Book cover of Crowned Heads

Book description

The pasts and presents of four onetime and still-going Hollywood movie stars interweave in a world of mystery and memories, publicity and reclusiveness, legend and loss

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Why read it?

1 author picked Crowned Heads as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

A leading man in the fifties and early sixties (I Married a Monster from Outer Space is a good, suburbs-set science fiction movie), Tom Tryon became an acclaimed horror writer with his novel The Other.

His collection of stories and novellas about Hollywood is gamy, gruesome, and sometimes ugly (his story, Willie, based on the brutal murder of silent film star Ramon Navarro, borders on torture porn) but also feels authoritative and true. Fedora, his sub-Sunset Boulevard story about a faded movie star, came full circle and was one of Billy Wilder’s last and least…

From Laurence's list on Hollywood murder, crime, and failure.

If you love Crowned Heads...

Book cover of These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

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