Brent Spiner
Brent Spiner, the actor best known for his part as Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation, has written a…thing. Don’t get me wrong, it is a totally enjoyable…thing. But it definitely defies categories. Perhaps “whackadoodle” would be the best word to describe it. Imagine if Spiner had …
Alison Bechdel
Cartoonist Bechdel’s The Secret to Superhuman Strength is the story of her life-long fascination with fitness and strength. Interwoven in this memoir are her experiences coming out, various obsessions with types of physical fitness, and her grinding anxiety over the need to perform and produce. Gripping, sometimes funny, …
How I Helped The Rich Become Famous and Ruin the World
Ben Widdicombe
Gossip columnist Widdicombe fell into his job by accident. As a newly immigrated Australian journalist in New York, he had no social connections to get him started. Writing about successful Australians in America, for Australian publications back …
Greg Sestero & Tom Bissell
If you haven’t heard of it, The Room holds the dubious honor as one of, if not the worst, movie ever made. It’s bad on every level – acting, set, plot, script… And yet, over the years, it has taken on a cult following equal …
Andy Mulvihill and Jake Rossen
Do you miss the heady early days of the pandemic when we were all watching Tiger King? Well, the story of New Jersey’s Action Park provides the same lurid draw and distraction. Back in the “good old days” before things like safety laws and OSHA, …
Author Bill Dedman stumbled onto the story of the lifetime while realty surfing out of his price range. WAY out of his price range. When a fantastically expensive mansion, empty for decades though well-maintained, caught his eye, he became intrigued. Dedman soon found other properties like this, scattered around the …
John Waters
The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder
Water’s new memoir starts out with a tongue-in-cheek scree at his notoriety and fame:
Suddenly the worst thing that can happen to a creative person has happened to me. I am accepted. How can I “struggle” when my onetime underground movies …
Dr. Tara Westover
Westover’s memoir of life in an isolated, paranoid Mormon household is gripping, grim and terribly sad. Her bipolar father believes the End Times are near and they spend countless hours prepping. He also distrusts the government, the schools, doctors, safety gear and seat belts. His family pays …
Jeff Guin
There are some tragedies that are so mind-boggling and so bizarre that we can’t help going back to take yet another look. “Why would anyone choose to follow such an obvious, slimy charlatan like Jim Jones?” we wonder. But the story of Jones …
The Bizarre and Disturbing Adventures of Hitler’s Limousine in America
Robert Klara
T
hree generations after the Holocaust and WWII, Hitler still has the ability to fascinate and repulse us, as does nearly anything even vaguely related to him. His (or possibly his) car (or possibly cars) are no exception. …
Danny Wallace
Micro-nation
founder, comedian and author of Friends Like These Danny Wallace is the British equivalent of AJ Jacobs (or perhaps vice versa?). He’s happiest when he’s on a quest, a self-created adventure to achieve something. Wallace comes up with a set of self-created rules, then strives to follow …
Danny Wallace
The rise of social media makes the idea of losing track of friends seem a bit quaint. But even if you are “friends” with some of your former classmates, co-workers or other pals on Facebook or Twitter, its not the same thing as seeing them in the flesh …
Claire Hoffman
As far as cults go, the Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation (TM) community was, and still is, pretty benign. In fact, author Hoffman goes to great pains to avoid calling the group a true cult. There are plenty of the hallmarks though – separating members from the larger community, a …
Michael Perry
Seed catalogs are responsible for more unfulfilled fantasies than Enron and Penthouse combined.
Perry’s Truck is a love song to his vintage truck, but also to so many other parts of his life – gardening, his neighbors, fellow fire fighters, family, seed catalogs, The Joynt bar, his fledgling …
Thomas Thwaites
Who hasn’t looked at their pet and thought “Damn pal, you have it good. Food, toys, naps and not a care in the world.” Inspired by similar ruminations while dog-sitting Noggin the dog, eater of horrid things, Thwaites decided to write an arts grant application to give being …
Jang Jin-sung
Jin-sung’s story of escape from North Korea is as heart-stopping as any spy thriller. Unlike a thriller, this is a true story. Raised in a family with high levels of access to benefits and income, Jin-sung is well-educated and thoroughly indoctrinated. He is perfect fit for to join …
