“Hombre & Three-Ten to Yuma”by Elmore Leonard (published by Penguin)
How a rising young writer earned his spurs
Before he became “The poet laureate of wild assholes with revolvers” (New Musical Express), Elmore John Leonard, Jr. was “The sage of sagebrush” (The Budapest Times). Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, on October 11, 1925, Leonard began his illustrious career by writing ...
"The Hand And Other Novels" by Georges Simenon (published by Penguin Books)
Backwards and forwards in a fine balancing trick
The “Other Novels” are twofold, both written in French by the prolific Belgian author Georges Simenon and now in new English translations – “Betty” from 1961, a title that doesn’t need translating, and “The Blue Room”, which first appeared as “La Chambre Bleue” in ...
Under the Pannonian Sky brings Hungarian women’s poetry to the world
A new English-language anthology brings key voices of Hungarian poetry to an international audience.
"The Hand And Other Novels" by Georges Simenon (published by Penguin Books)
Keeping an author before the reading public
Here is an omnibus edition of three of Belgian author Georges Simenon’s best psychological novels originally published in French in the 1960s, with "The Hand” joined by "Betty” and "The Blue Room”. The book is one of two retranslated paperbacks published simultaneously in November ...
“Making The Best Years of Our Lives, The Hollywood Classic That Inspired a Nation” by Alison Macor (published by University of Texas Press)
A perfect match of film and filmic study
As filming began on “The Best Years of Our Lives” in mid-April 1946, some in Hollywood worried that by the time it would be released six months later in November, cinemagoers might have begun to lose interest in this tale of the traumas faced ...
"The Beatles Fab But True" by Doug Wolfberg (published by Schiffer Publishing)
Still more to reveal about world’s greatest group
It must be difficult now for would-be writers to dig up "untold stories” or fresh facts about The Beatles more than half a century on from their domination of the 1960s musically and culturally. So far a Fab Four library would be up around ...
"The Art of Classic Crime and Mystery Movies," Edited By Ed Hulse (published by Schiffer Publishing)
Classic films, great posters, great memories
This isn’t a pretty apple-pie world of happy families, loving couples, beautiful landscapes and stunning sunsets. Rather, here is a darker place, an underworld of hoods (gangsters), heists (robberies), gats (guns), stiffs (corpses) and molls (loose women). Fences aren’t the white picket variety around ...
"Béla Lugosi: The Man Behind the Cape” by Robert Cremer (to be published by Clover Press)
From Transylvania to Tinseltown for a full-blooded life
As of the latest count, by December 10, 2025, 409 backers have pledged USD 69,861 to help bring to life the book "Béla Lugosi: The Man Behind the Cape” by Robert Cremer. The initiative is taking place on Kickstarter, a crowd-funding platform that helps ...
"Hollywood in San Francisco, Location Shooting and the Aesthetics of Urban Decline" by Joshua Gleich (published by University of Texas Press)
Thirty years of good exposure became an uphill climb
Even if you haven’t been to San Francisco, it’s appeared so often on our screens, big and small, that it’s one of the world’s most recognisable cities. Humphrey Bogart in a cable car in "Dark Passage” (1947), James Stewart and Kim Novak by the ...
"Richard Manuel, His Life and Music, from The Hawks and Bob Dylan to The Band” by Stephen T. Lewis (Schiffer Publishing)
Life is a carnival but demons also ride the roundabout
With the death of Garth Hudson aged 87 on January 21, 2025, the fifth and final member of The Band departed. Robbie Robertson died aged 80 on August 9, 2023, Levon Helm died aged 71 on April 19, 2012 and Rick Danko died aged ...
