Then and Now
by Steve Schapiro (Hatje Cantze)
Brooklyn-born lensman Schapiro has been shooting for 50 years — film stars, rock stars, newsmakers and more. This new collection of pictures, many of which have never been published, include De Niro on the “Taxi Driver” set and Brando getting his makeup done for “The Godfather,” Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy, Warhol and David Bowie.
The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music
From Adele to Ziggy, the Real A to Z of Rock and Pop
by Dylan Jones (Picador)
In an age where so many people rely on Wikipedia to get their information, this quirky, subjective and possibly subversive music guide is a delight. In a piece on band names, Jones, a Brit, manages to call Madonna’s version of “American Pie” the worst cover he’s ever heard and note that “the most awful band names involve either food or animals, or, in the case of Fudge Giraffe, both.” To him, Iggy Pop is “the coolest man in the entire business.” And Liza Minnelli “has always looked like a character from a Manga comic.”
The 4-Hour Chef
The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life
by Timothy Ferriss (New Harvest)
“If you crossed Jason Bourne with Julia Child, you’d end up with Tim Ferriss” reads one blurb. There’s a frightening thought — a French chef who forgets what he’s making halfway through? Having already become the self-help guru of the modern age, with rapid, Google-friendly advice on how to lose weight and have great sex (both involve taking cold showers), Ferriss promises to impart “meta-learning,” a process for picking up anything — from cooking to learning a language — very quickly.
The Liberator
by Alex Kershaw (Crown)
A ride on the Depression-era rails to a San Francisco recruiting station was just the beginning of the journey. Gen. Felix Sparks, a miner’s son from Arizona, went on to land in Sicily on the first day of the Allied invasion of Europe. Fighting his way through North Africa, Italy and Southern France, he then chases Hitler through Bavaria and helped liberate Dachau. He spent the last years of his life campaigning for a bill to prevent underage kids from carrying handguns. Now there’s a general to be proud of.
Deadline Artists
Scandals, Tragedies & Triumphs
edited by John Avlon, Jesse Angelo and Errol Louis
(Overlook)
There’s more than enough great reporting and writing to fill this second-volume collection of newspaper columns put together by Newsweek/The Daily Beast’s Avlon, The Daily’s Angelo and NY1’s Louis. Offering readers “the chance to experience history firsthand,” we can feel Jack Newfield’s raw emotions over Robert Kennedy’s 1968 assassination; relive the 1906 San Francisco earthquake through the eyes of Jack London; and watch as Murray Kempton lets a Louisiana “Southern Gentleman” hang himself with his own racist words. Nellie Bly is here, as is Dorothy Gilliam, Ernie Pyle, Dick Young and many more.