As emotional as it is funny, Swish is the moving account of one man's journey from stereotype to truth.Joel Derfner is a knitter, an aerobics instructor, a cheerleader, a go-go dancer, and a musical theater composer, but when he realizes one day that he's a walking gay cliché, he embarks on a quest for deeper meaning. Confronting the demons of his past at an LGBT summer camp, using the Internet to "meet" men (many, many men), or going undercover to a conference of ex-gays, he discovers that what he's looking for--and sometimes even finds, hidden under the surface of everyday life--is his own identity.

'Darkly Funny' according to The Chicago Tribune. Royal Blue (Simon & Schuster 1998) is a memoir of half fact half fiction chronicling the early years of Christina Oxenberg's extraordinary life.

Tales of adventure, misadventure, love and loss - this collection of non-fiction short stories from the Australian rock legend turned writer is vintage Jimmy. Outrageous, witty, warm and wise, Killing Time shares more than forty yarns reflecting an epic life - from an encounter with a soul legend in Memphis, a night in a haunted studio in upstate New York, and a doomed haircut in Thailand to a madcap misunderstanding in a Japanese ski resort, a family feud on a remote coral atoll, and an all-too-revealing appearance for a Sydney charity. PRAISE FOR KILLING TIME: "A moving and deeply felt kaleidoscope of life, love, family, music, friendship and the fragility of time. Barnes proved his storytelling mettle with his memoirs. But in Killing Time he has refined his unique voice with this wildly entertaining suite of tales, anecdotes, observations and reflections that can have you laughing out loud on one page and moved to tears on the next. It is all here, the joys and fears of parenthood, the search for your sense of place, fortune-tellers, the loss of beloved pets, bad golf, ghosts, backstage stories, celebrities, the homeless, and the wonder of being alive, all told with searing honesty. What sets Barnes's writing above the rest is that it comes from an authentic and soulful place. His work cannot help but ring true, like the strike of a tuning fork." Matt Condon "Jimmy Barnes is never a bystander. Stories happen to him. He not only remembers every circumstance, he has the ability to distil the moment in a way that's both poetic and uncontrived. He's funny, chaotic, insightful and heartbreaking. Jimmy is truly a natural-born storyteller. It's like writing has just been waiting for him to arrive. And now, he's here." Mandy Nolan

The Best of Abbie Hoffman is the inspirational life story of Abbie Hoffman, cofounder of the Yippie movement and one of the most important activists of the twentieth century. Hoffman recounts his growing involvement in the student movement as it rose to national prominence, giving behind-the-scenes details about the historic protests at the 1968 Democratic Convention and subsequent Chicago conspiracy trial, his "levitation" of the Pentagon, and his friendships with other movement leaders. This new edition includes a selection of photographs documenting his continuing activism in the 1980s and a new Afterword by leading historian Howard Zinn about Hoffman's enduring legacy. "This book is a document . . . the autobiography of a bona fide American revolutionary." -- Norman Mailer, from his Introduction

Shirley Povich was the Dean of American sportswriters. As a columnist for The Washington Post for more than seventyfive years, he was an eyewitness to the most thrilling moments in American sports, including: the legendary 1927 Dempsy-Tunney "long count"; the celebrated 1938 race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral; the 1946 signing of Jackie Robinson by the Brooklyn Dodgers; Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series; the Ali-Frazier fight of 1971; and the murder of eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. But Povich's columns were about more than sports; they reflected the dramatic changes in American society over the course of the 20th Century. Driven by a strong sense of social justice, Povich called for the integration of major league baseball in 1939, and twenty years later he was still at it, attacking Washington Redskins owner George Preston Marshall for having an all-white team. For the 100th anniversary of his birth, Povich's children— David, Maury, and Lynn — and his colleague at the Post, former sports editor George Solomon, have pulled together this panoramic collection of Povich's most beloved columns. The result is a front-row seat to the most awe-inspiring sports moments of our American Century.

A finalist for the 2017 George Freedley Memorial Award "A compelling, absolutely unputdownable story . . . And, in case you're wondering, yes, the book is funny. In places, very funny. A remarkable story, magnificently told." -- Booklist In this richly reported, scene-driven narrative, Sam Wasson charts the meteoric rise of improv from its unlikely beginnings in McCarthy-era Chicago. We witness the chance meeting between Mike Nichols and Elaine May, hang out at the after-hours bar where Dan Aykroyd hosted friends like John Belushi, Bill Murray, and Gilda Radner, and go behind the scenes of cultural landmarks from The Graduate to The Colbert Report . Along the way, we befriend pioneers such as Harold Ramis, Chevy Chase, Steve Carell, Amy Poehler, Alan Arkin, Tina Fey, Judd Apatow, and many others. Wasson shows why improv deserves to be considered the great American art form of the last half century. " One of the most important stories in American popular culture . . . Wasson may be the first author to explain [improv's] entire history . . . For that reason alone, it's a valuable book . " -- New York Times Book Review "A compelling history . . . It holds the element of surprise--true to the spirit of its subject." -- Entertainment Weekly

For more than three decades, Ed Koch has been one of America's most interesting and outspoken political figures. In this provocative new book, Koch with Rafael Medoff guides readers through the major battles in his life-long fight against anti-Semitism. Interviews, speeches, new essays, never-before published personal correspondence, and more highlight his leadership--on campuses, in the media, on the streets of New York City, and in the halls of power in Washington, DC. The book also features personal letters from Henry Louis Gates, former President George Bush, and other prominent figures. Koch will reveal startling information for the first time here, and his writings are controversial, piercing, teasing, and questioning. This book will ignite discussion for years to come

The exhilarating story of how London came to be one of the most exciting and influential places on earth—from the city’s colorful, witty, and well-known mayor. Once a swampland that the Romans could hardly be bothered to conquer, over the centuries London became an incomparably vibrant metropolis that has produced a steady stream of ingenious, original, and outsized figures who have shaped the world we know. Boris Johnson, the internationally beloved mayor of London, is the best possible guide to these colorful characters and the history in which they played such lively roles. Erudite and entertaining, he narrates the story of London as a kind of relay race. Beginning with the days when “a bunch of pushy Italian immigrants” created Londinium, he passes the torch on down through the famous and the infamous, the brilliant and the bizarre—from Hadrian to Samuel Johnson to Winston Churchill to the Rolling Stones—illuminating with unforgettable clarity the era each inhabited. He also pauses to shine a light on innovations that have contributed to the city’s incomparable vibrancy, from the King James Bible to the flush toilet. As wildly entertaining as it is informative, this is an irresistible account of the city and people that in large part shaped the world we know.

The essays in Phillip Lopate's new book record an ardent three-decades-plus love affair with the movies; like Michel Piccoli with Brigitte Bardot in Godard's "Contempt," he is "totally, tenderly, tragically" besotted with the cinema. Artfully braiding emotional and intellectual autobiography with critical and historical commentary, these essays exemplify and record a passionate engagement with an irreplaceable art form, its creators, and its critics. Lopate evaluates those filmmakers who have most affected him since his days as a nascent film cultist at Columbia: Antonioni, Godard, Bresson, Mizoguchi, Fassbinder, Ozu, and Visconti. He celebrates Andrew Sarris as the film critic who first won his heart and provides an eye-opening extended portrait and fondly skeptical critique of Pauline Kael, the most influential film writer of our time. And in essays such as "The Last Taboo: The Dumbing Down of American Movies, " he addresses the elusive question of whether movies can actually think. With his full-hearted affection and bracing intelligence, Phillip Lopate captures, as few others have, the insistent allure of films and filmgoing.

Phillip Lopate's richest and most ambitious book yet--the final volume of a trilogy that began with Bachelorhood and Against Joie de Vivre -- Portrait of My Body is a powerful memoir in the form of interconnected personal essays. One of America's foremost essayists, who helped focus attention on the form in his acclaimed anthology The Art of the Personal Essay , Lopate demonstrates here just how far a writer can go in the direction of honesty and risk taking. In thirteen essays, Lopate explores the resources and limits of the self, its many disguises, excuses, and unmaskings, with his characteristic wry humor and insight. From the title essay, a hilarious physical self-exam, to the haunting portrait of his ex-colleague Donald Barthelme, to the bittersweet account of his long-delayed surrender to marriage, "On Leaving Bachelorhood," Lopate wrestles with finding the proper balance between detachment and empathy, doubt and conviction. In other essays, he celebrates his love of film and city life, and reflects on his religious identity as a Jew. A wrenchingly vivid, unforgettable portrait of the author's eccentric, solipsistic, aged father, a self-proclaimed failure, is the centerpiece of a suite of essays about father-figures and resisted mentors. The book ends with the author's own introduction to fatherhood, as witness to the birth of his daughter. A book that will engage readers with its conversational eloquence, skeptical intelligence, candor, and mischief, Portrait of My Body is a captivating work of literary nonfiction.

The vast and surreal musical catalog of Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, once unknown to all but a small circle of friends and peers on the early-2000s LA freak scene, has grown tremendously in listenership and notoriety, becoming both a touchstone for the era and an acknowledged influence on our weirdo pop present. But while the tunes have been canonized, criticized, and endlessly dissected, the unique circumstances leading to their creation remain mysterious. Now, on the heels of the Ariel Archives set of comprehensive reissues undertaken by Mexican Summer, Untitled APHG Book sets out to tell the unvarnished story of the Haunted Graffiti era in scrapbook form. Drawing from a massive trove of documentation and ephemera as well as archival interviews and reflections from friends, witnesses, and collaborators, the book is a document of relentless creative pursuit--and a celebration of the fertile and undersung artistic community that fed one of the most singular musical projects of the new century.

One of the most powerful (though deceptively simple) of current ideas is Erik H. Erikson's insight into the nature of the interrelationships of the psychogenic development of an individual and the historical development of the times. This insight, present in all his work beginning with Childhood and Society, and particularly examined in Young Man Luther and Gandhi's Truth, finds full and mature expression in the present book. Just as Erikson's notion of the identity crisis has been obscured and confused as it has passed into everyday speech, so too have glib popularizers misused his notions of psychobiography and psychohistory. Thus, this book is of supreme importance, not merely to set the record straight, but more especially to make these vital ideas, central to our time, fully available. "To deal with life history and history psychoanalytically," Erikson points out, "means to engage in a kind of circular chronology: our inquiry always points to selected periods in the past which, in throwing new light on the present, suggest new forays into the more distant past." Consequently, this book opens with autobiography; ranges through discussions of Freud and Gandhi and of the meaning of ideas on womanhood; and concludes with an examination of the role of psychoanalysis in the evolution of ethics.

winningly combines never-before-heard stories featuring A-list entertainers with fan favorites and Kevin’s own thoughts about how he made it. He turned down his first invitation to do stand-up on The Tonight Show because he knew that he’d make a bigger impact if he sat on the couch next to Johnny. That huge risk—which paid off in spades—was just the beginning. Find out how he brought John Belushi to his knees, tortured Paul Reiser (twice), bamboozled Larry King, stole Alan Arkin’s soul, almost killed Warren Beatty, and sucked face with Robert DeNiro’s girlfriend. Now a new media entrepreneur, he’s laughing proof that if you follow your gut and believe in yourself, you can do anything you want—except have a rational conversation with Rip Torn, who’s an evil, paranoid $#!%.

"The Crow's Dinner" is master novelist Jonathan Carroll's debut essay collection, and that is very good news. Gathering together hundreds of entries that initially appeared on the website Medium, "The Crow's Dinner" is at once a wide-ranging spiritual autobiography and an annotated guide to what Carroll calls "The Map of Me." Beginning with an appreciation of "The Invisibles," those insignificant moments we overlook at our peril, "The Crow's Dinner" encompasses an extraordinary range of incidents, ideas, and images that cumulatively illuminate the inner and outer weather of a major American artist. This generous volume contains fragments of autobiography, reflections on the nature of creativity, vivid recreations of chance encounters, and provocative meditations on the complexityand unpredictabilityof human relationships. It is a book filled with colorful vignettes, unexpected bursts of whimsy, and observations filtered through an utterly unique sensibility. Witty, compassionate, open at all times to the "momentary magic" of existence, it is a work of singular beauty that is unlike anything you have ever read. Since the publication of his first novel, "The Land of Laughs," in 1980, Jonathan Carroll has repeatedly offered us new and startling ways of looking at our familiar world. With "The Crow's Dinner," he speaks to us in direct, unmediated fashion about the things that matter most: love, lust, books, dogs, food, friendshipand the transforming power of the imagination. The result is an intimate, one-of-a kind tour of a lively, unfettered mind. Like the best of Carroll's fiction, "The Crow's Dinner" is a book that matters.

"How do we reckon with our losses? 'Animal Bodies' offers an unflinching examination of grief and personal loss-such as the death of parents, friends, and beloved pets, as well as broken marriages, lost friendships, and the loss of innocence and youth-and our collective grief caused by Covid-19, mass shootings, societal and gender inequities and violence, and environmental degradation"--

The fiction and reportage included in The Last Carousel, one of the final collections published during Nelson Algren's lifetime, was written on ships and in ports of call around the world, and includes accounts of brothels in Vietnam and Mexico, stories of the boxing ring, and reminiscences of Algren's beloved Chicago White Sox, among other subjects. In this collection, not just Algren's intensity but his diversity are revealed and celebrated.

About the Author Larry T. Reynolds is Professor of Sociology at Central Michigan University and Adjunct Professor at the University of West Florida. He is former Chair of the Marxist Section of the American Sociological Association, recipient of the first annual Charles Horton Cooley Award, and past president of the North Central Sociological Association. A Fellow of the Rockport Institute, he has published in such journals as Sociometry, Sociological Quarterly, Phylon, and Current Anthropology. Among his recent books are Interactionism: Exposition and Critique (1993); A Critique of Contemporary American Sociology (1993); and Symbolic Interactionism (1994). Leonard Liberman is Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at Central Michigan University. His areas of interest are physical anthropology, social psychology, and the sociology of science. He has published in Phylon, Human Organization, Current Anthropology, Anthropology and Education Quarterly, and the American Anthropologist, and he is the author of the forthcoming volume, Outrageous Concepts: Race, Genes, and Sociobiology.

This is a new release of the original 1954 edition.

Joseph Epstein demonstrates time and again his talent for taking nearly any subject and polishing it into a gem of sparkling wit and fascination. In Narcissus Leaves the Pool, he displays his signature verve and charm in sixteen agile, entertaining pieces. Among his targets in this collection are name-dropping, talent versus genius, the cult of youthfulness, and the information revolution.

"I have been a Jew during Fascism, a bourgeois under Communism, a rebel defeated in an uprising, a refugee among the free, and a have-not amid plenty. This book contains over 60 stories that range from my youth in Hungary, the ordeal of a death march and concentration camps, the oppression of the Communist dictatorship, the promise and defeat of the Hungarian Revolution and, finally, my American years"--Preminary pages