A reviewer at Classic Images called it “the most detailed filmography I have ever come across”. Janet L. Meyer’s Sydney Pollack: A Critical Filmography is a comprehensive, painstakingly researched book on the late director’s entire career, from his early acting days through to his A-list position as one of Hollywood’s most respected producer/directors.

Publisher McFarland & Co. describes Pollack:

One finds that his style is marked by deliberate pacing, ambiguous endings, and metaphorical love stories. Topically, Pollack’s films reflect social, cultural, and political dilemmas that hold some fascination for him, with multidimensional characters in place that generally break the stereotypical molds of the situations.

Pollack, too, often shared his film experience with readers through introductions to reference works including Sanford Meisner on Acting (Knopf, 1987), Basil Hoffman’s Acting and How To Be Good At It (Ingenuity, 2007), and Timothy Bricknell’s Minghella on Minghella (Faber, 2005).

Sydney Pollack: A Critical Filmography by Janet L. Meyer was published in December 2007.

—Nikki Tranter

Most of the girls look like rock-solid citizens in this stronghold of Islam, but in the privacy of their homes (often vast sprawling affairs with home cinemas and swimming-pools) they throw parties (women only, of course), eat Burger King, watch cable television (Sex and the City is a big favourite), and live an undercover life that is an extraordinary ‘pot-pourri’ of West and East. They flirt with boys on the internet in Arabish (a mix of Arabic and English), send their drivers to pick up Frappuccinos from Starbucks, talk about ‘front bumpers’ and ‘back bumpers’ (breasts and bottoms) and reveal a world where women hide more than their desires under their long black abayas.

The UK Telegraph magazine has a fascinating interview, published last week, with Rajaa Alsanea, the 25-year-old Saudi Arabian author of Girls of Riyadh.

The book is making waves just about everywhere due to its frank portrayal of young, upperclass Saudi women. The Boston Herald has a piece on Alsanea, as does the San Francisco Chronicle. The Arab News has a revealing piece on the controversy, too.

The book is out Thursday, from Penguin.

—Nikki Tranter