New books at Redlands Library offer details about Hollywood, movies and critics – everyday Redlands facts

Written by Teresa Leticia | Contributing columnist

It’s happening today… not just the switch to daylight saving time, aka forward time, but the 96th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. Did your invitation get lost in the mail? Yes, mine too. That’s okay, the ceremony will be televised (earlier than usual) at 4pm on ABC.

Even if we’re not eligible for a shiny gold Oscar and aren’t invited to celebrate among the stars, we can find quite a few new books about movies to console ourselves with at the AK Smiley Public Library. There’s a huge variety too, including books on individual films, critics, the film industry and the awards themselves.

“The Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood Gold, Sweat, and Tears” by Michael Shulman, the New York Times bestselling author of “Her Again: Becoming Meryl Streep,” delves into the history of the Academy Awards, some of the stories never before revealed, often linking events to changing… Broader cultural. The publisher notes, “The road to the Oscars may be golden, but it is paved with blood, sweat, and broken hearts.”

“The Academy and the Award: The Arrival of the Oscar Era and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences” by Bruce Davis, the Academy’s former executive director for more than 20 years, gained unprecedented access to its archives for this book, and was able to debunk many long-standing myths, including how The Academy Award gets her name.

“Opposing Thumbs: How Siskel and Ebert Changed Movies Forever” – You may remember a time when film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert ruled the television airwaves with their own movie review show (late 1970s-1990s). Each of them had a reputation in their work to rival Chicago newspapers, and they were often diametrically opposed in their opinions resulting in lively debates, but oh, on the rare occasions when they gave “two thumbs up!” Author Matt Singer goes behind the scenes of the show and learns from the cast and other sources how the final competitors and friends turned criticism as opinion into criticism as discussion, a whole new way to view the art of filmmaking. .

Steven Spielberg: All the Movies: The Story Behind Every Movie, Episode, and Short Film – Spielberg fans will enjoy this comprehensive, detailed, and photo-packed account of the prolific director’s life and work, from his early directorship of television episodes to his more than 30 feature films. The three film journalists particularly shine in highlighting Spielberg’s use of visual symbolism.

Other new books divide genres like horror, “Monsters on the Couch: The Real Psychological Disorders Behind Your Favorite Horror Movies,” comic books and superhero sci-fi, “MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios,” or eras like Hollywood. And “Fifties Movies.”

And for the scoop on three classic films, see “The Exorcist Legacy: 50 Years of Fear;” No Crying in Baseball: The Inside Story of a League of Their Own: Big Stars, Hidden Drama, and the Race Home for Hollywood; and “Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of the Plane!”