American Film

America’s most trusted and best-known film critic Roger Ebert presents two hundred brilliant essays on some of the best movies ever made in this two-book collection containing THE GREAT MOVIES and THE GREAT MOVIES II. Roger Ebert, the famed film writer and critic, wrote biweekly essays for a...

Jun Nakayama was a silent-film star in the early days of Hollywood. By 1964, he is living in complete obscurity, until a young writer, Nick Bellinger, tracks him down for an interview. When Bellinger reveals that he has written a screenplay with Nakayama in mind, Jun is intrigued by the possibility of returning to movies. But he begins to worry that someone might delve too deeply into the past and uncover the events that abruptly ended his career in 1922. Like the changing social and racial tides in California - and the unsolved murder of his favorite director.

In 1836 in East Texas, nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker was kidnapped by Comanches. She was raised by the tribe and eventually became the wife of a warrior. Twenty-four years after her capture, she was reclaimed by the U.S. cavalry and Texas Rangers and restored to her white family, to die in misery and obscurity. Cynthia Ann's story has been told and re-told over generations to become a foundational American tale.

This book looks at the contributions made by the actors and actresses who appeared in film noir, and the directors who made them: Edward G. Robinson, Orson Welles, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea, John Carradine, Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden, Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Edmond O’Brien, Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte, James Cagney, Ida Lupino, John Huston, Delmer Daves, Edgar G. Ulmer, Fritz Lang, Anthony Mann, Phil Karlson, Lewis Allen, Robert Wise, Henry Hathaway, John Brahms, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Jacques Tourneur, Alfred ...

We have entered an age where we now have instant, unlimited, free access to the history of recorded music. We have the ability to listen across genres and eras. This is a world-wide phenomenon. This book is a guide to taking advantage of this astonishing new power. This book is also a way to appreciate one of our great cultural legacies; one that is very alive today. It is about American popular song and the body of work referred to as the Great American Songbook. These tunes are appreciated and treasured by listeners all over the world. This book is an effort to introduce you to the songs,...

ONE OF THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER'S 100 GREATEST FILM BOOKS OF ALL TIME The definitive portrait of one of the most important cultural figures in American history: Walt Disney. Walt Disney was a true visionary whose desire for escape, iron determination and obsessive perfectionism transformed...

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A thrilling tale of betrayal and revenge set against the nineteenth-century American frontier, Michael Punke's The Revenant is the astonishing story of real-life trapper and frontiersman Hugh Glass The year is 1823, and the trappers of the...

From the acclaimed author of American Comics and Jewish Comedy comes a highly entertaining book that examines the American obsession with horror—and what it tells us about ourselves. In American Scary, noted cultural historian and Columbia professor Jeremy Dauber takes the reader to the...

It was a pretty radical idea - a channel for teenagers, showing nothing but music videos. It was such a radical idea that almost no one thought it would actually succeed, much less become a force in the worlds of music, television, film, fashion, sports, and even politics. But it did work. MTV became more than anyone had ever imagined. I Want My MTV tells the story of the first decade of MTV, the golden era when MTV's programming was all videos, all the time, and kids watched religiously to see their favorite bands, learn about new music, and have something to talk about at parties.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A hair-raising mystery that’s equal parts family drama, horror movie, and jigsaw puzzle. . . . It’s impossible to look away.”— People (four stars) “Maniacally clever . . . like an M.C. Escher nightmare about Edgar Allan Poe . . . You’ll miss your...

“[A] callback to what makes Rapp such a special character, and a white-knuckle reminder of why this series remains the gold standard of the political thriller genre.” —The Real Book Spy Don Bentley completes the trilogy begun with American Assassin by taking Mitch Rapp back to his...

A SHELF AWARENESS BEST BOOK OF 2025 A LOS ANGELES TIMES MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2025 AN ELLE BEST BOOK OF FALL 2025 “Convincing and illuminating.” —The Atlantic A compelling, intelligent, and timely exploration of the horror genre from one of Columbia University’s most popular...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER The most famous true crime novel of all time "chills the blood and exercises the intelligence" (The New York Review of Books)—and haunted its author long after he finished writing it. On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the...

“John Updike is the great genial sorcerer of American letters [and] The Witches of Eastwick [is one of his] most ambitious works. . . . [A] comedy of the blackest sort.”—The New York Times Book Review Toward the end of the Vietnam era, in a snug little Rhode Island seacoast town, wonderful...

Before the movie, this is the novel that gave life to Hawkeye Pierce, Trapper John, Hot Lips Houlihan, Frank Burns, Radar O'Reilly, and the rest of the gang that made the 4077th MASH like no other place in Korea or on earth. The doctors who worked in the Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (MASH)...

In this “celebration of a life fully lived” (Reyna Grande, author of The Distance Between Us), discover the full, fascinating, and inspirational true story of Danny Trejo’s journey from crime, prison, addiction, and loss—it’s “enough to make you believe in the possibility of a...

He was the Golden Boy of the Golden Age. Dashing and debonair, Tony Curtis arrived on the scene in a blaze of bright lights and celluloid. His good looks, smooth charm, and natural talent earned him fame, women, and adulation–Elvis copied his look and the Beatles put him on their Sgt. Pepper...

Ernest Hemingway's masterpiece on war, love, loyalty, and honor tells the story of Robert Jordan, an antifascist American fighting in the Spanish Civil War. In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he...

Welcome to The Ultimate Baby Boomer Trivia and Quiz Book! Who placed the very first phone call to the moon? President Nixon Who, according to Joan Rivers, had gravy spurt out when her ears were pierced? Elizabeth Taylor Which of the Cartwright boys’ real name was Eric? Hoss, played by Dan Blocker Who told Americans to “Think Small” in their groundbreaking ad campaign? Volkswagen What future American ambassador was signed to play James Bond but was ultimately replaced by Sean Connery? John Gavin You’re smarter than a smartphone and cooler than a calculator. You’ve lived through ...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The classic legal thriller that inspired the blockbuster film starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington “There is a propulsiveness to [Grisham’s] narrative that keeps the pages turning briskly.”—People In suburban Georgetown, a killer’s Reeboks...