Celebrate Banned Books Week with 2011’s Most Challenged Titles
"There were 326 challenges reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in 2011, and many more go unreported." read more
How the SEC Became Goliath: The Making of College Football's Most Dominant Conference by Ray Glier
Down South, they call the college game Big Boy Football. Call Ray Glier a Big Boy Journalist. Glier bylines pepper the New York Times and USA Today sports pages like forward passes in October. He covers mostly baseball and football, an old pro at the game of wringing quotes from unquotable athletes and coaches, then spinning good stories. Last spring, the Atlanta-based writer got the attention of a publisher with a pitch for his first book—why, exactly, has the Southeastern Conference, or SEC, won the past six national championships in college football? “The national championship trophy has been in the... read more
Too Much Magic by James Howard Kunstler
“If you are reading this,” offers social critic and New Urbanist James Howard Kunstler about halfway through his 16th book, “then you may be doing it in the smoldering ruins of modernity.” Writing in the winter of 2011-12, Kunstler observed that the global financial system “stood in nearly complete disarray.” The author worried that the seismic economic spasms occurring then might just bring everything crashing down by the book’s publication date. Such pronouncements, even if not truly meant to be literal, practically guarantee Kunstler’s dismissal as an alarmist doomsayer—an unfair tag given that the ultimate value of his message can’t... read more
Comic Book & Graphic Novel Round-Up (9/26/12)
Each week, Paste reviews the most intriguing comic books, graphic novels, graphic memoirs and other illustrated books.... read more
Neil Patrick Harris to Write Memoir
Neil Patrick Harris wears a suit of many colors, dabbling in acting, magic, hosting and now writing.... read more
The One: The Life and Music of James Brown by RJ Smith
James Brown, who died in 2006, enjoys membership in a very exclusive club of musicians, a group of men and women who created the current landscape of pop music. read more
White Truffles in Winter by N.M. Kelby
White Truffles in Winter, an unusual, well-seasoned stock of memoir, love story, essay and historical romance, deliciously simmers along, tempting a reader to tear out the pages and eat them as they move through this tasty novel. read more
16 Different Great Gatsby Covers for F. Scott Fitzgerald's 116th Birthday
Happy birthday, F. Scott Fitzgerald! Here are 16 different 'Great Gatsby' covers for his 116th birthday read more
Guillermo del Toro Adapting The Strain for FX
Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that FX is nearing a deal for a pilot order adapting The Strain, a book trilogy written by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan.... read more
Comic Book & Graphic Novel Round-Up (9/19/12)
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Release Date Set for Stephen King's Shining Sequel
Last year Stephen King revealed his plans for a sequel to The Shining at George Mason University’s Fall for the Book festival, and now we finally have a release date: Sept. 24, 2013.... read more
Elza's Kitchen by Marc Fitten
Now here’s a wonder. A writer of Panamanian descent, born in Brooklyn and now a son of the South, sits down every day to write The Great Hungarian Novel. Okay, novels. Marc Fitten published his debut, Valeria’s Last Stand, in 2009, the first of a planned trilogy of books examining Hungary in the years after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The playful, fable-like tale explored the lives of small-town Magyars in their giddy 1980s wonder-years, at time when the sun came out on shiny new freedoms and forms of expression. Valeria became an international bestseller, published in 10 countries.... read more
Meat Eater: Adventures from the Life of an American Hunter by Steven Rinella
When Michael Pollan first issued his seven-word eating mantra—“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”—it must have sounded strange to those reared in a world of only iceberg and romaine lettuce. Indeed, I must confess it took moving to California for me to discover the varying tastes and textures of collard greens, kale and mustard greens. But turn to the world of meat, and you still find limited choices for wedding-reception menus: beef, chicken or fish. The only real variation in meat depends on cut. Or does it? Enter the kitchen of Brooklyn-based hunter Steven Rinella, and one can suddenly... read more
Comic Book & Graphic Novel Round-Up (9/12/12)
This week we look at Grant Morrison's new series Happy along with Demon Knights # 0, A Chinese Life and The Secret of Stone Frog. read more
I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen by Sylvie Simmons
It’s not like we have no extant biographies of the remarkable and enigmatic poet, novelist, singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen. They abound. Neither is it the case that a biography has not been published recently. A quick Google search brings up several recent offerings, most notably Tim Footman’s Hallelujah: A New Biography (2009) and Anthony Reynolds’s Leonard Cohen: A Remarkable Life (2011). So … why another? Members of the Cohen club who have read these previous works know all about the songwriter’s home on the Greek island of Hydra, about Phil Spector, Joni Mitchell, Suzanne, Roshi, Mt. Baldy, Jikan, the... read more
Privacy by Garret Keizer
In March 2011, the Onion News Network aired a news parody skit in which a mock panel of experts lampooned Facebook as a “massive online surveillance program run by the CIA.” Though the skit deftly sends up intrusive elements within the government, as well as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, it primarily targets the public’s willingness to volunteer personal information. The CIA, the panelists chirp, barely has to make an effort these days, seeing as we’re already telling them everything they want to know—an irony not likely to be lost on Privacy author Garret Keizer. Keizer comes to the titular subject... read more
Comic Relief with Brian K. Vaughan
In Comic Relief, Paste chats with some of the most influential writers and artists in comics about their work and the comics that inspired them. Lead photo by Kevin Knight/TheShutterClick.Com The two years Brian K. Vaughan wasn’t writing comics weren’t particular short for those of us who grew up addicted to the serial pleasures of his classics Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina. The former Lost writer/producer returned in full form last March with Saga, a touching take on the nuclear family set in a visionary sci-fi universe full of lie-detecting sphynxes, aeronautical trees, and sex tourism... read more
Comic Book & Graphic Novel Round-Up (9/5/12)
This week we look at three of DC's "zero" issues along with the first issue of John Arcudi's The Creep and Rex Mundi and Thief of Thieves. read more
Daniel Fights A Hurricane by Shane Jones
The epic hero has fallen to the wayside. read more
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Do a Google News search for “faith,” then sit back and click through the first 10 stories. A warning, though—skip the mid-afternoon, Internet-browsing snack. You won’t want to eat for this. read more
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