Books like Life itself by Roger Ebert

Malcolm Gladwell explains how small changes can trigger massive social shifts, using ideas, products, and behaviors that spread like epidemics to illuminate the moment when a movement reaches its critical mass.

Maya Angelou's autobiography, 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings', tells the story of her life and the challenges she faced growing up in Arkansas, including racism, abuse, and the loss of her father. The book is a powerful and moving portrayal of the African American experience during the 1930s and 1940s.

A compelling biography of Susannah Cahalan's battle with encephalitis and the challenges of diagnosis and recovery.

Ruth Reichl’s memoir chronicles her life from a childhood shaped by food to her rise as a celebrated culinary writer, capturing the people and places that defined her passion for cooking and storytelling.

John Lennon: Uncovering the Life of the Legendary Rock Star

David Foster Wallace's life and work in biography, capturing the literary genius and struggle of a misunderstood writer gone too soon, as journalist D. T. Max delves into the tormented life of one of America's most innovative and influential authors.

Jessi Klein’s witty memoir follows her coming‑of‑age journey as a tomboy, late-blooming comedian, and woman navigating modern femininity, sexuality, and the quirks of everyday life.

A candid memoir of Patton Oswalt’s mid‑career addiction to film, tracing his rise from stand‑up comedian to sitcom actor while detailing the influence of L.A.’s New Beverly Cinema and the city’s fledgling comedy scene.

Jean Stein’s West of Eden traces the rise of Los Angeles, knitting together the stories of five influential families—from oil tycoon Edward Doheny to film mogul Jack Warner—through rich oral history and personal recollections.

sixth edition

"I loved David Gilmour's sleek, potent little memoir, The Film Club. It's so, so wise in the ways of fathers and sons, of movies and movie-goers, of love and loss." --- Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Empire Falls"If all sons had dads like David Gilmour, then Oedipus would be a forgotten legend and Father's Day would be a worldwide film festival."--Sean Wilsey, author of Oh the Glory of It All"David Gilmour is a very unlikely moral guidance counselor: he's broke, more or less unemployed and has two children by two different women. Yet when it looks as though his teenage son is about to go off the rails, he reaches out to him through the only subject he knows anything about: the movies. The result is an object lesson in how fathers should talk to their sons." --Toby Young, author of How to Lose Friends & Alienate People At the start of this brilliantly unconventional family memoir, David Gilmour is an unemployed movie critic trying to convince his fifteen-year-old son Jesse to do his homework. When he realizes Jesse is beginning to view learning as a loathsome chore, he offers his son an unconventional deal: Jesse could drop out of school, not work, not pay rent - but he must watch three movies a week of his father's choosing. Week by week, side by side, father and son watched everything from True Romance to Rosemary's Baby to Showgirls, and films by Akira Kurosawa, Martin Scorsese, Brian DePalma, Billy Wilder, among others. The movies got them talking about Jesse's life and his own romantic dramas, with mercurial girlfriends, heart-wrenching breakups, and the kind of obsessive yearning usually seen only in movies. Through their film club, father and son discussed girls, music, work, drugs, money, love, and friendship - and their own lives changed in surprising ways.

A former U.S. Border Patrol agent reflects on his service along the Mexican border, uncovering the politics, gatekeepers, and human stories that shaped his experience.

Socio‑researcher Sudhir Venkatesh infiltrates a Chicago crack‑dealing gang, documenting urban poverty and crime from within.

Roger Ebert wrote the first film review that director Martin Scorsese ever received—for 1967’s I Call First—when both men were just embarking on their careers. Ebert had never been touched by a movie in quite the same way before, and this experience created a lasting bond that made him one of Scorsese’s most appreciative and perceptive commentators. Scorsese by Ebert offers the first record of America’s most respected film critic’s engagement with the works of America’s greatest living director. The book chronicles every single feature film in Scorsese’s considerable oeuvre, from his aforementioned debut to his 2008 release, the Rolling Stones documentary, Shine a Light.Here Ebert puts Scorsese’s career in illuminating perspective, exploring the different phases of his development and the abiding themes (many of which reflect Scorsese’s Catholicism) that give his work such complexity and depth. All of Ebert’s incisive reviews of Scorsese’s individual films are here, of course, but there is much more. In the course of eleven interviews done over almost forty years, the book includes Scorsese’s own insights on both his accomplishments and disappointments. One of these interviews, the single longest ever conducted with Scorsese, appears here for the first time. Ebert has also written and included six new reconsiderations of the director’s less commented upon films, as well as a substantial introduction that provides a framework for understanding both Scorsese and his profound impact on American cinema. As Scorsese himself notes in his foreword to this volume, history is the only critic that counts, but the dialogue from which its judgments arise begins with the kind of emotionally alert, historically informed, and intellectually honest writing that Ebert has collected here in this, the ideal pairing of filmmaker and critic.

A collection of 100 essays by Roger Ebert, each offering insightful analysis and historical context for celebrated films such as Citizen Kane, The Godfather, and Casablanca.

A candid memoir in which celebrated African‑American actress Cicely Tyson shares her journey through the world of film and stage, reflecting on her career, convictions, and the evolving landscape of American entertainment.

Debbie Reynolds shares her life story in this definitive memoir, offering an intimate look at her journey from child star to Hollywood icon.