In the 1994 novel Driver’s Dead, teenage Kirsten is not only currently living in a house that she thinks might be haunted by the ghost of the son of the previous owners but she’s also somehow gotten a reputation for being a bad driver! (Ironically enough, the son of the previous owners was also killed in a car crash …. or was he?)
When it come to having one’s driving unfairly criticized, I could relate to Kirsten. I can still remember the pain of those days when I was “learning” how to drive. Learning is in quotes because, quite frankly, I already knew how to drive. I had seen enough TV shows and gone on enough road trips with my family to know which pedal to push and how to turn the steering wheel. And yet, every driving instructor that I had to deal with insisted on being like totally critical of me. One of the first times that I drove on the road, I got yelled at by the instructor because I didn’t look both ways before making a lane change.
“I looked in the rearview mirror!” I snapped.
Apparently, that was not the right answer because she kept yelling at me until I finally said, “How am I supposed to concentrate on driving with you talking all the time!?”
That also did not go over well. That particular instructor refused to ride with me anymore. I went home in tears so my mother went up to the school and yelled at all of the instructors for being rude to me. The next time I drove, it was with the owner of the school, who was much nicer to me. The owner of the school asked me if I had a lazy eye. “Not anymore,” I replied.
Anyway, you get my point. I somehow managed to get my license despite having to deal with some pretty clueless driving instructors.
Anyway, back to Driver’s Dead. Kirsten decides to deal with her driving struggles by getting some help from Rob. Rob shows her how to drive but it turns out that his father is a big-time racist and Rob is kind of a jerk as well. When Rob tries to grope her, Kirsten tells him to get lost. (Yay!) Then Rob turns up dead. Uh-oh.
Who murdered Rob and how is it connected to the blood that keeps seeping out from underneath the closet in Kirsten’s bedroom? And what to make of Mr. Busk, the alcoholic driver’s teacher who has apparently never gotten over his experiences in Vietnam?
Driver’sDead is a YA book from the mid-90s so it’s definitely a bit dated. Check out the reference to floppy disks and running DOS on a computer! Check out Kirsten’s crush on Jason Priestly! But I still found it to be entertaining because Kirsten was a likable character and the plot neatly mixed the supernatural with a standard YA mystery story.
Plus, who can’t relate to being a better driver than most people realize? Ghosts and murder aside, I shared Kirsten’s struggle.
Every year during tax season, I get in the habit of playing movies and TV series on my third computer screen as I work. I don’t necessarily watch the shows, but they do provide a soothing background noise as I provide high quality tax preparation services for my clients. A few years back I played the entire series of “The Andy Griffith Show” all the way through a total of three times. I began to develop favorite episodes and would actually stop and watch certain parts as favorite scenes would play out. My very favorite moments would typically involve emotional scenes between Sheriff Andy Taylor and his son, Opie. Ron Howard began playing Opie when he was only six years old and there was never a cuter kid on a TV show. Needless to say, I was always bringing up the show in just about any conversation I was having during this time, whether it be with my wife, other family members or friends. Almost any situation that came up would remind me of something found on “The Andy Griffith Show.” Based on this newfound obsession, when Christmas rolled around that year, my wife purchased me a copy of the book THE BOYS by Ron Howard and Clint Howard. When we were preparing for our trip to Maui recently, I knew I had several plane flights and many beach hours ahead of me. While I don’t often read for pleasure, it did seem like the perfect time to dig in and find out what it was like to grow up as a kid actor on one of America’s most beloved TV shows.
THE BOYS has a pretty interesting setup as Ron Howard and Clint Howard share their various viewpoints on key moments and events in the evolution of the Howard family. It becomes clear very quickly that Ron and Clint are very different as we make our way through the first few chapters. They just see the world from wildly different perspectives. Ron emerges as kind of a rule following “square” while Clint proves to have quite the rebellious streak. But you can also tell how deeply they care about each other as brothers. The book takes its time to really focus in on their parents, Rance and Jean Howard, and how they instilled a “family comes first” philosophy in their heads from the very beginning. There were a few times where this philosophy was put to the test, but all in all the family unit retained its position as being more important than any roles in film and TV. Rance and Jean were both very present in their sons’ lives, and in a positive way. They took a very nominal management fee from their sons’ earnings, much less than the industry standards, and saved the rest for Ron and Clint. After all the stories of child actors, their stage parents, and their ultimate downfalls, the Howard’s situation couldn’t have been much more ideal thanks mostly to the consistency and character of Rance and Jean. While they don’t always shy away from their parents’ faults, these boys truly loved and appreciated their mom and dad, and that was refreshing to read.
As far as Ron’s and Clint’s acting careers, THE BOYS doesn’t necessarily dwell too much on their various shows and movies that they were in, outside of those that really had the biggest impacts on their family and futures. We hear quite a bit about “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Gentle Ben,” but when you consider how young the boys were when they starred in those shows, there is a limit to how much they can really remember. Once again, most of the memories they share of these shows seem to be based on their work with their dad to learn their lines and understand the plots. I can say from firsthand experience that Rance’s coaching is amazing based on Ron’s performances as Opie Taylor. I don’t remember Clint as well in those early years, except for his handful of appearances as the PB & Jelly smeared Leon, also on “The Andy Griffith Show.” We do get some nice info on actors like Griffith, Don Knotts and Dennis Weaver that only serves to help me appreciate them even more. If you want a deep dive into any of their shows or movies, this book is probably not the place to look for that kind of detailed information, but they do sprinkle in some fun nuggets along the way. I especially enjoyed Ron’s stories about George Lucas and Henry Winkler, as well as Clint’s memories of playing Balok on “Star Trek.” We get quite a few stories from Ron and Clint about how hard it could be to be a well known child actor in grade school and high school. It makes sense that there were quite a few kids that gave them a hard time and each of the boys had to develop their own way for dealing with these people.
The book ultimately reaches its crescendo with the boys sharing details about their transitions into adulthood, both personally and professionally. We learn about Ron’s own love story with his wife Cheryl who was basically his first real girlfriend. With the perfect life partner in tow, Ron was free to pursue his passion to direct films, and he had to make some risky decisions for that to happen. It was fun reading about the “deal” he made with the legendary Roger Corman that gave him his big directorial break with the B-movie GRAND THEFT AUTO (1977). We all know where his directorial career eventually would go, but it certainly was no foregone conclusion in the late 70’s. Clint’s journey was difficult in a much different way, as he was a full blown alcoholic and drug addict when he was trying to figure things out. Once again, his own personal integrity and the strong bonds of a loving family ultimately allowed him to get an upper hand on his problems and go on to the unique and interesting career he has had. One of my main takeaways from reading THE BOYS is that I just love their family. No matter what, they always valued integrity and would always stick together. Ultimately, I think that was the most important story that the boys wanted to tell.
This book features 284 reviews of the 80s action films that tend to be ignored by those who now sing the praises of Stallone and Schwarzenegger. We’re talking about the films of Michael Dudikoff here. We’re talking about the directorial efforts of Cirio Santiago, Nico Mastorakis, Sam Firstenberg, and so many others. We’re talking Italian action cinema. In short, we’re talking about some of the most entertaining and unfairly overshadowed films of all time.
Yes, the AmericanNinja films are reviewed (or, at least, the ones that came out in the 80s are). Yes, there’s a review of The Last Hunter and Space Mutiny and the Deathstalker films. Much like me, Daniel Budnik appreciates Red Brown even if Reb’s habit of shouting during his action scenes does seem to be a bit weird. But what I truly love about this book is that it also features reviews of films that even I previously didn’t know about. I mean, honestly, there are hundreds of film guides out there. What sets the great film guides apart from the good ones is how many previous unknown titles you can discover by just randomly flipping through it. And when it comes to film reviews, the most important question is whether or not the review inspires you to try track down a film that you may not have seen or even heard about before. The best film reviews inspire you to watch so that you can judge for yourself. I’ve discovered a lot just by randomly opening this book. And I now have a long list of cheap 80s actions films that I want to watch and which I will be watching and hopefully reviewing myself.
With 80s Action Movies On The Cheap as my guide, I look forward to all sorts of new discoveries.
A man who has no memory arrives in the town of Lyncastle and immediately discovers that, whoever he may be, no one wants him around. One person tells him that his name is Johnny McBride and that the police are looking for him. Our stranger may not know who he is but he’s fairly sure that he’s not Johnny McBride. But yet everyone in town insists that he is. When the police try to check his fingerprints, they discover that he has no fingerprints! Apparently, he lost them at the same time that he lost his memory….
That’s the set up for Mickey Spillane’s 1951 novel, The Long Wait. I won’t spoil the rest of it because 1) this book is full of shocking twists, 2) none of them make much sense, but 3) they’re all so over-the-top and ludicrous that you can’t help but love them. Reading The Long Wait, one gets the feeling that Spillane made up the plot as he went along and it’s hard not to admire his dedication to sticking with the story, no matter how weird and, to be quite frank, ridiculous things got.
This is not one of Spillane’s Mike Hammer novels. Hammer is not in this book. If anything, our amnesiac hero is even more violent and brutal than Hammer because the hero of The Long Wait literally has nothing to live for. Hammer at least had an office and a life that he could return to after killing all the bad guys. The hero of The Long Wait may not know who he is but he still knows that’s he’s pretty angry with a lot of people.
Violent, melodramatic, and at times thoroughly gratuitous, The Long Wait is an entertainingly absurd book. I read it in a hotel room and I recommend you do the same.
Bruce Campbell is the of Elvis of horror and independent film; in fact, he did play Elvis in “Bubba Ho-Tep”. If you’re into independent filmmaking, genre films, and artistic struggles both of these books “If chins could kill” and “Hail to the chin” are must reads and they are also fantastic audiobooks read by the man himself. Sidenote: I never thought his chin was weird- just manly. I enjoyed these books so much that I read them and then I listened to the audiobooks as well, which allowed me to re-experience the books like a favorite Uncle sharing his adventures with me. His entire life is laid bare in his own words: his successes, struggles, and failures. The second book picks up right after the end of the first one. NB: neither book is ghostwritten- a rarity. Sidenote 2: the audiobook really reveals Bruce’s skill at impersonations- he could do a career just doing that.
Bruce sat down and wrote both of these memoirs and if you’re an “Evil Dead” fan he discusses every single aspect of how the “Evil Dead” films were made. He goes into the same detail with every single show and film he has ever done. It’s not just how the sausage was made, it is the equivalent of discussing the history of the pig breed, how the pigs were raised, the tools they used for slaughtering, when they were made into sausage, the spices used, and the marketing to sell the sausage (Both books are available on Audible). The purpose of this article isn’t to grade these books because it’s just weird to grade a Man’s memories as long as the writing is half-way decent; instead of that very weird thing, I will discuss chronologically the moments that I’ve thought about for years in this uniquely American story.
His early years would be the central casting description of a midwestern “Theater Geek”. I never particularly liked that term, but it’s fairly apt because he lived for the dramatic arts, but NEVER complained or thought any job was beneath him- Refreshing. His entire focus in high school was theater and if he had graduated from college, he would’ve been a drama teacher. Luckily for us, Bruce became a college dropout after 6 months and began working on Evil Dead.
Evil Dead
Evil Dead was created by everyone that any connection to Bruce and his comrades, but there were also guilt feelings. Family members helped, parents helped, law firms helped, and probably even the Easter Bunny contributed to making “Evil Dead”. In the filming, everyone on the film was everywhere all the time and lived like they were quasi-homeless in the abandoned house that any horror fan would recognize. It was amazing to me how they had power to run their equipment. The way he describes it has all the intensity of a man remembering in perfect detail that he knew in his soul that this moment would be life-defining. He was right.
One thing that stood out to me was the guilt that Bruce had for asking his father, who was going through a divorce, for funds for the film. As a dad, I can tell that we want our children to be happy and that doesn’t end because you’re getting divorced, sickness, or even death- we always want our children to succeed. Can parental support get out of hand and make us annoyed? Yes, but this was well within the normal limits for a dad. If Bruce reads this article, I hope that he knows that his dad cherishes every dollar he contributed to his son’s dream. Unless of course, you had a dad like mine- in which case, how is it in the fire/police department, EMT, or Armed Forces these days?
Evil Dead 2 and 3
When he described Evil Dead 2 and 3, it was different because he had become a man. He was married and soon to be divorced. He described the work and the filmmaking the way a master carpenter describes his experience and steps making a $10,000 walnut table from a single piece of wood. Neither Bruce’s nor Sam Raimi’s careers had taken off yet and like many of us facing defeat – they went home. Home was of course with the old crew to make Evil Dead 2. Evil Dead over the years on a budget of $375,000 made $30 million….WHOA, but it was clear that Hollywood didn’t understand what they had- this was decades before Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity. It seems that Army of Darkness solidified Bruce as a name. One moment I remember about his memories of Army of Darkness was how he tried to mentor the extras about the importance of never complaining and hustling on the set. They didn’t listen. In fact, two of the extras defiled the set by having coitus in their costumes between takes…..ew. Maybe they were the first furries…. double ew. Or maybe the extras misunderstood the term “Hustling”?
The 90s
The 90s was Bruce Campbell’s decade. Hollywood finally realized with the success of the X-Files and Pulp Fiction that the audience for off kilter actors and stories was not just large- it had money to spend. Bruce found three things: steady work with Hercules and Xena, his soulmate- his second wife Ida Gearon, and his best friend – Lucy Lawless (Xena). He describes his friendship with Lucy like a brother describes the love and pride he has in a sister who made valedictorian. The Bruce/Lucy friendship spans decades and I hope they become neighbors one day. He describes it with such fondness and admiration; it proves that men and women can have platonic and beautiful friendships that last a lifetime. I’m not crying, you’re crying….leave me alone.
2000s through Burn Notice Bruce had come into his own and was getting cast in A LOT of genre films. He had become a bona fide working actor. I will note that he gets into thorough detail about every single film that he made during this time period. However, I think that many Gen-Z and Millennials discovered him through Burn Notice and if you’re thinking he spills the tea about any on set drama- HE DOES NOT. He talks about how he enjoys dive bars and the different bartender pours. He describes in detail his experience with the show. I enjoyed the second book a lot, but it got personal for me because he convinced his Co-Star Jeffrey Donavan to visit the troops in Iraq. I give them both a lot of credit for that out of all of the great moments in the second book that’s what I think about the most often.
I am a fan of Bruce Campbell’s obviously, but what stood out to me in this uniquely American story is that you really can be anything here if you work at it.
Wow, I thought as I read Howard Hughes: The Secret Life, was there anyone Howard Hughes didn’t have sex with?
Actually, I imagine there was. Charles Higham’s 1993 biography, which I found in a used bookstore in Pensacola, is full of all sorts of “scandalous” details about Howard Hughes’s life and the decadent Golden Age of Hollywood but it’s not always convincing. Hughes, who was the subject of Martin Scorsese’s TheAviator, was undoubtedly an eccentric and I have no doubt that he treated a lot people badly but the book itself tends put a lot of faith in gossip and rumors. As such, we get the established stories of Hughes bringing his control freak tendencies to Hollywood and having affairs with Katharine Hepburn and Ava Gardner mixed with stories about Hughes’s being involved with the Watergate break-in and also carrying on clandestine affairs with everyone from Errol Flynn to Tyrone Power, Jr. The book goes as far as to suggest Hughes died of AIDs, using an evidence the word of a doctor who didn’t examine Hughes but who did apparently read a list of symptoms that Hughes was rumored to have during his final days. That’s really the way that Higham approaches the majority of Hughes’s life. The established facts are mixed with rumor and speculation on the part of the author. It’s not always convincing but then again, since when does gossip have to be believable?
In short, the book is trashy but readable. It’s one of those books that one should probably read with a healthy sense of skepticism but, at the same time, one can appreciate the sheer number of personalities that Higham manages to weave into his narrative. Hughes goes from aviation to Hollywood to politics and he meets everyone who was anyone. It’s a history nerd’s dream.
Happy Friday the 13th! I am currently packing for a two-week vacation that will start on Sunday. I’ll be bringing along several books with me. I am very much a believer in “the beach read.” If you’re going to be relaxing on the beach, it’s important to not only have the perfect bikini but also to have a good book to read. A book can be used to shield your eyes from the sun. A book can give you an excuse not to talk to someone. A book can make you look smart and that’s always a good thing. Never underestimate the importance of the beach read!
First published in 2024, Ask Not: The Kennedys and Thee Women They Destroyed is beach read for gossip-lovers who are also into politics and history. Written by Maureen Callahan, AskNot looks at the lives of the women who had the misfortune to know the members of the Kennedy family. Using the death of Carolyn Bessette as a framing device, Callahan examines the lives of Jackie Onassis, Mary Jo Kopechne, Joan Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Martha Moxley, and several others. Callahan doesn’t just look at the famous victims of the Kennedy men. One of the best chapters deals with a young woman who was left paralyzed by Joseph P. Kennedy III’s reckless driving, someone whose name may not be nationally-known but who will never forgotten by those who loved her. The tragic death of the ex-wife of RFK Jr., who committed suicide after he left her and then tried to annul their marriage, is also examined. Callahan writes that she has no personal animus against the Kennedys. I’m not sure that I buy that but still, her book is a fascinating look at both the arrogance of power and the way that the Kennedys were protected, for decades, by a sympathetic and compliant media. The book reminds us that Chappaquiddick was not a Kennedy tragedy. Instead, it was a Kopechne tragedy. Of the many who have written about Chappaquiddick, Callahan is one of the few to actually show any interest in who Mary Jo Kopechne was and who she could have gone on to been if she hadn’t been abandoned to drown that night. If just for that, this book deserves to be read.
If you’re a Degrassi fan, you simply have to read 2022’s The Mother Of All Degrassi. Linda Schuyler’s memoir charts her life and shows how she went from being an 8th grade teacher to co-creating the most important thing to ever come out of Canada. Schuyler includes all the behind-the-scenes details that you could possibly want but, even more importantly, her personal story is an inspiring and a heartfelt one.
Speaking of memoirs by television producers, 2016’s Truth Is A Total Defense: My Fifty Years In Television is Steven Bochco’s somewhat self-aggrandizing memoir. It’s nowhere near as well-written as Linda Schuyler’s memoir but if you’re looking for gossip, this is a good book to go with. Bochco, who passed away in 2018, was known for creating hit shows and pissing off the networks. This memoir spends a lot of time on the people who Bochco did not like. It makes for a fun read, if not a particularly enlightening one.
Finally, no vacation is complete with a true crime book to read. If you want to read one that will truly leave you angry, I recommend Philip Weiss’s AmericanTaboo, which examines the 1975 murder of Peace Corp volunteer Deborah Gardner and how the crime was covered up by both the Peace Corp and the government. Not only was Gardner’s name smeared but the killer was never punished for his deeds. True crime is a genre that has produced a lot of bad books but it’s produced some good and important ones as well. AmericanTaboo is one of the best.
Of course, the whole fun of traveling is seeing what you discover. I’ll be bringing books with me but I’ll also be leaving plenty of room for any trashy paperbacks I come across on the way! I’ll let you know what I find.
With the Tony Awards scheduled to be held and televised on Sunday, this weekend might be a good time to read William Goldman’s The Season.
First published in 1969, TheSeason was William Goldman’s very opinionated and very snarky look at the 1967-1968 Broadway season. Best known as a screenwriter, Goldman took the money that he made from selling the script for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and spent a year going to Broadway show after Broadway show. Many shows, he sat through multiple times. The book features his thoughts on not just the productions but also the culture around Broadway. Apparently, when the book was published, it was considered controversial because Goldman suggested that most Broadway critics played favorites and didn’t honestly write about the shows that they reviewed. Goldman suggested that some performers were viewed as being untouchable while other worthy actors were ignored because they weren’t a part of the clique. Today, that seems like common sense. One need only look at a site like Rotten Tomatoes to see how pervasive groupthink is amongst film critics and also how carefully most reviews are written to ensure that no one loses access to the next big studio event. In 1969, however, people were apparently a bit more naive about that sort of thing.
It’s an interesting book, especially if you’re a theater nerd like me. That said, it’s also a bit of an annoying book. There’s a smugness to Goldman’s tone, one that is actually present in all of Goldman’s books and essays and yes, aspiring screenwriters, that includes Adventures In The Screen Trade. He clearly believed himself to be the smartest guy in the room and he wasn’t going to let you forget it. It makes for a somewhat odd reading experience. On the one hand, Goldman’s style is lively. Goldman holds your interest. On the other hand, there will be times when you’ll want to throw a book across the room. When he hears two women talking about their confusion as to why they didn’t enjoy a show as much as they had hoped, Goldman describes walking up to them and offering to tell them. It comes across as being very condescending.
That said, Goldman makes up for it in the chapters in which he explores some of the more troubled productions of the season. His barbed dismissals of some of Broadway’s most popular performers still packs a punch and it remains relevant today as there are, to put it mildly, more than a few acclaimed performers who have been coasting on their reputations and their fandoms for more than a decade. Goldman passed away in 2018. One can only imagine what he would think of today’s celebrity-worshipping culture.
Finally, The Season does feature one beautiful chapter and it should be read by anyone who appreciates the character actors who carry movies and plays while the stars get all the credit. Goldman’s look at play called The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald features a powerful profile of actor Peter Masterson. Goldman writes about a play that closed after 7 nights and which was not critically acclaimed but he turns the chapter into a celebration of truly good acting. It’s the chapter that makes the rest of the book worth the trouble.
If you’ve got a lot of time to kill this weekend and if you’re interested in how a dictator could come to power in the United States of America, check out HueyLong by T. Harry Williams.
The winner of 1970’s Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, this 900-page book tells the story of Louisiana’s Huey Long. Long went from being an outsider to being governor of his state to being a member of the United States Senate and finally, to the verge of running for the presidency. The only that that stopped Huey from running for President in 1936 were multiple bullets, at least one of which was fired by the son of a political rival. (The majority of them were probably fired by Long’s own bodyguards, with Huey falling victim to “friendly fire.”) Huey was a controversial figure, a socialist who talked like a populist, a clever politician who pretended to be a buffoon, and a leader who was hates by many but who was also so beloved by many other that his family held control of Louisiana politics for decades after his death.
I first bought this book in high school. My history teacher had assigned the class to write book reports about a political figure. My teacher was impressed when I said that I would be writing about Huey Long. Of course, I put off writing the report until the day before it was due. I also put off reading (and, for that matter, even opening) the book. When I mentioned this to my mom, she took one look at the 900-page biography that I hadn’t even started to read, and said, “Why did you pick such a long book!?”
(I always pick the longest books I can find. I like to read and, when it comes to biographies, I like to get all the details.)
For the next few hours, I skimmed through the book as I wrote my report. I wrote about his early political campaigns, the role he played in the elections of both Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt, and the steady stream of corrupt flunkies that he brought into Louisiana’s government. I included the details of Huey Long’s Share The Wealth plan and explained why Huey’s scheme was just a bunch of commie propaganda. My teacher gave my report a 100 (and he added an “A++,” which he circled in red!), said that it was good enough for college, and commended me on my hard work. My mom read my teacher’s comments and said I had more lives than a cat.
Even just skimming the book, I found Huey’s story to be fascinating. He stood up to the power brokers. He fought for the poor. He took kickbacks from the same corporations that he claimed to despise. He treated Louisiana like his own fiefdom. He might have ordered a few murders. And, years later, when I sat down and actually read the book, I discovered that Huey’s life was even more interesting than I initially realized. HueyLong may be 900 words long but he lived his life in such an over-the-top fashion and the times in which he lived were so interesting that the book becomes a surprisingly quick read. It helps that T. Harry Williams was a lively writer. This isn’t some slow-moving, self-consciously scholarly tome. This is a book that really captures the unique oddness of Louisiana and its politics.
If you’re looking for a long but rewarding read and if you’re a history nerd like me, check this book out. And then watch AllTheKing’sMen (the original, not the remake!). Willie Stark, the governor at the heart of All The King’s Men, was based on Huey Long. Somehow, Long lived a life that was even more dramatic than his fictional counterpart.
This weekend, I will be reading Jake Tapper and Alex Thomas’s Original Sin, their look at the Biden presidency and how Joe Biden’s (or really, Joe Biden’s aides and family’s) insistence that he run for a second term led to Donald Trump returning to the White House. Actually, I will be continuing to read it as I started it last night. So far, it’s an interesting read, even though I think that those who claim that Tapper is a bit too quick to let himself off the hook have got a point. It’s definitely got me thinking about how many of our elected officials are “all there” and how many of them are just repeating whatever their staff tells them to say and do.
Now, if you feel that you don’t have time to read Tapper and Thompson’s 300-page book, you can always check out the Mockbuster version, Uncharted Fight: The Original Sin Of Biden, The Hubris of Harris, The Trump Comeback, & The Shadow of Project 2025 by — *ahem* — Jonathan Chris Tapper. This 198 page book, which actually came out a month before OriginalSin, basically just takes everything that was leaked about OriginalSin and that was included in previous books by Chris Whipple and Jonathan Allen & Amie Parnes and repeats it. The book was obviously put together quickly to capitalize on the interest around the books that hace been coming out about Biden’s withdrawal and the 2024 election. There’s no original reporting, beyond the fact that somebody flipped through all of the other books and jotted down their main points. If I had to guess, I’d say there is no “Jonathan Chris Tapper.” It’s a grift, one that feels like a uniquely 2025 sort of thing. The main reason any of these books are being published is to make money so why shouldn’t “Jonathan Chris Tapper” give it a shot? And, to be honest, Uncharted Fight a quick read that gives you the basics so if you don’t want to spend money on four books about the election, it’s there for you, I guess. Of course, you could probably just ask one of the many online AI programs to give you a quick summary and get the same information for far less money. (In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if “Jonathan Chris Tapper” is an AI system.)
(Personally, I went ahead and spent money on Original Sin, Uncharted History, Chris Whipple’s Unchartered, Alex Eistenstadt’s Revenge, and Jonathan Allen’s and Amie Parness’s Fight because I’m a history nerd and I think you can never have enough sources!)
Through the Shattered Lens 