5 new books about Hollywood and the movies for Oscars weekend
Find out about five new Hollywood books, as well as revisit some classics of Tinseltown fact and fiction, with The Book Pages' Erik Pedersen.
The Academy Awards are always a good reason to read a book.
I don’t necessarily mean in place of watching the broadcast this weekend – though I am in favor of counterprogramming the telecast if you feel like it – but rather using the multiplex to find something new to read.
Maybe you’re digging into Frank Herbert’s “Dune” novels or Percival Everett’s “Erasure,” which is the basis for the film “American Fiction.” Or exploring some nonfiction by reading Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s Oppenheimer biography “American Prometheus” or David Grann’s excellent “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Or books like Isabel Wilkerson’s powerful “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” which inspired Ava DuVernay‘s film, ‘Origin,’ or ND Stevenson’s graphic novel “Nimona,” which inspired the animated Netflix film.
And one writer I was delighted to encounter as I wrote this is Wells Tower, who wrote the screenplay for the Emily Blunt film “Pain Hustlers.” His short story “Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned” about a group of Viking invaders is one I recall enjoying (which I always connect in my mind to another in the funny-sad historical short story genre, Jim Shepard’s “Hadrian’s Wall”).
The movie books I grew up reading were often about old Hollywood – biographies of actors and directors or overviews of studios or eras or even the odd Hollywood novel. Off the top of my head (and with some assistance from Google), I recall some good ones were Otto Friedrich’s “City of Nets,” Ian Hamilton’s “Writers in Hollywood: 1915-1951” or Peter Biskind’s “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls.” And more recently (to me), I’ve enjoyed Matthew Specktor’s “Always Crashing in the Same Car: On Art, Crisis, and Los Angeles, California” and Darcy O’Brien’s novel “A Way of Life Like Any Other.”
One summer in my youth, I remember reading “The Time is Ripe: The 1940 Journal of Clifford Odets.” A 1930s-era playwright and Hollywood screenwriter who inspired the title character in the Coen Brothers’ “Barton Fink,” Odets isn’t much remembered these days. This may be why Odets’ grown son was a bit perplexed to hear from some strange kid on the phone one day – my young self had cold-called him to ask questions about his father’s work – though I recall him being exceedingly kind and patient. (Want to check out some Odets? He wrote the scathing screenplay for the 1957 film classic “Sweet Smell of Success.”)
As a reader, I was an omnivore – or “wildly indiscriminate” might be more accurate – as the following exchange with a colleague shows. I was in my early 20s, eating my lunch and reading a book about an artist, not a Hollywood celebrity, but the point remains:
Colleague: What are you reading?
Me: A book about Picasso.
Colleague: Is it the good one or the trashy one?
Me: [holds up copy]
Colleague: Oh. The trashy one.
Fine. In any case, I kept reading it. So that may give you a sense of my taste in Hollywood books. But in recent years, I’ve kept an eye out for deep dives into an artist or film, such as “Blood Sweat & Chrome: The Making of ‘Mad Max: Fury Road,’” “The Big Goodbye: ‘Chinatown’ and the Last Years of Hollywood,” and “The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story” (and I remember really enjoying “Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of “Casablanca” – Bogart, Bergman, and World War II” by Aljean Harmetz).
So, since it’s Oscars weekend, this is a good time for books about movies. Here are five new ones that might be your next choices for a Hollywood reading binge:
“A Murder in Hollywood: The Untold Story of Tinseltown’s Most Shocking Crime” by Casey Sherman
In one of the most notorious crimes of the 1950s, gangster Johnny Stompanato, who’d been dating Lana Turner, was found stabbed to death in the star’s home. Turner’s 14-year-old daughter took the blame for the death, but Sherman has his doubts about what happened. (Read the Q&A below for more Sherman.)
“Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blaxploitation Cinema” by Odie Henderson
The Boston Globe film critic is the author of a new history of Blaxploitation films. This rich period of 1970s cinema, which is famous for films like “Shaft,” “Coffy” and “Super Fly,” still resonates today (such as in Colson Whitehead’s most recent novel).
“Erotic Vagrancy: Everything about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor” by Roger Lewis
Wait, wasn’t there just a book on Burton and Taylor? (Yes, the excellent “Cocktails with George and Martha” by Philip Gefter). But there’s room for another because Lewis’ book, which I’ve heard wonderful things about, looks to be more of an over-the-top romp than stodgy by-the-numbers biography. It’s in stores on March 26.
“Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood” by Ed Zwick
Known for everything from films “Legends of the Fall” and “Glory” to TV series “thirtysomething” and “My So-Called Life,” Zwick promises to name-drop plenty in this memoir about working with Denzel Washington, Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts – and clashing with Harvey Weinstein.
“Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong” by Katie Gee Salisbury
The author, an Arcadia native now living in Brooklyn, spent years researching the film star’s life and work. “There’s a shorter narrative, a very pat narrative that gets told about her career,” says the author in an interview with this newspaper, adding that there’s much, much more of the story to be told.
‘A Murder in Hollywood’ author Casey Sherman on a killer book
Casey Sherman, the best-selling author of “Helltown,” is back with a reinvestigation into a murder that rocked late 1950s Hollywood. When Johnny Stompanato, an associate of notorious gangster Mickey Cohen, was killed in Lana Turner’s home, the movie star’s teenage daughter took the blame in what was ultimately ruled a justifiable homicide. Sherman recently talked to correspondent Liz Ohanesian about “A Murder in Hollywood” and, below, he shouts out some of his favorite books.
Q. Is there a book that you always recommend to others?
It’s a novel called “The Alienist” by Caleb Carr. It’s a book about a serial killer on the loose in the 1800s in New York City and it’s fascinating.
Q. What are you reading right now?
I am reading “Hitchcock’s Blondes” by Lawrence Lemur. It’s a story about Hitchcock’s fascination and ultimately mental manipulation of all of his leading ladies.
Q. Is there a genre that you read most frequently?
I love nonfiction. I love to read biographies about artistic people and creative people because I always take their challenges and adapt them or compare them to what I’m going through as a writer and a screenwriter and a producer. It really helps me.
Q. What’s your all-time favorite book?
My all-time favorite book is “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway.
Q. What’s next on your reading list?
Next on my reading list? Good question. There’s a new biography about Francis Ford Coppola [Sam Wasson’s “The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story”]. That’s what I’m looking for next time I go to the bookstore.
More books, authors and bestsellers
An author’s ‘Extinction’
Jennifer Croft’s debut novel concerns a missing writer and a group of translators. READ MORE
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A mother’s story
Chantha Nguon says her book, co-written with Kim Green, is “a recipe to find strength.” READ MORE
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The week’s bestsellers
The top-selling books at your local independent bookstores. READ MORE
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Next on ‘Bookish’
The next episode of Bookish offers a preview of the third annual Noteworthy salutes to SoCal authors. Plus, get up close with famed ghostwriter Sarah Tomlinson and her new novel “The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers,” and enjoy a talk with longtime San Jose Mercury News reporter Scott Herhold on his book, “Murder Under God’s Eye.” All happening at 5 p.m. March 15.
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Read any books that you want to tell people about? Email epedersen@scng.com with “ERIK’S BOOK PAGES” in the subject line and I may include your comments in an upcoming newsletter.
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Thanks, as always, for reading.