Essayist Christopher Hitchens ruminates on why Charles Dickens was among the best of writers and the worst of men, the haunting science fiction of J.G. Ballard, the enduring legacies of Thomas Jefferson and George Orwell, the persistent agonies of anti-Semitism and jihad, the enduring relevance of Karl Marx, and how politics justifies itself by culture--and how the latter prompts the former.

The Anthropocene is the current geologic age, in which humans have profoundly reshaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his groundbreaking podcast, bestselling author John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale-from the QWERTY keyboard and sunsets to Canada geese and Penguins of Madagascar. Funny, complex, and rich with detail, the reviews chart...

In Williams' stories, life is newly alive and dangerous; whether she is writing about an affair, a request for money, an afternoon in a garden, or the simple act of carrying a cake from one room to the next, she offers us beautiful, and unsettling new ways of seeing everyday life. In perfectly honed sentences, with a sly and occasionally bombastic wit, Williams shows us how any moment of any day can open onto disappointment, pleasure, and possibility--...

The Essays of Francis Bacon The Essays was the first published book by the philosopher, statesman and jurist Francis Bacon. Includes 58 essays. The Essays are written in a wide range of styles, from the plain and unadorned to the epigrammatic. They cover topics drawn from both public and private life, and in each case the essays cover their topics systematically from a number of different angles, weighing one argument against another. Translations...

A few years ago, Erica Heller realized how universal the longing is for one more moment with a lost loved one. It could be a parent, a sibling, a mentor, or a friend, but who wouldn't love the opportunity to sit down, break bread, and just talk? Who wouldn't jump at the chance to ask those unasked questions, or share those unvoiced feelings? In One Last Lunch, Heller, an acclaimed memoirist herself, has asked friends and family of authors, artists,...

Offers crackerbarrel wisdom and zany insights into the agonies and ecstasies of fishing, hunting, and camping.

Samantha Irby is forty and increasingly uncomfortable in her own skin despite what inspirational Instagram info-graphics have promised her. This is the life of a Hallmark Channel dreams. She goes on bad dates with new friends, spends weeks in Los Angeles taking meetings with TV executives/amateur astrologers while being a cheese fry-eating, slightly damp Midwestern person with neck pain and no cartilage in her knees who still hides past-due bills...