"Fourteen-year-old Erik and his friend Edmund spend their summer vacation in 1962 by a Swedish lake, daydreaming about Ewa, a young teacher who looks like actress Kim Novak. When Ewa's fiance is found dead, Erik's brother is initially the prime suspect. Twenty-five years later, when Erik happens to come across an article about unsolved crimes, he is overwhelmed by memories of that summer."--Publisher
The ultimate book of baby names for comic book nerds, sci-fi fans and more—with the meanings and stories behind more than 1,000 names! Having trouble finding a baby name that celebrates your favorite fandom? Whether you want your child’s name to stand out in a crowd or fit in on the playground, Naming Your Little Geek is here to save the day! This ultimate guidebook is complete with every name a geek could want to give their baby—from Anakin and Frodo to Indiana and Clark; and from Gwen and Wanda to Buffy and Xena—plus their meanings, and a list of all the legends who have borne them. Naming Your Little Geek covers everything from comic book superheroes to role-playing game icons, Starfleet officers to sword and sorcery legends with characters who have appeared on film and TV, in novels and comic books, on the tabletop, and beyond. With nearly 1,100 names referencing more than 4,400 characters from over 1,800 unique sources, it's the perfect resource for parents naming a child or anyone looking for a super cool and meaningful new name.
"In the Summer of My Life, is David Guillens second book of autobiography. In it the author recalls his time in Hollywood in the 1950s, and the hedonistic lifestyle of young hopefuls like himself hoping for a break in the towns glamorous industry. He revisits his old drama school and recalls the acting classes, the voice lessons, the student camaraderie, the Saturday night parties, the auditions, the temporary jobs, the lonely times and the constant struggle to survive. And then one day he meets a pretty English girl with blue eyes and a dimpled smile and his days in the wilderness are over.
In 1948, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is founded by General Kim Il-sung. In 1978, North Korea celebrates the thirtieth anniversary of its founding, and Kim Jong-il, who at the time is the head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department, orders the kidnapping of the greatest South Korean movie star, the actress Madame Choi, and her ex-husband, the famous film director Shin Sang-ok. In 2008, North Korea celebrates its sixtieth anniversary, and Magnus Bärtås and Fredrik Ekman take a bizarre, heavily guided tour to the world’s most isolated country. In All Monster Must Die, authors Magnus Bärtås and Fredrik Ekman weave together these three stories to create a mosaic of North Korea, past and present: from the Japanese occupation to the demarcation of the border at the 38th parallel and the Korean War, the development of North Korean Juche ideology, the establishment of the Kim dynasty’s cult of personality, and the aggressive manufacturing of political propaganda, which motivated the kidnapping of South Korea’s most famous film couple. Intelligent and shocking, this book offers a rare and fascinating window into the “hermit kingdom,” and includes an updated chapter on the passing of Kim Jong-il and the declaration of his son, Kim Jong-un, as supreme leader.
Erika Montgomery's A Summer to Remember is "an unforgettable tale of love, loss and finding your place that glitters as brightly as the golden age of Hollywood."--Kristy Woodson Harvey, USA Today Bestselling author of Feels Like Falling Best Debut Novels of Spring and Summer *Library Journal * Fresh Fiction * Booktrib For thirty-year-old Frankie Simon, selling movie memorabilia in the shop she opened with her late mother on Hollywood Boulevard is more than just her livelihood—it’s an enduring connection to the only family she has ever known. But when a mysterious package arrives containing a photograph of her mother and famous movie stars Glory Cartwright and her husband at a coastal film festival the year before Frankie’s birth, her life begins to unravel in ways unimaginable. What begins is a journey along a path revealing buried family secrets, betrayals between lovers, bonds between friends. And for Frankie, as the past unlocks the present, the chance to learn that memories define who we are, and that they can show us the meaning of home and the magic of true love. Experience the salty breeze of a Cape Cod summer as it sweeps through this sparkling, romantic, and timeless debut novel tinged with a love of old Hollywood. “The perfect read for summer. A novel with depth, real emotions, lyrical writing, and flawed characters with whom to fall in love.”--New York Times bestselling author Karen White
During the first half of the twentieth century, Atlantic City was the nation's most popular middle-class resort--the home of the famed Boardwalk, the Miss America Pageant, and the board game Monopoly. By the late 1960s, it had become a symbol of urban decay and blight, compared by journalists to bombed-out Dresden and war-torn Beirut. Several decades and a dozen casinos later, Atlantic City is again one of America's most popular tourist spots, with thirty-five million visitors a year. Yet most stay for a mere six hours, and the highway has replaced the Boardwalk as the city's most important thoroughfare. Today the city doesn't have a single movie theater and its one supermarket is a virtual fortress protected by metal detectors and security guards. In this wide-ranging book, Bryant Simon does far more than tell a nostalgic tale of Atlantic City's rise, near death, and reincarnation. He turns the depiction of middle-class vacationers into a revealing discussion of the boundaries of public space in urban America. In the past, he argues, the public was never really about democracy, but about exclusion. During Atlantic City's heyday, African Americans were kept off the Boardwalk and away from the beaches. The overly boisterous or improperly dressed were kept out of theaters and hotel lobbies by uniformed ushers and police. The creation of Atlantic City as the "Nation's Playground" was dependent on keeping undesirables out of view unless they were pushing tourists down the Boardwalk on rickshaw-like rolling chairs or shimmying in smoky nightclubs. Desegregation overturned this racial balance in the mid-1960s, making the city's public spaces more open and democratic, too open and democratic for many middle-class Americans, who fled to suburbs and suburban-style resorts like Disneyworld. With the opening of the first casino in 1978, the urban balance once again shifted, creating twelve separate, heavily guarded, glittering casinos worlds walled off from the dilapidated houses, boarded-up businesses, and lots razed for redevelopment that never came. Tourists are deliberately kept away from the city's grim reality and its predominantly poor African American residents. Despite ten of thousands of buses and cars rolling into every day, gambling has not saved Atlantic City or returned it to its glory days. Simon's moving narrative of Atlantic City's past points to the troubling fate of urban America and the nation's cultural trajectory in the twentieth century, with broad implications for those interested in urban studies, sociology, planning, architecture, and history.
"Christmas has, indeed, arrived early with this romp."—Booklist July is a great time to celebrate Christmas! In the wild world of making a TV Christmas movie, a hot and sunny upstate New York summer becomes a winter wonderland, overnight. But as cool as the fake snow is, when the real life hero gets tangled up with the movie star, the screenwriter grapples for control of the story, and the fans become a hazard to life and limb, it'll take a Christmas miracle to pull everyone together. Up-and-coming LA screenwriter Ivy Green is about to have her life turned upside down. Her movie, based on her and her high school sweetheart's horrible Christmas breakup, is being filmed in her hometown. Nick Shepherd is less than thrilled to see Ivy after all this time. To complicate matters, Ivy has a budding relationship with the producer, the town is overflowing with movie stars and overly-adoring fans, and worst of all—the actress playing Ivy develops a crush on the real Nick! In the end, Ivy will need to re-write her life script to finally get everything she ever wanted.
Turner Classic Movies presents a festival of sunshine classics—movies that capture the spirit of the most carefree season of the year—complete with behind-the-scenes stories, reviews, vacation inspiration, and a trove of photos. Summer Movies is your guide to 30 sun-drenched classics that—through beach parties, road trips, outdoor sports, summer camp, or some intangible mood that brings the heat—manage to keep summer alive year-round. Packed with production details, stories from the set, and more than 150 color and black-and-white photos, the book takes an in-depth look at films from the silent era to the present that reflect the full range of how summer has been depicted on screen, both by Hollywood and by international filmmakers. Featured titles include Moon Over Miami (1941), State Fair (1945), Key Largo (1948), Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953), The Seven Year Itch (1955), The Parent Trap (1961), The Endless Summer (1964), Jaws (1975), Caddyshack (1980), Dirty Dancing (1987), Do the Right Thing (1989), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Call Me by Your Name (2017), and many more.
