nyoculture

Ava Gardner's posthumous tell-all.

Mind Vacations

IT’S NEVER TOO EARLY to start thinking about summer—and how you might spend your leisure time in that season of possibility. There are getaways to plan, gardens to plot, lighter clothes to purchase. But for whiling away the summer hours, whether on the beach, at poolside or on a park bench, nothing beats the pleasure of a good book. The one downside—sifting through the new releases to find something you like—can be a chore, which is why we’ve gone ahead and done that work for you.

Here’s a carefully selected smattering of forthcoming titles we think you’ll enjoy. There are the juicy confessions of Ava Gardner, a literary werewolf novel and a long-awaited family epic from Afghan writer Khaled Hosseini. And for those who want to get a jump on their summer reading, some of these are just out in stores or downloadable to an iPad or Kindle near you. Read More

Marty’s Mistake: Leo as Hughes

At the movies, the Christmas countdown is here. I have lost track of the sheer volume of films arriving in time for holiday spending sprees and year-end Oscar nominations, but with so many openings and so little time and space, all bets are off and I’m calling them as fast as I see them. Among Read More

Final Farewell To Friends and Icons

Frank Sinatra used to say, “Growing old can kiss my ass.” Nobody ever said it cruder or better. Just take a look at the long and sobering list of celebrity farewells who matured and signed off in 2003, and you know whoever called them the “golden years” must have been auditioning for a straitjacket. Now Read More

Peter Bogdanovich and Gay Talese Remember Sinatra

The first thing I remembered when I heard that Frank Sinatra had died was his parting wish to a concert audience at the Royal Albert Hall in London one of the times I saw him perform there: “May you live to be 100,” he had said, “and may the last voice you hear … be Read More