The Book of the Bizarre

By Varla VenturaSoftcover,

304 pages (retail $14.95)Amazon



Take a Halloween hop to the dark side with this wide-ranging collection of freaky facts, way-out stories and scary, stranger-than-fiction tales. Nature’s oddities, history’s mysteries, weird laws, famous hoaxes, murderers, madmen, phobias, UFO encounters, ghost sightings, haunted houses and hundreds of other delightfully unsettling, wildly entertaining tidbits will keep you riveted until long after the leftover trick-or-treat candy is gone.

—Neil Pond, American Profile





Performance: Richard Avedon

Hardcover, 304 pages

(retail $75)Amazon



Until his death in 2004, renowned photographer Richard Avedon captured with his camera the many moods and personalities of movie actors, comedians, singers, Broadway stars and other famous folks who lived in—and for—the spotlight. This collection of more than 200 large-format images, culled from Avedon’s archives and stretching across the last half century, open an elegant window on a shiny, days-gone-by show-biz world as seen through one of world’s most celebrated celebrity-trained lenses.

—Neil Pond, American Profile





Smart People

DVD (retail $29.99)amazon



Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page and Thomas Haden Church star in this hilarious but heartwarming grown-up comedy about a withdrawn college professor, his loveably dysfunctional family and the romantic sparks that fly when he re-connects with one of his former students. Even “smart” people, it turns out, still have a few things to learn. Bonus features include bloopers, interviews and coverage of the movie’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where it charmed the critics.

—Neil Pond, American Profile





Sports Night—10th Anniversary Edition

8-DVD set

(retail $69.99)amazon



Before they moved on to devote all their efforts to West Wing, writer Aaron Sorkin and director Thomas Schlamme created this Emmy-winning half-hour comedy-drama about a fictitious cable-TV sports show, which hit the airwaves in 1998 and lasted two seasons. This deluxe re-release includes all 45 episodes and two full discs of additional features, including a profile on actor Robert Guillaume, whose real-life stroke during the first season was worked into the plot, and commentary from ESPN employees on just how well the show captured the details of a fast-paced workplace very much like their own.

—Neil Pond, American Profile