Wade Davis
Davis’s first chapter “Coonskin Cap” ties with http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/11/dogs-dont-understand-basic-concepts.html for funniest thing I’ve read in the last year. A flamingly fabulously gay man who escaped his home in the Ozarks to recreate himself as an anonymous city-dweller, Davis decides at 40 that he is doing it all wrong. After …
Gretchen Rubin
Rubin is a book-dork and I love her for it. Like me, when she has a problem to solve her first reaction is to find a book on the topic. After deciding that, on the whole, her life is good but there were areas that need work, Rubin …
Stephen Fry
British actor and comedian Stephen Fry (Jeeves of Jeeves and Wooster fame) is that rare breed of European – one who actually likes Americans. In his attempt to show his British audiences that we aren’t all a bunch of loud, vulgar, gun-toting religious nuts he undertakes a project …
Huw Lewis-Jones
This is a brilliant and gripping collection of photos, some almost 150 years old, of the brave (and possibly insane) women and men who explore the poles. The book gives a wide range of vignettes – the big names like Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton – but also …
Catherine Price
I was a bit disappointed that many of the places Price lists are related to a personal anecdote (albeit hilarious), don’t really exist (hell) or you would not be able to experience yourself (being a bull at the running of the bulls). However, there are plenty of doozies …
Jen Lancaster
Not Lancaster’s best memoir to date, but still a hoot. Her realization that she was becoming a moron, wits dulled by reality tv, inspired her to try to improve her mind a la Eliza Doolittle. Lancaster chronicles her attempts at reading literature, going to plays, trying new foods …
Brian Vaughan
I heard this graphic novel mentioned as NPR commentator David Lipsky’s guilty pleasure. It is full of funny and snappy dialogue (Vaughan wrote for a few seasons of Lost), interesting plot devices and some great illustration. However, Lipsky hits the “guilty” bit of guilty pleasure right on: …
Jeff Lindsay
I don’t really want to like the Dexter series, but then have a nasty habit of being quite good. Damn them. Now also a popular tv show, Lindsay follows the life of the mild-mannered blood-spatter analyst Dexter – forensics expert by day, sociopathic killer by night. The series …
Terry Border
Using everyday objects, coupled with bent wire, Border creates a whole inner anthropomorphic life for inanimate objects – a kiwi shaves its fuzzy back, a banana lays battered and bruised in the boxing ring, a group of peanuts attend a funeral for a jar of peanut butter. Weird, …
Carl Hiaasen
Hiaasen’s newest title, Star Island, is by far my favorite since Skinny Dip. Using the trite and oft-seen story of a starlet going off the rails, Hiaasen drags Cherry Pye, a mediocre singer filled with blind ambition, had her double Ann, into the psychotic world of …
Giles Foden
I was sad to discover that The Last King Of Scotland is a piece of fiction. Read it anyway. The plot is so unbelievable as to be highly believable. Picking up speed as the madness of dictator Idi Amin spins out, young Dr. Nicholas Garrigan is drawn into …
David MacCandless
MacCandless’ book is an example of graphic design at its finest – a perfect combination of attractive art and a clear message. From the serious (carbon footprints) to the frivolous (dictators mustaches) creative graphic design makes the data beautiful and useful.
Matt Polly
Chinese kung-fu is one of the most glorious examples of obsessive-compulsive behavior in the history of human culture.
There is a certain type of person who needs something to hang onto, make their own and Focus On (yes, with caps). For some reason, martial arts (and religion) seem …
Dr. Randy Frost
Despite not watching tv, I have managed to become addicted to A&E’s show Hoarders. Being a popular reality show, the surface of this bizarre illness is barely scratched. Dr. Frost goes much deeper into the overwhelming desire some people have to save and hoard things, often to …
Christopher Payne
This collection of photos is a true Rorschach test for the reader. The decrepit Victorian-era buildings are both beautiful and sinister. Abandoned rooms show both care and terrifying restriction – gardens, beautify parlors, movie theaters, coffee stands, barred doors and rooms of straightjackets. As one after another of …
