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Local Peanut's Eccentric & Extravagant Lives
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The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the WorldThe Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A. J. Jacobs
Buy new: $16.50 / Used from: $1.04
One man decides to be the smartest man in the world by reading the encyclopedia!
The Radioactive Boy Scout: The Frightening True Story of a Whiz Kid and His Homemade Nuclear ReactorThe Radioactive Boy Scout: The Frightening True Story of a Whiz Kid and His Homemade Nuclear Reactor by Ken Silverstein
Buy new: $11.16 / Used from: $4.50
A boy decides to build a nuclear reactor in his backyard
Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All TimeBobby Fischer Goes to War: How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All Time by David Edmonds
Buy used from: $0.58
Read about how strange Bobby Fischer, the Chess Champion, really was
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English DictionaryThe Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
Buy used from: $0.01
How the Oxford English Dictionary came to be
The Devil in the White City:  Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed AmericaThe Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $1.90
A serial killer and an architect at the Chicago World's Fair
Ghosty Men: The Strange but True Story of the Collyer Brothers and My Uncle Arthur, New York's Greatest Hoarders (An Urban Historical)Ghosty Men: The Strange but True Story of the Collyer Brothers and My Uncle Arthur, New York's Greatest Hoarders (An Urban Historical) by Franz Lidz
Buy new: $13.57 / Used from: $11.43
Tragic tale of 2 Brothers/Hermits
The Perfectionist: 6Life and Death in Haute CuisineThe Perfectionist: 6Life and Death in Haute Cuisine by Rudolph Chelminski
Buy used from: $0.01
Loiseau's tragic search for perfection in the culinary arts
Count Down: Six Kids Vie for Glory at the World's Toughest Math CompetitionCount Down: Six Kids Vie for Glory at the World's Toughest Math Competition by Steve Olson
Buy new: $19.20 / Used from: $0.01
Profiles of Young Math Geniuses in Competition
Into the WildInto the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Buy new: $11.16 / Used from: $1.99
Heartbreaking story of a student who gives away everything he owns, hitchhikes into the wilderness . . . never to return
Death and the Sun: A Matador's Season in the Heart of SpainDeath and the Sun: A Matador's Season in the Heart of Spain by Edward Lewine
Buy new: $24.00 / Used from: $0.01
Follow the tradition of bullfighters
The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal TradeThe Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade by Thomas Lynch
Buy new: $11.20 / Used from: $2.25
Humorous & touching life of an undertaker in a small ltown
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Techno logyMr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Techno logy by Lawrence Weschler
Buy new: $11.16 / Used from: $4.49
Mr Wilson runs a tiny museum in California. If you can't afford to fly there . . . read this book
Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in DisguiseGarlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl
Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $2.68
Live vicariously through a food critic as she dons inventive disguises to taste-test extraordinary cuisine
The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine WarrenThe Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren by Gerald Brittle
Buy new: $16.15 / Used from: $11.22
True account of a husband-and-wife team who encounter entities, ghosts & spirits
Palimpsest: A MemoirPalimpsest: A Memoir by Gore Vidal
Buy new: $12.24 / Used from: $0.38
Read about Isherwood, Tennessee Williams, the Sitwells, Truman Capote, E.M. Forster, Anais Nin, and--most of all--his alcoholic mummy through the witchy fish-eye lens of Gore Vidal
No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard FeynmanNo Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman by Richard Phillips Feynman
Buy new: $16.46 / Used from: $7.99
Lots of anecdotes & personal stories of my favorite genius. In my next life, I plan on being as smart as his kneecap.
The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of MolokaiThe Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai by John Tayman
Buy new: $18.15 / Used from: $0.46
Read about th extraordinary Father Damien and the colony of lepers on the Hawaiian island of Molokai
Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle AstronautRiding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut by Mike Mullane
Buy used from: $1.01
Look into the testesterone-laden world of the NASA shuttle astronaut. Hilarious!
The Grizzly Maze: Timothy Treadwell's Fatal Obsession with Alaskan BearsThe Grizzly Maze: Timothy Treadwell's Fatal Obsession with Alaskan Bears by Nick Jans
Buy new: $24.95 / Used from: $0.77
A man's naivete in his obsession with grizzlies leads to his death
Sound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful FriendshipSound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship by Dave Kindred
Buy new: $27.00 / Used from: $0.01
The fascinating tale of Howard Cosell and Muhammad Ali
The Butterfly Hunter: Adventures of People Who Found Their True Calling Way Off the Beaten PathThe Butterfly Hunter: Adventures of People Who Found Their True Calling Way Off the Beaten Path by Chris Ballard
Buy used from: $5.50
An awesome gallery of people with the strangest jobs: a female lumberjack, the scientist in "When Bugs Attacik", the guy who plays the "voice of God" in films & ads. Kewl!
Overachievers, The: The Secret Lives of Driven KidsOverachievers, The: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids by Alexandra Robbins
Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $0.44
Live in the cut-throat lives of Ivy-League obsessed teens. I'm sure most parents want to have this problem!
I Was Vermeer: The Rise and Fall of the Twentieth Century's Greatest ForgerI Was Vermeer: The Rise and Fall of the Twentieth Century's Greatest Forger by Frank Wynne
Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $9.95
Han van Meegeren fooled everybody with his Dutch masterpieces until a painting he sold to Herman Goring was traced back to him! Fabulous!
Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's ChildrenLeaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children by John Wood
Buy new: $17.13 / Used from: $5.49
Read how one Microsoft employee had to go to the Himalayas to get away from Steve Ballmer and ended up building 2,600 libraries, 200 schools and90 computer labs!
The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in ArlesThe Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles by Martin Gayford
Buy new: $18.24 / Used from: $8.74
Read about 9 pivotal weeks when 2 angst-ridden art giants: Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gaugin were room-mates. It just boggles the mind!
American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New ChinaAmerican Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China by Matthew Polly
Buy new: $17.16 / Used from: $2.55
An 98-lb weakling goes on a quest to be a more manly man and finds it in a temple full of the fighting monks of Shaolin! True Story!
Fathers and Sons: The Autobiography of a FamilyFathers and Sons: The Autobiography of a Family by Alexander Waugh
Buy new: $18.15 / Used from: $4.60
This is the story of an eccentric British family of writers-- one of which is the darkly witty Evelyn Waugh--- author of BRIDESHEAD REVISITED. Read about this endearing loony clan! And its all True!