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Lonely Werewolf Girl 14 reviews
Martin Millar
Soft Skull Press, 2008
This was really funny
Certainly not great literature (and not great editing), but this hilarious and fast-moving urban fantasy had me laughing out loud and wanting more. The excellent character and plot development makes the wonderfully absurd storyline almost credible and totally engaging. The chapters are short, making it light on the attention span, but it is so suspenseful that I was reading large chunks at a ...
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The Whistleblower: Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman 18 reviews
Peter Rost
Soft Skull Press, 2006
Warning: Don't Read Before Bedtime
"The Whistleblower" by Peter Rost ought to come with a warning label: "Don't read before bedtime. This page-turner won't let you sleep until you've read it cover to cover."
"The Whistleblower" is much more than a story about one man's titanic battle against corruption in the pharmaceutical industry. It's a story of courage in the face of corruption in any industry ... and a must-read book ...
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X Films: True Confessions of a Radical Filmmaker1 review
Alex Cox
Soft Skull Press, 2008
Great but how to get it?
I just updated my order for Alex Cox's "X-Films: True Confessions of a Radical Filmaker" as planned to be published in the USA by Soft Skull Press with ISBN-13: 978-1593761936 because of a delay in publication.
Originally it was to be released in the USA this month (June 2008) simultaneously with this UK publication by I.B. Tauris with ISBN-13 978-1845115661. The other USA product page and ...
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Literary Press and Magazine Directory 2008/2009 (Clmp Directory of Literary Magazines and Presses)1 review
Council of Literary Magazines and Presses
Soft Skull Press, 2008
The reference I needed!
Just the best little tool for anyone like me who wants to break into the field of literary short fiction! I'm glad I found it!
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Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President78 reviews
James Hatfield
Soft Skull Press, 2002
Fantastic Read
This Book is great, I am very much into politics and I find that this book kept me on the edge of my seat. The Amount of coruption that this family has is astonishing. To think that someone of George W. Bush's stature can be our leader leaves hope to just about anyone. In the book it explains that President Bush's Grandfather had connections to Nazi camps and I find that to be awful. The book ...
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Speaking Treason Fluently: Anti-Racist Reflections From an Angry White Male1 review
Tim Wise
Soft Skull Press, 2008
First rate analysis and collection
I've read most of Tim Wise's essays before, so it's not as if this collection was new. But it is nice to have a collection of his "best" pieces on racism and white privilege, compiled in one place. Some of these, in fact, I had missed, so they were new to me, and even the ones I had read previously seemed to pop off the page this time around. Perhaps it's something about reading them in a ...
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All About Lulu19 reviews
Jonathan Evison
Soft Skull Press, 2008
One of THOSE books
Picture the bell curve of literature:
Most stuff you read is mediocre; this is the meat (ha!) in the middle of the curve. Flanking that is a smaller about of bad lit (on the left) and good lit (on the right). Now, on the far left sits those rare few books that are just Allah-awful...and on the opposite far-right side sits what we live for: those novels that are so damn good, you're ...
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Black Flies: A Novel 12 reviews
Shannon Burke
Soft Skull Press, 2008
amazing
when I picked this book up for the first time I wasn't sure what to expect exactly, but I was taken by storm. I devoured this book in between calls on my ambulance and finished it in about 4 hours in total. it's got some stylistic similarities to Tim O'brien's the things they carried except that it holds together as a single more or less continuos story. at the same time the author has sort of a ...
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White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son42 reviews
Tim Wise
Soft Skull Press, 2007
Very Important Book
I've seen other reviews stating that all white people should read this book. I think that EVERYONE should read this book. This book addresses race and race relations in a way that is unorthodox, clear and grabs your attention. As a race/ethnicity scholar and teacher, I'm always looking for ways to get my students aware of and concerned about (this is the tough part) racial issues in the US. ...
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War Nerd 11 reviews
Gary Brecher
Soft Skull Press, 2008
Funniest Writer of English
Gary Brecher is up there with 10 or 15 other great American essayists of all time. Since he's running roughshod over our particular cultural taboos, that makes him pretty much the funniest guy out there, for us.
If you're not familiar with his schtick, you don't know what it is, and you should know. If you're already a war nerd fanatic, some of the essays are distinct enough to stand as ...
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Jane: A Murder (Soft Skull ShortLit)2 reviews
Maggie Nelson
Soft Skull Press, 2005
A Powerful, Haunting, and sobering book about grief and loss
Maggie Nelson is an extraordinary writer. She is able to convey complexity in the sparces of prose/poetry. Her book is griping. You cannot stop reading even as you are horrified and pained by what she has to tell you. And what she has to tell is very much about how loss, painful loss crosses generations. This is a book very much about grief across generations in a single American family. Maggie ...
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Stencil Pirates4 reviews
Josh MacPhee
Soft Skull Press, 2004
Best Graphic Art Book of 2004
From my New York Press review of Stencil Pirates, 11/04 (vol. 17, issue 45):
A FEW YEARS AGO, while walking down a sparsely traveled block in my old Brooklyn neighborhood, I came across three-foot-tall, carefully rendered cursive on an otherwise blank red wall: "Cap'n Jazz" in silver spray-paint. I did a triple take. Who'd bother to apply the name of a little-known early-90s punk band from ...
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That's Revolting!: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation3 reviews
Soft Skull Press, 2008
This is what has been missing.
This is the book I had always dreamed they would use in my queer classes at school!!! Activism, cultural analysis and personal narratives help push what has been understood as "gay and lesbian studies" from the now "safe" grounds of identity to the terrain of revolution. From racism in queer organizing to hilarious direct action That's Revolting is a radical a re-thinking of all that we through ...
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Drugs Are Nice: A Post-Punk Memoir26 reviews
Lisa Crystal Carver
Soft Skull Press, 2005
Enter the Underworld
Drugs are Nice is a dizzying and shocking autobiography that reads like a piece of fantasy. The life of Lisa Crystal Carver--once girlfriend of GG Allin, Jean-Louis Costes, and Boyd Rice and acquaintance of Anton Levy--seems unbelievable at times. However she is an inspiration for anyone who aspires to live their life on the edge of society.
The gem of this autobiography is the way that the ...
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We Are Iran: The Persian Blogs18 reviews
Nasrin Alavi
Soft Skull Press, 2005
We Are Iran is Awesome
This book is a must-read for anyone who enjoys getting the in-depth story from the actual people who are living it, rather than the politicized, over-simplified version that you get from the mainstream media. If you've ever asked yourself, "what is up with Iran?!" this is the book for you. Ms. Alavi risks her life in publishing it, as do the bloggers. It's a testimony to the extraordinary ...
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Suzy, Led Zeppelin, and Me1 review
Martin Millar
Soft Skull Press, 2008
For fans of Zep... or, just fans of wonderful writing
I started reading it last night, and read 33 chapters before having to put it down. It is excellent! Mainly because of the author's writing style. Cynical, funny, and to the point. It's the semi-autobiographical memoir of a 14 year old Led Zeppelin fan living in Glasgow, Scotland in 1972. I, for one, really like it. And when an author does a good job, I like to spread the word. So there it is!
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Resistance: My Life for Lebanon7 reviews
Souha Bechara
Soft Skull Press, 2003
A primary source on the Israeli occupation of Lebanon
Whether you think of Suha Beshara as a freedom fighter or a worthless terrorist, there is one truth about this woman: that she sets a precedent in women's role in the Arab world. She stood up for her beliefs as she ended the male monopoly of all kinds of military activity in the oriental societies.
Suha, a supporter of the Lebanese Communist Party, was recruited during the days of Israeli ...
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Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion: From Reagan's Workplaces to Clinton's Columbine and Beyond17 reviews
Mark Ames
Soft Skull Press, 2005
Original and provocative analysis
When you crack open a book entitled "Going Postal," you don't expect to start reading about the antebellum South. But Ames starts by transporting us back in time in service of his provocative theme - that today's rage murders in workplaces and schools are contemporary forms of slave rebellion, indeed the only possible form of rebellion in a society as decollectivized and militarized as the modern ...
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The Pisstown Chaos: A Novel
David Ohle
Soft Skull Press, 2008
The Pisstown Chaos is a novel about disease and forced-relocation. Political power seems to be solely in the hands of one Reverend Herman Hooker, an “American Divine” who revels in the peoples' suffering as they are “shifted” (separated from — and then randomly coupled with — one another) by decree every five years. There are up-shifts, down-shifts, and side-shifts, but no attempt to make harmonious pairings. ...
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Mercury Under My Tongue: A Novel2 reviews
Sylvain Trudel
Soft Skull Press, 2008
Courtesy of Teens Read Too
MERCURY UNDER MY TONGUE is not a book for the weak of heart. It is a powerful story told through they eyes of a seventeen-year-old boy dying of bone cancer. Frederick Langlois is in a Canadian hospital. He knows he is dying and is doing what he can to survive.
Frederick's family comes to visit, but he has little to say. Instead, he has thoughts inside his head of what he would prefer to ...
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