What would you write if no one knew who you were?In the spirit of the demolition derby, where drivers take heedless risks with reckless abandon, welcome to the first convocation of the Secret Society of Demolition Writers. Here is a one-of-a-kind collection by famous authors writing anonymously–and dangerously. With the usual concerns about reputations and renown cast aside, these twelve daredevils have each contributed an extreme, no-holds-barred unsigned story, each shining as br...

A brilliant and wickedly comic novel about fame and its discontents.Noel Hammersmith has two dreams: to bring his weight down to a slim 138 pounds and to be famous. Despite being a diet book editor and exercising regularly, he can't lose a pound, and his hilarious timidity insures that he has a hard time getting attention at all, let alone fame.To express his growing frustration, Noel begins to write angry letter—to Brooks Brothers when they discontinue his favorite shirt, ...

Expert satirist Benjamin Cheever, author of Famous After Death, uses his dark sense of humor to deliver another searing look at suburbia. Literary editor Stuart Cross and his wife Andie, a film critic, hire the talented Louise to be nanny to their two young girls. Louise's perfection, however, begins to irritate the ambitious, but less accomplished Stuart and Andie, and soon the parents' jealousy gets the better of them.

In Drinking in America, bestselling author Susan Cheever chronicles our national love affair with liquor, taking a long, thoughtful look at the way alcohol has changed our nation's history. This is the often-overlooked story of how alcohol has shaped American events and the American character from the seventeenth to the twentieth century.Seen through the lens of alcoholism, American history takes on a vibrancy and a tragedy missing from many earlier accounts. From the drun...

Every president has had some experience as a parent. Of the 43 men who have served in the nation's highest office, 38 have fathered biological children and the other five adopted children. Each president's parenting style reveals much about his beliefs as well as his psychological make-up. James Garfield enjoyed jumping on the bed with his kids. FDR's children, on the other hand, had to make appointments to talk to him.In a lively narrative, based on research in archives around the...

He was the top justice of New York’s highest court. She was a stunning socialite and his wife’s step-cousin. In 1993, Sol Wachtler was convicted of blackmail and extortion against Joy Silverman, his former mistress. How did a respected jurist and one of the most prominent men in America end up serving time in prison? Linda Wolfe starts at the beginning—from Wachtler’s modest Brooklyn upbringing through his courtship and marriage to Joan Wolosoff, the only child of a wealthy real-estate dev...

In this highly anticipated follow-up to his blockbuster New York Times bestseller The Amateur, former New York Times Magazine editor-in-chief Edward Klein delves into the rocky relationship between the Obamas and the Clintons. An old-school reporter with incredible insider contacts, Klein reveals just how deep the rivalry between the Obamas and the Clintons runs, with details on closed-door meetings buttressed by hundreds of interviews. Blood Feud is a s...

"A great story--how modernism brought down the regime of censorship--told as a great story. Kevin Birmingham's imaginative scholarship brings Joyce and his world to life. There is a fresh detail on nearly every page."--Louis Menand, Pulitzer prize-winning author of The Metaphysical ClubFor more than a decade, the book that literary critics now consider the most important novel in the English language was illegal to own, sell, advertise or purchase in most ...

Returning home to Hullsport, Tennessee, to visit her dying mother, Ginny Babcock reviews the Kinflicks of her life -- the home movies her mother used to make -- from adolescence to middle-aged limbo, in an effort to discover herself.

Drawing on seven years of his own research and the work of other esteemed Lincoln scholars, Shenk reveals how the sixteenth president harnessed his depression to fuel his astonishing success.Lincoln found the solace and tactics he needed to deal with the nation’s worst crisis in the “coping strategies” he had developed over a lifetime of persevering through depressive episodes and personal tragedies.With empathy and authority gained from his own experience with depression, S...

For as long as we’ve gathered by campfires to tell ghost stories, humans have always loved a good scare. From the splatter flicks of the 70s, to Japan’s obsession with drowned girls, to creepy modern experiences like the overnight ghost hunt at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, the horror industry has thrived across time and cultures. Our obsession with getting scared is obvious to anyone who visits ScareHouse, a haunted house in Pittsburgh that is annually ranked among the scariest in t...

‘Compelling, addictive … brilliant’ B A Paris‘The best book I have read this year, I was gripped from the first page and found it truly absorbing… Gripping read!!!’ Five Star reader review‘I fell into this book head first and have been kept fully immersed right to the end… I didn't see the ending coming!’ Five Star reader review* * * * *It was just a party. But it turned into a nightmare.When Rachel wakes up in a str...