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If you’re like me, you only knew Arnold Schwarzenegger’s version of Conan. The muscle-bound, grunting misanthrope who famously uttered the response “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!” when asked the meaning of life. But the actual Conan stories, written by Robert E. Howard in [...]

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This is probably hard for many of us to believe, thanks to the Ashton Kutcher-Paris Hilton-That Fez Guy-brainwashing our culture has endured, but the truth is that there really was a man who went by the nickname Von Dutch. And in spite of stupid trucker hats, expensive jeans, and all the other crap we know [...]

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Just about every movie, every song, every book, every play, and every other form of art deals with people with problems. Without a problem, what’s the plot? What’s the conflict? It’s a universal aspect of life. We’ve all got problems. So it’s a testament to these writers, and to the The Paris Review, that something [...]

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Peopled by quirky people in odd situations, George Saunders’ CivilWarLand in Bad Decline presents a demented near-future. The single thread through all these situations, through the future amusement parks and decaying towns, are real people, often broken, usually vulnerable, and always memorable. Just a couple of examples: In The Wavemaker Falters, the narrator faces his [...]

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Drawing praise from luminaries such as Arthur Miller, Davy Rothbart’s new short story collection The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas is definitely a title to check out. Creator of Found magazine, Rothbart’s collection is being lauded in GQ where the critic states “our favorite story concerns an aspiring rap-opera writer who has a confrontation with [...]

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Contrary to what some folks may have you belief, man does not live by high art alone. Yes, Mahler and Mozart are irreplaceable components of our civilization. But I would argue that so are Motorhead and Motley Crue. Hot dogs are just as important in our world’s cuisine as foie gras. And when it comes [...]

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Book Sense is a national marketing campaign on behalf of the independent bookstores of America. It is both a local and national effort to spotlight the knowledge and diversity of independent bookstores. One of the program’s key components is the Book Sense Picks series. Each month, a selection of eclectic new books is chosen by [...]

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I have no idea what this book is about… I went to Amazon and selected the top 100 selling books and then went to the end of the list. Number 100. I was hoping to find the literary equivalent of Mr. Irrelevant. You know, that athlete that is the last guy taken in the last [...]

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Man, the permission’s people must have never thought they’d get all this finished… the list of authors included in The Outlaw Bible of American Literature edited by Alan Kaufman, Neil Ortenberg, and Barney Rosset is formidable and long. Very long. This collection is “a primer for generational revolt and an enduring document of visionary tradition [...]

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You’ve used this line, or something similar, before: “Honey, it’s not smut, it’s a serious sociological examination.” But this time, it’s true. The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry by Legs McNeil and Jennifer Osbourne really is a look inside our societal fabric as much as it is a peek [...]

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An oldie-but-goodie… I know, it’s not Joyce, it’s not Pynchon. It’s a kids book and all that. But A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a classic. Plus, it’s hot as hell right now, and A Separate Peace always makes me think of cool fall nights, changing leaves, and clanking radiators as the heat begins [...]

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Drawing rave blurbs from Richard Ford, Anthony Sofford, and George Pelecanos, Controlled Burn: Stories of Prison, Crime, and Men by Scott Wolvern straddles the line between the best of mystery/noir writing and literary fiction. Publishers Weekly conjured up the ubiquitous Hemingway reference for Wolven’s spare, unadorned prose and his boxing characters; but he’s also been [...]

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