I Like to Watch by Emily Nussbaum

Staff Pick

Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer for criticism, Emily Nussbaum writes about TV like the art that it is. Gathered from some fifteen years of work for The New Yorker, New York, and other publications—along with several new pieces—the essays in I Like to Watch (Random House, $28) wholeheartedly celebrate television and guide us to new ways of looking at it. Arguing that TV demands more than just watching, Nussbaum outlines her struggle with “prestige television”—an awakening she traces to Buffy the Vampire Slayer—and questions the breakdown of shows into high and low-brow. She also examines programming in the light of #MeToo, explores how fans distort their favorite shows, profiles influential figures such as Kenya Barris, Jenji Kohan, and Ryan Murphy, assesses the legacies of Norman Lear and Joan Rivers, and more.

I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution By Emily Nussbaum Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780525508960
Availability: Special Order—Subject to Availability
Published: Random House - June 25th, 2019

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood by Fred Rogers Productions

Staff Pick

So you're a fan of “Mister” Fred Rogers and his classic TV series, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. You've read Maxwell King's Rogers biography The Good Neighbor. You saw the documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor and likely have already bought your tickets to the reportedly very good film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, starring Tom Hanks. Maybe you've even read every profile on the man available on the AV Club, and scoured the internet for interviews, analyses, and clips. What do you do now? Or even worse: what if you are trying to buy a gift for the Mr. Rogers fan who has everything? What then? Well, why not a coffee table book that features a photo breakdown of every single one of Fred Rogers' ties? Why not a coffee table book that features input from luminaries like Melissa Wagner, who has collaborated with Rogers himself on books in the past, and Tim Lybarger, creator of the Rogers fansite The Neighborhood Archive? That is, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: A Visual History (Clarkson Potter, $35), a massive compendium of interviews, photos, and behind-the-scenes information. A worthy gift for those starving for kindness in these dark times, and a monument to a historic television production.

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: A Visual History By Fred Rogers Productions, Tim Lybarger, Melissa Wagner, Jenna McGuiggan, Tom Hanks (Foreword by) Cover Image
$35.00
ISBN: 9781984826213
Availability: Special Order—Subject to Availability
Published: Clarkson Potter - October 29th, 2019

The Contender by William J. Mann

Staff Pick

Beginning with the sobering and somber testimony Marlon Brando gave at his son’s sentencing hearing for murder, William J. Mann’s biography, The Contender (Harper, $35), interweaves three major motifs into each stage of Brando’s life and work. First, there’s Brando’s personal brand of masculinity; bucking traditional chauvinism, this included highly intimate, even romantic (as in the case of the French actor Christian Marquand), relationships with men. Then there’s the actor’s lifelong commitment to social justice. Brando participated in conventional protests—most famously the 1963 March on Washington, which Mann reconstructs in detail, including Brando’s efforts to drum up celebrity support—and unconventional activism, most famously, by having Sacheen Littlefeather appear on his behalf at the 1973 Academy Award ceremony to refuse the Oscar. Perhaps most significantly—or possibly most salaciously, as Mann never shies away from details—there’s Brando’s near constant romantic and familial drama, which Mann characterizes as the star’s greatest failure. Brando’s perennial affairs and his neglect of his family clash with the popular image of Brando as a
ladies’ man.

The Contender: The Story of Marlon Brando By William J. Mann Cover Image
$35.00
ISBN: 9780062427649
Availability: Special Order—Subject to Availability
Published: Harper - October 15th, 2019

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