ERIK PEDERSEN
The Orange County Register
BOOKS | REVIEWS
'Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV'
By Emily Nussbaum
With prose as bracing as a chilled Chardonnay tossed in your face, New Yorker critic Nussbaum delivers an essential book on the development of reality TV, which is not the faint praise it may sound like. Some pop-culture books can feel like overlong web posts, but Nussbaum digs deep into the genre's origins and often-queasy mix of high-flying rhetoric and lowdown showbiz chicanery. She writes about shows you'll remember and some you won't, crafting deft portraits of everyone from "Candid Camera" host Allen Funt and "Gong Show" impresario Chuck Barris to the inaugural "Survivor" cast and "The Apprentice" host Donald Trump. If you love reality TV, get it. If you hate reality TV, this is still the one you'll want to read.
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'The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War'
By James Shapiro
Known for his books about Shakespeare, Shapiro has in recent years shifted his gaze to include more recent history, as in his 2020 book "Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future." "The Playbook" examines the political turmoil that erupted in the 1930s as the Federal Theatre Project attempted to employ actors and writers to bring plays to an American public struggling under the Great Depression, and the cultural battles that ensued will sound all too familiar to modern readers. Shapiro also dispels myths about a noted all-Blackcast production of "Macbeth," whose actual story differs from the legend.
'Hip-Hop Is History'
By Questlove and Ben Greenman
Whether leading the Roots, DJing and producing music or writing books, hosting podcasts and making Oscar-winning documentaries, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson has already demonstrated a vast set of skills. Despite that, he remains a discerning fan of the things he loves. This book explores the development of hip-hop, spanning from its origin story in a 1973 Bronx rec room to the 2023 Questlove-produced Grammy salute to its first half-century of music.
'The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982'
By Chris Nashawaty
Was summer of 1982 the best three months -- heck, the best eight weeks -- in movie theaters ever? That brief period saw the release of eight science-fiction and fantasy heavyweights: "E.T.," "Blade Runner," "Mad Max: The Road Warrior," "Star Trek: Wrath of Khan," "Poltergeist," "Conan the Barbarian," "The Thing" and "Tron." Nashawaty zips nimbly through the era's creative clashes, cost overruns and box-office bombshells (and bombs) and will still have you wanting more.
'The Bookshop: A History of The American Bookstore'
By Evan Friss
"The Bookshop" is deeply researched and packed with information about a selection of America's bookstores from Benjamin Franklin's Philadelphia bookshop to a lovingly rendered ode to the staff and regulars at Three Lives & Co. in New York City. I'm reading this one slowly, because I want to make it last.
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