Laila Lalami’s ‘The Dream Hotel’ Questions Our Concept of Freedom
Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel asks how much freedom Americans are willing to sacrifice to feel safe. What if that includes losing their right to privacy?
Shyam K. Sriram
Shyam K. Sriram is an assistant professor of political science at Canisius University in Buffalo, NY. He is the recent author of the textbook "Refugee Resettlement in the United States" from Cognella Publishing, Inc. He has visited 48 states, but feels most at home in Chicago and Atlanta.
Jazz’s Historical Agenda as Protest Music in the Stellar ‘Brassroots Democracy’
The excellent Brassroots Democracy details the beautiful and bleak ways that jazz music created the soundtrack of an emancipatory movement that lasts to this day.
The Defective Premise of Paula Ramos’ ‘Defectors’
Paola Ramos has more than one “massive blind spot”, which makes the ambitious Defectors not scholarly enough and too good to be true.
Anders Nilsen’s ‘Tongues’ and the Nature of God
Ostensibly a meditation on Greek mythology, I found more parallels with Islamic eschatology in Anders Nilsen’s sprawling graphic novel think piece, Tongues.
What Is the Goal of Andrea Warner’s ‘We Oughta Know’?
Andrea Warner purportedly wants to do right by popular Canadian women musicians in her book of revisionist album reviews, We Oughta Know.
Death without Dignity: Jewish Loss in ‘The Lady of the Mine’
Sergei Lebedev’s The Lady of the Mine builds towards a series of translucent revelations on the epigenetic trauma of Ukraine, Russia, and the USSR.
On Death and Dignity in Emily Ruskovich’s Beautiful Novel, ‘Idaho’
Idaho asks, is time the element that binds us all? What does it mean to dream? Can our dreams be shared?
‘Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows’, ‘Marriage of a Thousand Lies’ & ‘No One Can Pronounce My Name’
While the post-9/11 period and its racialization and criminalization of brown bodies marked one epoch of the South Asian experience, recent South Asian immigrant literature suggests the beginning of another frame: sexuality.
Thin Lizzy / Philip Lynott Bio ‘Cowboy Song’ Is Like Reading the Best Liner Notes, Ever
Cowboy Song is not the first biography of Thin Lizzy and/or Lynott, but it is profoundly well-researched and may be the best.
Behind Francis Ford Coppola’s Magic, the Work: ‘The Godfather Notebook’
No one other than Coppola could have directed The Godfather, because the mental effort to work Puzo’s world into film is on the level of science fiction.
To Be Iranian Is to Be in a State of Perpetual Motion and Discovery
Hamid Dabashi's Iran Without Borders is a paean to the alternate ways in which the “real” Iran has been depicted since the 19th century.
David Coggins’ ‘Men and Style’ and Our Infatuation With Being Cool
In an age of renewed discussion and debate over the true definition of masculinity “versus” femininity, how relevant is a book like Men and Style?