The Wall Street Journal:
“Holiday Gift Books: Food,” on three new memoirs, plus one cookbook (November 19, 2022).
“Schmear Ye, Schmear Ye,” on two new biographies of Zabar’s and Zingerman’s (May 14, 2022).
“Appetite for Adventure,” on four new books that reckon with Anthony Bourdain’s life and legacy (October 2, 2021).
“What Are You Eating?” on Mark Bittman’s Animal, Vegetable, Junk and Robert Paarlberg’s Resetting the Table (January 30, 2021).
“Distilled, My Heart,” on Wright Thompson’s Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon, and the Things That Last (November 21, 2020).
“Why Do We Need James Beard?” on James Birdsall’s The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James Beard (October 3, 2020).
“Requiem of the Celebrity Chef,” on David Chang’s memoir, Eat a Peach (September 5, 2020).
“To Taste the Untamed,” on Gina Rae La Cerva’s Feasting Wild: In Search of the Last Untamed Food (August 24, 2020).
“Summer Books 2020: Food,” on a quartet of recent Texas cookbooks (May 21, 2020).
“The National Palate,” on American Cuisine: And How It Got This Way by Paul Freedman (October 23, 2019).
“A Place at the Table: The Tangled Story of how African-American Cooking Has Changed the National Palate,” on In Pursuit of Flavor by Edna Lewis, Recipes for Respect by Rafia Zafar, Getting What We Need Ourselves and Every Nation Has its Dish by Jennifer Jensen Wallach, and Soul by Todd Richards (May 24, 2019).
“The Raw, the Kooks and Their ‘Hippie Food,’ ” on Hippie Food: How Back-to-the-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat by Jonathan Kauffman (January 19, 2018).
“The American Bazaar,” on Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America by Michael Ruhlman (May 19, 2017).
“In the Land of Milk & Honey,” on A Proper Drink: The Untold Story of How a Band of Bartenders Saved the Civilized Drinking World by Robert Simonson (September 30, 2016).
“Hunting Made Humanity,” on Meathooked: The History and Science of Our 2.5-Million-Year Obsession with Meat by Marta Zaraska (February 26, 2016).
The A.V. Club:
“The Method Tells the Story of the 20th Century’s Most Controversial Acting Practice,” on Isaac Butler’s history of stage and screen (February 2, 2022).
“Camera Man Chronicles the Extraordinary Life and Work of Buster Keaton,” on Dana Stevens’s biography of the silent movie star (January 24, 2022), a review mentioned on the Criterion Collection’s website.
“The A.V. Club’s 15 Favorite Books of 2021,” on Claire Luchette’s debut novel, Agatha Of Little Neon (December 15, 2021).
“All the Best Stories, Trivia, and Tidbits from Mel Brooks’ Memoir, All About Me!” on the comedy legend’s life and career (November 29, 2021).
“Beautiful World, Where Are You is Sally Rooney’s Best Novel Yet,” on Rooney’s third novel (September 7, 2021).
“The A.V. Club’s Favorite Books of 2021 so Far,” on Rachel Cusk’s Second Place, Elizabeth Kolbert’s Under a White Sky, and J. Drew Lanham’s Sparrow Envy.
“The Storm Is Upon Us Ventures into the Eye of QAnon,” on America’s favorite conspiracy cult (June 21, 2021).
“The South Got Something to Say in Chronicling Stankonia,” on Regina N. Bradley’s essay collection about OutKast and the hip-hop South (February 22, 2021).
“The A.V. Club’s 15 Favorite Books of 2020,” on Jessica Anthony’s Enter the Aardvark and Sigrid Nunez’s What Are You Going Through (December 16, 2020).
“The Lights Go Out in Don DeLillo’s Familiar Yet Slight The Silence,” on the novelist’s latest (October 19, 2020).
“Like H Is For Hawk Before It, Helen Macdonald’s Vesper Flights Soars,” on the nature writer’s new book (August 25, 2020).
“‘Who Is Alex Trebek?’ and 6 Other Questions Asked and Answered by the Jeopardy Host’s Memoir” on The Answer Is . . . (July 22, 2020).
“From Infectious Diseases to Fake News, The Rules Of Contagion Examines How Things Spread,” on Adam Kucharski’s history of pandemics (July 7, 2020).
“7 Books from the First Half of 2020 that More People Should Read,” on Lee Durkee’s The Last Taxi Driver & Mark O’Connell’s Notes from an Apocalypse (July 7, 2020).
“Samanta Schweblin’s Little Eyes Sees the Dark Side of Social Connectivity,” on the Argentinian author’s latest novel (May 5, 2020).
“Final Draft Assembles the Best of David Carr, a Reporter Who Pulled No Punches,” on the journalist’s collected works (April 6, 2020).
“Cool Town reconstructs the musical hotbed that birthed R.E.M., The B-52s, and Neutral Milk Hotel,” on Grace Hale’s history of the Athens scene (March 23, 2020).
“The Big Goodbye asks, ‘Why can’t we forget Chinatown?’” on Sam Wasson’s history of the iconic film (February 3, 2020).
“The A.V. Club’s 15 Favorite Books of 2019,” on Margaret Renkl’s Late Migrations and Kevin Wilson’s Nothing to See Here (December 11, 2019).
“Marvelous Life Doesn’t Sugarcoat the Enthralling Origin Story of Stan Lee,” on Danny Fingeroth’s biography of Lee (October 31, 2019).
“With Grand Union, Zadie Smith Proves She’s a Master of Short Stories, Too,” on Smith’s first collection of short fiction (October 7, 2019).
“Bob Honey Sings Jimmy Crack Corn—and You Won’t Care—in Sean Penn’s Second Novel” on the actor as novelist (September 9, 2019), a review that made Lit Hub’s list of the year’s most scathing reviews.
“Becoming Superman is Both a Gruesome and Mundane Portrait of the Creator of Babylon 5,“ on J. Michael Straczynski’s memoir (July 22, 2019).
“Under the Radar, Underrated, or Simply Missed: 7 Books from 2019’s First Half that Deserve More Attention,“ on Samanta Schweblin’s Mouthful of Birds, Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive, and The Parade by Dave Eggers (June 18, 2019).
“This Dr. Seuss Biography Is Not Just Hagiography,” on Becoming Dr. Seuss by Brian Jay Jones (May 6, 2019).
“From a Pandora Musicologist, Why You Like It Sorts Music Fans into Dull Stereotypes,“ on Nolan Gasser’s Why You Like It: The Science and Culture of Musical Taste (April 29, 2019).
“Bryan Washington’s Stellar Debut, Lot, Puts Houston on the Map,” on Washington’s short-story collection Lot (March 18, 2019).
“A Dopey Wellness Guru Misleads His Minions in Sam Lipsyte’s Latest,” on Lipsyte’s Hark (January 15, 2019).
“The A.V. Club’s 10 Favorite Books of 2018,” on Tim Kreider’s I Wrote This Book Because I Love You (December 5, 2018).
“Sharon Jones Deserves a Better Biography than the Soulless Long Slow Train” on Donald Brackett’s Long Slow Train: The Soul Music of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings (November 12, 2018).
“A Young Black Man’s Reluctant Odyssey Into Guns Sets Its Sights on America’s Racist Gun Problem“ on RJ Young’s Let It Bang (October 22, 2018).
"Nico Walker’s Tough Debut Fictionalizes His Life of War, Heroin, and Bank Robbery," on Walker's novel Cherry (August 13, 2018).
"Legendary Critic Michiko Kakutani Reviews All the President’s Lies in The Death Of Truth," on Kakutani's The Death of Truth (July 16, 2018).
"The A.V. Club’s Favorite Books of 2018 so Far," on Alexander Chee's How to Write an Autobiographical Novel (June 25, 2018).
"Porochista Khakpour Writes Illness as Memoir in Sick," on Khakpour's Sick (June 4, 2018).
"The Lily-White Twilight Of The Gods Plays a Requiem for the Giants of Classic Rock," on Steven Hyden's Twilight Of The Gods (May 7, 2018).
"Dave Eggers Brews a Weak Cup of Coffee and Aspiration in His Latest Nonfiction The Monk Of Mokha," (January 29, 2018).
"Wild Things Makes a Convincing Case for Reading Children’s Books as an Adult," on Bruce Handy's Wild Things (August 14, 2017).
"Michael Crichton’s Resurrected Dragon Teeth Should’ve Stayed Preserved in Amber," on Crichton's Dragon Teeth (May 22, 2017).
"Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Refugees Will Haunt Its Readers, Especially in these Times," on Nguyen's The Refugees (February 6, 2017).
"After 75 years of Archie Comics, Jughead Is the Hero 2016 Needs," on Jughead (November 29, 2016).
"Chew’s Hero Bit into People, and Also Our Culinary Obsessions," on Chew by John Layman & Rob Guillory (October 11, 2016).
64 Parishes (formerly Louisiana Cultural Vistas):
“Motherhood and Its Malcontents,” on Patty Friedmann’s The Exact Image of Mother (Spring 2024).
“Peculiar and Incendiary,“ on Julian Moreau’s The Black Commandos (Winter 2023).
“Always on the Threshold,“ on Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s classic short-story collection The Goodness of St. Rocque (Fall 2023).
“Diet Gospel,“ on Louisiana’s all-time best-selling title, Sugar Busters! (Summer 2023).
“Bad Romance, Bad Research,” on Cornell Woolrich’s 1947 noir, Waltz into Darkness (Spring 2023).
“Peace, Justice, and the Cajun Way,” on Tim Edler’s Crawfish-Man (Winter 2022) — Winner of the 2022 Best Critical Review Award from the Press Club of New Orleans.
“Brief, Brutish, and Bacchic,” on Nancy Lemann’s Lives of the Saints (Fall 2022).
“Transfer of Souls,” on Erna Brodber’s 1994 novel, Louisiana (Summer 2022).
“Wearing Masks 364 Days a Year,” on John Rechy's City of Night (Spring 2022).
“Call Me Shakbatina,” on LeAnne Howe’s Choctaw novel Shell Shaker (Winter 2021).
“Quarrels with America,” on Robert Stone’s 1967 novel, A Hall of Mirrors (Fall 2021).
“Misery Tea,” on Tony Kushner’s Caroline, or Change (Summer 2021).
“A Pox on All Their Houses,” on Valerie Martin’s A Recent Martyr (Spring 2021) — Winner of the 2021 Best Critical Review Award from the Press Club of New Orleans.
“Godforsaken, Imbecilic, and Insane,” on John Dufresne’s Louisiana Power & Light (Winter 2020) — Winner of the 2020 Best Critical Review Award from the Press Club of New Orleans.
“Obsessed with New Orleans,” on Nik Cohn’s Triksta, my favorite Katrina book (Fall 2020).
“Emma Wilson Emery,” on Louisiana’s first, (vehemently anti-war) poet laureate (Summer 2020).
“The Poor Man’s Truman Capote,” on Speed Lamkin’s Tiger in the Garden (Spring 2020).
“Sea Changes,” on Shirley Ann Grau’s debut novel, The Hard Blue Sky (Winter 2019) — Winner of the 2019 Best Critical Review Award from the Press Club of New Orleans.
“Too Damn Mean to Cry,” on Arna Bontemps’s God Sends Sunday (Fall 2019).
“Black and Blue: Between the Covers with Steve Cannon,“ on Cannon’s Groove, Bang and Jive Around (Summer 2019).
“Moonlight, Magnolias, and Marxism on the Bayou Teche,“ on Barbara Giles’s The Gentle Bush (Spring 2019).
“Can You Hear Me, Sergeant Blue?“ on Rosel George Brown’s Sibyl Sue Blue (Winter 2018).
“Grifter’s Paradise,” on Nelson Algren’s A Walk on the Wild Side (Fall 2018).
"Plaquemines Picaresque," on E.P. O'Donnell's The Great Big Doorstep (Summer 2018).
"A Lesson on Waiting: The Simmering Rage of Ernest Gaines’s Catherine Carmier," on Gaines’s first novel (Spring 2018).
"A Nomination for Shaik’s Memorable Protagonist," on The Mayor of New Orleans by Fatima Shaik (Winter 2017).
"Twentieth Century Millennial: Revisiting Faulkner’s Mosquitoes," on the writer’s second novel (Fall 2017).
The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate:
“Novel Digs into the Imagined Backstory of Nick Carraway, the Narrator of Fitzgerald’s ‘Gatsby',’” on Michael Farris Smith’s Nick (January 10, 2021).
On the Seawall:
On Jon T. Coleman’s Nature Shock: Getting Lost in America (September 8, 2020).
On Ellen Prager’s Dangerous Earth (March 31, 2020).
Kenyon Review:
“So You Think You Can't Dance,” on Dancing Boys by Zihao Li (October 2017).
“A Doddle through the Furze,” on Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane (May 2017).
“The Limits of the Unexpected,” on The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera (April 2017).
Pacific Standard:
"Pilgrims in Search of War," on United States of Jihad by Peter Bergen, Apostle by Tom Bissell, and Revelation by Dennis Covington (March 21, 2016).
“The Big Spill,” on the stories behind three of the most notorious long-haul mishaps in history (February 3, 2016).
The Los Angeles Review of Books:
"Going Deep in the Magic South," on South Toward Home by Margaret Eby and Deep South by Paul Theroux (October 6, 2015).
"Après Katrina, Le Déluge," on Katrina: After the Flood by Gary Rivlin (August 29, 2015).
The Rumpus:
On On Cats by Charles Bukowski (December 10, 2015).
On Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell (October 27, 2015).
Oxford American Online:
On The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat: Craig Claiborne and the American Food Renaissance by Thomas McNamee (October 12, 2012).
On Cornbread Nation 6: The Best of Southern Food Writing, edited by Brett Anderson (August 6, 2012).
On The Picayune's Creole Cook Book and Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, edited by Marcelle Bienvenu and Judy Walker (June 18, 2012).
On Southern Food: At Home, on the Road, in History by John Egerton (May 30, 2012).
Deep South Magazine:
On Fives and Twenty-Fives, an interview with Michael Pitre (October 21, 2014).