360 Staff Pick: Get Lit
In this new memoir, Mary Karr recounts her descent into alcoholism, the collapse of her marriage, and her eventual conversion to Roman Catholicism, unfolding in the harrowing manner of a suspense...
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360 Staff Pick: Honor Still Lost
When I first read this 1974 novel, set in West Germany around the time of the Red Army Faction, it seemed very foreign to me in every sense. A serious terrorist threat? Law enforcement overreach to...
View Article360 Staff Pick: Speech Therapy
In our contest-obsessed culture, it’s easy to tune out awards hoopla. But England’s Mercury Prize has done what a meaningful award should do: shine a light on an artist who deserves it. Twenty-six...
View Article360 Staff Pick: The Very Best
Playlist anxiety this party season? It's The Very Best to the rescue. Fronted by a Malawian Esau Mwamwaya, the band made mixtape history last year with its killer remixes of M.I.A's 'Paper Planes' and...
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360 Staff Pick: Logicomix
Graphic nonfiction achieves a new level of elegance in a very rarefied subject: the career of Bertrand Russell – mathematician, philosopher, and educator -- and his search for the logical foundation of...
View Article360 Staff Pick: Zadie Smith changes her mind
Who knew procrastination could be so fruitful? Smith (White Teeth) wrote the essays collected here while missing deadlines for her novels. Among them: her father's experiences during the invasion of...
View Article360 Staff Pick: Byrne Country
Composer Andrew Byrne spends most of his time in the U.S., but White Bone Country is about the ferocious, almost abstract deserts of his native Australia. The instrumentation of piano and percussion...
View Article360 Staff Pick: A Devil to Play
Some people solve their midlife crises by buying a motorcycle — Jasper Rees decided to face down his childhood enemy: the French horn. Now available in paperback, Rees' account takes us from band...
View Article360 Staff Pick: Blame
This gorgeously written novel tracks young history professor Patsy MacLemoore through her alcoholic blackouts, vehicular homicide, prison sentence, and rehabilitation. Don't let the grim subject matter...
View Article360 Staff Pick: The Original Crossover Act
Last weekend Kurt interviewed Owen Pallett, a violinist who makes indie-electro-classical-pop, either as a one-man band or with a live orchestra. This weekend, one of Brooklyn’s coolest clubs hosted...
View Article360 Staff Pick: Memoir of a Friendship
With a million bromance movies exploring male friendships (usually at the expense of the shrewy women who stand in the way), Let's Take the Long Way Home is refreshing. The memoir by former Boston...
View Article360 Staff Pick: Big Fan
Big Fan follows a guy (Patton Oswalt) who lives to watch the New York Giants and then bloviate on sports-talk radio. But it's not a football movie — it's a fascinating exploration of fandom: what we...
View Article360 Staff Pick: Little Bee
A vacationing British couple ventures outside the walls of their luxury resort. There, on a Nigerian beach, they run into Little Bee, a young girl fleeing a gang of brutal soldiers. The fallout of that...
View Article360 Staff Pick: Bright Star
If pale young couples on the misty heath isn't your cup of Earl Grey, Bright Star will change your mind about British costume dramas. Jane Campion (The Piano) wrote and directed this exquisite film...
View Article360 Staff Pick: Don't Cry
In her new collection of short stories, now out in paperback, Mary Gaitskill plumbs the depths of her characters' hearts and minds. As always, her insight into their behavior is spot-on. When...
View Article360 Staff Pick: Kid Sister goes Ultraviolet
The prize for best booty-shakin' performance of SXSW in Austin last week goes to Chicago rapper Kid Sister. Her first single, 'Pro Nails' (featuring Kanye West), is just the tip of iceberg....
View Article360 Staff Pick: Fever Ray
First there was the Knife, the Swedish Electronic duo of brother and sister Karin and Anders Dreijer. Now there's Fever Ray. Last year sister Karin went her own way (as she’s been known to do) and...
View Article360 Staff Pick: MGMT Goes All In
The electro-rock duo MGMT (Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden) has reinvented itself on their sophomore effort, Congratulations, which comes out next Tuesday, April 13.Just when I thought nothing...
View Article360 Staff Pick: State of Play
The movie starring Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck doesn’t hold a candle to the gripping BBC series on which it was based. A newspaper investigates the death of a young woman, uncovering layer after...
View Article360 Staff Pick: No Joke
Momus (a Scotsman born Nick Currie) has a reputation as music’s darkest singer-songwriter, but his novel takes dark to another level. In The Book of Jokes, all jokes -- obscene, cruel, etc. --...
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