Metro Weekly

Books

  • On Target

    For a profession that's all about telling stories with words, newspaper writing can be an awfully dull business when it comes to reading it. Sure,...

  • Master Class

    Gorgeously written and meticulous in its detail, Colm Toíbín's The Master is a thoughtful exploration of the life of one of America's great writers: Henry...

  • Big Trouble

    Let's dish. Toby Griffin, the twenty-something narrator of Tom Dolby's first novel The Trouble Boy is spoiled, immature, whiny and shallow. He trips through life,...

  • In the Navy

    Photo: National Archivesand Records Administration ''Most of the good stuff is in Greenbelt, '' says Evan Bachner. Of course, he's talking about the collection of...

  • Common Sense

    Abigail Garner is preaching to the choir. A columnist and GLBT activist, Garner works primarily with gay families, so unsurprisingly her new book, Families Like...

  • Irish Charms

    Amnesiacs, magpies, and crazy people -- one magpie for sorrow, two magpies for mirth.... How does that nursery rhyme go? Magpies are but one of...

  • The Name of Life

    It's tempting to present Name All The Animals, the new memoir by Alison Smith, as a series of suggestive clichés. Imagine Catholic schoolgirls in plaid...

  • Towering Timothy

    There are ghosts in Mr. Timothy's London. Whereas in Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol the three ghosts had obvious tasks, here they are both...

  • Whole Hearted

    On the cover of A Hole in the Heart, a woman stares at a snowy mountain ahead, her facing looking simple and dumbstruck by the...

  • Half-Baked Beach

    It is that end of summer time, that back to school time, that Congressional recess is over time, that time for something light to read....

  • Perfect Harmony

    John Rowell's is a moving and hilarious new voice. His new story collection, The Music of Your Life concerns itself with the minutiae of everyday...

  • Parched Paper

    Look up ''dry '' in the thesaurus, and you will find almost fifty synonyms for the word. Dry as moistureless: barren, drained, juiceless, shriveled, thirsty....

  • Ways with Words

    A softly lit Carnival mask, dappled in blue-green garden light, adorns the cover of Carolyn Parkhurst's debut novel The Dogs of Babel. Masks -- the...

  • Mann's Men

    Best-selling gay author William J. Mann may have a reputation for scripting steamy narratives, but he has a confession to make. ''Sometimes sex scenes are...

  • Faust's Pact

    Photo by Michael Wichita Ex-lovers -- they can be a plague on your romantic life, or be your best friends. But whether you cross to...