We’ll Always Have Paris
Bettyville: A Memoir George Hodgman Penguin Publishing Group, 2015; 288pp In the sub-genre of literature about the poisoned relationships between mothers and their gay sons, George Hodgman’s...
read moreHouse of SpeakEasy Blog
I Want To Believe
True Believers Kurt Andersen Random House, 2012; 464pp “My publishers signed me up a year ago to write a book, but not this book,” writes Karen Hollander at the start of Kurt...
read moreThe Lusitania’s Last Voyage
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania Erik Larson Crown Publishing, 2015; 448pp In six heart-stopping pages in the middle of Dead Wake, Erik Larson appears to suspend time in order to watch...
read moreA Game of Thrones
Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped Garry Kasparov PublicAffairs, 2015; 320pp “Garry Kasparov, Russian human rights activist and former world...
read moreA Decent Read
A Decent Ride Irvine Welsh Doubleday, 2016; 368pp “Drivin a taxi is the best joab ah’ve hud in ma puff,” remarks “Juice” Terry Lawson early on in Irvine Welsh’s...
read moreSell/Buy/Date
Sell/Buy/Date Written and performed by Sarah Jones Directed by Carolyn Cantor Playing at New York Live Arts until January 16 Note: This article concerns the workshop production of Sell/Buy/Date...
read moreArab-American Nights
Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights Salman Rushdie Random House, 2015; 304pp Salman Rushdie’s twelfth novel is a New Yorker’s Arabian Nights, a wryly witty, promiscuously...
read moreTarantino’s White Hell
The Hateful Eight Directed by Quentin Tarantino Release date: December 25, 2015 Running time: 182 minutes (roadshow version, screening in the 70mm format); 176 minutes (digital version, sans...
read moreBest of 2015: A Personal Take
“Best books” lists are a perennial inducer of anxiety. So this isn’t quite that; rather, a short tour of impressions from a year of reading — haphazard, sometimes misguided,...
read moreParadise Lost
Paradise of the Pacific: Approaching Hawai’i Susanna Moore Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015; 320pp “There is no little irony in recognizing that the speed with which [the...
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