I have a coworker who is borderline obsessed with the Holocaust — she’s still in college and wants to make it her main focus of study. I was a history major as well — although I focused mainly on the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War — so we discuss her classes and what she’s learning (both in class and on her own) often at work. She knows I’m a big reader, so when she heard of Niklas Frank’s biography of his father, Hans […]
Agorafabulous! by Sara Benincasa
I’d never heard of Sara Benincasa before my sister lent me this book, but apparently she does stand up comedy. A lot of her act revolves around her struggles with anxiety, which is also the focus of this book. She attacks the subject with humor and frankness, and the result is an interesting, enlightening read. Benincasa started having anxiety attacks around the age of 10. The first really severe one occurred in a bathroom in Italy when she was in high school. This evolved into a […]
On Despotism, Famine, and Glimmers of Hope
Imagine this. You’re a college student from a fairly prosperous family. You know things are starting to go wrong in your country, but your position in life shelters you from the profoundly bad shit that’s going down. You have a girlfriend, but social mores and the difference in your stations mean that the most you’ve ever done is hold her hand during late-night walks down unlit streets. But then, your family begins to run out of money, long after less fortunate people have already begun […]
He was so much more…
Where Men Win Glory takes it’s title from a translation of the Iliad – “Who among mortal men are you, good friend? Since / never before have I seen you in the fighting where / men win glory, yet now you have come striding far / out in front of all others in your great heart…” I don’t think that the parallel to Achilles is particularly apt. Achilles desired to win glory for himself whereas Pat Tillman never seemed to care for glory. Nevertheless, it […]
Travel and Food Through the Eyes of Bourdain
A Cook’s Tour is the pretty standard Anthony Bourdain blend of offensive humor, drinking stories, and gratuitous food porn. I greatly enjoy his style of writing, and love reading his descriptions of food – for me, it comes alive. Although Bourdain is first and foremost known for his food writing and biting, sometimes nasty tone, I think his strongest writing comes when Bourdain gets sentimental and examines the beauty in the world, reflects on his surroundings. Read the rest of my review here.
All Over But the Criticism
Rick Bragg’s memoir, All Over But the Shoutin’, has a lot of potential. He ostensibly claims it is a story about his mother and growing up extremely poor in Northeastern Alabama. Bragg grew up with a single mother and a father who drank a lot, and somehow turned into a reporter for the New York Times who won a Pulitzer Prize. Bragg does some things really well with this book. His depiction of his mother is of a wonderful woman who gave up everything to […]
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