For the first time, all in one place, the award-winning books, "A Trip to the Hardware Store & Other Calamities," and "I'm Not Talking About You, Of Course," PLUS seven bonus essays. If this doesn't make you smile, then you're not even trying! In A Trip to the Hardware Store, you'll explore such quirky topics as disastrous home repairs, an unfortunate dinner party, the truth about lazy people and the weird life of a debt collector. In I'm Not Talking About You, Of Course, you'll find humorous insights into important topics such as annoying pet people, analyzing your inner child, and just how much damage can be caused by a sneeze. In A Smidge Of Crazy, you'll find stories about annoying ads, about figuring out what door that extra key opens, what it means to have stamina, and why it is just so hard to focus when you have the attention span of a gnat.
A ridiculously funny essay collection, blending satire and personal stories to explore the absurd and yet very regular experiences of one millennial woman as she attempts to navigate racial identity, gender roles, workplace dynamics, and beauty standards. Birth control. Body hair removal cream. Boobs. It's all weird . . . but normal. This insightful essay collection from brilliant essayist Mia Mercado is about how all the things we think make us weird are actually quite normal, and all the rituals we blindly follow are actually really weird--from expecting women to wear uncomfortable shoes that make them taller (but not so tall as to scare straight men) to buying a $25 candle that smells like an ocean that doesn't exist. As a biracial woman living in the Midwest, Mia is intimately familiar with the more awkward aspects of being a person today. Whether offering advice on how to ask about someone's race, reflecting on how to quit a job that compels you do shots of whiskey on your lunch break, or coming to terms with her religious childhood while feeling spiritually seen in the skincare aisle at Target, Mia takes readers along as she brilliantly unpacks what it means to be a beautiful, professional, horny, cute, gross human, with essays including: Depression Isn't a Competition But Why Aren't I Winning? My Dog Explains My Weekly Schedule Mustache Lady White Friend Confessional Treating Objects Like Women With sharp humor and wit, Mia shares the awkward, uncomfortable, surprisingly ordinary parts of life, and reveals why it's strange to feel fine and fine to feel strange.
In real life, Stevens is a professor at Stanford University. But for a year and a half, he worked in the admissions office of a bucolic New England college known for its high academic standards, beautiful campus, and social conscience. Ambitious high schoolers and savvy guidance counselors know that admission here is highly competitive. But creating classes, Stevens finds, is a lot more complicated than most people imagine.
quirkyalone (kwur.kee.uh.lohn) n. adj. A person who enjoys being single (but is not opposed to being in a relationship) and generally prefers to be alone rather than date for the sake of being in a couple. With unique traits and an optimistic spirit; a sensibility that transcends relationship status. Also adj. Of, relating to, or embodying quirkyalones. See also: romantic, idealist, independent. Are you a quirkyalone? Do you know someone who is? Do you believe life can be prosperous and great with or without a mate? Do you value your friendships as much as your romantic relationships? Do gut instincts guide your most important decisions? Are you often among the first on the dance floor? Coupled or single, man or woman, social butterfly or shrinking violet, quirkyalones have walked among us, invisible until now. Through the coining of a new word, this tribe has been given a voice. Meet the quirkyalones. Read about: The quirkyalone nation: where we live, what we do Quirkytogethers (quirkyalones who have entered long–term relationships) Sex and the single quirkyalone Romantic obsession: the dark side of the quirkyalone's romantic personality Quirkyalones throughout history (profiles in courage)
"The 25th- anniversary edition of this best-selling guide gives students simple strategies to maximize the opportunity to "tell us about yourself." Updated to reflect the experience college applicants face today, this book provides a clear path to an essay that says, "Pick me!""--
A collection of humorous insights into important topics ranging from being targeted by annoying ads ("Nowhere to Hide"), to resorting to symbols when you've forgotten your words ("At a Loss for Words"), to figuring out what door that extra key opens ("My Extra Key"). Other essays examine how sitting is the new smoking (whatever that means), what it means to have stamina, and why it is just so hard to focus when you have the attention span of a gnat.
Like many ambitious New York City teenagers, Craig Gilner sees entry into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School as the ticket to his future. Determined to succeed at life—which means getting into the right high school to get into the right college to get the right job—Craig studies night and day to ace the entrance exam, and does. That's when things start to get crazy. At his new school, Craig realizes that he isn't brilliant compared to the other kids; he's just average, and maybe not even that. He soon sees his once-perfect future crumbling away.
An “enchanting” memoir of an artist in search of herself: “A sure hit for fans of Sara Benincasa’s Agorafabulous! and Lena Dunham’s Not That Kind of Girl” (Booklist, starred review).Caca Dolce is the “funny, candid, and bracingly self-aware” story of Chelsea Martin’s coming of age as an artist (The Rumpus). We’re with the author of cult novels Mickey and Even Though I Don’t Miss You as an eleven-year-old atheist, trying to will an alien visitation to her neighborhood; fighting with her stepfather and grappling with a Tourette’s diagnosis as she becomes a teenager; falling under the sway of frenemies and crushes in high school; going into debt to afford what might be a meaningless education at an expensive art college; navigating the messy process of falling in love with a close friend; and struggling for independence from her emotionally manipulative father and from the family and friends in the dead-end California town that has defined her upbringing. A book about relationships, class, art, sex, money, family, and growing up weird and poor in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Casa Dolce is “a wild ride of a memoir, and a true glimpse into the mind of an artist as she’s figuring out what life is all about” (Kristin Iversen, Nylon).
From writer/director Cazzie David comes a series of comedic essays about anxiety, social media, generational malaise, and growing up in a famous family.
A New York Times Notable Book of 2020 A Bloomberg Best Non-Fiction Book of 2020 A Behavioral Scientist Notable Book of 2020 A Human Behavior & Evolution Society Must-Read Popular Evolution Book of 2020 A bold, epic account of how the co-evolution of psychology and culture created the peculiar Western mind that has profoundly shaped the modern world. Perhaps you are WEIRD: raised in a society that is Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. If so, you’re rather psychologically peculiar. Unlike much of the world today, and most people who have ever lived, WEIRD people are highly individualistic, self-obsessed, control-oriented, nonconformist, and analytical. They focus on themselves—their attributes, accomplishments, and aspirations—over their relationships and social roles. How did WEIRD populations become so psychologically distinct? What role did these psychological differences play in the industrial revolution and the global expansion of Europe during the last few centuries? In The WEIRDest People in the World, Joseph Henrich draws on cutting-edge research in anthropology, psychology, economics, and evolutionary biology to explore these questions and more. He illuminates the origins and evolution of family structures, marriage, and religion, and the profound impact these cultural transformations had on human psychology. Mapping these shifts through ancient history and late antiquity, Henrich reveals that the most fundamental institutions of kinship and marriage changed dramatically under pressure from the Roman Catholic Church. It was these changes that gave rise to the WEIRD psychology that would coevolve with impersonal markets, occupational specialization, and free competition—laying the foundation for the modern world. Provocative and engaging in both its broad scope and its surprising details, The WEIRDest People in the World explores how culture, institutions, and psychology shape one another, and explains what this means for both our most personal sense of who we are as individuals and also the large-scale social, political, and economic forces that drive human history. Includes black-and-white illustrations.
