Lisa Gardner, on reading:

I still read romance, and I read suspense. I read them both. And part of it is, I like stories with strong characters, and I like stories where there's closure at the end. And I like stories where there's hope. That's a kind of empowerment. I think romance novels are very empowering, and I think suspense novels are, too.

- Lisa Gardner.

World Photography Day - August 19 (quotes & books):

World Photography Day

August 19

You’re not trying to capture reality. You’re trying to capture a photograph of reality.

– Stanley Kubrick.

Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.

– Dorothea Lange.

Whatever happens in front of the lens stays. What’s captured during the encounter is all that exists.

– Gregory Heisler.

I think photography is a universal language as far as storytelling goes, and I think that’s what it’s most successful at.

– Mary Mattingly.

It’s amazing how photography can capture just a split second of something exquisite.

– Kiera Cass.

Recommended reading:

Eye on America

Photographs by Michael Ruetz.

Introduction by William Least Heat Moon.

New York Graphic Society book.

Published by Little, Brown and Company.

Published 1984.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0821215736

Description:

85 color illustrations, including 7 panoramic foldouts.

“America,” writes William Least Heat Moon in his introduction, “is yet a place to test a vision or to find a vision of whatever kind.”

Eye on America is the stunning embodiment of one such vision – a celebration of this nation’s unsurpassed beauty, its contrasts and ironies. Michael Ruetz, highly regarded in Europe for his photojournalism and photographic books, spent two years on a solitary odyssey, traversing the United States. From Pemaquid, Maine, to the volcanic slopes of Maui, he captured the scope and grandeur of the country for this collection of images, which includes seven panoramic foldouts.

Eye on America stands well apart from the run of photographic books, not only because of Ruetz’s superb technique, but because of the unusual camera he uses. This Technorama camera is capable of encompassing hundred-degree views without distortion. In Eye on America, cities – Boston, New York, Atlanta, Saint Louis, and Houston among them – unfold in sweeps of skyline. Juztaposed with these glowing human monuments are expanses yet untamed – the Grand Canyon, Bruce Canyon, the Oregon coast, Point Lobos, and Death Valley. Through subltle and striking light effects, Ruetz transforms the familiar into visions at once mysterious and new. As William Least Heat Moon comments:

“Michael Ruetz almost creates this beauty within the camera; he catches a casting of light, or he backs away from his subject until the breadth of view minimizes specifics and turns even the jarring details of a city into concordance. With the particular softened, the universal comes forward, and with it, Ruetz hopes, the timeless.”

A Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005

by Annie Leibovitz.

Published by Random House Trade Paperbacks.

Published 2009.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 081297963X

ISBN-13: 978-0812979633

Description:

“Annie Leibovitz’s photographic memoir of the past fifteen years in her life captures powerful, intimate moments…. She juxtaposes the most personal against the full-color flash of celebrities and the grandeur of the natural landscape against the bloody horror of war. A Photographer’s Life is a testament to a life lived large – and in full embrace.” – More magazine.

“Her fans may be astonished both by the range of the work and the unstudied, everyday quality of some of the images–a family day at the beach, a newborn in the delivery room.” – Newsweek.

“A revelation.” – Boston Sunday Globe.

“Startling.” – Washington Post.

Time Frames: City Pictures

By Michael Spano.

Photography by Michael Spano.

Introduction by Susan Kismaric.

Published by powerHouse Books.

Published 2002.

First Edition.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 1576871401

ISBN-13: 978-1576871409

Description:

Time Frames, Michael Spano’s long-awaited first monograph, is an exploration of spatial and temporal dimensions in photography framed by the backdrop of New York City. Divided into five chapters, each employing a distinctive technical process. Time Frames showcase a wonderful, typically disjointed way of looking at life in New York City. Panoramas captures interacting urbanites moving through elongated frames as the lens of an extremely wide field camera pans during exposure. Grids captures eight moments on a single negative as Spano moves through a sequence of events, pre-determinedly exposing one small portion of the negative every four seconds. Portraits focuses on individual inhabitants transformed from their settings through the solarization and blurring of forms into atmospheric otherworlds. Multi-Exposures matches solarizations with multiple perspectives. These single-negative layered compositions arrange and compress selected intervals of time and space into one image. Diptychs fuses two distinct moments onto one negative, in which the scale, focal planes, and perspectives shift and ultimately compose a dual image of urban spaces.

The Here and Now: The Photography of Sam Jones

By Sam Jones.

Published by It Books.

Published 2007.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0061348120

ISBN-13: 978-0061348129

Description:

“Sam Jones has a unique ability in this age of insane celebrity idolatry to humanize these people who often seem entirely estranged from the world the rest of us live in. This book is about celebrity, yes, but its also about one artist’s ability to use fame to create something uniquely delightful.” – David Granger, Editor in Chief, Esquire, from the Foreward.

Portraits

By John Hedgecoe.

Published by Collins & Brown.

Published 2000.

First Edition.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 185585726X

ISBN-13: 978-1855857261

Description:

For the past four decades John Hedgecoe has been taking pictures of the leading figures in the worlds of art, literature, science and politics – from Winston Churchill to Mary Quant. His technical skill and unerring ability to capture the essence of the sitter in a single frame have brought him tremendous critical acclaim.

This comprehensive portfolio brings together an impressive collection of John Hedgecoe’s portraits, featuring an eclectic mix of personalities from all avenues of life. These masterful photographs reflect his wide-ranging career, from the early days on Queen magazine to his years as Professor of Photography at the Royal College of Art in London.

Accompanied by short anecdotes that offer an entertaining insight into the special relationship that exists between the photographer and his subject, Portraits is a revealing portfolio and an illuminating read.

On this day in movie history - Wind River (2017):

Wind River

directed and written by Taylor Sheridan,

was released in the United States on August 18, 2017.
Music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.

Cast:

Kelsey Asbille, Jeremy Renner, Julia Jones, Teo Briones, Apesanahkwat, Graham Greene, Elizabeth Olsen, Tantoo Cardinal, Eric Lange, Gil Birmingham, Althea Sam, Tokala Black Elk, Martin Sensmeier, Tyler Laracca, Shayne J. Cullen, Dallin Tusieseina, Austin R. Grant, Ian Bohen, Hugh Dillon, Matthew Del Negro, James Jordan, Gabe Casdorph, Mason D. Davis, Chris Romrell, Jon Bernthal, Blake Robbins, Norman Lehnert, Ian Roylance, Gus Sheridan, Dana Anquoe, Duy Beck, David Cardona, Teresa Duran-Norvick, John Forker, Devin K. Hansen, Tara Karsian, Alex Mincoff.

On this day in movie history - Carriers (2009):

Carriers

directed and written by David Pastor and Àlex Pastor,

released at the Fantasy Filmfest in Germany on August 18, 2009.

Music by Peter Nashel.

Cast:

Lou Taylor Pucci, Chris Pine, Piper Perabo, Emily VanCamp, Christopher Meloni, Kiernan Shipka, Ron McClary, Mark Moses, Josh Berry, Tim D. Janis, Dale O'Malley, Dylan Kenin, LeAnne Lynch, Jan Cunningham, Mary Peterson, Sequoyah Adams-Rice, Brighid Fleming.

On this day in music history:

Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi (1986)

Traveler by Sherry Finzer & Peter Sheridan (2017)

Slippery When Wet

Album by Bon Jovi,

released August 18, 1986.

Track list: Let It Rock; You Give Love a Bad Name; Livin’ on a Prayer; Social Disease; Wanted Dead or Alive; Raise Your Hands; Without Love; I’d Die for You; Never Say Goodbye; Wild in the Streets.

Traveler

Album by Sherry Finzer & Peter Sheridan,

released August 18, 2017.

Track list: Leaving Earth; Spiritual Crossing; Nocturnal Dance; Reverence; Hunt On The Plains; Joy.

Born on this day – Malcolm-Jamal Warner:

Malcolm-Jamal Warner

Actor

Writer

Producer

Musician

August 18, 1970 – July 20, 2025

Credits:

Book:

Theo and Me: Growing up Okay (1988).

Movies and television:

14th Annual Inner City Destiny Awards (2006); 15 Minutes (2001); 18th Annual Trumpet Awards (2010); 19th Annual NAACP Image Awards (1987); 1st Annual Black Music Honors (2016); 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards (2011); 2011 Soul Train Awards (2011); 2015 Soul Train Awards (2015); 20th NAACP Image Awards (1988); 25th NAACP Image Awards (1993); 32nd NAACP Image Awards (2001); 3rd Annual Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards (1997); 48 Hours 'til Monday (2015); 6th Annual Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards (2000); 9-1-1 (2024); A Different World (1988–1989); A Fare to Remember (1999); ABC Afterschool Specials (1986–1994); Access Daily (2015–2017); Accused (2023); Adventures from the Book of Virtues (1997); After Hours (1990); Alert: Missing Persons Unit (2025); All That (1995–2005); All That 10th Anniversary Reunion Special (2005); American Crime Story (2016); American Horror Story (2014–2015); An Evening at the Improv (1990); Andy Williams and the NBC Kids Search for Santa (1985); Apollo Theatre Hall of Fame (1994); As Written (2012); Bad Music Video Theatre (2021); Battle of the Network Stars XIX (1988); Be Inspired: The Life of Heavy D (2012); BET Awards 2011 (2011); Big Bird's Birthday or Let Me Eat Cake (1991); Biography (2001); Body Language (1985); Call to Glory (1984); Carol & The End of the World (2023); CBS Cares (2004); CBS Schoolbreak Special (1994); CBS Storybreak (1984); Celebrity Poker Showdown (2005); Chadtronic (2018); Child Stars: Then and Now (2003); Children's Miracle Network Telethon (1990); Community (2011–2012); Contradictions of the Heart (2009); DCE presents Black Music Month (2022); Def Comedy Jam (1992); Def Poetry (2002); Detroiters (2017); Dexter (2006); Directors on Directing 2: The Story of the Storytellers (2008); Disneyland's Summer Vacation Party (1986); Drop Zone (1994); E! True Hollywood Story (2001); Ebony/Jet Showcase (1986–1992); Ennis' Gift (2000); Entertainment Tonight (1986–2025); Essence Ninth Annual Black Women in Hollywood (2016); Extra (2015); Fame (1983); Fast Copy (1985); Find Your Future Reality (2018); Five Star: (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons (1994); Fool's Gold (2008); For Our Children: The Concert (1993); Found Footage Festival Volume 6: Live in Chicago (2012); Friends in Therapy (2013); Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce (2017–2018); GMA3: What You Need to Know (2018); Grown-ish (2024); Gylne tider (2010); Gylne Tider: Let It Be (2010); Happy Hour (1999); Hard: Life of a Bondservant (2012); Hawthorne (2009); Here and Now (1992–2024); Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay (2022); History of the Sitcom (2021); Hollywood Squares (1998–1999); Home Alone: A Kid's Guide to Playing It Safe When on Your Own (1990); House of Lies (2016); I Was a Network Star (2006); Inside Look: The People v. O.J. Simpson - American Crime Story (2016); Inside TV Land (2002); Invisible Blackness with Adrian Younge (2021); It's Hot in Here: UPN Fall Preview (1996); Jemele Hill Is Unbothered (2023); Jeremiah (2002–2004); John & Leeza from Hollywood (1993); Kenan & Kel (1996); Key and Peele (2013–2014); Kidds for Kids in Africa: Love's Gonna Find A Way (1985); King of the Underground (2011); Kwamé: The Man We All Know and Love (1989); La tele de tu vida (2007); Larry King Now (2017); Last Call with Carson Daly (2016); Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1995); Later with Bob Costas (1988); Legend of the Candy Cane (2001); Lethal Weapon (2017); Life After (2010); Listen Up (2004–2005); Live with Kelly and Mark (1989–2023); Lyric Cafe (2002–2003); Lyric Cafe (2008); Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (1985); Major Crimes (2013–2016); Making History in Hollywood (2021); Malcolm & Eddie (1996–2000); Matlock (1987); Matt Houston (1982); Megachurch Murder (2015); Men of Alaye: The Hottest Black Men in America (1998); Mentoring Kings (2018); Moloney (1997); Mother's Day (1989); Motown Returns to the Apollo (1985); MTV EMA Belfast 2011 (2011); Muted (2014); My Nappy Roots: A Journey Through Black Hair-itage (2010); NBA All-Star Stay in School Jam (1992); NBC 60th Anniversary Celebration (1986); NBC 75th Anniversary Special (2002); New Edition: N.E. Heart Break (1989); Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards 2000 (2000); Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards '95 (1995); Night of 100 Stars II (1985); Nightlife (1986); Not (Blank) Enough (2021); Not All Hood (NAH) (2024–2025); Olive Forever (2018); One on One with John Tesh (1992); One on One with Magic Johnson (1994); One to Grow On (1983–1989); Pioneers of Television (2014); Puppy Dog Pals (2020); Rachael Ray (2016–2018); Reed Between the Lines (2011–2015); Reflections: A Story of Redemption (2004); Restaurant (1998); Retrosexual: The 80's (2004); Saturday Morning Videos (1990–1992); Saturday Night Live (1986); Saturday Night Live: The Best of Phil Hartman (1998); Second City This Week (2012); Sesame Street (1985–1988); Sesame Street Jam: A Musical Celebration / Segment: Monster in the Mirror (1993); Sesame Street: Monster in the Mirror (1991); Sherri (2009–2025); Shot (2017); Show Off! How to Be Cool at Parties (1986); Showtime at the Apollo (1988–1991); Sliders (1999); Sneaky Pete (2017–2019); Sons of Anarchy (2014); Sons of Anarchy: Season 7 - Guests of Anarchy (2015); Sound, Verses, Fury (2007); Special Agent Oso (2010); Static Shock (2002); Stevie Wonder with Friends: Celebrating a Message of Peace (2013); Stripperella (2004); Suits (2016–2017); Super Bloopers and Practical Jokes (1985–1988); Tavis Smiley (2005); Teen Vid I (1991); Ten Days in the Valley (2017); The 11th Annual People's Choice Awards (1985); The 12th Annual Soul Train Music Awards (1998); The 14th Annual American Black Achievement Awards (1993); The 1999 Source Hip-Hop Music Awards (1999); The 31st Annual People's Choice Awards (2005); The 37th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (1985); The 38th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (1986); The 42nd Annual Golden Globe Awards (1985); The 5th Annual American Comedy Awards (1991); The 5th Annual Stellar Gospel Music Awards (1990); The '80s: The Decade That Made Us (2013); The 8th Annual Black Achievement Awards (1987); The 9th Annual TV Land Awards (2011); The Arsenio Hall Show (1989–2014); The Boris & Nicole Show (2015); The Chicken Squad (2021); The Cleaner (2008); The Cosby Outtakes Show (1990); The Cosby Show (1984–1992); The Cosby Show: 25th Anniversary Special (2009); The Cosby Show: A Look Back (2002); The Drop (2004); The Earth Day Special (1990); The Father Clements Story (1987); The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990–1992); The Greatest (2005); The Insider (2016); The Interviews: An Oral History of Television (2013); The Irrational (2023); The Last Laugh: Memories of the Cosby Show (1992); The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn (2004); The List (2007); The Magic School Bus (1994–1997); The Meredith Vieira Show (2016); The Michael J. Fox Show (2014); The Mo'Nique Show (2010); The NBC All Star Hour (1985); The New Hollywood Squares (1987); The Oprah Winfrey Show (2008); The Real (2016); The Real Malcolm X (1992); The Real Story of Itsy Bitsy Spider (1991); The Resident (2018–2023); The Resident Rulebreakers (2020); The Teen Files (1999); The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1988); The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992); The Tuskegee Airmen (1995); The View (2005–2015); The Wendy Williams Show (2009–2018); The Wonder Years (2023); The Word (1994); There's Hope (2007); This Old Man (1990); Time Out: The Truth About HIV, AIDS, and You (1992); Today (1985–2024); Touched by an Angel (1995); Tour of Duty (1989); True Blue (2010); TV Guide: 40th Anniversary Special (1993); TV Guide's 50 Best Shows of All Time: A 50th Anniversary Celebration (2002); TV Land's Top Ten (2005); TV's All-Time Funniest: A Paley Center for Media Special (2008); Tyson (1995); Under the Boardwalk: The Monopoly Story (2010); Verses & Flow (2014); VH-1 Where Are They Now? (2000); Walt Disney World Celebrity Circus (1987); Wannabe (2016); White Famous (2017); Whodini: Funky Beat (1986); Word Warriors III (2016); You Can't Hear Me (2017); Your Favorite Commercials (1994).

Born on this day – Patrick Swayze:

Patrick Swayze

Actor

Dancer

Singer

August 18, 1952 – September 14, 2009