The best-selling author offers a new collection of satirical and humorous essays that chronicle his own life and ordinary moments that turn beautifully absurd, including how he coped with the pandemic, his thoughts on becoming an orphan in his seventh decade, and the battle-scarred America he discovered when he resumed touring.

"In this dazzling debut, Emilie Pine speaks to the events that have marked her life--those emotional disruptions for which our society has no adequate language, at once bittersweet, clandestine, and ordinary. She writes with radical honesty on the unspeakable grief of infertility, on caring for an alcoholic parent, on taboos around female bodies and female pain, on sexual violence and violence against the self. This is the story of one woman, and...

David Sedaris has kept a diary for forty years, recording everything that has captured his attention -- overheard comments, salacious gossip, soap opera plot twists, secrets confided by total strangers. These observations are the source code for his work, and through them he has honed his cunning, surprising sentences. Now Sedaris shares his private writings with the world. Theft by Finding, the first of two volumes, is an account of how a drug-abusing...

Erma Bombeck's hilarious guide to using self-help books to prosper ormore likelyto perish As far as Erma can tell, her life is going well. Her children speak to her, her husband smiles at her, and she's capable of looking in a mirror without screaming. But her friends know better. No matter how happy Erma thinks she is, she's in need of help, and the only way to fulfillment is a ten-foot stack of self-improvement books. From Sensual Needlepoint to...

'How we interact with animals has preoccupied philosophers, poets, and naturalists for ages,' writes Susan Orlean. Since the age of six, when Orlean wrote and illustrated a book called Herbert the Near-Sighted Pigeon, she's been drawn to stories about how we live with animals, and how they abide by us. Now, in On Animals, she examines animal-human relationships through the compelling tales she has written over the course of her celebrated career....

"Is it smart to skip your annual physical? Should you put your trust in medical research? Is "low T" an actual disease? This book examines these questions and more you've always wondered about in more than fifty essays on the practice of medicine. The Doctor Will See You Now is a quirky and eclectic collection of short pieces that explore the evolving patient-physician relationship; famous doctors and notorious patients; surprising hospital practices...

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.

For over thirty years, generations of readers have thrilled to James Herriot's marvelous tales, deep love of life, and extraordinary storytelling abilities. In All Creatures Great and Small, we meet the young Herriot as he takes up his calling and discovers that the realities of being a vet in rural Yorkshire are very different than the sterile setting of veterinary school. Herriot recounts the wondrous variety and never-ending challenges of veterinary...

Host Ira Glass and the staff of This American Life selected some of their favorite segments for this set.

One of the twentieth century's most admired and influential authors, G.K. Chesterton (1874–1936) created an enduring body of work that encompasses journalism, poetry, plays, history, biography, apologetics, and detective fiction. Through this book Chesterton leads us on a literary journey toward truth. A unique book, Orthodoxy addresses our faith struggles and how we communicate our faith to others. In this timeless classic, G.K. Chesterton,...