Shelton’s new memoir, The Church of Baseball, does for filmmaking what Bull Durham did for the national pastime: it demystifies the craft, pillories the business, and celebrates the calling with wit and passion.

Eminently readable.

Breezy.

Shelton goes into great detail about the post-production work, as the movie team and studio executives argue endlessly about which scenes to include and which to cut. He also takes us through the nerve-racking process of test screenings, in which the movie is previewed for carefully chosen audiences.

... a peek behind the curtain, to be sure; Shelton is upfront and honest about the process, both with regard to what worked and what didn’t … and how much fun everyone had along the way.

... mostly droll, sometimes dolorous account.

... should probably wind up on the syllabus of every film school in the country. In it, Shelton delivers a primer on the absurdist business of Hollywood filmmaking and on the art of narrative storytelling. His book glides along its own narrative arc as Shelton overcomes one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after another, each time leaving the reader breathless at the sheer improbability that Bull Durham got made at all. I highly recommend it for fans of the film, storytellers, and those who’ve thought of naming their children Crash and Nuke..

... shows that Bull Durham is popular partly because it is funny, but it also reveals an additional source of the movie’s enduring appeal: willingness to address aging.

... extremely entertaining.

...an entertaining, casual book with the tone of a dinner table conversation. While detailed and multifaceted, the book is very much Shelton’s perspective from beginning to end, and does not pretend to be a comprehensive history...It is a memoir with very specific framing, and under these parameters the book certainly delivers.

More than a behind-the-scenes look at one of the best baseball movies of all time, the book is a filmmaking primer in which Shelton never presupposes the reader comes with the knowledge of what a 'grip' or a 'second unit' does.

Jaunty.

Shelton takes readers through the writing of the script in detail, highlighting his aims in each scene.

... what sets [Shelton's] memoir apart are its insights into the process of filmmaking, from the initial concept through to the script stage, casting, assembling a crew, production and post-production. It’s a remarkably lucid and instructive primer..

Spectacular.

Shelton’s book is not simply a jaunty recollection of his directing debut, with all its attendant breakthroughs and headaches. The author, who displays sheer, unadulterated love for his subject, also delivers a savvy, unusually informative tutorial on how to take a motion picture from the concept stage to script development, casting, production, and post-production. Shelton examines all of this in a charismatic style that decodes jargon and engages from first page to last. There’s plenty of gossip (mostly generous), surprising insights, useful screenwriting strategies, and tips for would-be directors on how to combat studio meddling.