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DIRTY
THIRTIES
Yes, it's a spy
thriller. But Alan Furst's "Kingdom of Shadows" also presents a
nuanced look at Europe during the rise of Nazi Germany.
PUNK
PORTFOLIO
"We Owe You Nothing,
Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews" is a must-read for fans of
punk music and culture
MAKING
REFERENCES
Sold to the tuneful
and tone-deaf alike, "Reading Lyrics" is a sort of karaoke machine
of classic American (and sometimes British) songs from 1900-75
FINDING
DESTINY
A dark tale of
a marriage brought to the brink of collapse by both partners' infidelity
and a son's suicide, Tim Parks' "Destiny" is dramatic, revealing
and even funny
A
TALE OF POE
In "On Night's
Shore," Randall Silvis captures the beauty and horror of 19th-century
New York
REDISCOVERING
STONE FACE
John Bengtson reveals
the hidden world of silent-film legend Buster Keaton in "Silent
Echoes"
STAR
TEACHER
In "Acting with
Adler," Joanna Rotté remembers the spectacular Stella Adler, the
woman who taught Brando how to act
BLACK,
UNLIKE ME
With "Everyday
People," Stewart O'Nan makes a bold literary crossover
PARENT
TRAP
Journalist Ann
Crittenden takes on the "mommy tax" in "The Price of Motherhood:
Why the Most Important Job in the World Is Still the Least Valued"
EARTH
ANGELS
Getting spellbound
by "Speaking With the Angel," a collection of short stories edited
by Nick Hornby
SPECTRAL
ANALYSIS
In "Redshift,"
poet Joni Wallace makes of the self a constellation
LAVENDER
HAZE
Can gay fiction
make the crossover leap?
100
YEARS OF SOLITUDE
In "Something New
Under the Sun," the first environmental history of the 20th century,
J.R. McNeill touches on almost every area of ecological concern
RUNAWAY
BRIDES
Wedding jitters
are not just a male thing, "The Conscious Bride" reveals
SON
OF THE DESERT
Mark Jude Poirier's
"Goats" is a silly and satisfying chronicle of the relationship
between a 14-year-old and a goateed pothead called Goat Man
DOWNSCALING
THE MAJESTIC
In "A Day Late
and a Dollar Short," Terry McMillan once again reduces a promising
drama to pat conclusions and slack writing
FEMME
FISTICUFFS
Fighting writers
knock themselves out
LOOKING
AFTER GRANDMA
Fay Weldon's "Rhode
Island Blues" satisfies with realistic characters living interesting
lives
WHAT
WE NEED NOW
In "Salvation:
Black People and Love," bell hooks covers a topic littered with
cultural land mines
THE
RETURN OF REAL LIFE
Justin Cronin talks
explores the excitement of the everyday in his elegant debut novel,
"Mary and O'Neil"
LOVE
LETTERS
Ready for romance?
Books can help! Really!
FIT
TO IMPRINT
Publishers create
subsidiaries for black writers to tell their stories
SWEET
BURN
Hang on for about
50 pages of the Venero Armanno novel "Gabriella's Book of Fire,"
and you'll catch a rich, gooey ride that's fun as hell
DOES
YOUR BOYFRIEND MEASURE UP?
Find out with "The
Boyfriend Test: How to Evaluate His Potential Before You Lose Your
Heart"
AFTER
MANN
"'Communazis':
FBI Surveillance of German Emigre Writers" has all the makings of
a tragic novel. Unfortunately, it's a true story.
IT'S
A DRAG BEING DEAD
Satirical novelist
Will Self points his semiotic barbs at the afterlife in "How the
Dead Live"
UNDERWORLD
FIGURE
Don DeLillo's 12th
novel, "The Body Artist," alternates between dazzling virtuosity
and gibberish
AUSSIE
CRIME BOSS
Like the big-dollar
Hollywood adventure it will no doubt become, "True History of the
Kelly Gang" is best appreciated as skillfully rendered entertainment
IN
THE RAW
The best works
in "Demonology," Rick Moody's new collection of stories, are bluntly
effective
I'M
TYPING AS FAST AS I CAN
National Novel
Writing Month promises that anyone can write a book in 30 days or
less
STRANGE
BREW
"Citizen Coors:
An American Dynasty" plumbs the peculiar history of a beer-making
family
CHARMINGLY
SKEWED SENSIBILITY
Bruce Jay Friedman
collects his best nonfiction of the past four decades in "Even The
Rhinos Were Nymphos"
THE
BEST & THE SLIGHTEST
Skimming the cream
from the annual "Best American..." collections
PARTICLE
SHIFTS
Is Michel Houellebecq's
"The Elementary Particles" a literary achievement on a par with
"The Stranger," or is the 42-year-old author a reactionary and a
nihilist?
THE
NO-KNOWS
"Trust Us, We're
Experts! How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your
Future" explores how much those know-it-alls really know
SLEEP
WALKER
Banana Yoshimoto
wanders through literal and symbolic states of slumber in "Asleep"
BOYFRIEND
IN A COMA
Mark Barrowcliffe's
satirical "Girlfriend 44" reveals that men are dogs who can only
hope women will find their stupidity endearing
WATCHING
THE WATCHERS
In "Snitch Culture:
How Citizens Are Turned Into the Eyes and Ears of the State," veteran
journalist Jim Redden documents our emerging cult of betrayal
BRAIN
FOOD
In "Perfect Recall,"
Ann Beattie broadens her palette with 11 tales that explore the
nebulous frontiers of memory, the home of self-delusion
OUTLAW
VIEWS
"Kids" director
Larry Clark fills his photo book "Tulsa" with revolvers, rifles,
tattoos, star-fields of flag, gleaming, gorgeous mad eyes and hungry-veined
musculature
GOING
MOBILE
In "Restless Nation:
Starting over in America," James M. Jasper shows that we are bound
together by our fundamental desire for limitless mobility
FULL
WITS
With 54 contributors
ranging from the likes of Al Franken to John Updike, "Mirth of a
Nation" offers serious humor choices
IRISH
SIGHS
Erin go buy a different
book; Lisa Carey's "In the Country of the Young" falls flat
NEON
NOIR
Jack O'Connell
has been described as a cyberpunk Dashiell Hammett. His dark, noir-ish
crime stories are dragging the genre into new realms.
THE
DECADE IN BOOKS
Flipping through
the best writing the nineties had to offer
TRANSFORMATION
ON TAPE
Self-help audio
books promise a better new year
THE
MANY FACES OF EVAN HUNTER
Evan Hunter has
written bestsellers under a variety of names. "Candyland" may be
his best book, and the 74-year-old writer says he's not done yet.
GARBO
& THE WOMEN
Gossip columnist
Diana McLellan uncovers the lesbian lovers of Golden Age movie stars
in the trashy, corny "The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood"
PAPER
TRAIL
Words are like
fingerprints to Don Foster, whose "Author Unknown" recounts his
adventures in attributional research
THE
WARM GLOW OF E-BOOKS
Good reads for
a snowy winter's night
SCHOOLED
IN COOL
In "Cool Rules:
Anatomy of an Attitude," Dick Pountain and David Robins serve up
an accessible, iconoclastic--if not exactly hip--study of their
subject
DUDE
WITH THE ANSWERS
Mark Dye was kind
enough to send a ready-made interview on the topic of his book,
"College and the Art of Partying." We now offer excerpts for your
partying pleasure.
WORLDS
APART
Weighing 100 years
of Oz against 50 years of Narnia
TOGGLE
THIS
In "Trigger Happy:
Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution," Steven Poole loads
readers up with a lively history of electronic gaming
A
TIME OF TULIPS
From the resonant
history of "Tulipomania" to the blackly comic tales of "Scar Vegas,"
one critic offers up a compelling list of the year's 10 best books
AMONG
THE PROSTITUTES
Among our most
daring novelists, William Vollmann takes big risks. In "The Royal
Family," he mixes elements of fable and dystopian satire with streetwalker
tales
TIME
TRAVELER
Caleb Carr discusses
making the leap from historical fiction to his futuristic novel,
"Killing Time"
FINDING
YOUR NEXT FAVORITES
"The Salon.com
Reader's Guide to Contemporary Authors" is a captivating catalog
of more than 225 writers in assorted sizes and flavors
MARK
THE HOLIDAYS WITH BOOKS
Promote a literate
Christmas by sprinkling these books and calendars under the tree
BOXING
IS A GAME OF LIES
Trainer F.X. Toole
delivers a collection of boxing tales both brutal and beautiful
in "Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner"
TRIPLE
THREAT
Barbara Kingsolver's
"Prodigal Summer" weaves a trio of narratives into a single greater
message
THE
LIBRARY COMES TO YOU
A look at reading,
21st-century style
SUDDEN
DEATH
The classic "A
Handbook on Hanging" has been reissued. What a gas!
BIG
BOOKS
Get set for some
heavy reading with big and beautiful coffee-table books
POLICE
BEAT
"Police Brutality"
offers a troubling take on law enforcement
SHEER
VOLUMES
With so many books
to collect, who has time to read?
DOPEY
POPE
"The Accidental
Pope" has a good setup, but everything else falls apart
ACTION
ADAMSON
First-time author
Isaac Adamson's "Tokyo Suckerpunch" has all the fixings of a hyperkinetic
fiend's verbal wet dream
TECHNO
ON THE TABLE
"Modulations,"
a history of contemporary electronic dance music, will look great
on a hipster's coffee table
SCENES
FROM A MALL
Talking shop with
newly minted novelist Eric Bogosian
MARKET
MOVER
Baffler editor
Thomas Frank's "One Market Under God" is a clever, but ultimately
flawed, attack on the old notion of the infallible market
WHITHER
THE CITY?
New books discuss
gentrification, the neighborhood and you
REAGAN
REVISITED
"Way Out There
In the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War" suggests
that Ronnie needlessly brought the world to the brink of nuclear
holocaust
PRESENT
AND ACCOUNTED FOR
"With these coffee-table
books, giving well is the best revenge
GREAT
SPORTS
"Best American
Sports Writing 2000" gleans its best material from unfamiliar and
exotic events
HEAR
YE
A static-free guide
to giving--and getting--audio books
WHAT'S
THE NEXT GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL
And why does the
idea of searching for one seem so outdated and irrelevant?
SHE
SHOOTS, SHE SCORES
Why did "The Blind
Assassin" finally garner a Booker Award for Margaret Atwood? The
answer is in the reading.
A
FRIEND IN NEED
T.C. Boyle satirizes
hypocrisy in "A Friend of the Earth"
THROUGH
THICKET & THIN
Reclusive novelist
Jim Harrison reveals the perfect hideaway
RECLASSIFYING
THE CLASSICS
The New York Review
of Books restores a number of almost-forgotten terrific tomes to
their rightful place
SUBWAY
SERIALS
Graphic novelist
Will Eisner adds color to urban folklore in "Minor Miracles"
WHAT
BOOM?
Times are great,
as long as you're already rich. "Economic Apartheid in America"
addresses the country's growing income gap.
WORD
PLAY
Feast on big ideas,
not small talk, at your next party by hosting a reading
100
YEARS OF SOLITUDE
With "Jimmy Corrigan,"
Chris Ware brings the art of comix into the new century
TRAVEL-BOOK
TEMPEST
What's in a name?
Nothing, when the publisher's contract says they can change a book's
credited author at will.
ID
STUFF
Comix creator Dan
Clowes explores the secret places of both his characters and his
readers in "David Boring"
REACTIONARY
BORE
Tom Wolfe's "Hooking
Up" suggests it may be time for him to hang it up
BACK
TO THE WEST
With "Boone's Lick,"
Larry McMurtry returns to the genre where he belongs
PURE
PLATH
Unmediated and
unadulterated, "The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath" lets the
poet speak for herself
FAMOUS
& HEINOUS
Cintra Wilson punctures
the bloated carcass of celebrity in "A Massive Swelling"
E-BOOKS:
THE NEXT CHAPTER
If the futurists
are right, the printed book is dead. But it won't be buried for
a while yet.
THE
INFINITE SADNESS
The comix chronicle
of Chris Ware's "Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth" cuts
a broad swath of sorrow across 20th-century America
DREAMS
TO WAKE YOU UP
An interview with Aimee Bender, author of the wonderful "An Invisible
Sign of My Own"
IN
THE FLESH
With "Being Dead," novelist Jim Crace explores the notion that death
can be an ongoing state of existence
WHOLE
LOT OF COMIX
Small Press Expo is one-stop shopping for the mad medium's finest
BLOODLETTING
Anne Rice's cult of fans will pierce their fangs into "Merrick"
and be fed with a dark, haunting tale
ELECTORAL
ATTACKING
"Hats in the Ring: An Illustrated History of American Presidential
Campaigns" shows negative campaigning is nothing new
GO
ASK ALICE
Move over Harry Potter, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's feisty heroine
rivets young readers, too
COMIX'
SECOND CHILDHOOD
With "Little Lit," alternative cartoonists produce pleasing kiddie
fare
WHEN
CARTOONISTS ATTACK!
This Modern World's Tom Tomorrow on cartooning, the need for humorous
political commentary and the presidential elections
SWASHBUCKLING
SORROW
Tony Millionaire's "Maakies" poses as a graphic novel, but it's
really shorthand for the misery and squalor of the world, laced
with a robust vein of black humor and
WAKING
DREAM
"The Night Listener" is a typically heavy-handed--yet engrossing--Armistead
Maupin page-turner
HIGH
REGISTER
Steve Martin's "Shopgirl" is as unexpected as it is delightful
LOOKING
HOMEWARD
"O Lost: A Story of the Buried Life" brings readers closer to Thomas
Wolfe
RULES
BOOKS
"Rowing In Eden" captures the nuances of growing up normally in
the summer of '65
ORPHAN
ANTE
Kazuo Ishiguro's "When We Were Orphans" is a mystery novel that
offers much more, all of it highly literary, impossibly bizarre
and deeply fascinating.
ARCH
ANGEL
Pop-culture critic Francine Prose's latest novel, "Blue Angel,"
is wickedly satirical fun
PRESIDENTIAL
PICS
"The Clinton Years" is an elegant photographic chronicle of one
of the most legendary presidencies--for better or worse--of the
last century
MORE
PULP FICTION
Elmore Leonard's latest, "Pagan Babies," is full of the wonderful
wackos that are his trademark
INTO
THE WILD
Gregory McNamee occupies an eloquent perch in "Blue Mountains Far
Away: Journeys into the American Wilderness"
CHERRY
OH!
Mary Karr's coming-of-age memoir, "Cherry," packs the power of a
well-crafted novel
PULP
THIS FICTION
Matt Beaumont's "e," a tale of the London advertising world told
through email exchanges, is a novel so hideous it's almost not worth
trashing
MORE
SEX, MORE CITIES
Candace Bushnell's latest book, "4 Blondes," consists of four unrelated
stories that are saucy, but ultimately sad
CLOCKING
IN
"Gig: Americans Talk about their Jobs at the Turn of the Millennium"
turns out to be a rich mosaic of our contemporary work culture
ROYAL
TREATMENT
Stephen King opens up about his addictions in "On Writing: A Memoir
of the Craft"
QUEER
GEAR
"The XY Survival Guide" is a bible for anyone who's ever been young
and gay--or young and curious
YOU
MADE THAT UP
"The Artist of the Missing" author Paul Lafarge is as much inventor
as artist, a storyteller in a medium overrun by "truth"
WHAT
COMES AFTER Y?
"Millennials Rising" reaches wacky conclusions about the most overfed,
overbundled and overprotected generation in American histor
JUDGING
THE AUTHOR BY HIS COVER
Checking in with Chip Kidd, the world's foremost book-jacket designer
INHERIT
THE PEN
Christiopher Rice, son of two well-known writers, publishes his
first novel--but is "A Density of Souls" any good?
ART
OF WAR
F.X. Toole's "Rope Burn" boxing stories explore the redemptive powers
of a sport beset by shady characters and crippling violence
CITY
LIGHTNING
Legendary San Francisco Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti plans an
eventful stop in New Orleans
LOYAL
TO A FAULT?
A stunning translation of "The Little Prince" will please purists,
but leave other readers cold
NOBEL
OBLIGE
These four authors may not be up for the Nobel Prize, but they should
be
VISUAL
BANQUET
"Drawn and Quarterly, Vol. 3" is both a filling feast and a frustrating
appetizer that leaves the reader hungry for more comix of this quality
STILL
UNDERGROUND
Continuing in the spirit of Spiegelman and Crumb, comix creator
Daniel Clowes stays behind the "Eightball"
ACME'S
APEX
Acme Novelty Library cartoonist Chris Ware discusses his first hardcover
collection, "Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth"
FREAK
OUT
In Amram Ducovny's "Coney," every character is a freak; the circus
freaks simply wear their troubles on the outside
STRANGE
ATTRACTORS
Physics and tantric sex collide in "Properties of Light," a novel
about science and love
COMING
OUT WRONG
A new gay-life manual, "Coming Out: A Handbook for Men," glosses
over key issues
STRANGER
IN A STRANGE LAND
James Welch discusses history, fiction and his novel "The Heartsong
of Charging Elk"
FANTASY
MEETS REALITY
Ah, the glamour of a book tour
SLEEP
TALKING
Jesse Reklaw, creator of the syndicated "Slow Wave" comix, takes
other people's dreams and turns them into "Dreamtoons"
MONEY
SHOT
Author and porn actress Ana Loria lets it all hang out in "1-2-3
Be A Porn Star: A Step-by-Step Guide to the Adult Sex Industry for
Men and Women"
BOOGIE
RITES
Cultural scholars hustle to discover whatever happened to "The Seventies"
TRUTH
ACHE
In "Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir," Lauren Slater offers a jarring,
surreal account of her experiences growing up with epilepsy
SEX
ON THE BRAIN
"Nymphomania: A History" traces society's take on sexual obsession
from the 1800s to today
GEN-X
MEN
Rocking authors Scott K. Faingold and Michael Galinsky talk about
their generation
DEADLY
SIGNIFYIN'
Paul Beatty's "Tuff" takes on the classic whodunit form with a bigger-than-life
protagonist who defies racial stereotypes
NEW
YORK'S FINEST
"NYPD: A City and Its Police" reveals that the corruption and abuses
of power that characterize the department today have been around
since its inception
DEAD
BEATS
"The Beat Hotel": Down and out and cutting up in Paris
PAYNEFUL
DAYS
In "The Best of Jackson Payne," novelist Jack Fuller riffs on an
intense jazz life
PRAYING
FOR A BUZZ
Lighting up "In Search of the Ultimate High: Spiritual Experiences
Through Psychoactives"
TUGGING
ON THE CAPE
Many comix innovators already have made the jump to the Web, but
the industry has been slow to move beyond the printed page
DIRTY
WORDS
Booksellers uncover the current state of erotica
TENDER
AT THE BONE
David Hurst Thomas exhumes anthropology's demons in "Skull Wars"
WILD
BUNCH
Larry McMurtry continues his unrelenting quest to demythologize
his region in "Still Wild: Short Fiction of the American West: 1950
to the Present"
COMIC
BELIEF
"Drawn & Quarterly Volume 3" illustrates, if nothing else, the range
of possibilities available in the seemingly limited medium of comix
BACKSTAGING
With his first novel, "A & R," VH1's Bill Flanagan attempts to satirize
the music industry from the inside out
THE
AUTHOR WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Hemingway the spy, Hemingway the spied upon
ON
YOUR TAIL LIGHTS
Novelist John Sedgwick tries his hand at automotive stalking
CAPES
OF GOOD HOPE
Alan Moore expands the boundaries of superheroism with his titles
for America's Best Comics
HIGH-TECH
TAKEDOWN
Paulina Borsook reveals the weird philosophies of computer geeks
in "Cyberselfish: A Critical Romp Through the Terribly Libertarian
Culture of High Tech"
IS
THAT YOU?
"Troublemaker" Brian Pera experiences first-novel joy and pain,
as most interviewers want to turn his tale of a drug-addicted gay
hustler into a memoir
NOT
JUST HEROES
Comix for and by women evolve "From Girls to Grrrls"
DOING
THE NUMBERS
Math stirs a quirky young woman's passion in Aimee Bender's "An
Invisible Sign of My Own"
LOSING
IT IN VEGAS
Novelist Adam Berlin hits the jackpot with his "Headlock" debut
PEDAL
POWER
Tour de France champ Lance Armstrong redefines what it means to
be a hero in "It's Not About the Bike"
CUSTER'S
LAST STAND
DC ends "Preacher"'s dark search for God
DECLARATIONS
OF INDEPENDENTS
With a few great books, literary presses keep a revolution alive
BASIC
DRIVEL
Joe Eszterhas lets loose his views on political sex in the rambling,
shambling "American Rhapsody"
THE
TROUBLE WITH HARRY
A ringing dissent to Pottermania
MAGICAL
NIHILISM
Decrying the alarming absence of good Mexican literature in translation
CHEEZ
WHIZ!
Take a look at the great gross-outs and kinky quirks of culinary
history with Alan Ridenour's "Offbeat Food: Adventures in an Omnivorous
World"
GIVE
WAR A CHANCE
In "Virtual War," Michael Ignatieff shows how the U.S. tried to
bomb its way back to the moral high ground in Kosovo
LOVE
SORTIES
Charles Baxter meditates entertainingly on a familiar topic in "The
Feast of Love"
MUSIC
FOR YOUR EYES
Books to read between sets this concert season
WAY
TOO VIVID
Tom Robbins gets overheated again in "Fierce Invalids Home From
Hot Climates"
FLAGRANT
FLAWS
In "Home Truths," David Lodge explores celebrity, notoriety and
the demands of writing with satiric wit
NOVEL
IDEA
Liza Dalby's "The Tale of Murasaki" re-creates the life of the world's
first novelist
STILL
KISSING
Excessive personal disclosure of an upper-class woman is not Kathryn
Harrison's invention, but she keeps on doing it in "The Binding
Chair"
POTTER'S
FIELD
Harry Potter aside, it's tough to survive in the children's book
biz
EARNEST
ALMS
In "Anil's Ghost," Michael Ondaatje explores the nature of truth and
humanity
MADE
FOR WALKING
Rebecca Solnit hits her stride in "Wanderlust: A History of Walking"
PETAL
PERFECT
In "The Flower Boy," Karen Roberts combines an enchanted fairy tale
with a bleak chronicle of the lives entwined in an outpost of the
British Empire
BLOW
TO THE HEAD
In his debut novel, "Headlock," Adam Berlin creates a likable character
who has the emotional fuse of a sociopath
PUCKER
UP
Henry Alford's "Big Kiss" isn't essential reading, but it's damn
funny
WALKING
WITH NORMA JEAN
Joyce Carol Oates' bio-novel "Blonde" deftly imagines Marilyn Monroe's
fabled life
CANNON'S
FODDER
Max Cannon's Red Meat characters live in a comix world where they
do and say anything and everything they damn well please
CAPITALIZING
CLOWNS
In "Bobos in Paradise," David Brooks goes after the BOurgeois BOhemian
lifestyle
FURROWING
BROWS
In "Nobrow," John Seabrook argues that there's no more distinction
between high-, middle- and low-brow culture
CHOOSE
YOUR STORY
More than a book, but not quite a video game, interactive fiction
is making a virtual comeback
HI-FI
SOUNDS
In Nelson George's "One Woman Short," a man searches for perfect
love by looking up the women he left behind
SHEER
GENIUS
Fresh from winning a MacArthur genius grant, comix creator Ben Katchor
presents "Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: The Beauty Supply
District"
TRUCK-STOP
VISION
JT LeRoy's first novel, "Sarah," is the amusing tale of a truck-stop
hooker who goes to see a magical Jackalope
NOT
SO WISE
"The Devil and Sonny Liston" is all mobbed up
21st
CENTURY TRASH
Are all bad books really the same?
ORAL
REPORT
Saul Bellow's "Ravelstein" displays a shocking naivete regarding
matters of sex
GUARDING
SECRETS
Ted Conover did hard time as a corrections officer to write "Newjack:
Guarding Sing-Sing"
NOW
HEAR THIS
Some books get better on tape
PRETTY
TALK
David Sedaris talks up his latest collection, "Me Talk Pretty One
Day," and the notion of taking a leak during a reading
UNDER
MIDWESTERN SKIES
In Tom Drury's sly "Hunts in Dreams," a stolen gun, a vengeful arsonist,
illicit affairs and midnight wanderings add up to both more and
less than they seem
LOVE
LETTERS
Romance writers struggle with plots, characters, deadlines and stereotypes
DADDY
DEAREST
In "Use Me," Elissa Schappell details the stuff of father-daughter
relationships that could keep a shrink's couch warm for years
GRAPHIC
IMAGES
From Chris Ware and Archer Prewitt to Jill Thompson and Jessica
Abel, Chicago fields an uncommonly large crew of top comix artists
DJ
LYRICAL
In "War Boy," Kief Hillsbery creates a world according to a deaf-mute
teen that's worth exploring
NAFTA
EFFECTS
In "Mollie's Job: A Story of Life and Work on the Global Assembly
Line," William Adler makes the heartlessness of the world economy
come alive
MARX
THE SPOT
Meet the man behind the greasepaint mustache in "Groucho: The Life
and Times of Julius Henry Marx"
THE
NAME SAYS IT ALL
In more than 500 pages of "Katastrophe," there is not a single scene
that approaches believability
FLORAL
DERANGEMENT
Eric Hansen's fulfilling detective yarn, "Orchid Fever," offers
passion, obsession -- and bureaucracy
MIDWIFE
TO MOTHER
"The Realm of Secondhand Souls," journalist Sandra Shea's first
novel, couldn't be further from journalism
ESCAPING
TO PRISON
Rejected by prison officials, the author of "Newjack: Guarding Sing
Sing" became a prison guard
BEAT
SURRENDER
A new book chronicles the final journals of William S. Burroughs
MISFITS
OF SCIENCE
Jon Katz' "Geeks" unites the socially discontented
KARRNAL
KNOWLEDGE
Best-selling author Mary Karr gets ready to tour with her frank
new memoir, "Cherry"
BOUND
& GAGGING
Why do women in comix so often end up raped, mutilated, tortured,
enslaved, crippled or murdered?
FRAMES
OF MIND
With 324 artists from 29 countries, "Comix 2000" ushers in a new
epoch of cartoon innovation
POST-ITS
The unpublishable get published online
BITCH'S
BREW
Sam Staggs sharpens his claws on a catty Hollywood classic in "All
About All About Eve"
JUST
LIKE THE OLD MAN IN THAT BOOK BY NABOKOV
A Lolita homage to shame even Humbert Humbert
BEFORE
YOU LOOK
Terry Tempest Williams makes a great "Leap"
FISHING
FOR A HOOK
Checking in with "Girl's Guide" author Melissa Bank
TELLING
WAR STORIES
Tim O'Brien, tequila and a few late nights
STAR
TURNS
If you want to experience the passionate madness of making a movie,
read "King of Cannes"
SMOKIN'
JAY
"Clerks: The Comic Books" details the entertaining further adventures
of Dante, Randal, Jay and Silent Bob
MORE
THAN DISCO
Try as we might, it's hard to dismiss "How We Got Here, the 70's:
The Decade that Brought You Modern Life--for Better or Worse"
GETTING
ON BASE
A father looks back at a Little League season in "Joy in Mudville"
TIME
WARPED
Uncover history's oddities in "Jumbo's Hide, Elvis' Ride, and the
Tooth of Buddha"
BLACK
& WHITE & RED ALL OVER
In the wake of his controversial "On the Rez," Ian Frazier talks
about writing, race and the desire to be one of the tribe
CORRALLING
A LEGEND
Paul West's novel "O.K." tries to explain one of American history's
most ambiguous heroes, Wyatt Earp
GATSBY
REDUX
A reader revisits a novel that baffled him in his youth
BOSOM
BUDDY
In "Cleavage," Wayne Koestenbaum essays "sex, stars and aesthetics"
with style
VOWELL
LANGUAGE
Essayist Sarah Vowell makes reality funnier than fiction in "Take
the Cannoli: Stories from the New World"
THE
END OF CULTURE
In "The Age of Access," Jeremy Rifkin argues that commerce could
devour life as we know it
CHEMISTRY
SET
Cornelia Nixon explores the biology of marriage in "Angels Go Naked"
GREAT
TOONS
Five comix creators spill ink about their ups and downs in the biz
BANGS'
HEAD
In "Let It Blurt," Jim DeRogatis tunes in the life and times of
Great American Rock 'n' Roll Writer Lester Bangs
GLOBAL
GRUB
Fill up on Lonely Planet's new food-focused travel guides
TEEN
BEAT
Chynna Clugston-Major's "Blue Monday" kids tackle their own comix
miniseries
HEARTACHE
HARRIS
Cyber-advisor Lynn Harris hits the printed page in "Breakup Girl
to the Rescue!"
MOMMIES
DEAREST
Three books narrated by prepubescent girls take mothers to the mat
TOO
MANY STORIES
Are we getting paralyzed by narrative overload?
ASKING
FOR IT
Fighting back against the unnatural "A Natural History of Rape"
BOOKING
THE BEATLES
The Fab Three reunite to write a tell-all tome, but other good Beatles
reads are already available
GOOD
TO BE E-KING
Stephen King's latest thriller broke sales records without ever
seeing a bookstore
DEEP
RESERVATIONS
Ian Frazier paints an honest portrait "On the Rez"
WILDE
REDUX
In "Face Without a Heart," Rick R. Reed puts a grisly, 21st-century
spin on Oscar Wilde's "The Portrait of Dorian Gray"
DON'T
READ COMIX?
Think again!
GUERILLA
INK
Zine publishers deliver the underground news
BETWEEN
THE LINES
The bases are loaded with baseball books
SEALING
THE DEAL
Lock in the freshness with "Tupperware: The Promise of Plastic in
1950s America"
NEW
HAUNTS
Mark Z. Danielewski's "House of Leaves" is destined for cult horror
status
TRASH
TALK
A pair of novels take on--or exploit--our fascination with freaks
SICK,
SAD WORLD
Dave Cooper's comix are so disturbing that "Weasel #2" has been
banned in Canada
READIN',
WRITIN' & REBOUNDIN'
March Madness hits bookshelves as SportsJones reviews the best college
hoops texts
ALL
SMOKE, NO FIRE
Colin Harrison's literary thriller "Afterburn" turns up the heat,
but nothing's cooking
IN
IT TOGETHER
"Millie-Christine, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made" joins readers
with the extraordinary life of the 19th century's second-most-famous
Siamese twins
ENTERPRISING
BARD
Shakespeare goes interstellar in "The Klingon Hamlet"
PRESSING
ON
The pay is lousy and the recognition minimal. So how do small publishers
stay in the business?
DOPE
STORY
Eric Rickstad's haunting, dark "Reap" follows a teen's entanglement
with a failing family of farmers who grow marijuana to make ends
meet
LATIN
TRANSLATION
In "Tula Station," David Toscana bridges the gap between magic realism
and the everyday
BABY
STEPS
With his "Big Baby" comix, Charles Burns forces our gaze toward
the dark, painful corners of childhood
WORDS
THICK LIKE PAPER
Listen up to "Our Souls Have Grown Deep Like the Rivers: Black Poets
Read Their Works"
SEVENTIES
HEAVEN
Two new books weigh in on the decade that brought us both Fat Albert
and Watergate
BEING
NOTHINGNESS
Zero becomes a hero in two new books exploring the number
GHOST
TRUSTER
In "Polly's Ghost," Abby Frucht chronicles spirited efforts to influence
the lives of children left behind
HARDBOILED
EGGERS
At a reading for "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," Dave
Eggers adds a new chapter to his life story
FIRST
CLASS
Go around the world with Pico Iyer in "The Global Soul: Jet Lag,
Shopping Malls, and the Search for Home"
KISSED
OFF
Henry Alford goes Hollywood in the delightful "Big Kiss: One Actor's
Desperate Attempt to Claw His Way to the Top"
TALK
OF THE TOWN
New Yorker staffer Susan Orlean returns to the Portland, Oregon,
scene of her publishing debut to show off "The Orchid Thief"
SUICIDE
MACHINE
Ace Collins jumps into a thorough look at "Evel Knievel: An American
Hero"
DON'T
BE A MR. BUNGLE
Post-war instructional films for schoolkids reveal much about Ike's
America in "Mental Hygiene"
URBAN
LEGENDARY
Short-story writer Tom Paine scores an impressive debut with "Scar
Vegas"
BOOBY
PRIZE
Male contributors to "Chick for a Day" imagine themselves as women
BOOKS
OF MAGIC
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