Community Centering
A review by Brian Sholis
Rebecca Solnit agrees with one aspect of commonplace thinking about disasters: once a hurricane's winds subside, an earthquake's upheavals abate, or an explosion's concussive force dissipates, the trouble is far from over. But the premise of Solnit's forceful new book, A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster, is that nearly everything else we are told about the aftermath of such events is wrong. Conventional wisdom suggests that the veneer of civilization is so thin as to be nearly translucent, and that at moments of desperation we regress to a Hobbesian state in which self-interest predominates to the point of violence. We expect looters to cart off large-screen televisions from the local Best Buy. We assume survivors will hoard water, food, and clothing. In such situations, we believe, compassion extends only as far as one's family, or perhaps to one's immediate neighbors. To counter this potential anarchy the full weight of institutional law...
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Poems 1959-2009 by Frederick Seidel
 Frederick Seidel is a master builder. Using metaphor and concrete imagery he erects majestic properties of opulent proportion. But what he builds he also destroys, making him a closed system: an architect who contracts with both the muse and the devil. So many of his poetic cathedrals are built...
Rebirth of a Nation: The Making of Modern America, 1877-1920 (American History) by Jackson Lears
 Instead of finishing the business of giving African Americans equal opportunity and full citizenship during the post-Civil War years, the United States went corporate. This period -- a focal point of our current popular imagination for reasons stretching from the steampunk craze to similarities...
Advanced Elvis Course by Caconrad
 It has been thirty-two years since Elvis Presley died at age 42, a bloated victim of prescription pills and Nutter Butters, and over fifty when a thinner Elvis burst onto the American scene, singing and twitching his way into the hearts of millions. Although it seemed he reigned as The King for as...
Gods and Soldiers: The Penguin Anthology of Contemporary African Writing by Rob (edt) Spillman
 Gods and Soldiers: The Penguin Anthology of Contemporary African Writing, edited by Rob Spillman of Tin House, is a keenly collected and expertly packaged anthology of urgent and vital writing.
One would do well to read this book because: a) Africa is larger than the United States, Europe, and...
Three Decades of Quality Writing and Criticism
The National Book Critics Circle, founded in 1974, is a non-profit organization consisting of more than 850 active book reviewers who are interested in honoring quality writing and communicating with one another about common concerns. To learn about how to join, click here.
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