Words are a fucking nightmare when it comes to closeness, often. … Words became the enemy. — Stephanie LaFarge
Project Nim tells the frustrating story of Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee taken from his mother as an …

Hi Sars — I’ve enjoyed your site for years and hope to tap into the book knowledge that you and your readers have. I have a 7-year-old son who is a voracious reader. I love …

The story in question is that of Daniel McGowan, a former ELF agitator (and arsonist, by his own admission) who got pinched by federal agents in 2005. He’s not a terribly likely-looking “domestic terrorist,” certainly …

Everything. K, great: on to Film #2!
…Fine, it doesn’t get everything wrong. It’s not necessarily objectively terrible. The writing does a handful of things I can’t stand, though, and starts doing them immediately, so I …

The holiday season is looming and I’m trying to figure out how to deal with a situation before it becomes a Situation. (Could be worse. Could be The Situation…) Brief background: we’re thirtysomethings who live …

…Because we’re stupid, that’s why.
Okay, seriously: Couch Baron and I decided each to write up one film for every day in December. For him, it’s a way to get a jump on Oscar season; for …

The pre-Nixon-era mental hospital is a preoccupying terror of U.S. popular culture to this day. This isn’t without basis; madness, and its attendant visions and rants, is a preoccupation of narratives throughout the world and …

I searched the Vine archives but didn’t find an answer to this gift etiquette question, so here goes: my in-laws’ best friends sent us a large gift for my kiddos (an art easel) that I …

I’ve tried for years to find a YA book that I read and owned back in the late ’80s/early ’90s but I can’t find anything on the interwebs. So now I turn to you and …

On this episode of the Tomato Nation Read-Along: Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion, by Janet Reitman. It’s available in print and Kindle formats, as well as on audio, which is how …