The Man Who Created Halloween is the fascinating story of one man's improbable journey from the tenements of Brooklyn's Williamsburg to fame and fortune in Hollywood. It is also a chronicle of the shifting winds of change from the old studio system to the emergence of a new generation of independent producers and film makers. Replete with first hand anecdotes we see that tumultuous era thru the eyes of famed producer and film executive Irwin Yablans. Yablans career encompasses the entire gamut of motion picture experience from his early years at Warner Brothers to sales chief at Paramount and Orion pictures, culminating with the formation of his own company, Compass International Pictures. But his story is much more. It is a tale of how determination and perseverance enabled him to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles in the rough and tumble motion picture industry. Told in his own words, this candid, no holds barred autobiography finally relates the truth about how the classic film Halloween came into being. The discovery of John Carpenter, the complex relationship with Moustapha Akkad and Joseph Wolf is discussed in never before revealed detail. Written with humor and fidelity to the truth, The Man Who Created Halloween is an essential addition to any film lore library as well as an inspirational example of the possibilities for any man who will not be denied.

"Every page, every paragraph, every sentence sparkles with captivating metaphors, delightful verbal concoctions, alchemical insights, philosophic whimsy, absurd illogicals, scientific comedy routines, relentless, non-stop waves of hilarity. The comparisons to James Joyce are undeniable. Wow! Whew! Wild! Wonderful!"" Timothy Leary The strangest memoir you will ever read. You or your parents lived it. I helped start it. And it was an accident. It was the era of myth, legend, sex, and extreme adventure called The Sixties. "I blasted through Howard Bloom's How I Accidentally Started The Sixties like the wildfire swallowing up my mountain in California. I loved it. The molecular amusement ride, the sexual Disneyland, the Chevy 350 Impala blasting down the freeway at 120 mph. The universal essence is its brilliant simplicity.....Reality is really a mind field seen through Bloom's neurotic Buddha-like mind resplendent with every major family issue mortal humans will ever come across in a life time: identity, parents, meaning, self, non-self, food, habitation, education, goals, marriage, family, children, God, sex, more sex----DRUGS. It slithers like a rattlesnake across the page, the way a story should. What I love most is the off the wall comedy. Howard Bloom as Harpo Marx riding a freight train like Buddha carrying his life in a sleeping bag. I mean it's priceless. Bloom's psychedelic journey across the American landscape, is deciphered through the irresistible minds of murderers, crackpots, Nobel Prize Playboy bunnies, scholars, waiters, hobo gurus, cops, professors, French majors, psychiatrists, cock suckers, recreational drug users, Mormons, Jews, nut jobs, laundry mat owners, demonic children, lizards...........Aldous Huxley with a pinch of Timothy Leary.............and every molecule in the universe. It separates Bloom from any scientist/global mind who ever lived. Richard Feynman, Albert Einstein, and Aldous Huxley would be proud. Each man strived to marry science, art, and poetry but never managed to pull it off. How I Accidentally Started the Sixties does. I salute Howard Bloom. His doctrine sparkles every page with his Promethean fire; distilled in Shakespeare's immortal words, 'From women's eyes this doctrine I derive'.....[women] are the books, the arts, the academies, that show, contain and nourish the world.' Love's Labour Lost, only in Bloom's case, found, lost, and then found again. God only knows what else this mastermind is hiding from the rest of us." Mark Lamonica, winner of the Southern California Booksellers Association Nonfiction Award, author of Junk Yard Dogs And William Shakespeare and Renaissance Porn Star: The Saga of Pietro Aretino, The World's Greatest Hustler

GOOD-PLUS HARDBACK. VERY-GOOD EXCEPT SMALL AMT OF YELLOW HILITING AND VERY SMALL AMT OF OTHER MARKINGS.

My Brothers’ Keeper carries the reader through a deeply personal and intimate journey, as Gloria Reuben explores her love of the life she shared with her brothers, as well as the myriad of emotions and experiences after their sudden deaths. The death of a sibling is unlike any other. Gloria Reuben’s little brother died just before his twenty-second birthday. Two decades later, her oldest brother Denis died two weeks short of his sixtieth birthday. Just as Gloria felt like she was finally healing from David’s death, the shock of Denis’ unexpected death was almost too much to take. In My Brothers’ Keeper , Gloria bares her soul as she reveals the intimate details of her life at home as a young girl. How the death of her father when she was twelve shaped her view of love and life. How David’s death was the impetus for her move from Canada to the United States. And how her brother Denis was her heart’s twin in a multitude of ways. Gloria, most well known as an actress, debuts her talent as a writer in My Brothers’ Keeper , an intimate and honest tribute to David and Denis. Their lives. Their deaths. And the hope that awaits. “Gloria has written a truly wonderful and inspirational tribute to her brothers and to life. Helpful to all of us who have suffered losses.”—Pete Earley

I Love Her, That's Why! is an entertaining look at the life and career of comedian George Burns and his wife Gracie Allen. From humble beginnings in New York, Burns and Allen went on to become much-loved stars of stage, radio, television, and the big-screen, one of the few entertainers to be successful in each venue. The book begins with Burns' childhood and early struggles in vaudeville before he meets Gracie Allen. Burns then details his efforts to win her affections; their marriage and adoptions of two children; radio, film, and TV productions (including the script for their television series). Included are numerous illustrated pages of photographs.

Eva Zeisel's recounting of 16 months in a Soviet prison, 1936-37, at the beginning of the Stalinist purges. It includes original NKVD documents related to Zeisel's case, such as questionnaires and interrogation transcriptions. Also contains photos, poems written while she was in prison, 40 year old audio recordings of Eva recalling her time in prison, and video clips of her return visit, in 2000, to the Lomonosov factory in St. Petersburg where she had worked 63 years before.

“A satisfying read from a masterful stylist, this will appeal to any fan of nature writing or personal essays.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) Ever since her daughter rescued a fledgling rook several years ago, Esther Woolfson has been fascinated with corvids, the bird group that includes crows, rooks, magpies, and ravens. Today, the rook, named Chicken, is a member of the Woolfson family along with a talking magpie named Spike, a baby crow named Ziki, a starling, a parrot, and others. From their elaborate bathing rituals to springtime broodiness and their tendency to stash food in the most unlikely places, these corvids share bonds with Woolfson that would have been considered rare, if not impossible, before. Letting her experience speak for itself, Woolfson likens the fears and foibles of corvids to those of humans, taking into account the science of bird intelligence, evolution,song, and flight. She highlights their big personalities and capacity for affection: Chicken hates computers and machines, while she loves evening neck scratches on Woolfson’s knee. It is through this intimate lens that Woolfson invites us to reconsider what creatures can be human’s best friend. “Woolfson shares a house with a host of free–ranging birds who cache bits of brie and raw squid in jean cuffs and under rugs, who excavate holes in the kitchen wall, and who, ahem, are decidedly not housebroken. But are these lifestyles really so peculiar? Should we not applaud them?” — Orion Magazine “What makes Woolfson’s memoir such enjoyable reading (even for the non–birdobsessed) is that she is funny and knows it’s rather crazy to have a magpie, crow, starling or, more significantly, a rook named ‘Chicken’ running about your house.” —Bookslut

In this book, Estelle Getty serves up wisdom and advice on everything from marriage and motherhood to Hollywood and hypochondria, channeling her colorful character Sophia Petrillo, just a little. A light and generally amusing amalgam of reminiscence, show-biz gossip, borscht-belt humor, and (mis)spun down- home advice, this is a beach read for die-hard "Golden Girls" fans everywhere

A Montreal Childhood is a recently discovered memoir by Eric Berne about growing up and coming of age in Montreal in the first decades of the 20th century. The first new book by the well-known psychotherapist and author since his death in 1970, it offers an affectionate and revealing portrait of the city's immigrant community on lively Ste. Famille St. during and after WWI. The evocative and humorous depictions of the many social and cultural differences which reigned in Montreal at the time are among the books most memorable passages, as are the anecdotes recounting just how the children of Ste. Famille St. often painfully learned to cope with these differences. "So there was I, a direct descendant of Adam and Eve, facing the world at seventeen. I had few material things and no spending money, but I had lots of relatives, a card admitting me to college, a job and a girlfriend. The most important things I owned were in my head. First, all the things that had been put there by my parents and teachers, by books and by friends: freedoms and duties, aspirations and prohibitions. Second, all the knowledge of the world and its ways, and of the things it had to offer and could take away. Third, all the memories and desires that had grown in me since birth, all the hopes and ideals and strivings and creations that welled up from my youthful soul. So I could stride down the street, head up, swinging my arms straight and firm like a free British subject, and feel myself a part of the world, with all its trees and birds and beasts and people that pulsated and strove on the earth and above it, and yes, the questing roots below its surface as well" Eric Berne.

The never-more-necessary return of one of our most vital and eloquent voices on technology and culture, the author of the seminal Close to the Machine The last twenty years have brought us the rise of the internet, the development of artificial intelligence, the ubiquity of once unimaginably powerful computers, and the thorough transformation of our economy and society. Through it all, Ellen Ullman lived and worked inside that rising culture of technology, and in Life in Code she tells the continuing story of the changes it wrought with a unique, expert perspective. When Ellen Ullman moved to San Francisco in the early 1970s and went on to become a computer programmer, she was joining a small, idealistic, and almost exclusively male cadre that aspired to genuinely change the world. In 1997 Ullman wrote Close to the Machine, the now classic and still definitive account of life as a coder at the birth of what would be a sweeping technological, cultural, and financial revolution. Twenty years later, the story Ullman recounts is neither one of unbridled triumph nor a nostalgic denial of progress. It is necessarily the story of digital technology’s loss of innocence as it entered the cultural mainstream, and it is a personal reckoning with all that has changed, and so much that hasn’t. Life in Code is an essential text toward our understanding of the last twenty years—and the next twenty.

For more than three decades, Ed Koch has been one of America's most interesting and outspoken political figures. In this provocative new book, Koch with Rafael Medoff guides readers through the major battles in his life-long fight against anti-Semitism. Interviews, speeches, new essays, never-before published personal correspondence, and more highlight his leadership--on campuses, in the media, on the streets of New York City, and in the halls of power in Washington, DC. The book also features personal letters from Henry Louis Gates, former President George Bush, and other prominent figures. Koch will reveal startling information for the first time here, and his writings are controversial, piercing, teasing, and questioning. This book will ignite discussion for years to come

Book by Sterling, Dorothy

In "Men I'm Not Married To," Dorothy Parker offers a sharp, witty collection of essays and character sketches that explore the complexities of love, desire, and disillusionment through her incisive lens. Known for her acerbic humor and keen observations of the societal norms of her time, Parker employs a conversational yet poignant literary style, weaving personal anecdotes with broader social critiques. This work emerges from the early 20th century, a pivotal era in American literature marked by a burgeoning feminism and shifting gender dynamics, which Parker critiques with a blend of irony and authenticity. Dorothy Parker, a prominent member of the Algonquin Round Table, was known for her biting wit and advocacy for women's rights, often reflecting her personal experiences with romance and disappointment. Her own tumultuous relationships and her struggles within the patriarchal society profoundly influenced her writing. Parker's work not only illuminates her individual concerns but also resonates with the broader existential questions of her generation, establishing her as a significant voice in American literature. "Men I'm Not Married To" is an essential read for those who appreciate humor laced with wisdom. Parker's insightful commentary on relationships remains relevant, inviting readers to reflect on the intricacies of human connections, making this collection a timeless exploration of love's transient nature.

Book by Trilling, Diana

The highly acclaimed debut is Devyani Saltzman's remarkable story of reconnecting with her mother, award-winning filmmaker Deepa Mehta, in India and Sri Lanka during the production of the Oscar®-nominated film Water. In Shooting Water , Devyani Saltzman recounts her experience straddling the separate worlds of her divorced parents in Canada and India—navigating between two religions (Hindu and Jewish), two traditions, two cultures, and two people—belonging to both and to neither at once. This cross-cultural memoir chronicles her life-changing experiences in India and Sri Lanka, the struggle to produce the controversial Oscar®-nominated film, and the emergence of a deeper understanding between mother and daughter. This trade paperback edition features a reading group guide that includes an interview with the author and discussion questions. 16 black-and-white photos, maps.

From award-winning comedian, director, writer, and producer David Steinberg comes the totally original, utterly blasphemous, and hysterically funny memoir of a young man who emerged from a traditional Jewish childhood to become an international star—all because, it seems, he kept God in stitches. David Steinberg was raised in Winnipeg, Canada, by parents who expected little from him. And no wonder. Instead of studying Talmud in order to become a rabbi, he chose to major in Martin and Lewis with a minor in basketball. As David imagines the story of his life (since his success otherwise makes no sense), God one day spotted him on the playground and decided that this young man with no ambition could go far with His help. Sure enough, God soon had David on network TV and Broadway, and selling out nightclubs across the country—as well as being pursued by hot starlets. The Book of David is David Steinberg's hilarious trip down memory lane, assuming that the lane has a biblical address. This wild riff on the Old Testament is guaranteed laughter.

This is the story of a rare sort of American genius, who grew up in grinding poverty in Camden, Maine. Nothing could save the sensitive child but her talent for words, music, and drama, and an inexorable desire to be loved. When she was twenty, her poetry would make her famous; at thirty she would be loved by readers the world over. Edna St. Vincent Millay was widely considered to be the most seductive woman of her age. Few men could resist her, and many women also fell under her spell. From the publication of her first poems until the scandal over Fatal Interview twenty years later, gossip about the poet's liberated lifestyle prompted speculation about who might be the real subject of her verses. Using letters, diaries, and journals of the poet and her lovers that have only recently become available, Daniel Mark Epstein tells the astonishing story of the life, dedicated to art and love, that inspired the sublime lyrics of Edna St. Vincent Millay.

The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq is the comprehensive source on George Bush's campaign of disinformation before, during, and after the second Gulf War. From the careful linking of Saddam Hussein with Al Qaeda, to the WMD canard, to the September 2003 damage-control sideshow. AlterNet's Christopher Scheer and Lakshmi Chaudhry team up with renowned journalist Robert Scheer to tak

On the motion-picture front, no other publication of our age has achieved the stature, vitality, or magic of Vanity Fair. In its coverage of the film industry, the magazine prides itself on assigning the world's top photographers, writers, and illustrators to explore the brightest stars in the Hollywood firmament. Now, for the first time, the most memorable renderings of this illustrious pantheon have been assembled in one volume: Garbo and Swanson, Fairbanks and Pickford, Gable and Grant, Tracy and Hepburn, Taylor and Burton -- along with today's cinematic giants, including Cruise and Kidman, Nicholson and Streep, De Niro and DiCaprio, Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, and scores more. As this sweeping, lavish book makes clear, Vanity Fair's stable of photographers (Cecil Beaton, Annie Leibovitz, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts, Edward Steichen, Mario Testino, Bruce Weber, and many others represented here) have helped define modern portraiture. Likewise, Vanity Fair's Hollywood includes Vanity Fair contributors of the past (D.H. Lawrence, Clare Boothe Luce, Dorothy Parker, Carl Sandburg, Walter Winchell, and P.G. Wodehouse) and of the present.

A comic and heartwarming memoir about childhood's second act from Real Simple journalist Catherine Newman. Much is written about a child's infancy and toddler years, which is good since children will never remember it themselves. It is ages 4-14 that make up the second act, as Catherine Newman puts it in this delightfully candid, outlandishly funny new memoir about the years that "your children will remember as childhood." Following Newman's son and daughter as they blossom from preschoolers into teenagers, CATASTROPHIC HAPPINESS is about the bittersweet joy of raising children--and the ever-evolving landscape of issues parents traverse. In a laugh out-loud, heart-wrenching, relatable voice, Newman narrates events as momentous as grief and as quietly moving as the moonlit face of a sleeping child. From tantrums and friendship to fear and even sex, Newman's fresh take will appeal to any parent riding this same roller coaster of laughter and heartbreak.