AltWeeklies Wire
'The Publisher': Twilight of the Superheroesnew
The ghost of Time Inc.’s Henry Luce haunts Bill Keller, Executive Editor of the New York Times.
Boston Phoenix |
Peter Kadzis |
04-29-2010 |
Nonfiction
'The Eastern Stars': Like Baseball For Sugarnew
In his new book The Eastern Stars, author Mark Kurlansky sets out to explain how baseball became as important as sugar in the Dominican town of San Pedro de Macorís.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Wyatt Williams |
04-27-2010 |
Nonfiction
Tags: Mark Kurlansky, The Eastern Stars
The Problem with the Prosperity Gospelnew
Karen Spears Zacharias' latest book, Will Jesus Buy Me a Double-Wide? ('Cause I need more room for my plasma TV), is chock full of stories, beautifully written thumbnail sketches of lives lost and found. These tales are framed by a critique of the all-too-modern, all-too-American idea of the prosperity gospel.
Charleston City Paper |
Jason A. Zwiker |
04-21-2010 |
Nonfiction
Books: 'Autobiography Of A Recovering Skinhead'new
Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead (Hawthorne Books, 316 pages, $15.95), co-authored by Jody Roy, provides a rare insight into the creation and undoing of an American monster.
Willamette Week |
Natalie Baker |
04-16-2010 |
Nonfiction
'A Volume of Friendship': Two Great American Womennew

The friendship of Eleanor Roosevelt and Isabella Greenway offers lessons that remain relevant.
Tucson Weekly |
Tim Hull |
04-15-2010 |
Nonfiction
'Reality Hunger' by David Shieldsnew
Is the novel dead? Well, not exactly. But in his new book, David Shields sets out to prove it’s no longer relevant.
The Georgia Straight |
Jennifer Croll |
04-12-2010 |
Nonfiction
Tags: David Shields, Reality Hunger
David Delgado Shorter Beautifully Tells Portions of the Yaqui/Yoeme Talenew

Out of money and needing to get to San Carlos, my brother and I thumbed it from the Obregon City bus station. I wouldn't pick up those scruffy, half-inebriated gringos today, and I probably wouldn't have stopped back then, more than 10 years ago. But it didn't take long to find a ride.
Tucson Weekly |
Tim Hull |
03-25-2010 |
Nonfiction
Undercover in 'Christian Country,' Gina Welch Pretended to Be an Evangelicalnew

While preparing for her baptism at Jerry Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church, Gina Welch was handed a checklist: She'd need a towel and a change of underwear.
East Bay Express |
Anneli Rufus |
03-17-2010 |
Nonfiction
Rebecca Skloot's Real-Life 'Medical Thriller' 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks'new

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks seems to be a hit. Rebecca Skloot's nonfiction book about a woman whose cancer cells have served medical researchers for 60 years has spent weeks among Amazon.com's top-10 sellers.
Pittsburgh City Paper |
Kathy M. Newman |
03-01-2010 |
Nonfiction
The Oral History of Toronto’s Punk Rock Scene is Retold in 'Treat Me Like Dirt'new

Liz Worth’s oral history Treat Me Like Dirt proves to be long overdue, finally exposing Toronto’s influential but often forgotten punk rock scene between 1974 and 1981.
Montreal Mirror |
Johnson Cummins |
02-26-2010 |
Nonfiction
Tags: Liz Worth, Treat Me Like Dirt
'How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamites,' Reviewednew

When the financial tailspin of 2008 forced Alan Greenspan to confess that he was mistaken about the unshakable rationality and self-correcting nature of the economy, it was as if a Roman Catholic cardinal publicly doubted the divinity of Christ.
Shepherd Express |
David Luhrssen |
02-26-2010 |
Nonfiction
How Escapees From Nazi Germany Transformed So Cal’s Music Culturenew

Imagine Igor Stravinsky’s ballet “Agon” never being staged, or Franz Waxman’s “Sunset Boulevard” and “A Place in the Sun” film scores never winning Oscars, because they’d never been written — because their creators were denied the right to exist.
Pasadena Weekly |
Bliss |
02-22-2010 |
Nonfiction
Books Explore the Games Behind the Olympic Gamesnew

This penetrating analysis by Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, a Toronto sociologist and activist, remains a classic for how thoroughly it exposes the secrecy, elitism, hypocrisy, corruption, and lack of accountability of what she calls the “Olympic industry”.
The Georgia Straight |
Charlie Smith |
02-16-2010 |
Nonfiction
‘The Poisoner’s Handbook’: Tracking Murder Through Forensic Sciencenew

The storytelling skills of Deborah Blum, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, show no diminishment in The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York (Penguin Press).
Shepherd Express |
Roger K. Miller |
02-12-2010 |
Nonfiction
Writer Captures New Dimensions of Old West Legends Pat Garrett and Billy the Kidnew

Growing up in a small Missouri town in "the heart of Jesse James country," Mark Lee Gardner and his friends would chase each other through the schoolyard pantomiming holdups, manhunts and violent showdowns. "We all wanted to be Jesse James," he muses.
Colorado Springs Independent |
Jill Thomas |
02-09-2010 |
Nonfiction