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| No Walls and the Recurring Dream by Ani DiFrancoWhat it is: the freewheeling debut memoir from Grammy Award-winning musician and activist Ani DiFranco.
Topics include: DiFranco's creation of her independent label Righteous Babe Records (on which she has released all her studio albums); her bouts of homelessness after leaving home at age 15.
Read it for: snippets of the author's original poetry and her candid musings on politics and feminism. |
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| Naturally Tan by Tan FranceWhat it is: a charming coming-of-age memoir from Queer Eye fashion expert Tan France.
Why you might like it: With wit and candor, France tackles topics both affecting (the racist bullying he endured as a Pakistani Muslim teen in England) and amusing (his penchant for no-nonsense sartorial advice).
For fans of: fellow Fab Five personality Karamo Brown's Karamo: My Story of Embracing Purpose, Healing, and Hope. |
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| The Castle on Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art, and Scandal at Hollywood's Chateau Marmont by Shawn LevyWhat it's about: the iconic Los Angeles hotel Chateau Marmont, which for nearly a century has attracted celebrities to its secluded bungalows for all manner of decadence and debauchery.
Want a taste? "Chateau Marmont is the ultimate Hollywood hotel because it is, like Hollywood itself, bigger than life even when it is obviously fake."
Try this next: For another dishy history of a storied landmark, try Julie Satow's The Plaza: The Secret Life of America's Most Famous Hotel. |
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Books You Might Have Missed
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| The Wild Bunch: Sam Peckinpah, a Revolution in Hollywood, and the Making of a Legendary... by W.K. StrattonWhat it's about: Commemorating the 50th anniversary of 1969 revisionist western The Wild Bunch, this engaging making-of delves into director Sam Peckinpah's influences and filmmaking process, including the then-rare decision to cast Mexican actors for the film's Mexican roles.
Why it matters: Released during a tumultuous era marked by riots, assassinations, and the Vietnam War (not to mention Hollywood's overhaul of its archaic ratings system), The Wild Bunch signaled a shift toward more realistic depictions of onscreen violence. |
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Uproot: Travels in Twenty-First-Century Music and Digital Culture
by Jace Clayton
In 2001 Jace Clayton was an unknown DJ who recorded a three-turntable, sixty-minute mix and put it online to share with friends. Within weeks, Gold Teeth Thief became an international calling card, whisking Clayton away to play a nightclub in Zagreb, a gallery in Osaka, a former brothel in Sao Paolo, and the American Museum of Natural History. Just as the music world made its fitful, uncertain transition from analog to digital, Clayton found himself on the front lines of creative upheavals of art production in the twenty-first century globalized world. Uproot is a guided tour of this newly-opened cultural space. With humor, insight, and expertise, Clayton illuminates the connections between a Congolese hotel band and the indie-rock scene, Mexican rodeo teens and Israeli techno, and Whitney Houston and the robotic voices in rural Moroccan song, and offers an unparalleled understanding of music in the digital age.
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Guillermo Del Toro: At Home With Monsters: Inside His Films, Notebooks, and Collections
by Britt Salvesen
A companion to a new exhibit on the work of visionary director Guillermo del Toro focuses on his creative process, including the well-defined themes that he obsessively returns to in all his films, the journals in which he logs his ideas and the vast and inspiring collection of art and pop culture ephemera that he has amassed at his private “man cave,” Bleak House.
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Never a Dull Moment: 1971: The Year that Rock Exploded
by David Hepworth
The award-winning BBC presenter for Whistle Test and 1985's Live Aid anchor chronicles 1971 as the decade's busiest, most innovative and resonant year, tracing the musical achievements of such forefront artists as David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell and many more.
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High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic
by Glenn Frankel
The story behind the classic movie High Noon shares insights into the toxic political climate in which it was created, recounting how, during the film shoot, screenwriter Carl Foreman was interrogated and blacklisted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. By the New York Times best-selling author of The Searchers.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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