AltWeeklies Wire
The Clinician and the Poet in Kay Redfield Jamison Harmonize in 'Nothing Was the Same'new
This is a slim yet profound book, unadorned by fatuous spirituality, by a writer eager neither to conceal nor exaggerate her feelings. It gives grieving its complete due, and at the same time there's nothing at all depressing about it.
Metro Silicon Valley |
Richard von Busack |
10-15-2009 |
Nonfiction
'Drum of War' Looks at Walt Whitman's Nonreligious Ministry During the Civil Warnew
Whitman recognized something that few writers of that era or after did: the Civil War's true meaning lay in the "valor of suffering -- not of men firing rifles," and certainly not in the fascination with battles and troop movements that has dominated Civil War studies.
Metro Silicon Valley |
Michael S. Gant |
01-09-2009 |
Nonfiction
'Obscene in the Extreme' Recalls the Fight to Ban 'Grapes of Wrath'new
Seventy years later, with The Grapes of Wrath canonized in American literature and still a must-read for students across the country, it is almost forgotten how strongly -- and even violently -- publication of Steinbeck's novel was opposed in the heartland of California.
Metro Silicon Valley |
Geoffrey Dunn |
09-26-2008 |
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
Bill Ivey Agruse that Copyright Holders are Hoarding Our Cultural Legacy in 'Arts, Inc.'new
Ivey, the former head of the National Endowment for the Arts from 1998 to 2001, passionately believes that the public's right to know--to experience--its cultural heritage is severely threatened by monopolistic corporations, overzealous copyright laws and the erosion of the concept of "fair use."
Metro Silicon Valley |
Michael S. Gant |
07-17-2008 |
Nonfiction
Thesis of 'Against the Machine' Ultimately Runs Off the Railsnew
In this a compact rant, cultural critic Lee Siegel nails some of the shibboleths of a Web 2.0 world in which too much connectivity results in social atomization.
Metro Silicon Valley |
Michael S. Gant |
02-14-2008 |
Nonfiction
'Food' Tackles a Big Historynew
Ten historians survey the course of cuisine, starting with our hunter-gatherer ancestors, sojourning through various regional palates and ending with thoughts on the combination of "Novelty and Tradition" that tugs at diners today.
Metro Silicon Valley |
Michael S. Gant |
01-17-2008 |
Nonfiction
A Look at How We Receive New Forms of Representationnew
In Uncanny Bodies, Robert Spadoni argues that during the silents-to-sound era of 1927–1931, movie audiences had to make a perceptual adjustment to accept the idea of synchronized sound.
Metro Silicon Valley |
Michael S. Gant |
12-06-2007 |
Nonfiction
Spalding Weaves Herself Into Crime Narrativenew
Every bit as fraught as its title, Linda Spalding's Who Named the Knife is a glassine web of Didionesque passive sentences, re-creating a crime in Hawaii in 1978.
Metro Silicon Valley |
Richard von Busack |
12-06-2007 |
Nonfiction
Standing Against Google's Book Projectnew
In his short polemic, Jeanneney, president of France's Bibliotheque nationale, expresses a wide range of European concerns about Google's initiative to digitize the world's printed heritage.
Metro Silicon Valley |
Michael S. Gant |
11-01-2007 |
Nonfiction
'My Brother's Madness' is a Heart's-Blood Memoirnew
Pines is a good writer, a dedicated brother and a Brooklyn-bred humorist.
Metro Silicon Valley |
Richard von Busack |
10-18-2007 |
Nonfiction
'Making It New' Revisits the Heart of 1920s Artnew
This illustrated tribute to Sara and Gerald Murphy evokes the lost fizz of the 1920s, although at times the cavorting can seem precious and shallow. The Murphys anchored an artistic circle that encompassed Picasso, Cocteau, Hemingway, Dos Passos and more.
Metro Silicon Valley |
Michael S. Gant |
10-11-2007 |
Nonfiction
New 'Big Lebowski' Book Ties the Legacy Togethernew
In order to capture the impact the Coen Brothers' 1998 cult film has had on an unsuspecting world, the organizers of Lebowski Fest interviewed just about everyone they could think of, starting of course with the movie's cast.
Metro Silicon Valley |
Steve Palopoli |
08-31-2007 |
Nonfiction
'Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick'new
Thomas Bewick, a wood engraver in England helped nurture the public's interest in nature.
Metro Silicon Valley |
Michael S. Gant |
08-01-2007 |
Nonfiction
'The Trap' is Shrewd and Compassionatenew
It's also unique, because it comes not from a sorrowing elder but rather from a young person with a very conservative agenda -- conservative in the sense that he wants to retrieve the gains of the New Deal.
Metro Silicon Valley |
Richard von Busack |
07-26-2007 |
Nonfiction
