I went on a bit of a Turner Classic Movie (TCM) book binge last year. Movies are my second favorite thing to reading and I loved reading their collection to find out behind the scenes facts and movie analyses. So here are my top 5 favorites.

The Making of Gone with the Wind by Steve Wilson

I got this 500 page insiders look on the making, filming and concepts of Gone with the Wind for my birthday, and wow, it is amazing. It starts from the very beginning introducing producer’s Selzick’s movie studio and the types of movies he was buying up until he got the rights to the movie. From there it takes exclusive photos, and papers from the TCM archive of studio memos for the search of Scarlet O’Hara, actresses writing for the role, costume sketches, script pages, and memo after memo about various issues on set from creating Tara to the burning of Atlanta scene to the pleas from NCAAP to portray black people well. It also sets up postproduction like the parades springing all over the South in honor of its premiere, Oscar night and more. It’s truly a compendium of all you could ever wish to learn about this classic film.

The Essentials: 52 Must See Movies by Jeremy Arnold

This book really adds to your To watch list. Written by movie critic Jeremy Arnold , he keeps things in layman’s terms by not going into the academic marvels and nuance that make these movies great, but just explaining the enduring appeal of each movie he highlights and how they changed the genre or the movie landscape thereafter. He includes a variety of genres and even a few foreign films, and manages to make them all sound so exciting. Plus it has little factoids in the sidenotes and behind the scenes tidbits.

Summer Movies: 30 Sun Drenched Classics by John Malahy

This is a fun breezy book just like your favorite beach movie where Malahy goes over classics like National Lampoon’s Family Vacation, Gidgit and more to talk about their charm and how they manage to hit that sweet spot to embrace all the craziness, the fun and the relaxation those summer months can bring. It also adds facts and a “If you like this, try” so you can come away with more than 30 movies to watch but 60. He wrote a companion book of Christmas at the Movies which take on those holiday classics. Fright Favorites, Must See Sci-Fi and Must See Musicals are similarly formatted in their respective genres.

This Was Hollywood: Forgotten Stars and Stories by Carla Valderrama

This light hearted book does not go into movie history but Hollywood history with clarifying some urban legends and unearthing unknown quirks and stories of Hollywood’s elite like Hollywood pets and their lavish lifestyles, eccentric home designs and more. Perfect for Hollywood trivia.

Hollywood Black: The Stars, the Films, the Filmmakers by Donald Bogle

This book takes readers through the tricky, at times insulting and other times, empowering moments of black history through film beginning in the 1920s when racist depictions of minstrels were the norm and the only way blacks could be on fim, unless they were servants to the damaging effect of Birth of Nation, widely considered the first blockbuster movie, glorifying the KKK. It takes us all the way to the present though with Black Panther, and all in between highlighting breakout stars like Denzel Washington who embodied a new perception to black masculinity, to filmmakers like Spike Lee and his films that brought the African-American experience and conversations of racism to the forefront. A great, well-researched book.

West Side Story: The Jets, The Sharks and The Making of a Classic by Richard Barrios

Released just before Spielberg premiered his West Side Story in theatres, this book takes us back to the 40s with its original conception by Bernstein, Robbins and Sondheim and how they created a Broadway classic. It then goes into the historical impact, audience reaction, the creation of the movie featuring stories from cast and crew, as well as peeks from the TCM archive of casting decisions and more. This is a great book for any fan of the musical and its timeless legacy.