| September 27, 2007 - October 3, 2007 | Archives | Weather |
 |
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fall
Books Guide
Early
in Currid’s enjoyable, if sometimes
repetitive, exploration of New
York City’s cultural and nightlife
scenes, she quotes author Frank
O’Hara, who wrote, “I can’t even
enjoy a blade of grass unless
I know there’s a subway handy,
or a record store or some other
sign that people do not totally
regret life.” O’Hara’s sentiment
is widely shared by the impressive
number of artists interviewed
for this book. Writers Michael
Musto and Stephen Blackwell, musicians
Quincy Jones and Jerry Harrison
and fashion designers John Varvatos
and Diane von Furstenberg, to
name a few, go on record and prove
Currid’s point: “a preponderance
of creativity on the global market
— and successful creativity —
comes out of New York City.” Why?
Geography is one answer: a multitude
of artists, designers, musicians
and museums share the same 25
square miles of Manhattan, creating
opportunities to network, exchange
ideas and secure jobs. Currid
takes the reader on a concise
tour of New York’s 150-year history
of being a haven and incubator
for artists while offering a healthy
reminder for any city interested
in sustaining a lively arts scene:
culture drives economic growth.
— Andrew Brink
After
picking up “L.A. Rex,” I wasn’t
sure I would enjoy the noir thriller.
Usually with something of this
nature, I wait for the big screen
version and waste only two hours
of my life, instead of the multiple
nights it takes to get through.
But surprise, surprise, after
starting in on this gritty crime
story, I was hooked. Real life
L.A. homicide detective Will Beall
brings you into a world often
imitated but never explained or
described in such truth. The descriptions
were so clear, I could see myself
cautiously rollin’ through the
heart of South Central L.A. All
the violence, language and shady
places the author visits kept
me hooked as I flew through the
twists and turns of the story.
Personal favorite passages included
the cops, a drug dealer and a
need-to-know information session
involving a crossbow and a hand
in a garbage disposal. Different
timelines, involving different
characters, confused me a little,
but didn’t slow the pace of this
great story. — Jared Curtis
Altoona-based
fiction writer Joe Dennis tells
the story of painter Mark Hillberry
in “Cave of the Painter’s Mind”
and the dark, mysterious connection
between the artist and his art.
Set during the floods of 1993,
Hillberry channels his feelings
about a failing marriage, strange
voices in his heads, insecurities
about his career and visions of
the future and past the only way
he knows how — by painting.
The plot thickens as Hillberry
is followed by a man in a black
suit. But who is he? And why is
everybody always running away
from him? The answers, Hillberry
learns, are in the cave of the
painter’s mind. — Michael
Swanger
Des
Moines author John Domini has
won awards from the National Endowment
for the Arts and the Meridian
Editors Prize, and has had his
fiction works published by Paris
Review, GQ and the New York Times.
His latest novel, “Earthquake
I.D.”, is sure to gain him some
additional exposure as Domini
tells the tale of Jay and Barbara
Lulucita and their five children,
an American family living in Naples,
Italy. The Lulucitas are innocents
abroad, who believe they can help
townspeople ravaged by earthquakes,
crime and an influx of African
immigrants — but they can’t.
As the story unfolds, it becomes
clear that the protagonists themselves
could use some help of their own.
(John Domini will read from and
autograph “Earthquake I.D.” on
Oct. 20, at 2 p.m., at Borders
Books in West Des Moines, and
on Nov. 18, at 2 p.m. at East
Village Books as part of the store’s
grand opening.) — Michael
Swanger
Des
Moines’ Joyce Lock concocted this
amusement while pondering some
of the deepest mysteries in life:
How many tiny bubbles are there
in a bottle of champagne? (49
million); what month is the most
popular for dining out (August);
which herb tastes like soap to
some people? (cilantro); what
is the most popular take-out item
ordered on Super Bowl Sunday?
(pizza); what’s dirty about a
“dirty martini?” (olive juice).
This game is built for take-out,
fitting nicely in a lunch pail
and it costs about as much as
a large pizza with the works.
— Jim Duncan
Critically
acclaimed illustrator and cartoonist
Emily Flake chronicles her love-hate
relationship with cigarettes from
her first drag to her last puff,
detailing what’s so pleasurable
and disgusting about smoking through
a series of humorous illustrations
and text. But as you gasp for
air after hacking up a lung from
laughing too hard, you begin to
appreciate Flake’s witty insights
about smoking in our society and
how it has changed from a form
of recreation to a nasty, unpardonable
habit. — Michael Swanger
“Only
Joking” is an in-depth study,
almost a thesis on the origin,
reasoning, development
Riverhead
Books; 256 pp; $14
Country
Music Hall of Fame singer Faron
Young was one of the greatest
country music stylists, producing
more than 80 hit songs that landed
on the country music charts including
“Hello Walls” and “Wine Me Up.”
But his personal life was a wreck
and led to his 1996 suicide. “Live
Fast, Love Hard” tells the tale
of two Youngs: one, a charitable,
talented performer, and founder
of the country music periodical
“Music City News”; the other,
a raging alcoholic and jealous
husband with an explosive temper
[he instigated several fights],
whose addiction and poor self
image led him to abuse and cheat
on his wife, and verbally abuse
his children, band members and
friends when he was drinking [which
was often]. Author Diane Diekman
doesn’t offer much criticism of
his music, but the longtime fan
provides insight into the twisted
life of this talented and troubled
musician. — Michael Swanger
The
British Invasion has been well
documented over the years, but
Christopher Hjort painstakingly
chronicles the British blues boom
from 1965 to 1970 in “Strange
Brew,” a day-by-day history of
Eric Clapton, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers,
Fleetwood Mac, Cream, Blind Faith,
Jeff Beck and The Rolling Stones.
The coffee-table-sized book includes
photographs, information on hundreds
of gigs, radio-TV appearances,
recording sessions, trivia, reviews
and first-hand accounts by the
musicians. It also includes some
never-before-published stories,
including an account of Clapton’s
Greek odyssey in 1965, and the
true story of The Glands and Greek
band The Juniors. Unfortunately,
like the British Invasion itself,
it gives little mention or credit
to the black American blues artists
from which it was founded. 
Author
George Case leaves no stone unturned
in this unauthorized, overdue
first-ever account of legendary
rock guitarist and producer Jimmy
Page. From Page’s rise in 1960s
London, to his work as a session
player, to his ascension to Rock
God status as a member of Led
Zeppelin, “Jimmy Page: Magus,
Musician, Man” dishes the details
of Page’s life and career — both
spiritual and dark. With Led Zeppelin’s
much-anticipated reunion show
in London in November (including
drummer Jason Bonham, son of the
late John Bonham), and rumors
swirling about a possible reunion
tour, the timing of this book’s
release is optimum. — Michael
Swanger
After
watching the amazing documentary
“Air Guitar Nation,” my hankering
to strap on my very own air ax
was coursing through my veins.
But instead of crazily wailing
around my bedroom practicing for
the air guitar championships,
I enjoyed this tale. Cocky and
upset because he continually lost,
Björn changes his “I’m too
cool for school” film persona
that made me root for his opponent
in the documentary. But give it
to the second place finisher to
keep me laughing and entertained
throughout the book. Even though
he is never crowned with the honor,
you root for Bjorn. Multiple diagrams
give you the right moves and the
right amount of alcoholic beverages
to take your own air guitar to
the heights of rock god status.
For those about to air rock, I
salute you! — Jared Curtis
For
more than a century, the ballad
“John Henry” has been ingrained
in America’s folklore, but few
people, until now, knew who the
mighty railroad man was or even
if there was a real John Henry.
Author Scott Reynolds Nelson recounts
the true story of the steel driver
behind the most recorded folk
song in American history (W.C.
Handy, Carl Sandburg, Tennessee
Ernie Ford, Johnny Cash) by telling
the story of a Virginia convict
who died helping to build the
first railroad through the Appalachian
Mountains. Nelson even confirms
the contest between John Henry
and the steam drill used to dig
the Lewis Tunnel — and how
the convicts drilled faster. Oh,
what a hammer swinger. — Michael
Swanger
“Fiddler’s
Curse” chronicles the bizarre
tale of two men (Ervin T. Rouse
and Chubby Wise) behind the popular
fiddle tune, “Orange Blossom Special,”
a signature hit for the late Johnny
Cash. Rouse, who endured mental
illness and alcoholism, spent
his last years fiddling for tips,
while Wise achieved fame as a
seminal fiddler during the birth
of the bluegrass era, but also
overcame personal demons. Though
the latter was widely credited
with writing the song, Cash endorsed
Rouse. “Fiddler’s Curse” settles
the longstanding controversy over
who wrote the song, while providing
the reader with some insight into
the lives of these itinerant musicians
during the 1930s and 1940s. —
Michael Swanger
Ira
Glass, producer and host of the
popular public radio show “This
American Life,” brings his unique
view of the world to print in
this compelling collection of
daring non-fiction. Some of the
most progressive writers of our
time, including Michael Lewis,
Bill Buford, Susan Orlean and
Dan Savage, weigh in on a range
of topics that span from teenage
white collar criminals and Saddam
Hussein, to drunken British soccer
culture and buying a cow. As Glass
says in the preface, “These writers
are all entertainers, in the best
sense of the word.” — Michael
Swanger
Don’t
let the scientific language in
the title fool you Ian Whitelaw’s
only qualification for writing
this book is that he lives in
the (reputably) polite nation
of Canada. Whitelaw targets the
most obvious anti-social behaviors
such as “breaking wind” or “nose
picking” in this manual, which
makes it more of a social commentary
on the behavior of preschoolers.
Most people have broken or at
least hidden these habits by the
time they’re old enough to purchase
books on their own, so investing
is this pocket-sized manual is
a bad bet. The only useful function
that might be performed by its
publication is that, just maybe,
the people who use cell phones
in enclosed public spaces (you
know who you are) will pick it
up and flip to page 18. Whitelaw
writes, “In many countries, it
is becoming clear that the plague
of the cell phone and its attendant
antisocial behavior needs to be
brought under control.” I agree,
but this book has little chance
of making a dent in that phenomenon.
— Sean J. Miller
Gordon
Rottman served in the United States
Army for 26 years, including a
tour of Vietnam in the 5th Special
Forces Group, so he has an understanding
of the word that serves as the
title of his book on military
slang. Before it was the name
of a drinking establishment or
reintroduced in the film “Saving
Private Ryan,” FUBAR was an expression
used by soldiers during World
War II who experienced hell on
earth. Rottman provides readers
a short introduction of soldier
slang before sharing the hundreds
of words, nicknames, acronyms,
abbreviations and phrases used
by soldiers — on both sides
of the war. Not only do they illustrate
the way soldiers spoke to one
another in their own colorful
language, they remind us how they
helped shape the American lexicon.
— Michael Swanger
Wendy
Northcutt started doling out the
Darwin Awards on a Web site (www.darwinawards.com)
in 1993, and has since published
four volumes chronicling the true
and thought-to-be true stories
of immense stupidity — the stories
are marked as confirmed or unconfirmed
by “Darwin.” She writes that,
in order to receive a Darwin Award,
a nominee must “improve the gene
pool by eliminating themselves
from the human race in an astonishingly
stupid way.” There is also the
Living Darwin Award, for those
who survive to tell the tale.
The book is divided into sections
based on what the incident involved,
such as “animals” or “alcohol.”
Inevitably, some of the funniest
stories come from the “explosion/fire”
category. For instance, a story
about a 26-year-old Australian
who, for whatever reason, placed
a lit firecracker in between the
cheeks of his buttocks, then fell
backwards, resulting in a nasty
injury from the inevitable explosion.
The book is filled with these
short, cautionary tales and makes
for a quick, easy read. — Sean
J. Miller
Critically
acclaimed film auteur David Lynch
creates a book of thoughts on
his life, his films and his passion
— meditation. Lynch has always
been a promoter of meditation
and relies heavily on it as an
artist. “Diving within” and “catching
ideas” like fish is the basis
for the title. Fans of Lynch’s
radical films will be interested
in how the filmmaker conjures
up the ideas for them. Non-Lynch
fans will still enjoy the read
as it is an interesting journey
through the man’s mind. The book
is filled with more than 160 passages
ranging from “Lost Highway,” an
insight to how the film was supposed
to be Lynch’s return to television,
to “Suffering,” a passage on how
conflict and stress can ruin an
artist’s creativity. After finishing
Lynch’s book, I felt like I do
after watching his films — confused.
— Jared Curtis
It’s
not difficult to imagine that
if Jane Austen were alive today,
she might make a living as the
heir to Abigail Van Buren, dispensing
advice to wayward, miserable or
generally confused souls. After
all, she was the creator of meddling-but-well-intentioned
Emma Woodhouse. In “Dear Jane
Austen,” Hannon, who holds a Ph.D.
in English literature from Rutgers
University and has been teaching
Austen’s novels for years, answers
the question: what would Jane
Austen tell 21st century women
about life, love, friendship,
beauty, and family? From her drawing
room at Chawton Cottage, Austen
responds to letters signed by
“Bewildered,” “Timid and Trembling”
and “Lovestruck.” Austen’s advice
is often rambling and dispensed
coldly, with a hint of an upturned
nose. While advising not to date
your sister’s ex-boyfriend and
to respect your parents, Austen
sneaks in some personal history
(we learn her brothers Frank and
Charles were in the navy, for
example) and jabs at her fellow
female writers (the Bronte sisters
filled their stories with “improbable
circumstances and unnatural characters”
and George Eliot was too didactic).
In the end, Hannon’s impersonation
of Austen is grating. If you are
looking for examples of life and
love, as well as an enjoyable
read, pick up “Emma” instead.
—Andrew Brink 
Author
Mark Louis Latour wrote this book
“out of a deep sense of dissatisfaction
with the direction of American
government during the administration
of President George W. Bush,”
which judging by Bush’s dismal
approval ratings, should resonate
with many Americans. Though Latour
sometimes falls short in blaming
Republicans for everything under
the sun, and his rhetoric doesn’t
stray from the Democrats’ playbook,
he articulates well researched
explanations and opinions about
hot-button topics like taxes,
national security and foreign
policy, immigration, health care,
social security, environmental
protection, farms, gay rights,
media consolidation, states rights
and corporate crime. With elections
around the corner, “American Government
and the Vision of the Democrats”
might be a bible [it’s thick enough]
of sorts for pundits on both sides
of the political aisle. — Michael
Swanger
This
books tries to tap a market that
Bernard Goldberg (“100 People
Who Are Screwing Up America”)
owns; Goldberg even wrote the
foreword. There’s a big difference
though. Goldberg is witty enough
to appeal to all kinds of ideological
types, at least those of us who
have not forgotten how to laugh
at ourselves. Prelutsky writes
with less wit and more dumb venom.
He thus falls back on mean spiritedness
like “What do Islam and bubonic
plague have in common? Just about
everything” or “Give us your huddled
masses, but must they all be Mexicans?”
If those chapter titles appeal
to you, you’ll want a copy of
this for every racist sociopath
on your Christmas list. — Jim
Duncan
By
Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D.
This
book of quirky, little known political
facts and anecdotes is the kind
you leave in a basket next to
your toilet. It’s not crap — hence
next to the toilet — but it’s
not literature. You can pick it
up, flip through it again and
again, and always find an interesting
tidbit of American political lore.
For instance, ever wondered what
President Bush gets paid? ($400,000,
before taxes) Or what interesting
jobs past presidents held before
they arrived at the highest office
in the land? (Richard Nixon spent
the summers of his youth working
as a “carnival barker” for the
Wheel of Chance at the Slippery
Gulch Rodeo.) This is the kind
of “knowledge” you can bust out
with your friends over beers to
make it seem you’re a “learned”
individual. Of course, that might
not make you popular, but there’s
a book for that, too. — Sean J.
Miller
This
is the kind of book that has a
specific audience: educated, non-religious,
East Coast liberals. Few people
who live near “mega-churches”
or who work with practicing Christians
will like this “guide,” which
seeks to navigate readers through
the supposedly over-the-top craziness
of the evangelical community in
America. Lanham, who lives in
New York City, says the book is
researched, and writes, “Traditional
churches are a dying breed, we
discovered; almost all the churches
we visited resorted to gimmicks
and sensationalism.” Really? I
find that claim hard to believe,
unless of course Lanham and his
researchers were looking for churches
that employed “gimmicks and sensationalism.”
As this statement appears at the
beginning of the book, it suggests
that the reader should suspend
his disbelief while embarking
on this tour of the religious
right. Another reason why I didn’t
like this book, and there are
several, was that many of the
subjects of the guide, which was
first published in 2006, have
recently been discredited. For
instance, Ted Haggard, who was
the senior pastor at the influential
Colorado Springs’ New Life Church,
resigned in November 2006, after
he was accused by a former male
prostitute of being gay and using
meth. The book seeks to expose
the hypocrisy of the evangelical
movement but, in doing, it a takes
a holier-than-thou perspective
and demonizes religious practice.
Isn’t that ironic? — Sean J. Miller
“My
Lolita Complex” is nine fascinating
short stories including a British
super spy, a sexy vampire slayer,
an aging crime boss and others
who discover their limits between
crime and passion. Collins — also
the author of the award-winning
Nate Heller mysteries, the graphic
novel that spawned “The Road to
Perdition” starring Tom Hanks
— tells more stories from the
Civil War, to the women’s empowered
1940s, to having Bigfoot’s baby.
Full of mean sexy action, “Complex”
shows mastery of short fiction
intertwined with crime and, at
times, downright fornication.
Opening with “A Woman’s Touch,”
a Civil War-set, the book’s nine
stories are complete with history
and social commentary making the
read saucy and satisfying. If
your cup of tea is more on the
wild and obscure side, don’t be
afraid to take the plunge. — Roderick
Kabel
Erotica
writer Polly Frost delivers 10
tantalizing tales of supernatural
erotica just in time for Halloween
that involve a nervous virgin
tempted by an unearthly sacrifice,
lust-crazed Viagra addicts, a
seductive serial killer and a
street cop hooked on alien ecstasy.
Though passages like “She bit
her lip when she saw his cock.
It was cruelly enormous, something
that should belong to a wild beast,
not a man,” don’t inspire me to
rid my bookshelves of works by
Faulkner, Hemingway, Hughes and
Whitman, lots of depraved people
crave the forbidden pleasures
of sci-fi erotica: “Deep Inside”
has already reached No. 1 on Japan
Amazon’s erotica bestseller list.
Porn star Ron Jeremy sums it up
best: “I found this book difficult
to read, because the blood kept
leaving my brain and entering
my penis.” — Michael Swanger
| Best Of . . . | Wedding Guide | Relish Dining Guide |
|
|
 |
|
| Condo & Loft Guide | Annual Manual | Education Guide |
 |
 |
 |
| Nightlife | Golf Guide | Wine Tour Guide |
 |
 |
 |
|
| |||||