AltWeeklies Wire
The Culture of Jackonew
Looking past questions of what he did or didn't do, this book examines the Michael Jackson phenomenon as American popular culture pushed to its logical extremes.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
01-05-2006 |
Nonfiction
Author Aims for Claritynew
Though this book is a bit plodding and overwritten at times, it's a smart book worth the effort if you want to move beyond the current mess of muddled political posturing.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
12-01-2005 |
Nonfiction
Book Has Become Valuable History After Hurricanenew
The author's love (an angry, desperate, grieving, intimate love) for the culture reads sincere, offering a full sensory tour of a part of New Orleans that was always way off the tourist map and may now be gone forever.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
11-17-2005 |
Nonfiction
He Went Under the Cover of Flagnew
In an age of absurdity fit to make Aristophanes shoot milk through his nose, a trickster like Harmon Leon is a welcome reflection of our ridiculous reality.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
11-04-2005 |
Nonfiction
Author Loves Her Gunnew
Kayla Williams tells her story of being a woman in what is still largely a man's Army, in which every woman is considered either a bitch or a slut.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
09-29-2005 |
Nonfiction
A Marriage Coming-of-Age Storynew
The Commitment is a memoir sprinkled with polemic on gay marriage (in the absence of legal recognition) and gay family life (in the absence of established norms).
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
09-22-2005 |
Nonfiction
Tags: Dan Savage, The Commitment
Stories From Papers You Don't Bring Home to Mothernew
In Notes from the Underground, you'll find stories of train-hopping hobos; high-priced, semi-retired call girls; marijuana; pedophilia; and polygamy. Yup, making our J-school mentors proud.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
09-15-2005 |
Nonfiction
It's Plain to See in the Illusionist's Transparent Boxnew
Is Adair's final revelation the real transcendent deal or merely a philosophical sleight of hand? Such a cynic you are! It's all there plain to see in the illusionist's transparent box.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
07-22-2005 |
Nonfiction
Author Doesn't Apologize for Wal-Martnew
John Dicker is refreshing for his willingness to hold everyone's feet to the fire -- CEOs, customers and critics alike. He calls Wal-Mart "a macro-sized microcosm of many of America's biggest socioeconomic clusterfucks."
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
06-09-2005 |
Nonfiction
Author Writes Admiringly About Americanew
Verso has come out with an updated edition of V.G. Kiernan's multidisciplinary history of America, from colonial days forward.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
06-02-2005 |
Nonfiction
How America Almost Destroyed the Vineyards of Europenew
The Americans (probably) didn't do it on purpose, though you hardly could have blamed them given all the nasty things the Europeans were saying about New World wines and the American palate.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
03-31-2005 |
Nonfiction
Message Offers Good Plan for Revival in Big Tentnew
In her funny, vulnerable meditations on living a meaningful life in the midst of trials and sorrows -- many of which she blames on Dubya Bush and his disciples -- Anne Lamott is not afraid to reference a wise word or two from Rumi, the Dali Lama, or the Catholic vision of the Virgin Mary.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
03-17-2005 |
Nonfiction
Travelogue Mixes Pocket Histories With Political Riffsnew
Its focus is the Sahel, a 2,600-mile swath of African desert and badlands that stretches from Ethiopia to the Atlantic coast, and is home to some of the most impoverished, corrupt and - Sudan notwithstanding - ignored countries on the planet.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
03-10-2005 |
Nonfiction
Tags: Angry Wind, Jeffrey Tayler
Author Explains Why 'Down Low' Gets the Blamenew
With all the ways in which lovers cheat on one another, all the paths by which HIV can be spread, and with such a dearth of actual evidence -- anecdotal, clinical, statistical or otherwise -- why did "the DL" get the blame?
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
02-25-2005 |
Nonfiction
Author Still Sadistic, Cantankerous and Outrageously Funnynew
Burroughs grew up gay in rural Massachusetts, the son of a depressed mother and a victim of a crackpot psychiatrist and his pedophile son. Now a recovering alcoholic, he works in a successful but soul-stripping career in advertising, with a cleaning lady who scammed him out of $12,000.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
10-21-2004 |
Nonfiction
