Posted in Andrew's Picks, Books, Dark humor, Fast-paced, Humor, Microhistories, Nonfiction, Quick read, Quirky characters, Subculture on January 11, 2008 | No Comments »
If you’ve ever closely read, or even scanned, the pages of a typical personals ad, you’d recognized the usual format – gender preference, age, something about the advertiser’s looks and interests. Specialty and ‘elite’ publications might have more information tailored toward the expected demographic – second home location, brand of Scotch, favorite theorist – that [...]
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After having him on my To Be Read pile for a long time, I finally found my way to T.C. Boyle, and was immensely rewarded by the read. Drop City is a great example of a culture clash – wanderers searching for purpose and identity coming up against a rooted community that doesn’t want the [...]
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For some, Christmas is a time of joy; for others the holidays are difficult. For me the holidays are a big mix of nostalgia, stress, annoyance, confusion, and sheer wonder at the bizarre extremes of behavior that I see this time of year. That, in a nutshell (with emphasis on the nuts), is why I [...]
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We wrap up the week with another Sondheim musical, one that will be getting a bit of attention this holiday season. Soon to be released on the big screen, Sweeney Todd is the story of a London barber who, with the help of friend Mrs. Lovett, turns those he dislikes (and other random Londoners) into [...]
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Martin, Maureen, Jess, and JJ come from different backgrounds and have different reasons for considering suicide. In fact, there is very little this group has in common — except that they all end up on the roof of the same building on New Year’s Eve with the intent to jump.
But instead of [...]
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A good book really can change the way you look at the world. Before I read World War Z, for instance, I never sat on a beach and wondered: how would I defend myself, right now, if zombies came staggering out of the surf?
Thanks a lot, Max.
Subtitled “An Oral History of the Zombie [...]
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Posted in Andrew's Picks, Books, Characters, Clever dialogue, Crime fiction, Dark humor, Language Focus, Mysteries, Quirky characters, Setting on July 30, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Michael Chabon has created an inspired setting for one of the most noir books I’ve read in a long time. Picture this: instead of Palestine, the Zionist movement ended up in Sitka, Alaska, in a temporary arrangement with the US government. After the Holocaust and disastrous declaration of the State of Israel, Jewish [...]
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Aging, arthritic, overweight, and out of shape—Jules Duchon is not exactly your grandfather’s vampire. The unambitious Jules is perfectly contented driving a taxi-cab in New Orleans, listening to his vintage jazz records, and living off the blood of poor, overweight and mostly black residents in the seedier side of the city. His routine is shattered [...]
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Subtitled “An American Misfit in India,” this memoir kept me busily turning pages for two days. Rachel Manija Brown is a crackerjack storyteller, and even though her childhood experiences were sometimes unsettling – if you can’t tell from my other posts, I usually read for escapism – she recounts them with a biting sense of [...]
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Some books you read for the plot and some for the characters; this series may be the first I’ve ever enjoyed so much for the setting alone: a cook’s eye view of the restaurant scene in pre-Katrina New Orleans.
John Rickey and Gary “G-man” Stubbs are a couple of line cooks (they’re also a couple) [...]
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