This week, we are highlighting some bloggers and podcasters who frequently review our books and interview our authors. Do check out these blogs and podcasts for all the great content they have to offer.
Bookgasm Blog
Bookgasm the site dedicated to READING MATERIAL TO GET EXCITED ABOUT. That includes all kinds of genre fiction, from horror and sci-fi to mystery and suspense. It also includes graphic novels, trashy paperbacks, cheap magazines and other things that much of America pretends to be ashamed of, for no good reason. At BOOKGASM, we celebrate these escapist efforts, through daily news, reviews, interviews and other things that don’t end in “-ews.” Think of it as a community; we encourage your posts via the comments section under each item. Visit bookgasm.com for reviews and excerpts.
John D. Luerssen is the author of U2 FAQ.
John D. Luerssen discovered a new band called U2 in the early ‘80s just like a lot of us did: through word of mouth. And like many of us early adopters, he’s been a fan ever since. Culled from books, magazine articles, interviews and his own research, his U2 FAQis an exhaustive collection of nearly anything and everything you want to know about “the biggest band in the world.”
Predictably, it begins with the requisite biographical tidbits regarding each band member (all five of them … and how they became four). We learn about Bono’s strained relationship with his father, Adam Clayton’s penchant for being a prankster, and the group’s struggle with balancing spirituality with their desire to be rock stars. Luerssen details how Bono met Alison Stewart and the start of their 30-year, monogamous (yeah, right) relationship.
Reading about their early years is the most entertaining part of the book. It seems nothing is left out. Did you know their first paid gig was at St. Fintan’s High School in Dublin? The year was 1977 and they were billed as Feedback. This was before they switched to The Hype and ultimately settling with the name we all recognize today. Avid fans will have likely heard much of this stuff before, but not in as much detail.
For more please visit bookgasm.
These are just some of the topics U2 FAQ explores: How did Bono recover his cherished suitcase of lyrics 23 years after its 1981 disappearance? What movie dialogue is sampled in the middle of “Seconds”? What effect did bull’s blood have on Larry’s drumming? How did Bono’s visit to Central America inform The Joshua Tree? What are the details of Adam’s 1989 marijuana bust? How did Mick Jagger wind up on All That You Can’t Leave Behind?
Award-winning music journalist John D. Luerssen goes beyond the essential facts, delving into the legendary fables and unique anecdotes that make U2 FAQ an indispensable read for all U2 disciples.
Stephen Tropiano is the author of Music on Film: Cabaret.
As far as I’m concerned, the 1973 Academy Awards was the setting of what has to be the biggest upset in the event’s history. That year, the Oscar for Best Picture went to a film you might have heard of called THE GODFATHER, but instead of awarding the prize for Best Director to Francis Ford Coppola, the Academy’s voters instead gave it to Bob Fosse for his work on CABARET.
Can you friggin’ believe that? Have you heard anything so completely bug-nuts insane? There’s no way THE GODFATHER should have gotten Best Picture!
Okay, so I realize that mine is probably the minority view, but its not for nothing that despite losing out the top prize that year, CABARET totally kicked THE GODFATHER’s ass, with Fosse’s film taking home eight Oscars (including Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Cinematography) to Coppola’s measly four.
As Stephen Tropiano documents in MUSIC ON FILM: CABARET, his far-too-brief book about the making of Fosse’s first cinematic masterpiece (he would go one to make at least one more with ALL THAT JAZZ), the reason for this is simple: THE GODFATHER merely took a disreputable genre and gave it class, while CABARET took a dying genre and completely reinvented it in such a way that it was never really the same again.
For more please visit bookgasm.
In 1973, Cabaret walked away with eight Academy Awards, including gold statues for director Bob Fosse and for its stars, Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey. Based on the long-running Broadway musical, with a memorable score by John Kander and Fred Ebb, Cabaret is a landmark film that broke new cinematic ground by revolutionizing the Hollywood musical through its treatment of adult themes and art house sensibility. With an introduction by Joel Grey, the book chronicles the history of Cabaret, from Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories to the stage and film versions of John van Druten’s play I Am a Camera, through the adaptation of the hit Broadway musical for the big screen. Readers will get an insider’s look into the making of the film, the creative talent in front of the camera and behind the scenes, and why this divinely decadent musical continues to captivate audiences.
Michael Molenda is the editor of Guitar Player Presents Guitar Heroes of the ’70s.
Much like the recent KEYBOARD PRESENTS SYNTH GODS, there’s another new collection of profiles and interviews torn from the pages of a niche music magazine, in GUITAR PLAYER PRESENTS GUITAR HEROES OF THE ’70S.
Culled from issues printed between 1970 and 1984, the book spotlights a solid 40, well, heroes of the guitar, just as the title promises. I’ve never so much as touched an issue of GUITAR PLAYER, but it was quite popular among the stoners who rode my school bus in junior high.
For more please visit bookgasm.
Guitar Player Presents Guitar Heroes of the ’70S
Launched in 19
67, Guitar Player was the only guitar publication in existence when the ’60s and ’70s six-string explosion ignited across the globe. As a result, Guitar Player interviewed scores of seminal guitar stars as the magic happened. Now Guitar Player has opened its archives to present a thrilling collection of articles that detail the equipment and tone explorations of transcendent guitarists such as Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Duane Allman, Steve Howe, Peter Green, and many others. Every article originally appeared in the 1970s, when these young guns were in the midst of conjuring world-changing guitar sounds, riffs, and musical concepts – all building the foundation for what has become revered as “classic rock.” Anyone wishing to study the building blocks of what drove audiences to first utter the phrase “Guitar Hero” can now get the story straight from the players who earned the title.
Alain Silver and James Ursini is the author of The Vampire Film.
When I was in high school in the late ’80s, my mom sometimes came home from the discount stores with some enormous hardcover on the history of cinema (i.e. 70 YEARS AT THE MOVIES). They were heavy in both text and photos, and comprised of essays that dropped so many names and titles, my head spun with the sudden knowledge that so much existed beyond the local video store.
I still have these books, and have pored over their pages several times; one page in particular is ingrained on my brain, likely because of a black-and-white photo of a topless Sophia Loren in her prime.
THE VAMPIRE FILM: FROM NOSFERATU TO TRUE BLOOD reminds me of those books, minus the Sophia Loren. Generously massive at nearly 500 pages, there’s simply so much content to take in, you’ll won’t be able to read it at first, because you’ll be forced to look at all the photos and poster art beforehand, which dominate each spread in vibrant color.
Skip the initial chapters on historical vampires and the creature’s roots in literature (and art and the stage and music and on and on), because after all, the key word in the title is “film.” That’s where authors Alain Silver and James Ursini get to the nitty gritty, tracking the history of the pointy-toothed monsters on the big screen, from the early days of Nosferatu, Carmilla and Dracula to the more modern outings of Vampire Bill, Lestat and, well, Dracula.
For more please visit bookgasm.
This newest edition will track the form’s evolution from such 1970s reinventions as Count Yorga Vampire and Blacula, The Hunger and Vampire’s Kiss in the Eighties, Interview with the Vampire, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and the Blade series in the Nineties, through 30 Days of Night, I Am Legend, and the Underworld series in the first decade of the 21st century. All these films plus celebrated international examples such as Thirst and Let the Right One In and the hit television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, New Amsterdam, Angel, The Vampire Diaries, and True Blood are covered in this long-awaited, completely revised, expanded, and redesigned fourth edition that follows the vampire figures, both male and female, through the millennium and beyond.
David Hogan is the author of Three Stooges FAQ.
With the Farrelly brothers bringing THE THREE STOOGES to screen next spring, the beloved slapstick troupe is primed for a resurgence of fandom. Sensing this, Applause Books has released THREE STOOGES FAQ: EVERYTHING LEFT TO KNOW ABOUT THE EYE-POKING, FACE-SLAPPING, HEAD-THUMPING GENIUSES.
David Hogan’s book is not quite that. For one thing, it ignores the movies; it’s only concerned with their comedy shorts. Of course, that’s mainly what they were and are known for, so that’s really just a quibble. Nor is it a reference work, but like one giant essay.
For more please visit bookgasm.
Detailed production and critical coverage is provided for every short, plus information about each film’s place in the Stooges’ careers, in Hollywood genre filmmaking, and in the larger fabric of American culture. From Depression-era concerns to class warfare to World War II to the cold war to rock-and-roll – the Stooges reflected them all.
Seventy-five stills, posters, and other images – many never before published in book form – bring colorful screen moments to life and help illuminate the special appeal of key shorts. Exclusive sections include a Stooges biographical and career timeline; a useful, colorful history of the structure and behind-the-camera personnel of the Columbia two-reel unit; and personality sidebars about more than 30 popular players who worked frequently with the Stooges. Also included is a filmography that covers all 190 shorts, plus a bibliography, making this the ultimate guide for all Three Stooges fans!
Check out some excerpts from bookgasm:
1. Surf Beat by Kent Crowley
2. The Vampire Film by Alain Silver and James Ursini
3. Three Stooges FAQ by David J. Hogan
4. Exit Music: The Radiohead Story by Mac Randall
Son of Harpo Speaks! by 
Trust Me by 
If You Like Monty Python… by 
Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas by 
We Never Learn by 
The Rock Book Show
