Recent Books Reviews

She Bop II: The Definitive History of Women in Rock, Pop and Soul by Lucy O’Brien

By D. R. Peak

A well-written and researched account of the actual going-ons.

Rinzen Presents RMX EXTENDED PLAY Concept + Project Coordination by Rinzen Edited by Rilla Alexande

By Valerie MacEwan

Based on themes ranging from the relevant to the ridiculous.

He Kills Coppers by Jake Arnott

By David Sanjek

Evidence of America's persistent Anglophilia abounds.

First French Kiss (and other traumas) by Adam Bagdasarian

By Steve Mueske

Cartoonish, exaggerated slices of life.

e2ink-1:  The Best of the Online Journals 2002 by Guest Editor: Pam Houston, Series Editor: Melvin S

By Phoebe Kate Foster

Are electronic magazines the salvation of the literary arts.

Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and

By Nigam Nuggehalli

I would say that physicists have known power.

Aftershocks - The End of Style Culture by Steve Beard

By John Sears

The great strength of this book is its taut, crystal-clear style.

The Uncanny: Experiments in Cyborg Culture by Bruce Grenville, Editor

By John Biggs

It's a lucid look at the fears that plague academics everywhere...Will I lose tenure to an intelligent toaster oven?"

Three Daughters by Letty Cottin Pogrebin

By Leah Hochbaum

Pogrebin shows a flair for characterization that many seasoned novelists can't match.

In the Metro by Marc Augé

By John Sears

Riding the metro is...a journey taken in accompanied solitude, a voyage through space and through a kind of geographically mapped collective unconscious.

Amazonia by James Rollins

By Lanny Gilbert

. . . offers you escape, and more than that, you'll learn something new, which your Mama always told you to do every day . . .

The Right Words at the Right Time by Marlo Thomas and Friends

By N. A. Hayes

Hollywood Babylon breeds with the 'Chicken Soup for the Soul' series in this book.

Pimpnosis by Rob Marriott and Tracy Funches

By Kim Diorio

Our culture's obsession with the world of pimps and prostitutes shows up in odd places.

The Power of a Partner: Creating and Maintaining Healthy Gay and Lesbian Relationships by Richard L.

By Jennifer Bendery

What makes this book stand out among other self-help guides is its limitless acceptance of all types of readers and all types of practices. . . .

New Hollywood Cinema: An Introduction by Geoff King

By Patricia Allmer

King strips Hollywood bare of its glitz and glamour and unravels the main, and sadly, perhaps, even the only driving force of Hollywood, namely . . . profit margins . . .

Lynyrd Skynyrd: Remembering the Free Birds of Southern Rock by Gene Odom with Frank Dorman

By Adam Cook

America is currently besieged by a national campaign that places the Lynyrd Skynyrd and its music front and center in the pop cultural consciousness. . . .

In the Hand of Dante by Nick Tosches

By Tara Taghizadeh

Every so often, literature's long-forgotten greats make a comeback and entrench themselves within popular culture. This time, it's Dante Alighieri.

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry: A Novel by Jennifer Fields

By John Biggs

OK. Your book is ready and saved. Would you like to create another novel?"

Seinfeld: The Making of an American Icon by Jerry Oppenheimer

By Jessica Hodges

What readers get shouldn't be shocking to anyone who knew Seinfeld the show. Oppenheimer, mostly through oral testimonies of friends, relatives and neighbours, describes a man who is driven, focused, and isolated, who only looks after himself.

Pleased to See Me: 69 Very Sexy Poems by Neil Astley (ed.)

By John Sears

Neil Astley has collected together a sequence of poems that represent the range of ways that modern poets have addressed the questions of love, sex and their place in poetry.

One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church by Richard Abanes

By Phoebe Kate Foster

The Mormons comprise a significant part of this country's 'religious right,' or 'Moral Majority' as it is sometimes called. For those who don't consider themselves to be part of this group, it is fascinating to see once again how politics makes for some very strange bedfellows. And for those who do identify with the movement, it should be worthwhile to find out exactly who you 'are' in bed with.

The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru

By Nithya Krishnaswamy

Kunzru is trendy and hybrid himself (father Indian-Kashmiri, mother English) considering the firm grip that Indian writers have over the literary market. The Impressionist is really more of a British novel than an Indian one as is apparent in the writing.

Dorothy Parker’s Elbow: Tattoos on Writers, Writers on Tattoos Edited by Kim Addonizio and Cheryl D

By Claire Zulkey

Everybody, inked or not, has an opinion of tattooing, whether it's viewed with fear, admiration, loathing, or 21st century cynicism.

The Nose: A Profile of Sex, Beauty, and Survival by Gabrielle Glaser

By Wesley Burnett

Just as we have overworked our ears to the point that we are nearly deaf and subjected our eyes to all sorts of visual clutter, we have overworked our noses to the point that our noses hardly know what to tell us.

Mr. Strangelove: A Biography of Peter Sellers by Ed Sikov

By John G. Nettles

Sikov's book may be the most painful celebrity bio I've read since Albert Goldman's 'Elvis' (the similarities between the two men's lives are startling)...

By Rahul Gairola

The sting of the word was undercut, however, by the humorous voices Rushdie used to emulate his characters, obliging the audience to consider the dialogue and the many ways that the word can act as a political fulcrum in American society.

Teen Angst? Naaah . . . by Ned Vizzini

By Phoebe Kate Foster

It doesn't matter whether you're 16 or 65. You'll laugh out loud at this stuff.

Girl Imagined By Chance by Lance Olsen

By Nigam Nuggehalli

At its heart, it is rumination on the art of photography.

Digital Hustlers: Living Large and Falling Hard in Silicon Alley by Casey Kait and Stephen Weiss

By Tara Taghizadeh

Serves as a diary of the main players involved in the heyday of New York's Alley.

Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz

By Wesley Burnett

The only real analogy for Capt. James Cooke, who resolutely explored the Pacific between 1768 and 1780, is Capt. James Kirk, captain of the starship Enterprise.

The Terrible Gift: The Brave New World of Genetic Medicine by Rick J. Carlson and Gary Stimeling

By Jennifer Bendery

Offering a rowdy soapbox monologue on a host of discoveries in genetic medicine -- including genetic technology, computerized biochemistry, and drug synthesis -- The Terrible Gift reveals not one, but two, terrible things.

Portrait of My Lover as a Horse by Selima Hill

By John Sears

Words revel in their incongruous, promiscuous juxtapositions, and sentences begin sensibly and end in bewildering confusions of logic . . .

It’s a Free Country: Personal Freedom in America After September 11 by Edited by Danny Goldberg, Vic

By Paul McLeary

More than 300 books have been published since the fall of 2001 trying to explain, blame, comfort and inform us about what led up to the attacks and what we can expect next.

By Celia McClinton

Modern Burma isn't so much a country as the residue of a British imperial political organization thrust onto several divergent peoples. To argue for ethnic independence is to argue for Burma's devolution, something the world community isn't likely to tolerate.

Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press by edited by Kristina Borjess

By Paul McLeary

With almost one voice the essays contained here contend that the modern news business -- where the emphasis on the bottom line has almost trumped the traditional sanctity of the byline -- has become just that: a business.

The Accidental President: How 413 Lawyers, 9 Supreme Court Justices, and 5,963,110 Floridians (Give

By Mark Dionne

The most remarkable portion of The Accidental President concerns the final Supreme Court decision that effectively appointed George W. Bush president. Most of the criticism leveled in the book is fairly light, but at the end Kaplan rips into the Supreme Court decision.

Using the Force: Creativity, Community and Star Wars Fans by Will Brooker

By D. R. Peak

For as much as Lucasfilms would like to be in control over its content, 'Star Wars' has grown too big to fit inside of Lucas' universe anymore. Nearly everyone alive today has a 'Star Wars' story to tell.

Toothpicks and Logos: Design in Everyday Life by John Heskett

By Sarah Tan

Conveys the theory that almost nothing in our environment is completely natural.

This War Called Love by Alejandro Murguia

By Nithya Krishnaswamy

His narratives are crisp and filled with vivid descriptions of street life, reminding one of a painting that is packed with minute details.

The Season of Lillian Dawes by Katherine Mosby

By Leah Hochbaum

A lush novel, thick with the heady atmosphere of first love, lust and betrayal, Katherine Mosby's sophomore effort, 'The Season of Lillian Dawes' is part 'Catcher in the Rye', part 'The Great Gatsby'. Original it ain't, but the author's fluid, lyrical prose makes it worth the deja vu.

Screening Party by Dennis Hensley

By John Nettles

I'd like to take a moment to reflect upon the fine art of 'riposte au cinema', or talking back to the movies. It's one of those pursuits, like driving and sex, that most people attempt to do but few actually do well.

The Psychology of the Sopranos: Love, Death, Desire, and Betrayal in America’s Favorite Gangster Fam

By Tara Taghizadeh

Gabbard (a professor of psychology at Baylor College of Medicine) delves into the psyches of the Sopranos, and explains why the nation has become seduced by a show about the 'misadventures of a middle-aged thug.' Doesn't sound so odd, really. How many people, after all, refer to 'The Godfather' as an all-time favorite movie?"

The End of Baseball As We Knew It: The Players Union, 1960-81 by Charles P. Korr

By John Nettles

I've just paid too much money for a nosebleed seat in Turner Field and now I can't 'afford' a hot dog, some dickhead behind me has just spilled beer down my back because he can't hold his cup and talk on his cell phone at the same time, and the row in front of me has decided to spend the entire game trying to resurrect the Wave.

Ash Wednesday by Ethan Hawke

By Nikki Tranter

Though Hawke often expertly captures some charming and lush moments, 'Ash Wednesday' is not supposed to be a great work of literary genius (as some of his 'But, he's a Hollywood pretty boy!' detractors seem to think), just an uncomplicated tale of the tribulations of young people in love. Objective achieved.

Life of Pi: A Novel by Yann Martel

By Phoebe Kate Foster

In the best tradition of all good literature, it "shows," but never "tells.

Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence by Gerard Jones

By John Nettles

In fact, everything in 'Killing Monsters' works, placing it in sharp contrast to the endless sky-is-falling rhetoric of the last few decades, which seems designed for no other purpose than make us fear both the media and our own children.

Dr. Tatiana’s eEx Advice to All Creation by Olivia Judson

By Valerie MacEwan

I'm appalled by the behavior of the young iguanas of today: I keep encountering groups of youths masturbating at me.

Crocodile Soup by Julia Darling

By Jolie Braun

The themes of loss, isolation, and desperation are ripe with possibility, and yet Darling's treatment of these topics often leaves the reader cold.

Shed: Poems 1980-2001 by Ken Smith

By John Sears

Smith is a poet of voices, a ventriloquist in writing, drawing on the ancient traditions of balladeers, troubadors, and wandering poets.

Step to the Graveyard Easy by Bill Pronzini

By Stephen B. Armstrong

Written with ironic, hard-boiled prose, 'Step to the Graveyard Easy' hearkens back to the soiled elegance of Chandler and Cain.

Outlaw Woman: A Memoir of the War Years 1960-1975 by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

By Jessica Bopp

I thought of myself as a revolutionary...I wanted to see women liberated, thinking for ourselves, not just organized into a political constituency....

The Courage of Strangers: Coming of Age with the Human Rights Movement by Jeri Laber

By Nigam Nuggehalli

In chronicling her life as a human rights activist, Laber reveals how human rights theory and practice can be wedded in such a way that both fields are enriched.

Snobbery: The American Version by Joseph Epstein

By Claire Zulkey

Snobbery can be mocked, but at its core, it is a weak, malicious vice that shows our worst.

The Russian Debutante’s Handbook by Gary Shteyngart

By Sarah Tan

To answer the question of 'What is America?' It could be a hamburger, a hot dog, a shiny Cadillac, and a pretty young woman underneath a palm tree, or all of these.

Nigger by Randall Kennedy

By James Withers

If hip-hop is as American as apple pie, then the language it uses, a language that some call coarse and others call authentic has become the currency of hipness and modernity.

High Life by Matthew Stokoe

By John G. Nettles

Explores the lengths one man will go to for a shot at stardom, and to say those lengths are extreme would be an understatement.

By Kim Diorio

. . . a divide exists, between low and high art: genre novelists sell books while literary writers thrill critics. It is rare for an author to successfully straddle both worlds.

By Valerie MacEwan

... this is devastating to Goldstein and Beloff, who really want to get their ass kicked in order to prove their southern bigotry theory.

By John Nettles

eBay's business model has always been deceptively simple: low overhead, narrow focus, top-to-bottom accountability, and most of all, paying attention to its customers. In other words, conservatism. Radical.

By Nikki Tranter

Chopper's simple message rests in the fact that we shouldn't discriminate against people, even if they are they freakish son of the town whore.

By Andy Fogle

Not only does he dig into a fine array of the social, cultural, economic, racial, and obviously athletic issues of those 12 years, giving us an often hilarious, occasionally heartbreaking, and almost always vigorous narrative of baseball and the lives of baseball players, but this narrative also establishes an accessible and important doorway for modern baseball folks to walk through.

By Tara Taghizadeh

What Lamb manages brilliantly is to show us what happened to Vietnam after the American War (as it is referred to by the Vietnamese).

By Celia McClinton

In reflecting on a prospective trip to New York, Twigger admits that Americans didn't seem 'to give a toss' about what he had to say. This book is not likely to change our attitude towards him that much.