Showing titles in History & Criticism

From Entertainment Weekly writer and debut author Samantha Highfill, a definitive and deliciously nostalgic look into the creation and legacy of the hit show The Vampire Diaries, as told by its cast, crew, and creators. In 2009, the CW released a show about grief, love, redemption, and, oh yeah...

The eye-opening true story of Tom Cruise, from #1 New York Times bestselling biographer Andrew Morton. Everyone knows Tom Cruise--or at least what he wants us to know. We know that he overcame a difficult childhood to star in astonishing array of blockbusters: Top Gun, Rain Man, Born on the...

According to Cox, the key to understanding The Prisoner is to view the series in the order in which the episodes were made - and not in the rearranged order of the UK or US television screenings. In this book he provides an innovative and controversial "explanation" for what is perhaps the best, the most original, and certainly the most perplexing TV series of all time.

Bloomsbury presents Square Peg, Round Ball written and read by Ned Boulting. SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2023 – SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT BOOK OF THE YEAR 'What Ned hasn’t seen on a sports TV channel isn’t worth knowing about.' – Gabby Logan 'From falling out with...

Award-winning author Simon Winder takes us through the legacy of one of Britain's most influential and enduring cultural figures, James Bond. 'An entertaining romp through the literary and cinematic heartland of James Bond country' – Sunday Times 'A hilarious blend of cultural history...

At once a pop culture icon, cult figure, and film industry outsider, master filmmaker David Lynch and his work defy easy definition. Dredged from his subconscious mind, Lynch's work is primed to act on our own subconscious, combining heightened, contradictory emotions into something familiar but inscrutable. No less than his art, Lynch's life also evades simple categorization, encompassing pursuits as a musician, painter, photographer, carpenter, entrepreneur, and vocal proponent of Transcendental Meditation.

From age 11, in 1974, until she left the show, in 1981, Melissa Anderson literally grew up before the viewers of Little House on the Prairie. Melissa, as Mary, is remembered by many as the blind sister - and she was the only actor in the series to be nominated for an Emmy. In The Way I See It, she takes listeners onto the set and inside the world of the iconic series created by Michael Landon, who, Melissa discovered, was not perfect, as much as he tried to be. In this memoir she also shares her memories of working with guest stars like Todd Bridges, Mariette Hartley, Sean Penn, Patricia Neal, and Johnny Cash.

Read by the authors and stars of the show! “I know Mr. Feeny would’ve given this book an A+. Good job, kids. Class dismissed!” —William Daniels, Mr. Feeny The actors who played Topanga, Shawn, and Eric on Boy Meets World expand on their hit podcast, Pod Meets World, in a nostalgic...

From the noted Hollywood biographer and author of The Contender comes this celebration of the great American love story—the romance between Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart—capturing its complexity, contradictions, and challenges as never before. In Bogie & Bacall, William Mann offers a...

This laugh-out-loud memoir takes listeners backstage and inside the writers' room of one of America's best-loved shows. With more than 17 million viewers and more than seventy Emmy nominations — including two wins for best comedy — Everybody Loves Raymond reigned supreme in television comedy for almost a decade. Phil Rosenthal was there at the beginning. United by a shared lifetime of family dysfunction, he and Ray Romano found endless material to keep the show fresh and funny for its entire run.

Academy Award-winning director Michael Curtiz—whose best-known films include Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Mildred Pierce, and White Christmas—was in many ways the anti-auteur. During his 27-year tenure at Warner Bros., he directed swashbuckling adventures, Westerns, musicals, war epics, romances, historical dramas, horror films, tearjerkers, melodramas, comedies, and film noir masterpieces. In the first biography of this colorful, instinctual artist, Alan K. Rode illuminates the life and work of one of the film industry's most complex figures.

The definitive book on the TV show Ted Lasso, written by New York Times journalist and editor Jeremy Egner, celebrating the show’s improbable rise and cultural impact while never losing sight of the heart, friendship, and passion that have made it an enduring favorite for the ages When Ted...

Ever since horror leapt from popular fiction to the silver screen in the late 1890s, viewers have experienced fear and pleasure in exquisite combination. Wheeler Winston Dixon's A History of Horror is the only book to offer a comprehensive survey of this ever-popular film genre. Arranged by decades, with outliers and franchise films overlapping some years, this one-stop sourcebook unearths the historical origins of characters such as Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolfman and their various incarnations in film from the silent era to comedic sequels.

The bestselling author of Seinfeldia offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes cultural history of the iconic and award-winning television series, Sex and the City, in a “bubbly, yet fierce cultural dissection of the groundbreaking show” (Chicago Tribune). This is the story of how a columnist...

A playfully critical journey through the Coen brothers' filmography From such cult hits as Raising Arizona (1987) and The Big Lebowski (1998) to major critical darlings Fargo (1996), No Country for Old Men (2007), and Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), Ethan and Joel Coen have cultivated a bleakly...

This revised and expanded edition of Eddie Muller's Dark City is a film noir lover's bible, taking readers on a tour of the urban landscape of the grim and gritty genre in a definitive, highly illustrated volume. Dark City expands with new chapters and a fresh collection of restored photos that...

In 1984, a new vision of horror was unleashed upon terrified moviegoers—a razor-gloved bogeyman who slashed his way through the children of those who had murdered him years before. In doing so, this cinematic monster would not just invade the dreams of his victims but give those watching a brand-new nightmare to fear forever.

Susie Bright, “The Pauline Kael of Porn” (SF Chronicle), rips open the history of erotic cinema before the internet— from the Golden Age of lavish 35mm hardcore, to the video-inspired “Porno Spring”, initiated by none other than punk, feminist, and lesbian video-makers.

Bloomsbury presents The Empire Strikes Back by Rebecca Harrison, read by Gabrielle Glaister. The Empire Strikes Back (1980), the second film in the original Star Wars trilogy, is often cited as the ‘best’ and most popular Star Wars movie. In her compelling study, Rebecca Harrison draws on...

For fans of one of the most successful and highly discussed shows in recent memory, LOST: Back to the Island is both a delightful time capsule and a rousing work of entertainment criticism.