Self-Centric Minis

Reading New Yorker staff writer Rachel Aviv's debut, Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us (September 13, 2022, Farrar, Straus and Giroux), I realized I had an unintentional trend this year of reading about selfhood in some form. It started with the first book I read in the year, Will Storr's...

Frighteningly Good Reads: A History of American Cemeteries

Another exciting bookish event to announce, and this one's happening right now: Frighteningly Good Reads! The wonderful Molly @ Silver Button Books hosts this ultra-relaxed read-a-thon every October, and it is truly my favorite reading event (it's also the only one I participate in besides Nonfiction November, so that should tell you everything you need...

Raising Lazarus: Beth Macy’s Follow-Up Reporting on the Opioid Epidemic

Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America’s Overdose Crisis, by Beth MacyUsed or new @SecondSale.com Journalist Beth Macy, who has been on the forefront of chronicling the opioid epidemic in the US for years, recently released her follow-up to 2018's Dopesick. I haven't really seen this new book get as much attention yet...

Nonfiction November Week 3: Be/Ask/Become The Expert: Foodoir and Food Writing

Week 3 here we go! This week our host is Veronica @ The Thousand Book Project and here's our topic: Week 3: (November 15-19) – Be The Expert/ Ask the Expert/ Become the Expert: Three ways to join in this week! You can either share 3 or more books on a single topic that you...

Two New Food Histories: The Secret History of Food and Taste Makers

Much as I love food writing, I've still not been reading as much of it recently. I did get to two good food histories recently out though. The Secret History of Food: Strange but True Stories About the Origins of Everything We Eat, by Matt Siegel (August 31, Ecco) Buy it used or new at...

Frighteningly Good Reads: Unbelievable and Zodiac

Are you joining up with Molly @ Silver Button Books for Frighteningly Good Reads? There's still one week until Halloween! I managed to surprise myself by reading not only the book I'd specifically set aside for Molly's very fun challenge, but another that had been on my shelves for awhile and is, arguably, the spookier...

Recent Current Events Nonfiction: Pandemic, Plague, and the Dying Days of Trump

I'm still slowly trying to get back into the writing-about-books swing of things! Did I mention we moved New York apartments the month before moving German apartments? Yeah, I'm still fucking exhausted. And I've been reading a lot more slowly but still reading, and although I have no brainpower for full reviews, here are some...

“Nothing More Familiar to the American Landscape Than Highways and Religion”

Review: Roadside Religion: In Search of the Sacred, the Strange, and the Substance of Faith, by Timothy Beal. Used or new @ SecondSale.com Perhaps you take to the road with the explicit aim of [...] discovering the world beyond your world. But what you end up discovering may be something more profoundly transformative and re-creative:...

Conning Culture: Hype in the Social Media Age

Hype: How Scammers, Grifters, and Con Artists Are Taking Over the Internet―and Why We're Following The story of the Fyre Festival, which saw Instagram influencers tricked into promoting a music festival on a private Bahamian island with luxury accommodations, gourmet dining and a picturesque setting, only to turn out to be a few rain-soaked tents...

Recent Release Minis: Nobody’s Normal, Made in China, You’ll Never Believe What happened to Lacey

Psychiatry, prison-camp manufactured Chinese goods, and racist tales from Nebraska. What a grab bag today. Let's dive in! Nobody's Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness, by Roy Richard Grinkerpublished January 26, 2021 by W.W. Norton Only recently did mental illnesses brand the whole person, not just his or her behavior, with what['s...]...

The Damaging, Disturbing Effects of America’s Ubiquitous “Raunch Culture”

Review: The Pornification of America, by Bernadette Barton Welcome to raunch culture in the 2020s — when the United States has devolved into a Hustler fantasy. Naked and half naked pictures of girls and women litter every screen, billboard, and bus. Pole dancing studios keep women fit while men airdrop their dick pics to female passengers on...

Insights and Introspections From a Former President

A Promised Land, by Barack Obama Is it even worth reviewing former President Barack Obama's book? What can I add to any discussion? It sells itself; you probably already knew before it came out whether you would read it or not. I struggled with whether I had anything meaningful to say about it, or if...