Product Description

The first original screenplay by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, Away We Go is thenew movie direcetd by Academy Award® winner Sam Mendes.

Longtime couple Verona (MayaRudolph) and Burt (John Krasinski) are expecting a baby, and the impending child'sonly living grandparents are moving to—where else—Belgium. So Burt and Verona headout on the road, across America, looking for the right place to call home. Alongthe way they encounter a succession of strange and hilarious friends and relatives(played by a cast that includes Jeff Daniels, Catherine O’Hara, Maggie Gyllenhall,Josh Hamilton, Allison Janney, and Jim Gaffigan), most of whom have no idea whatthey’re doing. In the end—with and despite the help of those they meet on their journey—Burtand Verona come closer to an understanding of their own definition of home and family.

Customer Reviews (3)

Movie made for urbanite parents
The writing is subtle and the movie was lost on most mainstream viewers who do not get the urbanite silliness and our privilege of having so many choices about how to raise our children.

The movie feels like an inside joke to those parents making all our intentional choices about how we want to raise our family.

I could not stop laughing at times and really enjoyed the humor poking fun at the holier than thou urbanite over educated parents sensibilities.

Maggie Gyllenhaal remains one of our generations most brilliant actresses.
She played her role with an insider's knowledge to poke fun at us.
First hand she is living amongst the craziness of Park Slope Brooklyn "baby wearing" advocates.

I loved it all!

A hilarious comedy with adult dramaticthemes
I couldn't be happier with this film.First and foremost, it's hilarious.I say that as a 26 year old who appreciates a little vulgarity paired with some deadpan humor and social ribbing in the tradition of Bill Murray, Wes Anderson or Michael Cera.

This is the perfect example of movies that are targeting my demographic and hopefully several others.The plot deals with serious issues in a humorous, but mature way (issues I don't want to spoil by mentioning).There are tongue-in-cheek moments of silliness but it's nice to see an R-rated movie that is clearly written for people who want substance over gimmicks or cliches. Slightly more mature than Judd Apatow films, with superior writing from acclaimed novelist Dave Eggers.

This is definitely the best among the pregnancy-themed movies in the past few years (Juno, Baby Mama,etc). This is probably because the pregnancy is only one dimension of the film. It's also about the troubles young adults have (25-30-ish)with deciding how to use their education and talents to make something valuable of themselves and their careers.The script is solid and true-to life for characters that age, not at all stuffy like the one-dimensional Juno character played by Ellen Page. In Away We Go, you can identify with the characters in a genuine way.

I was hesitant to give Krasinski the benefit of the doubt.Same with Maya Rudolph, but they both pulled off a feature-length performance in a way most TV stars struggle to do.

This is a playful, entertaining and, at times, touching story. I especially think couples in their 20s will enjoy watching together.

Hmm...
Some people criticize the film Away We Go as being smug. I haven't seen the movie, but I assume that the same can apply to the screenplay. Do I think the screenplay is smug? No, the word I would chose instead is pretentious. To me, it seems like the authors were trying to impress us with this off-beat couple. Verona, who seems to have a chip on her shoulder the size of a small log, despises people like the Performance Mom in the lobby. She practically sneers at her in "unmitigated disgust." I count self-righteousness to be one of the worst sins, and it seems Verona has a heavy dose of it. It would be okay if there were a reason for her righteousness - is she insecure? Does she have a superiority complex? If so, can this please be addressed?

The problem is, the Performance Mom seemed like a deliberate caricature - in fact, every one of the people they meet seem to be distorted, grotesque. The authors are clearly trying to be clever. Note to the authors: don't intentionally try to be cute or make people laugh, because these moments work better when they are unplanned. Let the audience decide what they think is cute or funny. This is a common writer's mistake, I must admit - this is the authors' first screenplay, and the desire to impress readers is understandable.

Other things that I felt the script is lacking: Why are Burt and Verona together? What does she see in him? I am still intrigued by the movie's trailer, where the actors who actually play Burt and Verona seem to breathe more life into the characters than the screenplay does, so I still plan to see the movie. Here's hoping it's not in vain! ... Read more

Product Description
In The Exquisite Book, one hundred indie artists play an ingenious version of the Exquisite Corpse drawing game. Each adorns a page with artwork having seen only the page of the artist immediately prior and using a single horizon line to connect the two. Some continue the "story" quite literally while others build on the previous page in more fanciful ways. This astonishing volume's format is as unique as its content, with each of the book's ten chapters residing on a ten-page accordion pull-out, allowing readers to view the art continuously. With an illustrated foreword by Dave Eggers, and art from such luminaries as James Jean and Jill Bliss, this charming book is, simply, exquisite. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

You Will Love This
This book is so creative and smart. The illustrations are beautiful and will pull you in to discover what the connections are from one to the other. When I looked at it with a friend, I discovered that we each saw different connecting entry points and that made it ever more captivating. Dave Eggers introduction is so true, that however complicated, all our stories are in some way connected. This was a huge undertaking...a hundred contemporary artists participating by responding to a previous artist is done to perfection. The fold=out design was a perfect format. You will look at this over and over and then match the interview as to why the artists responded the way they did. Art teachers will especially want to try this with students and use the book as an example. The variety of ideas and the playfulness are refreshing and gorgeous.

Don't judge a book by a book by its cover.
I bought this book here after reading about it on the book-by-its-cover blog, which I really enjoy.I loved the concept, and I still think it's a great idea.But if I'd taken the time to find it in a bookstore and looked at it "in person" first, I wouldn't have purchased it.

There are a few good visual connections from one page to the next (half of which are shown as the examples on the blog), but much more of it is a disjointed grouping of random illustrations, strung together, but hanging by a thread. Which doesn't make it a terrible book, but it doesn't live up to the expectation created.There's a section in the book where the artists answer different questions about their submissions.Many of them should've been asked why they agreed to be part of a collaboration if they had no intention of cooperating with its one basic premise.

If you're someone like me who does enjoy disjointed groupings of random illustrations, I recommend skipping this one and putting your money toward a Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, or one of the other juried annuals that present a better selection of contemporary illustration.A few of these might turn up there.

Beautiful and compelling
I tried to read this book from cover to cover, visually, and it was just not enough.I now display one fold out page per week or as long as is necessary to really see at what I am looking.This book fits the criteria for the kind of art I hang on my walls: it must be endlessly visually compelling and it must grab my heart.Add to that the intellectual curiosity of each artist's piece and this book becomes a mini-museum of delight.Congratulations on the concept and thank you. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

It's Not Required But It's Worth Extra Credit
The pieces in Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010 are fiction and nonfiction, articles, stories, lists, and comics, chosen from online blogs and publications as well as print magazines. The front section consists of the short items, mostly lists, mostly funny, some just silly. Among the funny is a short blog post - Best American Woman Comedy Piece Written By a Woman by Wendy Molyneux.

The larger second part of the book is an unsorted group of stories and essays. Without much context (such as Best American Short Stories or Best American Travel Writing) it was not always clear which pieces were fiction and which were nonfiction. I found this uncertainty rather invigorating. Is Sherman Alexie telling stories or is this a moment of truth? I vote truth. Did Evan Ratliff really Vanish? Truth, I think. Is Bryan Furuness really the Man of Steel? Fiction, probably. I hope the tent city of George Saunders' journalistic piece is fiction, but I'm afraid it's fact.

The Photographer is a combination of photojournalism and comic about a Doctors Without Borders mission in an Afghanistan war zone. The photos are from the 1980s, when the Soviet Union was fighting the Mujahideen. Coincidentally, I found out about the artist, Emmanuel Guibert, a few days ago when I was listening to a podcast about his inspiration for a previous book, Alan's War, about a US soldier who settled in France after he fought there during World War II.

The "nonrequired" in the title of the book appealed to me, probably because I have read so many reviews lately that insist that "this book should be required reading." Imagine someone shoving a book in your face and instructing "You have to read this book!" Even if it's your best friend and you were planning on reading that book anyway, your reaction is to lose enthusiasm. Now that it's an assignment, you no longer look forward to it. Your well-meaning friend has ruined it for you. So a sarcastic thanks to Publisher's Weekly for their quoted review for this very book "...nonrequired reading that should be required."


... Read more

Product Description
This book was conceived by Jonathan Safran Foer, Dave Eggers, Nicole Krauss, and the staff of McSweeney's as a way to bring over a hundred authors together to promote progressive causes in the November 2004 election. An imagining of what a dictionary might look like about thirty years hence, when the world's problems are solved and our current president is a distant memory, the book is by turns funny, outraged, utopian, and dyspeptic. 100 percent of the proceeds will go to a mix of political organizations to support progressive candidates in the upcoming elections.

Over 150 writers contributed to the book, including: Stephen King, Robert Olen Butler, Glen David Gold, Richard Powers, Susan Straight, Sarah Vowell, Billy Collins, C.K. Williams, Colson Whitehead, Donald Antrim, Jonathan Franzen, Edwidge Danticat, Edward Hirsch, Joyce Carol Oates, Katha Pollitt, Padgett Powell, Paul Auster, Anthony Swofford, Julia Alvarez, Susan Choi, Jim Shepard, Aimee Bender, and Art Spiegelman.

Released in partnership with Barsuk Records, the book will include a CD compilation, with exclusive songs by the best musicians working. Among them: David Byrne, R.E.M., Death Cab for Cutie, Sleater-Kinney, Flaming Lips, Tom Waits, Bright Eyes, They Might Be Giants, Nada Surf, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

A mixed bag
This book was, as its preface states, thrown together in a couple of months so that it could be published before the 2004 election. Between the tight deadline and the dozens of contributors to this eclectic "dictionary," it's no wonder that the entries' tone is wildly inconsistent. Some authors have chosen to describe a utopian dream ("artgangs, n.: In 2018, when the United Nations became the world's chief governing power, the U.N. Arts Council recommended transferring 4% of each country's military budget to arts-in-the-schools programs..."), others a dystopian nightmare (see Jonathan Safran Foer's poignant definition of "death" from a future in which it has been cured). The only unifying theme is the authors' left-progressive political views and a somewhat charming naivete.

Some of the entries are clever, others are inane (including several coinages based on members of the Bush administration: "ashcroftian," "bushwhack," plus "condeeluusion," "condoleese," and "condoleesy"), and most are forgettable. My favorite is the entry on woman: "1. female human. 2. [archaic] naturally occurring carbon-based machine, with worldwide distribution, variably capable of domestic work, with the single perceptive universal function of converting semen to children." There are also a handful of absurd comics thrown in the middle, and an appendix that includes the Declaration of Independence, the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights alongside a Kurt Vonnegut essay and some absurd reference tables ("Shapes Between Letters"?). The lack of cohesiveness is fascinating--but only for so long.

Oh, and there's also a CD included with a handful of good songs. It's available separately as Future Soundtrack for America.

A Time Capsule for an Alternate Future
This book is a mixed bag, as you would expect from a book with dozens of contributors.Some of the entries are funny, some poignant, some political, some prescient.It makes for a varied experience paging through the hundreds of entries.My favorite entries are the ones that use their short space to tell a brief story, the imagined "history" of a word.This sort of micro-fiction is fun and just the right length.The bits that I hated were the entries that sprawl over several pages, eating up space and boring me with their length.

The most striking thing reading this book now is how grounded it is in 2004.For a book themed to be about the future many of these entries are specific to the past, or at the time the present.The least interesting, most dated entries are those about the "loss" of President Bush in the 2004 election.These seem, in hindsight, naive and foolish, as some engage in as ridiculous premises as President Bush's administration being charged with war crimes shortly after their electoral defeat and the economy immediately launching into the stratosphere with the election of a Democrat as President.Sadly laughable now.

Anachronistic predictions aside, the book is largely entertaining and fun.The only frustrating bit is that it is not easy to find entries by the same contributor.This would be nice as many contributors link their entries together into a larger tapestry.The CD that comes with it is a mixed bag again, but it has some good songs on there.

Funny.
The Future Dictionary is worth every penny and it is not that expensive.Also, it comes with a bonus CD that has some good bands and good tracks on it.
The definitions range from silly, serious, sad, thoughtful, and even just mean at times, but always funny and insightful.

Hundreds of writers and artists submitted work to put this book together and if you are a fan of McSweeneys, Dave Eggars, David Sedaris, Jonathan Safran Foer, Kurt Vonnegut, or any other great writer from this era, this is a book that you must have.

Disappointing and Somewhat Outdated
It's hard for me to write a fair review of this book for a number of reasons. When I ordered it from the McSweeney's website, it was as a part of their Cheapo Bundle, and the brief description mentioned absolutely nothing about politics (there was also no easily accessible link to the book's own web page). The book was said to contain "over 1,000 definitions by almost 200 authors, including Stephen King, Jonathan Safran Foer, Kurt Vonnegut... Jonathan Franzen, Joyce Carol Oates... Art Spiegelman," etc., so I figured this was a "dictionary" of words created in the novels and stories of these authors, collected for the first time in one volume. I'm not mad that the volume turned out to be a political screed, since I only paid $4.50 for it (they don't call it the Cheapo Bundle for nothing), but I am disappointed.

The main problem with this book is that it isn't particularly funny. It seems to have been cobbled together in the last days before the 2004 election in an effort to gain more liberal votes, and I can't help but wonder if there wasn't too much of a rush. For a "future" dictionary of our country, many of the references are already well-outdated (though some have admittedly gained even more ground over the last four years). Most of the humor comes off as cynical or mean, sometimes both. Humorists like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert can pull this off, but that's because they're actually funny. Most of the people involved in this project are the writers of serious fiction, and aren't too good with pithy humor.

I did, however, laugh at the definition of "misteak."

The music CD that came with the book is decent, if depressing. Most of the tracks are anti-war songs.

If you're looking for something to inflame your anger towards the Bush Administration, this is the book for you. If you're looking for an intellectual approach to current political issues, give it a pass.

Topical
The thing I enjoyed the most about this book were the new writers I had never heard let alone read before. I may not agreed with all of there opinions I did joy the writing. At times I felt that it was over-politicized and close minded but over all had a very important message. ... Read more

Product Description
Homeless and low-income youth have a high risk of failure at school and involvement in substance abuse, crime, violence, and unemployment. First Exposures has helped youth achieve real changes in their lives. During their participation in the program, all First Exposures students have remained in school without dropping out. All participants either maintained or improved their grades, and 100% of high-school-aged students expressed interest in attending college. After participating in First Exposures, many youth have secured jobs, pursued further education in the arts or enrolled in college. These achievements are especially significant because this population generally has a large dropout rate in high school. The benefits of this program extend beyond the individual participants in First Exposures. Youth are encouraged to give back to their communities through exhibiting their work in public venues. These displays reach a large audience to encourage greater community awareness about the perspectives of low-income youth. The exhibits also enable students to express their viewpoints and take pride in their accomplishments. This book will take this concept even further by exposing their work to a much larger audience. The general theme of the book is about Relationships. The 16 students of the 05/06 class create the primary section of this book. Each student has created a chapter, or section, on the theme of relationships. The rest of the book documents the 13-year history of First Exposures using archival images and text from past & current mentors and students. There are several essays, including a foreword by best selling author Dave Eggers. Relationships define mentoring. In First Exposures we use our relationship with photography to foster the relationship between mentor and student. When we talk about relationships we are thinking beyond the obvious definition of a familial or love relationship. We look at how we interact with others, with objects, places, spirituality and art. If you examine a relationship closely you will discover that just about everything that crosses our daily paths creates a relationship of some sort. Perhaps the most important relationships we have are with our families and loved ones. These are the basis of who we are. While these relationships may not always be positive, they exist and help to form who we are, or as is often the case "who we aren’t."First Exposures shows how a small group of dedicated people can change how we look at our world." -- Jona Frank, Photographer, and former First Exposures mentor ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Moving and Impressive
This is an engrossing chronicle of an extraordinary sociological experiment which accomplishes a great deal with very little.While state and government -run programs spend comparatively vast amounts of money they inevitably get bogged down in bureaucracy and as a result hobble the cost/benefit ratio of their programs, the First Exposures program shows how far more modest funds in the hands of mentors and administrators who feel a genuine dedication to their mission can go in literally saving kids who most likely would have headed in the wrong direction.An inspirational and emotional read.

It is great
I love this book because it is inspirational in many ways
1- you can see what youth of the modern society think about relationships
2- you see tantenled youth's artistic works
3- all the youth had one-to-one mentors who volunteered their time

[...] ... Read more

Product Description
McSweeney's began in 1998 as a literary journal, edited by Dave Eggers, which published only works rejected from other magazines. But after the first issue, the journal began to publish pieces written with McSweeney's in mind. Soon after, McSweeney's attracted works from some of the finest writers in the country, including David Foster Wallace, Ann Cummins, Rick Moody, Heidi Julavits, Jonathan Lethem, William T. Vollmann, and many new talents.

Today, McSweeney's has grown to be one of the country's best and largest-circulation literary journals. The journal is committed to finding new voices, publishing work of gifted but underappreciated writers, and pushing the literary form forward at all times.

McSweeney's publishes on a roughly quarterly schedule, and each issue is markedly different from its predecessors in terms of design and editorial focus. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Pure Content
McSweeney's Issue 18 isn't much to look at, granted, with a pleasant-enough maze design accounting for its sole visual flair, but it is one of the strongest issues in terms of prose.

Surprising first of all is the amount of nonfiction in the pieces here. One of the strongest is Edmund White's memoir about a lifetime of illicit affairs, which is engaging and quotable throughout. There's also a flash nonfiction self-titled piece by Deb Unferth (what could be called a metafictional exercise, but only if you were being dishonest), and some straight-up science writing from Lawrence Weschler.

Nonfiction also informs Daniel Orozco's story of Paraguayan dictator Anastasio Somozo García. Orozco's story is rich with detail, the work of a linguaphile loving his subject, poetic and impressive.

As goes pure fiction, Chris Adrian's story of a large group of siblings evaluating their various stepsfather is funny, astute, and quietly unnerving. Roddy Doyle's "New Boy" is just what you want Doyle to be--very quick, very readable, and possessive of a great ending. The story does hamper itself slightly with forced topicality, but so be it. Elsewhere, Adam Levin writes a perceptive untrustworthy-narrator story about a tough guy and his smart-set girl (novel because that relationship has only ever been told from the other direction).

Also superb is Rachel Himmelheber's "Happiness Reminders," a convergence story that executes well that often-treacherous style. It's a cops and robbers story, essentially, exploring how the lives of the main cop and robber transect each other unbeknownst to either character. And it has a terrific ending. Joe Meno's story about a man whose wife can't stop turning into a cloud is a sharp, undislikable piece of absurdism.

There are also strong stories from Philip Meyer, about an estranged son trying to prevent his father's suicide, Alan Ackman, about a superstitious man and his trophy wife avoiding demons, Yannick Murphy, about a mother and son reconciling the loss of their husband/father in the face of a bear, and Nelly Reifler, about a nurse undergoing a harrowing final exam, including a vivisection.

In fact, the only dud of the issue curiously belongs to Joyce Carol Oates, and illustrates the hazards of accepting just anything from a big name. Like a band who submits an unmastered, tossed-off B-side for a charity compilation, it's hard not to think of this story coming from Oates' bottom drawer.

But oh well: the story is a tiny fraction of the whole, and the rest is pure quality. The short stories in 18 are quite long too, giving them a chance to develop, to explore themselves and their rich topics. This issue is again chockful of great material, another shining example of some of the strongest fiction being written nowadays, another example of why to befriend Timothy McSweeney.

Yeah
I've only read the first story so far,
and it was a joy to read.

Whoever it is that wrote it-- I'll be looking for books by you. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (10)

Bad Number in a Good Series
This is a good series that I, generally, highly recommend for its fresh new fiction and offbeat nonfiction writing.But this is not a good number in the series.

This collection has two introductions -- never a good sign.Introductions are never really good, and these two, well, reek.

Two pieces redeem the collection."Big Brother" is an extraordinary short story that is at once very funny and very sad.It touches on issues of race, sex, parenthood, and carrying on with life in the face of death.It's a terrific story that should have been collected in the year's best stories.The other good piece is David Sedaris' very funny story about his adolescence.

Not sure these two stories can justify buying the whole collection, but they certainly won't disappoint.

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2004 (The Best American Series)
A great read, with a heartfelt Introduction by Viggo Mortensen on the power and passion of the word! --Diana Divine, Los Angeles, CA

What Exactly Is "Nonrequired" Anyway?
Most of the copious volumes from the Best American series are formidable collections in categories that you can really sink your teeth into. You know what you're getting with the Best American writing about Travel, Science and Nature, Music, Mysteries, or even Recipes. But this "Nonrequired" series is either a vanity project for cooler-than-thou editor Dave Eggers, or a dead letter office for orphaned submissions and quirky leftovers. So what does "Nonrequired" really mean as a category? Is it supposed to mean writing from alternative publications or unorthodox sources? That's partially true here, but not entirely, because this volume has submissions from New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, GQ, and Esquire. Is "Nonrequired" supposed to mean cutting-edge styles or offbeat subject matter? With a few noteworthy exceptions, this is not really the case either, because the vast majority of submissions here are completely typical short stories that are often perfectly competent (though sometimes not), but are not out of the ordinary in any literary sense. This is especially curious because there is already a Best American Short Stories collection. Is "Nonrequired" supposed to feature writers from alternative lifestyles, immigrant cultures, or disadvantaged social conditions? That is the case for some of the submissions here, but this also is not consistently the case.

Most awkwardly, this mostly fictional collection has two observational essays and four journalistic articles. Ironically, the four non-fiction articles are the best items here because they deal with interesting subjects, but their placement seems arbitrary and inconsistent. And finally, this book gets off to a horrendous start, with Eggers' so-very-not-funny foreword, and the stultifying introduction by Viggo Mortensen, who acts far better than he writes. So what's the point of having all these writings in this one volume, with the poorly defined category trying to group them together? Maybe it's so Eggers and his group of teen interns with big thoughts can feel like they've served the world, by compiling material that's apparently cool enough for us because it's cool enough for them. But one person's cool is another person's cold. And that's when you can even figure out what the category is supposed to mean [~doomsdayer520~]

Review for The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2004
I liked the foreward and the introduction the best.I was disappointed in some of the stories.I believe there were students on the selection panel for the stories, so I was surprised at the language/content in some of the selections.

Where are the truly overlooked gems?
Not here...

But, what do you expect from the man who only publishes his friends/lovers? Here, again, you'll find Eggers friends whose work he's published elsewhere, people Eggers knows at the Onion web site, etc. etc. This is a great idea for a Best American book, but sooner or later, McSweeney's is going to have to stop pretending topublish overlooked, outsider, experimental, or even good, work. Where can one really find that, I wonder... ... Read more

Product Description
Will and Hand are burdened by $38,000 and the memory of their friend Jack. Taking a week out of their lives, they decide to travel around the world to give the money away. They can't really say why they're doing it, just that it needs to be done. Perhaps it's something to do with Jack's death - perhaps they'll find the reason later. But as their plans are frustrated, twisted and altered at every step and the natives prove far from grateful to their benefactors, Will and Hand find that the world is an infinitely bigger, more surreal and exhilarating place than they ever realised. In fact, it's somewhere to get lost in! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

I missed the point of this one
I think I read this book to fast.Should have been more in the moment.Language and descriptions are excellent. Just had a hard time getting into the spirit of the narrative.I love the other books I have read written by David Eggers.This one wasn't my favorite.

A disturbing road-trip through Africa, Europe and the human soul
I happened across this novel at a book sale at a local retailer here in Cape Town and was drawn to it by the cover image - 2 people, half-naked, in free-fall. I'm not sure how I knew it, but the two people free-falling don't appear to be in any distress. Anyway, mindful of the old adage of not judging a book by its cover, I bought the novel.

I was not disappointed. I was bemused, though; bewildered, definitely. I was also not quite comfortable with it for a long way, partly because I couldn't really tell which way it was heading, and partly because it is fairly brutal. It was definitely not put-downable, though; a credit to the author's capabilities.

The story is that of Will and Justin - called "Hand" - and their frenetic trip to get rid of some money that Will has that he doesn't want. It all occurs in the aftermath of the death of their best friend, Jack, in a freak truck accident. Jack's death appears to have occurred fairly recently, and there has been another recent incident along the way where Will has been badly beaten up, which he blames Hand for. This recurring undertone simmers throughout the novel as Will is still black and blue on this frantic trip through Senegal, Morocco, Estonia and Latvia en route to Egypt, Greenland, Madagascar or Mongolia, depending on which flights are available. You'll have to read the novel to find out what I mean.

The novel is raucously funny and touchingly poignant, often in the same paragraph as it recounts the tale of Will and Hand currently aged 26, and also Will and Hand when they were just kids, through fairly disrupted childhoods. While Will is the narrator, it is as much the story of Hand as that of Will, and contains remarkable insights nutshelling the human condition, as much in their deeds as in their thoughts. Both guys certainly seem to exist with a heavy measure of aftertaste, lives initially filled with promise which have petered out into a holding pattern of day-to-day drudgery and unfulfilled potential.

The author manages to create an amazing sense of utter desperation in both characters - even though the trip is a spur of the moment decision, it becomes so monumental that one wonders in the end if they could have survived without it. The novel is simultaneously disturbing and wonderous, containing more twists and turns than a roller coaster. If anyone out there can even begin to guess what will happen as the novel progresses, fair play to them - I certainly could not.

All in all, I ripped through the book in about 3 days, thoroughly enjoying every distressing page of it. The author's style is unique and the two characters are unexpectedly fresh. While the story itself is definitely well within the realm of extremely black comedy, the insights contained within and discovered by the reader are uplifting. ... Read more

Product Description
A new hardcover collection of one of America's most popular weekly comic strips.Tony Millionaire's Maakies is one of the best and most popular weekly comic strips in America, running in over a dozen of the largest US weekly newspapers including the Village Voice, L.A Weekly, and Seattle's The Stranger. Maakies features the comical adventures of a drunken crow on the high seas, blending vaudeville-style humor and a breathtaking line that harkens back to the glory days of the American comic strip. Designed by publishing's foremost graphic designer, Chip Kidd, When We Were Very Maakies is our second hardcover collection and features over two years' worth of Maakies in a beautiful, deluxe, landscape hardcover format that complements the strip's elegant and classical style.

Dave Eggers, the bestselling author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, contributes the introduction to When We Were Very Maakies. Reading Maakies is like reading a beautifully illustrated diary. If you pay attention you can watch the evolution of the cartoonist as he grows from a drunken penniless ne'e'r-do-well to a drunken million-dollar-less som'tim's-do-well. This book collects the latest of Tony Millionaire's weekly strips, and includes such gems as the story of a pregnant butterfly,a motorcycle-riding leprechaun and a worm who lives inside the bowels of a frozen dead monkey in a NASA space capsule orbiting the Orion constellation. Of course Drinky Crow, as always, steals the show.

Maakies suggests a contemporary collaboration between E.C. Segar, creator of Popeye, and seafaring novelist Patrick O'Brian (Master and Commander). Millionaire has won multiple Harvey and Eisner Awards and Maakies has appeared as a series of animated segments on NBC's Saturday Night Live. He is also the creator of the popular Sock Monkey line of comics and children's books. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Drunk! Violent!
This book is good and raunchy. Maakies is not for everyone, but neither is cancer medication. Drinky Crow and Uncle Gabby get hammered, are offensive, sometimes don't make sense, and they're usually hilarious. ... Read more

Product Description
"Strongly recommended as an eclectic, unique and vibrant experience impressing its fiery artistic message upon the reader's spirit." -Midwest Book Review

A beautiful book and DVD set (not sold separately).

* Holly Kreuter, a member of the Burning Man staff, contributedher photographs from 1996-2001 and led the /Drama/ team of 90
* Rare photos of the first Burn by Burning Man co-founder Jerry James* 42 writing contributors
* Foreword by Dave Eggers, best-selling author of /A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius/
* Introduction by Burning Man co-founder Larry Harvey
* 74-minute feature presentation on DVD
* Original score by Sean Abreu (soundtrack CD available separately)
* Interviews with Burning Man artists and Larry Harvey
* Seven slide shows featuring 560 Kreuter photographs ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Festival in the Desert
Good DVD about what takes place in Burning Man. If you have never been there (which I have not) but plane to go. This DVD lets you know what you are in for.

Fantastic!
My husband and I starting our Burning Man experience in 1997 and have gone every year since. We've had 4 different theme camps alone or in collaboration with friends.We will have to miss the 2005 burn, as we will be relocating, so we bought books and DVD's to remember the fun times until we can come home again.Holly's book is wonderful and the DVD is sooo much better than anything else out there. It really just blew me away! We popped it into the DVD player one morning and were mesmerized and drawn in by the music, the images, the clouds and the incredible artistry of the whole production-it brings back the feeling of being there. I appreciate that she separated the interviews from the flow of images in the main movie.

A must have for anyone interested in Burning Man!

Awesome
Kreuter's photography really captures the diversity, creativity and 'out of the box' off the wall craziness of Burning Man.The CD is first class too.

Awesome DVD, beautiful book!
This book will take you back to Burning Man but it's the DVD that I want to rave about. Watch it over and over. Beautifully done. A wonderful effort. Thanks to Holly and thanks to Bam Bam!

Full-color visuals and personal memories
Based on the images of Holly Kreuter, Drama In The Desert: The Sights And Sounds Of Burning Man is a book and DVD set collecting full-color visuals and personal memories drawn from the harsh desert of Black Rock City, Nevada. Capturing the sometimes quizzical, sometimes cruel, sometimes dramatic art and documentary efforts of seventy contributors, Drama In The Desert is strongly recommended as an eclectic, unique, and vibrant experience impressing its fiery artistic message upon the reader's spirit. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (7)

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009
This is a very interesting collections of stories. Some are silly lists, others are interesting stories that I would have never read had they not been in this collection.I purchased this book as a required textbook for an Adolescent Liturature course I am taking.As a textbook it is not bad.

Required or not...it's a joy to read!
For me, this is my first "Best of American..." collection.I could not put the book down!

For starters, the best of craigslist ads had me laughing out loud (at work of all places).

The first story that really caught my eye though was, The Diary of a Fire Lookout.When he keeps score between the fire lookouts and the "machines" it really opens your eyes to how wasteful we can be.The story offers a different perspective on the wilderness that makes you want to drop everything, move to a secluded cabin in the woods, and stay isolated for a month.Just for the experience.

I really liked this book because there are some pieces that you will remember months down the road.From How to Work a Locker Room, to Mississippi Drift, and The Outlaw Bride.These stories stood out because they illustrated lifestyles and a profession that you would not normally think about.

Overall, this collection allowed me to see certain situations from a different point of view.And that's what I consider good writing.

I give it 5 stars for the cover art alone
I have still not stopped laughing at the cover art. While I am sure this ia a great collection, what the cover art suggests is actually happening is bizarre. All mom's should be this devoted to their daughters by sharing this classic information of Americana.

Simply Not the Best
I've read several volumes from other Best American series - Essays, Short Stories, Science and Nature Writing. In each book, several pieces fascinated, puzzled, and/or amazed me long after I read them. This collection, sadly, is entirely unmemorable. Many of the stories, and this is overwhelmingly fiction, read as the work of imaginative but inexperienced college students. Clever, but unchallenging and forgotten as soon as the page is turned.

In short, I can highly recommend the Best American series as a whole, but do steer clear of this one. It's far from the best American non-required reading of 2009.

missing some of the "joy" from previous editions
Having loved previous editions of this book, I was a bit disappointed by the 2009 edition.After re-reading a few pieces in the 2008 and 2007 editions, I realized what the problem is: there's a certain amount of "joy" missing from the 2009 installment.Not just in the written pieces themselves, also in the introduction and the short bits at the beginning of the book.Maybe it's a literary reflection of the low-level depression everyone seems to be feeling these days, or possibly because Mr. Eggers is too busy with his other projects to write an entertaining foreword in which he gives us colorful descriptions of the high school students on the selection committee.Also, there are a couple of bizarre comics in the book that made no sense -- or at least, I didn't feel that they enriched my life or showed me something I'd never seen before.That's how I often felt reading previous editions of the book, and I just didn't get that this time around. ... Read more

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Homeless and low-income youth have a high risk of failure at school and involvement in substance abuse, crime, violence, and unemployment. First Exposures has helped youth achieve real changes in their lives. During their participation in the program, all First Exposures students have remained in school without dropping out. All participants either maintained or improved their grades, and 100% of high-school-aged students expressed interest in attending college. After participating in First Exposures, many youth have secured jobs, pursued further education in the arts or enrolled in college. These achievements are especially significant because this population generally has a large dropout rate in high school. The benefits of this program extend beyond the individual participants in First Exposures. Youth are encouraged to give back to their communities through exhibiting their work in public venues. These displays reach a large audience to encourage greater community awareness about the perspectives of low-income youth. The exhibits also enable students to express their viewpoints and take pride in their accomplishments. This book will take this concept even further by exposing their work to a much larger audience. The general theme of the book is about Relationships. The 16 students of the 05/06 class create the primary section of this book. Each student has created a chapter, or section, on the theme of relationships. The rest of the book documents the 13-year history of First Exposures using archival images and text from past & current mentors and students. There are several essays, including a foreword by best selling author Dave Eggers. Relationships define mentoring. In First Exposures we use our relationship with photography to foster the relationship between mentor and student. When we talk about relationships we are thinking beyond the obvious definition of a familial or love relationship. We look at how we interact with others, with objects, places, spirituality and art. If you examine a relationship closely you will discover that just about everything that crosses our daily paths creates a relationship of some sort. Perhaps the most important relationships we have are with our families and loved ones. These are the basis of who we are. While these relationships may not always be positive, they exist and help to form who we are, or as is often the case "who we aren’t."First Exposures shows how a small group of dedicated people can change how we look at our world." -- Jona Frank, Photographer, and former First Exposures mentor ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Moving and Impressive
This is an engrossing chronicle of an extraordinary sociological experiment which accomplishes a great deal with very little.While state and government -run programs spend comparatively vast amounts of money they inevitably get bogged down in bureaucracy and as a result hobble the cost/benefit ratio of their programs, the First Exposures program shows how far more modest funds in the hands of mentors and administrators who feel a genuine dedication to their mission can go in literally saving kids who most likely would have headed in the wrong direction.An inspirational and emotional read.

It is great
I love this book because it is inspirational in many ways
1- you can see what youth of the modern society think about relationships
2- you see tantenled youth's artistic works
3- all the youth had one-to-one mentors who volunteered their time

[...] ... Read more

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one of the best
Found it on a list of great memoirs. Read the amazon reviews first. It turned out not heartbreaking but poignant and, yes, generously flecked with staggering genius. LOL throughout. Didn't "lose it" after ch 4 as the foreword threatened. Culmination of stream of consciousness/ Jack Kerouac/ JoyceCarolOates. Need to read Joan Didion after this, some lean after the fatted calf. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Many Good'ns
A small, tidy volume of mostly very good stories along with some "horses saying 'what'" art by Amy Jean Porter.

Best is Steven Millhauser's story of building a tower to heaven, and the details and reaction to its actual construction, a great idea executed flawlessly. Emily Anderson writes a very sharp story about going West in the modern day, Padgett Powell has a hilarious, acute story of a girl running away to Kansas for the good life, and David Hollander has an irresistibly imaginative story about a crew of ruined shipmen discovering strange and awful islands. There're also good ones by Connor Kilpatrick (about a warehouse worker phenom), Alexander MacBride (about Tarzan's lost brother), and Kenneth Bonert has a novella about a journalist in Serbia not finding a single answer. There's a so-so story by Joyce Carol, and duds by Terry Wright and Chloe Hooper, though Wright's dud is only about 100 words long. As usual, the good far outweighs and outshines the bad, and the stories are extremely creative while making good on their often outlandish premises. Because what's better than writing about something very interesting exceptionally well?

I am not sure if I liked it or not
I am conflicted about this one, some stories were absolute junk, and others had tremendous promise of prose and story that they sucked you in only to fail to deliver (peacekeeper and naming of the island). None actually seemed to have a point. It s as if they were ideas for stories or screenplays that we couldn't figure out how to satisfactory bring to conclusion. That said however I read the whole dammed thing!, so something was working right !. Production values on the book are extremely high, but again I couldn't figure out the connection between the artwork theme and the stories! Am I thinking too hard? Probably. ... Read more

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Stairs, ladders and lifts are the motifs of Thomas Demand's latest monograph, L'Esprit d'Escalier, which is published on the occasion of his show at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin. The title actually refers to so-called "staircase wit," that concise French expression for the chagrin of missed retorts--those hapless comebacks one only ever thinks up belatedly (i.e. when already descending the stairs): "I should've said (fill in blank)!" etc. One of Demand's ironic allusions to his title is a new work titled "Landing," which shows the shards of broken Qing vases on a staircase--a mishap caused by a visitor to The Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge in January 2006, who stumbled on his shoelaces and crashed into the three eighteenth-century vases, smashing them to pieces. As ever, Demand combines conceptual rigor and exacting craft in his painstakingly re-created sets, with their eerie edge of artifice. L'Esprit d'Escalier presents an overview of his current work in 23 large photographs, plus a film project and an architectural installation specially prepared for his Irish Museum exhibition. Alongside an excerpt from David Foster Wallace's Girl with Curious Hair, it also includes commissioned writings by Dave Eggers, Paul Oliver, Caoimhin Mac Giolla Leith, Rachael Thomas and Enrique Juncosa. ... Read more