Books about Missteps from Amazon.com

After moving to Argentina on a whim, Brian Winter, a young American reporter, embarks on a crusade to learn that devilishly difficult dance that demands both discipline and passion: the tango. While he dances the night away in the milongas with the fiery denizens of Buenos Aires, the country around them collapses, gripped by inflation, street riots, and revolution.

In a book that is part travelogue and part history, the author evokes his immersion in a dark underworld. He visits old dance salons, brothels, and shacks on the dusty Pampa, searching for the tango's shady origins in the hope that understanding may help him dance better. Along the way, he discovers that the tango, with its tales of jealousy, melodrama, and lost glory, may hold the secret to the country that is inexplicably disintegrating before his eyes.

You Lose Some, You Lose Some authors Lou Harry and Eric Furman continue their preoccupation with failure with In the Can— a look at fifty major movie stars and their biggest critical and box office duds. Some stars’ lowest moments may be obvious, while others take a bit more digging. Sections include:
• Bury It (or, Go Directly to Video/DVD): Including Jerry Lewis’s legendary (and never released) The Day the Clown Cried and Jim Varney and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in Slam Dunk Ernest.
• Out of the Vaults: Forgotten movies that get dragged into the spotlight when a star hits it big, like Kevin Costner’s Sizzle Beach U.S.A. and Sylvester Stallone’s Party at Kitty and Stud’s.
• Oscar Jinx: You’d think an Oscar would lead one to better projects. Sometimes you’d be wrong. Think Jane Darwell after The Grapes of Wrath or Marisa Tomei after My Cousin Vinny.