Catalog Search Results
1) Heretics
Author
Language
English
Description
"Though he was on the whole a fun loving and gregarious man, during adolescence Chesterton was troubled by thoughts of suicide. In Christianity he found answers to many of the dilemmas and paradoxes of life. Throughout Heretics he provides a very personal critique of contemporary religious notions. His consistently engaging but often wayward humour is mixed liberally with daring flights of fancy and some startling turns of thought. A highly original...
Author
Language
English
Description
"Once again, David Sedaris brings together a collection of essays so uproariously funny and profoundly moving that his legions of fans will fall for him once more. He tests the limits of love when Hugh lances a boil from his backside, and pushes the boundaries of laziness when, finding the water shut off in his house in Normandy, he looks to the water in a vase of fresh cut flowers to fill the coffee machine. From armoring the windows with LP covers...
3) Calypso
Author
Language
English
Description
"With Calypso, Sedaris sets his formidable powers of observation toward middle age and mortality. Make no mistake: these stories are very, very funny--it's a book that can make you laugh 'til you snort, the way only family can. Sedaris's powers of observation have never been sharper, and his ability to shock readers into laughter unparalleled. But much of the comedy here is born out of that vertiginous moment when your own body betrays you and you...
Author
Pub. Date
2019.
Language
English
Description
"The Source of Self-Regard is brimming with all the elegance of mind and style, the literary prowess and moral compass that are Toni Morrison's inimitable hallmark. It is divided into three parts: the first is introduced by a powerful prayer for the dead of 9/11; the second by a searching meditation on Martin Luther King Jr., and the last by a heart-wrenching eulogy for James Baldwin. In the writings and speeches included here, Morrison takes on contested...
Author
Language
English
Description
In this collection of essays, the author shares her thoughts on the joys and vagaries of modern-day womanhood and motherhood, introduces the not-quite-typical family that made her who she is, and argues that lowbrow pop culture is the perfect lens throughwhich to understand human nature.
Author
Language
English
Description
"A collection of magazine writer Jon Bradshaw’s essential writings, The Ocean is Closed rediscovers a memorable talent, and offers us a shadow reality to the established literary canon of the mid-century. With droll wit and keen intelligence, Bradshaw’s cinematic prose brings the ’70s to vibrant life―from the lurid pick-up scenes at hotspots like Maxwell’s Plum in New York, and the Beverly Hills Hotel in L.A., to full-bodied portraits of...
Author
Language
English
Description
"The View from the Cheap Seats brings together... more than sixty pieces of his outstanding nonfiction. Analytical yet playful, erudite yet accessible, this cornucopia explores a broad range of interests and topics, including (but not limited to): authors past and present; music; storytelling; comics; bookshops; travel; fairy tales; America; inspiration; libraries; ghosts; and the title piece, at turns touching and self-deprecating, which recounts...
Author
Pub. Date
2017.
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
For forty years, David Sedaris has kept a diary in which he records everything that captures his attention-overheard comments, salacious gossip, soap opera plot twists, secrets confided by total strangers. These observations are the source code for his finest work, and through them he has honed his cunning, surprising sentences. Now, Sedaris shares his private writings with the world. Theft by Finding, the first of two volumes, is the story of how...
Author
Language
English
Description
"The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his groundbreaking podcast, John Green reviews different facetsof the human-centered planet-from the QWERTY keyboard and Staphylococcus aureus to the Taco Bell breakfast menu-on a five-star scale. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully...
Author
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
"A master of the personal essay candidly explores love, death, and the counterfeit rituals of American life In her celebrated 2001 collection, My Misspent Youth, Meghan Daum offered a bold, witty, defining account of the artistic ambitions, financial anxieties, and mixed emotions of her generation. The Unspeakable is an equally bold and witty, but also a sadder and wiser, report from early middle age. It's a report tempered by hard times. In "Matricide,"...
Author
Language
English
Description
"Man Booker longlisted Hustvedt displays her expansive intellect and interdisciplinary knowledge in this collection that moves effortlessly between stories of her mother, grandmother, and daughter to artistic mothers, Jane Austen, Emily Brontë, and Lousie Bourgeois, to the broader meanings of maternal in a culture shaped by misogyny and fantasies of paternal authority. Mothers, Fathers, and Others is a polymath's journey into urgent questions about...
Author
Publisher
Tantor Audio
Pub. Date
2018
Language
English
Description
A collection of talks, essays, introductions to beloved books, and book reviews by Ursula K. Le Guin, one of the foremost public literary intellectuals.
"Starred Review. What she says of poetry-'Its primary job is simply to find the words that give it its right, true shape'-might well be said of all the shapely pieces in this generous, edifying, and invaluable collection."--Booklist
Author
Language
English
Description
" "I believe Freud got it wrong when he said that the two basic drives that motivate our thoughts and behavior are 1) sex and 2) death, which he sometimes called aggression, go figure. So what runs the show, then? Fear of embarrassment prevails until the age of thirty, followed by the desire to lose weight, and finally, the need to sit down." In LETS BE LESS STUPID, longtime New Yorker staffer and former SNL writer, Patty Marx, employs the weapon...
Author
Language
English
Description
"Trick Mirror is an enlightening, unforgettable trip through the river of self-delusion that surges just beneath the surface of our lives. This is a book about the incentives that shape us, and about how hard it is to see ourselves clearly through a culture that revolves around the self. In each essay, Tolentino writes about a cultural prism: the rise of the nightmare social internet; the advent of scamming as the definitive millennial ethos; the...
Author
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Description
"You fall down. You get hurt. You get up again. You know Jennifer Weiner as many things: a bestselling author, a Twitter phenomenon, and "an unlikely feminist enforcer" (The New Yorker). She's also a mom, a daughter, and a sister; a former rower and current runner; a best friend and a reality TV junkie. Here, in her first foray into nonfiction, she takes the raw stuff of her personal life and spins it into a collection of essays on womanhood as uproariously...
Author
Language
English
Description
The Last Empire is a collection of provocative, witty, and eloquent essays by Gore Vidal about all things USA. In more than two dozen essays, Vidal brings his keen intellect, experience, and razor-edged wit to bear on an astonishing range of subjects, offering incisive observations about terrorism, civil liberties, the CIA, Al Gore, and the Clintons - interwoven with a rich tapestry of personal anecdote, critical insight, and historical detail. Erudite,...
Didn't find it?
Can't find what you are looking for? Try our Materials Request Service. Submit Request