AltWeeklies Wire
Getting Under the Hood of James Wood's New Fiction Manifestonew
The critical response can only be personal, which is why critics have had so much fun reviewing this earnest, intelligent and cranky little book. The problem with the overambitious title is easily solved by adding a simple preposition between title and author: How Fiction Works For James Wood.
New Haven Advocate |
Jolisa Gracewood |
09-02-2008 |
Nonfiction
A Book About What Your Stuff Says About You Doesn't Reveal Enoughnew
Gosling's concept in Snoop is pretty darn alluring: By carefully observing all the seemingly inconsequential bric-a-brac around a person, you can gain valuable insights into his personality.
Baltimore City Paper |
Joab Jackson |
09-02-2008 |
Nonfiction
Disaster: A Growth Industrynew
Klein exposes—with razor-sharp investigative reporting—the damage done by the fundamentalist economic theories of Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman, who said: “Only a crises actual or perceived produces real change.”
Jackson Free Press |
Ronni Mott |
08-29-2008 |
Nonfiction
New Roman Polanski Bio Goes for Glitz, Not Glorynew
Christopher Sandford's Polanski: A Biography may inspire that peculiar twinge of uber-humility that occasions tales of paraplegic mountain climbers and crack babies metamorphosed into Harvard grads. It's hard to call what the average Jarek does "living" when you stack it next to the full-color epic of Polanski.
New York Press |
Felicia Feaster |
08-29-2008 |
Nonfiction
'Havana Nocturne' Looks at Gambling, Guns and Sex in Pre-Castro Cubanew
The pre-Castro days of the late 1940s and the 1950s were the era when the Mafia ran the most successful string of big-buck casinos, posh hotels and spectacular nightclubs ever seen in this hemisphere -- and paid Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista nearly $10 million (in today's money) per week to ensure that their good thing was "protected."
Creative Loafing (Charlotte) |
John Grooms |
08-27-2008 |
Nonfiction
Controversy Becomes Conventional in 'Save the Males'new
Such books undoubtedly have a preconditioned choir to preach to, but offer little new to long time observers of the culture wars.
Charleston City Paper |
Dylan Hales |
08-27-2008 |
Nonfiction
The Beats Go On in 'Texas Music'new
The History of Texas Music is an anthropological study of Texas as examined through its diverse offering of folk music, offering a historical study of social, ethnic and geographical influence and how they have laid the groundwork for a thriving indie music scene.
The Texas Observer |
Michael Hoinski |
08-27-2008 |
Nonfiction
Shashi Tharoor Examines the Changing Culture of Indianew
The book, a collection of essays Tharoor wrote for the Times of India and other publications, has no clearly defined thesis or narrative, yet is packed full of insightful commentary on India’s rapidly changing cultural landscape.
NOW Magazine |
Joseph Wilson |
08-26-2008 |
Nonfiction
The Duke of Gonzonew
What author would you like to have over to your house? Vonnegut, Hemingway, Angelou? Thanks to the University Press of Mississippi’s Literary Conversations Series, the question is no longer moot, and you don’t even have to make dinner.
Jackson Free Press |
Jesse Yancy |
08-26-2008 |
Nonfiction
Police Vets of the 1968 DNC Get Their Say in 'Battleground Chicago'new
First published in 2004 but reissued in paperback last May, in time for this summer’s round-number anniversary, Frank Kusch's Battleground Chicago tells the story of the infamous "police riot" at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. But here's a first: it's told from the cops' point of view.
Chicago Reader |
Barry Wightman |
08-26-2008 |
Nonfiction
American Comics and the Jews that Love Themnew
The most powerful aspect of Jews and American Comics is not Paul Buhle's writing, but rather his selection of work from some of the medium’s most notable creators, which often paints a more complete cross-section of the subject matter than his sometimes-rushed text.
New York Press |
Brian Heater |
08-25-2008 |
Nonfiction
Ehrenreich's Latest Essays on Social and Economic Justice Are Truly Galvanizingnew
Erudite yet accessible and scathingly sardonic, the author of Nickel and Dimed has again written a book that seeks to stir the radical, class-conscious spirit of the American left -- and leave them both outraged and rolling in laughter.
Metro Silicon Valley |
Molly Zapp |
08-21-2008 |
Nonfiction
Norman Mailer's 1968 War Storiesnew
Mailer wrote his accounts of the 1968 national conventions on assignment for Harper's, and predicted a 40-year war with the emerging neo-cons. Alas, he was right about that.
Boston Phoenix |
Charles Taylor |
08-20-2008 |
Nonfiction
David Carr Asks Himself the Toughest Questions in 'The Night of The Gun'new
Before it delivers the inevitable jolt of redemption, The Night of The Gun is a maddening book, dangerous in large doses to anyone who has ever romanticized the outlaw appeal of the addict, frequently absurd and offensive to those drunks and dope fiends who have somehow managed to ask for help and get on with their lives.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Steve Friedman |
08-15-2008 |
Nonfiction
'Stop Me If You've Heard This' Is as Valuable as You'd Thinknew
I once took a class in which the professor believed the point in studying Shakespeare's comedies was not amusement so much as profitable scholarship. The Bard's comedies, in his view, were his most serious work. To see this, though, students had to assume that funny and serious weren't at odds.
I hoped similar reasoning informed Jim Holt’s new book, Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes.
I was wrong.
Charleston City Paper |
John Stoehr |
08-13-2008 |
Nonfiction
