AltWeeklies Wire
Dog Days Reading Listnew
Niagara Falls this summer? Rome, Paris, Florence? Don't get stranded at O'Hare with the proper reading material. Includes review of Our Dumb World: Atlas of the Planet Earth, Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power, and Lies, Dear American Airlines, and more.
The Memphis Flyer |
Staff |
08-01-2008 |
Books
The God Who Capped Himself: Thomas M. Disch, 1940-2008new
In a literary culture that supposedly cherishes irony, the passing of such a master ironist has been remarkably little noted. That Disch likely took his life on July 4th (his body was discovered July 5) probably wasn't meant as tribute to our subtle wits either.
Los Angeles CityBeat |
Ron Garmon |
08-01-2008 |
Books
Jay Louis Talks About 'Hot Chicks With Douchebags'new
Giving new meaning to the phrase "Are you in the book?" first-time author Jay Louis' debut attempts to plant a righteous finger into a dam bursting with sightings of, well, hot chicks with douchebags, that is, men Louis would consider unworthy with the women they are unworthy of.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Xania Woodman |
08-01-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Haruki Murakami on Runningnew
Murakami's new book, What I Talk about When I Talk about Running, is such a memoir: Murakami here treats long-distance running as both a routine that has physically sustained him for more than 20 years, and a metaphor for his workhorse approach to writing.
The Portland Mercury |
Marjorie Skinner |
07-31-2008 |
Nonfiction
Tricky (Philip K.) Dicknew
Published last spring, the first Philip K. Dick volume in the Library of America series caught this wave at its peak. This second offering might not be so fortunate.
Boston Phoenix |
Peter Keough |
07-31-2008 |
Fiction
Victim, Not Vixennew
Evelyn Nesbit biographer Paula Uruburu makes a convincing case that sexual naïveté plus parental abandonment aggravated by an unearned notoriety based on looks alone added up to certain doom for the most beautiful woman in the world.
Boston Phoenix |
Clif Garboden |
07-31-2008 |
Nonfiction
'Dime Novel Desperadoes' Captures All the Romance, Grit of the Old Westnew
Like the James brothers, the Maxwells were transformed in popular culture from reviled cold-blooded killers to daring desperadoes in the popular dime novels of the era. Then, unlike the James gang, they were mostly forgotten -- until now.
Illinois Times |
Roland Klose |
07-31-2008 |
Nonfiction
Fraser's 'The Reavers' Might be as Good as They Saynew
"This book is nonsense," the late George MacDonald Fraser writes in the introduction of his last book, The Reavers. "It's meant to be."
Charleston City Paper |
Jon Santiago |
07-30-2008 |
Fiction
'Mermaids in the Basement' is Fluff for Smart Girlsnew
Even fluffy books should have their standards. Which is why I was so thrilled to find Michael Lee West's Mermaids in the Basement.
Charleston City Paper |
Erica Jackson |
07-30-2008 |
Fiction
Stephen Singular on Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffsnew
His current book details the rise of Warren Jeffs, the leader of the FLDS, who was convicted on two counts of being an accomplice to rape for forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry her 19-year-old cousin.
Colorado Springs Independent |
Jill Thomas |
07-29-2008 |
Nonfiction
'Life' Photographer Bill Eppridge Remembers the Bobby Kennedy Campaignnew
"My job was to see, not to hear," writes Eppridge in his recently released coffee-table book A Time It Was: Bobby Kennedy in the Sixties, a crisp, informative collection of magnificent color and black-and-white photographs of perhaps one of the most exciting presidential campaigns in American history, up to this most recent season.
Baltimore City Paper |
Blaine Taylor |
07-29-2008 |
Nonfiction
Lily Koppel's Quest to Return a Diarynew
While reading the diary, Koppel discovered a vivacious, curious young woman growing up in New York during the tail end of the 1920s who was constantly searching for an identity and questioning her thoughts and emotions.
Baltimore City Paper |
Josh Marx |
07-29-2008 |
Nonfiction
Michael Chabon Examines the Marginsnew
Chabon chose the dynamic, in-between spaces as the subject of his first nonfiction essay collection, Maps and Legends.
Baltimore City Paper |
Heather Harris |
07-29-2008 |
Nonfiction
'Somebody Scream!' Revisits the Stakes of Early Rapnew
In Reeves' reckoning, rap began to fill the void left by a shrinking black-power movement in the late 1970s and early ’80s.
Baltimore City Paper |
Raymond Cummings |
07-29-2008 |
Nonfiction
Police Sociologist and Criminal Justice Prof Writes About His Experience as a Baltimore Copnew
As a critic of the justice system, Peter Moskos decided to engage this dysfunction from a very local level, from the perspective of an officer on the street. As an officer, he became a cog in the machine, patrolling Broadway, from Orleans Street to North Avenue, on the night beat.
Baltimore City Paper |
John Barry |
07-29-2008 |
Nonfiction
