Author of three memoirs of her own, Mary Karr synthesizes her expertise as graduate writing professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and "black belt sinner, " providing an irreverent window into the mechanics and art of the form. Anchored by excerpts from her favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers' experience, The Art of Memoir lays bare Karr's own process. In addition, all those inside stories about...

Some of the best stand-up comedians in the business share tips of the trade and full-fledged stories to impart the lessons they learned treading the boards, hitting the road, and of course, on occasion, bombing. Featuring interviews with Jonah Ray, Howard Kremer, Marcella Arguello, Jimmy Pardo, Bill Dwyer, Wayne Federman, Rick Overton, Matt Braunger, Nick Thune, Andrew Michaan, Sean Conroy, Erica Rhodes, David Borry, Arden Myrin, Amy Miller, Subhah...

As a little girl discovers things round, square, and rectangular in her urban neighborhood, she is reminded of her Chinese American culture.

When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, David Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. And life at the Sea Section, as he names the vacation home, is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it's impossible to take a vacation from yourself. Sedaris sets his powers of observation toward middle age and mortality, that vertiginous...

Arguably the funniest novel to emerge from Northern Europe since the Black Death. A reindeer strangler has struck again; the world's leading authority on Baltic sturgeon has been filleted, and the head of Sweden's only unpublished thriller writer has been discovered some meters from his body. Just a typical day in Stockholm's crime log? Or are the murders the works of a single killer? Chief Inspector Svenjamin Bubbles has a suspect: Lizzy Salamander,...

Ever wonder what you would say or do if you didn't give a f**k? Adam Carolla can tell you. In his sixth book, the comedian, podcaster, and provocateur does what he does best-doles out advice and opinions with utter disregard for our politically correct, self-righteous, virtue signaling, woke times. Thanks to decades of hosting MTV and radio's Loveline, his Guinness World Record-breaking podcast and touring the stand-up circuit, no one in comedy is...