Another Fine Mess: A History American Film Comedy, by Saul Austerlitz. Austerlitz seeks to redress the lack of critical respect for comedic films in 100 lively biographical sketches of top comedy talents from Charlie Chalin to Katherine Hepburn to Judd Aparow.
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and his Rendezvous with American History, by Yunte Huang. Huang’s beautifully written blend of history, memoir, and analysis illuminates the many faces of Charlie Chan; his real-life role model, Honolulu cop Chang Apana; and still-urgent questions of immigration and racism.
Chuck Close: Life, by Christopher Finch. Finch portrays Close with the same
meticulous detail with which Close paints faces, telling with insight and sensitivity the astounding story of the struggles and triumphs of an artist of uncommon powers.
Empire of Dreams: The Epic Life of Cecil DeMille, by Scott Eyman. Aided by unique access to DeMille family papers, seasoned biographers Eyman offers an exhaustive and evenhanded look at iconic director and producer DeMille and epic Hollywood films.
Frank: The Voice, by James Kaplan. Kaplan’s fascinating account of Frank Sinatra from his birth in 1915 through 1954, when he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in From Here to Eternity, offers astute psychological, artistic, and cultural insights.
Grant Wood, by R. Tripp Evans. Evans transforms our view of painter Grant Wood and his all-American paintings, including American Gothic, in a revelatory and heartrending biography of an artist forced to conceal his homosexuality.
The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family’s Century of Art and Loss, by Edmund de Waal. An inheritance of 264 netsuke (miniature carved figures) inspired acclaimed ceramist de Waal to tell the astonishing story of his father’s cosmopolitan Jewish family, the Ephrussi,in a spellbinding tale of accomplishment and terror, reinvention and survival.
Just Kids, by Patti Smith. Smith chronicles the mutual love and entwined artistic Odysseys of herself and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in New York City circa 1970 in a lucid, witty, and moving memoir.
Leo and His Circle: The Life of Leo Castelli, by Annie Cohen-Solal. Gallery owner Leo Castelli was king when New York became the Capital of the global art world, but Cohen-Solal is the first to tell the full story of his Hungarian roots, Trieste boyhood,hunger for life, and devotion to cutting edge art.
Princess Noire: the Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone, by Nadine Cohodas. Cohodas writes emphatically about Nina Simone’s indelible music, which expresses all the pain,determination, and hope of the civil rights movement, her courageous activism, and the tragedies that derailed her.
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