The Frog King Adam Davies (Riverhead Books) Adam Davies’ probably-more-than-semi-autobiographical protagonist, a New York assistant editor named Harry Driscoll, is a bit of a wordsmith, and uses words like “eviscerate,” “pretermit,” and “philoprogeneration” on a regular basis. He (and Davies) use the words to be somewhat cute, of course, but they also serve as a […]
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THURSDAY 8/22 John Colapinto The plot of this story goes like this: a guy dies, and his roommate steals a manuscript from him and publishes it under his own name. Of course, this is a disaster, and the book tells the tale of the ensuing carnage. Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, 246-0053, 7:30, […]
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Heavier Than Heaven
Book Review
Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain Charles Cross Reading Fri Aug 23, 7:30 pm Powell’s City of Books Kurt Cobain has been dead for eight years. Yet, this week, his eyes peer again from the cover of Rolling Stone, thanks to modern developments in the story of his complicated, short life. It reads […]
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THURSDAY 8/15 Mark Spragg “It was horses that allowed me early on to step away from the love affair I maintained with myself.” Such quotes abound in Spragg’s new award-winning memoir, Where Rivers Change Direction, an exploration of the love between two boyhood friends and the woman who leaves them both. Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 […]
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Koba the Dread: Laughter and the 20 Million
Book Review
Koba the Dread: Laughter and the 20 Million Martin Amis (Talk Miramax Books) It goes without saying–or it should–that we live in an age of celebrity. But in this age, one subset of the fame species has all but vanished from the cultural landscape: the literary celebrity. At the present moment, it could be argued […]
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Running with Scissors
Book Review
Running with Scissors Augusten Burroughs (St. Martin’s Press) Augusten Burroughs’ childhood was more fucked-up than yours. This point is made over and over again in Running With Scissors, Burroughs’ coming-of-age and coming-out memoir. And while it’s true that stories of dysfunctional families make up the recent memoir craze, this is not another pretentious, dreary weeper. […]
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THURSDAY 8/8 J.A. Jance Another multimillionaire purveyor of trashy pulp comes to town, hawking their wares. Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, 246-0053, 7:30 pm, $5 Sean Russell Epic fantasy stud, Russell, reads, discusses, and signs his new book, The Isle of Battle. Barnes & Noble (Jantzen Beach), 1720 N Jantzen Beach, 283-2800, 7:30 […]
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Joelle Fraser
Joelle Fraser The Territory of Men Powell’s City of Books Monday August 12 Some would say that Joelle Fraser is a floozy. Others might blame her mother, saying that man-eating apparently runs in the family. Perhaps it was all that moving around and living in the most liberal places of the pot and acid generation […]
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THURSDAY 7/25 Robin Maxwell The Queen’s Bastard is a biographical novel about the lesser-known periods of Elizabeth I’s life. In Other Words, 3734 SE Hawthorne Blvd, 232-6003, 7:30, free China Mieville Mieville’s new book, The Scar, is the story of some drama aboard a sea-faring vessel. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St, 228-4651, […]
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Adrian Tomine
Adrian Tomine Signing Summer Blonde, a collection of Optic Nerve issues five through eight Sunday, July 28, 4 pm Reading Frenzy, 921 SW Oak, 274-1449 Since age 16, Adrian Tomine has been drawing and writing his Optic Nerve comics. His work is very smart, sweet, and sometimes autobiographical, about the mostly unfunny foibles of human […]
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THURSDAY 7/18 Jennifer Davis In Juniper Tree Burning, Jennifer Davis talks about growing up as a hippie chick. Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, 246-0053, 7:30, free * Hobo: Trains and Tramping Eddy Joe Cotton tells his tale as a young man in the underground subculture of train-hopping. His reading comes complete with a […]
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Shawna Kenney
Shawna Kenney Powell’s City of Books Monday, July 22 7:30 pm “I have two theories on why a man goes to see a dominatrix,” says now-retired dominatrix Shawna Kenney. “First–and I think this is true for 90 percent of this men who go–most of them are in really powerful positions, and it’s a relief for […]