 |
Volume I, Issue 41
March 16 - March 23, 1998
Want to know what all these checkboxes are for?
Click here to find out, or just ignore them.
Is That a Biography in Your Pocket..? 
Reviews of biographies "Becoming Mae West" and "The Ghosts of Medgar Evers" plus "SCTV: Behind the Scenes" by Dave Thomas and "Monster: Living off the Big Screen" by John Gregory Dunne. [3]
Batter Up 
The history of baseball, as interpreted by two of its leading lights. [4]
Gregory McNamee
Idiot Messiah 
Marilyn Manson's biography reveals some compelling ideas, but he can't quite get around his personal foibles and win our -- or even his own -- respect. [5]
Ted Drozdowski
Want to know what all these checkboxes are for?
Click here to find out, or just ignore them.
Bedtime Reading
Jonathan Coe's "House of Sleep" moves away from the glittering surfaces of satire into deeper waters. [2]
Richard C. Walls
Bug Out
Victor Pelevin's "The Life of Insects" and Bernard Werber's "Empire of the Ants" reveal bug life in translation. [6]
Megan Harlan
Want to know what all these checkboxes are for?
Click here to find out, or just ignore them.
Desert Prose 
Akex Shoumatoff's "Legends of the American Desert." [7]
Ernie Longmire
|
|
|
kay, maybe not all of the biographies in this week's "biographies"
section are really biographies. Sue me. "Becoming Mae West"
by Emily Wortis Leider is an actual biography, of course, but
the Babe Ruth and Albert Spalding books are more about baseball
than about the men who play them. (If you're wondering who Albert
Spalding is, just meditate on his last name while visualizing
a tennis ball.)
Then there's the Marilyn Manson book. I ask you, what could it
possibly be other than an autobiography? Yep, the narcissistic
chronic masturbator and aggressively Goth-postured rocker has
finally put his life to pen. But does the pen come to life?
There's plenty more biographical bookage here, but I'd like to
specifically point out a review of Dave Thomas's book on SCTV.
Again, not technically a biography, because it deals more with
the cast than Dave himself. But it's still a terrific book for
anyone who's ever enjoyed or wondered about SCTV -- a show that
could kick Saturday Night Live's butt without cameras on. Where
are the comedic equivalents today? "MAD TV"? Ha!
Want to know what all these checkboxes are for?
Click here to find out, or just ignore them.
Speed Reader
"The Sky, The Stars, The Wilderness" by Rick Bass; "La Vida Nortena" by David Burckhalter; "Tall in the Saddle" by Peggy Thompson; "Catch the Fire!" by Derrick I. M. Gilbert. [8]
Julie Birnbaum, Blake de Pastino, Devin O'Leary, Valerie Yarberry
Now What? 
Love to read? Need some clever ideas? Our library of resources and staff picks are guaranteed to turn on plenty of mental light bulbs via your electrified eye sockets. [9]
Build your own custom paper. To find out more
about this feature, click here.
|
|
