The New Yorker | Raging Biblio-holism

A Brief History of Seven Killings

February 2, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: In 1976, gunmen attempted to assassinate Bob Marley on the eve of the great Smile Jamaica Concert. The novel begins the day before the assassination attempt and then leaps forward over nearly 20 ensuing years between Jamaica, Miami, and New York City – painting a rich portrait of crime, drugs, violence, journalism, CIA spooks, and music. The Review: A Brief History is one of those stories that isn’t about anything so much as it is about the world we’ve […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: A Brief History of Seven Killings, Bob Marley, CIA, Cocaine, Crack, Drug Dealers, Drugs, Fiction, Gang Warfare, Gangs, History, Jamaica, Journalism, Kingston, Literature, Marlon James, Miami, Music, New York City, Politics, Rasta, Rastafarian, Reggae, The New Yorker, The Tournament of Books 2015

Selected Shorts: Teju Cole & Salman Rushdie

December 11, 2014 by Drew

(a hastily snapped photo during company bows at the end of the show – from L, Salman Rushdie, Zainab Jah, Michael Stuhlbarg, Teju Cole, Blythe Danner, Jeffrey Wright, Matthew Love) Well, it got sort of swept aside in all of the terrible new about human rights violations this week (and the past few weeks) but it turns out yesterday was Human Rights Day. And, as Matthew Love said at the top of the show, could you put better authors on stage […]

Categories: Events, Features • Tags: Blythe Danner, Events, Fiction, In the South, Jeffrey Wright, Michael Stuhlbarg, NYC, Recap, Recaps, Salman Rushdie, Selected Shorts, Short Stories, Small Fates, Small Fates 2012, Symphony Space, Teju Cole, The New Yorker, Twitter, Zainab Jah

Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief

April 10, 2014 by Drew

The Short Version: After his 2011 profile of Paul Haggis in The New Yorker, Lawrence Wright dug further into the realities behind the mysterious religion-to-the-stars, Scientology. Beginning with an exploration of the eccentric founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and moving forward to the present-day church, he throws back the curtain on this secretive ‘religion’ with sobering results. The Review: Religion is a complicated thing to talk about. As Wright points out several times with increasing clarity throughout the book, religion requires belief in […]

Categories: Non-Fiction • Tags: 5+, Going Clear, Going Clear: Scientology Hollywood & the Prison of Belief, Hollywood, Journalism, Larry Wright, Lawrence Wright, Non-Fiction, Paul Haggis, Religion, Scientology, The New Yorker, The Prison of Belief

Truth in Advertising

November 19, 2013 by Drew

The Short Version: Fin Dolan works in advertising. He isn’t particularly great at his job, although he isn’t bad at it either. One thing is for sure: he hates it. Or at least he thinks he does, he’s not sure. And when his deadbeat father ends up in the hospital at the same time as a major account bumps up its deadline, Fin spends his holidays figuring out how to be a son, a brother, someone worth loving – and […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Advertising, Fiction, Humor, John Kenney, Literature, The New Yorker, Truth in Advertising, WMFU novel

Book Launch: Night Film

August 21, 2013 by Drew

The scene at powerHouse Arena You know what would be an excellent place to screen one of Cordova’s “black tapes”? The powerHouse Arena. Put the audience in with their backs to the windows, maybe, and project it up on that big white wall? Or drop a screen and let everyone sit as they were last night. Regardless, it’s a decidedly excellent place for a book launch – and so it was yesterday evening for the launch of Marisha Pessl’s gobsmackingly […]

Categories: Events, Features • Tags: Adam Green, Book Launch, Brooklyn, DUMBO, Events, Fiction, Marisha Pessl, Night Film, Powerhouse, Powerhouse Arena, Powerhouse Books, The New Yorker, Vogue

Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

Tag: The New Yorker

A Brief History of Seven Killings

Selected Shorts: Teju Cole & Salman Rushdie

Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief

Truth in Advertising

Book Launch: Night Film