What we're reading, what we're liking
The Games We Played edited by Steven A. Cohen
In this charming -- and thankfully, never precious -- little book, Steven Cohen has gathered accounts of childhood games, some recognizable, some invented. The contributors ("stars, public figures and writers," says the flap copy) provide short, to-the-point descriptions that nonetheless convey all the richness and open-endedness of the best childhood days. David Maranniss writes of the scruffy, very loosely organized baseball league that shaped his summers in Madison, Wis., a place where on the way to the baseball field he and his friends "roamed free on our bikes" and "knew every shortcut, every grouchy old lady and loose dog to avoid, every patch of grass that could become a football field." Bill Clinton makes an appearance, telling of a "not so nice" game that involved sitting in a tree and pinging acorns at passing cars' hubcaps ("but we never wanted to hit a windshield or do any damage," the 42rd president assures us). The rest of the contributors are an amusingly mixed lot, from George Plimpton to Jackie Collins, who seems to have slightly misunderstood the assignment -- she writes about sneaking out of the house to a "discoteque" as a just-barely teenager: "Thank goodness I was street smart and knew how to ward off randy strangers who had no idea I was only thirteen." For me, the best games are the invented, site-specific ones, with their random but specific rules that show kids' adaptability and ingenuity. It all sent me into reveries of a made-up manhuntlike game played in the courtyard of the Queens apartment building I grew up in, which we called, for reasons that are probably lost to history now, "geeba-geeba."
-- Maria Russo
Red Scared! The Commie Menace in Propaganda and Popular Culture by Michael Barson and Steven Heller
On the cover of "Red Scared!" the American flag appears consumed in comic book-style flames, overwhelmed by a vicious and hungry communist menace. It seems like a joke until you comb through the book's equally paranoid and hysterically colorful pages and realize that American anti-communist propaganda was very real and pervasive. One chapter, the "Children's Crusade Against Communism," features 1951 Bubblegum Cards, one of which depicts a grim reaper hovering over "a great American city" after an atom bomb has struck. "Fight the Red Menace" blares across the bottom of the card. Other chapters include "Bomb Shelter Chic," "Kremlin Komics" and my favorite, "The Love Song of J. Edgar Hoover." Between these hilarious and frightening odes to anti-Communist kitsch are timelines chronicling the history of the reds from Marx and Engels to the dissolution of the USSR. Flipping through the movie posters and newspaper headlines splashed throughout "Red Scared!" is a blast, and the text of the book is also informative and readable and worth more than a glance.
-- Suzy Hansen
Recent books praised by Salon's critics
Fraud by David Rakoff
An archly funny essayist studies Tibetan Buddhism with Steven Seagal, searches for the Loch Ness monster and plays Sigmund Freud in a department store window.
Reviewed by Amy Reiter
Comic Book Nation by Bradford W. Wright
Before movies and rock 'n' roll, comics invented youth culture. A new book asks whether they can survive.
Reviewed by Damien Cave [05/18/01]
"Killing Pablo" and "Shooting the Moon" Two new books detail America's deadly pursuit of Manuel Noriega and Pablo Escobar.
Reviewed by Laura Miller [05/24/01]
Passages by Connie Willis
Scientists who study near-death experiences are pulled into their own research in a brainy, eerie, genre-defying suspense novel.
Reviewed by Laura Miller [05/21/01]
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
In the latest from the author of "Mohawk" and " small Maine town survive on simmering feuds, dirty backroom deals and plenty of comic relief.
Reviewed by Maria Russo [05/21/01]
Glue by Irvine Welsh
From the author of "Trainspotting," another high-octane tale of Edinburgh toughs who live for gitting their hole and leathering laddies.
Reviewed by Amy Benfer [05/21/01]
Endangered Species by Louis Bayard
A gay government worker hit with the urge to reproduce braves personal ads, surrogate moms and a showdown with the male biological imperative.
Reviewed by Kerry Lauerman [05/21/01]
My Little Blue Dress by Bruno Maddox
The touching memoir of a 100-year-old woman -- forged by a young media commentator at the end of his rope.
Reviewed by Maria Russo [05/21/01]
Carry Me Across the Water by Ethan Canin In the author's latest novel, a wealthy, aging entrepreneur tries to correct a lifetime's mistakes.
Reviewed by Amy Reiter [05/21/01]
In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd by Ana Menindez A mesmerizing portrait of Miami's Cuban exiles, haunted by memories of endless blue skies, elegant homes and round-hipped women.
Reviewed by Ruth Henrich [05/21/01]
Sister Noon by Karen Joy Fowler
A mysterious black woman is running the show in a comic novel of strivers, do-gooders and racial fear in Gilded Age San Francisco.
Reviewed by Suzy Hansen [05/21/01]
American Son by Brian Ascalon Roley
In a searing look at the immigrant experience, two half-Filipino brothers navigate a California of small-time thieves, Mexican gangsters and attack dogs trained using Nazi techniques.
Reviewed by Suzy Hansen [05/21/01]
Strange Fire by Melvin Jules Bukiet
An Israeli speechwriter blinded by torturers smells his way through a wise and satisfying novel of international intrigue.
Reviewed by Amy Benfer [05/21/01]
The Trial of Henry Kissinger by Christopher Hitchens
If Henry Kissinger isn't guilty of war crimes, no one is. A Vietnam War whistleblower on Christopher Hitchens' case against the former secretary of state
By Fred Branfman [05/16/01]
The Dying Animal by Philip Roth
In the author's new novel, carnal pursuits are all-consuming as a 62-year-old professor beds his 24-year-old student. Reviewed by Charles Taylor [05/15/01]
"Down the Highway" and "Positively Fourth Street" Two new books make it clear why Bob Dylan had to ditch the phony, self-righteous Greenwich Village folk scene.
Reviewed by Allen Barra [05/14/01]
John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead
In Colson Whitehead's dazzling follow-up to "The Intuitionist," a junketeering journalist pursues an American legend in an epic tale of man, machine and free drinks.
Reviewed by Jonathan Miles [05/11/01]
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Barbara Ehrenreich spent two years as a waitress, maid and Wal-Mart clerk, trying to find out how America's working poor make it. Her answer: A lot of them don't.
Reviewed by Laura Miller [05/09/01]
Night of Stone by Catherine Merridale
A historian's view of 20th century Russia shows the traumatic legacy of totalitarian terror.
Reviewed by Charles Taylor [05/07/01]
Forces of Habit by David Courtwright
Drugs like alcohol and tobacco created the modern world, argues one historian, but caffeine still rules it.
Reviewed by Maria Russo [05/03/01]
Double Fold by Nicholson Baker
A crusading novelist indicts America's libraries for destroying precious archives of newspapers and books -- and puts his own savings on the line to rescue them.
Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek [04/27/01]
Body of Secrets by James Bamford
The author of a pioneering work on the NSA delivers a new book of revelations about the mysterious agency's coverups, eavesdropping and secret missions.
Reviewed by Bruce Schneier [04/25/01]
What to read: The best of April fiction
Louise Erdrich's tale of a Catholic priest who's secretly a woman, Haruki Murakami's story of a vanished lover, a hilarious debut novel about a fake feng shui master who cons New York society and more.
By Salon's critics [04/19/01]
Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Marukami
A cult-favorite novelist's seductive, eerie tale of a vanished lover
Reviewed by Laura Miller [04/19/01]
This Is Not a Novel by David Markson
Another cheeky, strangely moving tour de force from a master of experimental fiction
Reviewed by Maria Russo [04/19/01]
Fixer Chao by Han Ong
A con artist posing as a feng shui master infiltrates New York high society in an acclaimed playwright's hilariously bitchy first novel
Reviewed by Amy Benfer [04/19/01]
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich
The author of "The Beet Queen" delivers an enthralling tale of a Catholic priest who's secretly a woman
Reviewed by Amy Reiter [04/19/01]
The Gardens of Kyoto by Kate Walbert
A dazzling, intricate novel spins out the back story of American soldiers sent overseas, and the women they left behind
Reviewed by Suzy Hansen [04/19/01]
The Far Field by Edie Meidav
In an eagerly anticipated debut novel, a colonialist in Ceylon faces political deception, erotic intrigue and the failure of his own ideals.
Reviewed by Amy Benfer [04/19/01]
The Hero's Walk by Anita Rau Badami
A Canadian-raised orphan returns to her grandparents' Indian village in an irreverent look at the clash between tradition and modernity.
Reviewed by Suzy Hansen [04/19/01]
The Rights of Desire by Andre Brink
A May-December romance set in a post-Apartheid South Africa where violence is always ready to erupt.
Reviewed by Jonathan Miles [04/19/01]
Buddha by Karen Armstrong
A former Catholic nun's short biography of the Buddha explains the elusive Eastern sage in terms that even drama-hungry Westerners can understand.
Reviewed by Laura Miller [04/18/01]
My Misspent Youth by Meghan Daum
A former Gen X journalist finds fodder for her essays in an Internet romance, going broke in New York and hating science fiction fans.
Reviewed by Laura Miller [04/16/01]
Secret Places: My Life in New York and New Guinea by Tobias Schneebaum
Amateur ethnographer and author Tobias Schneebaum has lived and among former headhunters -- and even sampled their cuisine.
Reviewed by Douglas Cruickshank [04/13/01]
The Immortal Class by Travis Hugh Culley
A suburban lad tells how he found guts, glory and a sustainable transit option in the renegade world of bike messengers.
Reviewed by Maria Russo [04/10/01]
"Surviving Galeras" and "No Apparent Danger" Nine scientists met grisly deaths in a 1993 eruption in Colombia, but the battle over who was to blame rages on in two new books. Reviewed by Laura Miller [04/11/01]
Stoned: A Memoir of London in the 1960s by Andrew Loog Oldham
The man who turned the Rolling Stones into bad-boy icons tells his story, and a fan weighs in.
Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
[04/06/01]
Crawling at Night by Nani Power
In this complex, erotic novel, Asian and Western characters pursue desire's mysterious byways.
Reviewed by Mary Gaitskill
[04/05/01]
Facing the Wind by Julie Salamon
The author of "The Devil's Candy" tells the true story of the ideal family man who suddenly plunged into homicidal madness.
Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
[04/04/01]
Going Up the River by Joseph Hallinan
Nonviolent criminals go in and sadistic thugs come out, but with military spending down, America's small towns are hooked on prisons, a new book says.
Reviewed by Maria Russo
[03/29/01]
Stalingrad 1942-1943: The Infernal Cauldron by Stephen Walsh
Two books tell the truth about Stalingrad, the most horrific battle of our time -- and a movie desecrates it.
Reviewed by Gary Kamiya
[03/28/01]
Carry Me Home by Diane McWhorter
A golden girl from Birmingham's elite takes a cold, hard look at her hometown's ugly past -- and her own father's role in it.
Reviewed by Allen Barra
[03/26/01]
"The Dream of Reason" and "Socrates Cafi"
Two authors explain philosophy's mysteries to the layman, but which book is better?
By Laura Miller
[03/23/01]
What to Read: March Fiction
Allegra Goodman's hilarious tale of promiscuous spiritual seeking, Pat Barker's tough-minded look at a child who murders, Nuala O'Faolain's searing novel of middle-aged sexuality and more.
By Salon's critics [03/15/01]
Seabiscuit, An American Legend by Laura Hillebrand
Surprise! The book everyone is reading and loving stars a stocky, funny-looking hero with four legs -- the champion racehorse Seabiscuit.
By Charles Taylor [03/14/01]
Inside Pitch by George Gmelch
Podunk towns, brutal competition, wooden bats and dirty laundry -- an anthropologist shows what the lives of pro baseball players are really like.
Reviewed by King Kaufman
[03/09/01]
Buried Alive by Jan Bondeson
Has it happened? Does it still happen? A new book tells the strangely hilarious history of the ultimate horror.
Reviewed by Gary Kamiya
[03/07/01]
Purified by Fire by Stephen Prothero
Denounced as "heathen," then touted as tasteful, cremation in America has lately taken a turn for the tacky.
By Laura Miller
[03/07/01]
Salon Book Awards
Salon's book editors pick the ten books from 2000 we wished would never end.
By Laura Miller and Maria Russo
[12/18/00]
White-Collar Sweatshop by Jill Andresky Fraser
Bullying bosses, 24-hour on-call weeks, shrinking benefits -- and corporate workers never got their cut of the '90s boom.
Reviewed by Suzy Hansen
[03/01/01]
Shares