AltWeeklies Wire
Norman Mailer's 1968 War Storiesnew
Mailer wrote his accounts of the 1968 national conventions on assignment for Harper's, and predicted a 40-year war with the emerging neo-cons. Alas, he was right about that.
Boston Phoenix |
Charles Taylor |
08-20-2008 |
Nonfiction
Food Plays a Starring Role in Russian Emigre's New Short Story Collectionnew
Food, like music, can bring you back to a moment in time. For the cast of Broccoli, the smell and taste of spinach or memories of puffed rice help them relive their Russian past and hold on to a piece of their heritage.
Charleston City Paper |
Alison Sher |
08-20-2008 |
Fiction
How an Englishman Became America's Most Fearsome Book Criticnew
Normally a literary assassin, New Yorker book critic James Wood proves he's a softie at heart in his new book How Fiction Works.
Charleston City Paper |
John Freeman |
08-20-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Fast Furious Free Downloadable Book Series Delivers Sketchy Materialnew
Jury: Welcome to the Special Power and Lil' Craze Going on in South America, the first two books released in the Magic Propaganda Mill's new series, are "written, researched, illustrated, designed and published" in less than two weeks.
San Antonio Current |
Jeremy Martin |
08-20-2008 |
Original Work
Thieves, Bigamists and Killers Walk the Walk in Mary Monroe's Novelsnew
The real shocker in Mary Monroe's new novel She Had It Coming isn't that a high-school girl murders a man on prom night. Rather, the shocker -- and the moral quandary it spurs -- is that sixteen years later, the killer's best friend is secretly married to two different men at the same time ... and wants to stay that way.
East Bay Express |
Anneli Rufus |
08-20-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Mary Monroe, She Had It Coming
Clyde Edgerton's Modesty Sells 'The Bible Salesman'new
Like Henry, his protagonist, Edgerton wants to sell you a story, and if you give him a few pages' worth of your time, you have little chance of resisting him.
David Carr Asks Himself the Toughest Questions in 'The Night of The Gun'new
Before it delivers the inevitable jolt of redemption, The Night of The Gun is a maddening book, dangerous in large doses to anyone who has ever romanticized the outlaw appeal of the addict, frequently absurd and offensive to those drunks and dope fiends who have somehow managed to ask for help and get on with their lives.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Steve Friedman |
08-15-2008 |
Nonfiction
Elizabeth Royte Has (Bottled) Water on the Brainnew
In her new book, Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It, Royte investigates the causes and consequences of the bottled-water business' astounding growth.
Santa Fe Reporter |
Michelle Nijhuis |
08-14-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Hunter S. Thompson: Behind the Shadesnew
A new biography from William McKeen -- Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson -- surveys the literary legacy of gonzo's guru.
Creative Loafing (Tampa) |
Wade Tatangelo |
08-14-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
'Stop Me If You've Heard This' Is as Valuable as You'd Thinknew
I once took a class in which the professor believed the point in studying Shakespeare's comedies was not amusement so much as profitable scholarship. The Bard's comedies, in his view, were his most serious work. To see this, though, students had to assume that funny and serious weren't at odds.
I hoped similar reasoning informed Jim Holt’s new book, Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes.
I was wrong.
Charleston City Paper |
John Stoehr |
08-13-2008 |
Nonfiction
Kip Fulbeck's New Book Tells Us All About the Writing on the Skinnew
His new book, Permanence, shows photographs of 115 people with tattoos, each photo paired with the person’s handwritten statement.
San Diego CityBeat |
Barbara Davenport |
08-13-2008 |
Nonfiction
Americans Might Find it Hard to Enjoy a Novel About Men Who Hate Womennew
This is easily one of the worst books I've ever read. And bear in mind that I've read John Grisham. I've read the Sweet Valley Middle School, High School, and University books.
Charleston City Paper |
Susan Cohen |
08-13-2008 |
Fiction
Marc Acito's New Novel is a Fun, Easy Read for One Catty Couplenew
To give it a fair shot, Attack of the Theater People, a new novel about a gay musical lover, was assigned for review to a couple of hopelessly devoted theater people who, a decade ago, shared a script on the set of their college production of Oklahoma!, swapped silly jokes about chaps, and longed for each other amid the rolling thunder of papier-mâché tumbleweeds.
Charleston City Paper |
Greg Hambrick and Shane Sears |
08-13-2008 |
Fiction
Graham Vickers Examines the Causes and Consequences of 'Lolita'new
Less concerned with text than context, Vickers provides a lively account of the climate in which the novel was produced and received.
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
08-13-2008 |
Nonfiction
Dirk Wittenborn Explores Psychopharmacology and Murder in 'Pharmakon'new
Wittenborn's previous novels, back in the early '80s, before his coke habit and virus-calcified heart brought him low enough to write screenplays, dealt with the safety-netted high wire of art brokers and the congenitally rich.
Willamette Week |
Matthew Korfhage |
08-13-2008 |
Fiction
