Richard Osman
Osman’s debut murder mystery is, in a word, adorable. The popular British tv presenter and comedian has written a sweet, funny, poignant and also truly excellent murder mystery. His elderly crime-solvers, four retirees at an exclusive retirement community, are fearless and brilliant. The two hapless police officers trying …
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 …
John Dickinson Carr
Dickinson Carr is considered one of the classic “vintage” (though possibly second-tier) mystery writers. He’s up there with likes of Pim, Tey, and Marsh. But if Castle Skull sounds like the title a seventh-grader would give their first novel, you wouldn’t be far off. There is nothing …
The story of The Nobel Sperm bank is as bizarre as its title. Wealthy inventor Robert Graham was semi-retired, but looking for a passion project (for lack of a better term). He believed that intelligent people would produce intelligent, nay, genius children. There were too many idiots dragging …
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, …
Witold Szablowski
A cook is often one of the most intimate relationships a rich or powerful person may have. Both from living in close proximity. But also, the rich and powerful must trust their cook to not murder them. In turn, these cooks find themselves very well-compensated, but also …
Kevin Kwan
In the dark days of Covid-19, any small distraction is so very welcome. Sex and Vanity is a slab of gooey chocolate cake with those fancy chocolate curls all over it. The relatively straight-forward story of “girl meets boy, falls for boy, then fights it like crazy to …
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 …
Troy Hess
Hess’s photography collection is the work of years of exploration, down back roads and through abandoned communities. The decline of the dairy industry in Wisconsin is well known, despite our continued insistence on calling ourselves “The Dairy State.” But the days of huge families running a (somewhat) profitable …
John Hodgman
Hodgman is one of those comedians you probably have heard of, but may have a hard time recalling what exactly he was in. He would like to remind you. Which is fine, because John Hodgman is the sort of storyteller that can make the most mundane and awkward …
Michael Palin
If Michael Palin, of both Monty Python fame and former president of the Royal Geographic society, turns his eye to a topic, you know it will be good. The Erebus and Terror are two ships that have gripped the imagination for over a century. The two old warships …
Ron Johnson
Author Johnson, is best known for his book The Men Who Stare at Goats, later a Hollywood movie. His other books are no less far afield and equally fascinating, including The Psychopath Test. So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, published 2015, is the book of the …
Alexander Langlands
For those of us who like working with our hands, there is nothing as satisfying as making a useful and beautiful object we can use for years. Cræft, being skilled at creating unique, hand-made items sourced from nature locally, has nearly disappeared. Once, being a craftsperson who could …
Lois Sherr Dubin
Photos by Kiyoshi Togashi and Michael Waddell
When you think “southwest” or “Navajo” jewelry, you probably think big honking belt buckles, silver conchos (flatted “platters” of silver), and chunky turquoise rings at tourist shops. This style of jewelry is mostly knock-offs of the fantastic artistry created by …
Caitlin Doughty
The magnificent, hilarous and always fascinating mortician Caitlin Doughty (Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes) is back with another intriguing look at death.
Death is inevitable. But the way Americans and many in the west act, it is something shameful …
Jon Ronson
There is something utterly gripping and fascinating about psychopaths. The idea that someone is without morals or compassion, no internal brakes, repels and intrigues us. What if we didn’t have that little voice in our head telling us not to do something? What if we could do whatever …
