AltWeeklies Wire
The Many Lives of Actor, Redneck and Congressman Ben Jonesnew
Jones has been a Southern cavalier of sorts all his life, whether being the poor Southern boy marching for racial justice in Chapel Hill or demanding that The Dukes of Hazzard reflect the South as it existed instead of as created by Hollywood writers and producers.
INDY Week |
Grayson Currin |
06-19-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Lauri Lebo Tackles Intelligent Design, Evolution, and the Medianew
After reading this book and thinking of the millions of dollars and thousands of hours squandered, the hatred, the vitriol, and the disbelief that we're still fighting this age-old battle, I just feel tired and sad. This isn't the end of the story. We'll see it again, fight the battle once more, spend the money, fire up the troops, spar with the same theory in a different cloak, attract the international media, meet at a different courthouse, pass judgment on a different school district.
The Texas Observer |
Ruth Pennebaker |
06-18-2008 |
Nonfiction
Sasa Stanisic's Debut Novel Explores How Children Discuss Warnew
There is a reason, of course, why Stanisic might choose a child to give voice to atrocity: it's that the adult language of casualty counts and "shelling at Srebrenica," the newsman's reflex, no longer carries much meaning.
Willamette Week |
Matthew Korfhage |
06-18-2008 |
Fiction
Money Can't Buy Happiness in Janelle Brown's Silicon Valley Satirenew
A pharmaceutical company goes public, making its CEO's family worth $300 million. The day that happens is the day he tells his wife he wants a divorce. And that's the day on All We Ever Wanted Was Everything begins.
East Bay Express |
Anneli Rufus |
06-18-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
New Comics and Graphic Novels for Summertime Readingnew
Scorching temperatures and soaring prices at the gas pump may make staying close to home sound like a sweet option this summer. Luckily, a bumper crop of superhero stories and graphic flights of fancy are available this year to entertain you throughout 2008's hottest months.
Charleston City Paper |
Jason A. Zwiker |
06-18-2008 |
Books
Sonic Youth Bio Could Use a Little Spicenew
Author David Browne quickly torpedoes our hopes for sordid tales of Sonic Youth's backstage bacchanals and unbridled substance abuse, writing early on, "Do not expect any sex, drugs and rock and roll."
NOW Magazine |
Jason Keller |
06-16-2008 |
Nonfiction
Carly Simon in the Same Breath as Carole King and Joni Mitchell?new
Vogue and Vanity Fair journalist Sheila Weller's thorough and well-written triple biography is less an attempt to put these singer/songwriters on the same artistic plane than it is to connect them to key moments in contemporary women’s history.
NOW Magazine |
Susan G. Cole |
06-16-2008 |
Nonfiction
Postcard to the Futurenew
Litvin reviews "African Americans in Jackson," a 125-page pictorial history of Jackson's African American community as part of the "Images of America" series.
Jackson Free Press |
Sarah Litvin |
06-16-2008 |
Nonfiction
'The Carbon-Free Home' Explains How to Really Go Greennew
The Hrens' 320-page book categorizes shows how, on a budget, they stopped contributing to global warming and resource depletion, and also saved money.
Pittsburgh City Paper |
Bill O'Driscoll |
06-16-2008 |
Nonfiction
Sloane Crosley: A Sorta Normal Memoiristnew
Often compared in a good way to that lovable crew of screw-up self-memorializers -- David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell and Augusten Burroughs -- Crosley manages to set herself apart with her mild normality
Philadelphia Weekly |
Alli Katz |
06-16-2008 |
Nonfiction
Taras Grescoe Gets to the Bottom of the Seafood Industry in His New Booknew
Grescoe searches for ethical, sustainable ways to eat the seafood he loves in Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood.
The Coast, Halifax's Weekly |
Chris Benjamin |
06-16-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Salman Rushdie Dives into Fantasynew
If he wants to write a meandering, 300-plus page historical fantasy novel that features epic battles, pirates, women who are dreamed into existence, and the odd witch's curse or two, who's going to tell him no?
The Portland Mercury |
Alsion Hallett |
06-13-2008 |
Fiction
Andre Dubus III Tells a Pre-Sept. 11 Tale from the Darker Corners of Floridanew
Like his last novel, 1999's House of Sand and Fog, his latest demonstrates with haunting clarity that Dubus is supremely qualified for the position.
Looking for 400 Photos of Supersized Stiffies?new
The Big Penis Book, the follow-up to Taschen's 2006 hit The Big Book of Breasts, also edited by Dian Hanson, and boasts more than 400 photos of some startlingly major tent poles, including rare pics of "the 13-and-only" John Holmes.
Orlando Weekly |
Liz Langley |
06-12-2008 |
Nonfiction
Who Reads Short Shorts?new
A Peculiar Feeling Of Restlessness: Four Chapbooks of Short Short Fiction by Four Women does not fit in my pocket (although it is rather small), nor is it a flimsy bit of folded paper, as chapbooks used to be. But it provides everything else that chapbooks did -- bite-sized, accessible, entertaining stories -- as well as what they do today -- focused, challenging, experimental work.
Portland Phoenix |
Deirdre Fulton |
06-12-2008 |
Fiction
