Arts and Entertainment Books

What sets this autobiography of the great Broadway composer Charles Strouse apart from other "and then I wrote" memoirs, is that although Mr. Strouse gives plenty of fascinating info on the what, who and where of his career, his main focus is on how it felt to create those shows, work with those people, and live that life. So the reader is drawn in and effortlessly identifies with him, coming away with the experience of a life lived in musical theatre. The only curious element is that, although his portraits of famous collaborators like Arthur Laurents, Alan Jay Lerner and Sammy Davis, Jr. are quite vivid, we are left with only a shadowy outline of Lee Adams, who wrote the lyrics to many of his most famous shows, such as "Bye Bye Birdie" and "Applause."

A truly enjoyable and quick read. Many insights are offered into the world of Broadway musicals. Strouse reveals several things about himself that are very interesting. Some Broadway writers,producers, etc. really come off as horse's a---s. Like the bit where he ways he has made more money than he can spend. Was sorry that it wasn't longer!

A must-read for all fans of musical theatre, this heart-warming candid and funny autobiography provides a fascinating look into the world of showbusiness. Charles Strouse writes candidly about his ups-and-downs in showbusiness, the nagging insecurities that have followed him throughout his career and of course provides juicy tidbits about Teresa Stratas, Arthur Laurents, Leondard Bernstein and more.

Well written, funny as hell, and eminently readable "Put On a Happy Face" is as entertaining as any of Charles Strouse's best shows. In this book, whose title is taken from one of his many standards, Strouse takes us on a journey through the Broadway musical theater of the last fifty years. Along the way we meet the legends with whom he has worked (and with whom he has occasionally battled): David Merrick, Mel Brooks, Lauren Bacall, Dick Van Dyke, Gower Champion, Joshua Logan, Mike Nichols, Arthur Laurents, Alan Jay Lerner. He demonstrates how tough it is to write a musical and how much tougher it is to get it produced, only to have the critics break your heart. But he also shows the exhilaration and thrills when the show is a smash hit, like Bye Bye Birdie, Applause, or Annie.He clears up the confusion regarding his (and Lee Adams') contributions to Hello, Dolly!, especially laying to rest once and for all (one hopes) the rumors concerning the true authorship of "Before the Parade Passes By."
Strouse has had a fabulous career. Besides the hit shows, so many of his songs have become standards: "Tomorrow," "You've Got Possibilities," "Once Upon a Time," "Kids," "A Lot of Livin' To Do," and others. Buffs worship his score for Rags. His title song for Dance a Little Closer is gorgeous. His theme song for All in the Family --- "Those Were the Days" is one of the best known tv themes ever. If you analyze "The Telephone Hour" measure by measure, you will be astonished by the musicianship. In person, Charles Strouse is warm, gracious, and, to borrow the title of one of his songs, a "perfect gentleman." All that talent and honest personality come through in the pages of this book.
Don't miss it.

Charles Strouse is one of the last of a generation of great tune smiths. Broadway composers who could, as Richard Rodgers said, "piss good melodies." No matter what the show, Strouse could be counted upon to come up with great singable, hummable and even memorable tunes. He didn't always have hit shows, but when he did they were shows like Bye Bye Birde and Annie. This book tells a lot about the hits and also offers some wonderful anecdotes and insights into the various flops. Strouse isn't afraid to say what is one his mind and ruffle some feathers. The sections on Golden Boy and Sammy Davis Jr. and especially the Nick and Nora chapter that tells us more than we knew about Arthur Laurents are especially tasty. Unlike many memoirs, Charles personal life is handled very well and I was not bored for a second at the part I usually like to skip: the childhood. Charles ties it all in to his career and how the music was made and where it came from. One of the best memoirs to come down the pike in a while. Highly recommended to anyone interested in theatre, music or film.

I first started listening to Queen back around 1987, having a copy of "The Game" that a cousin gave me. But it wasn't until 1992 that I became a fan, and I bought this book to learn about the band. It's got a lot of good information and pictures, and I recommend it to any Queen fan.

There is one aspect of the band that isn't touched on in the book, and that is their debauchery! Even though I've been a fan for almost 15 years, only recently did I learn that these guys were real hellraisers! I'd read a magazine article after "Innuendo" came out that mentioned the wild release party they held for it, but I had no idea how hard these guys partied. Sick and twisted!

But anyway, that one, minor, misgiving aside, I recommend this book. I wish there were more books available on Queen.

I bought this book back in 1992 when I first became a Queen fanatic. There are some great pictures and quotes, along with kind of an abbreviated history of the band. It concludes with a list of all of Queen's music releases up until 1992. It is a beautiful book that is well worth the money. You will look at it again and again.

This book brings you right along side the band and their legendary music. If you like queen, this is a must have for your library!

This Queen book is absolutely fabulous! It is perfect in nearly every way. It is basically a visual timeline of the band, from its subtle beginnings to its flashy end (or is it?). The pictures alone are worth the price, but the ingenius quotes from band members simply makes this one of the best Queen books available. Look for Freddie in his Superman shirt!

When Tarantino blew up in the early 90's, there were slews of quickie books written to cash in on his enormous popularity. This is not one of them. Jami Bernard has done one of the most thorough and detailed biographies ever done on a celebrity. She misses nothing. The only problem this book has is the same problem almost all Q.T books have- they were all written 2 to 3 years into his career, so there is no recent information. This is one book I'd love to see updated and re-released.It is a richly detailed and fair account of Tarantino's life and career up until 1995.

I just finished reading this book, and it is a fine work of reporting. It interviews people from both sides of the Tarantino debate (those who love him and those who hate him), and allows you to draw your own conclusions from all the statements. It covers Tarantino's life from his birth up to the moment when he made Four Rooms.

Too bad this book is out of print. I hope there will be a reissue in the future, probably covering the latest works of Tarantino.

This book is a very good book. It gets you very familiar with Quentin and his movis. Every Quentin fan should read this book. I am going to read it again. Read the book!! Thomas Peterson MXPF89C@prodigy.com Kuna, Idaho

This book is a must-read for every true Tarantino fan.

Jamie Bernard's book is simply amazing. It covers Tarantino's life from childhood till about 1996. The book is well-written, and goes deep into detail and uncovers Tarantino's life as hyperactive kid, movie theater regular, fatherless child and genius moviemaker. This is the single best book ever written about Quentin Tarantino. No other book delivers such great information, biographical facts and stories about the making of his early movies and involvements in projects. If you want to read a good book about Tarantino, get this one first. It's the best!

trust me on this...

This is neither a "companion piece" nor a "tell-all" book. Equally, it is not a flimsy paperback stapled and glued together just in time for the band's next big tour. What Denise Sullivan does write (and write well, also) is much closer to an anecdote, a souveneir, a recalled event. She avoids the trite and passionless type of "rock'n'roll" review/expose we have to endure all the time and instead lets the reader get a glimpse not so much of the band REM, but of the people that REM exerted some influence on, or the people for whom REM mattered. Reading Sullivan's book, I am reminded of how one of my closest friends and I discuss REM -- from memory, from songs, from what has been happening in our lives. This book feels like a friend.

Unlike most "rock-n-roll" books which often pander to the lowest common denominator -- which usually is the author's own personal bias barely hidden in the text and most often the lens through which we are forced to watch the history of the band/singer unfold -- Denise Sullivan gives us something better, and frankly, more fun. "TATP" offers an original and fresh perspective on a very enigmatic yet familiar college - rock - alternative - mainstream - wacky - superstar band. This book is a must-have for both the fan and fanatic. The writing is well-done, the subject matter well-handled. While almost everyone's favorite REM song and/or album may change over time, this remains my favorite book on the band.

You can't get much better than this -- personal accounts of people who actually were there. There is just as much information to be found here as in _It Crawled from the South_. It proceeds chronologically with great detail, and feeds the REM-fact hungry reader just what he/she wants.

This book was excellent. It was great to get a history of what went on by people who actually were there.Recommendwd if you are a fan of Mr. Stipe and Co. or just interested in a the history of great music that shaped a scene.

This book is about my favorite actress, the incredibly talented Halle Berry. She is totally amazing because she doesn't let anything stop her from being number one. This book shows that Ms. Berry is a determined person. She always knew she was going to be successful and look what happened. She became one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. I think the moral of this book is to believe in yourself.

This book is about my favorite actress, the incredibly talented Halle Berry. She is totally amazing because she doesn't let anything stop her from being number one. This book shows that Ms. Berry is a determined person. She always knew she was going to be successful and look what happened. She became one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. I think the moral of this book is to believe in yourself.

"Red Hot Halle: The Story of an American Best Actress" is fascinating. When the actress delivered her very emotional acceptance speech at the Academy Awards, I was curious about her. I wanted to know where she was from, how she got started and what other movies she had played in. I wanted to know all about her background and what makes her tick. "Red Hot Halle" tells it all. It is a very factual account of Halle Berry's life and it has information about every movie she's ever been in. But it is more than just facts. The book tells Halle Berry's life story in an intriguing way introducing other very colorful characters, some big Hollywood players and some everyday people. The book is fast paced, funny at times, inspiring but yet disturbing as it chronicles the actress's struggles in relationships. "Red Hot Halle" is an excellent read.

After reading the intros of "Red Hot Halle" and "Aaliyah" on Kelly Kenyatta's site, my appetite grew to learn more of the two stars. I was excited when my book order arrived. I tore into the package and started reading Halle until my eyes couldn't stay open any longer because I couldn't stop reading. I'm almost through reading it and I'm enjoying every bit of it. I felt like I was there.............. When I picked the book up the next day to finish reading it, I found out there were only two pages left, but I was yearning for more, more............. I like Kelly Kenyatta's style. Her explanations of the other people in her stories are informative. It brings people like me, who don't know them, up to date and put me/us in a familiar time and a place. I couldn't wait to start reading Aaliyah. I have become a fan of Author Kelly Kenyatta.

Jean Rouverol recreates those traumatic years with sensitivity, care and love. With a young family she and her husband not only managed to get away from, (rather than escape), the harrassment of anti-communism in Hollywood but also managed to create a new and productive live in Mexico. Her prose is crisp and very readable.Her sense of humour never fails. Her message is clear- if you believe in it you can do it! One of the few books I have read cover to cover in one sitting.

Jean Rouverol has written here a rather readable personal history of a very public assault on civil liberties (such as they were and are in the US) during the post-WWII Red Scare.

While it does not appear to have been her intention to delve into the politics of the period except as it pertained to women in general and her family (and the expatriate community in Mexico) in particular, especially during the blacklist, the inquiring reader is left wondering, for example, what happened to Rouverol's husband, screenwriter Hugo Butler, perhaps during their Mexican exile, to lead him to celebrate the display of Italian Communist Party banners in Rome even as he wishes that Party to lose the 1960 parliamentary election in Italy -- he, like his wife, having been a member of the Communist Party USA. But then, she tied up the loose ends of her family's Mexican experience somewhat hastily, leaving one to speculate as to whether Butler's political regression was a result of his overall mental deterioration -- a condition Rouverol noted. Nevertheless, her detailed account of their life in Mexico -- the focus of the book -- makes this a worthwhile record of survival during an intensely repressive time.

I was a teenager at Hollywood High during these dark years. Struggling to understand the turmoil and politics that my family was living through. Each day I saw the pain my loving, idealistic father was enduring as more and more of his friends and coworkers became ensnared in the stupid net of fear and accusation that was spreading through his industry.

Jean's story of their quick decision to slip across the border with their children and their day to day challenges of providing a good education and rich family life as exiles makes great reading.

Rouverol's clean prose and unsparing eye will draw readers into recollections of her family's life on the run and the work they scared up to support their nearly decade-long stint underground. Poignant and unapologetic, Rouverol's memoir juxtaposes the support they found south of the border with the unrelenting weight of living as fugitives. -- Publishers Weekly

Every Jewish fanatic who thinks they know everything about Wagner's relationships w/Jews and who base their opinions on the fact that he was an anti-semite ought to read this book. Loads of stuff not previously known, at least not by me. jww

Having read many books on the life of Wagner over the years, I can safely say that this biographical sketch by Brener ranks among the best. The author is a retired attorney who is also a music and art critic. Like most of us who love Wagner's music, Brener is troubled by the composer's less than admirable traits -- his manipulation of his friends, his skipping out on debts, and particularly his anti-Semitism. How could a man who wrote some of the most moving music and insightful music dramas in Western civiilzation be such a defective human being? Brener sets out to understand Wagner the man in human perspective and succeeds admirably. He focuses mainly on Wagner's public views of "the Jews" and his private, long-standing and meaningful friendships with many individual Jews. A retired lawyer, he has done his homework, deposed all the key witnesses, and developed an argument that leaves no stone unturned. Brener makes a compelling case for Wagner as a nuanced human being rather than the black and white monster as some biographers portray him. In addition, the book is extremely well written and hard to put down. I came away with a greater appreciation of Wagner and a deeper understanding of the nature of prejudice. Highly recommended.

This is not the usual diatribe that we expect on Wagner's Antisemitism. Instead it is a biography focusing on the composer's relations with the Jews. Brener makes a sharp distinction between "the Jews" in Roman type and the same phrase in italic, the former representing Wagner's Jewish friends, the latter the Jewish community that he despised.

The main characters are Karl Tausig, Heinrich Porges, Joseph Rubinstein, and Hermann Levi--all close associates of Wagner and all Jewish. The chapters on Levi are especially revealing, a sharp challenge to orthodox opinion by such scholars as Peter Gay. The analysis of Wagner's major tract on the subject, "Judaism in Music," is adequate.

Brener is a good writer with a refined sense of tone and wit. He knows the primary literature backwards and forwards. His mastery of the secondary sources seems less secure but still sufficient for his purposes. Obviously he has visited most of the places he discusses, for his descriptions of them (both then and now) are vivid.

His theme is summed up in a concise sentence that concludes his preface: "I do not beleive that, at the deeper levels, the man who created Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal, and Der Ring des Nibelungen could possibly have been the monster that so many have painted." He proves his point well.

I enjoyed this book and learned much from it. I recommend it wholeheartedly to fellow Wagnerians.

Despite a few notable exceptions, Milton Brener's Richard Wagner and the Jews is nearly the only book that deals fairly with the famed opera composer's anti-Semitism; and as such, this book is a welcome corrective to some of the more shrill anti-Wagner screeds of the last few decades. Brener does not intend to excuse Wagner; he merely comes closer than most in explaining him.

Besides being probably the greatest artist who ever lived, Wagner was also a bundle of contradictions. However, this bundle of contradictions never seemed to be able to realize that he was just that. Indeed, Wagner did possess anti-Semitic attitudes, but his anti-Semitism was of a different stripe than that espoused by the Nazis. Wagner called for Jewish assimilation within the German population, which certainly did not conform with later Nazi policy. Like many a 19th-Century anti-Semite, Wagner seems to have seen Jewishness as almost an abstract, metaphysical concept. Of course, that does not excuse him. He did indeed say vile things about Jews, and he needs to be held accountable for those attitudes, but to simply (and wrongly) call him a proto-Nazi is not only intellectually dishonest, it wrongly stains the reputation of an artist who created stupendous, deeply human works-of-art.

As Brener also points out, there is nothing inherently anti-Semitic in any of Wagner's great works of art. Unfortunately, some writers, such as Robert Gutman, seem to have a compulsion to find even the most tenuous, implausible Anti-Semitic connections in Wagner's work. It is simply impossible to find such links. There is not the slightest overt connection to anti-Semitism in any of Wagner's works, and if there are any such covert links, then one would have had to have entered the composer's mind to see them. Wagner's many genuine friendships with Jews complicate Gutman's position even more.

This is simply a fabulous book. And, along with The Darker Side of Genius and The Ring of Myths, it is also the most responsible volume available that deals specifically with Wagner's most famous character flaw.

Also included, as an appendix, is the composer's infamous essay, "Judaism in Music". While the essay is bitter and paranoid, it is helpful for a frame of reference to the preceding 300 pages. Needless to say, I find Wagner's argument that Jews are incapable of generating higher culture to be utterly worthless. Schoenberg & Mahler (and many other Jewish artists) obviously dismantle that argument, and as for Wagner's claim that Jews are incapable of high art because they are "rootless", we only need to look at Aaron Copland, a man of Lithuanian Jewish heritage, who used Appalachian & Mexican melodies and rhythms to create incredible works of art.

This is your mentor-in-a-box. It gets closer than any other book has to the instructive wisdom, creativity, ingenuity, and technical expertise inside the minds of some very important news shooters. I bet some of these guys wouldn't be able to articulate their own processes nearly as eloquently as Underwood has here. Worth every cent.

I was afraid it was just going to be another text book by someone who had a small TV background and then went into teaching. However, I was very interested to see the article on how the BBC photographers cover international news...(after all they invented it). The articles on network freelancers I would have liked to see expanded as this is now a major force in top TV coverage. I liked seeing the sidebars on the primary tools each person uses. The book has a blend of large and smaller market stories and is a good read. I wish it was longer! John Treadgold, news photographer

Since I bought it, this book has been a hit with the photogs at the station I work at. I would recommend that working news photographers either get their own, or pool some money for at least a "staff" copy. It's a book you will casually pick up and wind up reading for the next hour (or as long as you can!) it's packed with great info, for just about any situation (it'll step you through focal lengths and later on it has info on how to shoot in a disaster. It doesn't matter if you're a student or a seasoned vet, you will find something interesting and valuable in this book (even if it's just to clarify and reflect your own thoughts on shooting).

Each chapter is written by or features a different photographer/TV news professional (there's a few reporters and producers mixed in, but all have strong visual backgrounds) and focuses on a certain aspect of shooting TV news. Whether its just the basics of story structure and editing, how to shoot a visually interesting interview, ethics, shooting sports, major disasters and "spot" news, One-man-bands, live shots, international stories (being embedded, international travel). And, of course, there is more.

I don't normally ooze praise like this, but this book is worth the fairly high price tag. Only one request: Why not include a DVD of pieces done by the great photographers featured in the book? That would really help, especially newer shooters to understand some of the concepts and to see what is possible when you are shooting to the Nth degree. After reading a section of this, you'll want to go out and shoot more than before. It's helped to replenish my desire to pursue this career when sometimes work seems to be getting stale.

BUY THIS BOOK

Roll! is a terrific textbook for TV Reporting. If it's at all possible to teach shooting with a book, this is the book. A must for any college teaching TV news. Just the diagrams for different angles in Chapter 7 is nearly worth the price. Rather than drawing diagrams on a white board, just use the book. Properly organized, the book can take students from the first lesson through advanced shooting.

Bob Lissit
Journalism professor
S.I. Newhouse School
Syracuse University

If you are a huge Roswell fan, get this book. It is packed full of questions and answers and 8 pages of pictures. It is a small paperback book but alot of info inside.

I love this book it really let me see how much I actually knew about ROSWELL and I knew alot more than I thought I did Great for any Roswell Lover like myself to see if your obssessed or just a fan. I found out that I am DEFINETLY OBSSESSED....

I thought I knew everything about Roswell--before I picked up this book! I was shocked at how much I didn't know. It's jam-packed with every little factoid possible.

UFO Research and Investigation: How much do you really know about the crash of '47? This section starts off with you as an FBI agent, being tested on how much you know about the crash, and the suspects living in Roswell. Better study hard, or you'll end up with a desk job!

The Real Investigation: More questions about the different characters. Are you as informed as Nasedo, or are you as in the dark as Kyle?

Friends, Lovers, and Enemies: Do you know what the terms Candygirl, Dreamgirl, and Stargazer refer to? If not, you'll be in trouble in this section!

Do You Remember When?: How good are you with dates? This section covers dates ranging from the UFO crash in 1947 to Liz's first diary entry.

Episode Highlights: If you missed any episodes from season 1, this chapter could be tough. It asks questions about each season 1 episode--fill in the blank!

Grand Total: This is the section where all your totals are calculated! Are you a True Believer, or just a Tourist? I didn't do very well the first time I took the quiz, but I've done better each time I've taken it. I'm definitely a True Believer! This book is a must-have for any Roswell obsessive! As an added bonus, there are also color photos of each main member of the season one cast.

i thought i was pretty up to date on roswell until i bought this
book. this book will have you scratching your head pondering if
you are truly a roswell fan or just pretending. i did about average and i love the show. take the quiz if you dare to find
out what your roswell iq is.

I have worked professionaly with Mr. Silber and I believe him to be a truthful storyteller without ulterior motives. Reading this book is like listening to his stories just as he has recounted them to me. I enjoyed the fact that this book is not "as told to", nor is it glossed over with happy endings and filled out with sordid details. The photographs are marvelous, the majority being taken by the author himself while on the job. This book reminds the reader that an era is gone and what passes for entertainment these days is sad in comparison.

I like this book because the author, Arthur Silber Jr., was actually there during the so called "Rat Pack" days, and witnessed these events first hand. Also, I come from a long entertainment background, and his show-biz vernacular is right on! It is interesting to get a bird's eye view of this history, and this is a fabulous book.

This is an easy read and an excellent book defining the struggle of Sammy Davis Jr. as he worked to become a superstar, written by his best friend who shared the life experiences with Sammy. No one else has written a book on Sammy Davis Jr., that I am aware of, who has actually experienced a relationship with Sammy. The book has over 300 photographs most of which are obviously from the personal photo album of the author. They give a wonderful validity to everything written in the book. People of Co lor today may be surprised to learn just how much Sammy did to make their freedoms possible. This book is an excellent read. By the way, I notice on your website that you list publisher as unknown. In fact, the publisher is Samart Enterprises, as stated in the book, the company formed by Sammy and the author and still owned by Mr. Silber.

Me and My Shadow is a story filled with all the joy, love, pain, happiness and sorrow one could possibly live in a lifetime. Being a black women and growing up in the era of racism and Jim Crow, I could feel the pain I was reading about. To color Sammy's love for another and to label humans for sharing, showing and giving their love is the demarcation line that ran through Sammy's life.
Through it all Arthur Silber gave me a glimpse of what true but sometimes complicated, unconditional love was all about.
My first thrill when I opened the book was to see all the spectacular photo's. I got a clear picture of Arthur and Sammy's life. The pictures were a treat for my eyes and it provided me with a window into their soul's.
Thank you Arthur for letting me in on the good, the bad and the ugly. Thank you for showing and telling me about Sammy's persuit of love and acceptance, in a world where being the proper color was everything and no matter how much talent Sammy had, he still was not able to walk through the front door.
To see two people share a relationship that was as close as a family member's without being blood is a true testament to Arthur and Sammy's character, in a time when being black meant, you stay on your side of the trackes.
The read was tasty, the pictures delectable and the story is Golden.