NCW Libraries

Shares the author's favorite diary entries, providing a look into the mind of a comic genius. "It's no coincidence that the world's best writers tend to keep diaries. If you faithfully record your life in a journal, you're writing every day--and if you write every day, you become a better writer. David Sedaris has kept a diary for forty years. This means that if you've kept a diary for a year of your life or less, Sedaris is at least forty times...

"Authoritative as it is amusing, this book distills everything Benjamin Dreyer has learned from the hundreds of books he has copyedited, including works by Elizabeth Strout, E. L. Doctorow, and Frank Rich, into a useful guide not just for writers but for everyone who wants to put their best foot forward in writing prose. Dreyer offers lessons on the ins and outs of punctuation and grammar, including how to navigate the words he calls 'the confusables,'...

"Altman's volatile and apprehensive relationship with her body has led her to wonder about a lot of stuff over the years. Like, who decided that women shouldn't have body hair? And how sweaty is too sweaty? Also, why is breast cleavage sexy but camel toe revolting? Isn't it all just cleavage? These questions and others like them have led to the comforting and sometimes smelly revelations that constitute Gross Anatomy, an essay collection about what...

The creator, writer and executive producer of "2 Broke Girls" presents a personal account of her life and career, detailing her struggles with challenges ranging from anxiety and an eating disorder to relationships and pop therapy.

In this collection of essays, Solnit offers a timely commentary on gender and feminism. Her subjects include women who refuse to be silenced, misogynistic violence, the fragile masculinity of the literary canon, the recent history of rape jokes, and much more.

The veteran host and head writer of "Live Wire" traces her lifelong battle with anxiety and the year she spent challenging herself to face her fears in remarkable ways, with hilarious results. "The story of one chronically anxious woman's hilarious yearlong quest to change her own timid nature by seeking out the kinds of experiences she's spent her life avoiding. For most of her life (and even during her years as the host of a popular radio show),...

The bestselling author offers a collection of satirical and humorous essays that chronicle his own life and ordinary moments that turn beautifully absurd, including how he coped with the pandemic, his thoughts on becoming an orphan in his seventh decade, and the battle-scared America he discovered when he resumed touring.

""I believe Freud got it wrong when he said that the two basic drives that motivate our thoughts and behavior are 1) sex and 2) death, which he sometimes called aggression, go figure. So what runs the show, then? Fear of embarrassment prevails until the age of thirty, followed by the desire to lose weight, and finally, the need to sit down." In LETS BE LESS STUPID, longtime New Yorker staffer and former SNL writer, Patty Marx, employs the weapon she...

From the writer crowned one of the smartest, funniest voices in modern America, this hotly anticipated debut collection of essays offers "a precious glimpse into how Ziwe's uniquely fearless mind functions" (New York Magazine) Ziwe made a name for herself by asking guests like Alyssa Milano, Fran Lebowitz, and Chet Hanks direct questions. In Black Friend, she turns her incisive perspective on both herself and the culture at large. Throughout the...

Laugh-out-loud, deeply insightful, and emotion-filled essays from multi-talented actress, comedian, podcaster, and writer Casey Wilson. Casey Wilson has a lot on her mind and she isn't afraid to share. In this dazzling collection, each essay skillfully constructed and brimming with emotion, she shares her thoughts on the joys and vagaries of modern-day womanhood and motherhood, introduces the not-quite-typical family that made her who she is, and...