Category Archives: Book Reviews

Signs of the Signs: The Literary Lights of Incandescence and Neon

Signs of the Signs: The Literary Lights of Incandescence and Neon
By William Brevda
Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 2011
Hardcover, 405 pages, $129

Reviewed by Paul Sherman

Brevda’s book is primarily a compilation of journal articles that the Central Michigan University English professor (now emeritus) wrote in the 1990s and 2000s, supplemented with a few more recent chapters. F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, William Faulkner, Raymond Chandler, Nelson Algren, and Jack Kerouac are among the authors Brevda tackles.

Your Sheep Are All Counted: A Roadside Archeology of South of the Border Billboards

Your Sheep Are All Counted: A Roadside Archeology of South of the Border Billboards
By P.J. Capelotti
Whitman Publishing, 2022
Hardcover, 272 pages, $29.95

Reviewed by Frank Brusca

Your Sheep Are All Counted is a retrospective of one of the most spectacular and successful outdoor advertising campaigns ever staged. Over the past 75 years, SoB’s clever and orthodox advertising campaign by founder Alan Schafer transformed a tiny beer stand into a significant tourist attraction. Capelotti’s richly-illustrated tome draws upon hundreds of black and white and full-color photographs from SoB’s advertising archive and roadside photographers such as John Margolies.

Consuming Landscapes: What We See When We Drive and Why It Matters

Consuming Landscapes: What We See When We Drive and Why It Matters
By Thomas Zeller
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022
Hardcover, 239 pages, $53.23

Reviewed by Brian Gallaugher

Central to Zeller’s thesis is the concept of “Roadmindedness,” that is, the belief, current in the early 20th century, that roads would elevate society and contribute to progress; and, even more, that “roads are worthy in and of themselves.”