AltWeeklies Wire
The Secret World of Day Laborersnew
Day laborers are among the most exploited and vulnerable workers in the American economic system, yet they perform some of the most necessary — and dirty — jobs. Dick Reavis, a veteran journalist, chronicles his experiences working as a 62-year-old day laborer.
Tags: Dick J. Reavis, Catching Out
What's Eating Zachary German? Plus, the Book People Will Use to Define Younew
Zachary German is sitting at a table in the back of Coffee Time. The cafe is on the corner of Bleecker Street and Bowery. Zachary has short brown hair and is wearing oversized glasses and a tie underneath a sweater. He is drinking an iced soy latte. It’s 5 o’clock.
New York Press |
Sheila McClear |
02-18-2010 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
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
Thomas Mullen Breathes Life into 'The Firefly Brothers'new
"It all began when they died." So begins The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers, Decatur resident Thomas Mullen's new book about a pair of Depression-era bank robbers who have a little problem with dying.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Wyatt Williams |
02-09-2010 |
Fiction
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
Secret History of Chicago Music: Shel Silversteinnew
Everybody knows Shel Silverstein as a cartoonist and author. But how many remember him as a musician? Born Sheldon Alan Silverstein in Chicago in 1930, as a young man he hawked hot dogs at both Chicago ballparks and began his music career with the 1959 album Hairy Jazz.
Chicago Reader |
Plastic Crimewave |
02-08-2010 |
Books
Columnist’s Book Offers an Overview of the Progress Made by Womennew
Gail Collins of The New York Times has written a book that I consider a must-read: When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women From 1960 to the Present. Run, do not walk, to your local bookstore and get your copy.
Pasadena Weekly |
Ellen Snortland |
02-08-2010 |
Nonfiction
Barry Lopez on a Writer's Responsibility in a Time of Environmental Crisisnew
Every couple of years, Barry Lopez assigns himself a trip that he knows "will knock me over backwards." And it's not the sort of travel you might expect from the naturalist author of such classics as Of Wolves and Men and Arctic Dreams.
Pittsburgh City Paper |
Bill O'Driscoll |
02-08-2010 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
'The Amazing Absorbing Boy': Trinidad to T.O.new
When his mother dies, comic-book-obsessed Sammy leaves Trinidad to live with his strangely distant dad in Regent Park. Everything about his new city fascinates the teenager, and he dives into his experience with eyes and ears wide open.
NOW Magazine |
Susan G. Cole |
02-05-2010 |
Fiction
Wells Tower's 'Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned': Short Stories to Pillage Bynew
There’s a great moment in Retreat, a new short story by Wells Tower. Two brothers have been out deer hunting on a chilly island in Maine. They haven’t bagged anything, and they’re wet and cranky. But just as they’re packing up for the day, one spies an enormous moose.
Willamette Week |
John Minervini |
02-03-2010 |
Fiction
T.C. Boyle, Still Goading the Opinionated After All These Yearsnew
A new collection of stories is something to get excited about. My appetite for Wild Child was whetted reading A Death in Kitchawank, in a recent New Yorker. I know that I plan to spend a few hours as a happy subject of literary manipulation, as soon as I lay hands on Boyle's latest.
New Haven Advocate |
Eva Geertz |
02-02-2010 |
Fiction
Could a Controversial Book Cause a Miscarriage of Justice?new
'In the Middle of the Night' revisits the morning of July 23, 2007, when Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes (allegedly) invaded the home of Dr. William Petit, beating him with a baseball bat and raping, torturing and murdering his wife and two daughters.
New Haven Advocate |
Craig Fehrman |
02-02-2010 |
Books
'Global Warring': The Geopolitics of Climate Changenew
The Earth is warming. Fact. Weather patterns are changing. Undeniable. We’re all in a heap of trouble. Uh-huh. And we’re all doing our best to deal with it. Nope. According to Montrealer Cleo Paskal, the world governments are snoozing while the world boils.
NOW Magazine |
Patrick Lejtenyi |
01-29-2010 |
Nonfiction
Snake On a Train: Getting to Know Patricia Highsmithnew
It's no small achievement that playwright-biographer Joan Schenkar is able to find perverse charm and consistent fascination in the messy, globetrotting life of Patricia Highsmith. At almost 700 pages, Schenkar's The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith is a horse pill of a book.
Fort Worth Weekly |
Jimmy Fowler |
01-25-2010 |
Nonfiction
