Books

Book Review: “Corpses, Fools and Monsters” — The History and Future of Trans Lives in Cinema

July 23, 2024
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The book’s final words offer hope for the future: “Despite the compromised nature of the trans film image of the past, there are many new horizons possible for the trans film image of the future, and that canvas, with all these images, will tell our story in cinema.”

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Book Review: Going Beyond the Great Van Gogh Hagiography Machine

July 21, 2024
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Émile Bernard, to his credit, spends much of his life redeeming rather than demeaning his friend.

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Book Review: “Goyhood” — A Rambunctious Romp and a Novel of Ideas

July 18, 2024
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“Goyhood” can be larger than life, and its plot is a real doozy, but this isn’t a lightly comic excursion: the religious and social consternations that roil the brothers Belkin are as earnest as they are outlandish. 

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Book Review: “Anything Is Good” — An Unforgettable Look at Life at the Margins

July 18, 2024
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Fred Waitzkin’s beautiful, sad book will stay with me forever.

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Book Review: “Big Fiction” — Is the Author Hive-Mind or Queen Bee?

June 28, 2024
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On closer inspection, Dan Sinykin’s notion of a “conglomerate author” is largely a fiction.

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Book Review: Singer, Songwriter, and Guitarist Robyn Hitchcock — A Man Who Never Left the ’60s

June 25, 2024
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This unconventional memoir suggests that music can do more than just change ideas or beliefs — it can transform minds, overhaul brains.

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Book Review: “F*CK The Army” — Anti-War Entertainment

June 25, 2024
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The revolving cast members of the FTA road show were determined to reinforce the belief among members of the military that the Vietnam War was at best pointless and at worst criminally insane as well as murderous.

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Book Review: Chris Stein’s “Under a Rock” — A Complex Account of Love, Loss, and New York City

June 23, 2024
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Part of what makes “Under a Rock” special is Chris Stein’s open-eyed fascination with New York City.

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Book Review: How California Appropriated Hawaiian Beach Culture

June 20, 2024
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California beach culture didn’t spring full blown from the ocean riding a longboard, but the closest you will come to a founding figure is the legendary native Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku.

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Book Review: “Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life” — A Poet Who Spoke to Unbearable Loss

June 15, 2024
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This is not a dry, academic look at Thom Gunn’s life: the biographer supplies a loving — though at times unflinchingly honest — view of the self-punishing poet.

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