Bing Crosby: The Hollow Man – Donald Shepherd and Robert F. Slatzer
Each December, as I listen to a shitload of Bing Crosby music, I think, “I should learn more about his life.” I picked up a little of the general, collective pop-cultural memories of him as a kid. But I was six when he died and that was all basically background noise.

This year I finally looked into his biographic options. Our library has two massive volumes of a not-yet-complete biography. I had no time for that. Instead I chose this, which came out in 1981, and, I would imagine, shocked a lot of people. It seems pretty tame by today’s standards, but tearing apart the carefully crafted and sanitized image of an American icon had to have been a big deal back then.

Honestly, nothing that Crosby did was that bad. He was aloof and forgot/left behind people who helped him become a star. He let other people share bad news and generally avoided confrontation. He was cold to people who loved him. He had some affairs. He hid a drinking problem that nearly derailed his career in the 1920s, then held his first wife’s drinking problem against her. He left for business when she was having their children, and went to Europe for pleasure when she was dying. He was a hypocrite when it came to religion, carrying on his extramarital affairs while icing out family members and friends who got divorced. He was a bastard when he wrote his will.

I’m sure all of that surprised people in my grandparents’ generation. It seems pretty small potatoes, and not unexpected of people in the public sphere, today.


A Christmas Story – Jean Shepherd
Sixteen straight years of holiday reading pleasure.


Kind Of A Big Deal – Saul Austerlitz
I think I may have shared an excerpt of this earlier this year in a Links post. Austerlitz is a professor of writing and comedy history at NYU and his book, about the movie Anchorman, reads very much like an academic text. There are plenty of anecdotes from the making of the movie and quotes from the actors, writers, producers, etc. But there is a certain dryness to his writing that keeps it from becoming a hilarious, rollicking accounting.

That said, this it was an interesting look at how a fairly unlikely candidate became one of the funniest and most revered comedies of its era. Not only that, it is strikingly – and shockingly to some – critical of our society. Austerlitz shows how the movie not only turned Will Ferrell into a superstar – he was about two-thirds of the way there when Anchorman hit theaters – but was the first step in the shift in Adam McKay where he became more interested in being overtly political, which led to movies like Vice and The Big Short.


Dead Lions – Mick Herron
Book two in Herron’s Slow Horses series. I didn’t love the first one, largely because it was sooooo British. I also didn’t love the Apple TV+ series based upon it. Again, a little too English for me. But so many people love that show that I kept hearing about it, including love for seasons beyond the first. Looking for a quick read over the holidays, I decided to give Herron’s novels another shot.

Again I didn’t love it. But having read/watched Slow Horses, it made more sense to me and I enjoyed it more than the first volume. It is more deeply British, domestic espionage drama. If you’re into that kind of thing, you’ll probably dig this.


Misfit: Growing Up Awkward in the ‘80s – Gary Gullman
I had never heard of Gullman before, but saw this on a Vulture list of best comedy books of 2023. It sounded up my alley. It indeed was. He is a year older than me, but thanks to being held back in first grade, we ended up being the same academic year.

The memoir begins with Gullman describing a mental breakdown he had in 2017. Part of his therapy was to look back at his life and the events that led him to that mental health crisis. He lays out that exploration in neat chapters that align with each academic year of his life. In between those chapters are brief glimpses at his slow recovery from his breakdown. Those jumps back to his childhood struck me the most. There were so many elements of his life that matched up with mine. Little neurosis and obsessions. Moments when he transitioned through the phases of childhood that were very similar to my own experiences. We were both children of divorced parents. In general we were very different kids and are very different adults. But all those common threads really pulled me into his story.

It seemed like he might be going for a Jean Shepherd vibe in his writing. Shepherd’s work always masked the pain in his life with humor. For Gullman, the funny moments aren’t quite big enough to hide the anxiety that was behind them. As a comedian he might view that as a failure. As a man looking to control his mental health demons, it was probably just fine.

I finished this book at about 11:45 PM on New Year’s Eve. It was the 54th entry in my reading list of 2023. Three photography books padded the numbers, but once again I achieved my goal of knocking out a book a week. I’m already well into my first book of 2024. The quest never ends.