Literary

Prison Stories

Seth Ferranti

Gorilla Convict Publications

Seth is our man inside the Federal prison system, serving over 20 years for charges of LSD distribution, and also for doing what any sensible man would do when he was first busted: going on the lam. Thing is, they found him.

Since his arrest, Seth has been bounced from facility to facility, all the while engaged in a constant struggle to get an education (he just received his BA) and get some writing published (in addition to us, he's contributing to

F.E.D.S.

and

Don Diva

). The bravery and optimism he puts forward in a situation that would have led us to break apart into a thousand blubbering pieces of baby shit after one week is beyond inspiring. It's like, "Oh, you missed the train? Poor little girl. Seth Ferranti is living in a zoo in hell. He doesn't get a chance to even miss the train."

This book is a collection of Seth's musings and stories from inside the beast. We're putting it right next to

Soul on Ice

on the

Vice

office bookshelf.

JESSE PEARSON

Where the Right Went Wrong:

How Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency

Patrick Buchanan

St. Martin's Press

The problem with writers like Al Franken and Michael Moore is they haven't done their research. Instead of giving us cold hard facts, we get the "stupid stupidy white men" and "the lying liars that lie them" etc etc. If you really want to hear why Bush is a lying stupid white man, you have to go to someone that isn't obsessed with himself, someone who doesn't insist on appearing on the cover of the book with a big fucking smug grin on his face. Anyway, this book goes so deep into the roots of the Iraq war and its links to Israel, you will shit your fucking drawers. There's no sense in going into too much detail here. Just glance at the first chapter next time you're in the bookstore. Now you can hate Bush and actually have more to back it up than a Photoshopped picture of him with devil horns and a Hitler moustache.

GAVIN MCINNES

Epileptic

David B

Pantheon

Once you stop your crying and get over the fact that hilarious jokesters like

Eightball

and

Hate

are no more, you might want to check out these serious European dudes. Holy shit, can David B ever draw. This is up there with

Blankets

and

Louis Riel

as the best graphic novels around.

DONNA EVANS

Just Give'r

A Handguide by Terry & Dean

Check it out h'ostie! It's a flawless step-by-step guide to getting hosed. Fuck, it's more than that, tabernak! It's how to fuckin' take care of your old lady and how to fucking not puke and all that shit. Even how to die. The book's put together by Terry and Dean from

Fubar

so if you liked that you'd be a dick not to get this.

EDDIE ALSOP

See fubar-themovie.com

Oaken Throne

This is the best designed zine I maybe have ever seen. It has interviews with bands with amazing names like Unearthly Trance, Gospel of the Horns, Malign, and Leviathan. I haven't listened to any of them yet, but I read every single word of

Oaken Throne

. Why? Because it's smart, sophisticated, and it feels good to hold it in your hands.

The best design ideas are simple solutions, right? This zine is just a bunch of 11x17 sheets, folded over and stapled together. The cover is a slick black paper with silver ink. It looks like a fucking coffin! How cool is that? A black metal zine that looks like a coffin.

Trust me, you don't need to know shit about this genre of music to love

Oaken Throne

. It breaks things down in the most general way, and then descends deep into inner-scene particulars. And it has pullquotes like this, from LSK of the group Hell Militia:

"Naked girls covered in blood, tortured to death…all of these can be a vector leading to Satan, a gate to inner hell."

These black metal guys are so cute. It's totally nerdy and fun—and the music, when it's good, is some of the most advanced shit out there right now.

AXEL SAVEUR

The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism

David Lester

ARP

After having this next to my toilet for a few days I realized this book of numbers is written by a fucking idiot that doesn't know anything about the numbers. I first got suspicions when he suggested checking out Doctors Without Borders in the "Further Inspiration" section. That's right, this book is another one of those, "If we just conserved more and were less greedy we could save the third world." Look Lester, Tom Cruise could donate his next paycheck to Nigeria but do you really think that's going to change that there are 5 billion hungry people in the world? Why don't you and "Doctors Without Calculators" go check your population growth statistics again.

BRIAN VIGUE

33 1/3 Series

Continuum Books

These are for the insane collectors out there who appreciate fantastic design, well-executed thinking, and things that make your house look cool. Each volume in this series takes a seminal album (

Meat is Murder

,

Unknown Pleasures

,

Piper at the Gates of Dawn

,

Forever Changes

), and breaks it down in startling minutiae. We love these. We are huge nerds.

RUSTY FLAPS

Edited by Steven Blush &

George Petros

Creation

Steven Blush is the man behind the excellent American Hardcore book that came out on Feral House a couple of years ago.

This book is a compilation of “the best interviews” from Steven’s Seconds magazine, which along with things like Answer Me!, MRR and Might magazine was an influence in the upbringing of lots of Vice staffers.

These are oldish guys so all the interviews here are with people who defined the “underground, transgressive, rebel scene” of the 90s. Hence lots of interviews with serial killers, rappers and pervert authors by people like Boyd Rice and Michael Moynihan which annoy and inspire in equal measure. For instance, great Henry Lee Lucas interview but embarrassingly gay fanboy Richard Ramirez interview. Great Q&As with Scarface, Peter Sotos, Stockhausen and Stryper, but there’s nothing that people like John Waters and Robert Williams are ever going to tell me that’s not going to make me belch out of boredom.

JACK STEEL