Posts tagged with nonfiction
Vicarious thrift
I've spent most of today curled up with Amy Dacyczyn's The Complete Tightwad Gazette: Promoting Thrift as a Viable Alternative Lifestyle*. I was too young to be aware of Ms. Dacyczyn's Tightwad Ga...
Girls Like Us, by Sheila Weller
Sheila Weller's Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon—and the Journey of a Generation is an unusual but highly satisfying end-of-summer read. The book is an ambitious attempt at a...
The Waiter rants for Powell's Books
Powell's guest blogger of the week is Steve Dublanica, a.k.a. "The Waiter", author of the book Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip--Confessions of a Cynical Waiter and creator of the award-winning blo...
Where is the chihuahua?
My mother doesn't even like the title of this book (and I'm sure she's dreaded the time when I'm actually reading it, as I have a bad habit--inherited from her, by the way--of sharing every revolt...
Peace, Part II
Below is an excerpt from Barry Miles's Peace: 50 Years of Protest, reprinted with permission. Click here for our review of Mr. Miles's book."In the new century the peace symbol has been evident w...
Freeing Tibet
The BBC/NPR program The World aired an interview with novelist Eliot Pattison yesterday as part of a series of stories on the recent unrest in Tibet. I've never read one of Pattison's mysteries, ...
The Fug Girls are at Powell's
Well, kinda. Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, creators of GoFugYourself are the guest bloggers this week for Powells.com. Sadly, they haven't talked much about books at this point (although ref...
Perfume: the true Hollywood story
My local NPR station had a great interview up this morning with Charles Burr, the New York Times perfume critic and author of The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New...
Curiosity vs. my delicate sensibilities
I've been tempted by a number of grim-looking books recently. They all seem to be creative and well-written, but there's no denying that they have a strong smell of "reading this book can only le...
Tales From the Teachers' Lounge, by Robert Wilder
Robert Wilder (author of the whimsical parenting book Daddy Needs a Drink) has written another book, and it’s just as funny, profanity-laden, and stomach-churning as his first. Tales From the Teachers’ Lounge is a series of humorous essays about the questionable joys of teaching...
Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-To-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages, by Thomas Holtz, Jr.
Professional paleontologist Thomas Holtz, Jr. has just released Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-To-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages, and dinophiles everywhere better start clearing space on their bookshelves, because this is not one of those illustration-heavy, text-light picture books. With contributions from over thirty of his fellow paleontologists, Holtz’s 432 pages...
A commendable goal
Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail, a math guide written by mathematician and actress Danica McKellar (a.k.a. The Wonder Years' Winnie...
Book Crush, by Nancy Pearl
Naturally, we here at Wordcandy have trouble understanding why you might look to anyone else for your book recommendation needs, but we can—reluctantly—accept that occasionally you’re going to str...
Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping, by Judith Levine
After hearing Judith Levine on NPR the other day, I decided to pick up a copy of her book Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping*. My hackles rose at the recommendation from Barbara Ehrenreich on the back cover--I applaud Ehrenreich's purpose and conviction, but her books are so profoundly flawed that I think they actually do her causes a disservice. However, Ms. Levine's book doesn't pretend to be an Ehrenreich-style call-to-arms...
Movie Update: Fast Food Nation
So, last time we checked, we had a few pictures of this ill-fated project. But guess what, kids: today we have the trailer. Enjoy!
More totally gross Fast Food Nation movie news!
Behold! Today we have pictures:I don't think anything good is going to happen to those cows, kids. [Source]
Wordcandy loves nonfiction
In honor(?) of Ken Lay's unexpected death, we'd like to recommend the excellent non-fiction title The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron, by Bethany McLean an...
What--like you wouldn't take advice from Janice Dickinson?
Okay, I realize that Janice Dickinson most likely did not write this book with her own two hands, but I still feel a need to go out and buy it. I am not sure if it's the great cover, the title (Ch...
Traveling this summer?
I received this book a few years ago from Julia, right before I headed off to Italy for a few weeks. Italy is the kind of place where you can usually get by without knowing much of the language, b...
Odds and ends
Sorry about this post wandering all over the Wordcandy map, people...Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson have released Chew On This, a kid-friendly book exploring the same territory that Schlosser c...
Fast Food Nation, Part II
Okay, I'm a little clearer on this Fast Food Nation movie. Here's the description from Salon.com:"Linklater's film (co-written with Schlosser) is an episodic docudrama about a large group of fict...
Aaaand in further movie news...
Huh. Apparently, Richard Linklater's film version of Eric Schlosser's excellent book Fast Food Nation is debuting at Cannes this year.Now, don't get me wrong here, but what? This isn't going to b...
But Wordcandy loves nonfiction readers, too.
A fascinating study of the long and ignominious history of election fraud, Andrew Gumbel's book Steal This Vote: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America is an ideal choice f...