Joanna Poncavage

Nonfiction

“Just The Funny Parts:” One Woman’s Mark on TV Comedy

A woman walks into a room. She’s the only female comedy writer there. She leans in, writes a funny book, and has the last laugh. Lots of laughs. Just the Funny Parts (Dey Street Books) is Nell Scovell’s story of how she went from wise-cracking kid to writing for David Letterman to…

Joanna PoncavageAugust 16, 2018

Miscellany

Nick Drasno’s “Sabrina” Makes Graphic Novel History

It’s the story of a young woman’s murder, and how the crime and its aftermath rock the fragile lives of those who knew her. Not necessarily an unusually rare storyline. Yet for Nick Drnaso’s Sabrina (Drawn and Quarterly), there is something totally unique: it takes its place as the first graphic…

Joanna PoncavageAugust 13, 2018

Fiction Miscellany Pop Culture Thrillers

An Obama/Biden Caper You Could Not Have Imagined

Hope Never Dies by Andrew Shaffer (Quirk Books), a work of fiction, may bring tears to your eyes. Yes, it’s that good of a whodunit, with its plot tied up neatly with no loose ends. You may laugh until you cry because this book is that funny. But mostly, you…

Joanna PoncavageJuly 2, 2018

Thrillers

4 Indie Bookstores Offer Their Top Suspense Reads

Sunscreen? Check. Swim suit? Check. Summer suspense? Grab some of these. There’s nothing like a good, gripping tale to help you unwind. We randomly polled four independent bookstores that specialize in murder and mayhem about new bestsellers in the suspense category. Surprisingly, there were no overlaps as each store named…

Joanna PoncavageJune 28, 2018

Miscellany Nonfiction Pop Culture

Strange Stars: A Must-Read For Sci-Fi and Pop Music Fans

At the time, Bowie was just a skinny singer with a dream, and a penchant for science fiction. After identifying with Robert Heinlein’s novel Starman Jones, about an Ozark farm boy who wants to go to space, Bowie devoured Ray Bradbury, Theodore Sturgeon, Isaac Asimov and all that the Golden…

Joanna PoncavageJune 21, 2018

Fiction

“Ohio” by Stephen Markley Introduces New Voice(s) in American Fiction

Ohio by Stephen Markley (Simon & Schuster) deserves to be only the first of a series because its characters are worth more than one book, and the story of their America is worth more than one look. This sprawling, spiraling novel begins one summer night in 2013, as four former…

Joanna PoncavageJune 13, 2018

Fiction

Comic Thriller “Death and Taxes” Pits an IRS Repo Squad Against the Mongolian Mob, Radioactive Cows and a Murderous Eunuch

Mark Douglas is an IRS accountant, a former Marine content to hide out in his cubicle and audit suspicious tax returns. His latent thirst for action is satisfied by occasional forays into the field, armed with tear gas, a bull horn, and a rental truck to haul in whatever pays…

Joanna PoncavageMay 30, 2018

Fiction

Annihilation: Sci-Fi Thriller Starring Natalie Portman Has Scary Monsters, But Maybe Not the Kind You Expect

With apologies to Natalie Portman, the star of Alex Garland’s upcoming Paramount movie, Annihilation, has to be the primal forces of nature itself. The film is an adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer's Nebula Award-winning book, Annihilation, which is about a strange coastal locale known as Area X, enclosed by a guarded…

Joanna PoncavageFebruary 27, 2018

Fiction

The Daughter Who Slipped Away: Thomas Jefferson, Race, Class and the Search for a President’s Lost Family

Now to the family archives comes a new book, Jefferson’s Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America by Catherine Kerrison, a professor of American history at Villanova University. “Their lives provide a unique vantage point by which to study the complicated American Revolution itself,” said Kerrison at the…

Joanna PoncavageFebruary 27, 2018

Nonfiction

Seduced by Trotsky’s Assassin: John P. Davidson tells the inside story

Paris, 1938. A young social worker from Brooklyn, Sylvia Ageloff was in the French capitol to study the language. And as a member of Leon Trotsky’s inner circle, she was also an American delegate to an organizational meeting of the Russian revolutionary’s followers. And, marked by Josef Stalin’s secret agents,…

Joanna PoncavageFebruary 27, 2018

Nonfiction

Eve Ensler of ‘The Vagina Monologues’ Turns Her Body Inside Out

Her book, In The Body of the World (2013, Metropolitan Books), chronicles her Stage 4 uterine cancer diagnosis and treatment, and makes surprising connections between her disease and the cancers of war, poverty and pollution that plague our planet. And now through March, Ensler performs her play, also titled “In…

Joanna PoncavageFebruary 19, 2018

Nonfiction

‘Laura Meets Jeffrey’: An X-Rated ‘Literary’ Love Story

Anka Radakovich in “British GQ”: “Laura Meets Jeffrey" is a fascinating nonfiction "erotic memoir." Jeffrey Michelson chronicles the wildest, most intense sexual scene in New York City's history. This book is raunchy, dirty and disgusting. I couldn't put it down." Norman Mailer from his foreword: “Objective, funny, salacious, and perversely—dare I…

Joanna PoncavageFebruary 19, 2018

Fiction

It’s Alive!: ‘Black Mirror’ & TV’s New Golden Age of Science Fiction

Think of science fiction as a mirror for our times. Just as television’s first “Twilight Zone” (1959-1964) reflected cold war fears and anxieties, “Black Mirror,” the more recent Netflix anthology series is very much of the moment. Plots range wildly, from a dating site with ulterior motives. Genetic engineering by…

Joanna PoncavageFebruary 6, 2018

Fiction

25 Years Ago, Eleanor Hibbert’s Death at Sea Ends Life-Long Historical Romance

When English author Eleanor Hibbert died aboard a cruise ship 25 years ago on January 18, 1993, she didn’t die alone. Buried at sea somewhere between Athens and Egypt in the Mediterranean, Hibbert took with her at least eight pseudonyms, including Victoria Holt, Jean Plaidy, and Philippa Carr, to name…

Joanna PoncavageJanuary 18, 2018

Nonfiction

Healer and Star Child Ariyana Shares Her Spiritual Gifts

Ariyana, a beautiful Japanese-born California businesswoman turned channeler and healer, speaks with a comforting and confident voice. A multi-millionaire entrepreneur who discovered her inner Star Child, Ariyana is an old soul from the Seventh Dimension, here on this planet to lead it away from destruction. As she reveals in her…

Joanna PoncavageApril 17, 2015

Thrillers

Andrew Gross on why it’s sexy to write women as heroes

What would you do, if, on the day your whole life was crashing down around you, fate threw you a chance to turn it all around—would you take it? Would you take that chance, even if it were illegal, immoral, and dangerous? Hilary Cantor, the desperate single mom in Andrew…

Joanna PoncavageApril 25, 2014

Joanna Poncavage

“Just The Funny Parts:” One Woman’s Mark on TV Comedy

Nick Drasno’s “Sabrina” Makes Graphic Novel History

An Obama/Biden Caper You Could Not Have Imagined

4 Indie Bookstores Offer Their Top Suspense Reads

Strange Stars: A Must-Read For Sci-Fi and Pop Music Fans

“Ohio” by Stephen Markley Introduces New Voice(s) in American Fiction

Comic Thriller “Death and Taxes” Pits an IRS Repo Squad Against the Mongolian Mob, Radioactive Cows and a Murderous Eunuch

Annihilation: Sci-Fi Thriller Starring Natalie Portman Has Scary Monsters, But Maybe Not the Kind You Expect

The Daughter Who Slipped Away: Thomas Jefferson, Race, Class and the Search for a President’s Lost Family

Seduced by Trotsky’s Assassin: John P. Davidson tells the inside story

Eve Ensler of ‘The Vagina Monologues’ Turns Her Body Inside Out

‘Laura Meets Jeffrey’: An X-Rated ‘Literary’ Love Story

It’s Alive!: ‘Black Mirror’ & TV’s New Golden Age of Science Fiction

25 Years Ago, Eleanor Hibbert’s Death at Sea Ends Life-Long Historical Romance

Healer and Star Child Ariyana Shares Her Spiritual Gifts

Andrew Gross on why it’s sexy to write women as heroes

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