AltWeeklies Wire
'Ad Nauseam' Questions Happy Consumerismnew
For anyone who's read much about consumerism, there's not a lot of new ground covered here -- unsurprising, perhaps, since many of the book's articles date back to the mid '90s. The theme throughout is this: what makes advertising so powerful is its slippery method of using suggestive imagery instead of intellectual argument to associate products with positive emotions.
The Georgia Straight |
Jennifer Croll |
09-11-2009 |
Nonfiction
Central Arkansas Library System Will Soon Roll Out E-Booksnew
Sometime around the first of October, patrons of the Central Arkansas Library System will be able to check out books, read them and return them without ever going to the library. Some readers are more excited about this innovation than others.
Arkansas Times |
Doug Smith |
09-11-2009 |
Books
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
In 'Scorch Atlas,' Blake Butler Rains Gravel and Glassnew
Blake Butler aims his telescope at the future, and if what he finds there and shows us in Scorch Atlas even approaches the truth, we can all only hope we won't be around to see it.
Boston Phoenix |
Nina Maclaughlin |
09-10-2009 |
Fiction
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 Soon after, she began organizing the unpublished manuscripts and photographs from his archive, which consisted of about 1,000 boxes in their basement.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
'How to Make Friends With Demons' Ranks as One of the Year's Best Novelsnew
Leaping forward and backward through time, Graham Joyce expertly weaves a cohesive novel that essentially chronicles a mid-life crisis.
San Antonio Current |
Rick Klaw |
09-10-2009 |
Fiction
Memoir 'Traveling with Pomegranates' Offers European Reflectionsnew
Pomegranates goes back 11 years, when Sue Monk Kidd was contemplating trying fiction for the first time. Ann Kidd Taylor had just graduated college, suffering from depression with no clear picture for her life.
Charleston City Paper |
Jonathan Sanchez |
09-09-2009 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
'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
'The Hunter' Flawlessly Brings a Crime Novel to Comicsnew
The Hunter quickly becomes a cascade of sex, murder, and international intrigue, and you just have to root for our antihero—he's just so good at what he does.
The Portland Mercury |
Paul Constant |
09-03-2009 |
Fiction
Short fiction (finally) gets some respectnew
It has been a banner year for new short story collections, with impressive efforts from first time authors and veterans alike. Here’s the cream of this year’s crop.
New York Press |
David Berke |
09-03-2009 |
Books
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
'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
In 'The Sower,' Sex With a Certain Guy Can Cure Everythingnew
Kemble Scott considers his new novel, The Sower -- whose title alludes to the Bible's Parable of the Sower, because Bill broadcasts seed -- Sex and the City crossed with The Da Vinci Code.
East Bay Express |
Anneli Rufus |
09-02-2009 |
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.
