Where is your nonfiction section please.
Hype: How Scammers, Grifters, and Con Artists Are Taking Over the Internet―and Why We're Following The story of the Fyre Festival, which saw Instagram influencers tricked into promoting a music festival on a private Bahamian island with luxury accommodations, gourmet dining and a picturesque setting, only to turn out to be a few rain-soaked tents... Continue Reading →
Review: The Pornification of America, by Bernadette Barton Welcome to raunch culture in the 2020s — when the United States has devolved into a Hustler fantasy. Naked and half naked pictures of girls and women litter every screen, billboard, and bus. Pole dancing studios keep women fit while men airdrop their dick pics to female passengers on... Continue Reading →
As we know, 2020 has been the living worst. A helpful balm for the seemingly endless parade of horrors this year has thrown at us is reading some facts about how the state of the world and humanity in general aren't as horrible as they might seem or feel. Let's investigate. First is Factfulness: Ten... Continue Reading →
Book review: The Lost Pianos of Siberia, by Sophy Roberts (Amazon) There is no dramatic curtain-raiser to the edge of Siberia, no meaningful brink to a specific place, just thick weather hanging over an abstract idea. It is a modern economic miracle, with natural oil and gas reserves driving powerful shifts in the geopolitics of... Continue Reading →
Book review: No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram, by Sarah Frier Of all the social medias, Instagram has always been a bit different. Before its acquisition and absorption into the Facebook behemoth, it started out artsier than the rest. Founder Kevin Systrom was in Italy with an expensive camera. His photography instructor confiscated the... Continue Reading →
The Museum of Whales You Will Never See, by A. Kendra Greene (Amazon / Book Depository) I've felt bad lately for certain newly released books that are coming out when the timing is less than ideal, whether for topic or inability to promote. Happily The Museum of Whales You Will Never See is not one... Continue Reading →
Book review: The Seine, by Elaine Sciolino (Amazon / Book Depository) I overcame anxiety and loneliness and moved forward in my life, like the Seine in its course. The river allowed me to begin a journey of discovery—of Paris, of the French people, of myself. Its energy pumped deep into my veins; its light gave... Continue Reading →
Book review: The Witches Are Coming, by Lindy West (Amazon / Book Depository) If there is magic in Trump's ability to conjure reality out of hot air and spittle, there is an equally powerful magic in the opposite: in speaking the truth, unvarnished, about what we see, what we remember, what has been done to... Continue Reading →
Fall publishing season is in full swing and so many new books are out this month. Let's do some mini-reviews of a few October new releases, shall we? Vanity Fair's Women on Women, edited by Radhika Jones with David Friend, October 29 This book is full of women who are not like anybody else --... Continue Reading →
Book review: The Cooking Gene, by Michael W. Twitty (Amazon / Book Depository) The Old South is a place where people use food to tell themselves who they are, to tell others who they are, and to tell stories about where they've been. Chef, historian, and Afroculinaria blogger Michael W. Twitty has another fascinating day job:... Continue Reading →
Book review: Road Sides, by Emily Wallace (Amazon / Book Depository) There are miles left to go, meals left to eat, junque left to buy, stories left to collect. Folklore historian Emily Wallace writes that "roadside hyperbole is a thing I tend to heed": she can't see a sign proclaiming the best, or occasionally the worst, of something... Continue Reading →
Book review: The Only Street in Paris, by Elaine Sciolino (Amazon / Book Depository) Former New York Times Paris Bureau Chief Elaine Sciolino's The Only Street in Paris is a travelogue memoir meets micro-history and sociocultural study of the Parisian street where she and her family made their home for a time. There's a lot going... Continue Reading →
