The Pyrates -George McDonald Fraser

Despite some of his later anti-global warming diatribes, Michael Crichton was for the most part an excellent writer. Which is why I'm sure he came to his senses and chose never to release his book Pirate Latitudes. Published posthumously, the book seems to be ripped straight from Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean... the ride. The plot is nearly nonexistent and every pirate related legend is crammed haphazardly into the book. Stories of the kraken and headhunter tribes are tacked on like literary post-its. After wading through this dreck, I had to reread an old favorite (and far superior book) The Pyrates.

Rivaling Terry Pratchett for the king of humorous writing, George McDonald Fraser creates a fictional vision of the pirate life lifted directly from Treasure Island and Basil Rathbone movies with touches of slap-stick (if fruitcart then chase scene). Fraser's pirates are walking, talking larger-than-than stereotypes. Every paragraph contains a delightfully snarky gem, play on words or downright silliness ("Her chest smoldered and her eyes heaved...just by way of a change"). And yet, there is far more plot than the Crichton novel. The book is crawling with square-jawed heroes, fainting ladies, swarthy pirates swearing (w' a curse!), improbable battles, hostile chocolate-fiend natives, cameos by Sir Samuel Pepys and a black mambo used as a yo-yo. Gut-laugh funny and a must read.

The Harvard Psychedelic Club - Don Lattin

What we now associate with Timothy Leary - LSD, Grateful Dead concerts, hippies, tuning in and dropping out, first started out as psychological experiments at Harvard University. Leary, a charismatic and well-liked professor, hoped to help inmates rehabilitate by giving them mystical experiences via LSD. His early partners, lab assistants and fellow researchers soon became sucked into the LSD world. Leary looses his job and home, gets kicked out of one country after another and finally ends up being broken out of prison by the Black Panthers. Lattin follows the path of Leary's life as it spins out of control, along with the stories of Richard Alpert (Ram Dass), Huston Smith (leader in the study of world religions) and health guru Andrew Weil. A fascinating look at the divergent and often strange paths life can lead us down.

I Married Adventure - Osa Johnson

Osa and Martin Johnson were once household names. In the 1920s and 30s they brought the wilds of Africa, Micronesia and Borneo to the big screen in little towns. Both were originally from small towns in Kansas. While Martin dreamed of seeing the world and photographing it, Osa wanted only a nice home and family. In her late teens, she met and spontaneously married Martin and her life veered wildly off track. They spent the first few years together running a traveling show and lecture about Martin's adventures in the South Pacific, working as a deckhand for writer Jack London. Martin, however, dreamed of having more adventures. He saved the cash up and took Osa on an adventure to the wilds of Borneo to photograph headhunters and cannibals. Osa gives thrilling accounts of running through jungle, canoeing in dugouts, hunting in the savannas of Africa, disease, lions, hardship and adventure, all from a small-town girl's view. The films now seem cliched and trite in some ways, but the images they managed to gather with the most basic and lumbering equipment really is to be admired. Romantic and exciting.

Off the Tourist Trail - Eyewitness Travel

This is SUCH a dangerous book if you like to travel. Here are a thousand alternative trips and places to visit off the standard tourist trail. Usually less expensive than the big names, much less-visited and often harder to get to, these destinations are so very tempting. Find alternatives to the over touristed Machu Picchu in Isla del Sol which is much more intact and barely visited. Visit Lalibela, a stone church carved into the ground, as opposed to tourist-packed Petra. There are cheaper tropical islands, festivals of every sort, canyons, falls and train routes. Oh so tempting!

The Guinea Pig Dairies - AJ Jacobs

Jacob's past books have focused on his year-long experiments - reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica and living "biblically" (kinda). His Guinea Pig Dairies chronicles his shorter month-long experiments. Some, like telling the truth no matter what, are unqualified failures (albeit hilarious ones). His online dating experiment is kind of creepy. And his experiment to do whatever his wife asks is incredibly satisfying. Not as in-depth or thought provoking as his past books, but still an entertaining read.

The Urban Hermit - Sam Macdonald

Sam Macdonald was a fat, broke failure. His social life consisted of sitting on a bar-stool all night. His apartment, he noted, was the "brownest" place he had ever lived. Mustering the reserves of a truly desperate man, he decided to go on a starvation diet to loose weight and save money. Breakfast - 2 hard-boiled eggs, lunch - cooked lentils and salt, dinner, - lentils and a white-bread and tuna sandwich. It was horrible, but Macdonald stuck it out. While he clearly warns that no one should ever eat like this or follow in his path, it did work for him. He lost nearly half his body weight, paid off his debts and saved money, got new interests and hobbies, cut back on his drinking, landed some really sweet freelance gigs that took him around the world and even met a woman who liked him (this he found perplexing). A very good read by a thoroughly likable and very honest guy.

The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch) - Carroll Spinney

Spinney is probably the most famous man no-one has ever heard of. He's been on the cover of Time, traveled the world and performed with the likes of Bob Hope and the Rockettes, conducted orchestras, appeared as a guest on every late-night talk show and has been on tv for 40 years. All of this was done playing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. Spinney's short and very sweet book tells of his early interests in puppets, his friendship with Jim Henson and the incredible rise and popularity of Sesame Street. Spinney is as wonderful and kind outside the bird suit as he is in it.

This Family of Mine - Victoria Gotti

Victoria Gotti, daughter of mafia boss John Gotti, writes a surprisingly articulate and interesting tell-all about her life in relation to the mafia. She chronicles her father's early life and his various successes and failures. Some of Gotti's claims of innocence for her father and brother should be taken with a grain of salt. On the whole, however, Gotti gives a clear and honest look at what a trying and hard life it can be having family who are "made men." She tells of endless prison visits, her failing health, stress, desire for children and a writing career and the benefits and problems associated with a last name like Gotti. A tough-as-nails lady - admirable and interesting.