New Book Chronicles History Of Cinema

Among the recently published books is “Chronicle of the Cinema” (DK, $59.95). This is handsome and heavy and hard to put down (once you’ve picked it up, which is not so easy to do either).

The new edition of Dorling Kindersley’s history of the cinema is presented in the format of the very successful “Chronicle” series, as an extended “newspaper” illustrated by lots of movie stills and posters.

Don’t look for thoughtful analysis, even in Gene Siskel’s foreword (he phoned it in - it’s mostly quotes from other people, and not even impressive ones).

The book begins in 1894 with Thomas Edison’s invention of the Kinetoscope, and ends with this year’s Academy Awards.

New in paperback is Francis Mayes’ “Under the Tuscan Sun,” (Broadway, $13) a sensuous tribute to Italian life, which will inspire you to rein in your pace, eat some pasta (with, Mayes suggests, “an easy sauce made from diced ‘pancetta,’ unsmoked bacon, quickly browned, then stirred into cream and chopped wild argula”), drink a young Chianti and put a down payment on a farmhouse in Tuscany. Mayes is a poet who spends summers in her house near Cortona, Italy, and during the school year teaches creative writing at San Francisco State University. She is also what the late Laurie Colwin called a “domestic sensualist” who appreciates good food and good surroundings. There’s plenty of both in Tuscany, and in the chapters of this graceful book.