Updated with sixteen new pages of quips, remarks and exchanges from the creators of overheardinnewyork.com. The streets of New York are full of characters who don't mince words-or care who hears them. This collection presents some of the most outlandish real life conversations overheard on the sidewalk, in the subway, and at the next table. It's the Big Apple peeled, a hysterically unvarnished portrait of the city that never sleeps-and often neglects to think before it speaks in public.
A vibrant and eclectic collection from a stunningly mature young poet "The world—the time has come to say it, though the news will not be welcome to everyone—has no intention of abandoning enchantment altogether." Roberto Calasso's words in Literature and the Gods remind us that, in an age of reason, of mechanization, of alienation, of rote drudgery, we still seek out the transcendent, the marvelous. Ange Mlinko's luminous fourth collection is both a journey toward and the space of that very enchantment. Marvelous Things Overheard takes its title from a collection of ancient rumors about the lands of the Mediterranean. Mlinko, who lived at the American University of Beirut and traveled to Greece and Cyprus, has penned poems that seesaw between the life lived in those ancient and strife-torn places, and the life imagined through its literature: from The Greek Anthology to the Mu'allaqat. Throughout, Mlinko grapples with the passage of time on two levels: her own aging (alongside the growing up of her children) and the incontrovertible evidence of millennia of human habitation. This is an assured and revealing collection, one that readers will want to seek refuge in again and again.
Includes never-before-published gems that can't be found at overheardintheoffice.com! The office is no place for dirty, personal, inappropriate talk-but that doesn't stop most people. From the loading dock to the ladies' room, this compelling collection presents some of the most bizarre, shocking, and hilarious real life conversations overheard in workplaces around the world.
Walk around New York, and you'll hear the most incredible things--at least that's what art director Mete Erdogan discovered. So Erdogan took these funny, outrageous, and embarrassing snippets--which he overheard on the street, in stores, in elevators, everywhere--and turned them into unique illustrated pieces that instantly became an Instagram sensation. Here's a collection of 100 favorites from his 365-day project (which consisted of a drawing a day) that will leave readers laughing . . . and scratching their heads.
Poetry has long been thought of as a genre devoted to grand subjects, timeless themes, and sublime beauty. Why, then, have contemporary poets turned with such intensity to documenting and capturing the everyday and mundane? Drawing on insights about the nature of everyday life from philosophy, history, and critical theory, Andrew Epstein traces the modern history of this preoccupation and considers why it is so much with us today. Attention Equals Life argues that a potent hunger for everyday life explodes in the post-1945 period as a reaction to the rapid, unsettling transformations of this epoch, which have resulted in a culture of perilous distraction. Epstein demonstrates that poetry is an important, and perhaps unlikely, cultural form that has mounted a response, and even a mode of resistance, to a culture suffering from an acute crisis of attention. In this timely and engaging study, Epstein examines why a compulsion to represent the everyday becomes predominant in the decades after modernism and why it has so often sparked genre-bending formal experimentation. With chapters devoted to illuminating readings of a diverse group of writers--including poets associated with influential movements like the New York School, language poetry, and conceptual writing--the book considers the variety of forms contemporary poetry of everyday life has taken, and analyzes how gender, race, and political forces all profoundly inflect the experience and the representation of the quotidian. By exploring the rise of experimental realism as a poetic mode and the turn to rule-governed "everyday-life projects," Attention Equals Life offers a new way of understanding a vital strain at the heart of twentieth- and twenty-first century literature. It not only charts the evolution of a significant concept in cultural theory and poetry, but also reminds readers that the quest to pay attention to the everyday within today's frenetic world of and social media is an urgent and unending task.
From the hugely popular @OverheardLA Instagram account comes this illustrated collection of the entertaining, absurd, sometimes even poignant snippets of conversation overheard on the streets of Los Angeles. Oh, Los Angeles: where kids with lemonade stands accept Venmo, where your Uber driver moonlights as a spiritual adviser. Whether you love L.A. or love to hate it, you'll delight in this comical tribute to the one and only La La Land'a world all its own, yet also a microcosm of 21st century American culture in so many ways. The book features illustrations from Emmet Truxes, creator of the popular @brooklyncartoons Instagram account, and a foreword from L.A. mayor Eric Garcetti. It's the perfect gift for millennials and everyone who loves to (gently) mock them. Prepare to laugh, to face-palm, to cringe, and to delight in such gems as, -"Timing is everything, whether it's sex, drugs, or avocados."--"Why are the older generations so judgmental' They were millennials once too." -"Nothing screams of desperation like a paragraph of hashtags." And so many more.
An insightful and funny look at some of the impossible questions Alan Alda has asked himself over the years: What do I value? What, exactly, is the good life? (And what does that even mean?) Picking up where his bestselling memoir left off–having been saved by emergency surgery after nearly dying on a mountaintop in Chile–Alda finds himself not only glad to be alive but searching for a way to squeeze the most juice out of his new life. Looking for a sense of meaning that would make this extra time count, he listens in on things he’s heard himself saying in private and in public at critical points in his life–from the turbulence of the sixties, to his first Broadway show, to the birth of his children, to the ache of September 11, and beyond. Reflecting on the transitions in his life and in all our lives, he notices that “doorways are where the truth is told,” and wonders if there’s one thing–art, activism, family, money, fame–that could lead to a “life of meaning.” In a book that is candid, wise, and as questioning as it is incisive, Alda amuses and moves us with his unique and hilarious meditations on questions great and small. Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself is another superb Alan Alda performance, as inspiring and entertaining as the man himself. Praise for Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself “Engagingly thoughtful and thought-provoking . . . [Alan Alda] candidly shares many stories of his life, so easily and wittily you can hear him speak as you read.” –Sydney Sun Herald “Alda is chatty, easygoing and humble, rather like a Mr. Rogers for grownups. His words of inspiration would be a perfect gift for a college grad or for anyone facing major life changes.” –Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Smart, engaged, funny and observant.” –San Antonio Express-News
A selection of favorite quotes that the celebrated literary critic has collected over the decades. From Dwight Garner, the New York Times book critic, comes a rollicking, irreverent, scabrous, amazingly alive selection of unforgettable moments from forty years of wide and deep reading. Garner’s Quotations is like no commonplace book you’ll ever read. If you’ve ever wondered what’s really going on in the world of letters today, this book will make you sit up and take notice. Unputdownable!
