As a kid, I was addicted to almanacs, encyclopedias, and atlases. I liked collecting facts and snooping around other people’s lives, and my family, including extended family, totally indulged me by gifting me their history or factoid book collections. I remember one set my Grandma Sally gave me: Time Library of Curious and Unusual Facts. I cannot find the complete set anywhere these days, but it’s where I learned about spontaneous combustion and wealthy hoarders. Who wouldn’t want to know that stuff!
I wrote
Selling the Dream: The Billion-Dollar Industry Bankrupting Americans
I love this book because it’s a collection of mini-biographies of contemporary writers, musicians, and artists from the 20th century, some I’d heard of and some I hadn’t, but they’re all weird.
Like, as I’m writing this, I just flipped to a random page and there’s a section on Michael Mann, who once owned the apartment I’m writing this in. And then I flip a little more and get five succinct and totally bizarre pages about Mao.
This international bestseller is an encyclopedic A-Z masterpiece-the perfect introduction to the very core of Western humanism. Clive James rescues, or occasionally destroys, the careers of many of the greatest thinkers, humanists, musicians, artists, and philosophers of the twentieth century. Soaring to Montaigne-like heights, Cultural Amnesia is precisely the book to burnish these memories of a Western civilization that James fears is nearly lost.
My friend gave me this book during a pretty bad depressive episode I was having, and you know what? That friend really gets me!
It totally helped me feel less alone. I was surprised to learn that some suicide notes are really mean, and some are totally silly. I dunno; the book soothes me like the Wiki list of inventors killed by their inventions.
A collection of suicide notes accompanied by a brief description of who the individual was, what their note meant, and the circumstances which led up to their suicide
OMG, ok, so this book is just court transcripts from really huge Supreme Court cases and the opinions on those cases. That’s it! And it’s just absolutely bananas.
I love reading transcripts of real people talking about heavy shit. Before I found this book I was under the mistaken impression that those materials weren’t made public, but I guess I was wrong.
Until The New Press first published May It Please the Court in 1993, few Americans knew that every case argued before the Supreme Court since 1955 had been recorded. The original book-and-tape set was a revelation to readers and reviewers, quickly becoming a bestseller and garnering praise across the nation.
May It Please the Court includes both live recordings and transcripts of oral arguments in twenty-three of the most significant cases argued before the Supreme Court in the second half of the twentiethcentury. This edition makes the recordings available on an MP3 audio CD. Through the voices of some of…
I think this is the book I’ve had the longest out of the five I’m recommending, and I’m on my fifth copy because I either destroy them from overuse or give them away.
There are entries on people, but also on diseases and extinct animals, and my favorite section, dead sex practices. Ooh la la.
This book made me want to be Barbara Holland or at least try to capture her spirit in my writing. I’ve held onto it for my last four moves across the country.
She is so fucking funny, brash, and observant of things a lot of us overlook. I like how biting she can be; she doesn’t give two effs. This happens to be a book about the presidents, but somehow it’s one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. RIP BARB!
Offers a satiric look at the life, character, and accomplishments of each president from Washington to George W. Bush, in a hilarious study of the all-too-human sides of America's leaders. Reprint.
It is about a giant scam happening right under our noses: multi-level marketing. It can be called network marketing or direct sales as well, but it’s all the same: The people at the top get rich off the failures of the people at the bottom.
I explore the origins of these schemes, from Avon to Tupperware to Amway, and how we got from there to LulaRoe, Herbalife, and NXIVM. The fact is that only 1% of people who try to run one of these “small businesses” make any money at all. How can they continue to exist with such bad numbers and reputations? Selling the Dream has your answers.
I’ve always been fascinated by group dynamics, large and small. Why things functioned well, why they didn’t. It’s possible my ability to empathize and use humor as a consensus-builder is the reason I was elected president of a homeowners association, a music production association, and even an agricultural group. Books were not particularly involved in this fascination! But in recent years, experiencing the breakdown of civility and trust in our political and cultural discourse, I’ve taken a more analytical view of the dynamics. These books, in their very different ways, have taught me lessons about life, understanding those with different beliefs, and finding ways to connect and move forward.
We’ve all experienced the overwhelming level of political and social divisiveness in our country. This invisible “virus” of negativity is, in part, the result of the name-calling and heated rhetoric that has become commonplace among commentators and elected leaders alike.
My book provides a clear perspective on the historical and modern-day causes of our nation's divisive state. It then proposes easy-to-understand solutions—an action plan for our elected leaders and citizens as well. Rather than a scholarly treatment of a complex topic, the book challenges us to take the obvious steps required of those living in a free democracy. And it…
Uniting the States of America: A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation
Lyle Greenfield's "Uniting the States of America―A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation" is a work of nonfiction and opinion. Incorporating the lessons of history and the ideas and wisdom of many, it is intended as both an educational resource and a call-to-action for citizens concerned about the politically and culturally divided state of our Union. A situation that has raised alarm for the very future of our democracy.
First, the book clearly identifies the causes of what has become a national crisis of belief in and love for our country. How the divisiveness and hostility rampant in our political…
