Book Review

Wednesday March 25, 2009 09:00 AM EDT
Anyone familiar with the dense, dizzying work of Watchmen writer Alan Moore, especially the two prior chapters of his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novels, shouldn’t have a problem with the basic premise of the third volume, Century. In the LXG series (to borrow the name of the misbegotten film adaptation), Moore and illustrator Kevin O’Neill envision a superhero team comprised of... | more...

Book Review

Tuesday March 24, 2009 04:35 PM EDT

Citizens of ancient Rome didn’t mind slavery. As they saw it, there were Romans, and there was everyone else. In 70 B.C., slaves comprised 20 percent of the Roman population, and included Celts, Germans, and Thracians from modern-day Bulgaria. They also included a man named Spartacus.

A Thracian who fought in the Roman army, Spartacus was accepted in principle as a Roman but was exploited as a...

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Book Review

Monday March 16, 2009 04:00 PM EDT

Is Charles Dickens the new Leonardo Da Vinci?

Da Vinci — artist, inventor and literal Renaissance man — made a big comeback in 2003 with the novel The Da Vinci Code. Dan Brown used a familiar manhunt plot as a framework on which to hang breathless details of religious conspiracies, centuries-old gossip, and rumors of telltale images hidden in Da Vinci’s masterpieces. The Da Vinci Code launched...

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Book Review

Tuesday March 10, 2009 04:00 AM EDT
Samuel Beckett was never interested in clearing up confusion around his writing. The Nobel Prize-winning author, best known for Waiting for Godot, wrote in a tone that could swing from playful and absurd to devastating and tragic, often confounding those interested in hashing out simple meanings. When asked point blank to explain who exactly Godot was, he famously replied, “If I knew, I would... | more...

Book Review

Wednesday February 25, 2009 12:04 AM EST
In her unique, off-putting novels and short stories, O’Connor crossbred humor, horror and piety; her output had such hybrid vigor that she virtually established the genre of the Southern grotesque. Her first novel, Wise Blood, critiques Southern religion by way of homicide, self-mutilation, mummies and gorilla suits. Her famous, oft-anthologized short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” begins... | more...

Book Review

Wednesday February 18, 2009 12:04 AM EST

Karl Marx famously said that history repeats itself, once as tragedy, twice as farce. King Lear may not have been an actual English regent, but he looms larger than most historical royals as the title role in one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. And if the Bard gave King Lear his tragedy, cult author Christopher Moore somersaults in for the farce with Fool.

The comedic novelist offers a bawdy,...

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Book Review

Wednesday February 11, 2009 12:04 AM EST
I could probably fill a cathedral with people I know who claim to have a spiritual side, but immediately make the disclaimer that they’re not “churchy” or “very religious.” Barbara Brown Taylor’s book An Altar in the World is a kind of how-to guide for squishily spiritual souls; the type who glance askance at religious fundamentalism, but don’t want to cut God loose and become atheists,... | more...

Book Review

Wednesday February 4, 2009 12:04 AM EST
Futureproof, N. Frank Daniels’ novel set mostly in and around Atlanta, is a thinly veiled retelling of the author’s own descent into teenage drug abuse and general delinquency. It’s about a white boy with dreads trying to figure himself out in the televised glow of Kurt Cobain. It’s also about half as good as it could be — full of writing that should have been reworked, trimmed, or simply cut... | more...

Book Review

Wednesday December 17, 2008 12:04 AM EST
The playful history book Veeps: Profiles in Insignificance proves that the vice president typically holds far more importance as an election-year campaign symbol than any real authority once in office. Despite the recent fuss over Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, the vice president traditionally holds so little influence that the U.S. government scarcely notices if he’s gone. Throughout history, the... | more...

Book Review

Wednesday November 26, 2008 12:04 AM EST
Best-selling author and National Public Radio commentator Bailey White speaks in a throaty but quavering drawl that’s so distinctive, you can imagine her spinning leisurely yarns for hours on a front porch in her hometown of Thomasville, Ga. Her voice can be a little misleading, however. White sounds so grandmotherly that a listener may underestimate her as merely quaint, when her writing can... | more...

Festivals, Book Content, Book Review

Wednesday November 5, 2008 12:04 AM EST
Marcus Jewish Community Center Book Festival | more...

Book Review

Wednesday October 29, 2008 12:04 AM EDT

Author and Western Carolina University professor Ron Rash rarely strays far from the mountains where he grew up and now teaches. His fourth novel, the Southern gothic tale Serena, opens in Depression-era Appalachia with a fatal power struggle.

North Carolina timber magnate George Pemberton returns from Boston with his bride, Serena, to find Rachel Harmon, the 16-year-old he had a brief tryst...

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Book Review

Wednesday October 22, 2008 12:04 AM EDT
Author and NPR commentator Sarah Vowell memorably lent her adolescent-sounding voice to Violet, the invisible teenager in the animated film The Incredibles. If Vowell had real-life superpowers, however, she’d be more like Elastigirl, only as a self-professed American history geek. Vowell’s malleable intellect can take John Winthrop’s “city on a hill” metaphor from his “A Model of Christian... | more...

Festivals, Book Content, Book Review

Wednesday October 15, 2008 12:04 AM EDT
Atlanta Queer Literary Festival | more...

Book Review

Wednesday October 1, 2008 12:04 AM EDT
Greg Melville had an ambitious plan: to drive across the country from Vermont to California in a 1985 Mercedes diesel station wagon fueled only by used fryer grease. He’d be walking in the footsteps — or, perhaps, driving in the tire treads — of H. Nelson Jackson, the first man to drive across the United States in an automobile in 1903. Gas stations weren’t an option for Jackson, and they... | more...

Festivals, Book Content, Book Review

Wednesday August 27, 2008 12:04 AM EDT
How the Internet’s changing the way authors do business | more...

Book Review

Wednesday August 13, 2008 12:04 AM EDT
New book offers ‘photo album’ of Atlanta’s gay history | more...

Book Review

Wednesday August 6, 2008 12:04 AM EDT
Emory University professor blames it on the screens | more...

Book Review

Wednesday July 30, 2008 12:04 AM EDT
Atlanta author makes a killing in Fractured | more...

Book Review

Wednesday July 2, 2008 12:04 AM EDT
The acclaimed author returns to Atlanta | more...

Book Review

Wednesday May 7, 2008 12:04 AM EDT
Feasting on Asphalt author reads at Variety Playouse | more...

Book Review

Wednesday April 23, 2008 12:04 AM EDT
Katie Crouch’s heroine keeps on truckin’ | more...

Book Review

Wednesday April 23, 2008 12:04 AM EDT
Steven Hall has produced plays, short stories, art pieces and music videos. His latest novel, The Raw Shark Texts, tells the story of Eric Sanderson, a man who wakes up and doesn’t remember who he is. What follows includes letters from his former self, a lost love and a conceptual shark determined to kill him. The book has become a national best seller and Hall will read and sign The Raw Shark... | more...

Book Review

Wednesday April 16, 2008 12:04 AM EDT

It’s hard out there for a vegan. And not because vegans or even vegetarians secretly crave the Wendy’s Baconater, but because their values clash with the established status quo.

Stereotypes of wan hippies and crazy-eyed activists undermine the concrete moral and ethical issues behind the animal-rights-based movements. It’s for this reason that the first few sections of vegan and activist Gene...

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Book Review

Wednesday April 16, 2008 12:04 AM EDT
The Farm Sanctuary author talks about changing hearts and minds | more...