Archive for May, 2006



HELLO, I’M SPECIAL, by Hal Niedzviecki
(City Lights, $15,95; release date April 2006)

Published on May 11, 2006

The cooler you think you are, the more of a pathetic loser-drone you probably actually are, in Canadian zinester Niedzviecki’s grim vision of an American culture so co-opted by celebrity-worship and corporations (and the latter calculatingly creates the former, his theory goes) that even thinking you’re thinking an original thought is just a sad delusion [...]


DIRTY SUGAR COOKIES, by Ayun Halliday
(Seal, $14.95; release date May 28, 2006)

Published on

What is it about food-memoirs that makes their authors choose ick-inducing titles? From Anthony Bourdain’s Bone in the Throat to Ruth Reichl’s Garlic and Sapphires (which makes me think of sharp shattered gems stir-fried into food, like those times I’ve found tiny stones in tostadas) — this fourth book by the Bust columnist starts with [...]


THE SECRET RIVER, by Kate Grenville
(Canongate, $24; release date May 25, 2006)

Published on

Kate Grenville has already won the prestigious Orange Prize, and this, her latest novel, just won the 2006 Commonwealth Prize. (How could it win if it hasn’t come out yet? Well, it is out — but only in Australia. This is the first American edition.) Part historical saga, part family memoir, The Secret River traces [...]


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