From the Stacks: August 17, 2007

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Rad Dad 'is not cool,' according to founder and publisher Tomas. '[I]t's not about being hip, not about trying to be in style... Rad Dad is for radical parenting. The uncomfortable kind.' And so the zine's seventh issue picks up where previous ones left off: by interrogating and reevaluating the role of fathers in radical politics. Articles range from 'Green Parenting,' in which writer Sky looks at the relationship between anarchism and parenting, to 'On Being Jewish,' in which Bruce contemplates the religious example he wants to set for his child. A contribution from Tomas himself -- 'Who's Your Daddy: Fathers in Pop Culture' -- offers a forceful critique of how 'cool parenting' has become an apolitical and upper-middle class trend that reinforces 'dad' stereotypes. -- Eric Kelsey

A pioneer of the autobiographical comic, Carrie McNinch documents her recovery from more than 13 years of alcoholism in I Want Everything To Be Okay, published by Tugboat Press. The comics (one drawn each day over the course of a year) lay out the perils of going 'cold turkey' in deceptively simple draftsmanship. 'Sobriety?' McNinch writes, 'It sucks. When people say that they are happier now that they are sober... They're lying!' The comics can be hopeful, morose, and boring, as McNinch struggles with depression, loneliness, and the need for a beer. She finds neither a magical cure nor any dramatic revelation, but the lack of definitive recovery or catharsis harkens back to the advice given to many recovering alcoholics: 'Just take it one day at a time.' -- Brendan Mackie

Compiled by Emily Heller, a sorry book is like a dead-tree (and not anonymous) version of the popular blog PostSecret. The idea behind both is simple: People publicly confessing their innermost secrets and regrets. But the quaint, photocopied pages of a sorry book feel far more intimate than the near-monolithic PostSecret. While some of the apologies can wallow in the mawkish or the banal ('My potential -- Sorry that I'm screwing you over by neglecting you'), others resonate with a disarming honesty. At their best, the apologies show people at their most vulnerable, and there's an eerie voyeuristic pleasure in that. -- Brendan Mackie

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