PRESTIGE DRAMA, debut novel from a stellar storyteller

PRESTIGE DRAMA
SÉMAS O'REILLY
Grand Central Publishing (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$14.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Derry is already abuzz with news that famous American actor, Monica Logue, has flown to the city and will be starring in a new series set during the Troubles. And then she goes missing...

All eyes are on Diarmuid, the flaky scriptwriter who was the last to see Monica alive. From budding young actors hoping for a role to grieving parent whose story forms the backbone of the narrative; newspaper editors covering the mystery to taxi drivers hearing all the news from their clients, The Dogs in the Street follows the city's cast as they all try to locate themselves in Monica's disappearance.

Séamas O'Reilly's debut novel is a comedy about dramatising tragedy, and the responsibilities of a teller to a tale. It brings to life the voices of a city, the people, families and communities who find themselves obsessed with, and terrified of, interrogating their past.

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

My Review: Author of the poignant, hilarious memoir Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? delivers a novel of The Troubles™...this seems to be a rite of passage for Irish writers born after 1950...via a lens I found mostly successful. A TV production hub in factual reality, Northern Ireland was a violent and terrifying place not that long ago. A multi-part limited series being made there is a welcome boost to the economy, and to the good image the country badly needs to project into the world.

But a film being made about The Troubles™ is a different proposition altogether. That topic is quite sensitive. So when Monica Logue starts researching her starring role in this prestige drama, the mere act of talking to people about the past..."How do you talk about the past as a person still living it, in a place that barely survived it?" the author has a character muse...sets off explosions of the same emotions that threatened to destroy the societal fabric of the place. Is it any wonder she just vanishes? The real question is "how." Did she run away from threats and intimidation, was she kidnapped by people she frightened with her research, was this another ugly political assassination to silence a voice digging in dirt some powerful people buried bodies in?

A very short read of under 200pp ought not to offer satisfying conclusions to these questions, that's just too little space. "Hold my beer" says Author Séamas, and delivers a series of tight storytelling-heavy chapters from multiple points of view. The only one you see more than once is, unsurprisingly, Diarmuid the writer of the television series. Each of them flows into the next, not always seamlessly, but that did not jar me out of the narrative flow. All the chapters are, as mentioned, storytelling-heavy...focused on making your idea of what's happening in that moment illuminate the journey to the resolution of the plot.

As a debut novel, this is the cream of the crop. Author Séamas is an experienced storyteller, his writing-craft chops are well-exercised from prior work done. In the places I was less that ecstatic, it was down to my feelings about the choice he made to have the novel mirror a screenplay in its tightness, its use of the delightful discursiveness of his characters mainly in dialogue. I'd've enjoyed more "Irishness" throughout. I found his memoir so very delighful because it had observations expressed in the same voice as the dialogue. That, of course, works better in personal and factual contexts. It adds distance in that setting, allowing truly horrendously painful memories to be seen as past, not immediate and awful...which is why I found their relative absence odd here.

I'm in no way trying to put you off the read, please understand that. It was a delight, well mostly a delight to learn why Monica was treated as she was. I want the pleasures of this read to be the main take-away you have for this story. I have a minor few cavils, none of which made me think I should move on to the next DRC on the Kindle.

A debut novel from a stellar storyteller that's a treasure of time to read.

THE DIRECTOR, living life through extraordinary times demands a lot from an artist

THE DIRECTOR
DANIEL KEHLMANN (tr. Ross Benjamin)
Summit Books/S&S (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$14.99 ebook, available now

2026 International Booker Prize shortlistee!

Rating: 4.75* of five

The Publisher Says: An artist's life, a pact with the devil, a novel about the dangerous illusions of the silver screen.

G.W. Pabst, one of cinema’s greatest directors of the 20th century, was filming in France when the Nazis seized power. To escape the horrors of the new and unrecognizable Germany, he fled to Hollywood. But now, under the blinding California sun, the world-famous director suddenly looks like a nobody. Not even Greta Garbo, the Hollywood actress whom he made famous, can help him.

When he receives word that his elderly mother is ill, he finds himself back in his homeland of Austria, which is now called Ostmark. Pabst, his wife, and his young son are suddenly confronted with the barbaric nature of the regime. So, when Joseph Goebbels—the minister of propaganda in Berlin—sees the potential for using the European film icon for his directorial genius and makes big promises to Pabst and his family, Pabst must consider Goebbels’s thinly veiled order. While Pabst still believes that he will be able to resist these advances, that he will not submit to any dictatorship other than art, he has already taken the first steps into a hopeless entanglement.

Daniel Kehlmann's novel about art and power, beauty and barbarism is a triumph. The Director shows what literature is capable of.

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

My Review: Georg Wilhelm Pabst (25 August 1885 – 29 May 1967) lived an unlucky life. He was trapped in his native Europe for each of the World Wars fought there. His work...impressive stuff...is almost totally forgotten outside the small world of cinéastes. (Do you know anyone, apart from me, who's seen The Threepenny Opera and/or L'Atlantide?) We're treated here to a deep fictional dive into his inner workings. Given that he already knew Nazism was wrong, bad, and evil, and was trying to escape its miasma, his decision to collaborate with Goebbels in the propaganda machine seems inexcusable. In fact it was never forgiven. Not even his German-language film The Last Act (The Last Ten Days in English) bought him back his prior-to-collaboration esteem in spite of its honest treatment of Hitler's insanity at the end of the war.

What price security. It cost this security-seeker very dear. His only son was swallowed by the Hitler Youth because his father returned to see if he could care for his ailing mother. He is examined in this novel as only fiction is capable of examining an inner life. It's not the justifications and self-delusion that a memoir could bring to the table. It's the decisions he made writ plain and unadorned with the inevitable dishonesty of making excuses.

Director was, all in all, a strange profession. One was an artist, but created nothing, instead directing those who created something, arranging the work of others who, viewed in the cold light of day, were more capable than oneself. That was why so much was required before one could even start to work: writers, artists, composers needed only paper, at most paint, sculptors needed marble and a few tools, but a director needed a hundred people and a studio and machines and a great deal of electricity. All this had to be paid for, so he always also needed someone to entrust him with a lot of money. And that was why one only rarely made films, the rest of the time one talked to people and went out to lunch and wrote letters and gave lectures and tried to convince someone. And again and again one secretly wondered when all the people working on a film together would realize that they could do it without a director too, if only they agreed. Because the actors could certainly act on their own, the camera operator could easily film them, the architect could build a stage for them, and the editor could select and assemble the best footage afterward. But because everyone simply believed that a director was necessary, the whole thing was not undertaken without a director.

I don't think a man who could meet with and work for Nazis could've brought himself to conjure those honest, self-deprecating words.

I'm new to Kehlmann's work. This kind of spotlight is not flattering to its object. It can easily become a hatchet-job or hagiography; each is distorted and ultimately dishonest. In Author Kehlmann's choice of fictionalizing events and people very close to precisely aligned with the historical record, he puts the dishonesty and ambiguity on whom it belongs: Pabst. It's just...disturbing, and in a way a biography, a memoir would not be because Author Kehlmann clearly knows the facts and has an opinion yet makes us, the audience, take in our responses without the comfort of distancing our responses.

Would any one of the readers of this book behaved differently than Pabst? The fictional framing strips away the fig-leaf of "objectivity" so we must sit in the decisive moments with Pabst. Are you sure your illusion of yourself as a resister is accurate? Are you sure your judgment of what you'll need to give up is accurate? Are you sure you can be in, but not of, the system you scorn and abhor?

Translator Ross Benjamin did a good enough job rendering the read into English that I was a bit surprised to realize it was a translation. That is, to me, a very high compliment, or intended as one at least. It is a feat of writing to fictionalize someone who's famous (if you know who he is) in the light that emphasizes who he was; an equal feat to take that unusual choice to a very high level of craft in a different language. Kudos to both artists for a job well done.

Why, if I'm praising this work so highly and with such fervor, am I not offering all five stars? Because at no time was I transported into a different awareness, a space of timeless immanence such as I was by Evil Genius or The Remembered Soldier. It's all too rare, that removal from mundanity, so this is not a knock on the quality of the read. I'm impressed and I'm edified and I'm involved by this novel. It's at the top of the literary heap. It deserves its International Booker nomination. I'm not going to put in my pantheon but I'm going to urge it on you as a fascinating, timely, well-crafted story.

THE WORLDS OF HAYAO MIYAZAKI: The Influences and Inspiration Behind the Iconic Films

THE WORLDS OF HAYAO MIYAZAKI: The Influences and Inspiration Behind the Iconic Films
NICOLAS RAPOLD
Frances Lincoln Ltd (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$35.00 all editions, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: An in-depth collection of the rich influences and sources of inspiration behind one of animated cinema’s all-time greats, and Japanese cinema’s most popular cultural export. Explore the inspirations behind the work of the legendary Hayao Miyazaki, one of animated cinema’s all-time great creators.

Often called the godfather of animation, Miyazaki is able to imagine and populate worlds like no other director or animator. His films, from My Neighbour Totoro to the Oscar-winning Spirited Away and The Boy and The Heron, are deeply original, each conjuring up their own complete and entrancing version of reality.

This book journeys through the rich mix of cultural, historical and artistic influences that shape Miyazaki’s storytelling. From Japanese folklore and childhood memories to architecture, classic cinema, literature and political commentary, it reveals how Miyazaki’s deeply personal vision creates layered worlds that somehow feel both fantastical and grounded in truth.

With insight into his process, visual language and recurring themes—including nature, flight, girlhood, resistance and renewal —The Worlds of Hayao Miyazaki offers fans and film lovers a deeper understanding of the imagination behind the magic.

A celebration of creative freedom, storytelling without limits, and the enduring power of animation.

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

My Review: If you are not a Miyazaki fan already, this book could make you one. (But seriously, how can anyone not be a fan after seeing Spirited Away?) I'm willing to bet most all of us have at least one film fan, animation fan, Japanese-culture maven, in our gifting circle. Any of them will appreciate this beauty.

what we'll see on the journey

I'm sure we're all aware of animation's tremendous popularity. A safe bet to give a teen giftee is this lovely, immersive story of how the art of Miyazaki sprang from th art Miyazaki has seen and spoken lovingly about.

The publisher doesn't offer lots of spreads for publicity, understandably, but there are some lovely ones to take a look at:

It's great value for money spent, assuming you opt for the tree book version; the ebookmis a bit cranky and not as fluidly designed.

A very exciting gift to get, and one you'll be thanked for in longer terms than most gifts.

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.

JAYNE MANSFIELD: The Girl Couldn't Help It, massive research, pretty pictures to sweeten the deal

JAYNE MANSFIELD: The Girl Couldn't Help It
EVE GOLDEN
University Press of Kentucky (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$34.95 all editions, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Jayne Mansfield (1933–1967) was driven not just to be an actress but to be a star. One of the most influential sex symbols of her time, she was known for her platinum blonde hair, hourglass figure, outrageously low necklines, and flamboyant lifestyle.

Hardworking and ambitious, Mansfield proved early in her career that she was adept in both comic and dramatic roles, but her tenacious search for the spotlight and her risqué promotional stunts caused her to be increasingly snubbed in Hollywood.

In the first definitive biography of Mansfield, Eve Golden offers a joyful account of the star Andy Warhol called "the poet of publicity," revealing the smart, determined woman behind the persona. While she always had her sights set on the silver screen, Mansfield got her start as Rita Marlowe in the Broadway show Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?. She made her film debut in the low-budget drama Female Jungle (1955) before landing the starring role in The Girl Can't Help It (1956). Mansfield followed this success with a dramatic role in The Wayward Bus (1957), winning a Golden Globe for New Star of the Year, and starred alongside Cary Grant in Kiss Them for Me (1957). Despite her popularity, her appearance as the first celebrity in Playboy and her nude scene in Promises! Promises! (1963) cemented her reputation as an outsider.

By the 1960s, Mansfield's film career had declined, but she remained very popular with the public. She capitalized on that popularity through in-person and TV appearances, nightclub appearances, and stage productions. Her larger-than-life life ended sadly when she passed away at age thirty-four in a car accident.

Golden looks beyond Mansfield's flashy public image and tragic death to fully explore her life and legacy. She discusses Mansfield's childhood, her many loves—including her famous on-again, off-again relationship with Miklós "Mickey" Hargitay—her struggles with alcohol, and her sometimes tumultuous family relationships. She also considers Mansfield's enduring contributions to American popular culture and celebrity culture. This funny, engaging biography offers a nuanced portrait of a fascinating woman who loved every minute of life and lived each one to the fullest.

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

My Review: I was a young boy when Jayne Mansfield died. It was stunning how insensitive the chatter around the tragedy was...my mother vocally disapproved of the demeaning way she was talked about as a "sex kitten" and bringing up her nude photos and scenes. I've been interested in her ever since, as my judgmental mother was *defending* her, so something had to be interesting about her.

the most famous photo...Sophia Loren disapproves

More interested in being a star than an actress, the lady was quite a handful as a person—ramping up the public persona that would've made her zillions in the Aughties, fighting, undressing, taking risqué to its apotheosis in the days when Marilyn Monroe, Diana Dors, and she were working the blonde bombshell vein in the publicity mine.

how she made her millions

Like those ladies, Jayne Mansfield was an intelligent, troubled person with a hot ambitious streak in her that her face and body were able to fuel. She never hesitated to use her sex appeal...and sex...to get her name in front of the public. It worked; she was famous.

Mickey and Jayne in mid-act

She was not respected, as no woman in that era was really respected; but certainly no frankly, openly sexual anyone, still less a woman, was going to be highly regarded in the film or television industry. Thus when fashions changed and gamines became The Next Thing, she had no baseline of support in the industry she'd made so much money for.

Las Vegas was ready for her

Turbulent, addiction-haunted personal lives were, are, always have been back into pop-culture history all too common among the famous. Jayne Mansfield was no different than so many others with messy personal lives. She did seem to get married a lot and ended up with five children born between 1950 and 1965.

the family side

The terrible tragedy of a life cut so very short is that her potential, her development, her impact on the world is frozen at a moment; not a moment I suspect, reading about her in this book, she would have stayed in forever. Author Golden has come in for criticism in her supposed inaccurate information about what, when I poked into it a little bit, looked to me like pretty insignificant dates and details about trifles. Looking at the notes...all fiftyish pages of 'em!...Author Golden *lived* in newspaper archives for a good while. Where the issue seems to arise is in the slightly too-prominent tone of disapproval some have seen in the text. It did not feel moralizing to me. I was more interested in the trajectory of a proto-Kardashian sibling.

either of these could have Kim Kardashian in them and be the same publicity campaign

When Yule gifting is the point, the life and times of bygone stars make very instructive reading. We're in fame hyperdrive thanks to a level of mass communication unknown in Jayne Mansfield's life, but the exploitive outlines are still there. Your budding feminist film scholar might enjoy seeing how we got where we are; your brodawg cousin might just like seventy-plus pictures of Jayne Mansfield. The Fifties and Sixties exert fascination that will peak in the late 20s and early 30s as the TCM crowd starts watching the silly innocent farcically "naughty" work of the era. A book like this will please those audiences.

She might not have received the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, but this family is very much a testament to the fact she did something right.

ONE DEATH AT A TIME is fun and often enough funny...about alcoholism, fame, and growing up

ONE DEATH AT A TIME
ABBI WAXMAN
Berkley Books (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$10.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: A cranky former actress teams up with her Gen Z sobriety sponsor to solve the murder that threatens to send her back to prison in this dazzling new mystery novel from the USA Today bestselling author of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill.

When Julia Mann, a bad-tempered ex-actress and professional thorn in the side of authority, runs into Natasha Mason at an AA meeting, it’s anything but a meet-cute. Julia just found a dead body in her swimming pool, and the cops say she did it (she already went to jail for murder once, so now they think she’s making a habit of it). Mason is eager to clear Julia’s name and help keep her sober, but all Julia wants is for Mason to leave her alone.

As their investigation ranges from the Hollywood Hills to the world of burlesque to the country clubs of Palm Springs, this unconventional team realizes their shared love of sarcasm and poor life choices are proving to be a powerful combination. Will secrets from their past trip them up, or will their team of showgirls, cat burglars, and Hollywood agents help them stay one step ahead? Are dead piranhas, false noses, and a giant martini glass important clues or simply your typical day in Los Angeles? And will they manage to solve the crime before they kill each other, or worse, fall off the wagon? Trying to keep it simple and take it easy is one thing—trying to find a murderer before they kill again is a whole other program.

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

My Review: Fun, funny buddy comedy set on the outskirts of that glam hotspot, Hollywood's movie industry. There's bad behavior from entitled jerks, there's a high-speed golf cart chase, there's a distinctly sapphic undertone to the leads' chemistry...there's a lot to enjoy, in other words.

Youthful impulsivity (Natasha quitting law school was the kind of stupid thing I'd've yelled at her for) and the darker side of alcohol abuse (blackouts are not new to Julia) are facets of this story. Adjusting to aging, launching a career, re-launching a career...all bantered over and really dealt with as Natasha and Julia are traipsing from pillar to post to figure out how the hell Tony, Julia's nasty ex-lover, ended up dead in her pool. Most of all, though, I was there to see how Julia would stay sober in a super high-stress world like moviemaking. Author Waxman dealt with Julia's very new sobriety and the underknown challenges the sobriety seeker faces staying on the wagon (low blood sugar is one of the most common traps for the unwary) honestly and forthrightly without didacticism.

This contrasts to the, um, shall we say heightened, tone and nature of the crime these women are united to solve. Everything about it is absurd. It's meant to be. This is the movie industry we're skewering. I'm not inclined to seek out these areas of comedy that often. I'm glad I did this time because, well, I needed a laugh that was more substantial than a romcom, had service to Ma'at and the Rightness of the world, and felt grounded enough in reality...you do not get more real that seeking sobriety...to give me a place to stand while I was craning my neck to follow the story's breakneck action.

I'm not even whelmed, still less overwhelmed, by the storytelling voice. It felt...flat...to me because it tried so hard. I'm a tough room, especially for comedy, because it is so difficult to convince me you mean it when you're being funny. This story fell only slightly short in my eyes, largely due to Natasha's dramatic unsuitability to the role of sponsor. Not that Julia would ever be someone to take real advantage of that relationship. She's not really built to listen to critique, only to hear criticism. Many an actor falls into that habit of hearing.

All that said, I'm impressed by the story's honest and unusually detailed dealings with alcohol addiction. I give it four stars for that, and for managing to make even cynical old mystery reader me pay attention to the sleuths' frenetic chasing after fairly obvious clues.

Author Waxman will get more of my dwindling supply of eyeblinks in future.

HORROR UNMASKED: A History of Terror from Nosferatu to Nope, great way to thrill your horror-movie fan

HORROR UNMASKED: A History of Terror from Nosferatu to Nope
BRAD WEISMANN
becker&mayer! books
$24.99 hardcover, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Horror Unmasked offers a general introduction to the popular film genre, serves as a guidebook to its film highlights, and celebrates its practitioners, trends, and stories.

From the silent-film era to the blockbusters of today, Horror Unmasked is a fun-filled, highly illustrated dive into the past influences and present popularity of the horror film genre.

The horror film’s pop-culture importance is undeniable, from its early influences to today’s most significant and exciting developments in the genre. Since 1990, the production of horror films has risen exponentially worldwide, resulting in impressive ticket sales in the modern day, not to mention how the genre has expanded into books, fashion, music, and other media throughout the world.

Horror has long been the most popular film genre, and more horror movies have been made than any other kind. We need them. We need to be scared, to test ourselves, laugh inappropriately, scream, and flinch. We need to get through them and come out, blinking, still in one piece. This comprehensive guide features:

A thorough discussion on monster movies and B-movies (The Thing; It Came from Outer Space; The Blob)

The destruction of the American censorship system (Blood Feast; The Night of the Living Dead; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)

International horror, zombies, horror comedies, and horror in the new millennium (Matango; Suspiria; Ghostbusters)

A dissection of the critical reception of modern horror (Neon Demon; Pan’s Labyrinth; Funny Games)

Stunning movie posters and film stills, plus fan-made tributes to some of the most lauded horror franchises in the world (Aliens; The Evil Dead; The Hills Have Eyes; Scream)

A perfect reference and informational book for horror fans and those interested in its cultural influence worldwide, Horror Unmasked provides a general introduction to the genre, serves as a guidebook to its film highlights, and celebrates its practitioners, trends, and stories.

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

My Review: It is astonishing how important the horror-movie industry has grown to be. It began with a bang...pardon the wordplay...and pretty much reliably made money for the film industry for decades. Its reach into pop culture has never stopped making the puckerhole set very, very, very anxious and uncomfortable. The trends in horror-film making have huge impacts on things from politics to design aesthetics. It's all in here, though of course not in great, or academically sourced, depth. This is an exciting gift book, not a film studies text.

That is a feature, not a bug. My enjoyment of the read was thorough while we were in the past; in the modern day, I felt...impatient...this is current events! Do we really need to go into the stuff from day-before-yesterday? Yes, of course, said my old-man common sense. Not everyone sees the same information I do. Still, I'm docking a half-star for it because I'm giving *my* impression, and it might match up with your possible giftee's. Forewarned is still forearmed.

The Table of Contents, and the Introduction, are typical excitement-building spreads:


The Chapter One opening spread, and first text spread, gives us the basic format's development into the informative delivery medium for the deep-enough dive into the development and trends in horror film from the initial efforts through our present era of splatters in place of scares.

Gross oversimplification on my part, and not universally true; like all generalizations, exceptions abound. Go look into Bollywood horror...go learn about the reason we've seen such an explosion of horror franchises...find out who directed a horror film that you'd swear an oath would never have done such a thing.

Here's your chance to thrill the horror aficionado in your life with a hardcover book that will teach about the genre while pleasing the eyes and teasing the memory. Believe me, you'll never lose at trivia if you read this one.

A really great graphic representation of the interconnectedness of the global horror industry.

KAIJU UNLEASHED: An Illustrated Guide to the World of Strange Beasts, ideal #Booksgiving gift for your otaku lover of kaiju

KAIJU UNLEASHED: An Illustrated Guide to the World of Strange Beasts
SHAWN PRYOR (foreword by Jason Barr)
Epic Ink/Quarto
$29.99 hardcover, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Kaiju Unleashed offers a general introduction to the exciting film genre, serves as a guidebook to its film highlights, and celebrates its practitioners, trends, and stories.

Celebrate the world of movie monsters and beasts with Kaiju Unleashed, a complete reference guide to strange creatures in film and how they came to be.

Kaiju (Japanese for “strange creature”) is a film genre that emerged in Japan in the early ’50s. The movies center on giant monsters battling humans, machines, or other beasts. First popular in the ’50s and ’60s, this film category has stomped its way back into mainstream culture.

This comprehensive guide features:

A foreword by Jason Barr, author of The Kaiju Film and The Kaiju Connection

A thorough discussion of monster movies (Gamera; Rodan; Destroy All Monsters)

Insight into how kaiju has impacted international films (Ant-Man; Attack of the 50-Foot Woman; Jurassic Park)

Stunning movie posters and film stills, plus fan-made tributes to some of the kaiju classics (Godzilla; King Kong; Mothra; Pacific Rim)

If you are a kaiju fan or are interested in kaiju’s cultural influence worldwide, this display-worthy volume provides the perfect general introduction to the genre, reference to its film highlights, and celebration of its practitioners, trends, and stories.

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

My Review: Whatever you think of this film genre, you should at least admit it's got serious cultural staying power...seventy years and counting...and think of the millions of fans it's spawned who've gone on to make very successful careers out of this born-of-anxiety monster-laden universe in many fields. The author goes into manga, anime, and of course film, practitioners of all sorts of kaiju storytelling.

This heavy-on-the-graphics volume goes into the highlights of how, when, and to a limited extent, why the genre got its hooks into pop culture. The text is not the whole point; the illustrations and graphics are not the whole point; the gestalt is superior to any of its constituent elements.

It's never going to be obvious to non-fans (to which group I belong) why this genre appeals enough to be an organizing principle for one's life. It also doesn't matter a whit. Even if you can't reliably tell the difference between Godzilla and Rodan, you probably have someone close who can, does, and has dreams in kaiju-ese. Nibling, grand, or sibling...perish forbid, spouse...they'll love this celebratory festival of behind-the-scenes stories and images, faces to put with names the fan's heard before, and technical effects illustrations.

Never forget all the King Kong-verse films! They're kaiju, too.

You'll get really big points from your otaku giftee with this celebratory recounting of the development and impact of their doted-on genre. I predict a quiet hour or two as the flipping and dipping and kvelling start when the wrappings fall. Exactly the spirit of Jólabókaflóð/Booksgiving.

THE REAL JAMES BOND: A True Story of Identity Theft, Avian Intrigue, and Ian Fleming, not quite what you're expecting

THE REAL JAMES BOND: A True Story of Identity Theft, Avian Intrigue, and Ian Fleming
JIM WRIGHT
Schiffer Books
$24.99 hardcover, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Whatever happened to him actually outshines anything I’ve had my James Bond do. —Ian Fleming

James Bond: author, ornithologist, marksman, and . . . identity-theft victim?

When James Bond published his landmark book, Birds of the West Indies, he had no idea it would set in motion events that would link him to the most iconic spy in the Western world and turn his life upside down. Born into a wealthy family but cut off in his early twenties, James Bond took off to the West Indies in search of adventure.

Armed with arsenic and a shotgun, he took months-long excursions to the Caribbean to collect material for his iconic book, Birds of the West Indies, navigating snake-infested swamps, sleeping in hammocks, and island-hopping on tramp steamers and primitive boats. Packed with archival photos, many never before published, and interviews with Bond's colleagues, here is the real story of the pipe-smoking, ruthless ornithologist who introduced the world to the exotic birds of the West Indies.

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

My Review: Gotcha!

You thought, like I did, that this was about someone glamourous and important to the intelligence agencies rife in the world, didn't you? After all, James Bond....

Turns out that the REAL James Bond, the one whose book inspired the stuck-for-a-name birder Ian Fleming to call 007 by his name, was a bad-ass adventurer and ornithologist whose privileged background and education prepared him for a leisurely life of loafing and then poof! got pulled out from under him by his dear old Dad. (007 has some daddy issues, you'll recall.)

The ancestral pile, now part of a university campus near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Being disinherited in favor of second wife of father, Bond went out to get his daily bread the best he could. It was some adventuring best! His ornithological methods weren't to modern tastes:

...but that's how it was done in those days.

The important part is that Bond and Ian Fleming shared a taste for adventure, an interest in birds, and resdency in the West Indies:

The only known photo of the Real James Bond with Ian Fleming, at Fleming's Jamaica home
...or we'd never have had the iconic 007 that we do now.

The book is quite a treat on the eyes with its over-a hundred photos, most in color, and its clear, easy-to-read text. The story of a man making another man's name and nature famous would play out very differently today. In this case the way it unfolded was amicable. The author got famous, but died young; the subject lived on, an ornithologist with the definitive textbook to his name; the character is immortal. The story's so astounding that your film-buff giftee might not believe it at first. If you know a Bond guy, he'll have heard the story in its outlines as part of the lore. The reality of James Bond, though, is less well-known and very much worth learning about. A birder friend? Get 'em in the tent by saying, perfectly truthfully, that James Bond was a bird-watcher.

The world the Real James Bond spent his life exploring and explaining to the world
Tomorrow I'm posting #Booksgiving ideas about Nature, so this seemed like a fun way to make the transition. Enjoy the read; I sure did.