AltWeeklies Wire
Jenny Block Refuses to Let Monogamy Ruin Her Marriagenew

In her new book, Open: Love, Sex, and Life in an Open Marriage, Block traces her path from monogamy to infidelity to polyamory, being in an intimate relationship with more than one person.
Baltimore City Paper |
Heather Harris |
08-05-2008 |
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
'After Hours at the Almost Home' Captures Wait-staff Dynamicsnew
From the crisscrossing, interconnected perspectives of haggard wage slaves, After Hours at the Almost Home documents a single late shift at a fictitious Denver bar.
Baltimore City Paper |
Raymond Cummings |
07-08-2008 |
Fiction
Scott Douglas' Memoir is a Love Story to Public Librariansnew
His librarian vignettes are entertaining, scenes of crazy patrons and even crazier co-workers. But while everyone can relate to stories about neighborhood characters and Office Space-esque bureaucracy, Douglas' humor can take them only so far.
Baltimore City Paper |
Tina Plottel |
07-08-2008 |
Nonfiction
Andrew Blechman Checks in on What's Really Going Down in Retirement Communitiesnew

Blechman goes where few under the age of 50 have dared go when he probes at the smelly underbellies of America's age-restricted retirement communities.
Baltimore City Paper |
Adrienne Martini |
07-08-2008 |
Nonfiction
Arthur Jones Charts the Rocky Life of M. Scott Pecknew
Peck rarely practiced what he preached in his master work, The Road Less Traveled.
Baltimore City Paper |
Violet Glaze |
07-08-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
'The James Brown Reader' Shares a Warts-and-all View of the Godfather of Soulnew

Co-editors Nelson George and Alan Leeds both contribute fine overtures to the volume, but it's hard not to wish they'd included a note about their compiling methodology, though it doesn't take long to figure out the pair elected to leave in original typos, misspellings, falsities, and myths.
Baltimore City Paper |
Michaelangelo Matos |
06-24-2008 |
Nonfiction
Mathematics Professor Manil Suri Finds Success in Novel Trilogynew

In his small, spare office in the inner halls of the UMBC Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Suri is carefully juggling two lives.
Baltimore City Paper |
John Barry |
04-29-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Iain M. Banks' Latest Won't Win Him New Convertsnew

His latest sci-fi epic, Matter, is dense, both in terms of weight and scope.
Baltimore City Paper |
Adrienne Martini |
04-08-2008 |
Fiction
Mark Harris Examines New Hollywoodnew
Think of it as the prequel -- every bit as good -- to Peter Biskind's classic New Hollywood history, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls.
Baltimore City Paper |
Michaelangelo Matos |
04-01-2008 |
Nonfiction
Jackie Ormes Draws in a Man's Worldnew
A petite stunner with a 1,000-watt smile, Ormes enjoyed great success despite the twin hurdles of race and gender.
Baltimore City Paper |
Emily Flake |
04-01-2008 |
Nonfiction