Sexplosion
by Robert Hofler (It Books, $28)
In Robert Hofler’s view, it took only about six years for American pop culture to lurch from sexual prudery to anything goes, said Paul Teetor in LA Weekly. The veteran entertainment writer “doesn’t shy from taking sides” here: To him, the artistic rebels who in 1968 began breaking taboos in movies, television, and books pushed the country to a more mature view of life than Doris Day comedies ever allowed. According to his research, about half of those pioneers were gay.
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Roadshow!
by Matthew Kennedy (Oxford, $35)
Matthew Kennedy’s “zesty, detailed” investigation into the decline of the movie musical suggests that rebel culture wasn’t to blame, said Ethan Mordden in The Wall Street Journal. After The Sound of Music’s smash 1965 run, studios bet heavily on musical spectaculars, but lost sight of what worked. Roadshow! contends that hubris sank the art form, and “no title better proves Kennedy’s theory” than 1969’s Paint Your Wagon, a big-budget Western that asked Clint Eastwood to sing.
Wooden
by Seth Davis (Times Books, $35)
Seth Davis’s biography of ex-UCLA basketball coach John Wooden offers a clear-eyed look at “a flawed but extraordinary man,” said Shawna Seed in The Dallas Morning News. The Wizard of Westwood remains arguably the best college hoops coach of all time, having led UCLA to 10 NCAA championships and an unmatched 88-game winning streak. Yet Wooden in his actions occasionally “fell short of the ideals he championed,” and Davis’s portrait shows the man in full.
Tomorrow-land
by Joseph Tirella (Lyons Press, $27)
This account of the 1964 World’s Fair “captures an exciting time from many different angles,” said Sarah Rothbard in Slate.com. Journalist Joseph Tirella uses the event as a lens on the era, when an Andy Warhol mural could stir outrage in New York and Robert Moses was pursuing his grand plans for reshaping the city. While the story will feel “mostly familiar,” Tirella’s account deftly captures the tension between the fair’s lofty visions of the future and the rising tensions of the day.
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Also of interest...in picture books for grown-upsfeature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
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Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
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The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
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Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
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Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
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Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
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You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
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Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”