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Articles tagged with: books

The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories
August 10, 2008 – 9:28 AM | 11 Comments
<I>The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories</I>

…some of which require the bulk of said century to get to the point.[rimshot]Seriously, though: many of the stories faff around for two or three pages explaining how the protagonist had come to marry a …

True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa
July 25, 2008 – 2:06 PM | 3 Comments
<I>True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa</I>

I forget where I read the article that referred me to the book, but it went straight onto my Amazon wish list — I mean, what a crazy story. A Times reporter gets bounced from …

Positively 5th Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion’s World Series of Poker
July 24, 2008 – 5:06 PM | 10 Comments
<I>Positively 5th Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion’s World Series of Poker</I>

Vegas is one of those topics (others include sex and music reviews) that requires as even a writing tone as possible — the less tone of any kind, the better, in fact, because it’s already …

Support Local Business: July 11, 2008
July 11, 2008 – 1:33 PM | 2 Comments
Support Local Business: July 11, 2008

Brooklyn retail fun times: 50-90 percent off previous seasons’ merch at Flirt (the sale is not at their Fifth Ave. storefront; it’s at Home Ec, 303 Third Ave. at Carroll Street).Also, Olive’s Very Vintage is …

Department Of Famous Boyfriends: Walter Kirn
July 6, 2008 – 12:36 PM | 31 Comments
Department Of Famous Boyfriends: Walter Kirn

Walter Kirn’s zero-Fahrenheit appraisal of James Frey’s new novel, Bright Shiny Morning, is a reviewing masterpiece, opening with a sharp observation about the L.A.-novel genre and building through concisely dismissive observations about Frey’s prose to …

The Chris Farley Show
July 3, 2008 – 9:49 AM | 9 Comments
<I>The Chris Farley Show</I>

Reading The Chris Farley Show immediately after Wired is perhaps not the best idea if the goal is to lighten one’s mood, but I figured, what the hell — I have them both in the …

Wired
July 2, 2008 – 9:13 PM | 34 Comments
<I>Wired</I>

I have always had trouble…accessing John Belushi, I guess is the right term.The guy is just not funny to me.A lot of early/”classic” SNL is not funny to me, which stems partly from hearing the …

Everybody’s All-American
June 10, 2008 – 12:22 PM | 8 Comments

Frank Deford is a good writer; a novel about what becomes of an All-American football player after the football ends is a good idea; Everybody’s All-American is not a good book. It did not make …

Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil
June 2, 2008 – 7:39 PM | 15 Comments
<I>Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil</I>

A fast, enjoyable read, easy to get right into. Berendt has just the right touch for the material, too, which focuses on the kookier citizens of Savannah and is therefore in danger of going to …

Due Respect
May 29, 2008 – 9:43 AM | 74 Comments
Due Respect

“Everyone except me is just so STUPID.”
I like finding out that people or institutions don’t suck as much as I’d thought. It happened three years ago, during the writing of the TWoP book; I had …