Books

Book Review: Photographer Diane Arbus — Lingering Mysteries

August 15, 2016
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“A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know,” Diane Arbus said. Her biographer notes that observation. Hard as he tries, many secrets remain.

Book Review: “Never A Dull Moment” — Rock Apotheosis

August 14, 2016
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Was 1971 greatest year in the history of rock? Read this delightful book and be prepared to argue.

Book Review: “My Marriage” — An Extraordinary Rediscovery

August 12, 2016
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Despite the pain of inhabiting Alexander Herzog’s disintegrating world, I absolutely could not put My Marriage aside.

Book Review: “Smedley’s Secret Guide to Literature” — Teenage Lit-Land

August 8, 2016
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This savvy, witty, and casually erudite novella proves that when it comes portraying adolescence in fiction the less sentimentality the better.

Author Appreciation: The Fiction of Kent Haruf — Surviving Ordinary Life with Grace

August 5, 2016
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Kent Haruf’s novels remind us that even in the hardest lives, there is joy, often delicate and evanescent, but joy, nevertheless.

Book Review: “The Violet Hour” — Death Illuminated

August 2, 2016
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In her fabulous, intensely involving book, author Katie Roiphe crawls into the deathbeds of five writers who wrote brilliantly and prolifically.

Fuse Book Review: Peter Kramer’s Fight for Optimism about Antidepressants

July 29, 2016
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In this book, Peter D. Kramer counters what he sees as an ill-informed and dangerous backlash against antidepressant medications.

Book Review: “Serious Bidness” — Seriously Deranged

July 27, 2016
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Devotees of modern and contemporary art will find this an inscrutable yet irresistible 72-page book.

Book Review: “How to Listen to Jazz” — A Helpful Earful

July 26, 2016
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Readers inspired to take a listening journey from Gioia’s historical perspective will benefit greatly from his delineation of jazz’s various forms.

Book Review: “Every Song Ever” — Notes From an Enigmatic Ear

July 26, 2016
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Ben Ratliff’s volume about how to listen to music is full of fairly radical but largely undefended assertions.

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