books

warrior ant press: winter books by Warrior Ant Press Worldwide Anthill Headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

When the weather outside is frightful, here are some books we're reading we've read and you might want to as well.

All Known Metal Bands, ed. by Dan Nelson: McSweeney's, 2008. I gave this one to an upstart co-worker. "Finally," he said, "a book worthy of my coffee table!" This book is easier on the ears than venturing into dark clubs and even darker basements to hear the likes of Absythium, Circle of Pestilence, Chemo Therapy, Enfilade, Erotikill, Explosive Diarrihea, Fatal Disaster, Fear is Not Faith, Kumshot Diesel, Masturbathor, Ringworm, Pustulated, Wisdom of the Leech, and Worse than Birth.

Night of the Gun: One Journalist's search to uncover the darkest story of his life-his own, David Carr: 2008. This is the book that Oprah wished James Frey had written. Because Carr's book is more honest, it'll never sell as many copies as Frey's, but Carr, who, has lived a charmed and, at times, hellish life, proves that one can be a complete knucklehead and eventually find their way in the world. It works because most of us live our own version of a charmed and hellish life and all have a few obstacles in the way-many placed there by our own hapless guile. One of the best arguments for treatment over incarceration ever written.

Bible Illuminated: The Book, New Testament: 2008. Even folks who don't like to read the bible can enjoy the pictures in this one. When was the last time you saw a photo of John Lennon, Pricess Dianna, or Arnold Schwarzenegger used to illustrate a biblical passage?


A People's History of American Empire, Howard Zinn, Mike Konopack, and Paul Ruhle: Metropolitan Books, 2008.

Follow up your biblical passages with some real world examples of American hegemony. This is a graphic novel remake of the Howard Zinn classic. Turn off CNN and read this one to your children if you want them to grow up a be good citizens.

The God of Animals, Aryn Kyle, Scribner, 2007. Set on a Colorado horse ranch where puberty runs headlong into love lost and love gained, cowboying wrestles with class struggle, and family dsyfunction embraces sisterhood this novel does for raising show horses what Edgar Sawtelle did for dog training.

In Defense of Food: an Eater's Manifesto, Michael Pollan: The Penguin Press, 2008. Forget those blowhards on the food channel. Read this book and you'll be cooking.

The English Major, Jim Harrison: Grove Press, 2008.
Harrison writes with the kind of prose and nuanced understanding of the West that folks like Rick Bass could only hope to write. If you enjoy the landscape, and wish to explore our place in it, you need more Harrison in your life.

The Raw Shark Texts, Steven Hall: Canongate, 2007.
You loved the movie, now read the book. Oh wait, different book, different movie. But this one might even be better. It's certainly more original.

Downtown Owl, Chuck Klosterman: Simon and Schuster, 2008.
This is Klosterman's first novel. One suspects that after he's written several more, he might become proficient at fiction. It's an easy read, but the characters, when they should be living their own lives, fall into Klosterspeak all too freqeuently.

Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell: Little, Brown and Company, 2008.You thought you were special, gifted even. Pulled yourself up from your bootstraps to make a name for yourself in this world didja? Well maybe that and a lot of help from others who don't get the credit. Here Gladwell explores the who, what, and where of the credit. Turns out its simple enough. All you need is ambition, drive, luck, and 10,000 hours of practice.

The Green Bible: Harpers, 2008. If God created the Heavens and Earth wouldn't that make him an environmentalist? One would hope, but for some reason it's taken a couple thousand years for the Christians to figure this out. The answer, apparently, is green ink.

warrior ant press: summer reading list by Warrior Ant Press Worldwide Anthill Headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

We've slowed down with the posting and have been reading. Here's a few of what's been flying off the shelves the last few months at the worldwide anthill headquarters of warrior ant press.

Arkansas by John Brandon, McSweeney's Rectangulars (2008).
It's becoming increasingly difficult to go wrong with anything McSweeney's publishes these days; they continue to set the bar with strong fiction drawn upon unusual characters with compelling, believable stories. Reading Arkansas was like going home. And it made me a bit sad I didn't chose a life of petty crime instead of the dull day work of a worker ant. When your chance came early in life to be a drug-king pin, did you look the other way? or take the risk? Read this book and see what you missed.

Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen, Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux (2008). Who's less stable, the psychiatrist or the patient? the loved, or the lover? If you have trouble figuring out if it's going to rain, sleet, or snow then this book will tell you the secret for success in all matters pertaining to the 500 mb pressure line of your love life.

Brief Encounters with Che Guevara by Ben Fountain, Harper Perennial, 2007. Books that combine a deep love of ornithology and cultural revolution will always have a spot deep in my heart. Find one in yours for this book and you'll be taken to strange places and speak-in-tongues to the natives.

Exit Wounds by Ruta Modan, Drawn and Quarterly, 2007. Upon hearing that your father has been blown up by a suicide bomber, you begin a search for your real identity that leads to love. Or it's beginnings. This can only happen in real life or a comix novel set in Israel.

Here they Come by Yannick Murphy, McSwenney's Rectangulars, 2006. This book proves that if the hot dog vendor on the corner of 3rd and Broadway could write fiction it'd be a helluva story and one you wouldn't want to miss. I'll have a pretzel with that order, heavy on the salt and mustard, and don't forget the grilled onions and peppers on the 'brat.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Brabury, Europa Editions (2008). A precocious 12-year old with a death wish meets a dowdy concierge with a secret, scholary life. Then a wealthy Japanese businessman comes knocking and everyone discusses the meaning of life over afternoon tea. This book is a madeleine.

The Life of Edgar Sawtelle by Harper Collins (2008)
This book lived up to all the hype, not that I saw much beyond the jacket blurb on my advance reader copy. Stephen King sure liked it! The writing is so on target that one scene in the book had me crying, and I can't remember the last time that has happened (with a book). This book could have been subtitled, The Breed is out There. I suggest you start looking for it.

Chourmo: Book 2 and Solea: Book 3 in the Marseilles Trilogy.by Jean-Claude Izzo, Europa Editions (2007 and 2008)
Summer isn't summer without some unapologetic, hard-boiled noir the likes of which few can serve like Claude Izzo. James Lee Burke's work comes to mind, but Izzo out maneuvers him when it comes to setting a place, in this case, the dirty backwater neighborhoods of Marseilles and the calanques of the Cote D'Azur. As soon as I closed vol.3 I was scrambling around trying to locate vol.1 so I could relive the mystery.

The Rabbi's Cat 2 by Jonaan Saar, Pantheon Books (2008). And you thought your pet was smart. Can it quote the Quá'ran? make sense of the Torah? then read about a cat who purrs with insights about what it means to be holy, pure, and full of faith; it's certainly no dog that never caught a rabbit.

Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape by Sarah Manguso; How the Water Feels to the Fishes by Dave Eggers; and Minor Robberies by Deb Olin Unferth. Published simultaneously as 100 stories all-in-a-box. McSweeney's Rectangulars (2007). Short fiction redefined. Perfect for the beach, subway, or bath. Or when your attention for the novel novel wanes.

elsewhere:
warrior ant press: winter reading list