Read Harder

June 9, 2014
This eclectic, charming collection assembles the best essays published in the Believer between 2009 and 2013. (An earlier volume, Read Hard, collects essays from 2003 to 2008.) While some selections tackle political issues, such as race relations and oppression in Iran, most are on lighter topics; the book includes essays about pop culture and tales of the weird made familiar. Leslie Jamison provides a stellar firsthand account of the treacherous Barkley Marathons, while Paul Collins recounts the curious history of “dashboard phonographs.” Kent Russell’s report from the world of “mithradates”—people who can survive snake bites—evokes both Hunter S. Thompson and This American Life. Full of twists and turns, Rebecca Taylor’s story about her descent into the world of B movies leaves a lasting impression. Other essays touch on Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time novels, V.C. Andrews, Dave Chappelle, and Nelson Algren. Taken as a whole, the collection promotes artists who defy easy categorization. The remarkable story of Ford Beckman, which opens the anthology, exemplifies this theme and shows how the fate of an artist often depends on fickle market forces. To read this book is to open a delightful cabinet of wonders.

June 15, 2014
Nineteen essays, often funny and sometimes poignant, from the journalists, essayists and novelists long admired by the editors at McSweeney's Believer magazine.Upon its launch, the founders of the magazine said, "We will focus on writers and books we like. We will give people and books the benefit of the doubt." Soon after, a critic described the magazine as "highbrow but delightfully bizarre," which fits the bill. This new collection of essays by the likes of Nick Hornby, Susan Straight, Lev Grossman and Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah certainly strikes that unique and iconoclastic tone-McSweeney's founder Dave Eggers' tastes and style are all over this collection, if not his name. Edited by founding editors Park (Personal Days, 2008) and Julavits (The Vanishers, 2012, etc.), the collection spans a wide range of literary criticism, celebrity profiles, journalistic nonfiction and humorous ephemera. It opens with "The Disappearance of Ford Beckman," by Michael Paul Mason, a story that wouldn't go amiss in Esquire, concerning an iconic American artist reduced to making donuts at Krispy Kreme. Closer to the end, novelist Leslie Jamison examines a bizarre, Tennessee-based endurance test called the Barkley Marathons. On the literary front, mystery novelists Sara Gran and Megan Abbott tackle the enduring legacy of V.C. Andrews, while journalist Zach Baron delves into the late Robert Jordan and the finishing of the Wheel of Time saga. It can be a jarring transition, following Jeannie Vanasco's examination of erasure (the art form, not the band) in "Absent Things As If They Were Present," with Rebecca Taylor's "Virginia Mountain Scream Queen," remembering a lowbrow history in B-movies, but it's refreshing, too. It's really best to jump around-only readers can best decide if they should start with "How to Scrutinize a Beaver" (on 18th-century anatomy) or "If He Hollers Let Him Go" (chasing the ghost of comedian Dave Chappelle).Hotly anticipated in 2020: The Believer's Read Hard with a Vengeance.

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August 1, 2014

Author Dave Eggers's McSweeny's publishing is home to a trend-setting website, a variety of book imprints, and unconventional magazines including the Believer, a monthly publication Eggers launched in 2003 that features interviews, book reviews, and essays with observations on pop culture and literature. Two of the Believer's founding editors, Park (Personal Days) and Julavits (The Vanishers), have compiled these essays into a volume highlighting the magazine's quirky style and eclectic mix of topics. Some of the subjects covered include Victorian travel guides, fantasy writer Robert Jordan, comedian Dave Chappelle, and a record player that was made in the 1950s for car dashboards. Best-selling authors Nick Hornby (About a Boy) and Lev Grossman (The Magician) are among the writers featured in the collection. A slight improvement could have been made to this otherwise engaging read by including the original publication date of each piece, especially those with contemporary themes. VERDICT For fans of Eggers and McSweeny's publications, pop culture enthusiasts, and readers of literary magazines.--Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2014
The smack and smarts of this collection, with its varied voices and manners of attack, will set readers' minds aflame. Each piece here, from Francisco Goldman's reflection on the novel-memoir-prose work he wrote about his wife's death to Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah's search for the truth about comedian Dave Chappelle's decision to walk away from his $5 million job, so sparks the intellect that the book must be set aside and pondered before continuing. And there's so much more to come back to: Monte Reel on How to Explore like a Real Victorian Adventurer and Susan Straight, in Travels with My Ex, on being a white woman driving with her black ex-husband and their multiracial children in Southern California. There are 19 essays of varying lengths and subjects and from writers ranging from Rebecca Taylor and Colin Asher to Nick Hornby. Editors Park and Julavits have picked these selections from the decade-long-running magazine Believer, and a well-chosen, wide-ranging lot they are.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)