Not to get all inside baseball on you, but this review of Shelley Seale's memoir/reportage from her time in India was delayed by an almost tragicomic set of circumstances seemingly destined to keep this book from getting reviewed at all. Throughout it all, Seale was polite but persistent, and after we (finally) had the book in our hands and read it, her dedication to the work came into a wider perspective. Most books have something of import to communicate to the reader, but this true life account of Seale's trips to India in the middle and end of the last decade exposed her to not just tremendous poverty, but to its most helpless and legion victims, children, many of whom are also having their years of innocence wiped away by plagues of disease, forced labor and nothing short of sexual slavery. more ›

First up, please read Austinite Michelle Mirsky's second installment of her column "No Fear of Flying: Kamikaze Missions in Death, Sex, and Comedy" on McSweeneys, entitled "My Real Passion Is Improv Comedy." It's heavy, though, so be prepared for that. more ›

THURSDAY [21] books • Chuck Klosterman presents Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas at BookPeople (7pm) ® books • David Oshinsky presents Polio: An American Story at Barnes & Noble, 701 Capital of TX Hwy (7pm) ® books • Ayun Halliday presents Dirty Sugar Cookies: Culinary Observations, Questionable Taste at BookWoman (7pm) music • French Kicks, The Little Ones, The Lemurs at Emo's ® music • The Yellow Umbrella... more ›

We have a confession to make. We kind of want to be Andy Greenwald. He interned at Spin magazine in college, which led to a full-time editorial job and interviews with emo heroes like Dashboard Confessional and Jimmy Eats World. His first book, Nothing Feels Good, was an in-depth exploration of the kids and culture that centered on those bands. Now, at 28, his second book is out, and he’s freelancing for Spin, hanging out with Chuck Klosterman in Brooklyn. OK, fine, we really want to be Andy Greenwald. more ›

Monday night, pop culture nerds swarmed Book People to see Chuck Klosterman, author of "Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story." As we are pop culture nerds, we were sitting on the front row. Klosterman is a senior writer for Spin and a contributor for Esquire. "Killing Yourself to Live" is his third book, and it follows Klosterman on a trip across the country in the summer of 2003, visiting several sites... more ›

This week's IST list is a work in progress. Bear with us -- we're tired and hungover. M O N D A Y music · I Eat Records label launch show at Emo's with: The Glass Family, Thor & Friends, Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater, The Casting Couch, Orange Mothers, Ethan Azarian, Will Sheff (of Okkervil River), Hitchhike, The Handsome Charlies, Fluffers Union, and Fine Fifteen. Benefiting SafePlace and Capital Area Food Bank, new compilation CDs... more ›