EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

Book The Brilliant Idiot s Club

Download or read book The Brilliant Idiot s Club written by Elias Sassoon and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2010-09-17 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a guys' novel about guys, four of them to be exact, three who are single and the other married with kids. All are desperately seeking a place in the world; all think too much, worry too much, examine every aspect of their lives too much. Then, one day, one of these brilliant idiots puts his foot down and makes the others take charge of their lives. They hit the road searching for something, anything that might take them away from their humdrum lives. In the process, there's self-discovery. That leaves us with a novel that is vibrant, funny, touching and ultimately sad. You wind up questioning the roles of adult males in modern societies. That may be a good or bad thing.

Book Shook One

    Book Details:
  • Author : Charlamagne Tha God
  • Publisher : Atria Books
  • Release : 2019-09-03
  • ISBN : 1501193260
  • Pages : 288 pages

Download or read book Shook One written by Charlamagne Tha God and published by Atria Books. This book was released on 2019-09-03 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charlamagne Tha God, New York Times bestselling author of Black Privilege and always provocative cohost of Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club, reveals his blueprint for breaking free from your fears and anxieties. Being “shook” is more than a rap lyric for Charlamagne, it’s his mission to overcome. While it may seem like he’s ahead of the game, he is actually plagued by anxieties, such as the fear of losing his roots, the fear of being a bad dad, and the fear of being a terrible husband. In the national bestseller Shook One, Charlamagne chronicles his journey to beat those fears and shows a path that you too can take to overcome the anxieties that may be holding you back. Ironically, Charlamagne’s fear of failure—of falling into the life of stagnation or crime that caught up so many of his friends and family in his hometown of Moncks Corner—has been the fuel that has propelled him to success. However, even after achieving national prominence as a radio personality, Charlamagne still found himself paralyzed by anxiety and distrust. Here, in Shook One, he is working through these problems—many of which he traces back to cultural PTSD—with help from mentors, friends, and therapy. Being anxious doesn’t serve the same purpose anymore. Through therapy, he’s figuring out how to get over the irrational fears that won’t take him anywhere positive. Charlamange hopes Shook One can be a call to action: Getting help is your right. His second book “cements the radio personality’s stance in making sure he’s on the right side of history when it comes to society’s growing focus on mental health, while helping remove the negative stigma” (Billboard).

Book Beautiful Idiots and Brilliant Lunatics

Download or read book Beautiful Idiots and Brilliant Lunatics written by Rob Baker and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2015-11-15 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: London's forgotten scandals, secrets and personalities from the twentieth century, told by the writer of the popular blog Another Nickel in the Machine.

Book Black Privilege

    Book Details:
  • Author : Charlamagne Tha God
  • Publisher : Simon and Schuster
  • Release : 2017-04-18
  • ISBN : 1501145320
  • Pages : 320 pages

Download or read book Black Privilege written by Charlamagne Tha God and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-04-18 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An instant New York Times bestseller! Charlamagne Tha God—the self-proclaimed “Prince of Pissing People Off,” cohost of Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club, and “the most important voice in hip-hop”—shares his eight principles for unlocking your God-given privilege. In Black Privilege, Charlamagne presents his often controversial and always brutally honest insights on how living an authentic life is the quickest path to success. This journey to truth begins in the small town of Moncks Corner, South Carolina, and leads to New York and headline-grabbing interviews and insights from celebrities like Kanye West, Kevin Hart, Malcolm Gladwell, Lena Dunham, Jay Z, and Hillary Clinton. Black Privilege lays out all the great wisdom Charlamagne’s been given from many mentors, and tells the uncensored story of how he turned around his troubled early life by owning his (many) mistakes and refusing to give up on his dreams, even after his controversial opinions got him fired from several on-air jobs. These life-learned principles include: -There are no losses in life, only lessons -Give people the credit they deserve for being stupid—starting with yourself -It’s not the size of the pond but the hustle in the fish -When you live your truth, no one can use it against you -We all have privilege, we just need to access it By combining his own story with bold advice and his signature commitment to honesty no matter the cost, Charlamagne hopes Black Privilege will empower you to live your own truth.

Book The Idiots  Club

    Book Details:
  • Author : Tony Moyle
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 2021-07-07
  • ISBN :
  • Pages : 486 pages

Download or read book The Idiots Club written by Tony Moyle and published by . This book was released on 2021-07-07 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Four middle aged losers. Five dares. £10 million. The last time Eric Gideon saw Sean Heschmeyer was the day of the accident. The day Eric's dare landed Sean in hospital. The day The Idiots' Club ceased to be. Now, exactly twenty years later, Sean is back but he's nothing like how they remember him. After growing his family's business into a corporate behemoth he's amassed a huge personal fortune. He has everything money can buy. But money can't buy everything... When former Idiots' Club member, and serial bankruptee, Callum Jollie, receives a surprise invite to a Heschmeyer Industries VIP bridge opening he tries to persuade Sean to support his failing business. Sean agrees but there's only one problem. His money comes with conditions. He'll invest ten million but only if Callum can convince the other three members of The Idiots Club to complete five ridiculous dares in seven days. Not just any old dares either. Dares that Sean has purposely devised to destroy them. Oh, and they have to live stream them on social media for good measure. Callum already knows which one of the idiots won't need convincing. Eric has never shirked a challenge in his life because, for him, life has always been a challenge. Eric is an outsider, and, unlike Sean, he's had to fight for recognition his whole life. Determined to prove he's still unbeatable, and suspicious of Sean's motives, Eric will face anything Sean can throw at them. Even a lion. Standing between the boys and the money are a narcoleptic ex-girlfriend, five disgruntled black-ops mercenaries, a World War Two bomb and some hat loving night monkeys, but these won't be the hardest obstacles to overcome. They must face up to their own personal failings and work as a team. Which, as it turns out, is a lot harder than stealing a lion. The Idiots' Club is the heart warming, ridiculous and laugh-out-loud novel from the author of 'The End of the World is Nigh'. If you loved Caimh McDonnell's 'The Final Game', Nick Spalding, Nick Hornby, and the film 'Tag' then this is for you. Read The Idiots' Club today. Go on...I dare you!

Book Jewel

    Book Details:
  • Author : Bret Lott
  • Publisher : Simon and Schuster
  • Release : 2011-11-15
  • ISBN : 1439121915
  • Pages : 372 pages

Download or read book Jewel written by Bret Lott and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-11-15 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the backwoods of Mississippi, a land of honeysuckle and grapevine, Jewel and her husband, Leston, are truly blessed; they have five fine children. When Brenda Kay is born in 1943, Jewel gives thanks for a healthy baby, last-born and most welcome. Jewel is the story of how quickly a life can change; how, like lightning, an unforeseen event can set us on a course without reason or compass. In this story of a woman's devotion to the child who is both her burden and God's singular way of smiling on her, Bret Lott has created a mother-daughter relationship of matchless intensity and beauty, and one of the finest, most indomitable heroines in contemporary American fiction.

Book Surrounded by Idiots

Download or read book Surrounded by Idiots written by Thomas Erikson and published by St. Martin's Essentials. This book was released on 2019-07-30 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you ever think you’re the only one making any sense? Or tried to reason with your partner with disastrous results? Do long, rambling answers drive you crazy? Or does your colleague’s abrasive manner rub you the wrong way? You are not alone. After a disastrous meeting with a highly successful entrepreneur, who was genuinely convinced he was ‘surrounded by idiots’, communication expert and bestselling author, Thomas Erikson dedicated himself to understanding how people function and why we often struggle to connect with certain types of people. Surrounded by Idiots is an international phenomenon, selling over 1.5 million copies worldwide. It offers a simple, yet ground-breaking method for assessing the personalities of people we communicate with – in and out of the office – based on four personality types (Red, Blue, Green and Yellow), and provides insights into how we can adjust the way we speak and share information. Erikson will help you understand yourself better, hone communication and social skills, handle conflict with confidence, improve dynamics with your boss and team, and get the best out of the people you deal with and manage. He also shares simple tricks on body language, improving written communication, advice on when to back away or when to push on, and when to speak up or shut up. Packed with ‘aha!’ and ‘oh no!’ moments, Surrounded by Idiots will help you understand and communicate with those around you, even people you currently think are beyond all comprehension. And with a bit of luck you can also be confident that the idiot out there isn’t you!

Book The Complete Idiot s Guide to Improving Your Short Game

Download or read book The Complete Idiot s Guide to Improving Your Short Game written by Jim McLean and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2000 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explains the significance of the short game, offers advice for improving pitching, chipping, and putting skills, and includes effective practice drills.

Book I Know This Much Is True

    Book Details:
  • Author : Wally Lamb
  • Publisher : Cambridge University Press
  • Release : 1998-06-03
  • ISBN : 9780060391621
  • Pages : 884 pages

Download or read book I Know This Much Is True written by Wally Lamb and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-06-03 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.

Book Unlearn

    Book Details:
  • Author : Humble the Poet
  • Publisher : HarperCollins
  • Release : 2019-04-09
  • ISBN : 0062905171
  • Pages : 320 pages

Download or read book Unlearn written by Humble the Poet and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-04-09 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The internationally bestselling self-empowerment book from influencer, rapper, and spoken word artist Humble the Poet, now available in a new edition with a new foreword by the author. Unlearn offers short, accessible, and counterintuitive lessons for reaching our full potential. Beloved for his sincerity, playfulness, and sage advice, globally famous rapper, spoken word artist, poet, blogger, and influencer Humble the Poet has traditionally shared his message of self-discovery, creativity, and empowerment with his fans through music and written word. That message has now been extended to this empowering book, offering insights and wisdom that challenge conventional thinking and help you tap into your best, most authentic self. Humble sees life with unique clarity. In Unlearn, he opens our eyes to our own lives, helping us to recognize the possibilities that await us and the challenges that prevent us from realizing our dreams. With his characteristic honesty and forthrightness, he helps us shed the problematic lessons we’ve learned throughout our lives that limit us, from sabotaging habits, to fixed mindsets, to past regrets, and relearn new, unconventional ways of moving through life. Among his 101 lessons are: Fitting In Is a Pointless Activity Don’t Trust Everything You Feel Killing Expectations Births Happiness Comparisons are Killer Baby Steps Add Up You Decide Your Worth Profound in its simplicity, Unlearn is the perfect invitation to a new beginning and to pursue a life of fulfillment.

Book Why Business People Speak Like Idiots

Download or read book Why Business People Speak Like Idiots written by Brian Fugere and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2005-02-22 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a fundamental disconnection between the way business people speak and real people communicate. From advertisers, big business and CEOs - the blather is coming at us in waves. The International Language of Business is no longer English - it's gobbledygook. The authors blindly discovered the enormity of the problem in June 2003 with the launch of Bullfighter, an anti-jargon software tool. But jargon is just one symptom in a larger problem afflicting corporate communications today: the wholesale inability to connect with an audience. In the form of admirably straight-talk, we discover how to avoid the 'obscurity trap', 'the anonymity trap', the 'hard-sell trap' and most importantly, 'the tedium trap'. In this witty and practical new book readers are given all the tools they need to fight the 'spin' and learn to speak like the rest of us.

Book Bunny

    Book Details:
  • Author : Mona Awad
  • Publisher : Penguin
  • Release : 2019-06-11
  • ISBN : 0525559744
  • Pages : 311 pages

Download or read book Bunny written by Mona Awad and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-06-11 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER Soon to be a major motion picture "Jon Swift + Witches of Eastwick + Kelly 'Get In Trouble' Link + Mean Girls + Creative Writing Degree Hell! No punches pulled, no hilarities dodged, no meme unmangled! O Bunny you are sooo genius!" —Margaret Atwood, via Twitter "A wild, audacious and ultimately unforgettable novel." —Michael Schaub, Los Angeles Times "Awad is a stone-cold genius." —Ann Bauer, The Washington Post The Vegetarian meets Heathers in this darkly funny, seductively strange novel from the acclaimed author of 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl and Rouge "We were just these innocent girls in the night trying to make something beautiful. We nearly died. We very nearly did, didn't we?" Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England's Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort--a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other "Bunny," and seem to move and speak as one. But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled "Smut Salon," and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door--ditching her only friend, Ava, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the Bunnies' sinister yet saccharine world, beginning to take part in the ritualistic off-campus "Workshop" where they conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur. Soon, her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies will be brought into deadly collision. The spellbinding new novel from one of our most fearless chroniclers of the female experience, Bunny is a down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, friendship and desire, and the fantastic and terrible power of the imagination. Named a Best Book of 2019 by TIME, Vogue, Electric Literature, and The New York Public Library

Book Profiles in Ignorance

Download or read book Profiles in Ignorance written by Andy Borowitz and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-09-13 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER *WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER * Andy Borowitz, “one of the funniest people in America” (CBS Sunday Morning), brilliantly “chronicles our embrace of anti-intellectualism” (Walter Isaacson) in American politics, from Ronald Reagan to Dan Quayle, from George W. Bush to Sarah Palin, to its apotheosis in Donald J. Trump. Andy Borowitz has been called a “Swiftian satirist” (The Wall Street Journal) and “one of the country’s finest satirists” (The New York Times). Millions of fans and New Yorker readers enjoy his satirical news column “The Borowitz Report.” Now, in Profiles in Ignorance, he delivers “a wittily alarming polemic that tracks the evolution of American politics from grounds for gravitas to festival of idiocy” (The New York Times). Borowitz argues that over the past fifty years, American politicians have grown increasingly allergic to knowledge, and mass media have encouraged the election of ignoramuses by elevating candidates who are better at performing than thinking. Starting with Ronald Reagan’s first campaign for governor of California in 1966 and culminating with the election of Donald J. Trump to the White House, Borowitz shows how, during the age of twenty-four-hour news and social media, the US has elected politicians to positions of great power whose lack of the most basic information is terrifying. In addition to Reagan, Quayle, Bush, Palin, and Trump, Borowitz covers a host of congresspersons, senators, and governors who have helped lower the bar over the past five decades. Profiles in Ignorance aims to make us both laugh and cry: laugh at the idiotic antics of these public figures, and cry at the cataclysms these icons of ignorance have caused. But most importantly, the book delivers a call to action and a cause for optimism: History doesn’t move in a straight line, and we can change course if we act now.

Book What About Will

Download or read book What About Will written by Ellen Hopkins and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-09-14 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins comes a new heartbreakingly tender middle grade novel in verse about the bonds between two brothers and the love they share. Twelve-year-old Trace Reynolds has always looked up to his brother, mostly because Will, who's five years older, has never looked down on him. It was Will who taught Trace to ride a bike, would watch sports on TV with him, and cheer him on at Little League. But when Will was knocked out cold during a football game, resulting in a brain injury--everything changed. Now, seventeen months later, their family is still living under the weight of "the incident," that left Will with a facial tic, depression, and an anger he cannot always control, culminating in their parents' divorce. Afraid of further fracturing his family, Trace begins to cover for Will who, struggling with addiction to pain medication, becomes someone Trace doesn’t recognize. But when the brother he loves so much becomes more and more withdrawn, and escalates to stealing money and ditching school, Trace realizes some secrets cannot be kept if we ever hope to heal.

Book The 5AM Club

    Book Details:
  • Author : Robin Sharma
  • Publisher : HarperCollins
  • Release : 2018-12-04
  • ISBN : 1443456632
  • Pages : 356 pages

Download or read book The 5AM Club written by Robin Sharma and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-12-04 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Legendary leadership and elite performance expert Robin Sharma introduced The 5am Club concept over twenty years ago, based on a revolutionary morning routine that has helped his clients maximize their productivity, activate their best health and bulletproof their serenity in this age of overwhelming complexity. Now, in this life-changing book, handcrafted by the author over a rigorous four-year period, you will discover the early-rising habit that has helped so many accomplish epic results while upgrading their happiness, helpfulness and feelings of aliveness. Through an enchanting—and often amusing—story about two struggling strangers who meet an eccentric tycoon who becomes their secret mentor, The 5am Club will walk you through: How great geniuses, business titans and the world’s wisest people start their mornings to produce astonishing achievements A little-known formula you can use instantly to wake up early feeling inspired, focused and flooded with a fiery drive to get the most out of each day A step-by-step method to protect the quietest hours of daybreak so you have time for exercise, self-renewal and personal growth A neuroscience-based practice proven to help make it easy to rise while most people are sleeping, giving you precious time for yourself to think, express your creativity and begin the day peacefully instead of being rushed “Insider-only” tactics to defend your gifts, talents and dreams against digital distraction and trivial diversions so you enjoy fortune, influence and a magnificent impact on the world Part manifesto for mastery, part playbook for genius-grade productivity and part companion for a life lived beautifully, The 5am Club is a work that will transform your life. Forever.

Book The Card Catalog

Download or read book The Card Catalog written by The Library of Congress and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2017-04-04 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the archives of the Library of Congress: “An irresistible treasury for book and library lovers.” —Booklist (starred review) The Library of Congress brings book lovers an enriching tribute to the power of the written word and to the history of our most beloved books. Featuring more than two hundred full-color images of original catalog cards, first edition book covers, and photographs from the library’s magnificent archives, this collection is a visual celebration of the rarely seen treasures in one of the world’s most famous libraries and the brilliant catalog system that has kept it organized for hundreds of years. Packed with engaging facts on literary classics—from Ulysses to The Cat in the Hat to Shakespeare’s First Folio to The Catcher in the Rye—this is an ode to the enduring magic and importance of books. “The Card Catalog is many things: a lucid overview of the history of bibliographic practices, a paean to the Library of Congress, a memento of the cherished card catalogs of yore, and an illustrated collection of bookish trivia . . . . The illustrations are amazing: luscious reproductions of dozens of cards, lists, covers, title pages, and other images guaranteed to bring a wistful gleam to the book nerd’s eye.” —The Washington Post

Book The Idiot

    Book Details:
  • Author : Elif Batuman
  • Publisher : Penguin
  • Release : 2018-02-13
  • ISBN : 014311106X
  • Pages : 465 pages

Download or read book The Idiot written by Elif Batuman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-02-13 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Book Review Notable Book • Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction • Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction “Easily the funniest book I’ve read this year.” —GQ “Masterly funny debut novel . . . Erudite but never pretentious, The Idiot will make you crave more books by Batuman.” —Sloane Crosley, Vanity Fair A portrait of the artist as a young woman. A novel about not just discovering but inventing oneself. The year is 1995, and email is new. Selin, the daughter of Turkish immigrants, arrives for her freshman year at Harvard. She signs up for classes in subjects she has never heard of, befriends her charismatic and worldly Serbian classmate, Svetlana, and, almost by accident, begins corresponding with Ivan, an older mathematics student from Hungary. Selin may have barely spoken to Ivan, but with each email they exchange, the act of writing seems to take on new and increasingly mysterious meanings. At the end of the school year, Ivan goes to Budapest for the summer, and Selin heads to the Hungarian countryside, to teach English in a program run by one of Ivan's friends. On the way, she spends two weeks visiting Paris with Svetlana. Selin's summer in Europe does not resonate with anything she has previously heard about the typical experiences of American college students, or indeed of any other kinds of people. For Selin, this is a journey further inside herself: a coming to grips with the ineffable and exhilarating confusion of first love, and with the growing consciousness that she is doomed to become a writer. With superlative emotional and intellectual sensitivity, mordant wit, and pitch-perfect style, Batuman dramatizes the uncertainty of life on the cusp of adulthood. Her prose is a rare and inimitable combination of tenderness and wisdom; its logic as natural and inscrutable as that of memory itself. The Idiot is a heroic yet self-effacing reckoning with the terror and joy of becoming a person in a world that is as intoxicating as it is disquieting. Batuman's fiction is unguarded against both life's affronts and its beauty--and has at its command the complete range of thinking and feeling which they entail. Named one the best books of the year by Refinery29 • Mashable One • Elle Magazine • The New York Times • Bookpage • Vogue • NPR • Buzzfeed •The Millions