Movie Books: BioPics (Biographical Movies)

8 SECONDS (Movie Novelization)
by Charlie McDade. Screenplay by Monte Merrick. B&W movie stills section. Condition: UNREAD 1994 HarperPaperbacks first edition, first printing. Thin binder's glue string down spine. Tiny edgewear. Content: This is the novelization of the movie based on the life of Rodeo champion bull rider Lane Frost. The title refers to the time required by all rodeo cowboys to stay on a bull if they want a judge's score. For them, such a short time can seem like an eternity. The same is true of the beginning of this true story, a country tale of Lane Frost, a real-life, crowd-pleasing bullrider who rose to rodeo fame in the late '80s. The characters seem so irrepressibly good, so unreal, that the film comes out of the chute without a buck or much of a purpose. But Frost's story, and that of his relationship with his wife, Kellie (Cynthia Geary), eventually gains momentum. Luke Perry is an underrated actor, and he balances an "aw-shucks-ness" with an internal spark that makes that salt-of-the-earth stuff not so salty. When the film is finally over and the end credits show home movies and stills of the real-life Frost, you'll wish the ride was just a little longer. The 1994 movie was directed by John G. Avildsen and produced by Danny DeVito. The supporting cast includes James Rebhorn, Cameron Finley, Carrie Snodgress, Dustin Mayfield, Stephen Baldwin, and Gabriel Folse. A good movie. with 104 minutes run time. [1 set available]
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AGATHA (Agatha Christie)
by Kathleen Tynan. Dustin Hoffman & Vanessa Redgrave movie still cover. Condition: Good+, gently pre-read 1978 Ballantine paperback, first printing. Light spine & hinge crease with edge wear. Interior clean & tight but tanning. Content: Reviewer: "On December 4, 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared. There was an immediate and enormous media frenzy. She was the most famous mystery writer in the world and the true successor to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This book combines the few facts known from public records and from Christie's famously uninformative autobiography with some pleasingly low-minded speculations by Ms. Tynan. It is a mystery novel about Agatha Christie written in a reasonable approximation of Agatha Christie's own style. Agatha returned to her home and to Archie Christie, her unfaithful husband, well before Christmas. She said she had lost her memory. In 1979, this novel was made into a feature film with the same title. It starred Vanessa Redgrave as Agatha, Timothy Dalton as the philandering Archie and Dustin Hoffman as a fictional investigative reporter. It's well worth watching." [1 copy available]
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ALIVE: The Story of the Andes Survivors
by Piers Paul Read. B&W photo section. Condition: UNREAD 1975 Avon paperback edition, 27th printing. Tiny edgewear with tanning to interior page edges and a remainder mark bottom edge. Content: This is the ultimate cautionary tale. Author Read does a superb job of narrating this awe inspiring, nightmarish tale of survival. A violent plane crash in the Andes leaves a team of young Rugby players to battle, sub-zero temperatures, avalanches, the death of friends and loved ones, hopelessness and eventually starvation. Their will to survive brings them to a horrible choice few ever have to make; resort to canabilism or die a painful death by starvation. What makes their decision even more heartbreaking and terrible is the fact that most of the bodies they must eat to live are friends, teammates, and/or relatives. For nearly 80 days we live through the waking nightmare via Read's narrative suffering unimaginable physical and incomprehensible mental trials, but in the end it is oddly a tale of hope, faith, love and the ultimate sacrafice. The 1993 movie starred Ethan Hawke and Vincent Spano and is worth seeing, but it would help to have read the book first. [2 copies available]
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AMADEUS (The Play)
by Peter Shaffer. 8 pages of B&W movie stills. Condition: UNREAD, but not perfect, 1984 Signet paperback, 3rd printing. Tiny edgewear with a short pale crease bottom front cover, name inside front cover. Interior clean & tight. Content: New Introduction by the Author. Reviewer: "one of the finest modern plays ever written for the theater. If you think you don't have to read it because you've seen the movie, think again. They RADICALLY altered the stage play for the screen. The film may look better - but most of the brillance of Peter Shaffer's incredible dialogue is lost. The play, however, is almost a dramatic monologue delivered by Salieri. Shaffer has an uncanny knack for dialogue and this is his second best play next to Equus. The funny thing is, even though they gutted the text for the film, the film is actually much longer than the play. If you liked the movie, have any interest in Mozart - or any interest in great plays, for that matter - read Amadeus." The 1984 spectacular movie was directed by Milos Forman and starred F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Simon Callow, Roy Dotrice, & Jeffrey Jones. Academy Award for Abraham and the movie. [1 copy available]
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ANNE FRANK: The Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank. Millie Perkins cover photo. Condition: Good, at best, 1959 Cardinal paperback, no printing given. This book is delicate - well, it's old and has been pre-read. Edge wear with light crease bottom front cover corner; peeling bottom spine (I'm working on that); and moderate tanning to pages. The reason to own this copy: you are a collector of original movie books. Content: Everyone knows the story of Anne Frank and I'm not going to repeat it here. The 1959 movie was directed by George Stevens and starred Millie Perkins, wonderful character actor Joseph Schildkraut, Shelley Winters, Richard Beymer, the great Ed Wynn, Diane Baker, Lou Jacobi, and the voice of Edmund Purdom. Even though this movie is 50 years old this year, I still prefer it to any later remakes. Try it if you can find it. Questions encouraged. [1 copy available]
$ 2.89 + $ 2.94 media shipping.

BELOVED INFIDEL (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
by Sheilah Graham and Gerold Frank. B&W photo section. Condition: UNREAD, but not perfect, 1959 Quality Trade Paperback, Book Club Edition. Problem: pale diagonal crease bottom front cover corner. Content: This is one of my favorite books and movies. It tells the love story of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hollywood columnist Sheilah Graham. This may be the best insight into the persona and psyche of the doomed Fitzgerald. Graham encouraged him to write his last and most ambitious novel, The Last Tycoon (also a good movie) but he died at her home in 1940 before completing it. Graham died in 1988. The 1959 movie of the same name was directed by Henry King and starred Gregory Peck, the wonderful Deborah Kerr, Eddie Albert, Philip Ober, and John Sutton. If you are a romantic, don't miss this movie. [1 copy available]
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BLOW (Movie Edition)
by Bruce Porter. Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz movie still cover. B&W photo section. Condition: Gently pre-read to page 45 and abandoned. 1993 St. Martin's Press Trade Paperback, second printing. Content: The up-your-nose, in-your-face life of George Jung, the high-school football star from small-town USA who became the American linchpin of the Colombian cocaine connection. Relying on extensive interviews with Jung and other key figures, Porter recounts a sleigh- ride-to-hell story of how 60's hippie innocence turned into 80's megadepravity. Porter dwells too long on Jung's unexceptional childhood but picks up steam when his subject comes of age--as a likable, handsome, well-muscled hedonist-- and takes off for California and a haze of sunbathing, sex, pot, and LSD. Soon enough, Jung becomes chief marijuana importer to a number of prestigious East Coast colleges. Likening himself to Butch Cassidy, he moves his operation to Mexico and makes a mint until a series of busts stops him--temporarily. In prison, Jung befriends a young Carlos Lehder and links up with the Medell¡n coke cartel. The money bandied about is staggering: The Colombian suppliers gross $35 billion a year, and Jung buys a house just to stash his cash (lining floors and walls with $100 bills): ``Money, Learjets, fast cars, wild women, houses with maids,'' is how he recalls it later. Inevitably, the roller-coaster hits the steep downward slope: paranoia, as Jung snorts mountains of coke; a heart attack in his mid-30s; a car-bomb attack by Lehder, by now a business enemy; scary trips to Colombia, during one of which Jung watched coke czar Pablo Escobar execute a police informer; a flurry of arrests and escapes; finally, the Big Bust. But, as always, Jung comes out unscathed, turning state's witness (with Escobar's approval) to sing against Lehder. Set scot-free in exchange for his testimony, Jung now works in a legit delivery service, transporting fish up and down Cape Cod. How a happy hippie blew it on blow--finely researched, told with pizzazz. The movie was directed by Ted Demme and starred Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Rachel Griffiths, Paul Reubens, and Ray Liotta. [1 copy available]
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BRAVEHEART: A Novel
by Randall Wallace. Mel Gibson movie cover. Condition: Good condition, 1995 Pocket original paperback, first printing. Light edgewear with spine crease. Interior clean. Content: In one of history's darkest hours there arose from humble beginnings a man of courage and honor -- the likes of whom the world may never see again. Amid the color, pageantry, and violence of medieval Scotland unfurls the resplendent tale of the legendary William Wallace, farmer by birth, rebel by fate, who banded together his valiant army of Scots to crush the cruel tyranny of the English Plantagenet king. The 1995 movie is one of the most popular movies of the last century. Directed by and starring Mel Gibson, this movie also stars James Robinson, Patrick McGoohan, Brian Cox, Sophie Marceau, Angus Macfadyen, and Brendan Gleeson. 5 Academy Awards. [1 copy available]
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BRAVEHEART: A Novel
by Randall Wallace. Mel Gibson movie cover. Condition: UNREAD 1995 Signet (London) paperback, 7th printing. Light edge wear with pale tanning to page edges. Content: In one of history's darkest hours there arose from humble beginnings a man of courage and honor -- the likes of whom the world may never see again. Amid the color, pageantry, and violence of medieval Scotland unfurls the resplendent tale of the legendary William Wallace, farmer by birth, rebel by fate, who banded together his valiant army of Scots to crush the cruel tyranny of the English Plantagenet king. The 1995 movie is one of the most popular movies of the last century. Directed by and starring Mel Gibson, this movie also stars James Robinson, Patrick McGoohan, Brian Cox, Sophie Marceau, Angus Macfadyen, and Brendan Gleeson. 5 Academy Awards. [1 copy available]
$ 3.20 + $ 2.94 media shipping. International shipping available.

BUGSY (Extended But DVD - 2 discs)
by TriStar. Movie stills and cast photos front and back of box. Condition: NEW TriStar DVD release of the 1991 film. Shrink-wrapped. Content: This movie represents an almost miraculous combination of director, writer, and star on a project that represents a career highlight for everyone involved. It's one of the best American gangster movies ever made--as good in its own way as any of the Godfather films--and it's impossible to imagine anyone better than Beatty in the movie's flashy title role. As notorious mobster and Las Vegas visionary "Bugsy" Siegel, Beatty is perfectly cast as a man whose dreams are greater than his ability to realize them--or at least, greater than his ability to stay alive while making those dreams come true. With a glamorous Hollywood mistress (Annette Bening) who shares Bugsy's dream while pursuing her own upwardly mobile agenda, Bugsy seems oblivious to threats when he begins to spend too much of the mob's money on the creation of the Flamingo casino. Meyer Lansky (Ben Kingsley) and Mickey Cohen (Harvey Keitel) will support Bugsy's wild ambition to a point, after which all bets are off, and Bugsy's life hangs in the balance. From the obvious chemistry of Beatty and Bening (who met and later married off-screen) to the sumptuous reproduction of 1940s Hollywood, every detail in this movie feels impeccably right. Beatty is simply mesmerizing as the man who invented Las Vegas but never saw it thrive, moving from infectious idealism to brutal violence in the blink of an eye. Director Barry Levinson is also in peak form here, guiding the stylish story with a subtle balance of admiration and horror; we can catch Bugsy's Vegas fever and root for the gangster's success, but we know he'll get what he deserves. We might wish that Bugsy had lived to see his dream turn into a booming oasis, but the movie doesn't suggest that we should shed any tears. The movie was directed by Barry Levinson and co-stars Harvey Keitel, Ben Kingsley, Elliott Gould, Joe Mantegna, Bebe Neuwirth (my favorite), and Robert Beltran. Wonderful! The extras included are a new documentary on Bugsy and Bugsy's real screen test. [1 copy available]
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CITIZEN COHN: The Life and Times of Roy Cohn
by Nicholas von Hoffman. Two B&W photo sections. Condition: Gently pre-read, IF al all, 1988 Doubleday hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), third printing. Content: If you think Dick Cheney or Karl Rove are divisive figures, they don't hold a candle to Roy Cohn! Roy Cohn was not so much a lawyer as an operator. All his life, he preferred manipulating connections with the rich and powerful to playing by the rules diligently. von Hoffman's biography is a fuller and more damning account than Sidney Zion's, but it is fair; the extensive testimony from friends and foes alike make this almost an oral history. The chapter on Cohn's Washington years as counsel to Senator Joe McCarthy seems curiously out of focus, but the narrative quickly picks up steam as it details the indictments by Bobby Kennedy's Justice Department, the glory years as New York power broker, and finally disbarment and death from AIDS. This fascinating story of a figure at once brilliant and outrageous. A horrible man! The 1992 HBO movie is excellent - directed by Frank Pierson and starring the fabulous James Woods, Joe Don Baker, Joseph Bologna, Ed Flanders, Lee Grant, Frederic Forrest, and Pat Hingle. Don't miss it. [1 copy available]
$ 5.49 + $ 3.39 media shipping.

DOG DAY AFTERNOON (Movie Edition)
by Patrick Mann. Al Pachino movie poster art front cover. Condition: Good only, 1975 Dell paperback, first printing. Spine crease with rubbings top front cover. Moderate tanning interior page edges. Otherwise, interior clean & tight. Content: Your name is Little Joe and you have big ideas. As far as you're concerned, the law had better be scared of you - scared enough to hand you a million dollars and a jet airliner to take you to a place where you can enjoy the money. And there's nobody to say your're wrong as you and your crew hold a bank full of hostages and start turnign on the heat. The 1975 movie, directed by Sidney Lumet, starred Al Pachino, Penelope Allen, Sully Boyar, John Cazale, Beulah Garrick, Carol Kane, Chris Sarandan, and Charles Durning. Great humor and excitement. It's one of those must-see movies. [1 copy available]
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THE ELEPHANT MAN
by Christine Sparks. Movie art cover. Condition: Very Good, gently pre-read 1980 Ballantine paperback, first printing. Small diagonal crease bottom front cover corner with pale spine crase. Inteior clean & tight with light tanningn to page edges. Content: John Merrick had lived for more than twenty years imprisoned in a body that condemned him to a miserable life in the workhouse and to humiliation as a circus sideshow freak. But beneath that tragic exterior, within that enormous and deformed head, thrived the soul of a poet, the heart of a dreamer, the longings of a man. Based on the extraordinary motion picture that captured the heart of America. The 1980 movie, based on the true story of John Merrick, a 19th-century Englishman afflicted with a disfiguring congenital disease, starred John Hurt (as Merrick), Anthony Hopkins, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud, and Wendy Hiller. This was a 5-star movie and novelization. .[1 copy available]
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EVITA: The Real Life of Eva Peron
by Nicholas Fraser and Marysa Navarro. B&W era photos throughout. Condition: UNREAD 1996 Norton Trade Paperback, second printing. Originally published as "Eva Peron" in 1980, this edition contains a new Introduction and new Epilogue. Content: In the colorful, tumultuous setting of postwar Argentina, Eva Peron wielded a power--spiritual and practical--that has few parallels outside of hereditary monarchy. In this "fascinating, frightening, straightforward" biography, Fraser and Navarro have produced "a work of great political sophistication. . . . Factual, nuanced, and absorbing." This book has been the source for two movies. The first was a made-for-TV movie in 1981 simply titled Evita Peron and was directed by Marvin J. Chomsky and starred Faye Dunaway as Evita and James Farentino, Katy Jurado, Pedro Armendáriz Jr., Michael Constantine, Rita Moreno, Signe Hasso, and José Ferrer. This was a very good TV movie. Of course, what most people remember is the 1996 musical Evita directed by Alan Parker with Madonna, the most desirable Antonio Banderas, Jonathan Pryce, and Jimmy Nail. The Broadway musical (Rice & Parker) was wonderful and Patti LuPone was the ultimate Evita, IMHO. [1 copy available]
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GIDEON'S TRUMPET
by Anthony Lewis. Condition: UNREAD 1966 Vintage paperback. Tag removal mark top front cover. Interior clean & tight with tanning to page edges. Content: A history of the landmark case of James Earl Gideon's fight for the right to legal counsel. Notes, table of cases, index. The classic backlist bestseller. Also a great made-for-TV 1980 movie directed by Robert Collins, starring Henry Fonda (Gideon), José Ferrer, Fay Wray, John Houseman, Sam Jaffe, Dean Jagger, Lane Smith, and Ford Rainey. [1 copy available]
$ 3.89 + $ 2.94 media shipping.

GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING: A Novel
by Tracy Chevalier. Vermeer painting cover art. Condition: NEW 2001 Plume Trade Paperback, 8th printing. Content: With precisely 35 canvases to his credit, the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer represents one of the great enigmas of 17th-century art. The meager facts of his biography have been gleaned from a handful of legal documents. Yet Vermeer's extraordinary paintings of domestic life, with their subtle play of light and texture, have come to define the Dutch golden age. His portrait of the anonymous Girl with a Pearl Earring has exerted a particular fascination for centuries -- and it is this magnetic painting that lies at the heart of Chevalier's novel of the same title. The novel centers on Vermeer's prosperous Delft household during the 1660s. When Griet, the novel's quietly perceptive heroine, is hired as a servant, turmoil follows. First, the 16-year-old narrator becomes increasingly intimate with her master. Then Vermeer employs her as his assistant -- and ultimately has Griet sit for him as a model. Chevalier vividly evokes the complex domestic tensions of the household, ruled over by the painter's jealous, eternally pregnant wife and his taciturn mother-in-law. At times the relationship between servant and master seems a little anachronistic. Still, the book does contain a final delicious twist. The 2004 movie was directed by Peter Webber and starred Colin Firth, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson, Judy Parfitt, Cillian Murphy, & Rollo Weeks. [1 copy available]
$ 3.50 + $ 3.09 media shipping.

GLADYS AYLWARD: The Adventure of a Lifetime AND VHS Movie Inn of the Sixth Happiness (2 for 1)
by Janet & Geoff Benge. B&W maps illustrate. Condition: The book: UNREAD 1998 YWAM Trade Paperback, first printing. LIght tanning to page edges. The movie: Very good, gently pre-viewed (it was mine) 1994 Fox Video re-release in white plastic case. Guaranteed. Content: The story of Gladys Aylward (Christian Heroes: Then & Now Series) and her mission in China is well known - the maid who became a missionary even when her church mission rejected her missionary application. The 1957 movie with Ingrid Bergman, Curt Jurgens, and the wonderful Robert Donat (directed by Mark Robeson) throws in a bit of romance that doesn't seem to appear elsewhere - but I could be wrong. At any rate, the movie is wonderful and inspiring. Questions welcome [1 copy available]
$ 9.50 + $ 3.59 media shipping.

GORILLAS IN THE MIST
by Dian Fossey. Three B&W photo sections. B&W drawings by Jay Matternas. Sigourney Weaver movie still front cover. Condition: UNREAD 1988 Houghton Mifflin Trade Paperback, movie edition. Tiny edgewear. Content: In 1963, an occupational therapist from Kentucky, in uncertain health and spirits, traveled to central Africa in the quixotic hope of seeing a mountain gorilla in its natural habitat. Dian Fossey had read everything she could about the reclusive and much-feared animal, and she returned from her trip convinced that most of the books were wrong. During her seven-week stay in Africa, Fossey had a chance encounter with the famed primatologists Mary and Louis Leakey, who encouraged her to follow her dream of living among the mountain gorillas and learning their ways. In 1967 she did just that, setting up a camp on the slopes of the 14,000-foot Virunga Volcanoes of Rwanda and studying four gorilla families there. Although it took them some time to accept Fossey's presence among them, she was immediately impressed by their peaceful nature and by their generous, guileless behavior--so unlike the images found in popular culture. But, Fossey discovered, despite their peaceable way of life, the gorillas had many enemies in the form of poachers who hunted them for their hands, skins, and heads--ghastly remains sold to the tourist market. Much of Fossey's thoughtful but often rightly angry memoir Gorillas in the Mist is a well-reasoned plea for the protection of the gorillas and the suppression of the poachers' black market. That argument found a wide audience when her book was published in 1983, but Fossey's work remains unfinished: she was murdered, probably by those very poachers, in 1985, and today there are fewer than 650 mountain gorillas in the wild. To read this book is a first step for anyone concerned with their preservation, and that of other wild species everywhere. The wonderful 1988 movie was directed by Michael Apted and starred Sigourney Weaver, Bryan Brown, Julie Harris, John Omirah Miluwi, Iain Cuthbertson, & Gordon Masten. A classic - both the book & the movie. [1 copy available]
$ 2.50 + $ 3.09 media shipping.

HAYWIRE
by Brooke Hayward. B&W family photos throughout the book. Condition: Good only, 1981 Bantam paperback edition, 13th printing. Pale spine crease with very slight roll, small edgewear. Interior clean & tight but tanning lightly. Content: "I'm the daughter of a father who's been married five times. Mother killed herself. My sister killed herself. My brother has been in a mental institution. I'm 23 and divorced with two kids. - Brooke Hayward" One of the highlights of this book is the story of Brooke Hayward and Jane Fonda (childhood friends) discovering their parents had once been married to each other and neither of them knew. Gut-wrenching, haunting but entertaining and informative look at stardom and children of the stars. The made-for-TV movie is a gem if you can find it - Lee Remick and Jason Robards play Leland Hayward and Margaret Sullavan. [1 copy available]
$ 4.89 + $ 2.89 media shipping

HENRY VIII (DVD) [2003]
directed by Pete Travis. Condition: NEW (shrink-wrapped) 2003 Granada DVD. Content: Everyone knows gthe story of Henry VIII and his six wives, so I won't bore you. The tragic history of Henry VIII gets a brash, full-blooded treatment in this well-cast, two-part production for British TV. Having made a vicious impression in the acclaimed 2000 gangster film Sexy Beast, Ray Winstone plays Henry as a self-doubting, insecure brute with base instincts and a healthy suspicion toward his not-so-loyal subjects. Director Travis and writer Morgan can be forgiven for neglecting the greater scope of history; by leaving epic battles off-screen and focusing on the intrigues and betrayals surrounding Henry's infamous succession of six ill-fated wives, this authentic-looking melodrama succeeds as a tightly paced study of hidden agendas among the King's immediate staff. In a story that involves religious upheaval, infidelity, courtly corruption, and Henry's anguished obsession to sire a male heir to the throne, Helena Bonham Carter (as Anne Boleyn) is an obvious stand-out in an excellent cast, while Winstone's volatile Cockney bearishness drew mild objections from royal-drama purists. The film doesn't flinch from the brutality of the early 1500s when Henry reigned with an iron fist (including several beheadings to drive the point home), so this Henry VIII is not for kids or the faint of heart. Taken on its own terms, however, it's a rich, irresistible example of superior British filmmaking. This made-for-TV movie stars Ray Winstone (King Arthur) as Henry with Joss Ackland, Charles Dance, Assumpta Serna (Katherine of Aragon), Helena Bonham Carter (Anne Boleyn), Emilia Fox (Jane Seymour), Pia Girard (Anne of Cleves), Emily Blunt (Catherine Howard), Clare Holman (Catherine Parr), Sean Bean, and David Suchet. [1 copy available]
$ 4.59 + $ 3.09 first class shipping

HIDEOUS KINKY: A Novel
by Esther Freud. Kate Winslet front cover. Condition: UNREAD 1998 Ecco Press Trade Paperback, third printing. Content: In this semi-autobiographical novel based on her own childhood, Freud (Summer at Gaglow), tells the story of Julia, a hippie mother traveling with her young daughters, Lucia and Bea, through North Africa in the 1960s. (The girls, true to their impish nature, love to use the words "hideous" and "kinky.") Events are described through the eyes of five-year-old Lucia, and therefore rely more intensely on sensations than on concrete details. This book is a novel less about an exotic country seen through an innocent's eyes than about family, about having a deeply embarrassing mother, an older sister who does everything before you, and a distant father. It escapes sentimentality through simplicity: "Bilal was my Dad. No one denied it when I said so." The author, her sister, and her mother spent two years in Morocco, and while Esther Freud may not have invented her subject, she has re-created it with a light touch and delicate irony. The 1998 movie was directed by Gillies MacKinnon and starred Kate Winslelt, Said Taghmaoui, Kevin McKidd, and Bella Riza. [1 copy available]
$ 5.00 + $ 3.19 media shipping

HILARY AND JACKIE: The true story of two sisters who shared a passion, a madness and a man (aka A Genius in the Family
by Hilary du Pre and Piers du Pre. Movie cover photo with B&W photo section. Condition: Read to page 10. Like-new 1998 Ballantine Trade Paperback, first American printing. 2 pale "spots" fore edges. Content: From the moment Jacqueline du Pré first held a cello at the age of five, it was clear she had an extraordinary gift. At sixteen, when she made her professional debut, she was hailed as one of the world's most talented and exciting musicians. But ten years later, she stopped playing virtually overnight, when multiple sclerosis removed the feeling in her hands just before a concert. It took fourteen more years for the crippling disease to take its final toll. In this uniquely revealing biography, Hilary and Piers du Pré have re-created the life they shared with their sister in astonishing personal detail, unveiling the private world behind the public face. With warmth and candor they recount Jackie's blissful love of the cello, her marriage to the conductor Daniel Barenboim, her compulsions, her suffering, and, above all, the price exacted by her talent on the whole family. For proud as they were of Jackie's enormous success, none of them was prepared for the profound impact her genius would have on each of their lives. The 1998 movie was directed by Anand Tucker and starred Emily Watson, Rachel Griffiths, James Frain, David Morrissey, Charles Dance, and Rupert Penry-Jones. [1 copy available]
$ 5.00 + $ 3.19 media shipping

HOT TODDY:
The True Story of Hollywood's Most Shocking Crime - The Murder of Thelma Todd
by Andy Edmonds. Loni Anderson TV movie cover with B&W photo section of the "real" Thelma Todd. Condition: Very good 1990 Avon Books Paperback second printing. Tiny edgewear with short spider crease front cover at hinge. Pale spine crease. Very nice pre-read book. Content: Reviewer: "When Thelma Todd was found dead in her garaged car on December 16, 1935, the authorities declared it a suicide. But many suspected this was a murder. Some of the suspects were: her business associate; her cafe treasurer; a gangster (Lucky Luciano) involved with gambling, drugs, and prostitution; and her former husband. The author became interested in this case, spent seven years researching old records, interviewing men who had inside knowledge of the underworld, and the personal letters of Thelma Todd. These were used to recreate the true story of this murder." Fascinating book. Fairly good TV movie with Loni Anderson. [1 copy available]
$ 5.50 + $ 2.89 media shipping.

THE HURRICANE [DVD - Collector's Edition, Widescreen]
written by Armyan Bernstein, Dan Gordon, Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, Sam Chaiton, Terry Swinton. Movie stills both covers. Condition: NEW (shrink-wrapped) 2001 Universal DVD release of the 2000 movie. Content: In his direction of The Hurricane, veteran filmmaker Norman Jewison understands that slavish loyalty to factual detail is no guarantee of compelling screen biography. In telling the story of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter--who was wrongly convicted of murder in 1967 and spent nearly two decades in jail--Jewison and his screenwriters compress time, combine characters, and rearrange events with a nonchalance that would be galling if they didn't remain honest to the core truth of Carter's ordeal. Because of that emotional integrity--and because Denzel Washington brings total conviction to his title role--The Hurricane rises above the confines of biographical fidelity to embrace higher values of courage, compassion, and ultimate justice. Lesra's real-life Canadian mentors are compressed from nine characters to three, but their efforts are superbly dramatized, and Jewison hits the small but important grace notes that make a good film even better. By its final scenes, The Hurricane conveys the rich, rewarding satisfaction of surviving a difficult but valuable journey of mind, body, and soul. The 2000 movie also starred Vicellous Reon Shannon, Deborah Kara Unger, Liev Schreiber, John Hannah, Dan Hedaya, Debbie Morgan, David Paymer, and Rod Steiger. [1 copy available]
$ 4.50 + $ 3.09 first class shipping.

ISHI, LAST OF HIS TRIBE
by Theodora Kroeber. B&W illustrations by Ruth Robbins. Condition: UNREAD 1989 Bantam Starfire paperback, 18th printing. Tiny edgewear and pale tanning to page edges. Content: The Yahi lived peacefully in California for hundreds of years - until they were violently wiped out by the invading white man in the early 1900s. Only a few bold Yahi escaped into hiding, among them the man who became known as Ishi. Soon, one by one, the last of the Yahi died - until Ishi was left alone, the sole survivor of a pround people. When he stumbled into a small California mining town, the world learned his true story for the first time. This is the incredible story of the last hero of the Yahi tribe, and how he brought to civilization all the courage, faith, and strength of the Yahi Way of Life. The 1994 movie starred the great Graham Greene as Ishi, Jon Voight as Kroeber, and Anne Archer. It's a gem! [1 copy available]
$ 3.95 + $2.94 media shipping. Priority & International shipping available.

ISHI IN TWO WORLDS: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America
by Theodora Kroeber. B&W era photos of Ishi "at work." Condition: NEW 1989 Univ. of California Press Trade Paperback, 24th printing. Content: The Yahi lived peacefully in California for hundreds of years - until they were violently wiped out by the invading white man in the early 1900s. Only a few bold Yahi escaped into hiding, among them the man who became known as Ishi. Soon, one by one, the last of the Yahi died - until Ishi was left alone, the sole survivor of a pround people. When he stumbled into a small California mining town, the world learned his true story for the first time. This is the incredible story of the last hero of the Yahi tribe, and how he brought to civilization all the courage, faith, and strength of the Yahi Way of Life. The 1994 movie starred the great Graham Greene as Ishi, Jon Voight as Kroeber, and Anne Archer. It's a gem! [1 copy available]
$ 5.55 + $ 3.09 media shipping.

JOAN OF ARC (Book & VHS - 2 for 1) (Movie Edition)
by Frances Winwar. Ingrid Bergman movie still cover art. Condition: The interior is clean & tight but tanning/the cover has problems: peeling along the hinge into the spine, some edgewear. The VHS movie is a former rental and is in very good condition but the box has some edgewear and a small tag removal mark front box cover. Guaranteed to play correctly. Content: Note from cover: Frances Winwar's famous book, The Saint and the Devil, especially rewritten for extra enjoyment of Sierra Pictures' epic film in Technicolor starring Ingrid Bergman." I guess that says it all. Unfortunately, I have not read The Saint and the Devil so I cannot tell you the additions/changes. The 1950 movie was directed by Victor Fleming and starred Bergman, Jose Ferrer, John Ireland, Leif Erickson, Ward Bond, William Conrad, and J. Carrol Nash. Certainly one of the most "dramatic" of the "Joan movies." [1 copy available]
$ 14.50 + $ 3.19 media shipping.

JOAN OF ARC: Her Story (Movie Tie-In)
by Regine Pernoud & Marie-Veronique Clin (translation by Jeremy Adams). B&W photo section. Condition: NEW 1999 St. Martin's Griffin Trade Paperback, first printing. Revised & translated by Jeremy Adams. Beautiful cover art of "Joan" by Jean Dominique, 1854. Content: The peasant girl who led an army against the English and placed Charles VII on the French throne has inspired countless books since her death at age 19. While others have claimed Joan the Maid (as she called herself) for every cause from feminism to working-class radicalism, this meticulous volume by two French scholars sticks close to the known facts. The authors make extensive use of contemporary documents that bring to life the turbulent political scene in which Joan operated as well as her forceful personality. Joan followed the directives of voices she believed were sent to her by God; her deep piety, self-assurance, decisiveness, and shrewd intelligence radiate from her letters and from her responses to hostile questioning at the rigged trial that resulted in her being burned alive as a heretic in 1431. Basis for the 1999 movie, The Messenger, by Luc Besson. The movie starred Milla Jovovich, Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, John Malkovich, Tchéky Karyo, and Vincent Cassel. [While I like most of the "Joan" movies, this one is my favorite.] [1 copy available]
$ 8.55 + $ 3.29 media shipping.

LAKOTA WOMAN
by Mary Crow Dog with Richard Erdoes. B&W photos illustrate. Condition: NEW 1991 HarperPerennial Trade PB first thus, 36th printing. Tiny edgewear. Content: This is one of the best books available to people interested in contemporary Native Americans. Mary Brave Bird's life story sheds light on traditions of her Lakota (Sioux) people from the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations in South Dakota. She shows, in a very clear way, their tortured history with the missionaries, state bureaucracy, the courts, the FBI and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). We see to what extent the government has succeeded in destroying the old life and how small groups of the Sioux managed to preserve traditional ways and ceremonies. Reissued at the time of the TNT movie which, if you have not seen it, run to your local video store! The 1994 TNT TV movie (Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee) was directed by Frank Pierson and starred the wonderful Irene Bedard, Lawrence Byrne, Nathan Bison, Kathy Burnett, Tantoo Cardinal, Michael Horse, Pato Hoffmann, Tim Sampson, August Schellenberg and the late Floyd 'Red Crow' Westerman. [2 copies available]
$ 6.49 + $ 3.19 media shipping. Priority & International shipping available.

THE LAST DAYS OF PATTON (Made-For-TV Movie)
by Ladislas Farago. Condition: UNREAD 1986 Berkley paperback, 8th printing. There is a pale, thin binder's glue string down the spine. Tanning to page edges. Content: The end of WW II found him at the height of his glory, his tanks poised for more of the lightning thrusts that made him a legend. A year later America's greatest military hero was gone...his victories downplayed by the top brass, his life closed in an accident that is still a subject of controversy today. The 1986 TV movie was directed by Delbert Mann and starred George C. Scott, Eva Marie Saint, Richard Dysart, Murray Hamilton, and Ed Lauter. [1 copy available]
$ 6.49 + $ 3.09 media shipping.

LAZARUS AND THE HURRICANE & THE HURRICANE (Collector's Edition DVD) [2 for 1]
by Sam Chaiton and Terry Swinton. B&W photo section. Denzel Washington & movie stills both sides DVD box. Condition: UNREAD 1999 St. Martin's hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), no printing given. The DVD is new (shrink-wrapped), widescreen collector's edition. Content: In 1979, Lesra, a 16-year-old African American boy from an impoverished Brooklyn neighborhood, befriended three thirtysomething Canadians in the borough on business. The boy, whom the Canadians flew to Toronto to visit them, had led a life so far from the comforts of nature that he stumbled trying to walking on a lawn. Charmed by the exuberant and obviously intelligent Lesra (Lazarus), and aware that without decent health care, a safe environment, or an education he would have little or no hope of success in his dangerous neighborhood, this exceptional group of people invited him to live with and be educated by them. Lesra thrived under their watch--but the story of Lazarus and the Hurricane is only beginning. After finally being taught to read, at age 16, Lesra immerses himself in The Sixteenth Round, the autobiography of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. The African American prizefighter was tried and convicted in 1966 for murders he didn't commit (the book's title refers to his bouts with the legal system as he tries to get himself exonerated). Lesra and his Canadian "family" pursued both a cause and a friendship with Carter that would transform all of their lives. The Canadians are active but not particularly distinct personalities in this book--a group of do-gooders who don't want too much credit. And Lesra, though he is finely described in early chapters, also falls away from the center of the story once Carter comes into view, for the Hurricane is a centrifugal force that cannot be ignored. Widely read and sensitive, but also pleasure-loving and intensely vital, Carter is the reason readers will be unable to forget this story. And they shouldn't. As Carter revives his fight with the support of his new friends and generous lawyers, working through a byzantine maze of court rulings and appeals, the shortcomings of America's legal and prison systems are made painfully clear. The compelling, bittersweet story in Lazarus and the Hurricane should be a call to action. Additional: Written by two Canadians who, despite no formal legal training, joined the legal battle to free Carter, it has the advantage of an unusual inside perspective. Imprisoned in 1967 for the slaying of two white men and a white woman the previous year, Carter had already published a memoir, become a cause celebre and inspired the Bob Dylan song "Hurricane" when Chaiton and Swinton stumbled upon his story in the late 1970s. The 1999 movie was directed by Norman Jewison and starred the great Denzel Washington, Vicellous Reon Shannon, Liev Schreiber, John Hannah, Dan Hedaya, Debbi Morgan, David Paymer, Harris Yulin, and Rod Steiger. Excellent! [1 copy available]
$ 13.49 + $ 3.29 media shipping

THE LIFE & DEATH OF PETER SELLERS (DVD) [HBO 2004]
directred by Stephen Hopkins. Condition: NEW (shrink-wrapped) 2004 HBO DVD. Content: Geoffrey Rush is in bravura form in his shape-shifting performance as one of the cinema's great chameleons: Peter Sellers. This higgledy-piggledy biopic races across the high and low points of Sellers's adult life, pretty much sticking to the standard explanation (endorsed by Sellers himself) that his genius for mimickry and impersonation was the result of lacking a personality of his own. Sellers's monstrous treatment of wives and colleagues is balanced by his childlike enthusiasms, all nicely captured by Rush. As for the re-creations of Sellers routines from The Goon Show or Dr. Strangelove, Rush gives it a game and sometimes inspired go. Other characters are as incidental as they seem to have been to Sellers himself, with Miriam Margolyes (as Peter's grasping, goading mother) and Emily Watson (patient first wife) especially good. Charlize Theron is Britt Ekland, with little more to do than adopt a Swedish accent. The events chosen to illustrate Sellers's neuroses seem random-- from a drawn-out infatuation with Sophia Loren to his feud with Blake Edwards--and the film piles up until Sellers's heart finally gives out. The 2004 HBO movie stars, in addition to Rush, Charlize Theron (Britt Ekland), Emily Watson (Anne Sellers), John Lithgow (Blake Edwards), Stanley Tucci (Stanley Kubrick), and Sonia Aquino (Sophia Loren). Excellent. [1 copy available]
$ 4.00 + $ 3.09 first class shipping.

LORETTA LYNN: COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER
by Loretta Lynn with George Vecsey. Two B&W photo sections. Condition: PLEASE READ. / CONDITION: UNREAD, but not perfect, 1976 Henry Regnery hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), Book Club Edition. DJ shows edge wear and tiny chips and tears. The book itself is clean & tight. Content: Born in 1935 into abject poverty, married at age thirteen, mother of six, and a grandmother by age 29, Loretta Lynn went on to become one of the most prolific and influential singers in modern country music. Her success includes sixteen #1 singles, fifteen #1 albums, and sixty other hits, including "Honky Tonk Girl," "Before I'm Over You," "The Pill," and "After The Fire Is Gone." In 1972 Lynn was the first woman to become the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year. This book, a bestseller and the basis of the Oscar-winning film, is her own revealing story of her journey from Butcher Hollow, Kentucky to Nashville stardom, told in a voice as clear, natural, and powerful as the best of her songs. The 1980 movie was directed by Michael Apted and starred Sissy Spacek (who did all her own singing), Tommy Lee Jones, William Sanderson, and Beverly D'Angelo as Patsy Cline. 7 Oscars - 1 for Spacek. [1 copy available]
$ 16.00 + $ 3.09 media shipping. Priority shipping available.

LOVE YOU TO BITS AND PIECES: Life With Dvid Helfgott (Shine
by Gillian Helfgott with Alissa Tanskaya. B&W photo section with movie cast photos as well. David Helfgott photo front cover. Condition: Gently pre-read 1997 Penguin Books Trade Paperback, 6th printing. Small edgewear with pale hinge crease. Light tanning to page edges. Content: This poignant story of a great musical talent blurred by mental illness is brilliantly portrayed in the movie Shine. With frank detail, humor, and great understanding, Helfgott offers details that bring deeper insight into the life of her husband, Australian pianist David Helfgott. David's father, an impoverished Jewish immigrant and a frustrated musician, pinned all his hopes on his musically gifted oldest son, who showed "nervous" tendencies at an early age. By 14, David was winning Australian piano competitions, but ultimately he had to break with his father in order to study in London. Three years of study at the Royal College of Music culminated in his triumphant performance of the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto. But the strain was too great and David had a complete mental breakdown. Returning to Australia, he was institutionalized much of the next 12 years; when he met Gillian, he was beginning to play again, in a piano bar. The story of their life together, and David's dramatic improvement and return to performing, are the heart of this book. Readers will find this sympathetic portrait fascinating; those who are familiar with the movie will find this closer look at David Helfgott's life equally rewarding. The wonderful 1996 movie of Helfgott's life, Shine, was directed by Scott Hicks and starred Geoffrey Rush (Academy Award), Justin Braine, Sonia Todd, Aussie acting staple Chris Haywood, Alex Rafalowicz, Armin Mueller-Stahl , and Lynn Redgrave. Not to be missed! [1 copy available]
$ 1.50 + $ 3.09 media shipping.

LIVING FREE (Sequel to Born Free)
by Joy Adamson. 4 B&W photo sections. Condition: UNREAD 1966 Bantam paperback, first printing. wonderful condition - no tanning either! Content: This book picks up where Born Free left off with Elsa, the lioness who lives in two worlds, raising her cubs in the African bush with the aid of her devoted friends Joy and George Adamson. The 1972 movie was directed by Jack Couffer and starred Susan Hampshire, Nigel Davenport, Geoffrey Keen, and Robert Beaumont. No notes on who played Elsa. A great animal movie. [1 copy available]
$ 2.50 + $ 2.94 media shipping.

LUST FOR LIFE
by Irving Stone. Condition: UNREAD 1977 Pocket Books edition, 25th printing (c. 1985). Pale tanning to white cover edges & interior pages edges. Tiny edgewear. Interior clean & tight. Content: This is a biographical novel of the Dutch painter, Vincent Van Gogh and is based primarily on Van Gogh's three volumes of letters to his brother, Theo. Van Gogh was a violent, clumsy and passionate man who was driven to the extremity of exhaustion by his fervor to get life -- the essence of it -- into paint. Irving Stone treats the artist with great compassion and gives us a portrait that is sympathetic but fair. The 1956 movie was directed by the great Vincente Minnelli (yup, Liza's dad) and starred Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, James Donald, Pamela Brown, Everett Sloane, and Marion Ross (in a small role). Rent or buy, but don't miss this movie! [1 copy available]
$ 9.50 + $ 2.94 media shipping.

MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS (Historical Fiction)
by John Hale. Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson movie stills front cover. Condition: Good+, 1972 Pan Books (London) paperback, fist printing. Pale vertical crease front cover near fore edge, small edgewear, and moderate tanning to interior page edges. Content: This is John Hale's take on the conflict between two queens in "one country" - Mary of Scotland and Queen Elizabeth I of England - ending in death for Mary. The 1972 movie was directed by Charles Jarrott and boasts a cast of England's best actors: Vanessa Redgrave, Glenda Jackson, patrick McGoohan, Timothy Dalton, Nigel Davenport, Trevor Howard, Daniel Massey and Ian Holm. Wonderful movie; great book. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 4.59 + $ 2.94 media shipping.

MEPHISTO
by Klaus Mann. Condition: UNREAD 1983 Penguin Trade Paperback, no printing given. Light edge wear and light tanning to page edges. Content: An actor's diabolical performance as Mephistopheles culminates in his chilling rise to power in Nazi Germany. Hendrik Hofgen is obsessed by a maniacal passion to be a famous actor. When the Nazis come to power, he renounces his Communist past and deserts his wife and mistress in order to keep performing. His triumph in his role as Mephisto gains him the advocacy of Hermann Goring and wins him an appointment to head of the State Theater. Hofgen has reached the apogee of his career - now he must face the devasting moral consequences of how he got there. This searing indictment of evil, by the son of Thomas Mann, was made into the movie that won the 1981 Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Based firmly on the real-life career of the author's brother-in-law Gustav Grundgens, the book was banned in Germany for many years. The movie was directed by István Szabó and starred the wonderful Klaus Maria Brandauer, Krystyna Janda, and Ildikó Bánsági. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 1.59 + $ 3.09 media shipping. Priority shipping available.

MICHAEL COLLINS (Screnplay and Film Diary)
by Neil Jordan. B&W movie stills illustrate. Condition: NEW 1996 Plume hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first printing. Content: Neil Jordan, the versatile director of Mona Lisa, The Crying Game, and Interview with a Vampire, had wanted to make Michael Collins, his most recent film, for 15 years. This book provides the finished screenplay to Michael Collins, as well as the diaries Jordan kept while shooting the movie. Writing with enthusiasm and candor, Jordan meditates on contemporary Irish acting and filmmaking, reveals the delights and difficulties of making a film as complex and beautiful as Michael Collins, and talks about getting good performances from Liam Neeson and Julia Roberts. If you loved the movie (and I did), this is a great book for you. The 1996 Movie, directed by Neil Jordan, starring the great Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, Stephen Rea, Alan Rickman, & Julia Roberts. Questions welcome [1 copy available]
$ 7.95 + $ 3.19 media shipping.

MIDNIGHT EXPRESS
by Billy Hayes with William Hoffer. Condition: UNREAD 1979 E. P. Dutton hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), third printing. There is a book plate on the loose end page. No name, just a blank book plate. Content: Reviewer: "This was a rare instance when I saw the movie before I read the book. The movie, although excellent, left me a little empty inside because I needed to know if the whole story had been told correctly. We all know, nine times out of ten, the book version of a movie is usually more accurate, has more detail, more events and incidents, more detail about the characters in the background such as parents etc., and is much more realistic. It was true with this story too! The book did turn out to be much more revealing and I found many incidents in the book which were not in the movie as I'd thought the case would be. The book is about a real life drug smuggling incident which occured in Turkey. Billy Hayes claimed it was the 'first' time he'd ever done such a thing but I have heard differently in the press. Anyway, Billy was caught with a moderate amount of drugs on his body. The same amount found on someone in the USA would probably result in a small fine if it were the person's first offense. That wasn't the case for Billy who after being questioned by the Turkish police for many hours, ended up in the most hellish prison with a wide assortment of inmates. There were even children in the prison who had been caught stealing. The book is a page turner which describes in great detail, the pure hell that Billy goes through as his ordeal unwinds. From his many court appearances to his daily problems of survival at the prison. If this book is true, then Billy went through the worst experience of a lifetime but if he's making the story sound a little more dramatic by telling lies to the reader, then I don't feel sorry for him at all. He broke the law and the law says, you must pay for your crimes. The problem I have with Billy's criminal act was the horrendous sentence he received for his crime for being in the wrong place. I do hope his story is truthful though otherwise, he made a lot of money off of the book and the movie rights from people like us who believed he'd been to hell and back. I've been hearing so many contradictory statements concerning his book that I have been wondering about it. Either way, whether you saw the movie or not, this book is a fantastic, page turner which will keep you on the edge of your seat! Then when you've read the book first (which I wish I'd done), then rent the video and see the movie! Talk about heartstopper!" The fabulous 1978 movie was directed by Alan Parker and starred the late, great Brad Davis, the underrated Randy Quaid, John Hurt, Bo Hopkins, and Irene Miracle. Questions welcome [1 copy available]
$ 18.39 + $ 3.19 media shipping.

MISS POTTER (Movie Novelization)
by Richard Maltby, Jr. Color movie stills section. Condition: NEW 2006 F. Warne & Co. (appropriately) Trade Paperback, first printing. Content: Her imagination and her talent for painting were Beatrix Potter's only escape from her restricted routine. But then the publication of her children's book propels her into a new life, where for the first time she experiences success, independence, and most unexpected of all, love. Maltby first wrote Potter's story as a film script. For the novel, the author expanded the plotline of the script, blending historical fact with imagintive interpretation to tell the moving story of a remarkable woman's journey to love and fulfillment. [If you haven't seen the movie, rush to Blockbuster and rent it!] The 2006 movie was directed by Chris Noonan and starred Rene Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, Emily Watson, Bill Patterson, Barbara Flynn, Lloyd Owen, and one of my favorite British character actors, David Bamber. IMHO, Flynn steals the movie as the ultimate mother-from-hell! Questions welcome [1 copy available]
$ 3.95 + $ 3.09 media shipping.

MRS. SOFFEL (DVD)
dired by Gillian Armstrong. Keaton-Gibson front & back covers. Condition: NEW 2002 Warner Home Video release of the 1984 movie. Still shrink-wrapped. Content: An air of gothic romanticism pervades every aspect of this remarkable film, based on a true story from the turn of the 20th century. In its torrid plot, one can hear the icy restraints of the Victorian era cracking. Diane Keaton is uncannily perfect as Kate Soffel, wife of a priggish prison warden (Edward Herrmann). She's funny and touching playing what used to be called a "neurasthenic"--a nervous, depressed woman with mysterious physical ailments. When the film opens, Kate is just recovering from a three-month-long spell, and back at work preaching to the inmates in her husband's prison. Whom should she encounter but dangerous death row inmate Ed Biddle, in the irresistible person of Mel Gibson. The forbidden affair that blossoms between them is feverishly exciting, but the film operates on myriad other levels. Director Armstrong and screenwriter Ron Nyswaner have much to say about capital punishment, and about the miserable fate of women in this repressive society who dare to act on their passions. There's nothing morally clear-cut in this movie, which is what makes it consistently fascinating. Kate and Ed's romance is as right as it is wrong; we never really know how to feel about either of them. The film's stunning cinematography and superb period details are exhilarating, from the towering, bleak beauty of the prison to the gorgeous panoramic chase scenes of horse-drawn sleighs in the snow. Excellent! The movie also stars Matthew Modine, Edward Herrmann, and Trini Alvarado. [1 copy available]
$ 4.49 + $ 3.09 first class shipping.

MY DOG SKIP (Movie Edition)
by Willie Morris. Frankie Muniz and Skip movie still cover art. Condition: NEW 1996 Vintage Books softcover, no printing given. Light tanning to white cover edges. Content: This book is for anyone - male or female - who was ever owned by a dog and will never forget it. This is a true story. In 1943, nine-year-old Morris first met Skip, an English smooth-haired fox terrier puppy who immediately went to sleep in his arms. From that magical moment of connection ("I was an only child, and he now was an only dog") until Morris left home to go to college, boy and dog were inseparable companions. In this sweetly sentimental memoir, the author recalls growing up with Skip in the small, sleepy town of Yazoo, Mississippi. Unlike the other dogs Morris's family had owned, Skip was special. He could play football, running the "Statue of Liberty" play, much to the amazement of spectators ("Look at that dog playin' football!"). With a little assistance from Morris, Skip could drive a car ("Look at that ol' dog drivin' a car!"). He could run the 100-yard dash in 7.8 seconds, a world record for fox terriers. For anyone who has ever loved a dog, Morris's loving tribute will be a delightful read. [1 copy available]
$ 3.50 + $ 2.89 media shipping.

NEVER CRY WOLF
by Farley Mowat. Condition: UNREAD 1968 Dell Laurel paperback, 4th printing. Tanning & rubbings along white cover edges with pale tanning to page edges. . Content: More than a half-century ago the Canadian Wildlife Service assigned the naturalist Farley Mowat to investigate why wolves were killing arctic caribou. Mowat's account of the summer he lived in the frozen tundra alone-studying the wolf population and developing a deep affection for the wolves (who were of no threat to caribou or man) and for a friendly Inuit tribe known as the Ihalmiut ("People of the Deer")-is a work that has become cherished by generations of readers, an indelible record of the myths and magic of wild wolves. The great 1983 movie was directed by Carroll Ballard and starred Charles Martin Smith (as Mowat), Brian Dennehy, and Zachary Ittimangnaq. Don't miss it. [1 copy available]
$ 2.49 + $ 2.94 media shipping.

THE PRINCE AND THE LILY
by James Brough. B&W photo section. . Condition: UNREAD 1979 Ballantine paperback, second printing. Light edge wear with some tanning to page edges. Content: The Prince: Edward VII - Prince of Wales, heir to the throne, lover of race horses and the gaming life, and regal admirer of the Victorian world's most beautiful women. The Lily: Mrs. Lillie Langtry - one of the most stunningly beautiful women in England, an elegant sensualist, model to the greatest painters of the age, and the first publicaly avowed mistress to the man who would be King. Together, their private joy set the tone of an era, as a nation and people celebrated the return of romance - and a country girl turned an impossible dream into a wonderful, royal reality. The British TV series (based on this book) is not available in the U.S. - yet. [1 copy available]
$ 6.49 + $ 2.94 media shipping.

PRISONER WITHOUT A NAME, CELL WITHOUT A NUMBER
by Jacobo Timerman. Condition: UNREAD, but not perfect, 1982 Vintage paperback, no printing given. Light edge wear with a name inside front cover. Content: Timerman, former editor of the independent Buenos Aires newspaper La Opinion and for some years one of the foremost human-rights cases in the world, was arrested without charge by the Argentine military junta in 1977. For 30 months he was held and tortured in clandestine prisons, then put under house arrest after the Argentine Supreme Court ordered his release (following intense international, mostly American, pressure), and finally stripped of his citizenship and sent packing to Israel in 1979. His rage, in this memoir, is only bested by his profound sadness. The idea of utter terrorist anarchy in a modern state, terrorism fought by a government become terrorist itself, Left and Right perfectly aligned, is one that Timerman leaves go after only pointed analysis. What cankers him uncontrollably is the silence, within and without Argentina, that has greeted the recrudescence of a full Nazi state 30 years after that was never supposed to happen again. In prison, in the torture chamber, in the military court, it wasn't Timerman the political gadfly under duress, primarily - it was purely Timerman the Jew. "One could hate a political prisoner for belonging to the opposite camp, but one could also try to convince him, turn him around, make him understand his error, switch sides, get him to work for you. But how can a Jew be changed? The 1983 TV movie was directed by Linda Yellen and starred Roy Scheider, Liv Ullman, Trini Alvarado, Zach Galligan, and Sam Robards. [1 copy available]
$ 3.00 + $ 2.94 media shipping.

ROMMEL THE DESERT FOX
by Desmond Young. B&W maps and photo section. Condition: NEW 1986 Quill Trade Paperback edition, 10th printing. Tiny edge wear bottom cover edge. Interior clean & tight. Content: Early in 1941, the famed British Eighth Army was on the route to victory in North Africa. Just a few months later, this same army was on the verge of total defeat, as the Germans had won victory after victory and were threatening to overrun Egypt and the Middle East. Here is the classic biography of the man who masterminded this great turnabout, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, commander of the German Afrika Korps. The man who burned Hitler's order to execute British raiders and who gave Allied prisoners the same food and medical treatment as his German troops. The tough general who personally conducted reconnaissance under fire in an open car while his tank commanders hid in armored turrets. The author of this book, Brigadier General Desmond Young, fought against Rommel in North Africa, was captured by him, and after his release at the end of the war visited Rommel's family and talked with many of his fellow officers. Thus, he is able to tell us about intrigues that went on in the German High Command during the war, he is able to give a blow-by-blow description of such decisive battles as Tobruk and El Alamein, and he is able to give personal anecdotes about Rommel and to sort out the facts from the legends that have sprung up around this extraordinary general. This book is the basis for the great old 1951 movie, The Desert Fox, which was directed by Henry Hathaway and starred James Mason, Cedric Hardwicke, Jessica Tandy, Luther Adler, Leo G. Carroll, Richard Boone, Eduard Franz (as Von Stauffenberg), and Young as himself. Haven't seen it? Don't miss it. Netflix has it. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 9.29 + $ 3.09 media shipping. Priority & International shipping available.

SCHINDLER'S LIST: A Novel (Movie edition)
by Thomas Keneally. B&W photos. Condition NEW 1993 Touchstone Trade Paperback, 8th printing. Content: A stunning novel based on the true story of how German war profiteer and prison camp Direktor Oskar Schindler came to save more Jews from the gas chambers than any o ther single person during World War II. In this milestone of Holocaust literature, Keneally uses the actual testimony of the Schindlerjuden - Schindler's Jews - to brilliantly protray the courage and cunning of a good man in the midst of unspeakable evil. The 1993 movie was directed by Steven Spielberg and starred the great Liam Neeson, Sir Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, and Norbert Weisser. [1 copy available]
$ 2.49 + $ 3.19 media shipping.

SEABISCUIT, THE SCREENPLAY
by Gary Ross. Foreword by Laura Hillenbrand. Great color movie stills plus B&S behind-the-scenes photos by Jeff Bridges. Condition NEW 2003 Ballantine Trade Paperback, first printing. Content: Exactly what the title states - this is the screenplay for the great movie, Seabiscuit. The 2003 movie was directed by Gary Ross starred Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, Gary Stevens and the delightful William H. Macy. A winner for sure! [1 copy available]
$ 2.49 + $ 3.19 media shipping.

SOUTH: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage
by Ernest Shackleton. B&W maps and era photos throughout. Condition: NEW 2001 Carroll & Graf large Trade Paperback, 10th printing. Tiny edge wear plus a shelf-wear "wrinkle" to 7 pages fore edges (working on that). Content: Soon after the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole in 1911, his Anglo-Irish rival, Sir Ernest Shackleton, sought to top the feat by making his way from one end of Antarctica to the other on sledge. He set off with a crew of 28, including scientists and a movie cameraman, but the voyage turned disastrous when Shackleton's ship, the Endurance, became hopelessly stuck in pack ice, throwing the men (and the dogs brought to pull the sledges) into a desperate battle for survival. South is Shackleton's own account--one of the critical sources for Alfred Lansing's bestseller Endurance--of what it was like to be "helpless intruders in a strange world," a vivid narrative in which tales of Edwardian pluck are counterpointed with lyrical accounts of whales, penguins, and bizarre mirages. This story of a group of men who beat nearly impossible odds to escape death and make their way home is one of the all-time great survival stories. The 2002 TV movie Shackleton was, of course, based on this book, and was directed by Charles Sturridge and starred the fabulous Kenneth Branagh as Shackleton, John Grillo, Phoebe Nicholls, Eve Best, and a host of wonderful British actors. Excellent movie and true to the real story. [1 copy available]
$ 5.59 + $ 3.29 media shipping. Priority shipping available.

THREE TRAGEDIES: Blood Wedding, Yerma, and Bernarda Alba
by Federica Garcia Lorca. Translated by James Graham-Lujan and Richard O'Connell. Condition: UNREAD, but not perfect, c. 1955 New Directions trade paperback, no printing given. While the interior is clean & tight, there is edgewear with rubbings along both hinges. Content: Federico García Lorca (1898-1937) was born in Granada, Spain. A poet and playwright (Blood Wedding, The House of Bernarda Alba), he was killed by the Falangists in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Reviewer: "I was recommended Lorca's work this week by a good friend of mine. He's a genius! His work is poetic. If you're not a fan of poetry (and I can see where people will object to his style, even though I personally adore it) get past the poetry/song of the older women to the ending and you will astonished! Lorca's incredible with his last few pages. They'll leave you completely amazed. This is an amazing translation." There is a wonderful 1996 movie about his life called The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca directed by Marcos Zurinaga. It stars two of our best actors, Andy Garcia and Esai Morales. Great background. [1 copy available]
$ 2.49 + $ 3.09 media shipping.

TO SIR, WITH LOVE (Movie Edition)
by E. R. Braithwaite. Sidney Poitier & kids cover photo. Screenplay by James Clavell. Condition: Gently pre-read to page 39, 1968 Pyramid paperback, tenth printing. Pale crease bottom fronot cover with edge wear and moderate page tanning. Content: This book details the author's experiences as a teacher in the slums of London. The 1967 movie was directed by James Clavell and starred Sidney Poitier, Lulu, Judy Geeson, Christian Roberts, and Suzy Kendall. One of the greats! [1 copy available]
$ 4.00 + $ 2.94 media shipping.

TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE
by Mitch Albom. Condition: NEW 1997 Doubleday small hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), reprint. Content: An old man, a young man, and life's greatest lesson. This true story about the love between a spiritual mentor and his pupil has soared to the bestseller list for many reasons. For starters: it reminds us of the affection and gratitude that many of us still feel for the significant mentors of our past. It also plays out a fantasy many of us have entertained: what would it be like to look those people up again, tell them how much they meant to us, maybe even resume the mentorship? Plus, we meet Morrie Schwartz--a one of a kind professor, whom the author describes as looking like a cross between a biblical prophet and Christmas elf. And finally we are privy to intimate moments of Morrie's final days as he lies dying from a terminal illness. Even on his deathbed, this twinkling-eyed mensch manages to teach us all about living robustly and fully. Kudos to author and acclaimed sports columnist Mitch Albom for telling this universally touching story with such grace and humility. The 1999 movie was directed by Mick Jackson and starred the great Jack Lemmon, Hank Azaria, Bonnie Bartlett, and Kyle Sullivan. Both the book and the movie are worth your time. [1 copy available]
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UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN: At Home in Italy
by Frances Mayes. Condition: UNREAD 2003 Broadway Books Trade Paperback, 51st printing. Light shelfwear to top back 20 pages (poor shelving). Content: In this memoir of her buying, renovating, and living in an abandoned villa in Tuscany, Frances Mayes reveals the sensual pleasure she found living in rural Italy, and the generous spirit she brought with her. She revels in the sunlight and the color, the long view of her valley, the warm homey architecture, the languor of the slow paced days, the vigor of working her garden, and the intimacy of her dealings with the locals. Cooking, gardening, tiling and painting are never chores, but skills to be learned, arts to be practiced, and above all to be enjoyed. At the same time Mayes brings a literary and intellectual mind to bear on the experience, adding depth to this account of her enticing rural idyll. Directed by Audrey Wells, this was one of the most popular movies of 2003 (and it deserved to be). It starred Diane Lane (Academy Award nomination), the great Sandra Oh, Lindsay Duncan, Raoul Bova, Vincent Riotta, and scene-stealer Pawel Szajda. If you haven't seen it, rush to Blockbuster! [1 copy available]
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UNSTRUNG HEROES: My Improbable Life with Four Impossible Uncles (Movie Edition)
by Franz Lidz. Movie stills cover art. Condition: UNREAD 1995 Signet paperback, first printing. Light tanning to page edges. Content: A family dominated by zany, at times seriously off-track brothers is recalled in this bittersweet history of an unusual Jewish household. Lidz, who writes for Sports Illustrated , relates the absurd domestic dramas provoked by his father's four brothers, who abided by no law or convention and practiced strange scavenging and hoarding habits, e.g., of shoelaces. Their antics, however, were lovingly integrated into the Long Island childhood of the author and his sister whose mother was ill with cancer for years. The men became even more important, and problematical, to the author after his mother's death and his preoccupied father's remarriage to a complaining, ungenerous woman. Lidz's funny, rueful memoir reaches beyond his daft uncles, unrelenting punsters and sometimes wise fools, to the grandfather who "set the pattern for eccentricity that his sons later elaborated into rococco." The delightful 1995 movie was directed by Diane Keaton and starred Andie MacDowell, John Turturro, Michael Richards, the wonderful Maury Chaykin, Anne De Salvo, and Chris Warfield. [1 copy available]
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WITH LAWRENCE IN ARABIA
by Lowell Thomas - the man who invented Lawrence of Arabia. B&W original photos by H. A. Chase and Thomas. Condition: Gently pre-read, if at all, 1924 Star Books hardcover - no DJ. Problems: the orange boards hae seen better days - loss of color front bottom section and a large area on the back board. Light tanning to page edges. Deckled edges which may indicate this is Book club Edition - just a guess. Content: Thomas, journalist and adventurer, tagged along with Lawrence during the years he was making a name for himself in Arabia. However, this book also is a biography which begins with his boyhood. It's a classic work. No need to tell you about the movie. [1 copy available]
$ 5.29 + $ 3.09 media shipping.

THE WRONG MAN: The Final Verdict on the Dr. Sam Sheppard Murder Case
by James Neff. B&W photo section. Condition: NEW 2002 Random House hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), second printing. Content: The brutal murder of Marilyn Sheppard in a Cleveland suburb in 1954 led to the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of her husband and precipitated a popular television series (The Fugitive), two hit films and the federal appeals case that made F. Lee Bailey famous. This is a story of "blood, violent death, mystery and sex," and Neff brilliantly dissects the vital organs of the case, uncovering the terror and bureaucratic frustration Dr. Sam Sheppard encountered when faced with "a community, a court system, and a powerful press corps working in apparent lockstep to convict him." More importantly, he presents new case material, including blood evidence and unheard testimonies as well as Sheppard's prison diaries and interviews with those close to the investigation all evidence that now points to the true identity of Marilyn's killer. Neff's illumination of Marilyn's unhappy marriage is careful and empathetic, while his portrayal of Sam's womanizing shows how easy it was for the prosecution to paint him as a killer. Neff's nose for news is no less powerful: he tracks the increasing public support of Sheppard's innocence, follows a pioneering criminologist whose career was nearly destroyed by Cleveland's political machine and sheds light on the historical shifts in the treatment of suspects since the Sheppard murder case. This is a brilliant, well-written story. The 1960s TV series was directed by Roy Huggis and starred David Janssen, William Conrad, and Barry Morse. The 1993 movie was directed by Andrew Davis and starred Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Sela Ward, Julianne Moore, and the wonderful Jeroen Krabbé. One good movie! [1 copy available]
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