AltWeeklies Wire
Jesse Sheidlower Gives the F-Word its Duenew
Until 1970, with the release of M.A.S.H., audiences had never heard the f-word in a mainstream Hollywood film. Who catalogs this stuff, and why? Jesse Sheidlower, an editor-at-large of the Oxford English Dictionary, and the author of The F-Word, can't stop talking about fuck.
Boston Phoenix |
Justine Elias |
09-16-2009 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
'AM/PM' Gives Us 120 Impeccably Compact Stories of Love, Discomfort & Concert Souvenirsnew
These single-page stories were written, one in the morning and one in the evening, over the course of two months. This timeline, and their brevity, may make it sound like this is a simple little book, but it's not.
Eugene Weekly |
Molly Templeton |
09-11-2009 |
Fiction
Matt Prior's Life is in the Toilet ... Jess Walter Put Him Therenew
Matt Prior is the protagonist of The Financial Lives of the Poets and a complete figment of Walter's imagination. Walter has taken pains to ensure Matt Prior's life is as shitty as a well-educated white American male's can be.
The Inlander |
Luke Baumgarten |
09-10-2009 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Hunter S. Thompson's Widow Speaks About Her Husband and Her Booknew
Anita Thompson was taking a semester off from college when she met Hunter through a mutual friend in 1999. Soon after, she began organizing the unpublished manuscripts and photographs from his archive, which consisted of about 1,000 boxes in their basement.
New York Press |
Gerry Visco |
09-10-2009 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
So-Called Manifesto for Sustainable Cities is a Far Cry from Global Vision it Claims to Espousenew
A new book called Albert Speer & Partner: A Manifesto for Sustainable Cities aims to address the urban-planning end of the spectrum and clarify best practices in the field. Unfortunately, despite its grandiose title (a manifesto!), the book is a simple monograph on the work of one architecture and planning firm, and a platform only for its views.
Santa Fe Reporter |
Zane Fischer |
09-10-2009 |
Nonfiction
'Localist Movements in a Global Economy' Explores Localism's Meaning, Potential and Challengesnew
David Hess has marshaled the intellectual arguments for localism using history, present success stories, and economic arguments. It is precisely in answering questions from friends and enemies that Hess' book is important.
East Bay Express |
Jay Youngdahl |
09-09-2009 |
Nonfiction
Nick Cave's Demons Come Out to Play in 'Bunny Munro'new
While Cave is better known for his music than his prose, it turns out that he's a surprisingly gifted, if slightly deranged, author.
New York Press |
Jessica Loudis |
09-03-2009 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Book Excerpt: 'Shake the Devil Off'new
In this exclusive excerpt from his new book Shake the Devil Off, Brown examines the last hours of the life of Zackery Bowen, who killed and dismembered his girlfriend, bartender Addie Hall, before leaping to his death from the top of a French Quarter hotel in October 2006.
'Deeply Rooted' Profiles Farmers Who Refuse to Fit the Agribusiness Moldnew
Even though Lisa Hamilton narrows her focus to the extent that Deeply Rooted doesn't capture the breadth that it might have otherwise, she still conveys the raw truth that a positive food future lies in the hands of irascible individuals rather than corporations and captains of industry.
Santa Fe Reporter |
Zane Fischer |
08-27-2009 |
Nonfiction
Thomas Pynchon's 'Inherent Vice' is an Endlessly Entertaining Variation on the Detective Yarnnew
Unlike any previous Pynchon work, Vice fully embraces genre. And in doing so it's difficult to tell if the genre is merely pliable enough to accommodate all of Pynchon's literary whims or if the now 72-year-old author has basically been riffing on this form his entire career.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret McCabe |
08-25-2009 |
Fiction
With 'The Waxman Report' Henry Waxman Shows 'How Congress Really Works'new
Assisted by Joshua Green, a senior editor at the Atlantic, Waxman has written an informative, fast-moving manifesto against the gut-the-government politics that have been in vogue since the Reagan administration.
Chicago Reader |
Mick Dumke |
08-24-2009 |
Nonfiction
'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
In 'Hound Dog,' Songwriting Duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller Remember Redefining Postwar Pop Musicnew
Hound Dog: The Leiber and Stoller Autobiography is a delightful read. Both men are terrific storytellers, witty and succinct, with a sharp eye for the telling detail.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
08-18-2009 |
Nonfiction
Ronald Dworkin's Doomed Wish for Rational Politicsnew
Democracy in America is still much as de Tocqueville described it: illogical persnickety white folks, especially not-overly-educated non-urban white folks, asserting their independence. So why does a grown-up intellectual like Dworkin, a distinguished legal theorist with Ivy credentials, believe that these people, these Americans, are going to participate in a reasoned debate about anything?
Artvoice |
Bruce Fisher |
08-17-2009 |
Nonfiction
Suzanne Simons Gives Us a New -- and Timely -- Biography of the Man Behind Blackwaternew
Heroic in Master of War's opening pages, Simons ends her portrait with Erik Prince sputtering in impotent rage against a media he believes has unfairly maligned his company.
INDY Week |
Gerry Canavan |
08-14-2009 |
Nonfiction
