Sameer Pandya’s ‘Our Beautiful Boys’ Is Vulnerable and Powerful
Sameer Pandya mines the pain of immigrant parents wrestling with America’s existential crises in Our Beautiful Boys .
book review
Joni Mitchell Inspires and Unsettles a Memoirist’s Life
Reverence for Joni Mitchell is clear in Paul Lisicky’s memoir. So, too, is an artistic courage that both inspires and unsettles him.
You’ve Gotta Get Satire to Get Dion DiMucci
Dion: The Rock ‘N’ Roll Philosopher is a tongue-in-cheek title that only Dion DiMucci can pull off with street panache—braggin’ is a blues tradition, after all.
American Jews’ and Muslims’ Conflicts and Commonalities
America’s religiously observant Jews and Muslims straddle a highway, each with one foot in religion and one in culture while worrying about being hit by traffic.
The Passion of Garth Brooks
Stephen Deusner’s entry in the 33 1/3 series about the wreckage of Garth Brooks’ ‘The Life of Chris Gains project makes for a mightily entertaining read.
Cataloging Punk Permutations
Iain Ellis’ engaging Punk Beyond the Music’ goes beyond the usual permutations of punk into the fascinating cultural arenas of comedy, education, and sports.
Roger Célestin’s ‘The Delicate Beast’ Will Devour You
Prolific writer Roger Célestin presents in his debut novel, The Delicate Beast a timely tale of how autocracy will devour you once the process has begun.
John Patrick Higgins’ ‘Fine’ Hangs on in Quiet Desperation
The lives of middle-aged men are to John Patrick Higgins as the statue of Ozymandias was to Shelley: epic, broken, and tragi-comic monuments to quiet desperation.
Goth Punks AFI Get Their Flowers in New Biography
AFI’s resilience and innovation take center stage in Andi Coulter’s new biography, which is every bit as deserving of praise as more heralded peers.
Laila Lalami’s ‘The Dream Hotel’ Questions Our Concept of Freedom
Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel asks how much freedom Americans are willing to sacrifice to feel safe. What if that includes losing their right to privacy?
The Vices and Virtues of Ignorance in These Times
In Understanding Ignorance, philosopher Daniel DeNicola invites us to explore the meaning and implication of what we don’t know, which may be as complex as knowledge itself.
Arthur Russell’s Underground Genius
Arthur Russell biography Travels Over Feeling is an elegy for a generation of underground artists that died too soon and a requiem for a vanished New York.