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Picking the season’s best books — for everyone from plutocrats to paupers

Reading class

By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | December 6, 2011

BOOKS FOR THE 99%: STORIES

AFTER THE APOCALYPSE | MAUREEN MCHUGH | SMALL BEER | $15 | The nine stories in Maureen McHugh's latest collection seem uniquely suited to these distressing times. They cover issues ranging from chicken-nugget-borne illness, to China's growing economy, to a sculptor, crushed by the iron boot of the recession, who makes sex toys in order to avoid foreclosure. The cumulative effect is both harrowing and strangely palliative - thoughts of the apocalypse can be a balm for confusion, since things, it seems, can always be worse.

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Gifts for the 1%
They say the best things in life are free. But you know what makes those things even better ? Swag!
Gifts for the 99%
Plaid Friday has come and gone, but no time like the present to stick it to capitalism this holiday season.
Holiday treasure hunt
Is it trash or treasure? The editorial team here at the Portland Phoenix compiled this year's incarnation of our annual local gift guide by searching for diamonds in the rough.
More

Gifts for the 1%
They say the best things in life are free. But you know what makes those things even better ? Swag!
Gifts for the 99%
Plaid Friday has come and gone, but no time like the present to stick it to capitalism this holiday season.
Holiday treasure hunt
Is it trash or treasure? The editorial team here at the Portland Phoenix compiled this year's incarnation of our annual local gift guide by searching for diamonds in the rough.
Deep tracks and minutiae for music lovers, rich and poor
Ah, box-set season, that time of year when you go to your nearest record store, looking for gifts for that special someone you know who would really appreciate a super-cool addition to their record collection.
The Big Hurt: Season's beatings
Taking advantage of your seasonal obligation to buy stuff for people, the music industry unleashes its annual torrent of giftable crap: holiday albums, greatest-hits packages, high-profile releases, deluxe reissues.
Raven Used Books to nest on Newbury
When some years ago John Petrovato decided to make a career change, he swapped the insecurity of playing bass in a New Jersey–based indie-rock band for the uncertainty of selling used books in Montague, Massachusetts, a mill town on the banks of the Connecticut River not far from Springfield.
Strange trips
If you want this summer’s eerie subject matter to hit a bit closer to home, or a bit closer to reality, check out Strange Maine: True Tales from the Pine Tree State , by Michelle Souliere (The History Press; $17.99).
Review: Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance
Common Nonsense effectively and in detail confirms what thinking folks already knew but may have had difficulty explaining: Beck, equal parts Mormon and moron, is a towering ignoramus and a shameless bigot.
Providence Student Survival Guide: List of lists
It's back-to-campus time. You've got shopping lists, book lists, syllabi, class rosters, and Facebook. Who would possibly think you could handle more lists? We would, that's who.
Review: Per Petterson plumbs The River of Time
Why would Per Petterson — the bestselling Scandinavian writer whose books don't feature an invincible crimefighting heroine — curse the river of time when he is so adept at navigating it?
Fall Books Preview: Getting booked
Two Sedarises, two New Yorker favorites, and a famous neurologist are among the highlights of this fall’s book events.
Review: William Gibson's Zero History
It’s been more than 10 years since he’s set a book anywhere but the present. Regardless, cyberpunk visionary William Gibson’s new novel still occupies top spots in multiple amazon.com science-fiction rankings this week.
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