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Narrated by an unlikely literary legend, How I Became a Famous Novelist pinballs from the postcollege slums of Boston to the fear-drenched halls of Manhattan's publishing houses, from the gloomy purity of Montana's foremost writing workshop to the hedonistic hotel bars of the Sunset Strip.   This is the horrifying, hilarious tale of how Pete Tarslaw's \"pile of garbage,\" called The Tornado Ashes Club, became the most talked about, blogged about, read, admired, and reviled novel in America. It will change everything you think you know-about literature, appearance, truth, beauty, and those people who still care about books.  It is the winner of the 2010 Thurber Prize for American Humor.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49545622454545,"sku":"GOR002794442","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51244291817745,"sku":"GOR005497545","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52147748503825,"sku":"NLS9781849015721","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52605137060113,"sku":"GOR007304909","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1849015724.jpg?v=1773316832"},{"product_id":"how-i-became-a-famous-novelist-book-steve-hely-9780802170606","title":"How I Became a Famous Novelist","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThis story of a slacker who sets out to take the book-publishing world by storm is \"a hilarious send-up of literary pretensions and celebrity culture.\" (\u003ci\u003eUSA Today\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePete Tarslaw wants some fame and fortune and, perhaps most importantly, the chance to get back at his ex-girlfriend at her upcoming wedding. After listening to a vapid author prattling on during an interview, while nubile young women watch adoringly, he figures becoming a literary icon must be the easiest con game going . . .\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis \"gleeful skewering of the publishing industry and every cliché of the writing life\" pinballs from the college town of Boston to the fear-drenched halls of Manhattan's publishing houses, from the gloomy purity of Montana's foremost writing workshop to the hedonistic hotel bars of the Sunset Strip (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e). The tale of how Pete's \"pile of garbage\" titled \u003ci\u003eThe Tornado Ashes Club\u003c\/i\u003e became the most talked about, blogged about, admired, and reviled novel in America will change everything you think you know about literature, truth, beauty, and those people out there who actually still care about books.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Nothing is sacred and all is skewered: critics, Hollywood, MFA programs, students, literary journals, panels, conferences and resulting hook-ups . . . I rooted for Pete, a scheming underachiever whom the late great humorist Max Shulman would have been proud to call his own. I may have read a funnier book in the last 20 years, but at this moment I'm hard-pressed to name it.\" --Elinor Lipman, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"A pitch-perfect takeoff on the insipid conventions of the best-seller racks . . . caustic wit with an unexpected depth of emotional insight.\" --\u003ci\u003eAustin American-Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eHow I Became a Famous Novelist\u003c\/i\u003e has a laugh-out-loud quotient inappropriately high for reading in public.\" --\u003ci\u003eSt. Louis Post-Dispatch\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49561385468177,"sku":"GOR003043975","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50128817160465,"sku":"CIN0802170609G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50665804136721,"sku":"CIN0802170609VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007572738321,"sku":"NIN9780802170606","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51717249499409,"sku":"CIN0802170609A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53477240013073,"sku":"GOR007209952","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0802170609.jpg?v=1751233539"},{"product_id":"ridiculous-race-book-steve-hely-9780805087406","title":"The Ridiculous Race","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe most absurd, hilarious, and ridiculous travelogue ever told, by two hit-TV comedy writers who raced each other around the world--for bragging rights and a very expensive bottle of Scotch\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e It started as a friendly wager: two old friends from \u003ci\u003eThe Harvard Lampoon\u003c\/i\u003e, Steve Hely and Vali Chandrasekaran now hotshot Hollywood scribes, challenged each other to a race around the globe in opposite directions. There was only one rule: no airplanes. The first man to cross every line of longitude and arrive back in L.A. would win Scotch and infamy. But little did one racer know that the other planned to cheat him out of the big prize by way of a ride on a quarter-million-dollar jet pack.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e What follows is a pair of hilarious, hazardous, and eye-opening journeys into the farthest corners of the world. From the West Bank to the Aleutian Islands, the slums of Rio to the steppes of Mongolia, traveling by ocean freighter and the Trans-Siberian Railway (pranking each other mercilessly along the way), Vali and Steve plunge eagerly and ill-prepared into global adventure.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Ridiculous Race\u003c\/i\u003e is a comic travelogue unlike any other, an outrageous tale of two gentlemen travelers who can't wait to don baggy cardigan sweaters, clench corncob pipes between their teeth, and yell at their sons, \"You lazy bums! When we were your age, we raced around the world without airplanes!\"\u003c\/p\u003e y), Vali and Steve plunge eagerly and ill-prepared into global adventure.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Ridiculous Race\u003c\/i\u003e is a comic travelogue unlike any other, an outrageous tale of two gentlemen travelers who can't wait to don baggy cardigan sweaters, clench corncob pipes between their teeth, and yell at their sons, \"You lazy bums! When we were your age, we raced around the world without airplanes!\"y), Vali and Steve plunge eagerly and ill-prepared into global adventure.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Ridiculous Race\u003c\/i\u003e is a comic travelogue unlike any other, an outrageous tale of two gentlemen travelers who can't wait to don baggy cardigan sweaters, clench corncob pipes between their teeth, and yell at their sons, \"You lazy bums! 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Part travel book, part pop history, part comic memoir, Hely's writing will make readers want to reach for their backpack and hiking boots.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Wonder Trail\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of a trip from Los Angeles to the bottom of South America, presented in 102 short chapters. From Mexico City to Oaxaca; into ancient Mayan ruins; the jungles, coffee plantations, and remote beaches of Central America; across the Panama Canal; by sea to Colombia; to the wild Easter celebration of Popay n; to the Amazon rainforest; the Inca sites of Cuzco and Machu Picchu; to the Gal pagos Islands; the Atacama Desert of Chile; and down to wind-worn Patagonia at the bottom of the Western Hemisphere; Steve traveled collecting stories, adventures, oddities, marvels, bits of history and biography, tales of weirdos, fun facts, and anything else interesting or illuminating. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Steve's plan was to discover the unusual, wonderful, and absurd in Central and South America, to seek and find the incredible, delightful people and experiences that came his way. And the book that resulted is just as fun. A blend of travel writing, history, and comic memoir, \u003ci\u003eThe Wonder Trail\u003c\/i\u003e will inspire, inform, and delight.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50351848685841,"sku":"CIN0525955011G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50431905759505,"sku":"CIN0525955011VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53017509069073,"sku":"GOR011684262","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0525955011.jpg?v=1751359039"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-steve-hely.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}