The Story of Marvel Studios

Tara Bennett and Paul Terry     Recommended by    

The definitive story of how Marvel Studios created the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as told by the studio’s creatives, and the cast and crew of The Infinity Saga

The Story of Marvel Studios is the first-ever, fully authorized, all-access history of Marvel Studios’ creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as told by the producers, writers, directors, concept artists, VFX artists, cast, and crew who brought it to life. Year-by-year, project-by-project, the studio’s founding and meteoric growth are described through detailed personal stories, anecdotes, and remembrances of noteworthy challenges, breakthrough milestones, and history-making successes. Together, these stories reveal how each of the films evolved into one ongoing cinematic narrative, as coauthors Tara Bennett and Paul Terry (The Official Making of Big Trouble in Little China, 2017) chart the complete production history of The Infinity Saga’s 23 movies (from 2008’s Iron Man all the way up to, and including, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home).

Bennett and Terry were granted unprecedented access to Marvel Studios, which led to this years-in-the-making tome containing personal stories from more than 200 interviews, including every Marvel Studios producer; MCU writers and directors; the stars of The Infinity Saga; concept artists, costume designers, composers, and the talents behind the MCU’s dazzling visual effects; and more. Featuring previously unpublished behind-the-scenes photography and archival production material, as well as personal photos and memorabilia from cast and crew, The Story of Marvel Studios is the essential, collectible chronicle of how the Marvel Cinematic Universe was brought to life.

• 512 pages chart the entire history-making story of Marvel Studios—from its inception, through Phases One, Two, and Three, and to the dawn of Phase Four

• Featuring more than 200 interviews with the studio’s staff, cast, and crew for all 23 movies in The Infinity Saga

• Includes more than 500 production photos, plus never-before-seen filmmakers’ archival materials and personal memorabilia from the cast and crew

• Deluxe two-volume, foil-stamped cloth hardcover set, featuring exclusive cover art by Ryan Meinerding (Marvel Studios Head of Visual Development)

• Metallized reinforced slipcase with exclusive wrap-around MCU concept art montage, featuring art by Adi Granov, Ryan Meinerding, Andy Park, and Charlie Wen

• Foreword by Kevin Feige (President of Marvel Studios and Chief Creative Officer of Marvel)

• Afterword by Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man)

 

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From the Streets of Shaolin: The Wu-Tang Saga

S. H. Fernando     Recommended by    

The definitive biography of rap supergroup, Wu-Tang Clan, featuring decades of unpublished interviews and unparalleled access to members of the group and their associates.

This is the definitive biography of rap supergroup, Wu-Tang Clan (WTC). Widely regarded as one of the most influential groups in modern music hip hop or otherwise WTC has released seven albums [including four gold and platinum studio albums, as well as the genre-defining Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)] and has launched the careers of famous rappers like RZA, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, and more. Beyond the musicians in the group itself, WTC has also collaborated with many of the biggest names in the game-from Busta Rhymes and Redman to Nas and Kanye West), and one is hard pressed to find a group who’s had a bigger impact on the evolution of the hip hop genre.

S.H. Fernando, Jr. is a journalist who has interviewed WTC several times over the past several decades for publications like Rolling Stone, Vibe, and The Source. Over the years, he has “built up a formidable archive including over 100 pages of unpublished transcribed interviews, videos of the group in action in the studio, and several notepads of accumulated memories and observations.” The result is a startling portrait of innovation, collaboration, and adversity, giving us unparalleled access to the highs and lows of the WTC’s illustrious career so far. And this book doesn’t shy away from controversy along with stories of the group’s musical success, we’re also privy to stories from their childhoods in the crime-and-cocaine infested hallways of Brooklyn and Staten Island housing projects, stints in Rikers for gun possession and attempted murderer, and million-dollar contracts that led to recklessness and drug overdoses (including Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s untimely death). Even more than just a history of a single group, this book tells the story of a musical and cultural shift that encapsulates and then expands beyond NYC in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Though there have been biographies written about the band, both from members (like RZA) and collaborators (like Cyrus Bozorgmehr), most of the material that’s been published so far has either focused on a single member of the group’s story, or a narrow timespan of their work. This book will not only feature interviews with all living WTC members and a comprehensive look at their discography, it also includes never-before-revealed insight into their childhoods and the neighborhoods that shaped them growing up. It’s unique in its breadth, scope, and access a must-have for fans of WTC and music bios more generally.

Devotion

Hannah Kent     Recommended by Sharon    

The much-anticipated third novel from Hannah Kent, award-winning author of Burial Rites and The Good People.

Devotion is utterly original. A glorious, heartbreaking love story of infinite beauty.’ – Heather Rose

‘Hannah Kent’s latest novel is stunning – full of magic and adventure. I fell in love with language again reading it. So beautiful and so raw. Devotion is impossibly good.’ – Evie Wyld

‘Such a glorious love story. And the poetry of the landscape had, for me, a Whitmanesque sensibility. A mighty impassioned cry to love and the land.’ – Sarah Winman


Prussia, 1836: Hanne Nussbaum is a child of nature – she would rather run wild in the forest than conform to the limitations of womanhood. In her village of Kay, Hanne is friendless and considered an oddity… until she meets Thea.

Ocean, 1838: The Nussbaums are Old Lutherans, bound by God’s law and at odds with their King’s order for reform. Forced to flee religious persecution the families of Kay board a crowded, disease-riddled ship bound for the new colony of South Australia. In the face of brutal hardship, the beauty of whale song enters Hanne’s heart, along with the miracle of her love for Thea. Theirs is a bond that nothing can break.

The whale passed. The music faded.

South Australia, 1838: A new start in an old land. God, society and nature itself decree Hanne and Thea cannot be together. But within the impossible… is devotion.

 

Born of No Woman

Franck Bouysse     Recommended by    

THE WORD-OF-MOUTH INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

“A vivid, mesmerizing tale.” – L Express

“At once classic and phantasmagoric, Born of No Woman proves that fiction… can still amaze.” – Le Monde des livres

“Rare are those who, like Franck Bouysse, manage to write the indescribable, to touch the unspeakable, with so much subtlety and intensity.” – La Libre


Nineteenth-century rural France.

Before he is called to bless the body of a woman at the nearby asylum, Father Gabriel receives a strange, troubling confession: hidden under the woman’s dress he will find the notebooks in which she confided the abuses she suffered and the twisted motivations behind them.

And so Rose’s terrible story comes to light: sold as a teenage girl to a rich man, hidden away in a old manor house deep in the woods and caught in a perverse web, manipulated by those society considers her betters.

A girl whose only escape is to capture her life – in all its devastation and hope – in the pages of her diary…

The Hush

Sara Foster     Recommended by Luka    

Everything can change in a heartbeat… The pulse-pounding new thriller from the bestselling author of You Don’t Know Me.

‘The novel everyone will be talking about’ Natasha Lester

I tore through The Hush over a weekend and loved it! It’s been a while since I was so thrilled by a book that I was checking the clock so I could get back home to read! It had twists and turns I genuinely did not expect; it was smart, chilling, and complex. Think The Handmaid’s Tale meets Black Mirror. This would be a great one to get you out of a reading slump! – Luka

Lainey’s friend Ellis is missing. And she’s not the only one.

In the six months since the first case of a terrifying new epidemic – when a healthy baby wouldn’t take a breath at birth – the country has been thrown into turmoil. The government has passed sweeping new laws to monitor all citizens. And young pregnant women have started disappearing.

As a midwife, Lainey’s mum Emma is determined to be there for those who need her. But when seventeen-year-old Lainey finds herself in trouble, this dangerous new world becomes very real. The one person who might help is Emma’s estranged mother, but reaching out to her will put them all in jeopardy…

 

Writing in the Sand

Matt Garrick     Recommended by    

The epic story of legendary band Yothu Yindi and ‘Treaty’, the song that gave voice to a movement.

WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY YALMAY YUNUPINGU & WITIYANA MARIKA

Sometimes a musical revolution can erupt from the most unlikely of places. Long before they were ARIA Hall of Fame inductees, Yothu Yindi were a bunch of Yolngu (Aboriginal people of East Arnhem Land) and balanda (non-Indigenous) mates rocking out in the remote Top End. Soon they were creating some of the coolest new music in the country, splicing traditional sounds with electric, and spreading a message of unity.

Then, after singer Mandawuy Yunupiu penned the hit song ‘Treaty’ with Paul Kelly and Peter Garrett, and a remix dropped in 1991, Yothu Yindi shot out of Arnhem Land and into the hearts of music lovers across Australia and the world.

Writing in the Sand, by Yothu Yindi’s authorised biographer, Matt Garrick, is the epic story of one of Australia’s most original bands and how ‘Treaty’ gave voice to Indigenous Australia’s hard-fought struggle for recognition. Featuring photos from the band’s archives never previously published, the book is based on extensive interviews with current and former band members, including mainstays Witiyana Marika, Stu Kellaway and Jodie Cockatoo, as well as family members such as Yalmay Yunupiu, Mandawuy’s widow, and collaborators and fellow artists like Garrett, Kelly, Neil Finn, Joy McKean, Bart Willoughby and Andrew Farriss.

Dragon Skin

Karen Foxlee     Recommended by    

From the bestselling and multi-award-winning author of Lenny’s Book of Everything comes a magical tale about a girl who saves a dragon and rescues her family.

‘I’m in love with this book. Dragon Skin is surprising, beautiful, unique. The characters are wonderfully drawn – tough but vulnerable, hurt but hopeful, damaged but strong. They’ve lodged themselves in my heart forever.’

– Katrina Nannestad, award-winning author of We Are Wolves


How to save a dragon:
1) Assemble equipment. Water, Weet-Bix, sugar, syringe, sticky tape, scissors.
2) Believe in everything.

Pip never wants to go home. She likes to sit at the waterhole at dusk and remember Mika, her best friend. At home her mother’s not the same since her boyfriend moved in. They don’t laugh anymore and Pip has to go to bed early, turn off her light and pretend she doesn’t exist. When she finds a half-dead creature at the waterhole, everything changes. She knows she has to save this small dragon and return it to where it comes from. But how?

John Derian Sticker Book

John Derian     Recommended by Luka & Sharon    

From revered designer John Derian, this expansive sticker book offers a curated collection of over 700 stickers that allow adults and children to add a touch of beauty to any surface with these beautiful images of blooming flowers, charming critters, darling forest animals, and many, many more.

John Derian first caught the eye of tastemakers and design gurus with his now iconic collectible plates, decoupaged with 19th-century artwork sourced from old and rare books. Derian’s home goods empire has since grown to global recognition, including the New York Times bestseller John Derian Picture Book, which perfectly captures the artist’s unique and timeless eye.

A must-have for bullet journaling and scrapbooking!

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The Lincoln Highway

Amor Towles     Recommended by    

From the New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Civility and A Gentleman in Moscow. 

In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter.

With his mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett plans to pick up his eight-year-old brother Billy and head to California to start a new life.

But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have stowed away in the trunk of the warden’s car. They have a very different plan for Emmett’s future, one that will take the four of them on a fateful journey in the opposite direction – to New York City.

Bursting with life, charm, richly imagined settings and unforgettable characters, The Lincoln Highway is an extraordinary journey through 1950s America from the pen of a master storyteller.

Silverview

John le Carré     Recommended by    

The much anticipated publication of John le Carré’s last complete novel.

Julian Lawndsley has renounced his high-flying job in the City for a simpler life running a bookshop in a small English seaside town. But only a couple of months into his new career, Julian’s evening is disrupted by a visitor. Edward, a Polish emigre living in Silverview, the big house on the edge of town, seems to know a lot about Julian’s family and is rather too interested in the inner workings of his modest new enterprise.

When a letter turns up at the door of a spy chief in London warning him of a dangerous leak, the investigations lead him to this quiet town by the sea…

Silverview is the mesmerising story of an encounter between innocence and experience and between public duty and private morals. In this last complete masterwork from the greatest chronicler of our age, John le Carré asks what you owe to your country when you no longer recognise it.

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