As the pandemic was announced in March 2020 and many studio films were delayed, I had to make a pivot like so many other outlets. In addition to going through my physical media, TCM recordings, and streaming, I also turned to books. What follows below is the list of every book I’ve read during the pandemic and since. In many instances, I’ve written book reviews or interviewed the authors. At first, I referred to these books as quarantine books but as we got deeper into the pandemic and were free to move about some more, I started referring to them as pandemic books.
I started reading Camera Man during the Omicron wave so not ALL of these books are pandemic books but it’s a way to keep things together.
- Warner Bros by David Thomson
- The Brothers Warner by Cass Warner Sperling
- King Cohn: The Life and Times of Harry Cohn by Bob Thomas
- Laugh Lines by Alan Zweibel
- The Man Who Made The Movies by Vanda Krefft
- Hitchcock and the Censors by John Billheimer
- Goldwyn: A Biography by A. Scott Berg
- Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer by Scott Eyman
- Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood by William J. Mann
- Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America by Steven J. Ross
- Bad Moms: The Novel by Nina McInery
- Five Came Back by Mark Harris
- Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise by Scott Eyman
- On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder by Ed Sikov
- Steven Spielberg: A Biography by Joseph McBride
- Picturing Peter Bogdanovich: My Conversations with the New Hollywood Director by Peter Tonguette
- George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones
- Hope for Film by Ted Hope
- Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film by Alan K. Rode
- A Talent for Trouble: The Life of Hollywood’s Most Acclaimed Director, William Wyler by Jan Herman
- The Brothers Mankiewicz: Hope, Heartbreak, and Hollywood Classics by Sydney Ladensohn Stern
- Cary Grant: A Brilliant Disguise by Scott Eyman
- The Nolan Variations: The Movies, Mysteries, and Marvels of Christopher Nolan by Tom Shone
- I Want To Be Where The Normal People Are by Rachel Bloom
- Nichols and May: Interviews edited by Robert E. Kapsis
- Tough Sh*t by Kevin Smith
- There I Go Again: How I Came to Be Mr. Feeny, John Adams, Dr. Craig, KITT, and Many Others by William Daniels
- My Girls by Todd Fisher
- True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee by Abraham Riesman
- Star Wars: The High Republic – Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule (no review, strictly for leisure)
- Because He’s Jeff Goldblum by Travis M. Andrews
- The Art of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge by Amy Ratcliffe
- John Williams’s Film Music by Emilio Audissino
- Starstruck by Leonard Maltin (uncorrected advance reading proof, due out in October)
- 20th Century Fox: Darryl F. Zanuck and the Creation of the Modern Film Studio by Scott Eyman (uncorrected advance proof, due out in September)
- Hollywood Hates Hitler! Jew-Baiting, Anti-Nazism, and the Senate Investigation into Warmongering in Motion Pictures by Chris Yogerst
- Secrets of the Force: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Wars by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross
- Leading Lady: Sherry Lansing and the Making of a Hollywood Groundbreaker by Stephen Galloway
- Robin by Dave Itzkoff
- Nobody Does It Better: The Complete Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of James Bond by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross
- Engulfed: The Death of Paramount Pictures and the Birth of Corporate Hollywood by Bernard F. Dick
- Columbia Pictures: Portrait of a Studio by Bernard F. Dick
- The Original Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest by Felix Salten (Translation by Jack Zipes)
- Camera Man: Buster Keaton, The Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the 20th Century by Dana Stevens
- Hollywood and Hitler: 1933-1939 by Thomas Doherty
- The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series by Jessica Radloff
- Hollywood and Israel: A History by Tony Shaw and Giora Goodman
- Oscar Wars by Michael Schulman
- Middle of the Rainbow by Bonnie Bartlett Daniels
- But Have You Read the Book? by Kristen Lopez
- No Time Like the Future by Michael J. Fox
- Warner Bros.: 100 Years of Storytelling by Mark A. Viera
- The Disney Revolt by Jake S. Friedman
- Get Up, Baby! by Mike Shannon
- The Warner Brothers by Chris Yogerst
- Smart, Wrong, and Lucky: The Origins of Baseball’s Unexpected Stars by Jonathan Mayo
- The History of Sketch Comedy by Keegan-Michael Key and Elle Key
- Four of the Three Musketeers by Robert S. Bader
- The Baseball Talmud by Howard Megdal
- Look Out for the Little Guy by Scott Lang
- MCU: The Rein of Marvel Studios by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards
- It Could Happen Here by Jonathan Greenblatt
- Being Henry: The Fonz…and Beyond by Henry Winkler
- The Ambassador by Yehuda Avner and Matt Rees
- They Call Me Goose by Jack Givens
- Eruption by Michael Crichton and James Patterson
- Somewhere Out There: My Animated Life by Don Bluth
- All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words: Unpublished, Unvarnished, and Told by The Beatles and Their Inner Circles by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines
- 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid by Willie Mays and John Shea
- Just Show Up: And Other Enduring Value’s from Baseball’s Iron Man by Cal Ripken Jr. and James Dale
- They Call Me Pudge: My Life Playing the Game I Love by Ivan Rodriguez with Jeff Sullivan
- Rock Solid: My Life in Baseball’s Fast Lane by Tim Raines with Alan Maimon
- Lou Boudreau: My Hall of Fame Life on the Field and Behind the Mic by Lou Boudreau with Russell Schneider
- Doc: The Life of Roy Halladay by Todd Zolecki
- Tony Gwynn: The Baseball Life of Mr. Padre by Scott Kingdon
- Nine Innings to Success: A Hall of Famer’s Approach to Achieving Excellence by Jim Palmer with Alan Maimon
- Inside Pitch: Playing and Broadcasting the Game I Love by Tom Glavine with Nick Cafardo
- Pull Up a Chair: The Vin Scully Story by Curt Smith
- Races, Games, and Olympic Dreams: A Sportscaster’s Life by Tom Hammond with Mark Story
- Warren Spahn: A Biography of the Legendary Lefty by Lew Freedman
- Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig by Jonathan Eig
- Lefty and Tim: How Steve Carlton and Tim McCarver Became Baseball’s Best Battery by William C. Kashatus
- Mike Schmidt: The Phillies’ Legendary Slugger by Rob Maaddi
- Fergie: My Life from the Cubs to Cooperstown by Fergie Jenkins with Lew Freedman
- Baseball Forever: Reflections on 60 Years in the Game by Ralph Kiner with Danny Peary
- Roberto Alomar: The Complicated Life and Legacy of a Baseball Hall of Famer by David Ostrowsky
- A Path to Peace by George J. Mitchell and Alon Sachar
- Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn by Daniel Gordis
- Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World’s Most Contested City by Andrew Lawler
- Impossible Takes Longer by Daniel Gordis
- How the West Became Antisemitic: Jews and the Formation of Europe, 800-1500 by Ivan G. Marcus
- Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald