Jason Bitner (Ed.): Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves

Reminiscing the mix tape Blame it on Twitter, reality television, or the daily sprouting of self-chronicling blogs, but it’s undeniable that we’re living in a voyeuristic culture. Catching glimpses into other’s slice-of-life moments is what we crave; a need that Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves strives to fill....  read more

Jonathan Safran Foer: Eating Animals

Jonathan Safran Foer’s novels are dense, energetic, concerned with all things moral and Jewish, pleased with themselves, sentimental, and too wordy for a lot of us. They are like wild Russian dances that leave you breathless and wondering why you stayed on the dance floor. Without argument, he is enormously talented and passionate, but his writing and gimmicks can get in the way of the material....  read more

Kanye West: Through the Wire

A humbling reminder of his rights and wrongs With illustrations and commentary explaining 12 of his most well-known songs, Kanye West’s Through the Wire takes on both the title and overall sentiment of his breakout single: “I’m a champion, so I turned tragedy to triumph.” But the book is about more than his near-fatal car accident. Instead, West devotes nearly equal time to explaining his pop culture references and admitting his wrongs, with “Touch the Sky” revealed as an apology letter to the girl he left behind to make music....  read more

Robert Mattheu: The Stooges: The Authorized and Illustrated Story

Could use more raw power If the snarling Iggy Pop of 1969 knew his Stooges would be coffee table book fodder, he would’ve scoffed. But here we are, 40 years later, with The Stooges: The Authorized and Illustrated Story. The title tells all: unreleased photos, band testimonials and album reviews. But while rock’n’roll platitudes flourish in books about, say, The Beatles, here the fawning feels awkward. CREEM photographer Robert Mattheu’s stilted writing never dives deeper than anecdotes and base descriptions. We learn Ron Ashton’s apartment, when he hosted Elektra Record executives in 1971, was “too horrible to describe.” The execs...  read more

Victor LaValle: Big Machine

Former heroin addict Ricky Rice has resigned himself to a...  read more

Nick Hornby: Juliet, Naked

Duncan is the kind of guy who won’t man-up...  read more

Elijah Wald: How The Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll

In 2004, music writer Elijah Wald released...  read more

Michael Taeckens (Ed.): Love is a Four-Letter Word: True Stories of Breakups, Bad Relationships and Broken Hearts

Comedy and tragedy intertwine in these tales of mankind’s most...  read more

David Byrne: Bicycle Diaries

David Byrne admits early on in his Bicycle Diaries that...  read more

Juan Gabriel Vásquez: The Informers (Translated by Anne McLean)

Has Gabriel García Márquez really given up writing fiction?  read more

Juan Filloy: Op Oloop (Translated by Lisa Dillman)

A prolific polymath, Argentinean writer Juan Filloy mastered...  read more

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Thing Around Your Neck

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie published...  read more

Kamila Shamsie: Burnt Shadows

Kamila Shamsie’s book is the latest addition to a...  read more

Emily St. John Mandel: Last Night in Montreal

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Emily St. John Mandel’s slim debut, an elegy for a broken relationship...  read more

River Jordan: Saints in Limbo

River Jordan’s third novel is a Southern Gothic masterpiece...  read more

Eric Kraft: Flying

Less than 10 pages into Flying, having already laughed aloud...  read more

Barney Hoskyns

With a persona, not to mention a body of work...  read more

Arthur Phillips

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Some books, like some songs, invade you slowly. Arthur Phillips’ The Song is You doesn’t...  read more

Robert Polito

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The average reader will surmise from the pages of...  read more

Charles Wright

Charles Wright, Great American Poet, like most poets...  read more