The New York Times–bestselling author of The Psychopath Test, Jon Ronson writes about the dark, uncanny sides of humanity with clarity and humor. Lost at Sea reveals how deep our collective craziness lies, even in the most mundane circumstances.Ronson investigates the strange things we’re willing to believe in, from lifelike robots programmed with our loved ones’ personalities to indigo children to hypersuccessful spiritual healers to the Insane Clown Posse’s juggalo fans. He looks at ordinary lives that take on extraordinary perspectives, for instance a pop singer whose life’s greatest passion is the coming alien invasion, and the scientist designated to greet those aliens when they arrive. Ronson throws himself into the stories—in a tour de force piece, he splits himself into multiple Ronsons (Happy, Paul, and Titch, among others) to get to the bottom of credit card companies’ predatory tactics and the murky, fabulously wealthy companies behind those tactics. Amateur nuclear physicists, assisted-suicide practitioners, the town of North Pole, Alaska’s Christmas-induced high school mass-murder plot: Ronson explores all these tales with a sense of higher purpose and universality, and suddenly, mid-read, they are stories not about the fringe of society or about people far removed from our own experience, but about all of us.Incisive and hilarious, poignant and maddening, revealing and disturbing—Ronson writes about our modern world, the foibles of contemporary culture, and the chaos that lies at the edge of our daily lives.

Paulo Coelho's masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. His quest will lead him to riches far different, and far more satisfying, listening to our hearts, of recognizing opportunity and learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, most importantly, to follow our dreams.

After the wonderful Stalin Ate My Homework and Bossypants, I decided that I would always try to get autobiographies as audiobooks wherever possible – as long as they were read by the author.So, The Dark Tourist ISN’T actually a ‘proper’ autobiography per se, but it is still Dom Joly’s telling of his experiences – so it definitely worked the same way as an audiobook. I thought it was hilarious – but I can imagine that it wouldn’t have worked quite as well as in print. “It’s the way he tells them!”It starts when he spots a photo in a Parisian magazine of a couple of women in full burkhas – on skis! The photo has been taken in Iran – and Joly decides that this is such an unlikely place for a ski resort that he HAS to go there…which brings about all sorts of amusing exchanges with officials and passport control etc.Having been brought up in Lebanon, this also whets his appetite for visiting some of the ‘riskier’ parts of the world as a tourist, seeking out the unusual and hidden rather than the usual sanitised offerings. Hence the title.His visits take him to Iran, Lebanon, Cambodia, Chernobyl, North Korea and America’s deep south.His storytelling is brilliant – we were laughing out loud at some of the situations he managed to get himself into. He is extremely candid and this is occasionally slightly shocking. But in a good way! (there is a whole section where is tempted to buy Pol Pot’s shoes). I can imagine that these don’t necessarily translate into a particularly well written book – so if you get the chance, get the audiobook!

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