Adam Gopnik Book order

Bestselling author and New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik embarks on a wildly creative inquiry into perhaps the oldest question: how do we learn a new skill?

"One of the most original stylists in American literature--and one of the funniest--Sidney Joseph Perelman wrote gags for the Marx Brothers, won an Oscar for screenwriting, and wrote or collaborated on five Broadway plays. But nowhere is his zany and pyrotechnic humor more hilariously on display than in the one-of-a-kind sketches and satires (Perelman called them feuilletons) he wrote for The New Yorker and other magazines. Their "great subject is singular and simply defined," writes editor Adam Gopnik in his introduction to this volume: "American vulgarity, flowing up and down like waves of electricity through a cat in a cartoon, exposing its innards even as it shocks our sensibilities. Gopnik presents here the best of them--parodies, social satires, autobiographical pieces, and a selection from the celebrated "Cloudland Revisited" series, in which Perelman reminisces about books and movies encountered in youth and describes the rude shock of revisiting them as an adult. In the early, Joycean piece called "Scenario," Perelman offers a surrealistic take on a Hollywood pitch meeting--a collage of on- and off-screen clichés, show biz argot, and popular slang that rolls on in one continuous paragraph. In "Farewell, My Lovely Appetizer," he sends up the hardboiled detective fiction of Raymond Chandler: "I kicked open the bottom drawer of her desk, let two inches of rye trickle down my craw, kissed Birdie square on her lush, red mouth, and set fire to a cigarette." "No Starch in My Dhoti, S'il Vous Plaît" imagines an exchange of letters between Jawaharlal Nehru's increasingly irate father and a snooty Parisian launderer over a pair of damaged drawers. Also included in this volume is Perelman's most sustained piece of writing, his two-act comedy, The Beauty Part, which opened on December 26, 1962, at New York's Music Box Theatre and closed shortly afterward, the casualty of an unfortunately timed newspaper strike. The idea for this outrageous spoof about money, art, and the ubiquitous desire for self-expression, Perelman was fond of saying, came to him one day when he was riding the elevator of Manhattan's Sutton Hotel: the operator stopped the car between floors and announced, "I'm having trouble with my second act." Rounding out the volume are profiles of the Marx Brothers, Dorothy Parker, and his brother-in-law Nathanael West from the unfinished autobiography, "The Hindsight Saga," and a selection of letters written to correspondents such as Edmund Wilson, Groucho Marx, and Paul Theroux." Provided by publisher

The New York Times-bestselling author offers a stirring defence of liberalism against the dogmatisms of our time

A collection of witty, illuminating essays on life, art and family by the acclaimed author and New Yorker writer

From The New York Times best-selling author of Paris to the Moon and beloved New Yorker writer, a memoir that captures the romance of New York City in the 1980s.

An impassioned defense of the freedom of speech, from Stéphane Charbonnier, a journalist murdered for his convictions On January 7, 2015, two gunmen stormed the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. They took the lives of twelve men and women, but they called for one man by name: "Charb." Known by his pen name, Stéphane Charbonnier was editor in chief of Charlie Hebdo, an outspoken critic of religious fundamentalism, and a renowned political cartoonist in his own right. In the past, he had received death threats and had even earned a place on Al Qaeda's "Most Wanted List." On January 7 it seemed that Charb's enemies had finally succeeded in silencing him. But in a twist of fate befitting Charb's defiant nature, it was soon revealed that he had finished a book just two days before his murder on the very issues at the heart of the attacks: blasphemy, Islamophobia, and the necessary courage of satirists. Here, published for the first time in English, is Charb's final work. A searing criticism of hypocrisy and racism, and a rousing, eloquent defense of free speech, Open Letter shows Charb's words to be as powerful and provocative as his art. This is an essential book about race, religion, the voice of ethnic minorities and majorities in a pluralistic society, and above all, the right to free expression and the surprising challenges being leveled at it in our fraught and dangerous time.

Winter takes us on an intimate tour of the artists, poets, composers, writers, explorers, scientists and thinkers who helped shape a new and modern idea of winter. We learn how literature heralds the arrival of the middle class; how snow science leads to existential questions of God and our place in the world; how the race to the poles marks the human drive to imprint meaning on a blank space. Offering a kaleidoscopic take on the season, Winter is a homage to an idea of a season and a journey through the modern imagination.

Exploring the evolving relationship with food, the author delves into America's transformation from conscious eating to a fervent obsession with gastronomy. Through a captivating narrative, he examines how food has become central to culture, morality, and personal identity, elevating chefs to celebrity status and restaurants to sacred spaces. Gopnik's insightful journey prompts readers to reflect on whether this culinary fervor brings us closer to understanding the deeper significance of food in our lives.

Collects together 65 of the best of Mark Twain's short stories. It opens with The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, a famous early story set on the Western frontier, and spans nearly 50 years during which Twain wrote a variety of short stories.

Collects the thoughts and perspectives of artists, poets, composers, writers, explorers, and scientists on the season of winter, from reflections on snow and God to the future of northern culture.