Book Reviews - Spring 2019


SPRING READING


Serving the Servant: Remembering Kurt Cobain  by Danny Goldberg, former manager of Nirvana, honors Kurt Cobain drawing on memories, archives and interviews with those who were close to the late singer. Goldberg became Nirvana's manager in 1991, when the Seattle band was earning critical acclaim in the underground music scene. He worked with Cobain from the band's formative years including the successful Nevermind album through his marriage to Courtney Love and the birth of their daughter and his struggles with addiction. Goldberg draws on his own memories and interviews with Cobain's family, friend and former bandmates. A compellingly sad story yet one that Joan Jett commented "Any music fan should want this book. Any Nirvana fan must have this book."


A Star Is Born-the classic Hollywood tale about a young talent rising to superstardom, and the downfall of her mentor/lover along the way-has never gone out of style. It has seen five film adaptations, but none compares to the 1954 version starring Judy Garland in her greatest role. Teaming with film historian Jeffrey Vance, Judy Garland's daughter, Lorna Luft, gives A Star Is Born:  Judy Garland and the Film that Got Away a vivid and refreshingly candid account of the crafting, loss and restoration of a movie classic and her mother's fight to save her career. A fascinating movie-making story in both fact and fiction.

Before she was affectionately known to millions as "Mrs. C.," Marion Ross began her career as a Paramount starlet who went on to appear in nearly every major TV series of the 1950s and 1960s. In this warm and candid memoir, filled with loving recollections from Happy Days team, Ross shares what it was like to be a starry-eyed young girl with dreams in poor, rural Minnesota, and the resilience, sacrifices, and determination it took to make them come true. With a forward by her "TV son" Ron Howard, My Days: Happy and Otherwise, written with David Laurell is about inspiration, persistence, and gratitude.

William A. Gordon's has released the fifth edition of The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book. Hollywood tour guides who rely on the book call it "the bible of the tour industry." Gordon calls it a work of "investigative sightseeing" paying homage to Hollywood's past, but focuses on how today's Hollywood lives, works and plays. This edition is complete with color photos, maps and all the inside information a Hollywoodophile could hope for. Readers are offered a bonus: email updates to those who register. Gordon holds the record for the longest-running self-published tour book, now in its 27 th year.

Focusing solely on the architectural merit of hundreds of Los Angeles' buildings, the Fully Revised 6th Edition of David Beghard and Robert Winter's An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles is now available. Of special interest are the many newer structures that have been constructed by noted architects in recent years such as Thom Mayne's Emerson College project on Sunset Boulevard in Central Hollywood one of seven of his projects included. The updated guide is a must have for anyone who recognizes LA's architectural treasures.




Posted By  on January 20, 2020 03:47 pm | Permalink 

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