Sopranos castmates Michael Imperioli (Christopher Moltisanti) and Steve Schirripa (Bobby Baccalieri) host the popular podcast Talking Sopranos. The results of their numerous interviews with the HBO show’s cast and crew are collected in Woke Up This Morning: The Definitive Oral History of The Sopranos. It is an informative and revealing look at the creation and production of the innovative and enduring cable TV series.

Many of the revelations are humorous. For example, Lorraine Bracco (psychiatrist Dr. Melfi) tells what the late James Gandolfini (mobster Tony Soprano) would do to distract her during their scenes in the therapy office. Or why Jamie-Lynn Sigler thought she had to sing during her audition for the role of Tony’s daughter, Meadow Soprano.

Others are more somber, such as series creator David Chase describing what it felt like to tell a performer their character was being killed off. Many of those performers also share their reactions when informed their parts were being whacked.

The structure generally follows the six seasons. The authors often alert readers to the cast or crewmember being interviewed, and the subject they discuss. Technical terms are defined for the benefit of the reader. One chapter is devoted entirely to the writers’ room and details how stories and scripts were developed. It ends with Schirripa’s top 10 best Sopranos quotes. A later chapter discusses how pop music was used to enhance episodes. A photo section near the middle features photos on the set or at various production-related events.

Throughout, Imperioli, Schirripa and those interviewed stress how the cable series stretched the boundaries of television. The effort was always to make scenes more cinematic, and the characters more diverse than usual. Readers will discover things they neither knew nor noticed during their initial viewing.

Woke Up This Morning comes highly recommended — and essential reading for all Sopranos fans. You’ll soon find yourself streaming specific episodes to take advantage of the authors’ insights. —Alan Cranis

Get it at Amazon.

To many, the Chateau Marmont is the hotel where John Belushi died from a drug overdose in 1982. While this tragic event is true, it is only one that define this Sunset Strip monument and the surrounding area.

Author Shawn Levy (Dolce Vita Confidential) recalls and details all these events in The Castle on Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art, and Scandal at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont, a chronicle of the hotel from its inception to the current day. It is a history as lively and engaging as that of any movie, TV or music celebrity.

In the late 1920s, Fred Horowitz, a downtown Los Angeles lawyer who had begun to speculate in property and construction, envisioned a structure at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and the road that led north into Laurel Canyon. Inspired by the Italian Chateau d’Amboise in the Loire valley, Horowitz built a castle-like building to serve as residential apartments. He named it Chateau Marmont after its official city address. Not long after completion, the structure changed to a hotel.

Individuals and couples from the growing movie industry and other creative arts were attracted to the locale, not only because it was close to Hollywood work locations, but also due to the quirky suites and bungalows different from one another. It also developed a reputation for tolerance – where, for example, gay performers could indulge in their sexual preference without fear of unwanted publicity.

Eventually, the location of the hotel became known the world over as the “Sunset Strip,” and the Marmont itself became the short- or long-term home for a seemingly endless array of actors, directors, screenwriters and other Hollywood employees.

At lease one classic movie was developed at the hotel. In his bungalow, director Nicholas Ray enlisted the then little-known actor named James Dean along with co-star Natalie Wood and, with script in hand, conducted readings for what would become Rebel Without a Cause.

Levy traces the Sunset Strip’s changing scene over the years, how the evolving crowd of youngsters who flocked there affected the surrounding area, and how the Chateau Marmont weathered these changes while maintaining its reputation for privacy and tolerance. He focuses on the various hotel owners, but enhances the history with numerous episodes of its residents and their sometimes-outrageous behavior.

Levy’s prose style is lively and engaging. The beginning of each section features a drawing or photograph of the hotel from that period, and includes a section of photos of the various owners, residents and the surrounding areas. Having previously written about such celebrities as Jerry Lewis, Paul Newman, Robert De Niro and the members of the Rat Pack, Levy makes the history of the hotel as dynamic and involving as any of his books’ earlier subjects.

Highly recommended. Not many hotels are worthy of their own biography. But, as The Castle on Sunset so aptly demonstrates, few in the world are like the Chateau Marmont. —Alan Cranis

Get it at Amazon.