The Men Who Stare at Goats

A Wild Sheep Chase

Haruki Murakami · 299 pages

It begins simply enough: A twenty-something advertising executive receives a postcard from a friend, and casually appropriates the image for an insurance company's advertisement. What he doesn't realize is that included in the pastoral scene is a mutant sheep with a star on its back, and in using this photo he has unwittingly captured the attention of a man in black who offers a menacing ultimatum

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

Michael Lewis · 291 pages

This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral — plus plenty of valet parking! — in America’s Gilded Capital

Mark Leibovich · 401 pages

"A book about contemporary political culture in Washington, DC"-- Washington funerals can make great networking opportunities. Disgraced Hill aides can overcome ignominy and emerge with a more potent "brand" than many elected members of Congress. There are no Democrats and Republicans anymore in the nation's capital, just millionaires. That is the grubby secret of the place in the twenty-first ce

Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town that Talks to the Dead

Christine Wicker · 288 pages

In Lily Dale, New York, the dead don't die. Instead, they flit among the elms and stroll along the streets. According to spiritualists who have ruled this community for five generations, the spirits never go away—and they stay anything but quiet. Every summer twenty thousand guests come to consult the town's mediums in hopes of communicating with dead relatives or catching a glimpse of the future.

The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures

Louis Theroux · 280 pages

A book that chronicles the author's travels among subcultures in america, including a man who claims to have killed 10 aliens, and a neo-Nazi whose daughters have formed a white power folk singing group.

Chew, Vol. 3: Just Desserts

John Layman · 128 pages

Things are looking up for Tony Chu, the cibopathic federal agent with the ability to get psychic impressions from the things he eats. He's got a girlfriend. He's got a partner he trusts. He even seems to be getting along with his jerk boss. But his ruthless ex-partner is still out there, operating outside of the law, intending to make good on his threats against Tony and everybody Tony cares about

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

Randall Munroe · 312 pages

Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe's iconic webcomic. His stick-figure drawings about science, technology, language, and love have a large and passionate following. Fans of xkcd ask Munroe a lot of strange questions. What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a

Naked

David Sedaris · 305 pages

Naked, published in 1997, is a collection of essays by American humorist David Sedaris. The book details Sedaris’ life, from his unusual upbringing in the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina, to his booze-and-drug-ridden college years, to his Kerouacian wandering as a young adult.

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible

A.J. Jacobs · 492 pages

Raised in a secular family but interested in the relevance of faith in our modern world, A.J. Jacobs decides to attempt to obey the Bible as literally as possible for one full year. He vows to follow the Ten Commandments. To be fruitful and multiply. To love his neighbor. But also to obey the hundreds of less publicized rules: to avoid wearing clothes made of mixed fibers; to stone adulterers. The

America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction

Jon Stewart, Ben Karlin, David Javerbaum, Rich Bloomquist, Steve Bodow, Tim Carvell, Eric Drysdale, J.R. Havlan, Scott Jacobson, Tom Johnson, Rob Kutner, Chris Regan, Jason Reich, Jason Ross · 227 pages

Offers tongue-in-cheek insight into American democracy with coverage of such topics as the republican qualities of ancient Rome, the antics of our nation's founders, and the ludicrous nature of today's media.

Magical Thinking: True Stories

Augusten Burroughs · 272 pages

Happyslapped by a Jellyfish: The Words of Karl Pilkington

Karl Pilkington · 224 pages

A humour/travel book written by Karl Pilkington.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

Barbara Ehrenreich · 240 pages

The author's experience holding low-wage jobs in three parts of the U.S. in the late 1990s.

Ayoade on Ayoade: A Cinematic Odyssey

Richard Ayoade · 320 pages

"Richard Ayoade - actor, writer, director, and amateur dentist - reflects on his cinematic legacy as only he can: in conversation with himself"--Publisher's description.

The Finish: The Killing of Osama Bin Laden

Mark Bowden · 296 pages

This work is a dramatic account of the hunt for and defeat of Osama bin Laden draws on unprecedented access to primary sources to trace how key decisions were made, revealing events from the perspectives of an adept President Obama and an increasingly despondent bin Laden. After masterminding the attacks of September 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden managed to vanish. Over the next ten years, as the auth

The American Way of Death Revisited

Jessica Mitford · 296 pages

Here is the classic anatomy of America's funeral practices, revised, expanded, and brought up-to-date for a new generation. This revised edition contains completely new chapters on, among other things, prepayment ("Pay Now - Die Poorer") and the new multinational corporations ("A Global Village of the Dead"), as well as a jaundiced look at the failure of the Federal Trade Commission to enforce the

Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea

Chelsea Handler · 264 pages

When Chelsea Handler needs to get a few things off her chest, she appeals to a higher power--vodka. Welcome to Chelsea's world--a place where absurdity reigns supreme and a quick wit is the best line of defense. In this collection, Chelsea mines her past for stories about her family, relationships, and career that are at once singular and ridiculous. Whether she's convincing her third-grade class

Pure Drivel

Steve Martin · 130 pages

A collection of Martin's comic writings, some of which first appeared in: The New Yorker.

An Idiot Abroad: The Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington

Karl Pilkington, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant · 275 pages

Karl Pilkington isn't keen on traveling. So what happened when he was convinced to go on an epic adventure to see the Seven Wonders of the World? Travel broadens the mind, right? You'd think so...

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

John Hodgman · 241 pages

Detroit: An American Autopsy

Charlie LeDuff · 300 pages

An exposé of Detroit, icon of America's lost prosperity, from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charlie LeDuff. Back in his broken hometown, LeDuff searches through the ruins for clues to its fate, his family's, and his own. Once the richest city in America, Detroit is now the nation's poorest. It is an eerie and angry place of deserted factories and abandoned homes and forgotten people. LeDuff se

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir

Bill Bryson · 288 pages

Bill Bryson on his most personal journey yet: into his own childhood in America's Mid-West.Some say that the first hint that Bill Bryson was not of Planet Earth came when his mother sent him to school in lime-green Capri pants. Others think it all started with his discovery, at the age of six, of a woollen jersey of rare fineness. Across the moth-holed chest was a golden thunderbolt. It may have l

Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid

Lemony Snicket · 168 pages

Lemony Snicket's work is filled with bitter truths, like: 'It is always cruel to laugh at people, of course, although sometimes if they are wearing an ugly hat it is hard to control yourself.' Or: 'It is very easy to say that the important thing is to try your best, but if you are in real trouble the most important thing is not trying your best, but getting to safety.' For all of life's ups and

The Salmon of Doubt

Douglas Adams · 299 pages

On Friday, May 11, 2001, the world mourned the untimely passing of Douglas Adams, beloved creator of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, dead of a heart attack at age forty-nine. Thankfully, in addition to a magnificent literary legacy--which includes seven novels and three co-authored works of nonfiction--Douglas left us something more. The book you are about to enjoy was rescued from his four