Books

IN THIS INTERVIEW, Monica Drake talks with author Eileen Myles about her new book, Cool For You. For more info, see our Readings calendar, pg 24. Monica: Why do you think it’s harder for women than for men to cash in on the cache of cool? Eileen: The cool thing is a great topic that’s […]

Featuring salient essays on everything that makes authors tick: fame, grief, drunkeness. SLEEPLESS IN LONDON Advice For the Just-Famous Author Chuck Palahniuk FAULKNER DID IT FOR THE MONEY by Kassten Alonso THE THRILL OF GRIEF Grief’s Roller Coaster and the Successful Memoir by Monica Drake SHOWDOWN WITH EVEL! Former Portlander Steve Mandich and the King […]

Kokigami: Performance Enhancing Adornments for the Adventurous Man Burton Silver and Heather Busch (Ten Speed Press) It’s a book of paper dolls for the penis, based on an ancient Japanese practice. There’s a dancing squid, a bull dog, a speedy little sports car, a happy-faced pig called “Buta,” who “likes to root about in the […]

A friend of mine used to teach creative writing at a community college, where most of her students were unemployed loggers. I’m telling this to my British publisher, Caroline, at a swanky dinner party in London, after a three-hour book signing. She’s beautiful sitting across from me, twisting a strand of long dark hair between […]

WILLIAM FAULKNER’S ass was chapped. Thirty-one and with four novels out in the world, he had yet to receive any acclaim for his work; he was also chronically broke. Tired of bullshit poverty, Faulkner decided to write “the most horrific tale [he] could imagine,” a roman noir contaminated by moral degeneration, sexual depravity and murder. […]

AS I LEFT a midday yoga class, the woman in the lobby ahead of me was already on her cell phone. “You know how to drain the Jacuzzi?” she asked whoever was on the other end. The book the woman held, along with her bag, car keys and towel, was Frank McCourt’s first memoir, Angela’s […]

F YOU’RE A CHILD of the ’60s or ’70s, you were probably one of those people who revered motorcycle stunt man Evel Knievel in one way or another. Representing the bombastic American attitude and naîveté of those pre-ironic times, everyone had something to love about Evel. Some identified with his lack of respect for authority, […]

RICHARD MELTZER is the author of several books, including L.A. Is The Capital Of Kansas, The Night (Alone): A Novel, and, most recently, A Whore Just Like The Rest. Whore is a collection of Meltzer’s writing about music, mostly rock and roll, over the last four decades. Meltzer claims to have invented, along with Lester […]

Maakies by Tony Millionaire (Fantagraphics Books) A TOAST! To Drinky Crow and Uncle Gabby! To Captain Maak and his man-o’-war! To battle against Frenchified crocodiles on the briny blue sea! Sköal! To limb-lopping, head-chopping, and gunshot wounds to the dome! To brains–when not blown out–engaging in Chinese fire drills! To hearts spurned and trampled by […]

Rowing in Eden Elizabeth Evans (Harpercollins) God bless the child who grows up to become a writer. Keeper of the gate as opposed to life of the party. Introverted note-taker, instead of self-confident prom queen. Awkward and stumbling in matters of the heart. And so it is with bookish outcast Frances Jean Wahl, the 13-year-old […]