I MAKE MY OWN FUN, a title you'll look at differently after the read

I MAKE MY OWN FUN
HANNAH BEER
House of Anansi Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$19.99 paperback, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: An unhinged romp through fame, obsession, and fandom

Everyone knows Marina, the A-list movie star. But very few know Marina, the absolute monster.

Years at the top have proved that whatever Marina wants, she gets. But when she meets bartender Anna, Marina discovers something that can't be Anna's affection. As Anna remains unmoved, Marina's advances become more desperate, and her obsession more dangerous.

The price of fame is heavy—and someone will have to pay for it …

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My Review: Mmmkay...so...see it's like this. There is not one shred of realism in this weirdness. Marina has five Oscars and she got them when not yet thirty.

Five. OSCARS.

Park them carpin' natterin' nabobs of emotional negativity in the punchbowl, y'all. Go with it. So Marina's in London for...something, I forgot what, doing her "Miss Relatable Superstar oh I'm just plain folks" shtik that sells out theaters, bored with the fact it keeps working, but nothing gonna change her runnin' the con, because a superstar girl's gotta feed the hordes of hangers-on. Marina goes out, worn out after another day of faking sincerity in search of booze and babes (the hot PR-inspired boyfriend is with his little sidequest lad—everybody's bi). (Oh, Marina? She likes girls too.)

And there SHE is: Anna the food-service worker, starstruck and ripe for the plucking. Marina plucks, well tries to anyway. Anna is...not impressed.

This cannot be allowed. You just know the whole world, from the folks Marina catfishes on various dating apps to the fellow A-lister "friends" she's secretly fed to the internet wolves for shits and giggles, has always fallen right into or back into her orbit at the merest crook of a pinky from Marina. Anna, though, declines the part she's been cast to play.

I hope you saw Tár. Marina's the Hollywood version of her, very very sure she is worth all the trouble and pain she causes all around her because she is A Star. There is more than a little of the Fatal Attraction thing goin' on with the way Anna keeps ducking out and trying to get away, which Marina's sure is just playing hard to get. Not so much Marina...Anna sees your real face and wants no part of looking into the abyss of selfishness and self-regard you represent. You're running out of time, passing the line of 30 aka career death, and Anna is failing to hide your desperation and trappedness from you...how dare she?! You *deserve* Anna's utter devotion! You're YOU!

Bitter, angry celebrity-obsessed woman caught in what she knows inside is the beginning of the end refuses to examine her actual reality to see what she wants to try next. Told in a headlong, obsessive rush, maybe even too much of one, Author Beer's debut novel is a howl of outrage that the /marinas of the world get as far as they do, that what the Marinas of the world do to others is only partial repayment and charged to the wrong account for what's done to them. The ending, honestly rushed and abrupt, works because there are unreliable narrators like Christie's Dr. Sheppard, and then there are the Marinas. This ending, abrupt as it is, makes the sheer awfulness of Marina fluoresce. It's so so sad, and so so appropriate, and just truly satisfying for what it subtextually points to.

There is not one soul in this book I felt like I wanted to rescue, teach sense to, or even get to know better. I know it's a novel but it truthfully made me look askance at everyone involved in the celebrity-influencer world again.

Summer sudsy thriller fun! I say feed your inner cynic a story to keep it from gluing you to the next season of The Traitors.

TO THE STARS: The Autobiography of George Takei, Star Trek's Mr. Sulu

TO THE STARS: The Autobiography of George Takei, Star Trek's Mr. Sulu
GEORGE TAKEI
Pocket Books
$8.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Best known as Mr. Sulu, helmsman of the Starship Enterprise™ and captain of the Starship Excelsior, George Takei is beloved by millions as part of the command team that has taken audiences to new vistas of adventure in Star Trek®—the unprecedented television and feature film phenomenon.

From the program’s birth in the changing world of the 1960s and death at the hands of the network to its rebirth in the hearts and minds of loyal fans, the Star Trek story has blazed its own path into our recent cultural history, leading to a series of blockbuster feature films and three new versions of Star Trek for television.

The Star Trek story is one of boundless hope and crushing disappointment, wrenching rivalries and incredible achievements. It is also the story of how, after nearly thirty years, the cast of characters from a unique but poorly rated television show have come to be known to millions of Americans and people around the world as family.

For George Takei, the Star Trek adventure is intertwined with his personal odyssey through adversity in which four-year-old George and his family were forced by the United States government into internment camps during World War II.

Star Trek means much more to George Takei than an extraordinary career that has spanned thirty years. For an American whose ideals faced such a severe test, Star Trek represents a shining embodiment of the American Dream—the promise of an optimistic future in which people from all over the world contribute to a common destiny.

I RECEIVED THIS BOOK FROM THE GOODREADS M/M GIFT EXCHANGE. THANKS!

My Review: The fascistic turn new Trek has taken has a hard job erasing the original series' legacy, as there are still some dollars to be extracted from the nostalgia for those bygone, halcyon days of TOS (The Original Series in Trekspeak), of inclusion and celebration of human decency over disgusting, primitive violence and hatred of Others.

Thirty years ago, this book stood out. Nowadays, it's a bloody unicorn. See my review of They Called Us Enemy for the expanded and more self-focused story of Takei's childhood experiences with US racism and exclusion.

This is the story of Takei the man, the actor, the ground-breaking Asian role model. What it isn't, to the moaning of superfans of TOS, is a gossipy tea-spilling tell-all about the shenanigans behind the scenes of TOS. I was mildly miffed by this on my 1990s read; but this is a re-read, and it's been an entire generation for news to have filtered out about this fact, so no pearl-clutching from me.

Takei does not shy away from discussing his on-set conflicts with Shatner, of course, because they're part of his ground-breaking for actors who aren't white. He stood up for the integrity of his vision of Sulu. That would've been unthinkable even ten years earlier. Better contracts for actors! Imagine! The entertainment industry, like all capitalist enterprises, demands workers sacrifice for the profits of the owners. Takei stood against that; his actions might be small, but they were in concert with others, and had a real impact on the well-being of those across the industry who were also not white.

I mostly reveled, if I'm honest, in the opportunity to hear Takei's voice in my head as I read his conversational writing style. Of course, in the 1990s, the conversation didn't include even a whisper of his now-public gayness. He came out when the legalization of "gay marriage" was vetoed by Arnie the Terminator; around the was when Proposition 8 began being mooted. Never think, babyqueers, that straight people are your friends. Anything "granted" to you by their charity is something they can, and will, take away. May take them a long time, may take them a week, but anything they can take away they will eventually.

Would his very open (in fandom, anyway) secret have caused a stir had he discussed it in 1994? You bet! Remember how very different the landscape was then: AIDS was still a death sentence, though it was now deferrable to those who could afford the meds. There was the travesty of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" that the inexperience and indifference of the Clintons gifted us with wreaking havoc; also the indefensible "Defense of Marriage" Act. The social landscape was not such that the revelation to the normies that George was a big ol' 'mo would've done more good than harm...to the book, to the franchise, to his inclusion in the Star Trek/industrial complex of convention appearances and tat-sales.

I understood that then, I'm more clear than ever about it now, and I urge those unhappy with this decision made by a stranger they do not know personally to accept a perspective check from one who was there, who knew that landscape intimately.

He had our backs when the chips were down and his voice really counted. Let go of judgment, let the past be the past, accept that now things are different in part because of a brave man who's lost it all more than once in his life.

WILD FOR AUSTEN: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane, excellent self-gifted read

WILD FOR AUSTEN: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane
DEVONEY LOOSER
St. Martin's Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$15.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Incisive, funny, and deeply-researched insights into the life, writing, and legacy of Jane Austen, by the preeminent scholar Devoney Looser.

Thieves! Spies! Abolitionists! Ghosts! If we ever truly believed Jane Austen to be a quiet spinster, scholar Devoney Looser puts that myth to rest at last in Wild for Austen. These, and many other events and characters, come to life throughout this rollicking book. Austen, we learn, was far wilder in her time than we’ve given her credit for, and Looser traces the fascinating and fantastical journey her legacy has taken over the past 250 years.

All six of Austen’s completed novels are examined here, and Looser uncovers striking new gems therein, as well as in Austen’s juvenilia, unfinished fiction, and even essays and poetry. Looser also takes on entirely new scholarship, writing about Austen’s relationship to the abolitionist movement and women’s suffrage. In examining the legacy of Austen’s works, Looser reveals the film adaptations that might have changed Hollywood history had they come to fruition, and tells extraordinary stories of ghost-sightings, Austen novels used as evidence in courts of law, and the eclectic members of the Austen extended family whose own outrageous lives seem wilder than fiction.

Written with warmth, humor, and remarkable details never before published, Wild for Austen is the ultimate tribute to Jane Austen.

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My Review: Over eleven hundred endnotes.

One thousand one hundred plus end notes.

I was very very shocked to see this in its glory inside a non-academic book, albeit one by an academic who has spent her career toiling in Austen's vineyard. It's clear from reading this work that Author Looser thinks about Austen very much in a framework. An academic, analytical approach to what I can only describe as a wildly partisan, excitedly appreciative paean to Austen for her 250th birthday (tomorrow as I post this review).

I was very entertained by the discussion of Austen's work in "Wild Writings" because I'm not an Austenite. There are so many reasons for that...I'm male, and men come off very poorly indeed, is not one. Most come down to the absence of my chemistry response going ping the way it does with Eliot or Trollope or Anna Katharine Green. It's weird, but there it is, and reading Author Looser's warbles of rapture makes me feel vicariously the heights of appreciation my more muted pleasure won't reach.

In the second section, I switched on fully, thoroughly enjoying Austen's fascinating family relations. It's a section very aptly titled "Fierce Family Ties." Fierce is a good descriptor! Abolitionists, suffragists (not the later versions, but advocating for general male enfranchisement), progressives of all stripes...Jane Austen, lady novelist, also had lady novelist cousins...no matter where one looks, one finds her situated amid those who want to change the status quo for what looks to my twenty-first century eyes like the better.

Part three is Jane's afterlife, her posthumous career as an ikon. Here I felt uninvolved,uninspired...it took me two weeks to read this section because y'all superfans, well, when I don't share an obsession it's hard to work up enthusiasm for it. It was informative but not about something I care to learn about. That's the missing half-star explained.

I'd recommend this read to the holiday-weary Austenite because it really situates y'all in a cultural mainstream that's brought huge joy to the world. Could anything be more apt for a self-gifted read?

TAYLOR SWIFT: Album by Album, a Swiftie's dream book

TAYLOR SWIFT: Album by Album
Kase Wickman & Joanna Weiss & Moira McAvoy
Motorbooks International (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$30.00 all editions, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Taylor Swift: Album by Album follows the megastar from her roots as a country artist to her transition into pop and finally into the cultural phenomenon touring today, covering both her music and her extraordinary life. If you’re a passionate Swiftie who wants to know EVERYTHING about your favorite icon—especially her music—this luxuriously illustrated deep dive should take center stage.

Featuring fresh insights from all eleven studio albums—from Taylor Swift to The Tortured Poets Department—Taylor Swift: Album by Album mines her life, lyrics, and music like nothing else before it. This book also features several chapters on all the Taylor’s Version albums released to date, with panel discussions from noted Swift scholars accompanied by vibrant photography that captures Swift in each and every era, from an aspiring country musician to the dominant global force she is today.

Swift’s artistry, awards, and accolades are hard to encompass, from the youngest artist with a No. 1 song on the Hot Country chart to the first recipient of Billboard’s Woman of the Decade award. Swifties will find that and more inside, including:

Fresh insight into her lyrics, life, and loves from her earliest days as a recording artist

Tons of sidebars that explore her influences, lyrical references, musical knowledge, and more

Details on album personnel, special guests, awards, and tours

A special section on the Taylor’s Version albums that explains how they came about and why they matter to Taylor and scores of Swifties everywhere

Taylor Swift: Album by Album is more than just pretty pictures; it’s a door into how and why this talented musician continues to inspire fans around the world. Young or old, OG or new Swiftie, this book has it all.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Honestly, I wonder why I'm bothering to help awareness of anything to do with Taylor Swift...her fandom knows about this book, and likely has bought a copy the second Quarto announced it.

I'm aware of two Swiftie wannabes here in my building full of old people. You know someone on the Swiftie spectrum, unless you only interact with religious groups that prohibit contact with popular culture. (In which case, how are you online? you naughty thing!)

So,well, enjoy some Swiftieness on me:

If you're wondering what the fuss is about, this is not the book to pick up. This cultural phenomenon is not dissected but celebrated in these images and snippets of anecdotal, or analytical opinion, extant conversations.

If you're not a Swiftie I can't see this exciting you. If you love a Swiftie, be sure they don't already have one before purchasing. If they don't, odds are excellent they will love this demonstration of your awareness of their devotion.

The fashion *is* fun to gawk at....

WILLIE NELSON: All the Albums, astounding record of US pop culture, 1962 until today

WILLIE NELSON: All the Albums
GEOFFREY HIMES
Motorbooks International (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$40.00 all editions, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Willie Nelson: All the Albums is a sprawling career retrospective of an American treasure, viewed through his 100-plus solo and collaborative albums. Journey through Willie Nelson’s rebellious, prolific, and enduring career with this richly illustrated tour of the beloved singer-songwriter’s 100-plus albums.

Few musicians or celebrities are as widely adored as Willie Nelson. The legendary Texas singer-songwriter is still recording and performing music well into his nineties. In this photo-filled coffee-table gift book, noted country/roots/Americana music writer Geoffrey Himes traces Nelson’s entire career through the lens of his albums, examining:

Nelson’s influences and early career as a songwriter

The circumstances of each album’s writing and recording

Studio musicians and personnel

How each album fit into Nelson’s career arc and the evolution of his craft

In addition, Himes offers a sidebar for each album that includes:

An image of the album sleeve

Recording and release dates

Single releases

Chart positions for singles and albums

Along the way, read about Nelson’s film roles, notable collaborators, famous Fourth of July picnics, iconic Martin guitar “Trigger,” and involvement in causes like Farm Aid, biodiesel fuels, and marijuana legalization.

The text, together with more than 250 images of Nelson on- and offstage, make for a unique and visually entertaining celebration of an American treasure who has transcended America’s increasing polarization to become a national treasure.

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My Review: Well, you know who 92-year-old Willie Nelson is, or you're not from the US. Everything in this book is meant to tie in to one of his astounding discography.

Think about this man's life a minute. Born in the worldwide Great Depression of 1929-1939, a midlist country studio musician until moving home to Texas and returning to mostly performing instead of mostly recording, falling into fame by being his loudmouth, abrasive-to-authority self in the next fifteen years...struck down by the IRS mid-fame, but even that turned into huge success. All during his carrer he's penned the hits time and time again.

on the road again

early days

himself today

All that life...all that living. And we have spent our lives during his. Sometimes knowing and hearing about him, other times not so much (unless you've lived in Austin any time after 1972). There are not that many people, let alone entertainers, who can say as much. Dick van Dyke springs to mind, one hundred this year. But...well...anyone else?

There are lots and lots of photos, facts, and details in this book. They're designed to delight the fan, not make converts. The music needs to do that lift. We can revel in them, should we be fans; or we can gift the book with so many of them to one who will. I doubt many of us have to hunt far to find a Willie Nelson fan.

It's prime time for gifting goodies...this one will be a hit, tree book or ebook.

AIN'T NOBODY'S FOOL: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton, a fine book about an amazing woman

AIN'T NOBODY'S FOOL: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton
MARTHA ACKMANN
St. Martin's Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$15.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: A larger-than-life new biography of country music legend and philanthropist Dolly Parton.

In Ain't Nobody's Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton, Martha Ackmann chronicles the life of an American Original. From her impoverished childhood in the Smoky Mountains to international stardom as a singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman, and philanthropist, Dolly Parton has exceeded everyone's expectations except her own. During a time when the Beatles set the standard for contemporary music, Dolly appeared on a local country music television show that her high school classmates thought was pure cornpone. The day after her high school graduation, she boarded a bus for Nashville, but record executives turned her down. One said her voice sounded like a screech owl.

When Dolly finally got her foot in the door, her talent and focus catapulted her to the top of country charts, the pop world, and movie stardom. Yet her success came at a price. Shunned by many in Nashville who saw her ambition as a betrayal of her country music roots, Dolly became the target of death threats, lawsuits, and a judge who threatened to throw her in jail. She nearly collapsed on-stage and later succumbed to depression that pushed her to the brink, but she refused to be counted out and came back stronger than ever developing Dollywood, the amusement park that became the economic engine of East Tennessee, and founding the Imagination Library that provides free books to children around the world. Her philanthropy to health organizations led to creation of the Moderna COVID vaccine. And, finally, she returned to her roots, recording bluegrass albums that became the most celebrated of her unparalleled 60-year career.

Ain't Nobody's Fool is a deep dive into the social, historical, and personal forces that made Dolly Parton one of the most beloved and unifying figures in public life and includes interviews with friends, family members, school mates, Nashville neighbors, members of her band, studio musicians, producers, and many others. It also features never before seen photographs and unearthed documents shedding light on her family's hardscrabble life. More than anything, Martha Ackmann's fresh and animated new book proves Dolly Parton knows just who she is and she ain't nobody's fool.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Author Ackmann, she of The Mercury 13, knows how to present the stories of women in powerful positions without triumphalizing or trivializing their struggles, obstacles, and successes. Miss Dolly deserves no better biographer.

As a longtime fan of the woman, and one who came to appreciate her musical talents despite not much liking the genre she's performed in for decades, I enjoyed my time spent here. It was a lot like renewing my acquaintance with someone once dear who's been out of touch. A couple years ago I reviewed an illustrated book about her career, DOLLY PARTON: 100 Remarkable Moments in an Extraordinary Life, with a similar degree of pleasure.

What I most enjoy about reading the life and times of Miss Dolly in this book is the context, the societal setting of her triumphs and her struggles. The way the book is written is to offer a fan a history lesson sweetened by a favorite celebrity's life experiences. This is, to me, a strength...I'm alway interested in why and how before what. The greatest stregth of the read is the very clear-eyed assessment of the whys and hows...overcoming misogyny to make a huge mark in the music and entertainment industry, overcoming depression and isolation to turn notoriety into lasting fame...all while using her celebrity to serve, to help, to lift others higher than they could have reached on their own.

It is inspiring, humbling, enlightening.

What an ordinary person would've done when faced with those obstacles is...surrender, collapse, give up. It's a mark of Miss Dolly's indomitable spirit and drive that she collapsed but rebounded; failed but got up to do it again, only better; got rejected, but went where she was wanted, instead of curling up in a ball and crying until the cows came home. It's not luck alone that makes someone successful, and this book makes that so very clear you can see it from space.

As a biographer of a living person Author Ackmann took full advantage of the mountains and mountains of information our modern age makes available. The notes are copious, but you can ignore them if you like. I myownself was delighted to see them because the force of nature that is Miss Dolly deserves all the ink spilled on her doings in television production, literacy programs, the music and theme-park industries...the list is impressive.

What you won't get in this work is celebri-tea. There's nothing breathlessly revealed, no salacious little gossipy nuggets. This is a biography about a very serious, focused, driven person whose successes span more than sixty years and counting.

It is respectful. That is refreshing, warranted, and welcome.

I left the read more uplifted than entertained. Again, to me, a feature not a bug. i think it's a great Yule gift for your Dolly fan, for anyone who feels ground down and needs uplift without treacle, for someone who admires women's success stories.

Pretty much anybody not into toxic masculinity, then.

TURNING TO BIRDS: The Power and Beauty of Noticing, inspiring readers to mindfulness practice

TURNING TO BIRDS: The Power and Beauty of Noticing
LILI TAYLOR
Crown Publishing (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$1.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

A LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF 2025

The Publisher Says: Accessible essays about searching for peace in the cacophony of birds and discovering a world of meaning in small moments—from award-winning actress Lili Taylor.

Most people don’t really know birds—or rather, they aren’t aware of them. Lili Taylor used to be one of those people. She knew birds existed. She thought about them, maybe even more than the average person. But she didn’t know them. And then something happened.

During a break from her work as an actor, Lili sought silence and instead found the bustling, symphonic world of birds that had always existed around her. Since then, she has kept a keen eye pressed to her binoculars in search of vivid stories that elevate the everyday, if only one pays attention.

Through a series of beautifully crafted essays, Taylor shares her intimate encounters with the birds that have captured her heart and imagination—from tracking flitting Zorros through oak trees to spotting majestic Bluejays perched on a Manhattan fire escape; from the exhilaration of chasing a migratory flock up the Empire State Building to the quiet joy of observing a nest of hatchlings in her own backyard.Through simply paying attention to birds, Lili has been shown a parallel world that is wider and deeper, one of constant change and movement, full of life and the will to survive.

This book is part-memoir, part-love letter to the beauty and resilience of the natural world—a reminder of the profound connections that exist between all living things. Taylor's lyrical prose and thoughtful meditations on both the art we make and the art we discover around us create a sense of intimacy and wonder, inviting readers to see the world through new eyes and to find joy in the most unexpected places.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Essays are tricky to recommend...they depend so much on how something is said, but possibly even more on who's saying it; never, of course, forgetting the all-important what the essays are about. These essays succeed, for this reader, at least in part because Author Taylor is an indie-film darling with a very clear body of work behind her, thus has solid credibility; and also stays busy by acting in shows like Outer Range and the Lincoln's assassination series Manhunt as Mrs. Lincoln.

In the midst of that, and raising a child, she's been active in conservation organizations like the Audubon Society...her work for them, her work life, her busy-ness, led her to seek time to spend enjoying the natural world she was working to protect.

Birding offered a way to do that while still working. Bird census, anyone? This collection is clearly by a deeply committed person, one with a lot of integrity, who does not simply sit and wait for things to change but stands up and gets into the fray.

The humor, the anecdotes, offer her acting-life fans the little jolts of familiarity that make books by celebrities so appealing. Those who came for the Mystic Pizza or the I Shot Andy Warhol girl will feel satisfied catching up to her; those who love her TV work will too. Both can get their fixes with a side of gentle encouragement to seek solace in the unhuman world we exist inside but so seldom look around at. The birding is a joy to her, it feels as though she's telling us her secret to long life abnd happiness (she's younger than I am, so I hope it works but won't be around to find out).

A novice birder's delight; a celebrity-follower's browsing garden; an example of how to be multifaceted in a world that would prefer you do one thing and shut up about everything else. What it isn't is a how-to, or a guide to the world of birding. It's meditating on the benefits of time in nature, not giving a how-to. Organizing the book by species watched with the whys and the hows of that moment in her life made me feel I was along with her...woodcocks, bluebirds, those awful house sparrows...and what happened while she was doing the watching...well, it worked for me.

As a reminder to seek a mindfulness practice, all five stars; as a birding book, four and three-quarters...but as a celebrity tell-all, three stars. Hence my weighted average of four and a half stars and a smile.

STARDUST BY THE BUSHEL: Hollywood on the Chesapeake Bay's Eastern Shore, film and actor anecdotes aplenty

STARDUST BY THE BUSHEL: Hollywood on the Chesapeake Bay's Eastern Shore
BRENT LEWIS
Secant Publishing (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$8.99 Kindle, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Hollywood on the Chesapeake Bay's Eastern Shore. One-hundred years of moviemaking on Delmarva, from Easton to Ocean City and Wilmington to Chincoteague. This is the first comprehensive history of the stars of stage and screen who called the Eastern Shore home during (or after) their lives...as well as major motion pictures produced on location here. Written with meticulous care and infectious joy by Brent Lewis, a tenth-generation Eastern Shoreman known for his mastery of regional history and lore.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: I'll admit it up fromt: I'm a sucker for tightly-focused histories of films, their stars, and the stories of their production. This book, then, is aimed at me.

This area, one of the longest colonized places on the continent, often plays host to individual productions or television series that benefit from the less-familiar-than-California landscape...and from tax benefits. Some actors from the area push for productions to go there.

the face of film noir, Robert Mitchum

Robert Mitchum spent a big part of his youth in Delaware, because his grandparents took on raising him when his mother had had enough. Apparently he was not acting too much in his mean-bastard roles.

Affection for the area persisted in him. It seems to cast quite a spell, does Delmarva!

A native to the area is Linda Harrison, Sixties and Seventies beauty of some renown who played Nova in the science-fiction film classic Planet of the Apes most famously.

her talents were on display

After being cast in one of the defining blockbuster films of the Sixties, Harrison has spent years coming to terms with that specific type of fame; she's returned to her Maryland hometown, moved back to open a business. Now she is active on the convention scene that celebrates the Planet of the Apes franchise. She only appeared in the first and second films, yet the fans still love and embrace her in the con scene. Not a bad career!

Films that've made the area part of their background include Harriet, starring the luminous Cynthia Erivo in an Oscar-nominated star turn:

the film was less famous than it should've been

Tubman was born on a Eastern Shore plantation so the area figures prominently in the film. Production included locations all over the area. There are two National Historical Parks in the area dedicated to Tubman and her legacy.

An enjoyable book, one I never had to talk myself into returning to; and one that a film fancying giftee with a taste for anecdotes will batten on.

OUR JACKIE: Public Claims on a Private Life, stealth take-down of modern celebrity culture by looking deeply into its past

OUR JACKIE: Public Claims on a Private Life
KAREN M. DUNAK
NYU Press (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$30.00 ebook edition, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Tells the story of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis through her evolving public persona, from campaign wife to First Lady to fallen idol to treasured national icon

When Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis became First Lady of the United States over sixty years ago, she stepped into the public spotlight. Although Jackie is perhaps best known for her two highly-publicized marriages, her legacy has endured beyond twentieth-century pop culture and she remains an object of public fascination today.Drawing on a range of sources—from articles penned for the women’s pages of local newspapers, to esteemed national periodicals, to fan magazines and film—Our Jackie evaluates how media coverage of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis changed over the course of her very public life. Jackie’s interactions with and framing by the American media reflect the changing attitudes toward American womanhood.

Over the course of four decades, Jackie was alternatively praised for her service to others, and pilloried for her perceived self-interest. In Our Jackie, Karen M. Dunak argues that whether she was portrayed as a campaign wife, a loyal widow, a selfish jetsetter, or a mature career woman, the history of Jackie’s highly publicized life demonstrates the ways in which news, entertainment, politics, and celebrity evolved and intertwined over the second half of the twentieth century.

Examining the intimate chronicles of this famous First Lady’s life, Our Jackie suggests that media coverage of this enigmatic public figure revealed as much about the prevailing views of women in America– how they should behave and whom they should serve– as it did about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as an individual.

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My Review: How ghastly it must be to be famous. Nothing, not even your underwear preferences, is personal and private. Mrs. Kennedy was the first media celeb to experience this in the television age...though TV was most assuredly not the worst offender in depriving this upper-class woman of her private life (looking at you, recently-twitching corpse of The Saturday Evening Post).

The fact is, we never knew the elegant, cultured woman, comfortable in her own skin, that wore masks to keep the hoi polloi from knowing how very much of the haut ton she was. And the best thing about it all is, she knew what she was doing. She was a very careful curator of her, and her family's, image. She was a participant in this game, and a victim of it; the ways she worked to contain the access of an intrusive forcee of curiosity onto her private life were defensive, effective, and after a certain learning curve, collaborative.

Author Dunak has gone into what feels like every archive of 1960s media there is to find the scraps and bits that illuminate American ideas about this icon of our culture. I'm deeply impressed at the sources! It seems the author has synthesized the opinions of the entire spectrum of the US media landscape...what a grisly task that'd be, thank all the goddesses she didn't have social media to grapple with!...into several archetypes of sorts. Mrs. Kennedy as Grieving Widow-in-Chief. Jackie O. as selfish traitor who abandoned her country to run away with an ugly old rich Greek guy. Jackie Kennedy as aspirational American homemaker-cum-style icon. JKO, the book editor at Viking...until they published a book about the Kennedys that was a hatchet job, when she moved to Doubleday...the erudite, late-life Career Woman. None of them was the woman herself, though that's outside the scope of this book. We have here a chance to grapple with the essential issue of celebrity culture: These are people, and we as consumer-celebrity units, treat them as property. Our responses of pleasure, when the icons are well-behaved, to outrage when we think they are not, is not new, though the outrageous extreme of cancel culture is worse now than in, say, Ingrid Bergman's day, but it's still not new.

Author Dunak offers us a thorough and deftly presented categorization and analysis of this strain in US popular culture. It affords the reader the clarity in distance to think about the ways in which we individually play along with, support, and/or amplify the idea that we "own" those we admire. We're asserting control over women, particularly, but in fact over all those who dare to be tall poppies in our field of vision.

It was a sobering take-away but one that felt omnipresent if never shouted at me by Author Dunak.

It's not quite a five-star read, as it is definitely academic if more accessibly so than most.

MARILYN MONROE: A Photographic Life, a tabloid star's life and legacy...in beautiful photos

MARILYN MONROE: A Photographic Life
JENNA GLATZER
Chartwell Books
$29.95 hardcover, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: The camera loved Marilyn, and she loved it right back. In this luxurious volume, get to know the enigmatic star through iconic and rare photos, intimate stories, and removable memorabilia.

Everyone knows the classic photographs of Marilyn Monroe: in the dress she wore to John F. Kennedy’s birthday, or leaning out of a balcony over the streets of New York City, or famously standing over the subway grates while shooting The Seven Year Itch. Behind the glamour, we’ve also heard the sad stories: her mother’s institutionalization, her three failed marriages, her own struggles with mental health, her surprising death that still leaves us with questions.

Marilyn Monroe: A Photographic Life delves into the life of the star—before, during, and after she became a “Blonde Bombshell.” Born Norma Jeane Mortenson (the Baker came later), she had a troubled childhood that culminated in her self-described “inferiority complex.” But all the while, she dreamed of something more.

Read the stories behind her first marriage (and why she kept it secret when she started modeling), her early roles with the studios (and the one exec who thought she didn’t have “it”), and her life as a budding actress that include humble anecdotes (at one point, she was so poor that she and a roommate shared one pair of high heels—and whoever had a date that night got to wear them).

Along with the stories are fabulous rare photographs and reproductions of frameable memorabilia, such as:

Birth and marriage certificates

Handwritten letters

Certificate of conversion to Judaism before her marriage to Arthur Miller

Screen Actors Guild membership card

Picture of Marilyn sketched by Jane Russell

Watercolor Marilyn painted for JFK

Childhood photos

Shots and ads from her earliest modeling days

Wedding photos

Images of those who knew her, including Groucho Marx, Ella Fitzgerald, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and so many more Marilyn’s favorite image of herself, taken in 1956

Further chapters cover Marilyn’s marriages to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, her time in England and New York, and her rise as one of Hollywood’s most sought after starlets. Through it all—the self doubts, the illnesses, the isolation—we see Marilyn triumph with the help of friends and confidantes and her own tenacious will of knowing what she wanted.

We see time and again the depths of Marilyn’s heart and her capacity to care for others. “I want to love and be loved more than anything else in the world,” she once said, and with Marilyn Monroe: A Photographic Life, you can’t help but oblige.

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My Review: I suppose the day will come that Marilyn Monroe is forgotten.

Standards of beauty have changed several times since these were taken, printed, and lusted over by young hormone factories of all genders. The zaftig lady here was out of step with 1980s and 1990s heroin chic, the bleached blonde bouffant out of step with the 1960s Cher-hair...string-straight, natural color...and the kittenish coy look makes modern feminists furious.

Yet we ALL know who this is.

Not so this kid:

...more so this young woman, but not with great confidence:

...which all goes to show you that the thing we see in photos of "Movie Star Marilyn Monroe" is a curated, designed image to project a fantasy of a person that did not...could not...exist outside a studio camera.

It took a lot of effort, and a lot of energy, to maintain this avatar in place of a real person with real needs. The book is careful and respectful of the star's actual personhood and doesn't ignore her enormous price paid in service of the stardom that ate her from the inside.

Whatever standard of beauty one uses, the person Marilyn Monroe was commands the respect of us all for her diligence and her great stregth in building and maintaining a career out of an unpromising start in life. Tragic endings have a way of burnishing a halo on someone. I think this photo essay both shines that halo up a bit for the twenty-first century, and shows the costs of celebrity sought as a career to new audiences.

Plus it's a great way to have a nostalgia-fest! Right, fellow Boomers?