Other books that might interest you

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  Unless - A Novel

  Carol Shields

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  “Nothing short of astonishing.” — New Yorker“A thing of beauty—lucidly written, artfully ordered, riddled with riddles and undergirded with dark layers of philosophical meditations.” — Los Angeles TimesThe final book from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carol Shields, Unless, is a harrowing but ultimately consoling story of one family's anguish and healing, proving Shields's mastery of extraordinary fiction about ordinary life.For all of her life, 44 year old Reta Winters has enjoyed the useful monotony of happiness: a loving family, good friends, growing success as a writer of light 'summertime' fiction. But this placid existence is cracked wide open when her beloved eldest daughter, Norah, drops out to sit on a gritty street corner, silent but for the sign around her neck that reads 'GOODNESS.' Reta's search for what drove her daughter to such a desperate statement turns into an unflinching and surprisingly funny meditation on where we find meaning and hope.

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  Regiment of Women

  Thomas Berger

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  The Pulitzer Prize–nominated author of Little Big Man returns with perhaps one of his most imaginative alternate realities yet: a matriarchal society.   Women reign supreme in the not-so-distant future, where Georgie Cornell has no choice but to wear the high heel shoe on the other foot. Swept into the chaotic world of publishing, he is at the mercy of his female bosses, especially if his pencil skirt is an inch too short.   Georgie only has one male coworker he can lean on for a bit of support, and his friend Charlie’s fascination with gender roles borders on the scandalous for Georgie’s taste. Still, when Georgie loses his job it’s Charlie he turns to for comfort. Spilling a drink on his expensive dress, he has no choice but to wear the women’s clothes Charlie keeps in secret on the way home. The simple journey quickly turns chaotic when Georgie is taken in by the police for the crime of being a transvestite. A prison escape is only the start of this piercing, insightful, and prescient look at gender norms.   “Imagined with such ferocity and glee that we assent to it almost in spite of ourselves . . . A brilliant accomplishment by one of our best novelists.” —The New York Times Book Review

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  Oh! The Public

  Anton Chekhov

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  "Oh! The Public" by Anton Chekhov is a short story that follows the head ticket collector, Podtyagin, as he performs his duties on a late-night train journey. Despite being sleep-deprived and tempted to drink, he decides to "buck up and work" and begins inspecting the tickets of the passengers. One passenger, an invalid wrapped in a fur coat and rug, moans about being woken and argues with Podtyagin over the requirement for a ticket. The argument escalates and other passengers become indignant at the apparent persecution of the invalid. After the argument, Podtyagin begins to feel uneasy and questions his own actions, despite being in the right according to duty. The story is a commentary on bureaucracy, public service, and the social class structure of the time. Read in English, unabridged.

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  Be Ready When the Sh*t Goes Down...

  Forrest Griffin, Erich Krauss

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  The New York Times bestselling, hilarious, timely guide to surviving the coming apocalypse from Ultimate Fighter champ Forrest Griffin and Erich Krauss. 
   
  Be Ready When the Sh*t Goes Down provides everything an aspiring Mad Max needs to know about post-apocalyptic living.  
   
  Practical and hilarious, this survival guide offers essential tactics and strategies for how to live when governments fall and civilization ends. From knowing the warning signs of impending doom and preparing your go bag with life-saving gear to developing skills to maintain your home and vehicles as weaponized fortresses and making your own food out of nature’s creatures, Forrest Griffin will help regress you to your most primitive, instinctive state of being. 
   
  Since it’s coming soon anyway, we might as well all Be Ready When the Sh*t Goes Down.

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  We Thought You Would be Prettier...

  Laurie Notaro

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  She thought she'd have more time. Laurie Notaro figured she had at least a few good years yet. But no-it's happened. She has officially lost her marbles. From the kid at the pet-food store checkout line whose coif is so bizarre it makes her seethe "I'm going to kick his hair's ass" to the hapless Sears customer service rep on the receiving end of her Campaign of Terror, no one is safe from Laurie's wrath. Her cranky side seems to have eaten the rest of her-inner-thigh Chub Rub and all. And the results are breathtaking. Her riffs on e-mail spam, eBay ("There should be an eBay wading pool, where you only get to bid on Precious Moments figurines and Avon products, and you have to make it through that first before jumping into the deep end"), and the perils of St. Patrick's Day ("When I'm driving, the last think I need is a herd of inebriates darting in and out of traffic like loaded chickens") are the stuff of legend. And for Laurie, it's all 100 percent true.

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  Reuben Reuben - A Novel

  Peter De Vries

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  Suburban absurdity meets good old American despair in this acclaimed novel by “the funniest serious writer to be found on either side of the Atlantic” (Kingsley Amis). 
   
  Harking from the golden age of fiction set in American suburbia—the school of John Updike and Cheever—this work from the great American humorist Peter De Vries looks with laughter upon its lawns, its cocktails, and its slightly unreal feeling of comfort. A manic epic, Reuben, Reuben is really three books in one, tied together by a 1950s suburban Connecticut setting and hyper-literate cast of characters.  
   
  A corruptible chicken farmer fearful for the fate of his beloved town, a womanizing poet from Wales (Dylan Thomas in disguise), and a hapless British poet-cum-actor-and-agent all take turns as narrator, revealing different, even conflicting views. But alcoholism, sexism, small-mindedness, and calamity challenge the high spirits of De Vries’s well-read suburbanites. Noted as much for his verbal fluidity and wordplay as for his ability to see humor through pain, De Vries will delight both new readers and old in this uproarious modern masterpiece.

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