Essays | Raging Biblio-holism

The Argonauts

December 14, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Part memoir, part theory exploration, part prose-poem, part theory creation – The Argonauts is the story of Maggie Nelson’s courtship with and marriage to Harry Dodge, her pregnancy, a country’s evolving mind on gender and sexuality, and a look at the theory that has created a single human’s worldview. The Review: There is such a joy in discovering something to be not only worthy of the hype, but worthy of continued generation of that hype. So it is with […]

Categories: Essays, Memoir, Non-Fiction, Poetry • Tags: 6, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, BookClub, Books, Essays, Favorites, Feminism, Gender Theory, Maggie Nelson, Memoir, Non-Fiction, Philosophy, Queer Theory, review, Reviews, The Argonauts, Theory

Future Sex

December 9, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Having turned 30 without settling into a committed relationship like she thought she would, Emily Witt takes the moment to take stock of our modern relationships – to each other, to sexuality in general, and to the way that technology has changed both. The Review: I had high hopes for this collection. As the jacket copy promises, we are at an intriguing and complicated moment in the history of sex, sexuality, gender, and love. Never before have so […]

Categories: Essays, Non-Fiction • Tags: Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Emily Witt, Essays, Future Sex, Non-Fiction, review, Reviews, Sex, Sexuality

The Care and Feeding of an Independent Bookstore

September 26, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: For Independent Bookstore Day 2016, Ann Patchett (perhaps the most famous independent bookstore owner in the world) adapted her Atlantic article as well as delivered two new pieces to encourage others in the care and feeding of such an exotic beast. The Review: I’m a sucker for an exclusive piece of literature, especially when it’s got its heart in the right place. This can most certainly be said for the first “A $6 Story” from the folks […]

Categories: Essays, Non-Fiction • Tags: A $6 Story, Ann Patchett, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Bookstores, Essays, Independent Bookstore Day, Independent Bookstores, Non-Fiction, Parnassus Books, review, Reviews, The Care and Feeding of an Independent Bookstore

The Hatred of Poetry

June 15, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Why do so many people hate poetry, or at least claim that they do? What is it, through history, that has caused a disconnect between the idea of poetry as perhaps the most noble of art forms… and the reality of its crushing inadequacy? Ben Lerner, a noted poet in his own right, believes that it may be part of poetry’s essence: that there will always be an impossible gap between a poem’s goal and its actual […]

Categories: Essays, Non-Fiction, Poetry • Tags: Ben Lerner, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Essay, Essays, FSG Originals, Monograph, Non-Fiction, Philosophy, Poetry, Reviews, The Hatred of Poetry

Palm Sunday

April 29, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: A ‘collage’, as the man himself puts it, of essays and speeches and thoughts and even a short story and a play – all of which add up to a charmingly odd portrait of a literary life. The Review: There is something about Kurt Vonnegut that runs the risk of coming off as too self-assured, almost cocky, sometimes. It is, perhaps, only his relentlessly Midwestern sense of self-deprecation that saves him – but I have to admit […]

Categories: Essays, Memoir, Non-Fiction • Tags: Autobiography, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Essays, Kurt Vonnegut, Memoir, Non-Fiction, Palm Sunday, Reviews, Short Stories, The Ten Year Catch-Up, Vonnegut 201x

M Train

December 18, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Over the course of a year and a half or so, Patti Smith reflects on the roads she has traveled to come to this point as well and also recounts some of the roads she continues to travel down. The Review: Just Kids is, I think you’ll have to agree, one of the best memoirs ever written. Patti Smith gave us a glimpse into a world that transfixes us even still – the 60s & 70s in New York, a […]

Categories: Essays, Memoir, Non-Fiction • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, BookClub, Books, Essays, M Train, Memoir, New York City, Patti Smith, Reviews, Travel, Writing

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

Luke Skywalker Can’t Read and Other Geeky Truths

November 25, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Maybe you’ve never seen Star Wars or read Harry Potter, never imagined you were running from the boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark or solving a mystery with your deerstalker cap. But chances are, you’ve got a bit of geek in you – we all do. Ryan Britt definitely does and he sets out to consider as much of geekdom as he can in this debut collection. The Review: I don’t know if you’ve figured it out yet, but I’m a […]

Categories: Essays, Non-Fiction • Tags: Barbarella, Essays, Fandom, Fans, Fantasy, Luke Skywalker Can't Read, Luke Skywalker Can't Read and Other Geeky Truths, Non-Fiction, Pop Culture, Ryan Britt, Sci-Fi, Space, Star Wars

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

November 20, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Oliver Sacks digs into some of his most interesting cases – those that show minds operating outside the normal spectrum, interpreting the world in ways the rest of us could only imagine. The Review: I came to Oliver Sacks only after his passing. I’d read a few excerpts here and there, mostly pieces that popped up in The New Yorker, but I’d never made the concerted effort to read his work. The closest I ever came was probably seeing […]

Categories: Non-Fiction • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, BookClub, Books, Brain Science, Brains, Doctors, Essays, Health, Medicine, Neurology, Non-Fiction, Oliver Sacks, Reviews, Stories, Tales, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

Tag: Essays