AltWeeklies Wire
'Sisters in War': A Vermont Journalist Recounts the Stories of Women in War-Torn Baghdadnew
In 2004, as Baghdad became increasingly dangerous for journalists, Christina Asquith took refuge in the apartment of two sisters. Now she tells their story in Sisters in War: A Story of Love, Family, and Survival in the New Iraq, which was published by Random House in September.
Seven Days |
Margot Harrison |
12-09-2009 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
John Freeman Explores Email's Dark Side ... in an Email Interviewnew
Freeman has been busy lately, both as the new editor of the lit mag Granta and with the writing of The Tyranny of E-Mail, the subject of, LOL, this email interview.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Scott Dickensheets |
11-20-2009 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
'A New Deal for Native Art' Explains How the Gov't Undermined Indigenous Art During the New Dealnew
Jennifer McLerran makes the case that administrators of New Deal Indian policy, particularly John Collier, then-commissioner of Indian Affairs, insisted on romanticizing pre-industrial forms of indigenous art rather than pushing native artists toward self-sufficiency.
Tucson Weekly |
Jarret Keene |
10-29-2009 |
Nonfiction
Jordanian Journalist Rana Husseini Talks About Honor Killingsnew
Husseini can never forget the way the uncles of a 16-year-old murder victim dispassionately described how their niece deserved to die. "It was as if they were speaking about a sheep," she writes in her new book, Murder in the Name of Honor.
Willamette Week |
Henry Stern |
10-28-2009 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Journo Ann Louise Bardach Publishes Exposé on Castro While Feds Seek Her Testimonynew
Without Fidel cements Bardac's stature as America's best-informed and most insightful writer about Castro's 50-year reign and the fervid passions, plots, and politics of Washington and South Florida aimed at destroying it.
Santa Barbara Independent |
Jerry Roberts |
10-26-2009 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
'A Rebel Life' Remembers Molly Ivinsnew
In First Son: George W. Bush and the Bush Family, Bill Minutaglio deciphered Dubya's career as a campaign of filial devotion and rebellion. Turning now to Bush's spunkiest critic, Minutaglio interprets Ivins as similarly driven by resentment toward her overbearing, overachieving father.
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
10-21-2009 |
Nonfiction
In 'Shop Class as Soulcraft,' Matthew B. Crawford Says: Get Off Your Assnew
Ex-Bush think-tank dynamo-turned-vintage motorcycle shop owner Crawford calls out the trend in America's displacement of values pertaining to manual trades while questioning the misguided future of would-be knowledge workers (a dirty word as far as Crawford's concerned).
Metro Times |
Travis R. Wright |
10-20-2009 |
Nonfiction
'Egg on Mao' Praises a Truly Brave Iconoclastnew
With the publication of Egg on Mao: The Story of an Ordinary Man Who Defaced an Icon and Unmasked a Dictatorship, Denise Chong has revived interest in the moral heroism of Lu Decheng and his friends Yu Zhijian and Yu Dongyue.
The Georgia Straight |
Alexander Varty |
10-19-2009 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Barbara Ehrenreich's Latest Book Tackles Our Oppressive Optimismnew
Rather than focus on some particular tool of oppression that's misled the masses into believing they're happy, in Bright-Sided Ehrenreich trains her ire on happiness itself.
Chicago Reader |
Noah Berlatsky |
10-19-2009 |
Nonfiction
'Massacred For Gold' Rises Above the Usual History Book Formulanew
R. Gregory Nokes' investigation of the 1887 mass murder of more than 30 Chinese gold miners is a chronicle within a chronicle, explaining not only how and why the murders occurred but how the author had to sift through scant and often contradictory evidence to make sense of a crime.
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
10-14-2009 |
Nonfiction
Johnny Rico's Second Book Uses the Border Reality as its Shticknew
Border Crosser is the account of Rico's attempt to illegally cross from Mexico into the United States in the summer of 2007. Physically and mentally, Rico is woefully unprepared for the task he has assigned himself. Nevertheless, he sets out with testosterone-fueled arrogance and a naive, fetishized view of the borderÂ-crossing experience.
The Texas Observer |
Kirk Forrester |
10-14-2009 |
Nonfiction
'The Architecture of Community' Advocates a Return to More Conscientious Urban Developmentnew
Leon Krier contends that modernism, whatever its virtues in small scale, has been nothing but a disaster in larger scales -- a force that has managed to sterilize cities aesthetically, ruin years of expertise in building trades, and lead planners and developers to compose cities in unsustainable ways.
Baltimore City Paper |
Scott Carlson |
10-06-2009 |
Nonfiction
'A Paradise Built in Hell' Explores the Utopic Possibilities Glimpsed in Disasternew
Perhaps the primary virtue of Rebecca Solnit's clear-headed new book is that it does not simply swap one interpretation of disaster -- as anticonsumerist reckoning, for instance -- for another, such as Jerry Falwell-style damnation. Solnit is interested in how people act in the aftermath, for better and for worse.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Max Goldberg |
09-30-2009 |
Nonfiction
'Cheap' Tackles the Fraught Practice of Buying and Selling Cheap Goodsnew
For its catchy title and relatively few pages, Cheap is a weighty book. Shell reveals the dizzying connections between price and poverty, using statistics, historical accounts, and scientific and sociological explanations. She spent two years doing research, traveling to Sweden, the birthplace of IKEA, and China, "factory to the world."
The Texas Observer |
C.B. Evans |
09-23-2009 |
Nonfiction
Rod Blagojevich's Book: Think Socrates, Not Icarusnew
The Governor isn't mythological material, though it contains plenty of myth. But it's a fine warning on the pitfalls of democracy.
Chicago Reader |
Mick Dumke |
09-21-2009 |
Nonfiction
