How to Be a Movie Star
by William J. Mann
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
I Am the New Black
by Tracy Morgan
(Spiegel & Grau, $25)
“Live from New York, it’s … the worst childhood ever,” said Mandy Stadtmiller in the New York Post. Comedian Tracy Morgan has lots of painful memories to share, from the early death of his heroin-addicted father to his bumbling bid to make it as a teenage crack dealer. “But as dark as many of the revelations are,” Morgan’s first book “reads exactly the way” the eccentric Morgan talks. It’s full of humor, unbridled shout-outs to favorite colleagues, and, of course, “predictably unpredictable philosophizing and aphorizing.”
American Rebel
by Marc Eliot
(Harmony, $26)
Clint Eastwood is a “fair director,” a “rather ungenerous actor,” and far from the nicest guy in the world, said David Thomson in the San Francisco Chronicle. There’s not much “new or surprising” in Marc Eliot’s biography; two similar volumes were published a decade ago, and Eastwood hasn’t changed much. But Eliot does have one advantage: In recent years, Eastwood’s ability to go it alone when getting a story told on screen has distinguished him as “one of the greatest producers we’ve ever had.”
American on Purpose
by Craig Ferguson
(Harper, $26)
The Scottish-born host of CBS’s The Late Late Show seems allergic to cheap laughs, said Andy Borowitz in The New York Times. Establishing in this memoir the same kind of intimacy he does on TV, Craig Ferguson recounts his life “without letting jokes get in the way.” A bleak youth near Glasgow and a long bout with alcoholism were redeemed when Ferguson headed into rehab and then to the country he had for years admired from afar. Sincerity in a comedian is a form of courage. That’s what makes Ferguson so rare.
-
August 24 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday's political cartoons include Putin at Donald Trump's circus, gallons of whitewash, and a foldable cartoon
-
5 Post Office-approved cartoons about mail-in votingCartoons Artists take on reverse logic, Putin's election advice, and more
-
The battle of the weight-loss drugsTalking Point Can Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly regain their former stock market glory? A lot is riding on next year's pills
-
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
-
Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
-
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.
-
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.”
-
Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
-
Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
-
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.”
-
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.”