"A delightful and informative look at nudism throughout history and around the world." — The Seattle TimesPeople have been getting naked in public for reasons other than sex for centuries. But as Mark Haskell Smith reveals, being a nudist is more complicated than simply dropping trou. "Nonsexual social nudism," as it's called, rose to prominence in the late nineteenth century. Intellectuals, outcasts, and health nuts from Victorian England and colonial Ind...

In the great wandering tradition of Bill Bryson, Louis Theroux and Jon Ronson, journalist Mark Haskell Smith strips down the world of social nudism in a hilarious, wildly entertaining and profoundly enlightening book about those who renounce clothing and embrace what lies beneath.Naked at Lunch is one man's cracklingly witty, compellingly odd and oddly life-affirming journey into the subculture of nudism. Celebrated journalist Mark Haskell Smith meets, and...

A Los Angeles slacker becomes apprentice to a crime lord in this "dark and mordantly funny" rampage through the gutters of La La Land (T. C. Boyle).What could cause Bob to give up his cushy job at a pathology lab where he can play Tetris and surf the Web whenever he wants? Why on earth would he walk out on his beautiful girlfriend, a professional masturbation coach? What could induce him to risk his life by masquerading as a kingpin in the Los Angeles Mexican mafia...

An "audacious satire" of high culture, low standards, reality TV, and instant fame by the author of Moist ( Vanity Fair).Sweet natured and as dumb as a bag of hammers, Sepp Gregory parlayed his six-pack abs and broken heart into overnight success on the insanely popular "reality-based" television show Sex Crib. Now, People magazine's "sexiest man alive" is touring the country with his bestselling debut novel, a barely fictionaliz...

A darkly funny satire of corporate greed, sexual desire, and crime from "the slightly more well-adjusted offspring of Hunter S. Thompson and James Ellroy" ( Los Angeles Times).The boy genius of the foreign exchange desk, Bryan LeBlanc is surrounded by acolytes of the free market, the true believers, the U.S. Marines of capitalism—"the few, the proud, the completely full of themselves." He soon realizes that being honest at a dishonest job is not the path t...

"Graham Greene meets the Marx Brothers" in a comic thriller of "unquiet Americans on the loose in Thailand" (Tom Drury, author of Pacific).Turk Henry is an overweight, beer-swilling rock star married to a supermodel and rich beyond his wildest dreams. Right now his pampered paunch is plopped on the beach in Phuket, the last place a recovering sex addict should go on vacation, surrounded by topless groupies and luscious bar girls. But Turk's struggles with ...

"Rude Talk in Athens is brave, brilliant, and incredibly funny. There are loads of very specific characters, including Mark himself. It's the Mark Haskell Smith version of hanging out with Stanley Tucci and Anthony Bourdain, but in present day and ancient Greece. I agree with everything he says about comedy and have never read anything like it." ―Barry Sonnenfeld, Film Director and author of Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker

"Carl Hiaasen, meet Hannibal Lecter" in this comedy about a vengeful Hawaiian chef, his greedy rivals, and some very bad table manners ( Kirkus Reviews).Joseph Tanumafili's family-owned food-service business in Honolulu has been the only game in town for years. But when competing caterers from Las Vegas arrive to accommodate the cast and crew of a film shoot, the battle for paradise begins. As far as Joseph and his hotheaded Samoan uncle are concerned, no ...

This tale of a pot grower in peril is "as cockeyed and riotous as Carl Hiaasen on really good dope" ( Kirkus Reviews).Miro Basinas is an experimental botanist who sells his rarefied product to a discerning clientele. Only Miro is not growing heirloom tomatoes or making organic wine—he's growing weed. And when Miro hits the big time by winning Amsterdam's famed Cannabis Cup, cannasseurs and ganjaficionados aren't the only...

When the greedy owner of a Las Vegas movie catering company tries to muscle in on a local, family-owned business in Honolulu, it leaves a very bad taste in the mouths of the natives, and the battle for paradise begins for Joseph, a young Hawaiian chef. As far as Joseph's father Sid is concerned, this is an invasion on par with Captain Cook and the mainlanders have to be stopped at all costs. As Joseph defends his family he encounters a TV producer rebounding from a bad breakup and sufferin...

What could cause Bob to give up his job at the Los Angeles pathology lab that demands so little of him, where he can play Tetris and Web surf whenever he wants? What could lead him to walk out on his beautiful girlfriend, who makes her living as a masturbation coach? What could make him risk everything and ultimately transform him into Roberto, a kingpin in the Los Angeles Mexican mafia? An erotic tattoo. But not just any naughty skin ink, the Mona Lisa of erotic tattoos, painted on a seve...

Sepp Gregory, a reality-TV hunk and one of People magazine's "sexiest men alive," is on tour to promote his debut novel. Not that Sepp's actually read the book-he doesn't have to, he lived it! And everyone just wants him to take his shirt off. The book has hit the bestseller list and is even getting rave reviews from serious critics. Aside from Harriet Post, that is. One of the blogosphere's most respected literary minds, Harriet fears that the novel's reception means the end of civilizati...