Author: Kristofer Collins
Undercover: What We're Reading in October
Three books about the challenges, triumphs and tragedies of parenthood.
Undercover: What We're Reading in September
Reviews of "Bullets into Bells" and "American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin" as well as upcoming literary events.
Undercover: What We're Reading in August
A review of "The Pitcher and the Dictator: Satchel Paige’s Unlikely Season in the Dominican Republic," and a preview of award-winning playwright Tammy Ryan's next public reading.
Undercover: What We're Reading in July
“Sometimes I play the what-if game and wonder, what if we hadn’t moved to Sewickley when I got pregnant ... and what happened to us might never have happened at all.”
Undercover: What We're Reading in June
Reviews of Smoketown: The Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance by Mark Whitaker and Abandoned Pittsburgh: Steel and Shadows by Chuck Beard
Undercover: What We're Reading in May
Reviews of The Drowning Boy’s Guide to Water by Cameron Barnett and Capp Road by Matt Borczon.
Undercover: What We're Reading in April
A look back at "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" as it turns 30, plus two literary events coming up in April.
Undercover: What We're Reading in March
Reviews of "79" by Brian Broome and "Among Ruins" by Robert Gibb, plus two literary events coming up this month.
Undercover: What We're Reading in February
The co-founders of Wigle Whiskey author a book on the history and current state of whiskey distilling in Pittsburgh.
Undercover: What We're Reading in January
Reviews of "Challenges to the Dream" edited by Jim Daniels and poetry anthology “Nasty Women & Bad Hombres" edited by Deena November and Nina Padolf
Four Books (with Pittsburgh Connections) That Make Great Gifts
Books make wonderful gifts; here are a few suggestions for your holiday celebrations.
Undercover: Carousel: New & Selected Poetry & Fiction and Muskrat Friday Dinner
Reviews of "Carousel: New & Selected Poetry & Fiction" by Judith R. Robinson and "Muskrat Friday Dinner" by Scott Silsbe.
Undercover: “Shopping Mall” and “Allegheny Cemetery”
Reviews of a new book about the history of shopping malls –– with special attention paid to a Pittsburgh-area mall that was home to a bunch of zombies –– and another that is a must for graveyard enthusiasts and budding zombie hunters.
Undercover: ‘The Schenley Experiment’
A little while after the average freshman enters Schenley, he is aware of a new feeling, which pervades the atmosphere of the place, something which makes him extremely proud to be one of the Schenleyites. — “The Schenley Experiment: A Social History of Pittsburgh’s First Public High School”
Undercover: ‘The Decade’ is a Wonderful Pittsburgh Time Capsule
Cue up your old vinyl copy of “The Decade Presents LIVE from the Corner of Rock & Roll Like U Was There” and crack open an icy bottle of Iron City before sinking into the pages of this very welcome excursion into yesteryear.
Undercover: Two Great Reads for the Summer
New books by authors Joyce Tremel and Jacob Bacharach will help get your summer off to a great start.
New Book Recounts Pirates Rise and Fall in the 1990s
The Pirates' fortunes began to change with the arrival of first-time major league manager Jim Leyland and future superstars Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla and Andy Van Slyke. So what went wrong?
Book Review: ‘The Madhouse Effect’
”Right there, we had a prima facie case that we were warming the planet and affecting Earth’s climate system.” The Madhouse Effect
Book Review: “The Light on The Wall” & “Jackknife: New and Selected Poems”
The early poems here share much in common with the characters found in Bruce Springsteen’s “The River” and “Darkness on the Edge of Town.”
Book Reviews: ‘We Show What We Have Learned & Other Stories’
Clare Beams leads her audience into a twilight middleground of the dark corners of the imagination in this her debut story collection.
Book Reviews: ‘Playing Through the Whistle: Steel, Football, and an American Town’
Sports Illustrated senior writer S.L. Price has created not only a thorough history of high school football in Aliquippa but also a meticulous chronicle of the labor movement and the rise and fall of industrial America.
Spotlight: A Visit to Pittsburgh's Three New Indie Bookstores
The recent opening of these bookstores makes a bookshop crawl a remarkably simple and worthy endeavor.
Book Reviews: “Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File”
Wideman examines the little-known military trial and execution of Louis Till, who was convicted of rape and murder while stationed in Italy in 1945.
Book Reviews: ‘Becoming Andy Warhol’
The Warhol in these pages is avid in his desire for fame and success in the moneyed, chi-chi world of fine art, but he is also contemptuous of the arrogant pretensions of the taste-makers (gallery owners, critics, art patrons).
Book Reviews: Michael Chabon's “Moonglow”
This is Chabon’s finest work in years. It is at once a story of the horrors of war and the compromises we make for love and family.
Book Reviews: “Forsaken”
“Forsaken” is the story of horror writer Thad McAlister, whose latest novel sets terrible events into motion and causes awful consequences for his family.
Pittsburgh's Stellar Lecture Series
The 2016-2017 season, which begins this month, marks a new chapter for Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures.
Book Reviews: “The Almost Sound of Snow Falling” & “Mother Russia”
“The Almost Sound of Snow Falling” largely is concerned with the notion of masculinity. “Mother Russia” recounts that journey and simultaneously explores the author's relationship to her mother and to motherhood in general.
Book Reviews: The Return of ‘The Silver Ghost’
“The Silver Ghost” is a nostalgic evocation of a pre-1960’s America told breathlessly in prose lit with movie-marquee dazzle.
Book Reviews: Miss Ruffles Inherits Everything, The Abundance
Nancy Martin's latest comic whodunit is a worthwhile summer vacation read.
Best of the 'Burgh 2016
We scoured the region to bring you 53 items we’ve deemed this year’s “Best of the ’Burgh,” as well as 8 stellar local Instagram accounts you don’t want to miss.
Best of the 'Burgh 2016: Style & Shopping
Our editors' FRESH TAKES on our favorite Pittsburgh things, including the best place to find dope threads and where to go to get groomed in style.
Best of the 'Burgh 2016: Arts & Culture
Our editors' FRESH TAKES on our favorite Pittsburgh things, including the best place to develop a comic book obsession, where to go to make your own glassware and a Tour de Force improv act.
Best of the 'Burgh 2016: Personalities
Our editors' FRESH TAKES on our favorite Pittsburgh things, including the best team in the NHL and a celebrated hotel pet.
Best of the 'Burgh 2016: Activities & Experiences
Our editors' FRESH TAKES on our favorite Pittsburgh things, including the best place to take a dip with your dog and a restored lotus pond.
Best of the 'Burgh 2016: Food & Drink
Our editors' FRESH TAKES on our favorite Pittsburgh things, including the best place to find a dream of an ice cream cone and where to order a decadent cake for breakfast.
Best of the 'Burgh 2016: Business & Education
Our editors' FRESH TAKES on our favorite Pittsburgh things, including the best old-school shoe repair shop and a bar with a burgeoning bobblehead collection.
Best of the 'Burgh 2016: Neighborhood Spots
Our editors' FRESH TAKES on our favorite Pittsburgh things, including the best stretch of the Pittsburgh Marathon and a living building.
Best of the 'Burgh 2016: Kids & Family
Our editors' FRESH TAKES on our favorite Pittsburgh things, including the best place to go glamping and an intriguing way to "Listen to Your Mother."
Book Review: Whiskey, Etc.
Sherrie Flick, who teaches in Chatham University’s Creative Writing and Food Studies masters programs, is a virtuoso of pocket-sized fiction, and her new story collection, Whiskey, Etc., makes that abundantly clear.
Book Reviews: ‘Concussion’
“Concussion” is the story of neuropathologist Bennet Omalu who, while conducting an autopsy on former Pittsburgh Steeler Center Mike Webster, found something in Webster’s brain similar to Alzheimer’s disease that he christened Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.
Book Review: 'Iconoscope: New and Selected Poems'
We celebrate National Poetry Month with a round-up of new books from a couple of our favorite local poesy-slingers.
Book Review: ‘To Brew or Not to Brew’
A woman in fictional Lawrenceville investigates the suspicious death of her head chef, all while trying to open a brew pub on schedule and find time for a little romance with an ex-hockey player.
Book Review: ‘The Color of Sundays’
One of the major architects in the Steelers' success of the 70s, Bill Nunn Jr., is the subject of the latest book from Pittsburgh Tribune-Review investigative reporter Andrew Conte.
New Book about Pittsburgh Jazz Legend Billy Strayhorn Strikes the Right Note
Strayhorn: An Illustrated Life is a gorgeous, lovingly curated coffee-table book that should serve as a much-needed reminder of Strayhorn’s signature importance in jazz history.
5 Books Which Make Great Gifts
Consider these titles when holiday shopping.
Local Poet's Debut Collection Akin to Atmospheric Horror Film
Margaret Bashaar's poems offer the reader a dark, dreamlike world in which issues of gender, sexuality and artistic enterprise are put under a sort of mad scientist’s microscope.
Book Reviews: A Work about Personal Identity and Music
'If I Knew the Way' is the perfect introduction to the author's funny-sad world.
