drug and alcohol problems, his adultery and depression in spare, unflinching prose. He's determined to let readers know that not only is he human, but that he's paid a heavy price to reach the top. There's also a full discussion of his interaction, romance and ultimate failed relationship with Pattie Boyd, who was married to Clapton's good friend George Harrison when he began pursuing her. Particularly painful is Clapton's account of the death of his four-year-old son Conor, who fell to his death in 1991 from a New York high-rise.

Yet the book also has plenty of rich musical detail, from his description of being awed by first hearing Jimi Hendrix to accounts of playing with the Rolling Stones and Beatles, teaming with longtime idol B.B. King, and reshaping the classic blues and soul he adored into a more personalized and individual sound.

DREAM WEAVERS

As a staff photographer for Rolling Stone, Robert Altman visually documented the changes that rocked the '60s with a scope and clarity no one has surpassed. His remarkable photographs comprise the bulk of the compelling new collection, The Sixties. Whether you were there or not doesn't really matter, Altman writes in an author's note, maintaining that these pictures do the talking in recapturing the excitement of Woodstock, be-ins and the Summer of Love. Whether in funny (and sometimes frightening) crowd shots of anonymous war protesters or intense individual portraits of such famous '60s figures as Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jane Fonda, Grace Slick and Joni Mitchell, Altman brings it all back in unforgettable style. Journalist Ben Fong-Torres adds perspective with a brief introduction and Q&A with Altman.

Runnin' Down a Dream: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is a companion work to the documentary film by Peter Bogdanovich, and it contains comprehensive and candid interviews with Petty and company on such subjects as life on the road, the music business, the failures of contemporary radio and Petty's devotion to the classic rock and soul that shaped his heartland sound. His determination not to let trends affect or influence his work is noteworthy, and there's also enough levity and humor to balance out some spots where his disillusionment at changes in the landscape becomes evident.

THE CHAIRMAN AND THE KING

Both Charles Pignone's Frank Sinatra: The Family Album and George Klein's Elvis Presley: The Family Album are loving insiders' collections rather than probing investigative surveys or detached evaluations. Pignone was a close Sinatra friend and is now the family archivist, while Klein was a high school classmate of Presley, and even had the King serve as his best man. Both books are full of warm remembrances, rare photographs and views of the family side of these performers. You won't get any outlandish tales of excessive behavior here, but there are interviews with family members and associates who've never talked about their relationships before, plus detailed accounts from Pignone and Klein that emphasize the character and generosity of both these superstars.

For those interested in why we enjoy listening to music, there's Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by neurologist Oliver Sacks, best known for books that recount some of his highly unusual cases (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, etc.). In Musicophilia, Sacks investigates the medical effects positive and negative of listening to music. He does so in a manner somewhere between scholarly and weird, using amazing stories to validate his theories and illustrate how important music appreciation can be. Whether talking about a disabled man who has memorized 2,000 operas or children whose ability to learn Mandarin Chinese has given them perfect pitch, Sacks offers tales that will fascinate any music lover.

There won't be many more honest and revealing works this year than Clapton: The Autobiography. The man often termed a guitar god and considered an icon by many music fans isn't interested in affirming that notion. Instead he repeatedly cites his flaws and failures, doing so in graphic detail and without offering excuses for his […]
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Silent Movies: The Birth of Film and the Triumph of Movie Culture, is an illuminating celebration by Peter Kobel and the Library of Congress. With a foreword by passionate film preservationist Martin Scorsese, and an introduction by noted film historian Kevin Brownlow, this lavish book also boasts more than 400 images some never before seen in print. Writing with accessible scholarship, Kobel explores historic milestones (the French get credit for first projecting films publicly, but Americans turned the new art form into a business), technical triumphs, the great films and their filmmakers and the dawn of the star system. The big names are here Garbo, Pickford, Valentino as well as some you may not know/remember, including child star Baby Peggy and even Rin-Tin-Tin. (At the height of his fame, the Dog Wonder of the Screen received 10,000 fan letters a week.) Kobel also reveals how the various genres took shape (for instance, earliest depictions of American Indians showed them to be tragic heroes) and looks at often bypassed arenas, such as animation, the so-called race movies and even (who knew?) silent experimental films. An impressive work, the book has been published in tandem with a traveling film series of restored silent titles. Pass the popcorn, please.

FIGHTING THE SYSTEM
Ever wonder why certain folks became great stars, while others, equally talented, slipped through the shiny Hollywood cracks? In The Star Machine, film historian Jeanine Basinger examines the glory days of the studio system, from the 1930s to the beginning of the '50s. Through anecdotes and insight she depicts the creation and manipulation of stars including Errol Flynn, Lana Turner, Deanna Durbin, Loretta Young, Norma Shearer and Tyrone Power. Like trained ponies, they were expected to do as they were told and to keep prancing. Some balked; some misbehaved. Basinger looks at the consequences, and goes on to compare then and now, by deconstructing contemporary stars who've sought to take control of their own destinies.

CLAWS AND KITTEN
When it came to fighting control, and railing against authority, few bested Bette Davis. There have already been a number of Davis bios and she wrote several books of her own but Ed Sikov manages to bring fresh insight to Dark Victory: The Life of Bette Davis. The author of works on filmmaker Billy Wilder and actor Peter Sellers, Sikov is unapologetic about Davis' take-no-prisoners personality, matter-of-factly relating that she may have been a borderline personality. But, he reminds us, she was also a force of nature, a blazing talent [who] defined and sustained stardom for over half a century. She worked like a dog. Sikov goes behind the scenes, focusing on Davis' work, to probe her psyche. From her earliest roles to her lasting screen depictions (Jezebel, All About Eve and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? among them), he goes on to underscore her perseverance during darker days. A perpetual single mother (since all four marriages crashed), she once took out an industry trade ad that read, Situation Wanted, Women. She wasn't kidding: Davis went on to do episodic TV, talk shows and appeared on the lecture circuit. And though her latter years were marked by indignities, including health woes and a cruel tell-all by her daughter, Davis hung in there. Even after a debilitating stroke, and while battling breast cancer, she managed to complete three-and-a-half more films. Though Davis was not always likeable, there was no denying the legend.

Legendary sex goddess Marilyn Monroe has spawned a virtual cottage publishing industry, with the latest title coinciding with a merchandising line including fashions that celebrates icons of the Fox studio. Thus, Marilyn Monroe: Platinum Fox, is all about the movies not her tangled personal life, scandals, death theories, etc. Written by Cindy De La Hoz (author of the recent Lucy at the Movies: The Complete Films of Lucille Ball) this is a gorgeous coffee-table book that couldn't have happened without access to the Fox archives. Serving to underscore Monroe's unsurpassed incandescence are reproductions of rare photos, lobby cards and posters including one from the film Niagara, which breathlessly promised a raging torrent of emotion that even nature can't control. Hey, it was the '50s and Marilyn was a big reason the decade was so fabulous.

ON THE SMALL SCREEN
Fans of the long-running Bravo series Inside the Actors Studio will be especially taken with Inside Inside, a memoir by the show's effusive host (and executive producer and writer), James Lipton. Founder and dean of New York's Actors Studio Drama School, Lipton infuses his own colorful industry background and unfettered passion for the craft with anecdotes and interview highlights of performers as disparate as Tom Cruise, Hugh Grant, Paul Newman, Julia Roberts, Drew Barrymore and countless others.

So well known that he's become the subject of lampoons Will Ferrell's is especially dead-on Lipton has a can-do spirit that gives an inspirational lift to this look at his life's journey. A former student of Stella Adler, he also trained for a career in ballet and once contemplated working in the circus. He's been a radio actor, and he worked in TV (he played Dr. Dick Grant in that CBS chestnut, The Guiding Light, and produced Bob Hope specials). He made movies, wrote hit Broadway shows even a novel. And, he had the savvy to put together a televised program that entices big names to reveal (nearly) all to an auditorium filled with acting students. Briefly, Lipton cites Harrison Ford's thoughts about celebrity vs. private life, the personal woes of Billy Bob Thornton, and details Melanie Griffith's appearance as she struggled with rehab, and Michael J. Fox's as he fought the tremors of Parkinson's. And he remarks on the one that got away: despite all best efforts, he never got that interview with Marlon Brando.

Silent Movies: The Birth of Film and the Triumph of Movie Culture, is an illuminating celebration by Peter Kobel and the Library of Congress. With a foreword by passionate film preservationist Martin Scorsese, and an introduction by noted film historian Kevin Brownlow, this lavish book also boasts more than 400 images some never before seen […]
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Psychologist Carol Gilligan is best known for elucidating the ways in which preadolescent girls, acceding to societal expectations, learn to stifle their innate wisdom and exuberance. In her latest work, loosely encapsulating two decades of variegated studies, she broadens her area of inquiry to extend to both sexes (young boys entering grade school, she has observed, begin to curtail their expressiveness in much the same way) and, by extrapolation, to question the diminution of joy that typically accompanies growing up. Ultimately, her aim is to examine, and possibly uproot, Western civilization’s deeply ingrained adherence to a tragic story . . . where love leads to loss and pleasure is associated with death. It’s an ambitious undertaking, and Gilligan covers a lot of ground cited sources range from W.E.

B. Du Bois to the Indigo Girls to prove an elusive point. Central to her thesis is an insistent gloss on the ancient story of Psyche and Cupid, whose dramatic, near-tragic courtship ultimately gave birth to a child named Pleasure. Beautiful Psyche, Gilligan holds, was something of a proto-feminist, refusing to accept the image imposed on her by a patriarchal society and deciding instead to seek love on her own terms. This reductionist approach often rankles: after all, the beauty of myths, their enduring value, lies in the fact that their meanings can’t be so neatly confined.

Yet if one is willing to go along with this premise and attendant pronouncements, the journey yields all sorts of eye-opening moments, the most vivid of which involve Gilligan’s recollections of her own mother, whose social and private selves seemed scarcely the same person. Still, memories of pleasure resurface, as well as her encouragement of my pleasure. Love does invariably entail loss, in that those we love die; it’s the human condition. Gilligan is to be commended, though, for advocating in this brave, if sometimes frustrating book that we question our predilection for living on the far side of loss, east of Eden, as a way of protecting ourselves. Men and women alike, she contends, need to summon more courage if we are to transcend an age-old script. After all, as she notes: The birth of pleasure in itself is simple, but staying with pleasure means staying open. Sandy MacDonald is a writer based in Cambridge and Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Psychologist Carol Gilligan is best known for elucidating the ways in which preadolescent girls, acceding to societal expectations, learn to stifle their innate wisdom and exuberance. In her latest work, loosely encapsulating two decades of variegated studies, she broadens her area of inquiry to extend to both sexes (young boys entering grade school, she has […]
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For that car-enthusiast guy, Dennis Adler’s Porsche: The Road from Zuffenhausen serves as an example of distinguished book-making and automotive history at its detailed finest. Adler is a leading car journalist and photographer. Besides serving as editor-in-chief of Car Collector magazine, he has contributed to high-profile business and auto publications and written numerous books on all manner of car makes and models. Here he turns his attention to the fabulous Porsche and the amazing family that has been producing this classic touring and racing car since the post-World War II era. Adler spares no verbiage in his profiles of people including paterfamilias Ferdinand Porsche, who designed the Volkswagen under the direction of Adolf Hitler prior to launching the Porsche line and in his narrative concerning the manufacturing and marketing of what is possibly the world’s most distinctive sports car. Rare archival photos of the Porsche in development (including technical views of its unique rear-mounted, air-cooled engine), as portrayed in advertising, and in competition on international racetracks help to fully relate this ongoing success story of commitment to automotive innovation and sleek stylishness.

For that car-enthusiast guy, Dennis Adler’s Porsche: The Road from Zuffenhausen serves as an example of distinguished book-making and automotive history at its detailed finest. Adler is a leading car journalist and photographer. Besides serving as editor-in-chief of Car Collector magazine, he has contributed to high-profile business and auto publications and written numerous books on […]
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Have you ever wanted your own copy of the Weasley twins’ Marauder’s Map? You just might find something close in David Colbert’s The Hidden Myths in Harry Potter: Spellbinding Map and Book of Secrets. Colbert has already written one popular Potter reference book (The Magical World of Harry Potter) and his latest work is sure to be a welcome addition to any young wizard’s library (or young marauder’s bag of tricks!).

Have you ever wanted your own copy of the Weasley twins’ Marauder’s Map? You just might find something close in David Colbert’s The Hidden Myths in Harry Potter: Spellbinding Map and Book of Secrets. Colbert has already written one popular Potter reference book (The Magical World of Harry Potter) and his latest work is sure […]

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