Books, 12/20.

"Now that [Christopher] Plummer has published In Spite of Myself: A Memoir," writes Alex Witchell for the New York Times Book Review, "it is the most welcome of surprises to discover that this actor writes and reports almost as well as he acts.... [F]or anyone who loves, loves, loves the theater, not to mention the vanished New York of the 1950s and 60s, [this] is a finely observed, deeply felt (and deeply dishy) time-traveling escape worthy of a long stormy weekend."

"[M]y interest in the screen career of Susan Strasberg inspired me to finally acquire copies of her two books, Bittersweet and Marilyn and Me, both works of autobiography." Tim Lucas: "I've read them both now and, while I was very pleased to discover that the personality captured in these capably written books was bright and resourceful and good company, it was disconcerting to find out how frustrated, unhappy and tense she was for so much of her short life. These books make the reader want to reach out to comfort someone who is no longer there."

"Reading Stefan Kanfer's excellent new biography of Marlon Brando, Somebody, reminds me of one adventure that isn't there: my own trying to secure Brando's memoir for Random House during my time as president and publisher." Harold Evans in the Daily Beast.

The Guardian offers a quick roundup of reviews of Christopher Bigsby's Arthur Miller and Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking - and Chris Petit races through a roundup of his own: Kanfer's Somebody, Tony Curtis's American Prince, Dennis McDougal's Five Easy Decades: How Jack Nicholson Became the Biggest Movie Star in Modern Times, Michael Deeley's Blade Runners, Deer Hunters and Blowing the Bloody Doors Off: My Life in Cult Movies, Roger Moore's My Word is My Bond and Sinclair McKay's The Man with the Golden Touch: How the Bond Films Conquered the World.

A "case can be made that San Francisco, that foggy, Spanish-flavored city by the sea, is perhaps the ultimate noir town, and that argument has been argued convincingly by Nathaniel Rich in San Francisco Noir: The City in Film Noir from 1940 to the Present, a fascinating piece of scholarship that is as much travel book as film essay." Scott Macaulay talks with Rich for FilmInFocus.

Walter Addiego on Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master: "Where the book really sings is in [Michael] Sragow's enterprising descriptions of movies and scenes. These are inspired segments where his writing is reminiscent of his capsule reviews that still appear in the New Yorker." Also in the San Francisco Chronicle: lists of the 50 best nonfiction and fiction and poetry and "Notable Bay Area" books of 2008.

Boyd Tonkin and Katy Guest pick the "20 best books of the year" for the Independent, where Susie Boyt reviews "an enchanting coming-of-age story," Robert Kaplow's Me and Orson Welles without mentioning that Richard Linklater has filmed an adaptation.

Ian Irvine picks the New Statesman's "Books of the Year 2008."

The London Times' "books of the year" package is kinda huge.

Posted by dwhudson at December 20, 2008 1:46 PM