History & Criticism

A wryly funny and surprisingly moving account of an extraordinary life lived almost entirely in the public eye....

Comedian, activist, and hugely popular culture blogger at AwesomelyLuvvie.com Luvvie Ajayi serves up necessary advice for the masses in this hilarious book of essays....

Wildflower is a portrait of Drew Barrymore's life in stories as she looks back on the adventures, challenges, and incredible experiences of her earlier years....

Billy Crystal is 65, and he's not happy about it....

Robert McKee's screenwriting workshops have earned him an international reputation for inspiring novices, refining works in progress, and putting major screenwriting careers back on track....

Inside Hollywood’s descent into dreary, dull, leftist groupthink....

Life is full of choices. Right now, yours is whether or not to buy the autobiography of a mid-grade, kind of hammy actor....

Join the entire Dunder Mifflin gang on a journey back to Scranton: Here's the hilarious inside story of how a little show that barely survived its first season became the most watched series in the universe....

Who made the phone call that got HBO to launch The Sopranos? What’s the significance of all those eggs? And, what the hell ever happened to the Russian? Michael Imperioli, Steve Schirripa, and the entire cast and crew of The Sopranos have all the answers....

James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales raucously and revealingly take the SNL story up to the present, adding a constellation of iconic new stars, surprises, and controversies....

Shit, Actually is a love letter and a breakup note all in one: to the films that shaped us and the ones that ruined us. More often than not, Lindy finds, they're one and the same....

Once called a legend in his own time slot, Garry Marshall has been among the most successful writers, directors, and producers in America for more than five decades....

Batman is one of the most compelling characters to come from the Golden Age of Comics, and interest in his story has only increased since his first appearance in 1939. Why does this superhero without superpowers fascinate us? What does that fascination say about us? 

Fred Rogers was an enormously influential figure in the history of television and in the lives of tens of millions of children. As the creator and star of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, he was a champion of compassion, equality, and kindness....

Inspired by the diaries of another celebrity-obsessed Andy (Warhol), this honest, irreverent, and laugh-out-loud funny book is a one-of-a-kind account of the whos and whats of pop culture in the 21st century....

A deeply personal and revealing Hollywood-survival story.....

The untold stories behind The Office, one of the most iconic television shows of the 21st century, told by its creators, writers, and actors....

The Disaster Artist is Greg Sestero's laugh-out-loud funny account of how Tommy Wiseau defied every law of artistry, business, and friendship to make "the Citizen Kane of bad movies"....

Scandalous, sentimental, frank, and sincere - the ultimate inside account of a television and film icon. Burt Reynolds has been a Hollywood leading man for six decades, known for his legendary performances, sex-symbol status, and storied Hollywood romances....

A true story recreated with the suspense of a novel, Tinseltown is the work of a storyteller at the peak of his powers - and the solution to a crime that has stumped detectives and historians for nearly a century....

When Brian De Palma agreed to allow Julie Salamon unlimited access to the film production of Tom Wolfe's best-selling book The Bonfire of the Vanities, both director and journalist must have felt like they were on to something big....

Alison Arngrim's comic memoir of growing up as one of television's most memorable characters - the devious Nellie Oleson on the hit television show Little House on the Prairie....

The complete uncensored history of the award-winning The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, as told by its correspondents, writers, and host....

This audiobook follows the wild ride that was Hollywood in the 70s - an unabashed celebration of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll and a climate where innovation reigned supreme....

Fifty years after her death, Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe still beguiles the world, her image enthralling millions. Many books have attempted to explain her allure and tell her story, but none has succeeded as well as this....

Born the same year as the film industry in 1895, Buster Keaton began his career as the child star of a family slapstick act reputed to be the most violent in vaudeville. Beginning in his early 20s, he enjoyed a decade-long stretch as the director, star, stuntman, editor, and all-around mastermind of some of the greatest silent comedies ever made, including Sherlock Jr., The General, and The Cameraman.

Hollywood’s Dream Factory is now a nightmare of woke restrictions, identity politics run amok, and freedom-snuffing rules and regulations. The Oscars are unwatchable, as are many films and television shows thanks to the woke revolution. Virtue Bombs breaks down where Hollywood went so wrong, illustrates the slow-motion disaster infiltrating the industry, and offers a glimmer of hope for a woke-free tomorrow. Award-winning film critic Christian Toto has all the receipts, showcasing Hollywood’s virtue-signaling follies and how it could get much worse before it gets better.

As a movie actress Lucille Ball was, in her own words, "queen of the B-pluses." But on the small screen she was a superstar - arguably the funniest and most enduring in the history of TV. In this exemplary biography, Stefan Kanfer explores the roots of Lucy's genius and places it in the context of her conflicted and sometimes bitter personal life.

 In 1939, 50 million Americans went to the movies every week, Louis B. Mayer was the highest-paid man in the country, and Hollywood produced 530 feature films a year. One decade and five thousand movies later, the studios were faltering....

 When the head of Columbia Pictures, David Begelman, got caught forging Cliff Robertson's name on a $10,000 check, it seemed, at first, like a simple case of embezzlement. It wasn't. The incident was the tip of the iceberg, the first hint of a scandal that shook Hollywood and rattled Wall Street.

Audience-ology takes you to one of the most unknown places in Hollywood - a place where famous directors are reduced to tears and multi-millionaire actors to fits of rage. A place where dreams are made and fortunes are lost. This book is the chronicle of how real people have written and rewritten America’s cinematic masterpieces by showing up, watching a rough cut of a new film, and giving their unfettered opinions so that directors and studios can salvage their blunders, or better yet, turn their movies into all-time classics.

A fascinating and hilarious deep dive into 30 Rock, Tina Fey's beloved modern classic comedy. In this combination of narrative and oral history, culture writer and editor Mike Roe brings to life the history of the gloriously goofy show through interviews with the creators, stars, writers, and bit players. 

15 years after Ondi Timoner’s film Dig! shot The Brian Jonestown Massacre to international fame comes the first ever book on the controversial band and their leader, Anton Newcombe, who together have been at the forefront of the resurgence of psychedelic rock in recent decades — and become one of the most infamous and controversial bands around in the process.

Join the entire Dunder Mifflin gang on a journey back to Scranton: Here's the hilarious inside story of how a little show that barely survived its first season became the most watched series in the universe.

In the decades following his death, many of those who knew James Dean best - actors, directors, friends, lovers (both men and women), photographers, and Hollywood columnists - shared stories of their first-person experiences....