Archive for the ‘Creative Nonfiction’ Category
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22
Jun
2009
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman
Are you Gen X? IF the answer is yes, then you will love this book, and find it hilarious, see yourself mirrored in its image, and pass it on to all of your contemporaries. If the answer is no, because you were born BEFORE Gen Xers, you might giggle at the humor of the book, but more likely, you will wonder about the future of the country and which of your children have done what drugs. If you were born AFTER Gen Xers, you will LOL, see the occasional similarity between your own life and culture and theirs, but mostly wonder what the hell Klosterman is talking about and why anyone should care.
1
Jun
2009
Maus I & II by Art Spiegelman
I remember my sister having the first one over fifteen years ago. She was still living at home and going to college, which would make me… Let’s say 8. I wanted to look at them because they were cartoons, and she explained to me that they were about the Holocaust. I tried to read them anyways, but soon grew bored.
22
May
2009
Dakota: A Spiritual Geography by Kathleen Norris
I’m probably biased in saying this, but when it comes to spiritual writing (of the non-self help variety, for which there is nothing good) Kathleen Norris is better than Ann Lamott times infinity.
19
May
2009
Lipstick Jihad by Azadeh Moaveni
I just finished this book today. I have a lot to say about it. The first thing though, is that I highly recommend it–especially for book clubs. It’s a book that you’ll want to discuss.
18
May
2009
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
I remember learning in my high school International Relations class about Sierra Leone. We, suburban kids of various backgrounds, were shocked when we heard that not only do they chop people’s limbs off, but they conscript children to do it by forcing them into the army getting them addicted to “brown brown”, which is cocaine mixed with whatever else the army had (usually gunpowder).
14
May
2009
Persepolis 1 & 2 by by Marjane Satrapi
Of course, now you can buy these books as The Complete Persepolis, thereby saving about five bucks, but I have them as the picture shows. They are two different books, based on two different parts of the author’s life.
12
May
2009
Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott
You may have seen a pattern in some of my reading selections. If not, I’ll spell it out for you. I’m a fan of religion. Religion, writing, and shoes. Those are at the top of my pyramid of interests. When I was in college I double majored in English (creative writing) and Comparative Religion, and for a couple of years there I worked in a shoe store. Good times, good times.
7
May
2009
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised Ten Kids on 25 Words or Less by Terry Ryan
Teryy Ryan passed away two years ago from brain cancer. She spent her life as a technical writer and poet, though as far as I am aware, she never published her poetry. But man did she hit it big with her one and only book, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. I mean, a movie starring Julianne Moore an Woodey Harrelson? That’s a pretty good note to go out on.
28
Apr
2009
Pagan Spain by Richard Wright
Part of what gives Richard Wrights portrayal of Franco’s Spain, is the fact, prevalent in most of his work, that he’s black. The Spaniards don’t seem to care that much about that fact (fascists though they may be). Then again, it seems like Europeans didn’t care about a lot of things that weighed down America, and that’s why so many writers fled there during the first half of the 20th century.
21
Apr
2009
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
The nice thing about listening to David Sedaris for so many years on NPR is that reading his essays, you can hear his actual voice in your head. And really, his essays are pretty much uncensored versions of This American Life.
