Interview: Jeremie Ruby-Strauss
Many editors are coy when asked about the type of books they want. They pay lip service to the ideal of furthering great literature and artistic experimentation and then they publish a Nicole Ritchie novel. However, Jeremie Ruby-Strauss is straight-forward, direct, and to the point. When an interviewer once asked him what kind of books he was…
continue readingThe Munchkin Skag Problem
Irvine Welsh’s play about the “the private lives of the Munchkin characters from The Wizard of Oz“ is set to debut in Dublin. The Scotsman is reporting that “in one of the classic film’s background scenes, a Munchkin can reportedly be seen hanging from a tree, having apparently committed suicide. Welsh uses that as the starting…
continue readingA Mom’s Guide To Turning Out
Gawker comments on a Star magazine interview with Dina Lohan. It seems the mother of Lindsay Lohan, that teen actress with the 45-year-chain-smokers rasp, is writing a book to help parents “to manage and how this all happened. It’s about avoiding pitfalls,” with showbiz kids. The elder Lohan tells the Star that “I get so much…
continue readingReview: Going Postal
My review of Mark Ames’ Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion From Reagan’s Workplaces to Clinton’s Columbine and Beyond is available on PopMatters today. Ames examines workplace and school massacres by looking at the environments that spawned the tragedies. This is a grueling book to read. For example, there is a section on CEO greed that will…
continue readingThe Value of Indepent Bookstores
From the always-informative Bookslut, I learned about Tyler Cowan’s article on Slate about the value of independent bookstores. In What Are Independent Bookstores Really Good For? Not Much, Cowan argues that “Our attachment to independent bookshops is, in part, affectation—a self-conscious desire to belong a particular community (or to seem to). Patronizing indies helps us think…
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