'The Hollywood Book Club' review: Celebs curling up with a good book

There's James Dean, perfect hair and a smirk — cigarette in one hand, "The Complete Poetical Works of James Whitcomb Riley" in the other. Audrey Hepburn, a classics connoisseur, is cross-legged on a shag carpet, eyes fixed on the open book in front of her. And Orson Welles is supine, smoking a pipe and focused on a weathered copy of "A History of Technology, Vol. III: From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution."

Stars, they're just like us! Provided you consume your reading material while draped in a silk robe and posed seductively.

In "The Hollywood Book Club," photo archivist Steven Rea curates 55 photographs of classic film stars "with literature (or not) in their hands — or on their laps, or in the general vicinity." The full-page, black-and-white images are all stunning: Rita Hayworth and Ginger Rogers are otherworldly; 25-year-old Marlon Brando's gaze is so smoldering, one worries about the flammable book he's holding. Each photo is accompanied by a few lines of text, a simplicity that keeps the focus where it belongs: on the images.

Rea groups the photos into categories, including the stars luxuriating in their personal libraries; reading to their kids; studying source material for film interpretations; and passing time on set.

Sammy Davis Jr. is shown relaxing with a paperback edition of Lloyd C. Douglas' biblical epic "The Robe." There's Lauren Bacall perusing a pictorial history of 20th century conflict. In a 1951 photo, Marilyn Monroe curls up on a sofa bed, wearing a silk bathrobe and sultry expression while reading "The Poetry and Prose of Heinrich Heine," an 874-page collection.

"The Hollywood Book Club" is a striking collectible, a delight for bibliophiles and cinephiles. The glitz and glamour are palpable, and the photos Rea selected awaken a nostalgia for those golden years of the silver screen. Assume your best movie-star pose, and savor the book on your velvet chaise, leveling its pages with your sauciest gaze. One never knows when a camera is lurking nearby.