McSweeney's #33


Dave Eggers - 2009
    It'll have news (actual news, tied to the day it comes out) and sports and arts coverage, and comics (sixteen pages of glorious, full-color comics, from Chris Ware and Dan Clowes and Art Spiegelman and many others besides) and a magazine and a weekend guide, and will basically be an attempt to demonstrate all the great things print journalism can (still) do, with as much first-rate writing and reportage and design (and posters and games and on-location Antarctic travelogues) as we can get in there. Expect journalism from Andrew Sean Greer, fiction from George Saunders and Roddy Doyle, dispatches from Afghanistan, and much, much more. We're going to try to sell this thing on the street in San Francisco, but it'll also go out to our subscribers and be in bookstores all over.

100 Years, 100 Stories


George Burns - 1996
    George Burns's career has spanned the history of modern show business: he has starred in big-time vaudeville; in radio, television, the movies, and the recording industry; and on the nightclub stage. His books have topped bestseller lists for years. Now this beloved show business centenarian serves up a treat for his fans in a book of his favorite and funniest stories, each and every one from his own private stock. From recollections of events in his past to tales about friends and performers who have crossed his path - including Al Jolson, Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Ann-Margret, and Goldie Hawn - George Burns brings his unique, dry humor to each unforgettable story.

A Map Is Only One Story: Twenty Writers on Immigration, Family, and the Meaning of Home


Nicole Chung - 2020
    Selected from the archives of Catapult magazine, the essays in A Map Is Only One Story highlight the human side of immigration policies and polarized rhetoric, as twenty writers share provocative personal stories of existing between languages and cultures.Victoria Blanco relates how those with family in both El Paso and Ciudad Juárez experience life on the border. Nina Li Coomes recalls the heroines of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki and what they taught her about her bicultural identity. Nur Nasreen Ibrahim details her grandfather’s crossing of the India-Pakistan border sixty years after Partition. Krystal A. Sital writes of how undocumented status in the United States can impact love and relationships. Porochista Khakpour describes the challenges in writing (and rewriting) Iranian America. Through the power of personal narratives, as told by both emerging and established writers, A Map Is Only One Story offers a new definition of home in the twenty-first century.

The Sum of My Parts


James Sanford - 2011
    At first I tried to deny my condition (trying to treat a tumor with hot baths and ice packs). Eventually, I decided I would learn as much about my illness as possible while trying to keep my emotions on hold.What followed was an experience that finally forced me to deal with issues about my body that I had tried to ignore for decades. Along the way I dealt with a physician who gave me ridiculous advice and acquaintances who asked unbelievable questions. But I was also fortunate to be surrounded by people who supported me and doctors who helped me through the process.

Fish Whistle: Commentaries, Uncommentaries, And Vulgar Excesses


Daniel Pinkwater - 1989
    Included are two previously published articles in addition to commentaries written originally for National Public Radio's "All Things Considered".

Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women


Nura Maznavi - 2012
    Their stories show just how varied the search for love can be—from singles' events and college flirtations to arranged marriages, all with a uniquely Muslim twist.These heartfelt tales are filled with passion and hope, loss and longing. One follows the quintessential single woman in the big city as she takes a chance on a Muslim speed-dating event. Another tells of a shy student from a liberal college town who falls in love online and must reveal her secret to her conservative family. A third recounts a Southern girl who surprises herself by agreeing to an arranged marriage, unexpectedly finding the love of her life.These compelling stories of love and romance create an irresistible balance of heart-warming and tantalizing, always revealing and deeply relatable.

How Music Works


David Byrne - 2012
    In the insightful How Music Works, Byrne offers his unique perspective on music - including how music is shaped by time, how recording technologies transform the listening experience, the evolution of the industry, and much more.

Without Feathers


Woody Allen - 1986
    From THE WHORE OF MENSA, to GOD (A Play), to NO KADDISH FOR WEINSTEIN, old and new Woody Allen fans will laugh themselves hysterical over these sparkling gems.

Alaska Traveler: Dispatches from America's Last Frontier


Dana Stabenow - 2012
    Today, she's an Edgar-award winning mystery writer with over 25 Alaska-based novels to her credit. Stabenow knows Alaska.Writing for Alaska Magazine, she revisited old haunts and explored many new ones to capture the vital pioneering spirit of the state she calls home. From cruising the Inner Passage to hiking the Chilkoot Trail, bidding on bachelors at Talkeetna's Winterfest, to a behind-the-scenes look at the Iditarod sled dog race, Alaska Traveler collects over 50 of Stabenow's columns about life on America's last frontier. It's Alaska in all seasons—not just the summer months—and in all its quirky, iconoclastic glory.Travelers planning a trip to Alaska will find much to inspire them, as will those just interested to read more about the state that residents call The Great Land.

The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment


A.J. Jacobs - 2009
    J. Jacobs read the entire Encyclopædia Britannica from cover to cover in a quest to learn everything in the world. In The Year of Living Biblically, he followed every single rule of the Bible -- from the Ten Commandments right on down to stoning adulterers.Now comes a collection of his most hilarious and thought-provoking experiments yet. In his role as human guinea pig, Jacobs fearlessly takes on a series of life-altering challenges that provides readers with equal parts insight and humor. (And which drives A.J.'s patient wife, Julie, to the brink of insanity.)Among the many adventures:• He outsources his life. A.J. hires a team of people in Bangalore, India, to take care of everything in his life from answering his e-mails to arguing with his spouse.• He spends a month practicing Radical Honesty -- a movement that encourages us to remove the filters between our brains and mouths. (To give you an idea of what happened, the name of the chapter is "I Think You're Fat.")• He goes to the Academy Awards disguised as a movie star to understand the strange and warping effects of fame.• He commits himself to ultimate rationality, using cutting-edge science to make the best decisions possible. It changes the way he makes choices big and small, from what to buy at the grocery store to how to talk to his kids. And his revelations will change how you make decisions, too.• He attempts to follow George Washington's rules of life, uncovering surprising truths about leadership and politics in the twenty-first century. He also spends a lot of time bowing and doffing his hat.• And then there's the month when he followed his wife's every whim -- foot massages, Kate Hudson movies, and all. Depending on your point of view, it's either the best or worst idea in the history of American marriage.A mix of Bill Bryson, George Plimpton, and Malcolm Gladwell, A.J. explores the big issues of our time -- happiness, dating, morality, marriage -- by immersing himself in eye-opening situations. You'll be entertained by these stories -- some of which are new, some of which had their start in Esquire magazine. But you'll also learn to look at life in new ways.The Guinea Pig Diaries is a book packed with both laughs and enlightenment -- and that's a promise we can make with Radical Honesty.

Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future


Cory Doctorow - 2008
    Content is the first collection of Doctorow’s infamous articles, essays, and polemics.Here’s why Microsoft should stop treating its customers as criminals (through relentless digital-rights management); how America chose copyright and Happy Meal toys over jobs; why Facebook is taking a faceplant; how Wikipedia is a poor cousin of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; and, of course, why free e-books kick ass.Accessible to geeks and noobs (if you’re not sure what that means, it’s you) alike, Content is a must-have compilation from Cory Doctorow, who will be glad to take you along for the ride as he effortlessly surfs the zeitgeist.

The Areas of My Expertise: An Almanac of Complete World Knowledge Compiled with Instructive Annotation and Arranged in Useful Order


John Hodgman - 2005
    The brilliant and uproarious #15 bestseller (i.e., a runaway phenomenon in its own right-no, seriously) - a lavish compendium of handy reference tables, fascinating trivia, and sage wisdom - all of it completely unresearched, completely undocumented and (presumably) completely untrue, fabricated by the illuminating, prodigious imagination of John Hodgman, certifiable genius.

The New Kings of Nonfiction


Ira GlassMichael Pollan - 2007
    

Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future


Ed FinnBrenda Cooper - 2014
    A remarkable anthology uniting twenty of today's leading thinkers, writers, and visionaries, among them Cory Doctorow, Gregory Benford, Elizabeth Bear, Bruce Sterling, and Neal Stephenson, to contribute works of "techno-optimism" that challenge us to dream boldly and do Big Stuff. Engaging, mind-bending, provocative, and imaginative, Hieroglyph offers a forward-thinking approach to the intersection of art and technology that has the power to change our world.Contents: Foreword (Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future) • essay by Lawrence M. Krauss Preface: Innovation Starvation (Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future) • essay by Neal Stephenson Introduction: A Blueprint for Better Dreams • essay by Kathryn Cramer and Ed Finn Atmosphaera Incognita (2013) / novelette by Neal Stephenson Girl in Wave: Wave in Girl (2014) / novelette by Kathleen Ann Goonan By the Time We Get to Arizona (2014) / novelette by Madeline Ashby The Man Who Sold the Moon (2014) / novella by Cory Doctorow Johnny Appledrone vs. the FAA (2014) / novelette by Lee Konstantinou Degrees of Freedom (2014) / novelette by Karl Schroeder Two Scenarios for the Future of Solar Energy (2014) / short story by Annalee Newitz A Hotel in Antarctica (2014) / novelette by Geoffrey A. Landis Periapsis (2014) / novelette by James L. Cambias The Man Who Sold the Stars (2013) / novelette by Gregory Benford Entanglement (2014) / novella by Vandana Singh Elephant Angels (2014) / novelette by Brenda Cooper Covenant (2014) / short story by Elizabeth Bear Quantum Telepathy (2014) / novelette by Rudy Rucker Transition Generation (2014) / short story by David Brin The Day It All Ended (2014) / short story by Charlie Jane Anders Tall Tower (2014) / novelette by Bruce Sterling Science and Science Fiction: An Interview with Paul Davies • interview of Paul Davies (1946-) • interview by uncredited.

The Pushcart Prize XXXV: Best of the Small Presses 2011 Edition


Bill Henderson - 2010
    This is a communal effort by the Pushcart Press staff, contributing editors, and hundreds of small presses. For this edition distinguished poets Julie Sheehan and Tom Sleigh served as poetry editors. The result is an introduction to a literary world that few readers have access to, where much of today's important new writing is published, far from the commercial influence of the conglomerates. In reviewing last year's edition, Donna Seaman of Booklist commented: "A brimming, vibrant anthology-the perfect introduction to new writers and adventurous new work by established writers . . . extraordinary in its range of voices and subjects. Here is literature to have and to hold." The Pushcart Prize has been chosen for the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement recognition by the National Book Critics Circle and the Writers for Writers award from Poets Writers / Barnes Noble.