in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout, by Philip Connors.
Jack Kerouac was a wilderness lookout. So was...well, I can't think of any other famous wilderness lookouts right now, but doesn't it seem like a great vocation for a young bookish man of [...]
in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. My Infamous Life: The Autobiography of Mobb Deep's Prodigy, by Albert "Prodigy" Johnson with Laura Checkoway.
"Who's that peepin' in my window/POW!/Nobody now." Was that Mobb Deep? Or was it Cee-Lo? Or—wait. Was Cee-Lo in Mobb Deep? Maybe it was Prodigy. Damn. Knowing a [...]
in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. A Moment in the Sun, by John Sayles.
I can't figure out if this is a novel or non-fiction, but it's a 1,000-page book about the late-20th century gold rush written by the dude who cast a teenage Will Oldham in Matewan, so get [...]
in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. Pym, by Mat Johnson.
F*ck your novel about post-collegiate angst: This book is about a band of African-American adventures who sail to Antarctica in search of an all-black island discussed in Edgar Allan Poe's only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, [...]
in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison, by Piper Kerman.
I'm not sure if it's cool to spend a year in a federal penitentiary and then be released and pitch a book about your year in a federal penitentiary. Then [...]
in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. The Other Eighties: A Secret History of America in the Age of Reagan, by Bradford Martin.
The '80s weren't just about Reagan. They were about Sandinistas and hardcore and Penelope Spheeris. Except that people mainly just remember Reagan and have forgotten about hardcore and [...]
in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. The Mechanics of Homosexual Intercourse, by Lonely Christopher.
This debut short story collection seems transgressive and queer in a good way, but then there's always the worry– as there is when buying any post-structuralist/postmodern (whatever that means) short story collection–that when the book arrives [...]
in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. The Making of Modern Medicine: Turning Points in the Treatment of Disease, by Michael Bliss.
I once heard that the increase in life expectancy in the 20th century was entirely attributable to doctors washing their hands before operating on patients. If this is true, [...]
in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, by Jane McGonigal.
It's always a bummer to read diatribes by baby boomer types who insist that because of media or the internet or irony, the world is going [...]
in which the author discusses five books he'd read, if time permitted.
1. Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War, by Deb Olin Unferth.
Revolutions are funny things. Sometimes, they seem essential. One hopes that the folks throwing rocks in Cairo think their actions are not only necessary, but unavoidable. But [...]
