AltWeeklies Wire
'Ancient Highway' Sculpts Three Generations of Family with Concise and Poetic Prosenew
Author Bret Lott, a professor at the College of Charleston, deftly maneuvers across three generations, running a ribbon through the arms of despondent family members, using rhythmic, undulating prose to deliver an assiduous, heart-worn tale.
Charleston City Paper |
Kevin Murphy |
08-06-2008 |
Fiction
George Pelecanos on His Process, Favorite Authors and Inspirationnew
The Turnaround is a smoldering novel about despair, desperation and hope. His hard-hitting style and vivid characterizations never fail to leave an impression.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Char Vandermeer |
08-05-2008 |
Fiction
A New Book Examines the Daring, Difficult Comic Artist Steve Ditkonew
Of Marvel's big three, Stan Lee, and artists Jack Kirby and Ditko, Ditko is the one most often overlooked, something for which he himself is partly responsible. In many ways, however, he's the most fascinating, and certainly the most frustrating.
Montreal Mirror |
Rupert Bottenberg |
08-05-2008 |
Nonfiction
Charles Stross Brings Robert Heinlein's Robot Sexy Backnew
For those uninitiated to speculative fiction's history and tropes, Stross' Saturn's Children (Ace) is a simple tale about a sex robot who is out of work because the humans she was built to service are extinct.
Baltimore City Paper |
Adrienne Martini |
08-05-2008 |
Fiction
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
Lavinia Greenlaw's Book is for Anyone Who Was Ever a Girl or Has Ever Loved Musicnew
Music's remorseless grip on our hearts and minds is the subject of British novelist and poet Lavinia Greenlaw's slow-burning, exquisitely idiosyncratic new book, The Importance of Music to Girls. In bite-sized chapters, Greenlaw hurtles down the rabbit hole and reconstructs her musical education, starting with her earliest memories and ending with her leaving school.
New Haven Advocate |
Jolisa Gracewood |
08-05-2008 |
Fiction
Leslie Anne Mcilroy's 'Liquid Like This' is Passionate, Well-crafted Versenew
Mcilroy uses formal care to set off raw emotion, insurgent thoughts, a lubricated imagination full of jazz horns, yanked-up skirts, lipstick traces, let-down lovers, open wounds and cold beers.
Pittsburgh City Paper |
Bill O'Driscoll |
08-04-2008 |
Poetry
'Innercity Girl Like Me' Reads Like a Memoir But It's Fictionnew
The market is flooded with terribly written sensationalist survival stories, and Innercity Girl Like Me seems to aspire to be one of them.
NOW Magazine |
Zoe Whittall |
08-04-2008 |
Fiction
Lien Chao's 'The Chinese Knot' Offers Unique Perspectivenew
All these stories are told from the point of view of single Chinese-Canadian women, who make up an intriguing demographic. Many of them came to Canada in the 80s and 90s only to experience painful family conflict – usually ending in divorce – once they got here.
NOW Magazine |
Staff |
08-04-2008 |
Fiction
Why Do Books Like 'Zombie Haiku' Exist?new
Here's how I imagine it happened: Zombie author/Ohio youth pastor Ryan Mecum said to his friends, over nachos, "What kind of haiku would you write if you were a zombie?"
Philadelphia Weekly |
Liz Spikol |
08-04-2008 |
Poetry
Former LA County Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi Talks About Prosecuting the Presidentnew
The man who put Charles Manson on Death Row would do the same to George W. Bush, as detailed in his new book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. "I'll leave it up to a jury as to the punishment, but it could be the death penalty," he said.
Pasadena Weekly |
Joe Piasecki |
08-04-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Man v. Fleshnew
Though it lacks the subtle poetry of the “House of Sand and Fog,” Dubus’ newest offering nevertheless manages to be compelling and sympathetic.
Jackson Free Press |
Cheree Franco |
08-04-2008 |
Fiction
Charles Lindbergh's Daughter Reflects on Turning 60 in Her New Memoirnew
In Reeve Lindbergh's new book Forward From Here, the youngest child of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh and author and aviatrix Anne Morrow Lindbergh writes of her life spent in the Northeast Kingdom, the "back to the land" movement that led her there, and the consequences -- both mundane and thrilling -- of turning 60.
Seven Days |
Matt Scanlon |
08-04-2008 |
Nonfiction
A Look at Who Lead Belly Was and Wasn'tnew
Lead Belly: A Life inPictures is not merely a picture book at all, but is rife with brilliant essays and era-specific memorabilia that portray the complexity of the man who just might be America's finest folksinger – because he sang anything and was no purist.
Shepherd Express |
Martin Jack Rosenblum |
08-01-2008 |
Nonfiction
Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna's Ultimate How-To for Budding Rock Chicksnew
Mrs. Chris Vrenna has composed a tome for women who fancy their boys scrawny, not brawny.
L.A. Weekly |
LINA LECARO |
08-01-2008 |
Excerpts
