Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

A new collection from David Sedaris is cause for jubilation. His recent move to Paris has inspired hilarious pieces, including Me Talk Pretty One Day, about his attempts to learn French. His family is another inspiration. You Cant Kill the Rooster is a portrait of his brother who talks incessant hip-hop slang to his bewildered father. And no one hones a finer fury in response to such modern annoyances as... (more)

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

by David Sedaris

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is a 2004 collection of 22 autobiographical essays by American humorist David Sedaris. The essays address the author's upbringing in Raleigh, North Carolina, his relationships with family members, and his work and life in New York City and France.

Naked

by David Sedaris

The author recounts hitchhiking across the country with an odd cast of quadriplegics and deadbeats, working as a migrant worker in North Carolina, and other adventures.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames

by David Sedaris

"David Sedaris's ability to transform the mortification of everyday life into wildly entertaining art," ( The Christian Science Monitor ) is elevated to wilder and more entertaining heights than ever in this remarkable new book. Trying to make coffee when the water is shut off, David considers using the water in a vase of flowers and his chain of associations takes him from the French countryside to a hilariously... (more)

Holidays on Ice: Stories

by David Sedaris

A new holiday classic--six of the most profound Christmas stories by the author of the bestselling "Naked" and "Barrel Fever"--is now in a paperback edition perfect for stocking stuffing.

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto

by Chuck Klosterman

Countless writers and artists have spoken for a generation, but no one has done it quite like Chuck Klosterman. With an exhaustive knowledge of popular culture and an almost effortless ability to spin brilliant prose out of unlikely subject matter, Klosterman attacks the entire spectrum of postmodern America: reality TV, Internet porn, Pamela Anderson, literary Jesus freaks, and the real difference between apples... (more)

Barrel Fever

Stories and Essays

by David Sedaris

Short stories and essays by an apartment cleaner and a popular commentator for National Public Radio highlight the absurd behavior of modern Americans, such as the suburban dad who saves money by performing surgery at home. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.

High Tide in Tucson

Essays from Now or Never

by Barbara Kingsolver, Paul Mirocha

"There is no one quite like Barbara Kingsolver in contemporary literature," raves the Washington Post Book World, and it is right. She has been nominated three times for the ABBY award, and her critically acclaimed writings consistently enjoy spectacular commercial success as they entertain and touch her legions of loyal fans. In High Tide in Tucson, she returnsto her familiar themes of family, community,... (more)

A Room of One's Own

by Virginia Woolf

Originally published in 1929, A Room of One's Own eloquently states Woolf's conviction that in order to create works of genius, women must be freed from financial obligations and social restrictions.

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader

by Anne Fadiman

Anne Fadiman is--by her own admission--the sort of person who learned about sex from her father's copy of Fanny Hill , whose husband buys her 19 pounds of dusty books for her birthday, and who once found herself poring over her roommate's 1974 Toyota Corolla manual because it was the only written material in the apartment that she had not read at least twice. This witty collection of essays recounts a lifelong... (more)

The Partly Cloudy Patriot (Unabridged)

by Sarah Vowell

Sarah Vowell travels through the American past and, in doing so, investigates the dusty, bumpy roads of her own life. In this insightful and funny collection of personal stories Vowell -- widely hailed for her inimitable stories on public radio's This American Life -- ponders a number of curious questions: Why is she happiest when visiting the sites of bloody struggles like Salem or Gettysburg? Why do people... (more)

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten : The Essay That Became a Classic With Special Commentary by Robert Fulghum

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten : The Essay That Became a Classic With Special Commentary by Robert Fulghum

by Robert Fulghum

Fifteen years ago, Robert Fulghum published a simple credo—a credo that became the phenomenal #1 New York Times bestseller All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten . Now, seven million copies later, Fulghum returns to the book that was embraced around the world. He has written a new preface and twenty-five essays, which add even more potency to a common, though no less relevant, piece of wisdom: that... (more)

I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman

I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman

by Nora Ephron

With her disarming, intimate, completely accessible voice, and dry sense of humor, Nora Ephron shares with us her ups and downs in I Feel Bad About My Neck, a candid, hilarious look at women who are getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests, and life itself. The woman who brought us When Harry Met Sally . . . , Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, and Bewitched,... (more)

Small Wonder: Essays

by Barbara Kingsolver

In her new essay collection, the beloved author of High Tide in Tucson brings to us, out of one of history's darker moments, an extended love song to the world we still have. Whether she is contemplating the Grand Canyon, her vegetable garden, motherhood, genetic engineering, or the future of a nation founded on the best of all human impulses, these essays are grounded in the author's belief that our largest... (more)

Magical Thinking : True Stories

by Augusten Burroughs

From the #1 bestselling author of Running with Scissors and Dry --a contagiously funny, heartwarming, shocking, twisted, and absolutely magical collection. True stories that give voice to the thoughts we all have but dare not mention. It begins with a Tang Instant Breakfast Drink television commercial when Augusten was seven. Then there is the contest of wills with the deranged cleaning lady. The execution of a... (more)

I Was Told There'd Be Cake

by Sloane Crosley

Wry, hilarious, and profoundly genuine, this debut collection of literary essays is a celebration of fallibility and haplessness in all their glory. From despoiling an exhibit at the Natural History Museum to provoking the ire of her first boss to siccing the cops on her mysterious neighbor, Crosley can do no right despite the best of intentions-or perhaps because of them. Together, these essays create a... (more)

Possible Side Effects

by Augusten Burroughs

National Bestseller From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Running with Scissors comes Augusten Burroughs's most provocative collection of true stories yet. From nicotine gum addiction to lesbian personal ads to incontinent dogs, Possible Side Effects mines Burroughs's life in a series of uproariously funny essays. These are stories that are uniquely Augusten, with all the over-the-top hilarity of... (more)

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments

by David Foster Wallace

This exuberantly praised--and uproariously funny--first collection of nonfiction pieces by one of the most acclaimed and adventurous writers of our time--the author of "Infinite Jest"--"reconfirms Mr. Wallace's stature as one of his generation's preeminent talents" ("New York Times") 5-city author tour. Print ads .

Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas

Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas

by Chuck Klosterman

Chuck Klosterman IV Consists of Three Parts: THINGS THAT ARE TRUE Profiles And Trend Stories: Britney Spears, Radiohead, Billy Joel, Metallica, Val Kilmer, Bono, Wilco, The White Stripes, Steve Nash, Morrissey, Robert Plant -- All With New Introductions And Footnotes. THINGS THAT MIGHT BE TRUE Opinions And Theories On Everything From Monogamy To Pirates To Robots To Super People To Guilt And (Of Course)... (more)

Take the Cannoli : Stories From the New World

Take the Cannoli : Stories From the New World

by Sarah Vowell

Take the Cannoli is a moving and wickedly funny collection of personal stories stretching across the immense landscape of the American scene. Hailed by Newsweek as a "cranky stylist with talent to burn," Vowell has an irresistible voice -- caustic and sympathetic, insightful and double-edged -- that has attracted a loyal following for her magazine writing and radio monologues on This American Life. While... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: essays

by David Sedaris

by David Sedaris

by David Sedaris

by David Sedaris

by David Sedaris

by Chuck Klosterman

Stories and Essays

by David Sedaris

Essays from Now or Never

by Barbara Kingsolver, Paul Mirocha

by Virginia Woolf

by Anne Fadiman

by Sarah Vowell

by Robert Fulghum

by Nora Ephron

by Barbara Kingsolver

by Augusten Burroughs

by Sloane Crosley

by Augusten Burroughs

by David Foster Wallace

by Chuck Klosterman

by Sarah Vowell