July 2006 :: Print Reviews
Print Reviews
A Journey into the Transcendentalists' New England
Carl F Gauze heartily recommends this specialized travel book about the Transcendentalist movement and the Boston area. He doesn't mention, though, if they've set up a breakfast nook in Thoreau's old jail cell from Civil Disobedience.
The Night Buffalo
Despite a fantastic premise, Linda Tate isn't fully convinced by Guillermo "21 Grams" Arriaga's new novel, The Night Buffalo. But the real question is, will she check out the upcoming movie adaptation?
Born on the Fourth of July
Perhaps the most tragic part about our wars du jour is their mind-numbing reiteration of the same old costly lessons. A new edition of Ron Kovic’s Born on the Fourth of July pulls Tom "Tearaway" Schulte down the Jacob’s ladder of war’s human impact . . . again.
Dictator Style
Champagne wishes and totalitarian dreams! Your host, James Mann, plays voyeur into the lifestyles of the rich and the insane via Dictator Style.
Fictional History of the United States With Huge Chunks Missing
Akashic offers up a new (and fictional) taste of history, but don't go throwing out those old textbooks yet. A Fictional History of the United States With Huge Chunks Missing teaches Brittany Sturges that perhaps we should applaud our monotone high school teachers for not trying to amuse us.
Go Ask Ogre
Hey, Heartland America! Where’s the heart? In Go Ask Ogre, Jolene Siana welds a Skinny Puppy obsession into her painful Middle American adolescence. But Tom "Tearaway" Schulte assures us happy valleys await on the other side of the early '90s, Midwest goth scene.
Green Day: American Idiots and the New Punk Explosion
Andrew Ellis is left puzzled by Ben Myers' attempts to overstate and overthink the cultural impact of Green Day in his new biography of the California punk rockers.
Iron Balloons
Can't get away for that foreign vacation this summer? Pick up a book by an author from another land. Bob Pomeroy tours the Caribbean with the authors from Jamaica's Calabash Writer's Workshop.
Small Town Odds
The protagonist of Small Town Odds is stuck in rural West Virginia, his dreams of college faded, working two jobs, caring for his daughter, drinking too much, and of course, dealing with the prospects of romance. For readers like Joe Frietze who’ve paid their dues to Small Town America, Jason Headley's debut novel will strike more than one familiar chord.
The Original Million Dollar Mermaid
Carl F Gauze puts on a swimming cap, goggles, and sensible swimwear (no exposed ankles!) and immerses himself in the biography of Australian bombshell swimming sensation Annette Kellerman.
Welcome To Yesterday
John Hood adjusts his fedora and dives headfirst into Ian Spiegelman's neo-noir portrait of a city where loose lips do much more damage than just sinking ships.
