Books to Look Forward to in 2021, Part 3 of 3

  My To-Be-Read list grows and grows. I just can't keep up.  So what do I do? I look up lists of books scheduled to be released in 2021. Makes perfect sense, right? After looking at a few lists, I thought I would share ten of the titles that sound really interesting to me. ( Amazon's descriptions used, with my thoughts in italics.)

    

From Kliph Nesteroff, “the human encyclopedia of comedy” (Vice), comes the important and underappreciated story of Native Americans and comedy.

It was one of the most reliable jokes in Charlie Hill’s stand-up routine: “My people are from Wisconsin. We used to be from New York. We had a little real estate problem.” In We Had a Little Real Estate Problem, acclaimed comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff focuses on one of comedy’s most significant and little-known stories: how, despite having been denied representation in the entertainment industry, Native Americans have influenced and advanced the art form. 

The account begins in the late 1880s, when Native Americans were forced to tour in wild west shows as an alternative to prison. (One modern comedian said it was as “if a Guantanamo detainee suddenly had to appear on X-Factor.”) This is followed by a detailed look at the life and work of seminal figures such as Cherokee humorist Will Rogers and Hill, who in the 1970s was the first Native American comedian to appear on The Tonight Show. Also profiled are several contemporary comedians, including Jonny Roberts, a social worker from the Red Lake Nation who drives five hours to the closest comedy club to pursue his stand-up dreams; Kiowa-Apache comic Adrianne Chalepah, who formed the touring group the Native Ladies of Comedy; and the 1491s, a sketch troupe whose satire is smashing stereotypes to critical acclaim. 

As Ryan Red Corn, the Osage member of the 1491s, says: “The American narrative dictates that Indians are supposed to be sad. It’s not really true and it’s not indicative of the community experience itself... Laughter and joy is very much a part of Native culture.” Featuring dozens of original interviews and the exhaustive research that is Nesteroff’s trademark, We Had a Little Real Estate Problem is a powerful tribute to a neglected legacy. 

    I enjoyed Nesteroff's book The Comedians, and it was packed with history. Native American comedians? That's not something most people are familiar with, although most people who have heard of Will Rogers probably know that he was a Cherokee. In fact, Native Americans have long been stereotyped as being grim and humorless people. 

In the tenth book in the multimillion-selling Killing series, Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard take on their most dramatic subject yet: The Mob.

Killing the Mob is the tenth audiobook in Bill O'Reilly's number-one New York Times best-selling series of popular narrative histories, with sales of nearly 18 million copies worldwide, and over 320 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. 

O’Reilly and co-author Martin Dugard trace the brutal history of 20th-century organized crime in the United States, and expertly plumb the history of this nation’s most notorious serial robbers, con men, murderers, and especially, mob family bosses. Covering the period from the 1930s to the 1980s, O’Reilly and Dugard trace the prohibition-busting bank robbers of the Depression Era, such as John Dillinger, Bonnie & Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Baby-Face Nelson. In addition, the authors highlight the creation of the Mafia Commission, the power struggles within the “Five Families”, the growth of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover, the mob battles to control Cuba, Las Vegas, and Hollywood, as well as the personal war between the US Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and legendary Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. 

O’Reilly and Dugard turn these legendary criminals and their true-life escapades into a listen that rivals the most riveting crime novel. With Killing the Mob, their hit series is primed for its greatest success yet.

    Mobsters, gangsters? will that topic ever cease to be interesting? O'Reilly/Dugard books are usually good for a quick read. I think their books are meant for a general audience, so people who know a lot about their subjects may feel their books are a bit superficial, but I have not been disappointed by the 3-4 books I've read.

A new biography of the intellectual father of Southern secession—the man who set the scene for the Civil War, and whose political legacy still shapes America today.

John C. Calhoun is among the most notorious and enigmatic figures in American political history. First elected to Congress in 1810, Calhoun went on to serve as secretary of war and vice president. But he is perhaps most known for arguing in favor of slavery as a "positive good" and for his famous doctrine of "state interposition," which laid the groundwork for the South to secede from the Union—and arguably set the nation on course for civil war.

Calhoun has catapulted back into the public eye in recent years, as some observers connected the strain of radical politics he developed to the tactics and extremism of the modern Far Right, and as protests over racial injustice have focused on his legacy. In this revelatory biographical study, historian Robert Elder shows that Calhoun is even more broadly significant than these events suggest, and that his story is crucial for understanding the political climate in which we find ourselves today. By excising Calhoun from the mainstream of American history, he argues, we have been left with a distorted understanding of our past and no way to explain our present.

Few men have had a bigger role in American history than John C. Calhoun.  In fact, he is often called part of the American Triumvirate with Henry Clay and Daniel Webster.  I loved H.W. Brands' book about them called Heirs of the Founders. I've already pre-ordered my copy

The explosive true saga of the legendary figure, Daniel Boone, and the bloody struggle for America's frontier by two best-selling authors at the height of their writing power - Bob Drury and Tom Clavin.

It is the mid-18th century, and in the 13 colonies founded by Great Britain, anxious colonists desperate to conquer and settle North America’s "First Frontier" beyond the Appalachian Mountains engage in a never-ending series of bloody battles. These violent conflicts are waged against the Native American tribes whose lands they covet, the French, and finally against the mother country itself in an American Revolution destined to reverberate around the world.

This is the setting of Blood and Treasure, and the guide to this epic narrative is none other than America’s first and arguably greatest pathfinder Daniel Boone - not the coonskin cap-wearing caricature of popular culture but the flesh-and-blood frontiersman and military hero whose explorations into the forested frontier beyond the great mountains would become the stuff of legend. Now, thanks to painstaking research by two award-winning authors, the story of the brutal birth of the United States is told through the eyes of both the ordinary and larger-than-life men and women, white and red, who witnessed it.

This fast-paced and fiery narrative, fueled by contemporary diaries and journals, newspaper reports, and eyewitness accounts, is a stirring chronicle of the conflict over America’s "First Frontier" that places the listener at the center of this remarkable epoch and its gripping tales of courage and sacrifice.

    Daniel Boone was one of the first giants in American popular culture and folklore, with his legend beginning even during his lifetime. In truth, he was one of the first American trailblazers, literally, and his life just may measure up to the legend. I have already pre-ordered this book as well.

Time For a Good Laugh, part 2

     Here are three more great books about the world of comedy.

    Craig Ferguson is my favorite comedian. He was my favorite late night talk show host for years as host of The Late Late Show, and I've seen him 3 or 4 times live. Riding the Elephant is his third book, following his novel Between the Bridge and the River, and his first memoir American On Purpose.  Riding is very funny, very revealing, and very candid. Ferguson is one of my all time favorite celebrities because of his humor and his down to earth personality. IF you are not familiar with his work, check him out.

    The Comedians by Kliph Nesteroff is based on over two hundred original interviews extensive research; it is a thorough narrative of the way comedians have reflected, shaped, and changed American culture over the past hundred years. The book is full of great stories about all the greats of comedy and about people you've never heard of, but should have. I learned about the strict caste distinctions between Vaudeville and burlesque comedians, and I learned the mafia controlled comedy clubs and careers in the 1940s and 1950s. 

    Mixed Nuts by Lawrence J. Epstein focuses on the great comedy teams. Each chapter focuses on a team like Burns and Allen, the Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance, and others. The reader learns about each team's formation, career and contributions, and ultimately, maybe inevitably in some cases, their breakups.

    Both books are well-researched and tell great stories about American culture.

    

Time for a Good Laugh, part 1

     If ever we needed a laugh, it's now. 2020 has been rough for all of us. Over the last year, I've read several books by and about comedians.  They are a lot of laughs, of course, but they are also great entertaining stories, with some good life lessons imparted as well. 

    I actually listened to all of these, narrated by the authors themselves, and I highly recommend this route. It was great to hear the subjects tell their own stories. 

    

    Eddie Izzard's Believe Me definitely falls into that arena. As he narrates the book, Izzard often goes off text, on tangents that he didn't include in the book. It's a really entertaining look into how his mind works. Izzard is a British comedian and actor who is known for several things like performing in women's clothing, performing his stand-up in multiple languages around the world, and running 27 marathons in 27 days for charity. In his book, he writes frankly about his childhood, his career, and his alternative sexuality. Izzard has a fan base that crosses all demographic lines because he has the ability to reach practically any audience.

    Are you one of the people who discovered actor Leslie Jordan from his quarantine videos on Instagram and other social media?  Probably not. Like me, you've probably seen him in his fantastic scene-stealing roles on sitcoms in the last 2-3 decades. It seems he's been on every sitcom there is, and he even made an appearance on an episode of  Star Trek: Voyager.  During the COVID quarantine, he started posting hilarious videos of random thoughts, and he became a viral social media phenomenon. If you haven't seen one (language warning):

My Trip Down the Pink Carpet  is the hilarious story of his career.

    Name Drop is a collection of stories of comedian Ross Mathews' encounters with celebrities during his career. It is really a fun, fast read.

    One of the greatest storytellers or raconteurs alive today in my opinion is movie director John Waters. He's published several books, and he does an annual speaking tour around Christmas. We've seen his show in Atlanta a couple of times. He's always entertaining, even if you don't particularly like his movies. Mr. Know It All is his latest memoir.

Tears and Laughs: TV Comedy Legends

By Jeff Burns

I’m a fan of classic TV.  I’ve seen just about every show from TV’s golden age, the 50s when most televisions in the country were tuned in to the Jack Benny Show, I Love Lucy, or the George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.  When I come across these shows, I’ll usually park and watch for a while.  This summer, I discovered some books about comedy legends (and most of them were free through Kindle Unlimited, an added bonus). 

First up was Laughs, Luck...and Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time by Jess Oppenheimer, the producer, director, and head writer of arguably the greatest sitcom of all time, I Love Lucy.  In his autobiography, Oppenheimer details his early days in radio and how he came to be involved with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. It’s a real behind the scenes look at them and their show which transformed how television was made forever.

 

Next was Raised Eyebrows - My Years Inside Groucho's House, originally published by Steve Soliar in the 1990s but updated and published again in 2011.  Stoliar tells an incredible story about his three years as the personal secretary of Groucho Marx.   Through an unbelievable chain of events, Stoliar got the job as a 19 year old and began work in Marx’s home in Marx’s last three years of life.  Stoliar was witness to moments of legendary wit as well as to the sad decline of the comedy legend who was unfortunately manipulated, some say abused, by his mentally unstable companion.  There are great stories about Marx when he was at his most vulnerable, really humanizing him, and Stoliar was involved with many other Hollywood legends in the process of his work. It’s a real page-turner.

I Stooged to Conquer: The Autobiography of the Leader of the Three Stooges written by Moe Howard is one of the older titles I read.  The book does not go into great depth about the stooges’ personal lives, but it is a thorough recounting of their professional lives.  Moe’s journey from a school dropout who started acting in as a child in silent movies, his vaudeville acts with brother Shemp and Larry Fine, and all the permutations of the stooges that followed.

Two other books are on my list to read, but I haven’t gotten to them yet.  Moe Howard’s daughter, Joan Howard Maurer, wrote a biography of her uncle Curly Howard, AKA Jerome Horowitz, maybe the most beloved stooge. Curly’s life was much more tragic than Moe’s, full of failed marriages, problems with alcohol and insecurity, and ending with a tragic early death.

Last year, Richard Zoglin published Hope: Entertainer of the Century, billed as the most definitive biography of Bob Hope.  Zoglin was dismayed that Hope didn’t seem to be getting the recognition that he deserved and set out to correct it.  When I read it, I look forward to comparing this version of Bob Hope to the one described in several vignettes in Stoliar and Oppenheimer’s books.