Surfing's Greatest Misadventures


Book Description

Surfing's Greatest Misadventures contains thirty of themost engaging, humorous and unbelievable stories ofsurfing life from the past fifty years. Culled fromhundreds of submissions, the non-fiction stories selectedfor this one-of-a-kind collection run the gamut from theterrifying to the comical to the downright bizarre. Thestories ......




Welcome to Paradise, Now Go to Hell


Book Description

A finalist for the PEN Center USA Award for Nonfiction Welcome to Paradise, Now Go to Hell, is surfer and former war reporter Chas Smith’s wild and unflinching look at the high-stakes world of surfing on Oahu’s North Shore—a riveting, often humorous, account of beauty, greed, danger, and crime. For two months every winter, when Pacific storms make landfall, swarms of mainlanders, Brazilians, Australians, and Europeans flock to Oahu’s paradisiacal North Shore in pursuit of some of the greatest waves on earth for surfing’s Triple Crown competition. Chas Smith reveals how this influx transforms a sleepy, laid-back strip of coast into a lawless, violent, drug-addled, and adrenaline-soaked mecca. Smith captures this exciting and dangerous place where locals, outsiders, the surf industry, and criminal elements clash in a fascinating look at class, race, power, money, and crime, set within one of the most beautiful places on earth. The result is a breathtaking blend of crime and adventure that captures the allure and wickedness of this idyllic golden world.




Experience Pipeline


Book Description

The reader is placed at the Pipe Masters surfing contest in Oahu, Hawaii, where the story progresses based on the results of a coin-flip at the bottom of each page.




Dressed Up for a Riot


Book Description

A memoir of revolution, reaction, and Russian men’s fashion In this crackling memoir, the journalist and novelist Michael Idov recounts the tempestuous years he spent living alongside—and closely observing—the media and cultural elite of Putin’s Russia. After accepting a surprise offer to become the editor in chief of GQ Russia, Idov and his family arrive in a Moscow still seething from a dubious election and the mass anti-Putin rallies that erupted in response. Idov is fascinated by the political turmoil but nonetheless finds himself pulled in unlikely directions. He becomes a tabloid celebrity, acts in a Russian movie with Snoop Dogg, befriends the members of Pussy Riot, punches an anti-Semitic magazine editor on the steps of the Bolshoi Theatre, sells an autobiographical sitcom pilot that is later changed into an anti-American farce, and writes Russia’s top-grossing domestic movie of 2015. Meanwhile, he becomes disillusioned with the splintering opposition to Putin and is briefly attracted to a kind of jaded Putinism lite—until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine thoroughly changes his mind. In Dressed Up for a Riot, Idov writes openly, sensitively, and stingingly about life in Moscow and his place in a media apparatus that sometimes undermined but more often bolstered a state system defined by cynicism, corruption, and the fanning of fake news. With humor and intelligence, he offers a close-up glimpse of what a declining world power can become.




You Don't Know Me But You Don't Like Me


Book Description

A writer's journey with the fan bases of Phish and Insane Clown Posse describes his unexpected discovery of how both groups have tapped the human need for community, a finding that coincided with his diagnosis of bipolar disorder.




Surfing


Book Description

This guide showcases the world of extreme surfing, describing the unique culture associated with this daredevil's sport, providing insights into what makes the top riders tick, explaining the science of big waves, and more. "The Pipeline" in O'ahu, Hawaii. "Maverick's Point" in northern California. "Ours" near Sydney, Australia. All over the world, extreme surfers risk severe injury or even death from riptides, shark attacks, and collisions with the seabed itself, just to experience the ultimate high from tackling—and triumphing over—one of the most powerful forces on earth. Surfing: The Ultimate Guide explains the culture of extreme surfing—including the often violent "locals only" mentality—and analyzes the dangers involved in riding the world's biggest and most ferocious waves. The author examines the history of extreme surfing, including past and contemporary heroes; the science of giant waves; the technical criteria for riding them; and the future of big-wave riding.




You Deserve a Drink


Book Description

A New York Times bestselling, riotously funny collection of boozy misadventures from the creator of the YouTube series, “You Deserve a Drink.” Mamrie Hart is a drinking star with a Youtube problem. With over a million subscribers to her cult-hit video series “You Deserve a Drink,” Hart has been entertaining viewers with a combination of tasty libations and raunchy puns since 2011. Hart also co-wrote/co-starred in Dirty Thirty and Camp Takota with Grace Helbig and Hannah Hart. Finally, Hart has compiled her best drinking stories—and worst hangovers—into one hilarious volume. From the spring break where she and her girlfriends avoided tan lines by staying at an all-male gay nudist resort, to the bachelorette party where she accidentally hired a sixty-year-old meth head to teach the group pole dancing (not to mention the time she lit herself on fire during a Flaming Lips concert), Hart accompanies each story with an original cocktail recipe, ensuring that You Deserve a Drink is as educational as it is entertaining. With cameos from familiar friends from the YouTube scene and a foreword by Grace Helbig, this glimpse into Hart’s life brings warmth and humor to the woman fans know and love. And for readers who haven’t met Mamrie yet—take a warm-up shot and break out the cocktail shaker: you’re going to need a drink. “Hart is a pull-no-punches comedian with a talent for self-deprecation in the guise of self-aggrandizement, a winning formula.”—The New York Times




How Not to Get Rich


Book Description

A detailed and humorous account of the various disastrous money schemes and entrepreneurial pursuits of Mark Twain, who was noted for his spectacularly bad financial decisions during the Gilded Age




The Strictest School in the World


Book Description




The Misadventures of Don Quixote


Book Description

Story of a Spanish country gentleman named Don Quixote and his companion Sancho who set out to search for adventure together.