AltWeeklies Wire
Three Recents Books Tackle Iran From the Inside Outnew
Books about Iran have been recently proliferating. The last year in particular has delivered three notable titles: Hooman Majd's The Ayatollah Begs to Differ, Azar Nafisi's Things I've Been Silent About: Memories and Azadeh Moaveni's Honeymoon in Tehran.
The Texas Observer |
Azita Osanloo |
07-15-2009 |
Books
Two New Books Try to Explain How We Lost a Truly Productive Economynew
The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences by John Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdoff, and Alan Beattie's False Economy: A Surprising Economic History of the World try to explain how we got here.
The Texas Observer |
Anis Shivani |
06-17-2009 |
Books
Remembering Jim Crumley, the Last Good Detective Writernew
When the Texas-born novelist James Crumley died at age 68 on September 17, newspaper obituaries in Los Angeles, Washington, New York, and London all mentioned one of his sentences. The sentence was not the only notable string of words this fine writer composed, but devotees of his work often point to it as a landmark in modern detective fiction.
The Texas Observer |
Dick Holland |
11-19-2008 |
Books
The Shelf Life of the Presidential Mindnew
Come January, whoever occupies the West Wing needs to read, and widely so, for there is no better way to come to grips with the forces transforming the Western landscape, natural and human.
The Texas Observer |
Char Miller |
10-22-2008 |
Books
Road Fatigue: The Beat Generation in the Rearview Mirrornew
Along with all the writers who come after them, I am indebted to the Beats for their invigoration of the arts, for shattering the molds and enlarging the realm of what can be printed, sung, painted, and said. There has been a progression since then, however. "Transgression," sometimes billed as the obligation of a true artist in the contemporary world, has become so widespread and predictable that it seems almost tame -- trendy transgressive, if you will.
The Texas Observer |
A.G. Mojtabai |
07-24-2008 |
Books
Imagination Helps Small Bookstores Survivenew
With independent bookshops struggling to hang on in even the largest cities, owners are forced to become even more creative in small places, where their inventory of titles outnumbers the local population.
The Texas Observer |
Stayton Bonner |
01-14-2008 |
Books
The Cuban Enigmanew
Ismaelillo, Before Fidel: The Cuba I Remember, and Closed For Repairs plot a trajectory in the tormented life of Cuba, the island at our back door and one of the great enigmas of the American political imagination.
The Texas Observer |
Paul Christensen |
11-19-2007 |
Books
A Mexican Steinbeck's Work Resurfacesnew
More than 80 years after it originally appeared, this novel's themes resonate, for then as now, the United States and Mexico are wrestling with the consequences of record migration under a system that marginalizes the lowest-skilled workers.
The Texas Observer |
Michele Wucker |
11-05-2007 |
Books
Moveable Feastnew
Despite the attention brought to "food miles" by books like Deep Economy, Plenty, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, eating local isn't always the greenest option.
The Texas Observer |
James McWilliams |
08-13-2007 |
Books
