AltWeeklies Wire
Divining the Entrailsnew
Two new Last Gasp Books releases (The Drawings of Laurie Lipton and Incurable Disease) explore the unsettling art of Laurie Lipton and Elizabeth McGrath.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Nicole Gluckstern |
01-17-2014 |
Books
Bikes to Books: A literary bike tournew
San Francisco is famous for many things, one of which is its vast literary legacy, a legacy that stretches back to its earliest days. On October 2, 1988, 12 small streets scattered throughout the city were renamed for famous authors and artists who had lived in San Francisco, as proposed by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
25 years later, we’ve devised a bike tour and interactive, multi-layered map connecting all 12 streets and authors, from Jack London to Jack Kerouac, South Park to North Beach. The tour itself is admittedly not for the faint of heart nor gear—these streets were not named because of their proximity to bike lanes— and there’s plenty of traffic to dodge, hills, one-way streets, and even a set of stairs to climb, but it’s still a diverting and unique way to celebrate both the literary and the adventurous spirit of San Francisco. Takes between two and three hours from start to finish, and lands you right in front of two very important literary landmarks: City Lights Bookstore and Vesuvio Café!
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Nicole Gluckstern and Burrito Justice |
10-06-2013 |
Original Work
Joyful Noisenew
'Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society' takes readers to the brink.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Nicole Gluckstern |
05-24-2013 |
Nonfiction
Bleak Frames and Guiltnew
David Lester depicts the shadowy relationship between words and actions in the graphic novel, The Listener.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Nicole Gluckstern |
05-27-2011 |
Fiction
10 Sexy Books Published in 2009new
And as I peruse the many books deemed by many opinions to be the best of the year or, grander yet, best of the decade, I find myself compiling a modest, literary list of my own: 10 Sexy Books Published in 2009.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Juliette Tang |
01-06-2010 |
Nonfiction
'A Paradise Built in Hell' Explores the Utopic Possibilities Glimpsed in Disasternew
Perhaps the primary virtue of Rebecca Solnit's clear-headed new book is that it does not simply swap one interpretation of disaster -- as anticonsumerist reckoning, for instance -- for another, such as Jerry Falwell-style damnation. Solnit is interested in how people act in the aftermath, for better and for worse.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Max Goldberg |
09-30-2009 |
Nonfiction
Get Your Pencils Out for the Best Erotic Comicsnew
Erotic comics are a special breed of porn. Unlike prose, they can show as well as describe. Unlike photos, they're narrative. Unlike film, they have a limitless special effects budget. And yet good erotic comics seem in short supply. Here are a few of the best.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Justin Hall |
09-23-2009 |
Books
'Big Machine' is a Big, Mean Story by Victor LaVallenew
Far from a standard dry examination of doubt and faith, Lavalle's allegorical approach is sweeping and swashbuckling. Big Machine takes us from Ricky's idyllic childhood -- sweet as saccharine, with a black tar of burn -- to his romantic nadir, dying in a puddle of piss and shit in the basement of a house owned by a man named Murder.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
D. Scot Miller |
09-02-2009 |
Fiction
'Methland' Tracks a Drug Through America's Cracks and Faultlinesnew
Meth is a drug with no celebrities, and Nick Reding treats his subjects with respect, despite close calls with former addicts who play disc golf with him one minute and threaten his life the next. But Methland's attempt to combine personal reflections on identity and place with an examination of the drug's role in a small town's economic struggles seems formally stale.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Brandon Bussolini |
08-19-2009 |
Nonfiction
William I. Robinson's Latest Outlines a Mad Rush Toward a World Where Cars Consume Cerealnew
In Latin America and Global Capitalism, Robinson uses research from years of on-the-ground work, and sifts through rafts of data to map out how neoliberal trade agreements and other mechanisms for greasing the machine of global commerce have increased profits for global elites while deeply disrupting traditional patterns of life and balance with the natural world.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Ben Terrall |
07-01-2009 |
Nonfiction
'Barf Manifesto' is So Great You'll Wanna Pukenew
Not a rant so much as a pair of roiling bursts of text, Bellamy's book has feminist intent, but ultimately it presents an artistic credo, in the manner of Andre Breton's paeans to Surrealism.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Johnny Ray Huston |
12-04-2008 |
Nonfiction
Rose Aguilar Looks for Change on 'Red Highways'new
Red Highways: A Liberal's Journey into the Heartland is the result of Aguilar's six-month road trip through reliably red states to ask people why they identify with one party over another, or vote for certain candidates, or don't vote at all.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Amanda Witherell |
11-12-2008 |
Nonfiction
Bucky Sinister Hits Bedrock and Breaks the Self-Help Mold with 'Get Up'new
Move over Dr. Phil and Dr. Drew and every other faux-folksy TV platitude-puss. Mr. Sinister has the kind of wisdom -- and writing skills -- that can only come from experience.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
G. Martinez Cabrera |
10-01-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
'High Life' Surfs Waves of Bloody 'Gorno'new
A reprint edition of High Life is belatedly securing Matthew Stokoe's rank as either a literary assassin or putrid gore hound.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Erik Morse |
09-11-2008 |
Fiction
'Winning Our Energy Independence' Takes on 'The Three Poisons'new
S. David Freeman lays out a plan to phase out Big Coal, Big Oil, and nuclear over 30 years while meeting the needs of our high-energy society by implementing renewable technologies that already exist: sun, wind, and renewably generated hydrogen, supplemented by small hydroelectric, geothermal, and certain biofuels.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Diana Scott |
07-10-2008 |
Nonfiction
