Jonathan Ames

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Pennsylvania

The Adventures of a Mildly Perverted Young Writer

Perhaps all of Jonathan Ames’ problems–and the genesis of this hilarious book–can be traced back to the late onset of his puberty. After all it can’t be easy to be sixteen with a hairless “undistinguishable from that of a five year old’s.”

This wonderfully entertaining memoir is a touching and humorous look at life in New York City. But this is life for an author who can proclaim “my first sexual experience was rather old-fashioned: it was with a prostitute”–an author who can talk about his desire to be a model for the Hair Club for Men and about meeting his son for the first time.

Often insightful, sometimes tender, always witty and self-deprecating, What’s Not to Love? is an engaging memoir from one of our most funny, most daring writers.

What's Not to Love?

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Retailer sticker on cover.  Otherwise new.

Virginia

A Novel

In this deliciously noir novel from the creator of HBO's Bored to Death, idiosyncratic private detective Happy Doll embarks on a quest to help a dying friend in a sun-blinded Los Angeles  as "quirky, edgy, charming, funny and serious" as its protagonist (Lee Child). 

Happy Doll is a charming, if occasionally inexpert, private detective living just one sheer cliff drop beneath the Hollywood sign with his beloved half-Chihuahua half-Terrier, George. A veteran of both the Navy and LAPD, Doll supplements his meager income as a P.I. by working through the night at a local Thai spa that offers its clients a number of special services. Armed with his sixteen-inch steel telescopic baton, biting dry humor, and just a bit of a hero complex, the ex-cop sets out to protect the women who work there from clients who have trouble understanding the word "no."

 

Doll gets by just fine following his two basic rules: bark loudly and act first. But when things get out-of-hand with one particularly violent patron, even he finds himself wildly out of his depth, and then things take an even more dangerous twist when an old friend from his days as a cop shows up at his door with a bullet in his gut.

 

A Man Named Doll is more than just a fascinating introduction to one truly singular character, it is a highly addictive and completely unpredictable joyride through the sensuous and violent streets of LA.

A Man Named Doll

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California

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Maryland

Coming off a doomed romance, a failing writer searches for hope in the bottom of a bottle as he careens from one off-kilter encounter to another in search of himself. Original.

The Alcoholic

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Christopher R. Howard

Joe Meno

Aaron Gwyn

Philippe Soupault

Eric Hanson

Oregon

With a special section on Donald Barthelme, including remembrances from Ann Beattie, David Gates, and Oscar Hijuelos, and some of Barthelme's barely published and never-collected early work, and a highly theoretical but potentially amazing Z-binding that we can't describe very well here, or even to each other, McSweeney's 24 will never be mistaken for anything else. (Except possibly the June 1978 issue of Popular Mechanics.)

McSweeney's Issue 24

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Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

South Carolina

In this second installment of a series characterized by "offbeat humor and unflinching violence" (NTYBR), the eponymous and hapless detective Happy Doll returns with a new philosophy and a new case; "Hard-boiled PI fiction set in the present doesn't get much better." (Publishers Weekly, STARRED)

Although badly scarred and down to his last kidney after the previous caper, Happy Doll is back in business. When a beguiling young woman turns up at his door, it's Doll's past that comes knocking. Mary DeAngelo is searching for her estranged mother, Ines Candle--a singular and troubled woman Doll once loved. The last he'd seen her she'd been near-death: arms slit like envelopes. Although she survived the episode, she vanished shortly thereafter. Now, years later, Mary claims Ines is alive and has recently made contact--messaging her on Facebook and calling her from a burner phone--only to disappear once again. Although his psychoanalyst would discourage it, Doll takes the case, desperate to see Ines again. But as the investigation deepens, there are questions he can't shake. What's led the flighty Ines to reappear? Is Mary only relaying half the truth? And who is Mary's strange and mysterious husband?

 
In this wholly original follow-up to A Man Named Doll, Happy travels through L.A., Washington, Oregon and back again--a journey that gets wilder and woolier with each turn. An irreverent and inventive mystery, The Wheel of Doll is not to be missed. 

The Wheel of Doll

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George Plimpton

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

North Carolina

In April 1985, Sports Illustrated published an article that stunned the sports community. George Plimpton's 13-page profile of Sidd Finch, a mysterious pitcher who had been signed by the New York Mets and reportedly threw 168 mph, came complete with photos from spring training, scouting reports, and interviews with Mets players and management. A week later, SI apologized to readers around the world for their role in what is generally regarded as the greatest hoax in the history of sports journalism. The magazine had teamed up with the legendary author and Paris Review bon vivant for an April Fool's Day prank of unprecedented proportions. After the success of the article, Plimpton decided to turn the story into a novel — a rousing baseball fairy tale that is considered one of the most memorable sports novels of the last half-century.

The Curious Case of Sidd Finch

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Massachusetts

Alan Blair, the hero of Wake Up, Sir!, is a young, loony writer with numerous problems of the mental, emotional, sexual, spiritual, and physical variety. He's very good at problems. But luckily for Alan, he has a personal valet named Jeeves, who does his best to sort things out for his troubled master. And Alan does find trouble wherever he goes. He embarks on a perilous and bizarre road journey, his destination being an artists colony in Saratoga Springs. There Alan encounters a gorgeous femme fatale who is in possession of the most spectacular nose in the history of noses. Such a nose can only lead to a wild disaster for someone like Alan, and Jeeves tries to help him, but... Well, read the book and find out!

Wake up, Sir!

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New Jersey

"A storyteller of refreshing inventiveness and subtlety" (San Francisco Chronicle), Jonathan Ames has won critical raves for this delightful "comedy of impeccable manners with a debauched '90s spin" (Elle).

Meet Louis Ives: well-groomed, romantic, and as captivating as an F. Scott Fitzgerald hero. Only this hero has a penchant for ladies clothes, and he's lost his teaching post at Princeton's Pretty Brook Day School after an unfortunate incident involving a colleague's brassiere.

Meet Henry Harrison: former actor, failed but brilliant playwright, and a well-seasoned escort for New York City's women of means. He dances alone to Ethel Merman records, second-acts operas, and performs his scrappy life with the dignity befitting a self-styled man of the world. What can this ageless Don Quixote of the Upper East Side have to offer a young gentleman such as Louis? What, indeed.

Well, the answer lies somewhere between the needs of an irascible mentor and the education of his eager apprentice...between cocktails on the Upper East Side and an even more intoxicating treat along the secret fringes of Times Square...and between friendship and longing.

The Extra Man

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J. Storer Clouston

The best-bred lunatics in England live in Clankwood, and Francis Beveridge is that community's newest resident. Rather than attending the asylum's Saturday dances, though, Beveridge goes on the lam in London. And thus, when a traveling German noble finds himself at the luxurious Hotel Mayonnaise without a guide to England's customs, who better to escort him than the amnesiac Englishman who materializes by his side? Beveridge provides the German with much useful knowledge, like giving a splendid tutor in bringing rail stations to a standstill, revealing the best way to fake a rabies attack, and showing how to crash London's most exclusive clubs -- quite literally. A much-loved Victorian comic masterpiece, this is the original anarchic novel that ushered in the age of Wodehouse and Waugh.

The Lunatic at Large

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Great copy. Minimal shelf wear/staining to cover (see photos). Nearly like new, pages crisp & clean.

Georgia

Michigan

Comes with paper with book info. When dook was released

From the creator of HBO's Bored to Death, a deliciously noir novel about an idiosyncratic private detective Happy Doll and his quest to help a dying friend who is running out of time in sun-blinded Los Angeles. Happy Doll is a charming, if occasionally inexpert, private detective living just one sheer cliff drop beneath the Hollywood sign with his beloved half-Chihuahua half-Terrier, George. A veteran of both the Navy and LAPD, Doll supplements his meager income as a P.I. by working through the night at a local Thai spa that offers its clients a number of special services. Armed with his sixteen-inch steel telescopic baton, biting dry humor, and just a bit of a hero complex, the ex-cop sets out to protect the women who work there from clients who have trouble understanding the word "no." Doll gets by just fine following his two basic rules: bark loudly and act first. But when things get out-of-hand with one particularly violent patron, even he finds himself wildly out of his depth, and then things take an even more dangerous twist when an old friend from his days as a cop shows up at his door with a bullet in his gut. A Man Named Doll is more than just a fascinating introduction to one truly singular character, it is a highly addictive and completely unpredictable joyride through the sensuous and violent streets of LA.

In the proud tradition of drunken writers everywhere... comes the tale of Jonathan A., a boozed-up, coked-out, sexually confused, hopelessly romantic-and of course, entirely fictional-novelist who bears only a coincidental resemblance to real-life author Jonathan Ames, critically acclaimed author of Wake Up, Sir!, The Extra Man, and What s Not to Love as well as HBO's Bored to Death and Starz's Blunt Talk.

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Jonathan Ames

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Jonathan Ames

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Jonathan Ames

What's Not to Love?

Jonathan Ames

The Alcoholic

Christopher R. Howard; Joe Meno; Jonathan Ames; Aaron Gwyn; Philippe Soupault; Eric Hanson

McSweeney's Issue 24

Jonathan Ames

The Wheel of Doll

Jonathan Ames

The Wheel of Doll

George Plimpton; Jonathan Ames

The Curious Case of Sidd Finch

Jonathan Ames

Wake up, Sir!

Jonathan Ames

The Extra Man

J. Storer Clouston; Jonathan Ames

The Lunatic at Large

George Plimpton; Jonathan Ames

The Curious Case of Sidd Finch

Jonathan Ames

What's Not to Love?

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What's Not to Love?

Jonathan Ames

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The Alcoholic

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Jonathan Ames

What's Not to Love?

Jonathan Ames

A Man Named Doll

Jonathan Ames

What's Not to Love?

Jonathan Ames

The Alcoholic

Christopher R. Howard; Joe Meno; Jonathan Ames; Aaron Gwyn; Philippe Soupault; Eric Hanson

McSweeney's Issue 24

Jonathan Ames

The Wheel of Doll

Jonathan Ames

The Wheel of Doll

George Plimpton; Jonathan Ames

The Curious Case of Sidd Finch

Jonathan Ames

Wake up, Sir!

Jonathan Ames

The Extra Man

J. Storer Clouston; Jonathan Ames

The Lunatic at Large

George Plimpton; Jonathan Ames

The Curious Case of Sidd Finch

Jonathan Ames

What's Not to Love?

Jonathan Ames

What's Not to Love?

Jonathan Ames

A Man Named Doll

Jonathan Ames

The Alcoholic