AltWeeklies Wire
'We Did Porn' Peeks Behind the Curtain of the Alt-Porn Industrynew
Oh, pornography. Progressives still get turned around. Does it victimize women? Reinforce impossible sexual expectations? Cheapen intimacy? In his new book, Zak Smith cuts to the crux of the confusion: "The most hideous thing about pornography, of course, is that it works. On you."
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
06-19-2009 |
Nonfiction
Ed McClanahan's Memoir is Generous and Irreverentnew
Formally meticulous and thematically irreverent, O the Clear Moment is a loose collection of autobiographical pieces in which McClanahan reflects on an idyllic childhood in small-town Kentucky, chronicles the successes and humiliations of high school, and opens a few small but well-placed windows onto his adult eccentricities.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
10-31-2008 |
Nonfiction
'Veeps' is an Irreverent Guide to the History of the Vice Presidencynew
There are three people on the blue side of the political spectrum who benefited from the selection of the profoundly terrifying Sarah Palin as a vice-presidential candidate: Tina Fey, Bill Kelter, and Wayne Shellabarger.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
10-24-2008 |
Nonfiction
'True Tales of Rollerderby': A Real-Life Cartoonnew
A comic book about the Rose City Rollers is one of those ideas that's so obvious, once you've heard about it, that it seems strange such a thing hasn't been hit on before
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
04-03-2008 |
Nonfiction
Slack Onnew
When recovering slacker Kennedy gets a high-paying job in the marketing department of a major record company, he sees his coolness finally validated. Then he started work.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
02-28-2008 |
Nonfiction
Beth Lisick Seeks Help in 'Helping Me Help Myself'new
When Lisick unleashes her inner snark, she's laugh-out-loud funny, but when she toes the book's tagline and earnestly tries to "fix" herself, she's boring, kind of annoying, and self-indulgent.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
01-10-2008 |
Nonfiction
The Food Book to Read This Yearnew
Michael Pollan sets out to determine why the so-called Western diet is the unhealthiest in the world; how, despite a full-fledged societal obsession with food and nutrition, Americans have gotten to the perverse point where we are both overweight and undernourished.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
12-27-2007 |
Nonfiction
