William Georgiades
The Archive
THE WORDY SHIPMATES
October 5, 2008 | 8:03amIn "The Wordy Shipmates," a meditation on the Puritans who colonized Massachusetts, author and radio personality Sarah Vowell lays out her familiar template - serious research delivered with irreverence. She...
"THE GREAT AMERICAN ATTRACTION"
August 24, 2008 | 7:21amThe idea for Rich Smith's second book is exhilarating - traveling around America for 80 days taking in our more obscure and weird festivals, taking part where possible. Smith starts...
"MADE IN THE USA "
June 15, 2008 | 8:25am"She had pitched sideways when she fell, slamming into racks of batteries, disposable lighters, TV Guides, and candy, spilling them onto the floor beside her." With that, the 300-pound guardian...
"PITCH PERFECT"
June 1, 2008 | 6:59amFinally, a journalist with the courage to investigate the cutthroat world of collegiate a cappella. "There are more than 1,200 collegiate a cappella groups in the United States alone," writes...
"THE ENCHANTRESS OF FLORENCE"
May 18, 2008 | 7:02amTV mannequin Padma Lakshmi really did a number on Salman Rushdie, who takes their separation out on the women of his new novel. They are nagging wives, slave girls, all-powerful...
IF MEMORY SERVES...
May 11, 2008 | 7:21amA Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs St. Martins Press The latest memoir by Augusten Burroughs opens with his pre-adolescent self running through the woods in the middle of...
SPOILED MILK
March 16, 2008 | 7:00amIn August 1890, peasant woman Amalia Bagnacavalli traveled from her mountain village to Bologna in northern Italy to meet with Augusto Barbieri, a 28-year old lawyer. Their meeting spawned an...
GREAT HAUL OF CHINA
December 9, 2007 | 10:00amTo wander down from SoHo, or up from the downtown courthouses into Chinatown is to be quickly and pleasantly overwhelmed. Certain streets seem to come from a different era and...
SPEAKING UP FOR VICTIMS
November 11, 2007 | 10:00amOrlando Figes and his team of researchers use a massive catalogue of interviews, as well as memoirs, letters and diaries made available after 1991, to weave a clear narrative of...
THE WRITE STUFF
October 28, 2007 | 9:00amRon Wood goes solo (at least in book form) The first memoir by a member of the Rolling Stones, "Ronnie" (St. Martin's Press) is a freewheeling narrative of how a...
MY NEW YORK
October 14, 2007 | 9:00amThe Dominican-born author of "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" grew up in Middlesex County, N.J., but now splits his time between Beantown and the Big Apple. This is...
COFFEE ACHIEVER
September 24, 2007 | 9:00amMichael Gates Gill's career path is a study in downward mobility. The Yale graduate and son of the noted New Yorker writer Brendan Gill spent decades putting on a suit...
THE LIFE EXOTIC
September 23, 2007 | 9:00amWES ANDERSON'S most resonant line of movie dialog has been distilled into its own entry on urbandictionary.com. It arrives in the director's second film, "Rushmore," when prep-school freak and geek...
TAKING A STAB
September 16, 2007 | 9:00amChelsea Cain, a 30-something journalist, wife and mother from Portland, Ore. has been writing books like "The Hippy Handbook" and "Does this Cape Make Me Look Fat" for over a...
REQUIRED READING
September 16, 2007 | 9:00amSINCE the day she was born 11 months ago, my daughter has gurgled and giggled and done everything a baby girl might be expected to do - including becoming instantly...
REQUIRED READING
September 9, 2007 | 9:00amA few years ago, if you stopped at the Starbucks at 93rd Street and Broadway, you might have been served by an unusual barista, 63-year-old Michael Gates Gill. The son...
REQUIRED READING
August 19, 2007 | 9:00amIt's been a good year for former Spy staffers. Last November saw the marvelous "Spy: The Funny Years," which was almost as good as the hype. In March, Kurt Andersen's...
REQUIRED READING
August 5, 2007 | 9:00amReading is often too tiring, which is where British television becomes useful, offering so many excellent literary adaptions that you can gaze at a television vacantly and feel vaguely not...
THE CLASS CLOWN
July 15, 2007 | 9:00amWHAT ever happened to Kotter? Thirty-two years ago, Gabe Kaplan's comedy routine became "Welcome Back Kotter," the beloved sitcom about a Brooklyn teacher returning to his roots to teach a...
REQUIRED READING
July 15, 2007 | 9:00amTHE next best thing to driving across the United States is planning the drive, which makes "The Lincoln Highway" (Norton, $39.95) an indispensable coffee-table book that belongs more in the...