'Shapeshifters' and Other Trans-forming Humans
Supernatural Historian John Kachuba deftly demonstrates in Shapeshifters: A History that change is the only constant in life.
06 Dec 2019
Recent
Abjection Incorporated: Mediating the Politics of Pleasure and Violence (By the Book)
Escaping abjection's usual confines of psychoanalysis and aesthetic modernism, the contributors to Abjection Incorporated examine a range of media, including literature, photography, film, television, talking dolls, comics, and manga. Enjoy this generous excerpt, courtesy of Duke University Press.
Maggie Hennefeld and Nicholas Sammond
Books
22 Nov 2019
'Morning Glory on the Vine' and Joni Mitchell's Amalgam of Craft
Joni Mitchell's latest book denotes the next step in the Joni evolution, and indicates that perhaps those different languages for her—of visual art, poetry, and music—will finally be held in equal regard.
12 Nov 2019
Irving Berlin: New York Genius (By the Book)
Exploring the interplay of Irving Berlin's life with the life of New York City, noted biographer James Kaplan offers a visceral narrative of Berlin as self-made man and witty, wily, tough Jewish immigrant. Enjoy this excerpt of Kaplan's book, Irving Berlin: New York Genius.
James Kaplan
Books
05 Nov 2019
On André Aciman's Psychodrama of Flirting with New Beaus While Brooding over Old Flames, 'Find Me'
André Aciman's long-awaited sequel to Call Me By Your Name, Find Me, isn't so much an extension of the previous book's queries about romance and sexuality as it is a work of convenient revisionism.
01 Nov 2019
'In the Dream House' Nothing Will Change -- Until Something Erupts
Folk tales, fantasy, pop culture and family weave gracefully throughout Carmen Maria Machado's harrowing yet graceful memoir of domestic abuse, In the Dream House.
25 Oct 2019
On Making Sense of the World at Jack Kerouac's Directive
Reading Kerouac, I saw in living flesh all of the Cody Pomerays, Dean Moriartys, Sal Paradises, and Alvah Goldbooks in each and every sailor I bunked with, each and all from every corner of America, revealing all and true as only comrades can do in the cocoon of shared experience.
21 Oct 2019
On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey (By the Book)
Paul Theroux is among PopMatters' favorite travel writers. In this excerpt of On the Plain of Snakes, wherein he traverses the Mexico/US border, Theroux takes us to the ancient city of Oaxaca, bringing forth the dignity of its Zapotec and Mixtec people.
08 Oct 2019
By the Book: Soviet Metro Stations
Underground palaces in communist spaces provide not only transport but also refuge in the former USSR. Enjoy this excerpt of photographer Christopher Herwig and author Owen Hatherley's Soviet Metro Stations, from FUEL Publishing.
Christopher Herwig and Owen Hatherley
Books
27 Sep 2019
Does Amber Tamblyn's 'Era of Ignition' Ignite Your Flame?
Actor Amber Tamblyn is aspiring to something deeper than just the chronicle of herself as a young ingénue who came of age as a TV star in her memoir, Era of Ignition. In our politically tumultuous times, does she succeed?
30 May 2019
Joy Division and Jon Savage's Latest, 'This Searing Light, the Sun and Everything Else'
Jon Savage's This Searing Light, The Sun and Everything Else, marks a time for considering how Joy Division became, and continues to be, so popular.
02 Apr 2019
By the Book: Pick up the Pieces: Excursions in Seventies Music
In this excerpt of '70s music, Pick up the Pieces, John Corbett puts his critique of Kraftwerk's Autobahn to poetry and pogos with his conflict for the Clash and their album, The Clash.
29 Mar 2019
Complicit Christianity vs. Courages Christianity: 'The Color of Compromise'
Jemar Tisby's historical overview of the American church's complicity in racism, The Color of Compromise, will help provoke dialogue, but we face significant challenges, still.
Justin Cober-Lake
Books
25 Mar 2019
'Sleeping with Strangers' May Be More Prurient Than Its Hollywood Subjects
In an apparent attempt to generate understanding and contextuality in film history, David Thomson only ends up perpetuating myths and stigmas against homosexuals in his latest, Sleeping with Strangers.
12 Mar 2019
'All the Lives We Ever Lived' Finds Comfort in Mourning with Virginia Woolf
These days, when personal grief becomes a public performance on social media, it's heartening to have a book such as Katharine Smyth's All the Lives We Ever Lived, wherein deep introspection is given space and literature provides both solace and inspiration.
28 Feb 2019
Learn from Your Female Elders: Read Feminism's Forgotten Fight
When progressives adopt an ahistorical critique of feminism, they risking aiding and abetting its subversion. Historian Kirsten Swinth offers a remedy with Feminism's Forgotten Fight.
25 Feb 2019
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