On My Radar:

Rewrite Man: The Life and Career of Screenwriter Warren Skaaren
by Alison Macor
University of Texas Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

In Rewrite Man, Alison Macor tells an engrossing story about the challenges faced by a top screenwriter at the crossroads of mixed and conflicting agendas in Hollywood. Whether writing love scenes for Tom Cruise on the set of Top Gun, running lines with Michael Keaton on Beetlejuice, or crafting Nietzschean dialogue for Jack Nicholson on Batman, Warren Skaaren collaborated with many of New Hollywood’s most powerful stars, producers, and directors. By the time of his premature death in 1990, Skaaren was one of Hollywood’s highest-paid writers, although he rarely left Austin, where he lived and worked. Yet he had to battle for shared screenwriting credit on these films, and his struggles yield a new understanding of the secretive screen credit arbitration process—a process that has only become more intense, more litigious, and more public for screenwriters and their union, the Writers Guild of America, since Skaaren’s time. His story, told through a wealth of archival material, illuminates crucial issues of film authorship that have seldom been explored.

On My Radar:

Al Franken: Giant of the Senate
by Al Franken
Twelve Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

This is a book about an unlikely campaign that had an even more improbable ending: the closest outcome in history and an unprecedented eight-month recount saga, which is pretty funny in retrospect.

It's a book about what happens when the nation's foremost progressive satirist gets a chance to serve in the United States Senate and, defying the low expectations of the pundit class, actually turns out to be good at it.

It's a book about our deeply polarized, frequently depressing, occasionally inspiring political culture, written from inside the belly of the beast.

In this candid personal memoir, the honorable gentleman from Minnesota takes his army of loyal fans along with him from Saturday Night Live to the campaign trail, inside the halls of Congress, and behind the scenes of some of the most dramatic and/or hilarious moments of his new career in politics.

Has Al Franken become a true Giant of the Senate? Franken asks readers to decide for themselves.

In My TBR Stack:

You Exhaust Me: A Clueless Guy's Guide to Marriage
by Bob Marsocci
RAM Publishing
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

About 2 million guys get married every year in the United States alone, and many (perhaps most) have no clue about the world they will enter once they say, “I do.”

Does a guy know the 10 Fatal Words his wife will spring on him days before her birthday? Does a guy know why he should never throw away his wife’s “bag of bags”? Does he know why he should avoid watching romance movies with his wife once he’s been married for a couple of years? No, no, and most definitely no! Millions of men are clueless about what to expect from marriage and need practical advice from a guy who has been there and seen it all.

Candid and humorous, You Exhaust Me, A Clueless Guy’s Guide to Marriage, speaks directly to clueless men everywhere. With more than 20 years’ experience (and counting) as a husband, Bob Marsocci provides valuable insight on what guys should really expect after the wedding rings go on. Whether you are engaged, a newlywed or have been married for several years, Bob’s personal and often hilarious marital anecdotes and lessons (often learned the hard way) will enlighten any guy. If that’s you, take it from a formerly clueless guy: If you want to avoid hearing “You exhaust me!” from your wife, read this book. It’s got the secret sauce to keeping her (and you) happy.

In My TBR Stack:

Gumbo Love: Recipes for Gulf Coast Cooking, Entertaining, and Savoring the Good Life
by Lucy Buffett
Grand Central Life & Style

Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Incorporating Caribbean, Cajun, Cuban, Mexican, Old Florida, and Creole influences, Lucy proves through her collection of recipes that the Gulf Coast has its own distinct flavors and traditions that make it a destination year after year. Surviving hurricanes, the Gulf Coast--beyond just New Orleans--has a vibrant food and culture that's gone largely unnoticed. Lucy wants to change that by sharing her food and stories with GUMBO LOVE readers.

Like her brother, Jimmy, Lucy celebrates freedom, relaxation, and seaside decadence in her own art--cooking, and has now written the cookbook her fans have been asking her for; one that offers the recipes she's famous for, along with Gulf Coast classics and stories of growing up in Mobile, Alabama, working in New Orleans, and her philosophy of relaxation, gratitude, and enjoyment. 

Lucy combines over one hundred new recipes with old favorites. Her fans will find recipes for their social occasions including gumbos, main dishes, deep fried favorites (with her easy frying tutorial), salads, seasonings, libations, and desserts. They will also learn how Lucy navigates the kitchen, her business, and her family and readers will come away with the basic ingredients of an inspiring life philosophy.

In My TBR Stack:

What Manner of Man is this? The Duke of Windsor's Years in the Bahamas

by Sir Orville Turnquest
Grant's Town Press
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

     What Manner of Man Is This? is a unique and incisive look at an important yet largely ignored period of the life of the Prince of Wales who was heir to the throne and became King of England, Edward VIII, in 1936.  A mere ten months later he abdicated his throne to marry a twice-divorced American, Mrs. Wallis Simpson in what was at once the scandal of the century and the love story of the age.
         Many books have been written about the royal couple, The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, but this focuses exclusively on The Duke’s tenure as Royal Governor of The Bahamas in a tumultuous era during which major events and programs occurred:  The Project, The Contract, The Bay Street Fire, The Burma Road Riots and the murder of Sir Harry Oakes, the richest man in the British Empire at that time, all set against the backdrop of World War II raging in Europe.
          This book also stands apart from others because its author, Sir Orville Turnquest, speaks with the authority and credibility of  someone who has occupied the very same office as the Duke of Windsor, someone who has lived and worked in the same official residence, Government  House, where  just like the Duke,  he received visiting dignitaries from around the world who bowed and curtsied while he was seated in the official chair that resembles a throne.  Sir Orville did not come from a royal or aristocratic family but rather, in sharp contrast to his predecessor, he came from “Over the Hill,” an area of Nassau inhabited by the underprivileged black community and thus provides a perspective that could not be more different from those of a former king of England.          

         What Manner of Man Is This? is an insider’s look at a vital part of Bahamian history with the island nation’s emergence from slavery and the African diaspora to a prominent role in world history.

In My TBR Stack:

A Speck in the Sea: A Story of Survival and Rescue
by John Aldridge and Anthony Sosinski
Weinstein Books

Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

In the dead of night on July 24, 2013, John Aldridge was thrown off the back of the Anna Mary while his fishing partner, Anthony Sosinski, slept below. As desperate hours ticked by, Sosinski, the families, the local fishing community, and the U.S. Coast Guard in three states mobilized in an unprecedented search effort that culminated in a rare and exhilarating success.

A tale of survival, perseverance, and community, A Speck in the Sea tells of one man's struggle to survive as friends and strangers work separately, and together, to bring him home. Aldridge's wrenching first-person account intertwines with the narrative of the massive, constantly evolving rescue operation designed to save him.

In My TBR Stack:

The Marriage Bureau: The True Story of How Two Matchmakers Arranged Love in Wartime London
by Penrose Halson
William Morrow
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

A riveting glimpse of life and love during and after World War II—a heart-warming, touching, and thoroughly absorbing true story of a world gone by.

In the spring of 1939, with the Second World War looming, two determined twenty-four-year-olds, Heather Jenner and Mary Oliver, decided to open a marriage bureau. They found a tiny office on London’s Bond Street and set about the delicate business of matchmaking. Drawing on the bureau’s extensive archives, Penrose Halson—who many years later found herself the proprietor of the bureau—tells their story, and those of their clients.

In My TBR Stack:

Plan, Commit, Win: 90 Days to Creating a Fundable Startup
by Patrick Henry
Quest Fusion
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

In this eye-opening book, serial entrepreneur and former tech CEO, Patrick Henry explains how to build a fundable company. He reveals the truth about what investors are looking for and presents a three-part plan to smash through the typical business roadblocks, allowing you to move far beyond the bootstrapping stage. If you are serious about building a billion-dollar company, then PLAN COMMIT WIN is the book that will help get you there.

On My Radar:

Otis Redding: An Unfinished Life
by Jonathan Gould
Crown Archetype
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Otis Redding remains an immortal presence in the canon of American music on the strength of such classic hits as “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay,” “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” “Try a Little Tenderness,” and “Respect,” a song he wrote and recorded before Aretha Franklin made it her own. As the architect of the distinctly southern, gospel-inflected style of rhythm & blues associated with Stax Records in Memphis, Redding made music that has long served as the gold standard of 1960s soul. Yet an aura of myth and mystery has always surrounded his life, which was tragically cut short at the height of his career by a plane crash in December 1967.
 
In Otis Redding: An Unfinished Life, Jonathan Gould finally does justice to Redding’s incomparable musical artistry, drawing on exhaustive research, the cooperation of the Redding family, and previously unavailable sources of information to present the first comprehensive portrait of the singer’s background, his upbringing, and his professional career.

In chronicling the story of Redding’s life and music, Gould also presents a social history of the time and place from which they emerged.  His book never lets us forget that the boundaries between black and white in popular music were becoming porous during the years when racial tensions were reaching a height throughout the United States. His indelible portrait of Redding and the mass acceptance of soul music in the 1960s is both a revealing look at a brilliant artist and a provocative exploration of the tangled history of race  and music in America that resonates strongly with the present day.

In My TBR Stack:

Are You Anybody? A Memoir
by Jeffrey Tambor
Crown Archetype
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

You know him from his breakout role as Hank Kingsley on The Larry Sanders Show, his outrageous turn as George and Oscar Bluth on Arrested Development, and his Emmy Award-winning performance as Maura Pfefferman on Transparent.  A Broadway star, a television legend, an accomplished screen actor whose singular wit and heartrending performances have been entertaining audiences for more than four decades, but the question remains: Who the hell is Jeffrey Tambor?

In his illuminating, often hilarious, and always honest memoir, Tambor looks back at the key moments in his life that taught him about creativity and play and pain and fear. The son of what you might call “eccentric” Russian and Hungarian Jewish parents, Tambor grew up in San Francisco a husy kid with a lisp, who suffered in his “otherness” and found salvation in the theater.

While he learned his art from the best of the best—Al Pacino, George C. Scott, Garry Shandling, Mitch Hurwitz, Jill Soloway—he also introduces his many unexpected teachers, from the nameless man in a Detroit bookstore who gave him the love of reading, to his young children who (at this ridiculously late stage in his life) have reintroduced him to play, bravery, and the simple joy of not giving a shit.

Tambor shares the triumph of landing his first Broadway role, but not before experiencing the humbling that is commercial work (and how even saying “my socks don’t cling” can prove a challenge). He invites you behind the scenes of his wildly successful television shows, but he doesn’t leave out the pit stops he made at addiction, Scientology, and what it feels like to get fourth billing after Sylvia the Seal on The Love Boat.

At last, Tambor answers the question, "Are You Anybody? with a promise that success doesn't mean perfection and failure most definitely is an option.

In My TBR Stack:

The Mighty Franks: A Memoir
by Michael Frank
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

“My feeling for Mike is something out of the ordi - nary,” Michael Frank overhears his aunt telling his mother when he is a boy of eight. “It’s stronger than I am. I cannot explain it . . . I love him beyond life itself.” With this indelible bit of eavesdropping, we fall into the spellbinding world of The Mighty Franks. 

The family is uncommonly close: Michael’s childless Auntie Hankie and Uncle Irving, glamorous Hollywood screenwriters, are doubly related— Hankie is his father’s sister, and Irving is his mother’s brother. The two families live near each other in Laurel Canyon. In this strangely intertwined world, even the author’s grandmothers—who dislike each other—share a nearby apartment. 

Strangest of all is the way Auntie Hankie, with her extravagant personality, comes to bend the wider family to her will. Talented, mercurial, and lavish with her love, she divides Michael from his parents and his two younger brothers as she takes charge of his education, guiding him to the right books to read (Proust, not Zola), the right painters to admire (Matisse, not Pollock), the right architectural styles to embrace (period, not modern—or mo-derne, as she pronounces the word, with palpable disdain). She trains his mind and his eye—until that eye begins to see on its own. When this “son” Hankie longs for grows up and begins to turn away from her, her moods darken, and a series of shattering scenes compel Michael to reconstruct both himself and his family narrative as he tries to reconcile the woman he once adored with the troubled figure he discovers her to be. 

In its portrayal of this fascinating, singularly polarizing figure, the boy in her thrall, and the man that boy becomes, The Mighty Franks will speak to any reader who has ever struggled to find an inde - pendent voice amid the turbulence of family life.

In My TBR Stack:

The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir
by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich
Flatiron Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Before Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich begins a summer job at a law firm in Louisiana, working to help defend men accused of murder, she thinks her position is clear. The child of two lawyers, she is staunchly anti-death penalty. But the moment convicted murderer Ricky Langley’s face flashes on the screen as she reviews old tapes—the moment she hears him speak of his crimes -- she is overcome with the feeling of wanting him to die. Shocked by her reaction, she digs deeper and deeper into the case. Despite their vastly different circumstances, something in his story is unsettlingly, uncannily familiar.

Crime, even the darkest and most unsayable acts, can happen to any one of us. As Alexandria pores over the facts of the murder, she finds herself thrust into the complicated narrative of Ricky’s childhood. And by examining the details of Ricky’s case, she is forced to face her own story, to unearth long-buried family secrets, and reckon with a past that colors her view of Ricky's crime.

But another surprise awaits: She wasn’t the only one who saw her life in Ricky’s.

An intellectual and emotional thriller that is also a different kind of murder mystery, THE FACT OF A BODY is a book not only about how the story of one crime was constructed -- but about how we grapple with our own personal histories. Along the way it tackles questions about the nature of forgiveness, and if a single narrative can ever really contain something as definitive as the truth. This groundbreaking, heart-stopping work, ten years in the making, shows how the law is more personal than we would like to believe -- and the truth more complicated, and powerful, than we could ever imagine.

In My TBR Stack:

Beyond Bedlam's Door: True Tales from the Couch and Courtroom
by Mark Rubinstein
Thunder Lake Press
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

What drove a psychiatrist to enlist a patient in a plot to murder six people?

What was the secret bargain struck that allowed a 104-year-old woman to live such a long and productive life?

Why would a woman refuse to emerge from the confines of her bedroom? And after treatment liberated her, why did she suddenly take a turn for the worse?

In Beyond Bedlam’s Door, former practicing psychiatrist Mark Rubinstein takes you outside the hospital and into his world of private patients, nursing home residents, and the challenging legal system in which he worked as a forensic expert. As in Bedlam’s Door, great lengths were taken to preserve people’s anonymity, but the raw truth of each story remains intact. The resiliency of some individuals and the venality of others are laid bare in these pages.

Beyond Bedlam’s Door invites you to meet twenty-one unforgettable people. Some stories will disturb you, others will make you smile, but all will give you a deeper appreciation of what it means to be human.