The 41st book of the year, and the last I'll be reviewing here (for the time being, anyway), is the latest volume of McSweeney's, specifically McSweeney's No 46: Thirteen Crime Stories from Latin America.
     From the subtitle (and the previous volume of McSweeney's) you might guess that this is a reprint anthology. Instead, they solicited ( Read more... )

         I've been reading McSweeney's 45, Hitchcock and Bradbury Fistfight in Heaven in snatches over the last few weeks, and enjoying the heck out of the experience. Most of this issue is a selective reprint of two volumes edited by Bradbury (Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow, 1952) and Hitchcock (Stories Not for the Nervous, 1965) early ( Read more... )

         McSweeney's 41, which is a glossy, color-covered hardback, amply rewarded the time I spent with it. It contains a "Letters" section, which is always a bit hilarious; and it has a section by Australian Aboriginal writers, four stories, called "Terra Australis." Did the Australian section work for me? Well, I bought two books that were ( Read more... )

          I'm a subscriber to McSweeney's Quarterly Concern (or whatever the name-of-the-moment is) and have been browsing the issues, but not reading them thoroughly, heretofore. Bucking that trend, I read McSweeney's 40, which I can heartily approve.
          First, however, there is a crisis of conscience. I'm actually reviewing here only half ( Read more... )

          I pulled McSweeney's 23 off the shelf, randomly, after reading McSweeney's 15 a few months ago. They're fun, but I haven't been reading them cover-to-cover. They deserve the attention, though.
          If you don't know the publication, it's a quarterly, more or less, and you never know what it'll look like when it comes. Some are trade ( Read more... )

          McSweeney's magazine amuses me. I saw Issue #2 in the bookstore, bought it because it was so inventive, and have bought every issue since. It's always an adventure just opening the package, because you never know what format it'll be in: hardback, paperback, newsprint, box, dynamite-with-burning-fuse...
          I have poked around in the ( Read more... )