Rain Taxi: review of books,
Vol. 13, No. 4, Winter 2008/2009
The demise of the Washington Post Book World in February 2009 was just the latest in a long line of cutbacks of mainstream newspaper coverage of literature. But there are still publications out there that focus on reviewing new books, and often overlooked tomes from the past. Rain Taxi: review of books is one of a handfull of print magazines that focus on book reviews. Some review magazines – like Booklist and Midwest Book Review – target librarians and many others are moving to online-only formats.
Rain Taxi is a quarterly publication, primarily composed of reviews but including some interviews and essays. The Winter 2008/2009 issue is 64 pages and features interviews of Harold Jaffe and Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, as well as an essay by Eric Lorberer, “Remembering David Foster Wallace.”
Rain Taxi covers a wide variety of genres in its pages: Fiction/Drama, Nonfiction, Poetry/Audio, and Graphic Novels. Works reviewed in this issue include The Hotel of Irrevocable Acts, by Carl Watson; Mixing It Up, by Ishmael Reed; Lilies Without, poetry by Laura Kasischke; and Alan’s War, a graphic novel by Emmanuel Guibert.
The editors and contributors of Rain Taxi do a wonderful job of including a wide variety of publishers: not just HarperCollins, but also books from small indie publishers like Livingston Press, Arsenal Pulp Press, Ausable Press, Archer Books, Ahadada Books, Host Publications, and such a wealth of others that you may wonder why you’ve only ever seen half-a-dozen publishing houses’ names mentioned in reviews in major newspapers and mainstream magazines like Time.
I even find myself interested in the advertisements placed in Rain Taxi. The ads will give you another idea of how many small, independent publishers are working hard to bring books they love to readers. Publishers are not advertising the latest John Grisham or Sue Grafton novel. Do those two really need more publicity? I don’t think so. Ads by Alice James Books, Sarabande, The Post-Apollo Press, Omnidawn, White Pine Press, Bordighera, Coffee House, and others will provide many more book ideas for your to-read list.
A year’s subscription to Rain Taxi costs $15.00 for U.S. addresses. If you’re like me, you may receive your next issue before you’ve read through all of the reviews and interviews in the previous issue.
