AltWeeklies Wire
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
'Massacred For Gold' Rises Above the Usual History Book Formulanew
R. Gregory Nokes' investigation of the 1887 mass murder of more than 30 Chinese gold miners is a chronicle within a chronicle, explaining not only how and why the murders occurred but how the author had to sift through scant and often contradictory evidence to make sense of a crime.
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
10-14-2009 |
Nonfiction
'Flotsametrics and the Floating World' Looks at Junk and Shipping Trunksnew
Flotsametrics, written by oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer with help from journalist Eric Scigliano, is the biography of a new offshoot of science; "flotsametrics" means, essentially, the application of quantitative measurement to floating trash.
Willamette Week |
Matthew Korfhage |
08-19-2009 |
Nonfiction
'Tattoo Machine' Explores the Secret World of Inknew
More gossip rag than technical primer, Tattoo Machine owes as much of its existence to the author's skill with a needle as it does to his storytelling chops. While Johnson's penchant for philosophical diatribe grates, the man has both great stories and the writerly candor to tell them.
Willamette Week |
Caitlin McCarthy |
07-22-2009 |
Nonfiction
Sarah Vowell Makes Pilgrims Piss-Pants Hilarious in Her Latestnew
The book is two parts extensive review of key Pilgrim documents -- like the letters and journals of John Winthrop, Roger Williams and John Cotton -- and one part humorous, anecdotal stories of Vowell's experience researching the topic.
Willamette Week |
Whitney Hawke |
10-08-2008 |
Nonfiction
Tags: Sarah Vowell, The Wordy Shipmates
A Thin New Book Builds a Thin, Old Case Against the Chemical Industrynew
Nena Baker, a former investigative reporter for The Oregonian, has written a slim volume about toxins in the environment that builds an even slimmer case against the chemical industry.
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
09-03-2008 |
Nonfiction
Abrahm Lustgarten Rides the Rails to Tibet on the Eve of the Beijing Olympicsnew
Lustgarten spent four years traveling to China and Tibet researching the Qinghai-Tibet Railway -- a 50-year plan to build the highest train line in the world and solidify Beijing's hold on the disputed region.
Willamette Week |
James Pitkin |
05-22-2008 |
Nonfiction
A Gluten-free Memoir About Growing Up in Botswananew
Robyn Scott's memoir, Twenty Chickens for a Saddle, is a vegan Swiss Family Robinson, complete with its own campy theme song: a region-specific adaptation of "An English Country Garden."
Willamette Week |
John Minervini |
04-16-2008 |
Nonfiction
How a Bootlegger's Son Shaped the Westnew
One measure of success for a book like Philip L. Fradkin's Wallace Stegner and the American West is whether it inspires readers to take up books by the biographer's subject.
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
03-12-2008 |
Nonfiction
Jim Wallis' 'Great Awakening' is a Snoozenew
A progressive evangelical's new book will put his fans to sleep.
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
01-30-2008 |
Nonfiction
A New Collection From Colm 'Shortlisted for Booker' Tóibínnew
Tóibín is best known for his novels, but while those were propelled by intensities of exploration rooted in their subjects, the author here often seems to be chasing what Yeats once said he looked for at the end of every poem: the click of a well-made box.
Willamette Week |
Matthew Korfhage |
01-09-2008 |
Nonfiction
A Hefty Book Captures the Early 19th Centurynew
Daniel Walker Howe illuminates the portentous half-century before the Civil War, a time that seems at once alien to our modern sensibilities and yet strangely echoes our own technological, consumer-driven age.
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
11-07-2007 |
Nonfiction
Poe Ballantine Searches for Inspirationnew
"I don't recommend the writing life," declares Poe Ballantine. "At least, not the one where you move around a lot, live alone and work odd jobs."
Willamette Week |
Alastair Rockoff |
11-07-2007 |
Nonfiction
Finally, a Reason for America to Learn to Readnew
Just as The Colbert Report is an offshoot of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Colbert's book is best read as a companion volume to Stewart&Co.'s 2004 bestseller America (The Book): A Guide to Democracy Inaction.
Willamette Week |
Ian Gillingham |
10-10-2007 |
Nonfiction
In 'Foreskin's Lament,' God is a Four-Letter Wordnew
Auslander's new memoir reveals both the paranoia of both the devout and those desperately trying not to believe.
Willamette Week |
Kelly Clarke |
10-03-2007 |
Nonfiction
