AltWeeklies Wire
Bob Eckhardt: The Man in the Panama Hatnew
Gary A. Keith reclaims the legacy of the quixotic progressive.
The Texas Observer |
Brant Bingamon |
01-14-2008 |
Nonfiction
Imagination Helps Small Bookstores Survivenew
With independent bookshops struggling to hang on in even the largest cities, owners are forced to become even more creative in small places, where their inventory of titles outnumbers the local population.
The Texas Observer |
Stayton Bonner |
01-14-2008 |
Books
Buy Some Stuff, Enslave Somebodynew
In Nobodies, John Bowe aims to make explicit the connection between the rise of the global market and the growing number of people throughout the world living in poverty, doomed to spend their lives providing goods and services for people born into wealthier circumstances.
The Texas Observer |
Josh Rosenblatt |
12-17-2007 |
Nonfiction
Investigating an Imaginary Crisisnew
Stephanie Mencimer has written a bracing narrative of who, how, and why "tort reform" became law in Texas and elsewhere.
The Texas Observer |
Suzanne Batchelor |
12-03-2007 |
Nonfiction
The Cuban Enigmanew
Ismaelillo, Before Fidel: The Cuba I Remember, and Closed For Repairs plot a trajectory in the tormented life of Cuba, the island at our back door and one of the great enigmas of the American political imagination.
The Texas Observer |
Paul Christensen |
11-19-2007 |
Books
A Simple Mind Run Amoknew
Greenwald identifies the victims of the Bush presidency, the harm they have suffered, and how that harm continues to be inflicted. He discusses the accomplices who have made it possible for a president with no electoral mandate to use the irrational, and now seriously diminished, support he gained from the events of 9/11 to do so much damage.
The Texas Observer |
Thomas Palaima |
11-19-2007 |
Nonfiction
A Mexican Steinbeck's Work Resurfacesnew
More than 80 years after it originally appeared, this novel's themes resonate, for then as now, the United States and Mexico are wrestling with the consequences of record migration under a system that marginalizes the lowest-skilled workers.
The Texas Observer |
Michele Wucker |
11-05-2007 |
Books
Studs on Studsnew
This is a book about the working life of a man who has defined his long life by his success at getting other people to tell their stories.
The Texas Observer |
Steven G. Kellman |
11-05-2007 |
Nonfiction
George Saunders' Elements of Stylenew
The essays in The Braindead Megaphone are full of optimism and prescriptions for better living -- it's not self-help, but humanity-help: keys to getting on better in the world by getting on better with others.
The Texas Observer |
Josh Rosenblatt |
10-22-2007 |
Nonfiction
Examining Hugo Chavez & the Conundrum in Caracasnew
Two veteran Venezuelan journalists take on the complex personality of a man who emerged from relative obscurity to become one of Latin America's most influential and controversial leaders.
The Texas Observer |
Susana Hayward |
10-22-2007 |
Nonfiction
Journalism in the Twilight Zonenew
In Off the Record, Norman Pearlstine tells his version of the leak-and-smear campaign to out CIA covert agent Valerie Plame, while looking at the current problems with Washington journalism.
The Texas Observer |
Myra Macpherson |
10-05-2007 |
Nonfiction
'Babylon by Bus': Fear and Doping in Iraqnew
Contradictory, honest, and compelling, LeMoine and Neumann offer a decidedly new vantage point on the war in Iraq.
The Texas Observer |
Stayton Bonner |
09-24-2007 |
Nonfiction
Martin Luther King, Jr., the Economistnew
Jackson casts King as arguably the most important, and certainly the most eloquent, American political economist of the 20th century.
The Texas Observer |
Todd Moye |
09-10-2007 |
Nonfiction
'Et Tu Brute?' Looks at Rendering Caesarnew
Instead of tracing the dismal lineage of political murder, from antiquity to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Woolf's concise book studies the history of one political murder, the murder of Caesar.
The Texas Observer |
Steven G. Kellman |
09-10-2007 |
Nonfiction
'American Furies': Heartbreak Hotelnew
The politics and folly of criminal justice are familiar ground for Abramsky, and his latest book is not a riveting tale -- its value lies in making us consider why we do what we do, how we came to this point, and why it's important to trace history's longer arcs.
The Texas Observer |
Stayton Bonner |
08-13-2007 |
Nonfiction
