(Books)
Books
Summer's Hottest (and Smartest) Read: Philipp Meyer's Novel "Son"
Most authors research novels at the library, but Philipp Meyer's preparation for his second book was a little…grittier. "I taught myself to bow-hunt," he says. "I took months of classes on animal tracking. I went to a ranch and shot two buffalo and drank a coffee mug full of hot blood from the neck of one." The result of that gore-spattered groundwork is The Son (Ecco, $28), a complex, crowd-pleasing Western in the vein of Giant and Lonesome Dove that follows several generations of a Texas family as they try to establish a ranching and oil dynasty.
see more
Books
Not-So-Happy Father's Days: Common Themes in Two New Daddy Memoirs
As attitudes towards gendered parenting roles change, so do the books written about them—as exemplified by two new paternal comic memoirs out this week: Someone Could Get Hurt by Drew Magary (Gotham, $25) and Dad or Alive by Adrian Kulp (New American Library, $15). Both feature fathers far more involved in the daily life of their children than parents ever were in the 20th century, but some things always stay the same—like the kind of jokes good old dad used to make.
see more
Books
Can Psychopathy Help You Get Ahead?
There's a fine line between enjoying Francis Underwood, Kevin Spacey's pathologically Machiavellian politician on the Netflix series House of Cards, and wanting to be Francis Underwood—and it's one an increasing number of us seem eager to cross. How else to explain the growing pile of aspirational pop-psycho lit? This month, M.E. Thomas, the pseudonymous blogger behind SociopathWorld.com, releases Confessions of a Sociopath, a memoir about living without fear, empathy, and conscience. It follows last fall's The Wisdom of Psychopaths, University of Oxford psychologist Kevin Dutton's pseudo-self-help manual on how psychopathy can help you get ahead, which proffered: "Psychopaths…have a variety
see more
Books
Author Joanna Hershon on Writing Like a Man, Her New Book A Dual Inheritance, and Researching Characters
Joanna Hershon's breakout fourth novel, A Dual Inheritance (Ballantine, $26), is the best book about male friendship written this young century. Two men meet as undergraduates at Harvard University in 1963 and forge a bond despite their obvious cultural differences—Hugh's a Boston Brahmin and Ed's a working-class Jew—that endures even after their love of the same woman rips them apart.
see more
Q&A
Max Irons and Jake Abel (of The Host) Discuss Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Follow Up, Men's Style, and Acting Advice
If The Host, based on Stephenie Meyer's novel, is really the new Twilight, then Max Irons (Red Riding Hood) and Jake Abel (I Am Number Four, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief) are the new Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner—two young, emerging actors whose characters are both pining after the same heroine. In this sci-fi soap opera, leading lady Melanie Stryder (Saorsie Ronan) proves more complex than Twilight's Bella Swan, as her dueling beaus are courting both her and the alien life form she's carrying. The heady premise called for young stars who could play lovestruck hunks in
see more
Books
How Dennis Hopper Got the Psycho Frank Booth Role in Blue Velvet
Guns, motorcycles, mug shots, drugs, paintings, madness. Even by Hollywood standards, Dennis Hopper led an extraordinary life. Just his youthful friendships—with James Dean, Elvis Presley, and Vincent Price—and his drug-addled contributions to counterculture flicks like Easy Rider and The Last Movie would be enough for most biographies. But then there's his role in Apocalypse Now, his career-defining moments as a psychopathic gas-snuffer in Blue Velvet, and his respectable art-world side career.
see more
Books
On the Road: The Design History of a Classic Book Cover
This Friday, Garrett Hedlund stars alongside Sam Riley and Kristen Stewart in On the Road, directed by Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) and based on the 1957 tale of young wanderlust that made Jack Kerouac an instant literary celebrity and an inspiration to generations of would-be artists and writers ranging from Bob Dylan to Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, who bought the 120-foot-long scroll the novel was originally typed on for $2.43 million. The book, with its fanatical following and mass appeal to budding bohemians, has been reprinted and reissued countless times over the past 55 years. Here's a look
see more
Books
A History of Leather: The Art of the Rockers' Jacket
Leather jackets have been around for centuries, but it took Marlon Brando wearing one in The Wild One to make them cool. Ever since his leather-clad bike gang stormed into town and took over the diner—where he leaned casually on a jukebox and answered the question "What are you rebelling against, Johnny?" with his infamous "Whaddya got?"—the leather jacket has been associated not only with effortless style but also with a sartorial statement of individuality.
see more
Books
Terry Richardson Points Camera at L.A. in 'Terrywood'
Not many photographers could get Tom Ford, James Franco, Frank Ocean and Lindsay Lohan to attend their art opening. Then again, Terry Richardson is not most photographers. The man has shot everyone from Kim Kardashian to President Barack Obama, so it isn't surprising that his first-ever Los Angeles solo show, fittingly dubbed Terrywood, was a gigantic deal. If you missed the exhibit's brief run at the trendy OHWOW Gallery earlier this year, you're in luck: It's being released in book form.
see more
The Daily Details Continues
THE LATEST ON DETAILS
