Baseball

“I wrote 63 songs this year. They’re all about Jeter.” Just kidding. The game we love, the players we hate, and more.

Culture and Criticism

From Norman Mailer to Wendy Pepper — everything on film, TV, books, music, and snacks (shut up, raisins), plus the Girls’ Bike Club.

Donors Choose and Contests

Helping public schools, winning prizes, sending a crazy lady in a tomato costume out in public.

Stories, True and Otherwise

Monologues, travelogues, fiction, and fart humor. And hens. Don’t forget the hens.

The Vine

The Tomato Nation advice column addresses your questions on etiquette, grammar, romance, and pet misbehavior. Ask The Readers about books or fashion today!

Jafsie and John Henry: Essays
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

It’s a strange little book of short pieces, but I like Mamet’s writing so much, the way he just trusts you to keep up and in turn trust him, and he just says what he …

In Search of Captain Zero: A Surfer’s Road Trip Beyond the End of the Road
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

I don’t know why I even owned this book; I think an editor sent it to me, thinking I’d like it, and it just sat on the unread pile for several years — and Lord …

How Not to Write a Screenplay: 101 Common Mistakes Most Screenwriters Make
March 5, 2007 · One Comment

It’s fairly informative on a technical level, which is a nice change, and it’s not all annoyingly “let me tell you about my experience with blah dee blah” like a lot of writing in this …

Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

It started slowly — I was on a plane and I STILL couldn’t get into it — but once the Manson Family finally gets arrested (…spoiler!   Hee, just kidding), it picks up.   I …

Golden Girl: The Story of Jessica Savitch
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

The ending felt kind of rushed, and as I did while reading <i>Permanent Midnight</i>, I found myself wondering how someone so allegedly out of control could continue working and getting contracts renewed.   But the …

The Ghosts of Hopewell
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

In the last twenty or thirty pages, the writing improved marginally, but the book’s central problem is that it claims to rebut certain theories regarding the Lindbergh case, while dismissing most of them with what …

Geek Love
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

I read it pretty much in one shot yesterday while waiting for The Invisible Verizon Man, which is good, because otherwise I don’t think I would have stuck with it.   Dunn’s ability to nail …

Gasping for Airtime: Two Years in the Trenches of Saturday Night Live
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

Jay Mohr’s primary complaint here seems to be that he couldn’t get many sketches on the air, but if the writing in this book is any indication…I mean, I know writing a book and writing …

F’d Companies
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

The book came out in ’02, so it’s even funnier now to read through the list of dot-bombs…although I still kind of miss Kozmo and think he was unnecessarily mean to it.   I mean, …

Freaky Deaky
March 5, 2007 · No Comment

Good writing, good plotting, deeply annoying characters, especially the women.   I really couldn’t stand Robin, and maybe I’m not supposed to like her, but I don’t enjoy spending that much time with characters who …