New Book: Joseph P. Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years

Leonard Maltin called my attention to a brand-new book, Cari Beauchamp's JOSEPH P. KENNEDY PRESENTS: HIS HOLLYWOOD YEARS, which looks like a very interesting, if rather depressing, slice of American and Hollywood history.

I say "depressing" simply because while Kennedy family history is always interesting -- I've read numerous books on the family over the years -- the lack of character displayed by the family patriarch in far too many areas was a lesson tragically passed on to many of his nine children.

Maltin's review: "I could exhaust a thesaurus finding words to describe this book: riveting...revelatory...succulent...jaw-dropping are all adjectives that come to mind. Beauchamp has put in years of painstaking research in order to tell, for the first time, the full story of Joseph P. Kennedy’s adventures in Hollywood during the 1920s and beyond."

Maltin's very interesting review concludes by calling the book "a work of imposing scholarship. I would call it a 'must-read.'"

The New York Times calls the book "smart" and "well-sourced."

Sounds like one more book for my "to be read" pile...