Jessica Saunders Author
Beth Morrey Author
Carolyn Banks Author
Jennifer Keishin Armstrong Author
Amy Gary Author
Dani Jansen Author
Totally compelling plot and characters....This book was riveting and laugh out loud!
12 authors picked Romantic Comedy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
My writing takes readers behind the scenes of major moments in pop culture history and examines the lasting impact that our favorite TV shows, music, and movies have on our society and psyches. I investigate why pop culture matters. I have written eight books, including the New York Times bestseller Seinfeldia, When Women Invented Television, Sex and the City and Us, and my latest, So Fetch. I’ve chosen books here that share my mission not only by going behind the scenes of major films but also by chronicling their effects on people’s real lives as well as culture and society at large.
As someone who wrote a book about Mean Girls, I have to quarrel just a bit with that subtitle. But twenty years after its release, Anchorman remains vital comedy viewing and shares a lot in common with Mean Girls: both came out in 2004, and both were made by a team of Saturday Night Live alums (in this case, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay), and both were crucial in shaping the comedy of the last two decades.
Austerlitz dives deep, showing the comedic and societal forces swirling beneath the surface of this quite silly-looking comedy, from Steve Carrell to Judd Apatow, from pioneering real-life news anchor Jessica Savitch to George W. Bush.
This is the book about Anchorman that you didn’t know you needed.
By Saul Austerlitz,
1 author picked Kind Of A Big Deal as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
*Vulture's Best Comedy Book of 2023*
From the author of Generation Friends, featuring brand-new interviews with Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, a surprising, incisive, and often hilarious book about the film that changed comedy, Anchorman.
It’s been nearly twenty years since Ron Burgundy burst into movie fans’ lives, reminding San Diego to “stay classy” while lampooning a time gone by—although maybe not as far gone as we might think? In Kind of a Big Deal, comedy historian Saul Austerlitz tells the history of how Anchorman was developed, written, and cast, and how it launched the careers of future superstars like…
By Tina Fey,
I love Tina Fey and this book captures her personality and sense of humour perfectly. It's almost like she wrote it herself!
Even though I loved these awkward anecdotes about growing up, crappy jobs, trying desperately to lose her virginity - what is WRONG with American males? Look at her, she's beautiful! And she's a nerd! What more could you ask for? - and her rise to fame through improv, Saturday Night Live and the excellent 30 Rock, I feel there's probably even more to empathise with if you're a female person of the contradictory gender to myself (it's a Fawlty Towers reference, don't come after me in the comments about gender politics). Tina was a girl when she was young, and she grew into a young woman, and then an adult woman - the stuff you learn in autobiographies! - so persons who also had that journey will probably…
By Tina Fey,
3 authors picked Bossypants as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Once in a generation a woman comes along who changes everything. Tina Fey is not that woman, but she met that woman once and acted weird around her. Before 30 Rock, Mean Girls and 'Sarah Palin', Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV. She has seen both these dreams come true. At last, Tina Fey's story can be told. From her youthful days as…
When most people think of haunted houses, they usually picture an aging building on the edge of town. But what if the place that’s haunted is a busy fast food joint? That’s the premise of Daniel Kraus’s The Ghost That Ate Us.
The employees of Burger City near Jonny, Iowa begin to experience strange events. At first, the incidents are harmless, but they slowly become more menacing, until an event happens that makes the national news. A journalist comes in after the fact, to interview the surviving workers and try to figure out what ‘really’ happened.
The book is scattered with pictures, a la Ransom Riggs’ Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children series. The result is an intriguing blend of horror, faux true crime, and biting social commentary.
By Daniel Kraus,
1 author picked The Ghost That Ate Us as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
You remember the brutal crime, don't you?
Maybe you read about it on Twitter. Maybe a friend sent you a news clip. Maybe you saw it on an episode of Spectral Journeys that night you were flipping through channels, unable to sleep. On June 1, 2017, six people were killed at a Burger City franchise off I-80 near Jonny, Iowa. It was the bizarre and gruesome conclusion to nine months of alleged paranormal activity at the fast-food joint-events popularly known as "the Burger City Poltergeist."
The story inspired Facebook memes, Twitter hashtags, Buzzfeed listicles, Saturday Night Live sketches, and more.…
Do you trust anyone without a sense of humor? Neither do I. I’ve always had an odd sense of humor. Laughter is good for the soul. I don’t know if I’m an expert, but I’ve certainly spent decades watching and reading comedies. And while I love writing serious and dark fiction, something cute and funny now and then feels like a nice balance. My personal taste runs from slapstick to standup to snappy scenes and witty dialog. I like smart humor, and because I had the wittiest dad, I can even appreciate a well-done dad joke.
I read just about anything – dark fiction, cozy mysteries, thrillers, and even plenty of non-fiction. But, while I rarely read memoirs, I will if it’s someone I truly admire.
Enter Betty White. I’ve always been a fan of her quick, one-liner wit, and this book doesn’t disappoint. But even the non-witty parts are packed with a punch. Betty’s wisdom is heartfelt and spot-on.
By Betty White,
1 author picked If You Ask Me as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
The New York Times bestseller from the beloved actress and Hollywood icon who's made us laugh on shows from The Mary Tyler Moore Show to Golden Girls to Saturday Night Live!
In this candid take on everything from the unglamorous reality behind red-carpet affairs to her beauty regimen ("I have no idea what color my hair is, and I never intend to find out"), Betty White shares her observations about life, celebrity, and love (for humans and animals). Filled with photos, If You Ask Me is funny, sweet, and straight to the point-just like Betty.
The reason I’m so fascinated by stand-up and books on writing is because I have done both. For a brief time I was a comedian, and the lessons in creativity and writing I learned along the way helped me find the career of copywriting. I’m passionate about learning how great writers write, and more importantly, keep writing, even when they don’t feel like it. I like to be inspired with lessons I can bring with me to every Word doc I open up.
One of the best books ever about stand-up.
Steve Martin talks about perfecting his craft and really gives comedians and fans of stand-up a front row seat to what goes into being a comedian. The grind on the way up, and performing in near-empty places, will make you empathize with Martin and all the comics who started just like him.
By Steve Martin,
1 author picked Born Standing Up as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
In the mid-seventies, Steve Martin exploded on to the comedy scene. By 1978, he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In 1981 he quit forever. This book is, in his own words, the story of "why I did stand-up and why I walked away." Emmy and Grammy Award winner, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Shopgirl and The Pleasure of My Company, and a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Martin has always been a writer. His memoir of his years in stand-up is candid, spectacularly amusing, and beautifully written. At age ten, Martin…
I’ve been a columnist in a national magazine, book reviewer on a daily newspaper, journalist on a small rural paper, commercial blogger for hire, copy-editor, and critiquer, usually alongside more conventional roles in the not entirely thrilling world of corporate finance. In my fifties, I took a belated gap year courtesy of a good redundancy package and started writing full-time under a couple of different names, mainly EJ Lamprey but here as Clarissa. The gap year never really ended . . . At the heart of all my books is the exuberant celebration of finding in autumn the best season of our lives.
We’ve outgrown vaulting over five-barred gates, running up mountains, drinking all night, and springing bright-eyed from our beds, and so what? For anyone in denial, or clinging stubbornly to youth, Dave is the Baby Boomer to point out the stark realities. He’s funny but he’s ruthless. Fifty’s not the new thirty. It’s fifty. The reason I recommend it is that it can be hard to let go and you’ll waste precious autumn if you don’t accept the inevitable, and move on with a spring in your step into what I have found to be the best period of all. Laughing helps. Laughing always helps.
By Dave Barry,
1 author picked Dave Barry Turns 50 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist comes a celebration of the aging process. Not just Dave's, but that of the whole Baby Boom Generation--those millions of us who set a standard for whining self-absorption that will never be equaled, and who gave birth to such stunning accomplishments as Saturday Night Live!, the New Age movement, and call waiting. Here Dave pinpoints the glaring signs that you've passed the half-century mark:
- You are suddenly unable to read anything written in letters smaller than Marlon Brando.
- You have accepted the fact that you can't possibly be hip. You don't even know…
A recovering newspaper journalist, I’ve lived and worked in Raleigh, North Carolina, since 1991, after growing up in Texas and Colorado. Professionally, I spent 28 years at Raleigh’s daily paper the News & Observer, primarily as a music critic, before taking my leave of the newspaper industry in 2019. Since then, I have gotten by as a freelancer writing for magazines, arts councils, alumni publications, and such. I also host a podcast – Carolina Calling, about North Carolina’s music history – while writing the occasional book. I’m also a member of the University of Colorado’s Trivia Bowl Hall Of Fame.
One of the throughline themes of my book is the ongoing resourcefulness of the state’s musicians as they battle day jobs as well as an unfriendly music industry.
As portrayed in this highly engaging oral history, North Carolina institutions don’t get much more resourceful than Merge Records, a Chapel Hill-based independent label founded by members of the local band Superchunk.
Over the years, Merge went from putting out indie-rock seven-inch singles to topping the Billboard charts, and even winning an album-of-the-year Grammy Award.
More than one-third of a century later, both Merge and Superchunk are still at it.
By John Cook, Laura Ballance, Mac McCaughan
1 author picked Our Noise as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Merge Records defies everything you’ve heard about the music business. Started by two twenty-year-old musicians, Merge is a lesson in how to make and market great music on a human scale. The fact that the company is prospering in a failing industry is something of a miracle. Yet two of their bands made the Billboard Top 10 list; more than 1 million copies of Arcade Fire's Neon Bible have been sold; Spoon has appeared on Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show; and the Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs is a contemporary classic.
In celebration of their twentieth anniversary, founders…
Pop culture is my life, and I like my characters to be well-versed in it. There's no reason to pretend otherwise, as what we consume informs who we are as people. Plus, there’s something beautiful in something everybody collectively knows. I’ve worked hard to make pop culture not just an interest but a career path. I currently program films for the Seattle International Film Festival, work as a playwright and performer, cover film, theatre, and burlesque for The Ticket at the Seattle Times, am a frequent guest on podcasts such as Film at Fifty, and assist at various arts organizations all over the greater Seattle area.
Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller’s oral history Live From New York (published in 2002, updated and expanded a decade later) is probably the most popular book on sketch comedy giant Saturday Night Live, but I’m more partial to Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad’s 1986 record of the show’s historic but tumultuous first ten years on the air. Unlike Live From New York, the vibe is less “hanging out with comedy giants” and more “I can’t believe these coked-out maniacs were able to stay alive, let alone create something that’s still going strong.” As SNL approaches its 50th anniversary, see the near-impossible alchemy that changed network television forever.
By Doug Hill, Jeff Weingrad,
1 author picked Saturday Night as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Saturday Night is the intimate history of the original Saturday Night Live, from its beginnings as an outlaw program produced by an unruly band of renegades from the comedy underground to a TV institution that made stars of John Belushi, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman, Garrett Morris, Joe Piscopo and Eddie Murphy.
This is the book that revealed to the world what really happened behind the scenes during the first ten years of this groundbreaking program, from the battles SNL fought with NBC to the battles fought within the show itself. It's all here: The…
I am the author of seven published books about Hollywood. I’m also actively involved in the entertainment industry day to day. Presently, I am the owner of Management 101, a firm that guides the careers of actors and writers. I’m also a producer of feature films and television shows including the GLAAD award-winning feature film Geography Club, Sins of our Youth, and Nickelodeon’s Dance On Sunset. I have taught at the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California and have appeared as a guest on Entertainment Tonight, CNN, Fox News, and CBS.
Since I work in talent representation, I’m always curious how my colleagues and competitors conduct business. CAA is, and has been, the top agency in Hollywood since I first started in this industry. I was anxious to read about the history of the company and how it has managed to not only survive, but thrive, throughout the decades. Filled with tantalizing stories of insider secrets, this is an eye opening account of one of Hollywood’s most powerful companies and the uber successful men and women who have worked there.
1 author picked Powerhouse as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
A New York Times bestseller, now updated with an afterword and exclusive new material From the #1 bestselling author behind acclaimed oral histories of Saturday Night Live and ESPN comes "the most hotly anticipated book [in decades]" (Variety): James Andrew Miller's irresistible insider chronicle of the modern entertainment industry, told through the epic story of Creative Artists Agency (CAA)-the ultimate power player that has represented the world's biggest stars and shaped the landscape of film, television, comedy, music, and sports. Started in 1975, when five bright and brash upstarts left creaky William Morris to form their own innovative talent agency,…
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