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1 day ago | 
latimes.com | Mark Athitakis |Lorraine Berry |Jessica Ferri |Bethanne Patrick |Chris Vognar
Nothing says “summer’s here!” than reading near a body of water. And what qualifies as a beach read has evolved to include more than romances and thrillers. From histories on New York’s 1960s art scene and the making of the film “Sunset Boulevard” to biographies on James Baldwin, Clint Eastwood and Bruce Lee, to gripping memoirs from Miriam Toews and Molly Jong-Fast, there’s something from every nonfiction genre.
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5 days ago | 
publishersweekly.com | Chris Vognar
Emma Rosenblum is quite clear: her new novel is not autobiographical. Yes, she’s a successful New Yorker. Yes, she lives on the Upper East Side. And, yes, her two sons attend private school. But that is where any similarity ends. “This book is definitely not based on women at the private school that we go to, or people I know specifically,” she says via Zoom from New York. “But there are certainly types of people in Manhattan and Brooklyn that this book was loosely inspired by.
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5 days ago | 
bostonglobe.com | Chris Vognar
It has named itself “Murderbot,” but it doesn’t seem particularly murderous. It just doesn’t think much of humans. In a snarky, monotone voice-over, it comments on the interplanetary explorers it has been assigned to protect: “All that human stuff. Feelings and exchanges of words and fluids. I didn’t want them to pull me into it.” But of course, they do.
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2 weeks ago | 
latimes.com | Chris Vognar
The tension between James Gandolfini, the actor, and Tony Soprano, the character, was often hard for the star to live with, Jason Bailey writes in his biography on the “Sopranos” actor.
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2 weeks ago | 
yahoo.com | Chris Vognar
James Gandolfini is best known for playing a single character: Tony Soprano, the bearish New Jersey gangster at the heart of HBO’s massively popular series “The Sopranos.” But Jason Bailey’s come-to-Jimmy moment came much earlier, when he saw the 1993 crime caper “True Romance.” Directed by Tony Scott and written by an up-and-comer named Quentin Tarantino, that movie featured Gandolfini in a small but memorable role as Virgil, a thug who beats up Patricia Arquette’s Alabama.
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3 weeks ago | 
chron.com | Chris Vognar
Thérèse Bonney, Tamara de Lempicka working on the portrait "Nana de Herrera," c. 1929, gelatin silver print. The Regents of the University of California, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Source: Ville de Paris / Bibliothèque historique 4C-EPF-006-00701With famous fans like Madonna, Barbara Streisand and Elton John, and a beguiling sexual fluidity, the details of Tamara de Lempicka's bold, eclectic and chameleonic life almost make it easy to overlook her art.
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3 weeks ago | 
nzherald.co.nz | Chris Vognar
Kevin Bacon plays a bondsman working for the devil in a new horror comedy series. The actor stars as the title character in this new horror comedy series, playing a man charged with tracking down escaped demons. The devil goes down to Georgia in the horror comedy series The Bondsman, but he’s not looking for a fiddle fight. This demon master is actually an old-school telemarketer, fax machine at the ready, overseeing a pyramid scheme of lost souls.
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3 weeks ago | 
bostonglobe.com | Chris Vognar
The sign marking the parking spot provides a clear warning: “Reserved for Boston Red Sox fans only!” But this isn’t Fenway Park, or even New England. It’s small-town Georgia, which means the owner of that car is a long way from home.
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4 weeks ago | 
bostonglobe.com | Chris Vognar
Sensitive, brooding cowboy dudes slump in the saddles of “Ransom Canyon,” Netflix’s neo-western series that plays like an emo version of “Yellowstone.” They’re mourning departed loved ones, missed opportunities, and broken hearts. The teens among them, neglected or spoiled by their parents, indulge in familiar high school torments; they could potentially start their own spinoff (“Dawson’s Ranch?”).
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4 weeks ago | 
houstonchronicle.com | Chris Vognar
“Born With Teeth” began its life as a world premiere at Alley Theatre in 2022. Liz Duffy Adams’ drama, about the rivalry, friendship, intrigue, and, just maybe, romance shared by William Shakespeare and fellow playwright Christopher Marlowe, then found its way to the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival, in Ashland. That’s a nice run for any homegrown play. But the stage is about to get a lot bigger.
