About Book Marks
Recent Reviews
Steve Martin
Mixed Associated Press Between the covers of this surprisingly thin memoir are truffles of humor from comedian Steve Martin’s movie career illustrated by cartoonist Harry Bliss. The book is a sweet and smooth treat but ultimately unsatisfying ... Instead of providing a charming twist on the standard memoir, Bliss’ drawings come off as padding ... Number One Is Walking doesn’t lack humor, insight or Martin’s ironic take on life, but it does lack depth.
Jon Meacham
Rave The Chicago Tribune ... excellent ... illuminates how Lincoln’s personal growth and travails enabled him to lead a nation along a fitful evolution toward freedom despite a catastrophic rebellion that denied it ... Meacham expertly peels back the historic to reveal the familiar in his coverage of the swirl of politics, largely unchanged to this day ... The author girds his analysis with a comprehensive survey of the variety of social, political and theological writings that influenced Lincoln and resonate across his career.
Paul Newman
Positive Associated Press Stunning ... A brutally frank reflection on a life filed with self-doubt ... Lacks the keen look at filmmaking that usually punctuates a movie star’s story. While a bumpy, disjointed confessional, it also smolders with introspection as Newman tries to ascertain what he couldn’t see in himself that so many others did.
Michael Mann
Rave Associated Press \"[Mann and Gardiner] have achieved a rarity with their novel Heat 2: a screen-to-page sequel that stands tall on its own ... watching the movie first isn’t a must to enjoy the book, just a pleasure ... Mann and Gardiner play with time, weaving prequel tales for McCauley and Hanna with a present-day storyline for Shiherlis and Hanna. But such cleverness doesn’t overlook expanding these characters, and each one gets a new facet to a self-destructive trait: McCauley’s cynicism, Shiherlis’ sensation-seeking and Hanna’s anger. Slick as a Neil McCauley heist and as intense as a Vincent Hanna chase, Heat 2 is just dynamite.\
Robert L O'Connell
Rave The Associated Press Insightful and informative, military historian Robert L. O’Connell’s latest book carries a title that might evoke in today’s readers a group of superheroes bent on saving the free world — in this case four Army generals transforming the United States into a global peacekeeper ... The climax of Team America cannot help but be the action-packed, oft-told tales of that leadership — in the councils of state and the terrors of battle — and the significance of each general’s impact ... combines compelling biographies of our heroes as they reach the heights of military, then civilian, leadership during five pivotal decades. O’Connell also explains why industrial warfare grew into a juggernaut, and how they managed to control it to achieve an uncertain peace that still holds.
Ron Shelton
Rave Associated Press Breezy ... Unlike most making-of books, many pages are devoted to how Shelton conceived the characters, developed a framework for a movie, sold a studio on it, then wrote and rewrote and rewrote the script. And the creativity continued during the actual filming, the editing, the music, the costumes and all the other stuff that goes into making a movie. Fortunately, creativity can be pretty funny as well as pretty interesting, and The Church of Baseball is consistently both.
Viola Davis
Rave The Associated Press Brutally honest and honestly brutal ... a blistering memoir, not a rueful remembrance told in the kind of polished prose that suggests, well, it wasn\'t all that bad. Finding Me is raw in its anger, shocking in its frankness, often downright vulgar — and wonderfully alive with Davis\' passion poured into every page.
Kyle Buchanan
Positive Associated Press Blood, Sweat & Chrome pulls away from clichés by tossing the keys to the filmmakers themselves. The pop culture reporter for The New York Times assembles scores of voices that rev up a narrative that will excite Mad Max fans specifically, and entertain film buffs generally, on how ideas are realized as epics ... Buchanan’s Blood, Sweat & Chrome succeeds largely at the level you choose.
James Curtis
Positive The Associated Press ... [an] overstuffed book, which belongs in any film fan’s library for providing a close look at the silent era and all of Keaton’s efforts, whether big or small, triumph or failure.
Mel Brooks
Positive The Associated Press As advertised, All About Me! is a narrowly focused celebration of a poor Jewish kid who grew up from Brooklyn street corner jokester to become synonymous with hearty laughter and naughty chuckles. It’s a surprisingly gentle remembrance from a comedian known for mocking anything considered sacred in America ... His all-too-brief discussions about the business side of the movie business—he demanded foreign rights to his later pictures and was rewarded with more money than he earned domestically—are welcome asides. Anyone looking for introspection will be disappointed. While Brooks celebrates his reputation for \'dangerous\' comedy, he’s taking no chances with today’s hot topics ... Yes, too much of All About Me! is self-congratulatory—if Brooks isn’t praising himself, he quotes others praising him—and, yes, recounting plots and casts for his films comes off as superficial. His memoir works best, which is more often than not, as a look back in laughter from a man who isn’t through trying to make us gasp for breath.
James Ivory
Mixed The Associated Press ... it is odd that the second half of the famed Merchant Ivory film ... Once the focus of Solid Ivory: Memoirs moves beyond his youth in Depression and postwar America, the charming narrative becomes disjointed and much less engaging ... Ivory directed more than three dozen films, usually working with his partner in both business and life, Ismail Merchant. Yet his memoir contains surprisingly little on the making of these movies, the main reason one might pick up the book in the first place ... Beyond making movies, what Ivory chooses to discuss doesn’t anticipate what most readers might seek. He devotes far less space and insight to a portrait of Merchant than he does for famed travel writer Bruce Chatwin, an off-and-on lover. Other sketches of people in his life, including screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and Vanessa Redgrave, are hit and miss ... Ivory’s sharpest remembrance of things past comes from his first two decades and draws a colorful portrait of mid-20th century life, particularly for a gay teenager growing up in a small Oregon town and later off to college. Still, one is left to wonder how his own sexuality affected the creation of his films ... At one point Ivory describes his personal attributes as \'relaxed, easy-going and comfort seeking\' and says those qualities are reflected in his films. In his memoir, too, which isn’t a bad thing, except when they fail to fuel introspection.
Allen C Guelzo
Rave The Associated Press ... expertly scrubs off 150 years of political and cultural patina accumulated since the renowned general’s passing to reveal a tragic humanity ... Guelzo’s portrait of Lee in his 50s shows his ascension from worrywart to warrior to legend. Following the example of Lee’s early command method, his book surveys the battlegrounds as if through the general’s field glasses, sets the order of combat, then leaves the bloody details to the stacks of cap-and-ball tomes ... Guelzo’s formal yet enjoyable writing style evokes the period without getting lost in it. His presentation achieves relevance as America is once again riven with regional, cultural and political hostility. Is there a more appropriate time to consider Robert E. Lee’s fateful decision? ... After siding with the don’t-tread-on-me ethos of the South, Lee predicted and then witnessed how a resolute Union would defeat a fractious Confederacy. When modern disdain for the central government threatens to overwhelm the public trust in elections, vaccinations and even the concept of democracy itself, it is vital to remember that Lee’s choice of righteousness in his opinions over fidelity to his oath led himself and his homeland to ruin.
Mark Harris
Positive The Associated Press A Mike Nichols credit always made the heart race with anticipation. So does Mike Nichols: A Life, an epic biography of an epic creative life. In page after page, writer Mark Harris delivers an engrossing narrative while exploring the qualities that made Nichols a thoughtful and generous friend and an encouraging, insightful director, his brilliance tempered by insecurities and destructive self-indulgence ... Harris details how the Nichols touch, at full strength, brought out the creative best in any collaboration.
Scott Eyman
Rave The Associated Press In the most entertaining and enlightening star biography in years, writer Scott Eyman poignantly notes the realities behind Grant’s remarkable subterfuge while exploring his phenomenal career ... A research-driven and insightful biographer, Eyman surrounds his deep dig into Grant’s personal life with fan-pleasing details of movie productions, vignettes of the wonderful characters who joined Grant in making movies, and a sense of the business side of Hollywood that too often eludes writers caught up in the magic and madness. The result is a captivating look at a captivating star.
Sam Wasson
Rave The Associated Press ... great style and lyricism ... If the Oscar-winning Chinatown is indeed \'the best American screenplay written during the ‘70s\'” Wasson does it justice by following Towne’s method of constructing finely detailed, lively backstories of all characters, major and minor. It’s impossible not to fall for this love letter to a love letter that pastes together the often sticky collage of how talent plus perseverance can equal a classic film ... The four main antagonists are vividly portrayed ... By comparison, short shrift is given to Faye Dunaway, brilliant as the femme fatale but high maintenance behind the cameras ... Wasson admirably credits the talents usually relegated to the credits with extensive reportage ... Wasson\'s book concludes with a slog through the personal and professional declines of those who achieved career peaks with Chinatown. He should have emulated its noir climax: the truth is revealed, the victim punished, the corrupt absolved, the hero chastened. The camera pulls up and away in an ending crane shot as we trudge into the darkness to ponder a story well told and fraught with meaning. Roll credits.
Ash Carter and Sam Kashner
Positive The Star Tribune ...a captivating oral history of the late director Mike Nichols ... The occasional criticism of Nichols helps make believable the unbelievably high praise that permeates Life Isn’t Everything. While oral history doesn’t offer the breadth and depth of biography, as writers Ash Carter and Sam Kashner acknowledge, they have assembled a collection of voices that explain why Mike Nichols soared as an artist and as a friend.
Sheila Weller
Positive The Philadelphia Inquirer ... a compassionate portrait of a complex personality whose up-and-down life rivals the Hollywood travails of Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland in its mixture of charisma, talent, and self-destruction. Fisher’s story is a sad one, certainly, but also lively, tart and funny because she was all that and more. So is Weller’s engaging book. Tapping Fisher’s many friends, she fills her pages with anecdotes illustrating the pains and joys of a life that often went over the edge — way over.
Richard Zoglin
Positive The Associated Press Zoglin’s fascinating tale of how the king got his groove back and Las Vegas refreshed its own image, together supersizing live entertainment in America’s adult playground. Blending new interviews with top-drawer research focusing on how Las Vegas evolved as the pleasure capital, Zoglin produces a gem of pop culture history.
Svetlana Alexievich, Trans. by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
Positive The Associated Press ... engrossing ... simple but powerful prose ... More than 100 people...recall similar horrors ... There are hopeful stories, too, serving as streaks of light in the darkness.
Brian Raftery
Positive The Associated Press Raftery’s book works best — and works rather well — as a report on moviemaking as it existed two decades ago ... Raftery’s interviews with scores of actors, directors, writers and others power interesting and intriguing backstories about several movies that are pretty darn good and others that are pretty darn forgettable. Funny thing, even if a movie isn’t much to look at, how it got to theaters can be engrossing when Raftery teases out a telling anecdote.
W. K. Stratton
Positive Associated Press \"... detailed and passionately argued ... Stratton collects the kinds of elements required for a lively movie backstory: a talented if irascible director, quirky cast and crew members, a difficult location shoot and a controversial reception by moviegoers and critics. Best of all, he recounts how an idea becomes a film and the creative, economic and fate-driven roadblocks it faces ... Stratton\'s most interesting perspective comes in recounting how Mexican culture influenced the look, sound and feel of The Wild Bunch.\
Mark Griffin
Positive The Associated Press \"Mark Griffin’s perceptive and sympathetic biography All That Heaven Allows gives Hudson, both the movie star and the man, the kind of reassessment only time can allow ... Griffin’s interviews and correspondence with many of Hudson’s co-stars — among them Doris Day and Carol Burnett — and many of his lovers show how protective they were of their warm, loyal friend.\
Don Graham
Rave The Greensboro News and Record No matter what you think of the 1956 epic Giant — some love it as an all-time favorite, some find it overblown — Don Graham’s book is an entertaining case study for anyone who wants to understand how Hollywood lived and breathed in the mid-1950s. His behind-the-scenes story provides as much drama as director George Stevens’ sometimes lumbering movie about a handsome but hidebound cattle baron who brings his East Coast bride to a not-so-little house on the prairie.