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Flanagan’s empire

Native son Bill Flanagan — novelist and MTV executive — discusses big books, musical longevity, Irish Catholicism, and Behind the Music .
Once a staple of the pages of The NewPaper (original incarnation of The Providence Phoenix ), Warwick-born Bill Flanagan went on to become a prominent rock journalist whose credits include U2: At the End of the World , the definitive portrait of one of the world's biggest bands.

By MICHAEL ATCHISON | February 05, 2010

Excerpt: Evening’s Empire by Bill Flanagan

In this chapter, "The Drugs Don't Work," aging rock star Emerson Cutler and his manager, Jack Flynn, are seeking inspiration — and desperately trying to jumpstart his career.

By BILL FLANAGAN | February 05, 2010

J.D. Salinger: 1919 - 2010

In Memoriam
J.D. Salinger was 91 when he died in his New Hampshire home on January 27, 45 years after he published his last known story, "Hapworth 16, 1924," in the New Yorker .

By STEVE VINEBERG | February 05, 2010

Review: Patti Smith's Just Kids

The small prophecies of Patti Smith
How do you get to be the Godmother of Punk? Pure dumb luck, for starters.

By CARRIE BATTAN | February 08, 2010

Heart keeps beating

Novelist (and RIC professor) Thomas Cobb recalls the origins of Bad Blake
Storytelling is largely about character, and writer Thomas Cobb came up with a doozy when he conceived Bad Blake.

By JIM MACNIE | January 27, 2010

Searching for Stephen King

A new biography presents facts but not a full story
In 1983, Doubleday published yet another book from the increasingly renowned Stephen King, whose Carrie and The Shining (to name just two) were already popular books and movies.

By DEIRDRE FULTON | January 13, 2010

The art of horror

A coffee table book that might scare you awake
While Lisa Rogak's Stephen King biography might be labeled "for fans only," it's unclear whether Knowing Darkness: Artists Inspired by Stephen King should carry the same marker.

By DEIRDRE FULTON | January 13, 2010

Photos: Stephen King-inspired artwork

Images from Knowing Darkness: Artists Inspired by Stephen King
Artwork from Stephen King's novel covers and more

By CENTIPEDE PRESS | January 14, 2010

Booked solid

A hefty season of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry
The holidays are over — time to hit the books.

By BARBARA HOFFERT | January 04, 2010

2009: The year in books

True stories - fact and fiction
Here, listed alphabetically by author, are 10 of the best books the Phoenix reviewed in 2009.

By JON GARELICK | December 22, 2009

Updike does death, R. Crumb does God, Vanity Fair does Proust

Gift books to savor
Trying to reach as broad a range of tastes and pocketbooks as possible, we this year scavenged everything from the front pages of the Onion to R. Crumb's genesis, to valedictory Updike. Stuff to read, stuff to look at, glossy pages and matte. Remember: be careful not to nick the pages or spill eggnog on them before you wrap. Happy holidays!

By PHOENIX STAFF | December 08, 2009

Sarah and the shipmates

Vowell on the Puritans and the founding of Rhode Island
Humorist, historian, superhero. Sarah Vowell is a woman of letters and voices.

By MICHAEL ATCHISON | October 22, 2009

Graphic Traffic

A sweet crop of graphic narratives
Comics. Graphic novels. Sequential-art books. Call them what you will, but there are more of them than ever.

By MIKE MILIARD | October 16, 2009

Whatchamacallit

Jack Pendarvis's not quite mot juste
John Gardner, the great teacher and novelist who wrote approximately 413 books before annihilating himself on a motorcycle in 1982, was very big on vocabulary.

By JAMES PARKER | October 15, 2009

Hot Nazi beach reads

The new wave of Reich books: pop genres, good Germans
Nazis aren't blitzing just the movie screens this year, though — they're also invading the bookstores, with battalions of novels and non-fiction tomes published or upcoming.

By PETER KEOUGH | August 18, 2009

Interview: Joseph Finder

True fiction
"Since 9/11, thousands of CIA employees have quit to go private. Basically, these guys are private spies."

By CLEA SIMON | August 18, 2009

Surf bored

Little virtue in Pynchon's Inherent Vice
Paranoia isn't what it used to be — not for Thomas Pynchon, at any rate.

By PETER KEOUGH | July 28, 2009

Extreme Reads

The Phoenix beach-reading four-pack delivers sex, drugs, and rock and role — plus black-market human organs!
Reading on the beach is a rite of summer as treasured as slathering on globs of coconut oil and squatting in front of a tanning mirror. Of course, five out of five dermatologists recommend that you read this special collection of book excerpts indoors — but that’s where we decided to draw the line.

By PHOENIX STAFF | July 22, 2009

The End of the Long Summer

Why we must remake our civilization to survive on a volatile Earth
In this nonfiction treatise about global warming and other ecological dangers, the author details why our environment is in much worse shape than we thought. In this excerpt, Dianne Dumanoski notes that, far from taming Mother Nature, our factories and habits have only enraged her, which could lead to Earth's inability to sustain life. In other words, we're all gonna die — enjoy your summer!

By DIANNE DUMANOSKI | July 22, 2009

It Feels So Good When I Stop

In this excerpt, the protagonist recalls his post-college years, in which he worked a crappy job at a restaurant owned by a racist.
In the winter of 1994, I graduated from UMass after four and a half years with a BA in English. I did pretty average; a lot worse than I might have done if I had given the tiniest of fucks about school. I decided to dick around until the summer and not think about my limited prospects, my withering University Health Insurance, and the looming crush of student-loan repayment.

By JOE PERNICE | July 22, 2009

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