2025 Summer Classic Film Reading
Last summer I was so busy that I didn't manage to do any reading, but this summer I'm intentionally choosing to read some classic film books because I so loved doing Raquel's challenge before it became self-directed.
Here are my book picks:
- Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century by Sam Kashner & Nancy Schoenberger
- Miss D and Me: Life with the Invincible Bette Davis by Kathryn Sermak
- Captain of Her Soul: The Life of Marion Davies by Lara Gabrielle
- Possessed: The Life of Joan Crawford by Donald Spoto
- The Little Girl Who Fought the Great Depression: Shirley Temple and 1930s America by John F. Kasson
- Truly, Madly: Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, and the Romance of the Century by Stephen Galloway
- My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand
Here's how I chose them all...
Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century is definitely in my top five favourite books. It's juicy and delicious and reads as though you're hearing the scandale through first-hand witnesses. It's been a while since I sat down and re-read this one, so I'm looking forward to slipping back into this wonderful read. I'm flying to Montreal in late July, this might be my plane or train (haven't decided yet!) read.
Queen Bette! It's been a while since I've read Miss D and Me: Life with the Invincible Bette Davis and now that I've seen more of her films, I think it'll be more interesting with that context.
Captain of Her Soul was on my to-read list last year but I just never managed to get it done. Not because the book was dry—the total opposite! So engaging and engrossing, it felt like I was walking with Marion through her life—but because I was busy. I still think about how great that January was when Marion was TCM's Star of the Month. It's time to give her her due.
Another re-read, but much like with Bette's inclusion on the list, now that I've seen more of Joan's films, the context is going to be great. This feels like either a perfect late June or lazy August read. We'll see where I land! (Also, if you haven't listened to You Must Remember This podcast's series on Joan, you must. It's a perfect summer listen.)
I don't know much about Shirley Temple as a child star, I think I've only seen Heidi? But I did love some of her 1940s fare before she retired. I also, weirdly, remember this TV movie from the early 00s? Maybe I'm making that up? Too bored to fact check myself.
Anyway! I'm intrigued by the concept of placing Shirley in the context of the wider Great Depression. Wasn't it said that Hollywood survived thanks to her and Clark Gable?
Oh Viv, you grand dame. This book's been on my to-read list for a long, long time, and what better excuse than a summer reading challenge? I read an old mass-market paperback biography by Anne Edwards like, 20 years ago, but it was very sparse. I'm intrigued by an updated biography of, in my opinion, one of Old Hollywood's most forgotten grand dames.
Man, I rushed out to buy Barbra's memoir and now it's sat on my shelf for two years. It always felt like the perfect Christmas break read, but now I'm wondering if it would fare better as my big end-of-summer tome. If you've ever read any of my Classic Film Reading posts, you know that I love to end on an epic, and this one has it in spades.
(PS. Victoria Wilson, hurry up and publish the second part of your Barbara Stanwyck biography!)
What are you reading this summer?
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