The Disappointment Artist

Bad Feminist

Roxane Gay · 360 pages

A collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched young cultural observers of her generation, Roxane Gay. "Pink is my favorite color. I used to say my favorite color was black to be cool, but it is pink, all shades of pink. If I have an accessory, it is probably pink. I read Vogue, and I'm not doing it ironically, though it might seem that way. I once l

Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays

Camille Paglia · 337 pages

Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands

Michael Chabon · 222 pages

A series of linked essays in praise of reading and writing, with subjects running from ghost stories to comic books, Sherlock Holmes to Cormac McCarthy. Throughout, Chabon energetically argues for a return to the thrilling, chilling origins of storytelling, rejecting the false walls around "serious" literature in favor of a wide-ranging affection.

Serenity Found: More Unauthorized Essays on Joss Whedon's Firefly Universe

Leah Wilson · 224 pages

Luke Skywalker Can't Read: And Other Geeky Truths

Ryan Britt · 208 pages

""Ryan Britt is the Virgil you want to guide you through the inferno of geekery." --Lev Grossman, author of the bestselling Magician's trilogy Pop Culture and sci-fi guru Ryan Britt has never met a monster, alien, wizard, or superhero that didn't need further analysis. Essayist Ryan Britt got a sex education from dirty pictures of dinosaurs, made out with Jar-Jar Binks at midnight, and figured out

Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader

Holly Black, Kate Milford, Diana Peterfreund, Sara Ryan, Scott Tracey, Robin Wasserman, Kendare Blake, Gwenda Bond, Sarah Rees Brennan, Rachel Caine, Sarah Cross, Kami Garcia, Michelle Hodkin, Kelly Link

Contains: Introduction by Cassandra Clare Unhomely Places by Kate Milford The Art of War by Sarah Cross Sharper Than a Seraph Blade by Diana Peterfreund When Laws Are Made to Be Broken by Robin Wasserman Simon Lewis: Jewish, Vampire, Hero by Michelle Hodkin Why the Best Friend Never Gets the Girl by Kami Garcia Brotherly Love by Kendare Blake Asking for a Friend by Gwenda Bond (Not) Fo

Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays

Zadie Smith · 306 pages

A sparkling collection of Zadie Smith's nonfiction over the past decade.Zadie Smith brings to her essays all of the curiosity, intellectual rigor, and sharp humor that have attracted so many readers to her fiction, and the result is a collection that is nothing short of extraordinary.Split into four sections—"Reading," "Being," "Seeing," and "Feeling"—Changing My Mind invites readers to witness th

The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction

Neil Gaiman · 546 pages

"An enthralling collection of nonfiction essays on a myriad of topics--from art and artists to dreams, myths, and memories--observed in #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman's probing, amusing, and distinctive style. An inquisitive observer, thoughtful commentator, and assiduous craftsman, Neil Gaiman has long been celebrated for the sharp intellect and startling imagination that inform

Consider the Lobster and Other Essays

David Foster Wallace · 343 pages

Do lobsters feel pain? Did Franz Kafka have a funny bone? What is John Updike's deal, anyway? And what happens when adult-video starlets meet their fans in person? David Foster Wallace answers these questions and more in essays that are enthralling narrative adventures. Whether covering the three-ring circus of a vicious presidential race, plunging into the wars between dictionary writers, or conf

Against Interpretation and Other Essays

Susan Sontag · 304 pages

I'm Judging You: The Do-Better Manual

Luvvie Ajayi · 241 pages

"With over 500,000 readers a month at her enormously popular blog, AwesomelyLuvvie.com, Luvvie Ajayi is a go-to source for smart takes on pop culture. I'm Judging You is her debut book of humorous essays that dissects our cultural obsessions and calls out bad behavior in our increasingly digital, connected lives--from the importance of the newest Shonda Rhimes television drama to serious discussio

The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy: Hogwarts for Muggles

Gregory Bassham · 288 pages

"The Ultimate Harry Potter: Hogwarts for Muggles, is a fresh and distinctive report on the great ideas in the series. All the authors of these chapters have had the advantage of thinking through their chosen issues, and writing up their conclusions after the entire Potter storyline was complete, and Rowling had even had her say in public about things that never made it into the pages of the offici

Why Not Me?

Mindy Kaling · 240 pages

Hollywood starlet Mindy Kaling shares her ongoing, laugh-out-loud journey to find contentment and excitement in her adult life.

I'm Your Biggest Fan: Awkward Encounters and Assorted Misadventures in Celebrity Journalism

Kate Coyne · 246 pages

"Hilarious essays about awkward run-ins with celebrities, the nature of celebrity, and what it says about our culture, by the Executive Editor of People Magazine. --Provided by the publisher"--

Seriously... I'm Kidding

Ellen DeGeneres · 248 pages

The stand-up comedian, television host, best-selling author and actress candidly discusses her personal life, her professional career and describes what it was like to become a judge on American Idol.

Role Models

John Waters · 312 pages

Here, from the incomparable John Waters, is a paean to the power of subversive inspiration that will delight, amuse, enrich--and happily horrify readers everywhere. This book is, in fact, a self-portrait told through intimate profiles of favorite personalities--some famous, some unknown, some surprisingly middle-of-the-road. From Esther Martin, the owner of the scariest bar in Baltimore, to playwr

You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain

Phoebe Robinson · 285 pages

A hilarious and affecting essay collection about race, gender, and pop culture from celebrated stand-up comedian and WNYC podcaster Phoebe Robinson. Being a Black woman in American means contending with old prejudices and fresh absurdities. Robinson uses her trademark wit to explore examine our cultural climate and skewer our biases with humor and heart.

A New Dawn: Your Favorite Authors on Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Series

Ellen Hopkins

Fans of the literary phenomenon known as the Twilight series can't help wanting more. A New Dawn gives it to them, inviting readers to join some of their favorite YA authors as they look at the series with fresh eyes and fall in love with Edward, Bella and the rest of Forks, Wash., all over again. Edited by bestselling author Ellen Hopkins, A New Dawn is packed with the same debates readers engage

White Girls

Hilton Als · 304 pages

White Girls, Hilton Als’s first book since The Women 16 years ago, finds one of The New Yorker's boldest cultural critics deftly weaving together his brilliant analyses of literature, art, and music with fearless insights on race, gender, and history. The result is an extraordinary, complex portrait of "white girls,” as Als dubs them, an expansive but precise category that encompasses figures as d

Selected Essays from: How to be Alone

Jonathan Franzen

Stranger than Fiction

Chuck Palahniuk · 244 pages

From the bestselling author of Fight Club and Diary, a collection of essays and journalistic pieces that prove that real life has imagination beaten cold in the strangeness and wonder departmentsChuck Palahniuk's world has always been, well, different from yours and mine. The pieces that comprise Stranger Than Fiction, his first nonfiction collection, prove just how different, in ways both highly

The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo

Amy Schumer · 336 pages

Amy Schumer, Emmy Award-winning comedian, actress, writer, and star, mines her past for stories about her teenage years, her family, relationship, and sex, and shares the experiences that have shaped who she is--a woman with the courage to bare her soul and stand up for what she believes in, all while making us laugh. Ranging from the raucous to the romantic, the heartfelt to the harrowing, this h

I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America after Twenty Years Away

Bill Bryson · 381 pages

After living in Britain for two decades, Bill Bryson recently moved back to the United States with his English wife and four children (he had read somewhere that nearly 3 million Americans believed they had been abducted by aliens--as he later put it, "it was clear my people needed me"). They were greeted by a new and improved America that boasts microwave pancakes, twenty-four-hour dental-floss

Beyond the Wall: Exploring George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire

James Lowder · 230 pages

"The epic game of thrones chronicled in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series has captured the imaginations of millions of readers. In Beyond the wall, bestselling authors and acclaimed critics offer up thought-provoking essays and compelling insights..."--P.[4] of Cover.