Books about Outrageous from Amazon.com

It just isn't fair: most of us would be lucky to be able to express ourselves in writing half as well as David Sedaris does in his new book, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. But on top of his skills with the written word, the author also has substantial gifts as a performer, and he proves this on the audio version of the book. In his essay The Change in Me,Sedaris remembers that his mother was good at imitating people, and it's clear that he takes after her. Whether he's doing impressions of high-voiced brother Paul, or recalling times when he and his sisters tried to win good karma by speaking and acting like well-behaved, fairytale children, Sedaris's nuanced performance hits the right note on both the opening, comedic stories, and the more poignant essays that tend to come later in the reading. In fact, for those who have already read some of the best stories in other publications including The New Yorker, the CD or cassette version of this collection is probably the best bet for furthering your appreciation of the material.

Sedaris's career is closely linked with two things: audio (he was discovered by NPR's Ira Glass), and the personal lives of himself and his family. In Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, he describes fights with his boyfriend, and his sister-in-law's difficult pregnancy. When sister Lisa complains about the stories involving the family, he writes about that, too. Sedaris's latest provides more evidence that he is a great humorist, memoirist and raconteur, and readers are lucky to have the opportunity to know him so well. Perhaps they are luckier still not to know him personally. --Leah Weathersby.
Price: $3.74 [Notify me when price goes down.]

It’s a marriage made in BBQ heaven: America’s foremost grilling guru takes on ribs. Baby backs and spare ribs, short ribs and long ribs, pork ribs, beef ribs, lamb ribs, and more—a passionate, single-subject celebration of meaty, smoky, sweet ’n’ spicy, crowd-pleasing, fall-off-the-bone-tender ribs.

A perfect rib is the culmination of the griller’s art, and nobody’s better at showing how to put it all together—the tastes, techniques, ingredients, recipes, tips—than Steven Raichlen, award-winning author of Barbecue! Bible, How to Grill, Beer-Can Chicken, and other BARBECUE! BIBLE® books with 3 million copies in print. Here are 75 mouth-watering, repertoire-expanding, rib-rocking recipes: Buccaneer Baby Backs with Rumbullion Barbecue Sauce. Lone Star Barrel Staves. Tandoori Ribs. Maui-Style Short Ribs. Jamaican Jerk Ribs. Thai Sweet Chili Ribs. The Original Dinosaur Ribs. Cousin Dave’s Chipotle Chocolate Ribs. But the book is also a rib clinic: It covers the nine methods for cooking ribs, from direct grilling to spit-roasting. The essential techniques for handling ribs. Key ingredients in making homemade sauces, mops, and rubs. And boxes throughout to help take your rib cookery to the next level—even to the competition level, with tips on how to enter and how to win..
Price: $4.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Rockers Behaving Badly

From Ozzy Osbourne to Chuck Berry, Courtney Love to Keith Moon, Rock Star Babylon has gathered together the most outrageous antics and diva-esque misbehavior in the annals of rock. Here in a single volume are the most wickedly entertaining stories of over-the-top parties, crazy divorces, hidden cameras, trashed hotel rooms, misapplied epileptic interventions, and innocent headless bats. Running the gamut from the rude to the ridiculous, these reports of rock-and-rollers at their worst come straight from the mouths of those who were there—or those who were there but left early and heard about it afterward. Fun, shocking, and compulsively readable, Rock Star Babylon is a guilty pleasure for fans everywhere..
Price: $7.76 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A book about the life of California's maverick politico, B.T. Collins, war hero, public servant, and double amputee Definitely not a war story, but the story of a warrior, a chronicle of a hero in the making, of courage beyond the battlefield, and a love of country that transcended any political party. Poignant, often hilarious tale of a life lived with gusto, of an American original who touched you to the very raw. Irascible, irreverent,and annoyingly politically incorrect, B.T. made you laugh when you wanted to cry, cry when you had never cried before over things like the "Stars and Strips" or the "Star Spangled Banner." He was brutally honest and unyielding when it came to principles. No one was ever blase about B.T. Collins..
Price: $19.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Forget the history you were taught in school; Richard Zacks's version is crueler and funnier than anything you might have learned in seventh-grade civics--and much more of a gross-out, too. Described on the book jacket as an "autodidact extraordinaire," Zacks is also the author of History Laid Bare, making him something of an expert guide through history's back alleys and side streets. There's no fact too seamy or perverse for Zacks to drag out into the light of day, from matters scatological and sexual to some of history's most truly bizarre episodes. Curious about ancient nose-blowing etiquette? What about the sexual proclivities of Catherine the Great? Throughout chapters such as "The Evolution of Underwear" and "Dentistry Before Novocaine," Zacks proves a tireless debunker of popular myths as well as a muckraker par excellence..
Price: $10.71 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Riding Rockets is a story of life in all its fateful uncertainty, of the impact of a family tragedy on a nine-year-old boy, of the revelatory effect of a machine called Sputnik, and of the life-steering powers of lust, love, and marriage. It is a story of the human experience that will resonate long after the call of "Wheel stop.".
Price: $5.11 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This fun and friendly book looks at real-life PR stunts that will blow your mind and inspire you to develop innovative and creative ways to get your company noticed. PR guru Peter Shankman chronicles the most ridiculous, outrageous, and possibly crazy PR stunts of all time—explaining why some work and others don’t. This is a funny, insightful guide to winning the PR game..
Price: $10.47 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Zobmondo!! takes the idea of parlor game questions to a new level of debate and lunacy. Based on the new Hasbro board game of the same name, it's a chunky book of 400 questions that range from the heinous to the nauseating to the downright disturbing, each a field-tested conversation starter-because no matter how strange or far-fetched, Zobmondo!! knows that choice provokes thinking, and thinking is fun.

Some questions, like a Rorschach test, reveal values: Would you rather . . . Age only from the neck up-OR-age only from the neck down? Be stupid and rich-OR-smart and poor? Some delight in their own grossness: Eat three earthworms-OR-wear a necklace made of them on your wedding day? Be trapped in an elevator with wet dogs-OR-three fat men with bad breath? Some churn up prejudices: Lose your mate to the same sex as yourself-OR-the opposite sex? Some create that squirming sensation: Get a bad case of poison ivy way up inside your nose-OR-inside your inner ear? Or ethical dilemmas: Be president of a firm that poaches endangered species-OR-work for a corrupt politician? And some are just deliciously absurd: Catch a porcupine thrown from a second-story window-OR-a skunk thrown from the same window? Each question is followed up with related, often off-the-wall information, from odd trivia to dumb jokes to the occasional practical advice (go for the skunk--the porcupine's got 30,000 quills, while tomato juice will take away the skunk smell)..
Price: $2.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

We jammed more than 450 stickers into this book. There are sticker puzzles. Sticker games. Sticker jokes. Sticker pictures. Sticker people. Sticker activities and sticker goofiness. And, on page 28, you will find our patented Tricky Stickies, ready to stick to actual bananas, soup cans, cereal boxes, money and mail. Plus Klutz-clear directions for making envelopes, note cards and handy little boxes, and then decorating them with (say it with me) stickers..
Price: $7.64 [Notify me when price goes down.]