Friends, sex symbols, actresses…lend Peter Bogdanovich your ears for this discussion of movie stars he has known and loved. It’s a sometimes maddening, sometimes sensitive, sometimes candid trip through Wonderland with filmmaker Bogdanovich your own private mad hatter. Ben Varkentine says pass the butter.

Skinny Dip,by Carl Hiaasen,Knopf,Ben Varkentine

In a Hollywood-ready plot, an attractive woman named Joey is tossed off a boat by her husband, for reasons unknown. With the help of her friends and relations–including a loopy sheepherding brother from New Zealand–she sets out to find out what’s what. Come on in, Ben Varkentine says. The water’s fine.

After taking everything he wanted from Liberal Hollywood, Joe Eszterhas, author of Showgirls, now lives in the happy heartland of Ohio. How did he get there from here? This book answers that question, spilling many secrets in the process, and Ben Varkentine stumbles across the biggest: Good writing.

Would the human race be better off without the urge to procreate – or at least, to get busy? That’s the theme explored in Michel Houellebecq’s latest novel, The Elementary Particles. Terry Eagan explores the novel and its core philosophy.