America | Raging Biblio-holism

The Throwback Special

February 6, 2017 by Drew

The Short Version: A group of middle-aged men gather for their annual tradition of recreating what’s still regarded as perhaps the most brutal play in all of football history: The Throwback Special, when Joe Theismann’s leg was broken in primetime. Over their weekend stay in a nondescript hotel, they all feel their age, their concerns, and their lives in the context of this ritual reenactment. The Review: I was still reeling from the conclusion of Super Bowl LI as I finished […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: America, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Chris Bachelder, Fiction, Football, Literature, review, Reviews, The Throwback Special, The Tournament of Books 2017

The Wangs vs. the World

September 28, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Charles Wang came to America with next-to-nothing and turned himself into a makeup mogul. Two wives, three children, and a few decades later, he wakes up to find he’s lost everything in the early days of the 2008 financial crisis. So he packs up the car, picks up two of the kids, and drives across the US to meet the third – with the intention of, eventually, making his way back to China to reclaim the ancestral […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Advance Review, America, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, China, Family, jade Chang, review, Reviews, The Wangs vs. the World

Square Wave

February 1, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Sometime in the future, in a city called Halsley in an America not quite dystopic but certainly worse off than we are now, several lives intertwine: a writer interested in 17th-century Sri Lanka, a musician exploring microtones, the son of an Indian scientist researching weather modification, and more all come together not quite in harmony but in a sort of harmonic dissidence as the presidential elections loom… The Review: I’ll admit that for quite a long time with this […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Advance Review, America, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Dystopia, Fiction, History, Ideas, Literature, Mark de Silva, Music, Philosophy, Politics, Reviews, Science, Science Fiction, Square Wave, Two Dollar Radio

The Sellout

December 28, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: A young black man from the LA “agrarian ghetto” of Dickens sees his town wiped off the map – and so he sets out to save the town and maybe America… by reinstating slavery, resegregating the town, and ending up on trial before the Supreme Court. The Review: Luke Wiget’s review of The Sellout for The Rumpus was the only one I read before reading this book – and I read it months ago. Luke was the original producer of […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: America, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, Literature, Paul Beatty, Reviews, Satire, The Sellout, The Tournament of Books 2016

US(a.)

December 14, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: A new collection of poetry, essays, and script excerpts from one of our most fiery and passionate artists on the general theme of America, both now and then. The Review: I discovered Saul Williams in 2007 when Trent Reznor helped produce his phenomenal The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust and they gave it away as a pay-what-you-can sort of deal – this was immediately post-In Rainbows – and I had my mind blown the first time the needle dropped. This is […]

Categories: Non-Fiction, Poetry • Tags: America, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Current Events, Essays, Fiction, France, Memoir, Miles Davis, Non-Fiction, Paris, Poetry, Politics, Racism, Reviews, Saul Williams, Scripts, US (a.), USA

Hotels of North America

December 9, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: The compiled hotel reviews of one Reginald Edward Morse, who was briefly the top reviewer on RateYourLodging.com and whose writings reveal certain truths about society, humanity, and one man’s life. The Review: I’m distinctly self-aware of my writing this review, in a way that I’ve not ever been before, because this book is the compiled reviews of an online reviewer – and his reviews sometimes spin off of the object at hand into broader considerations. Although they go […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: America, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, Hotels, Hotels of North America, Literature, Meta, Online Reviews, RateYourLodging.com, Reginald Edward Morse, Reviews, Rick Moody, Travel, Travelogue

Want Not

December 2, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Kicking off at Thanksgiving 2008, three storylines (a freegan couple off-the-grid in NYC, a linguist having a mid-life crisis in the wake of his marriage’s dissolution, and an unhappy family in the New Jersey suburbs) begin a year that will lead them to a brief but life-altering intersection. The Review: Consumption. It’s a problem around the world but particularly in this country. If this book were a Dave Matthews Band song (hang on, I’ll explain), it might be “Too […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: America, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Consumption, Fiction, Jonathan Miles, Literature, Obesity, Reviews, Thanksgiving, Want Not

The Last Pilot

September 2, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Jim Harrison is a test pilot for the US Air Force, flying alongside legends like Chuck Yeager as they push – and break – the sound barrier. As America turns its eye to the stars, he must weigh personal tragedy against the chance to go boldly into a new era. The Review: When you look back on it, especially in our present moment (devoid of such inspiration or relentless drive towards anything but torpor, repression, and mundanity), it seems […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: America, Benjamin Johncock, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, Historical Fiction, History, Literature, Reviews, Space, Space Race, The Last Pilot

Helen & Troy’s Epic Road Quest

August 28, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: When Helen and Troy, two teenagers, are suborned by a Lost God into a quest, they have no choice but to hit the road and try to accomplish it without dying. Should be easy, seeing as Helen is a minotaur and Troy is a perfect human being… but road trips can be rough, even without the dragons and fates and the horde of orcs on your tail. The Review: I hope you were lucky enough to take a […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction • Tags: A. Lee Martinez, America, Fantasy, Fiction, Helen and Troy's Epic Road Quest, Humor, Quests, Road Trips

Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

Tag: America