The Vampire Companion


Katherine Ramsland - 1991
    That the books are entertainment seems a given, and for that I'm grateful. That they can be seen as a religious journey is also clear. I am immersed in the questions, and praying for the answers. Lestat, c'est moi. I want you to love all of my characters. I am, in the writing of these and other novels, as ambitious as Dickens. I want everybody to cry when Claudia dies, just like they did for Little Nell."-- Anne RiceFebruary 8, 1995Interview with the Vampire. The Vampire Lestat. The Queen of the Damned. The Talc of the Body Thief Memnoch the Devil. With her bestselling, epic saga, Anne Rice has reinvented the legend and literature of one of fiction's most popular and captivating archetypes. Now, Katherine Ramsland, Anne Rice's biographer, has completely revised and updated the ultimate reference guide to the world, history, and adventures of these haunting characters, from the unforgettable Lestat to Rice's newest chilling creation, Memnoch the Devil.Written with the full cooperation of Anne Rice -- and now with more than 1,200 entries -- The Vampire Companion offers an insightful exploration, appreciation, and interpretation of all the characters and events, names and places, symbols and themes in the five volumes of The Vampire Chronicles, including more than one hundred pages of new entries on Rice's latest vampire novel, Memnoch the Devil. Everything that readers might want to explore further is annotated and analyzed in this entertaining and enlightening work: the unforgettable characters of Louis, Lestat, Claudia, Akasha, Armand, and Memnoch; the important points of interest on Lestat's fascinating tour through Heaven and Hell; ancient lore; Rice's unique contributions to the mythos of vampires; the literary inspirations that echo through the novels; Rice's own reflections and revelations about her work and about the movie Interview with the Vampire; and much more.Richly illustrated with new photos, drawings, maps, and a complete time line of events in The Chronicles, The Vampire Companion is as captivating as the phenomenal saga it explores. It is a guidebook that no visitor to the world of Anne Rice should be without.

Suite for Barbara Loden


Nathalie Léger - 2012
    Loden’s 1970 film Wanda is a masterpiece of early cinema vérité, an anti-Bonnie-and-Clyde road movie about a young woman, adrift in rust-belt Pennsylvania in the early 1960s, who embarks on a crime spree with a small-time crook.How to paint a life, describe a personality? Inspired by the film, a researcher seeks to piece together a portrait of its creator. In her soul-searching homage to the former pin-up girl famously married to Hollywood giant Elia Kazan, the biographer’s evocative powers are put to the test. New insights into Loden’s sketchy biography remain scarce and the words of Marguerite Duras, Georges Perec, Jean-Luc Godard, Sylvia Plath, Kate Chopin, Herman Melville, Samuel Beckett and W.G. Sebald come to the narrator’s rescue. As remembered scenes from Wanda alternate with the droll journal of a flailing research project, personal memories surface, and with them, uncomfortable insights into the inner life of a singular woman who is also, somehow, every woman.

The Best Bar Trivia Book Ever: All You Need for Pub Quiz Domination


Michael O'Neill - 2014
    president's daughter?Brimming with answers to popular questions like these, The Best Bar Trivia Book Ever arms you with the knowledge your team needs to annihilate your bar trivia competition. This must-have guide features hundreds of facts, covering everything from sports and pop culture to history and science, so that you're always ready to deliver the ultimate trivia smackdown. You'll also get all the ins and outs of your favorite event with information on important bar trivia rules, assembling a team, and claiming victories week after week.Whether you're new to the scene or want to dominate at your local bar, this book will help your team outsmart the competition every single week!

Movies Based on True Stories: What Really Happened? Movies versus History


Alan Royle - 2015
    A look at over 400 of the best historical movies (and some of the worst) purporting to be ‘factual’ or ‘based on actual events’; and how Hollywood has distorted, altered, manipulated, exaggerated, even falsified history under the all-encompassing premise…based on a true story…