Rachel Smucker

About Rachel Smucker

Features

Beating the System: Radiohead Gives The Man the Middle Finger

By Rachel Smucker

Like it or not, Radiohead's new marketing strategy is changing the way people think about digital music. [31 October 2007]

Reviews

Future Missionaries of America by Matthew Vollmer

By Rachel Smucker

Like a throng of aging punk rockers at a Sex Pistols reunion concert, the characters all seem to possess the same type of aggressively apathetic outlook on life. [2 February 2009]

Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf

By Rachel Smucker

Between English- and Japanese-speakers, dyslexics and normal readers, struggling children and fluent adults, Wolf shows the not-so-obvious differences in both brain structure and in areas of activation. [4 December 2008]

Life: The Classic Collection

By Rachel Smucker

This collection emphasizes good photography over technical superficiality ("today's technological advancement, while fine, has done nothing to add excitement to a well-made picture"), and does not assert itself unreasonably. [28 October 2008]

Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp by Stephanie Klein

By Rachel Smucker

In the sort of lip-biting, hair-tossing, impetuous manner for which teenagers are so famous, Klein indirectly highlights discomfort via wit, and pairs shame with over-confidence. [5 August 2008]

Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age

By Rachel Smucker

Not until we are shaken out of the comfort zones of our Bluetoothed selves are we able to fully realize where we are, what we have done, and what it has done to us. [31 July 2008]

Wild Mulberries by Iman Humaydan Younes

By Rachel Smucker

Every time the reader is drawn in deeper, Younes pulls away, retracting back into her unaffected prose. [14 July 2008]

E: The Incredibly Strange History of Ecstasy by Tim Pilcher

By Rachel Smucker

There is much to be learned about this little pill, and it is a comfort knowing that everyone -- raver or non-raver, pill-popper or anti-drug -- is able to, in their own way, "keep it real". [3 July 2008]

B As in Beirut by Iman Humaydan Younes

By Rachel Smucker

Through four women who painfully embrace the city that is at once their prison and their home, Younes raises the question: are we powerless to the pull of our past? [21 March 2008]

Brand New China by Jing Wang

By Rachel Smucker

Written like a college textbook and packaged like a novel, this book blurs the line between storytelling and statistical analysis, making for an interesting, complex read. [5 March 2008]

The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue by Manuel Muñoz

By Rachel Smucker

Muñoz paints wonderful pictures of his characters' lives. A little thoughtful reflection can work wonders in small doses. [10 October 2007]

Obit: Inspiring Stories of Ordinary People who Led Extraordinary Lives by Jim Sheeler

By Rachel Smucker

This is almost an anthology of wonderful short stories in which each character, coincidentally, dies at the end. [4 October 2007]

Bronx Biannual by Miles Marshall Lewis [Editor]

By Rachel Smucker

With his selection of stories and mix of old and young Bronx-based writers, Lewis is exposing the side of the BX that many are too blinded with stereotypes to see. [14 August 2007]

Karaoke by Zhou Xun and Francesca Tarocco

By Rachel Smucker

The authors delve into karaoke technology, such as the popular (and my personal favorite) video game Karaoke Revolution, and even explore the bizarre "pornaoke" found in British Columbia. [21 June 2007]

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

By Rachel Smucker

Hamid gives us the actions, we create the motives. [6 April 2007]

Dreaming of Gwen Stefani by Evan Mandery

By Rachel Smucker

Are we robots? Does true love exist? Why are we here? [20 March 2007]

The Republican Playbook by Andy Borowitz

By Rachel Smucker

Stains on the pages, doodles in the margins, a facsimile of a fundraising letter from God -- all appropriate for a book that has made its home in the back pocket of President George Bush. [25 October 2006]