Reviews »
Revisit: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: by David Wroblewski
Revisit: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski 2008 Revisit is a series of reviews highlighting past releases that now deserve a second look. “Life was a swarm of accidents waiting in the
Read More »The Only Thing I Have: by Rhonda Waterfall
The Only Thing I Have by Rhonda Waterfall Rating: 3.5/5.0 Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press Unnerving, moving and sometimes exceedingly bleak, many of the stories included in The Only Thing I Have are likely to
Read More »How to Sell: by Clancy Martin
How to Sell by Clancy Martin Rating: 1.5/5.0 Farrar, Straus and Giroux Diamonds, corruption, drugs, and sex–a novel written about such topics should be interesting at the very least. However, even with the advantage
Read More »Alice I Have Been: by Melanie Benjamin
Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin Rating: 2.0/5.0 Delacorte Press Any Alice-related enterprise has an immediate issue posed to it- the Carroll Myth. Regardless of which side of the debate you fall on,
Read More »Peep Show: by Joshua Braff
Peep Show by Joshua Braff Rating: 3.0/5.0 Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill The inner workings of Hasidic Judaism and the evolution of modern porn make for an unlikely cultural juxtaposition; yet it is through
Read More »Under What Stars by Ryan J. Davidson
Under What Stars by Ryan J. Davidson Rating: 4.0/5.0 Ampersand Books Ryan J. Davidson’s first collection of poetry, Under What Stars, starts out ballsy- a Kerouac quote precedes the first poem, acting as a
Read More »Rock On: An Office Power Ballad: by Dan Kennedy
Rock On: An Office Power Ballad by Dan Kennedy Rating: 2.0/5.0 Algonquin Books Much of Dan Kennedy’s Rock On: An Office Power Ballad is as tedious and ennui-inducing as the mainstream music acts and
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Leonard Cohen: Hallelujah – A New Biography: by Tim Footman
Leonard Cohen: Hallelujah – A New Biography by Tim Footman Rating: 3.0/5.0 Chrome Dreams Why does it feel like books on musicians are so insistently amateurish? Authors get stately, insightful tributes handled with gravity
Read More »R.I.P.: Howard Zinn (1922-2010)
When I turned 18, the summer before going off to college, my dad gave me a book titled A People’s History of the United States: 1942-Present. Inside, he had inscribed: “Official Histories are always
Read More »R.I.P.: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)
“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where i was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied
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