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The Psychopath Test

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Bestselling non-fiction author Jon Ronson jumps head first into the culture of psychopathy when he receives an anonymous text made up of seemingly codified symbols and obtuse references. After he is approached by a puzzled neuroscientist desperate for answers, the question of this mysterious book propels “The Psychopath Test” deep into an even bigger mystery: is it individuals who are mentally ill, or are we all merely products of a society that is itself diseased?

This page-turner is born from a tradition of gonzo journalism that first questions society and secondly investigates human nature. Ronson’s funny and precise style of personal narrative makes for an absorbing first-hand account of society’s most colorful and often misunderstood institutions, from the Church of Scientology to reality TV.

Ronson, Jon. The Psychopath Test. Pan Macmillan. Paperback, octavo. List price: $16.00. Our in-store price: $6.00.

Stephanie S. is a part-time bookseller at our University Village store. She also teaches poetry in the Chicago Public Schools.

Staff Review of the Week highlights some of our favorite picks from the stacks. Come to any one of our three retail locations and talk to our interesting and knowledgeable staff about books!

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True Grit

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True Grit is a classic Western by Charles Portis, an underappreciated twentieth-century master of American fiction. Set in the lawless American West of the 1870s but narrated retrospectively by its protagonist, the book recounts fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross’s quest to avenge her father’s murder by one of his employees. The young Mattie is a remarkable figure: shrewd, independent, practical, pious, humorless, and, as a narrator, entirely unself-aware. These qualities, almost a parody of pioneer spirit and old-school Puritan virtue, at once endear her to the reader and make her narrative hilarious. She sets out alone from her home in Arkansas with the intention of personally bringing the killer to justice, eventually hiring a salty, dissolute U.S. Marshal with a reputation for violence named Reuben “Rooster” Cogburn. Joined by Laboeuf, a vainglorious Texas Ranger on the trail of the same man, they form an unlikely friendship as they pursue the fugitive through the Indian Territory. True Grit has been eclipsed in fame by its two highly successful film adaptations, but the brilliance of Mattie’s character, Portis’s scrupulously accurate historical and regional idiom, and his genius for dry humor make the book a formidable achievement in its own right.

Portis, Charles. True Grit. Bloomsbury, 2005, paper, octavo, 216 pp. Our in-store sale price: $5.95.

Sebastian spends his days at Powell’s Hyde Park roaming the ample aisles of the American History section.

Staff Review of the Week highlights some of our favorite picks from the stacks. Come to any one of our three retail locations and talk to our interesting and knowledgeable staff about books!

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Art in Time: Unknown Comic Book Adventures, 1940-1980

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With Dan Nadel’s Art in Time: Unknown Comic Book Adventures, 1940-1980, we’re treated to a collection of some of the quirkiest comic books that time forgot. Intended as a companion to his previous critically acclaimed book, Art Out of Time, this title follows an anomalous trajectory of works which fully embody the spirit of their genre and time period, yet even in the case of more popular cartoonists (such as Harry Lucey of Archie fame) have been largely overlooked or marginalized. Nadel seeks to broaden the conversation about comic book history by carefully selecting and presenting, with informative commentary, odd gems of adventure, intrigue, or derring-do. He succeeds at this with his manner of presentation but even moreso in his careful selection. There is vitality to each work that stands out, even if the primacy of the time period’s given style may keep more casual readers at bay. In particular, the richly bizarre adventure-yarn, Kona: the Cave of Mutations (by Sam J. Glanzman) stands out, featuring giant sharks and dinosaurs warring with diseased mutants inside a vast cavern. Also of note is the surreal black and white piece by Michael McMillian called Funny Animals, or the spirit of EC Comics channeled through John Stanley’s meticulously detailed Two for the Price of One. Overall, the collection speaks to a vast and too-often unspoken history of the medium that Dan Nadel translates for us in this large-format treasure of a book with pulpy aplomb.

Nadel, Dan. Art in Time: Unknown Comic Book Adventures, 1940-1980. Abrams Comicarts, 2010, hardcover, quarto, 301 pp. Our in-store sale price: $12.50.

Lane can be found at the Lincoln Avenue Powell’s, re-examining the finer works of the occult, Sci-Fi, comic books, and Rabelais.

Staff Review of the Week highlights some of our favorite picks from the stacks. Come to any one of our three retail locations and talk to our interesting and knowledgeable staff about books!