pop fifty:

Every week, we showcase an Amazon user review from an item on the current News and Entertainment Books Pop Fifty list. Here’s your review of the week for this week!

Review of #4 “Robert Altman: The Oral Biography”

Review by M. Bromberg: “Tough guy, great book”

This reviewer’s rating: 5/5, average reviewer rating: 5/5

“Altman: The Oral Biography” resembles one of Altman’s own films in its crowded, overlapping, conversational style and layered points of view, a tale-telling device that enhances Altman’s own public and private image — the book’s press release uses words “eccentric” and “rollicking,” but it would be difficult not to see that many of his associates thought of Altman as a meticulous craftsman with a mercurial temper, to put it mildly.

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Every week, we showcase an Amazon user review from an item on the current News and Entertainment Books Pop Fifty list. Here’s your review of the week for this week!

Review of #2 “Cinematic Storytelling: The 100 Most Powerful Film Conventions Every Filmmaker Must Know”

Review by Jim Makichuk: “Good lessons in visual storytelling”

This reviewer’s rating: 5/5, average reviewer rating: 4.5/5

Having taught screenwriting for UCLA’s Writing Program as well as being a working screenwriter for the past 20 years I’ve always been asked what separates a professional screenplay from the thousands of amateur screenplays out there. One of the things aspiring writers lack is what we call “getting your chops”, a term borrowed from musicians. Meaning real, live experience that simply can’t be taught. And usually, the only way to get it is by having your material produced. Jennifer Van Sijll’s book CINEMATIC STORYTELLING, is the first book I’ve read to take an intensive look at what takes years and lots of produced credits to learn. By using written scenes from movies, coupled with actual film scenes printed alongside, Jennifer teaches visual storytelling in a way few books have done….

Click here to see the full review for “Cinematic Storytelling: The 100 Most Powerful Film Conventions Every Filmmaker Must Know” >>

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Every week, we showcase an Amazon user review from an item on the current News and Entertainment Books Pop Fifty list. Here’s your review of the week for this week!

Review of #1 “Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit, and SexyUntil You’re 80 and Beyond”

Review by C.J.: “Younger Is as Younger Does”

This reviewer’s rating: 5/5, average reviewer rating: 4.5/5

Of all the anti-aging books I’ve seen, this is one of most laid back and entertaining. It’s written by two guys. Harry, the doctor, covers the science aspects of aging, while the other guy, Chris, talks about applying the info.

The book is centered around “Harry’s Rules.” These are seven rules for the reader to follow. They include such things as “Quit eating crap” or “Exercise six days a week for the rest of your life.” While they might seem to be basic pieces of information, they are sound advice and have some science behind them.

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Click here to see the full review for “Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit, and SexyUntil You’re 80 and Beyond” >>

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Every week, we showcase an Amazon user review from an item on the current News and Entertainment Books Pop Fifty list. Here’s your review of the week for this week!

Review of #2 “Moonwalk”

Review by Forever MJ Fan: “Moon Walk - A must read autobiography”

This reviewer’s rating: 5/5, average reviewer rating: 4.5/5

For all those people who choose to believe the crap that’s written about Michael Jackson, I suggest you all take a look inside yourselves. This book Moonwalk is a a wonderful book giving Michael’s point of view of his rise to fame, his family, and his relationships. This book was written in 1988, several years prior to the madness that surrounded him. I’m insulted that the people who are selling this book are actually selling it for 1 cent! That is ultimate disrespect for a person who has given us so much joy and great music for 40 years of his life. He deserves to be seen as a human being, not the freak that the media and the American public make him out to be! This other book that the so called critic is recommending “Be Careful Who You Love” is just another smear campaign…

Click here to see the full review for “Moonwalk” >>

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Every week, we showcase an Amazon user review from an item on the current News and Entertainment Books Pop Fifty list. Here’s your review of the week for this week!

Review of #5 “Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan”

Review by Joe Mielke: “An epic tale brilliantly told”

This reviewer’s rating: 5/5, average reviewer rating: 4/5

Horse Soldiers will take readers from the freezing interior of a high tech Chinook helicopter flying higher than it safely can through the mountains of Afghanistan delivering soldiers to desert gun fights fought on horse back harkening America’s old west. It’s a modern day Odessy written with a journalist’s penchant for detail and Homer’s gift for telling a warrior’s story.

In the end it is also the harrowing tale of how a small group of American Special Forces and the CIA working with Afghan soldiers managed to defeat the Taliban in one of the world’s remotest battlefields.

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Click here to see the full review for “Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan” >>

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This week, the news and entertainment books top 50 had moderate changes. 15 new titles entered the top 50. The hot mover of the week was Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work, which made it to the list for the first time, coming in at number 5. The big loser of the week was The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk, and Adventure in the 25 Years After 50, which was knocked down 18 spots to number 30.

8 items made it to the list for the first time this week:

• Shop Class as Soulcraft at number 5
• Prisoner of the State at number 8
• Mannahatta at number 15
• My Remarkable Journey at number 16
• The Food of a Younger Land at number 33
• The Narcissism Epidemic at number 37
• sTORI Telling at number 47
• LeMay at number 50

Click here to see the current Pop Fifty News and Entertainment Books list >>

Every week, we showcase an Amazon user review from an item on the current News and Entertainment Books Pop Fifty list. Here’s your review of the week for this week!

Review of #5 “Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang”

Review by K. Ho: “Information never reveal to the public”

This reviewer’s rating: 5/5, average reviewer rating: 5/5

This book is a must read for everyone who has interest in knowing the political arena behind the Tiananmen Square Massacre on 6/4/1989. The book was based on 38 audio tapes secretly recorded by ex-Premier Zhao Ziyang before his death in 2005. The Chinese government has no idea about the tapes until they were smuggled out of the country and later translated and published in English. This book is a biography of Premier Zhao about the massacre, provides an insight of the political and power struggle in months before the incident, and the dark side of Deng Xiaoping that most people are not aware of. This book comes at a time of the 20th anniversary of the massacre, reminds us of the price of democracy, and the justice that is still awaiting.

Click here to see the full review for “Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang” >>

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This week in news and entertainment books, the top 50 saw some changes. 17 new titles entered the list. The hot mover of the week was Outliers: The Story of Success, which returned to the list at number 2. The big loser of the week was The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us And What We Can Do…, which sank 37 spots to number 50.

7 items made it to the list for the first time this week:

• Prisoner of the State at number 5
• My Remarkable Journey at number 23
• LeMay at number 34
• Don’t Start the Revolution Without Me! at number 41
• Spies at number 44
• An Inconvenient Book at number 45
• A Safe Haven at number 46

Click here to see the current Pop Fifty News and Entertainment Books list >>

Every week, we showcase an Amazon user review from an item on the current News and Entertainment Books Pop Fifty list. Here’s your review of the week for this week!

Review of #14 “Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen”

Review by D. Sull: “A great story and so much more”

This reviewer’s rating: 5/5, average reviewer rating: 5/5

Born to Run succeeds at three levels. First, it is a page turner. The build up to a fifty-mile foot race over some of the world’s least hospitable terrain drives the narrative forward. Along the way McDougall introduces a cast of characters worthy of Dickens, including an almost superhuman ultramarathoner, Jenn and the Bonehead–a couple who down bottles of booze to warm up for a race, Barefoot Ted, Mexican drug dealers, a ghostly ex-boxer, a heartbroken father, and of course the Tarahumara, arguably the greatest runners in the world.

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Click here to see the full review for “Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen” >>

Click here to see the current Pop Fifty News and Entertainment Books list >>

Every week, we showcase an Amazon user review from an item on the current News and Entertainment Books Pop Fifty list. Here’s your review of the week for this week!

Review of #12 “The Third Reich at War”

Review by Graham: “Thorough, informative and very grim reading”

This reviewer’s rating: 5/5, average reviewer rating: 4/5

Richard Evans’ three volume masterwork seems destined to become one of the definitive histories of the Third Reich. It is thoroughly researched, enormously detailed, very well written, and extremely grim reading. This third and last volume covers the final excesses of the regime, as it moved through increasingly radical steps to attempt to both win the war and to meet its self imposed racial goals.

As Evans notes, this volume is centered on the Third Reich itself and is not intended to be a general history of WWII. While there is some coverage of key military campaigns, the main focus is on the territory controlled by the Third Reich, with special attention being paid to the dark events in Eastern Europe.

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