AltWeeklies Wire
Joyful Noisenew
'Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society' takes readers to the brink.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Nicole Gluckstern |
05-24-2013 |
Nonfiction
10 Sexy Books Published in 2009new
And as I peruse the many books deemed by many opinions to be the best of the year or, grander yet, best of the decade, I find myself compiling a modest, literary list of my own: 10 Sexy Books Published in 2009.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Juliette Tang |
01-06-2010 |
Nonfiction
'A Paradise Built in Hell' Explores the Utopic Possibilities Glimpsed in Disasternew
Perhaps the primary virtue of Rebecca Solnit's clear-headed new book is that it does not simply swap one interpretation of disaster -- as anticonsumerist reckoning, for instance -- for another, such as Jerry Falwell-style damnation. Solnit is interested in how people act in the aftermath, for better and for worse.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Max Goldberg |
09-30-2009 |
Nonfiction
'Methland' Tracks a Drug Through America's Cracks and Faultlinesnew
Meth is a drug with no celebrities, and Nick Reding treats his subjects with respect, despite close calls with former addicts who play disc golf with him one minute and threaten his life the next. But Methland's attempt to combine personal reflections on identity and place with an examination of the drug's role in a small town's economic struggles seems formally stale.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Brandon Bussolini |
08-19-2009 |
Nonfiction
William I. Robinson's Latest Outlines a Mad Rush Toward a World Where Cars Consume Cerealnew
In Latin America and Global Capitalism, Robinson uses research from years of on-the-ground work, and sifts through rafts of data to map out how neoliberal trade agreements and other mechanisms for greasing the machine of global commerce have increased profits for global elites while deeply disrupting traditional patterns of life and balance with the natural world.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Ben Terrall |
07-01-2009 |
Nonfiction
'Barf Manifesto' is So Great You'll Wanna Pukenew
Not a rant so much as a pair of roiling bursts of text, Bellamy's book has feminist intent, but ultimately it presents an artistic credo, in the manner of Andre Breton's paeans to Surrealism.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Johnny Ray Huston |
12-04-2008 |
Nonfiction
Rose Aguilar Looks for Change on 'Red Highways'new
Red Highways: A Liberal's Journey into the Heartland is the result of Aguilar's six-month road trip through reliably red states to ask people why they identify with one party over another, or vote for certain candidates, or don't vote at all.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Amanda Witherell |
11-12-2008 |
Nonfiction
'Winning Our Energy Independence' Takes on 'The Three Poisons'new
S. David Freeman lays out a plan to phase out Big Coal, Big Oil, and nuclear over 30 years while meeting the needs of our high-energy society by implementing renewable technologies that already exist: sun, wind, and renewably generated hydrogen, supplemented by small hydroelectric, geothermal, and certain biofuels.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Diana Scott |
07-10-2008 |
Nonfiction
Ta-Nehisi Coates Charts a 'Beautiful Struggle'new
To read this memoir about growing up in black in Baltimore is to catch a glimpse of the profound legacy and letdown of a generation raised to rebel but forced instead to fight disappointment, imprisonment, and despair.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
D. Scot Miller |
07-10-2008 |
Nonfiction
'Fashion: A Philosophy' Tumbles on the Runwaynew
Relying heavily on Immanuel Kant and Walter Benjamin, Svendsen (as translated by John Irons) creates a concise and comprehensive primer on fashion and clothing as it relates to identity. He then stitches on a virtual CliffsNotes of philosophy on fashion, citing Roland Barthes, Charles Baudelaire, and Michel Foucault, and then appliques some hep quotes from Bret Easton Ellis, AbFab, and the Pet Shop Boys.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
D. Scot Miller |
07-02-2008 |
Nonfiction
Two New Books Rummage Through the Rubble of No Wave New Yorknew
With its loose aesthetic boundaries, abbreviated timeline, and incestuous collaborations, the No Wave years are ripe for the kind of anthropological studies offered by two recent illustrated histories, Marc Masters' No Wave (Black Dog, 205 pages, $29.95) and Thurston Moore and Byron Coley's No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York 1976-1980 (Abrams Image).
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
MAX GOLDBERG |
06-04-2008 |
Nonfiction
Reading Between the Beats of 'Rollin' with Dre'new
Bruce Williams and Donnell Alexander's book is strange and sinister. What makes it strange is that it's actually about Williams, who worked as a bodyguard, valet, personal manager, and confidante for Dr. Dre.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
D. Scot Miller |
04-30-2008 |
Nonfiction
You Can Judge This Book by its Covernew
This catalogue of what United Kingdom censors called video nasties proves visually and verbally lively. And for a book bathed in blood and drawn to depressing and despairing expressions of murder such as the infamous Maniac (1980), Nightmare USA is surprisingly and endearingly warmhearted.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Johnny Ray Huston |
01-23-2008 |
Nonfiction
Alex Ross Brings the 'Noise'new
The New Yorker critic surveys the many faces of 20th-century classical music.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Max Goldberg |
10-17-2007 |
Nonfiction
Fast, Cheap, and Out of Controlnew
Former labor secretary Robert Reich examines the heavy price we pay for prospering as consumers in Supercapitalism.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Tim Redmond |
10-17-2007 |
Nonfiction
