The cult classic essay collection from “one of the most emotionally exacting, mercilessly candid, deeply funny . . . writers of our time” (Cheryl Strayed, The New York Times Book Review). First published in 2001, My Misspent Youthcaptured a generation’s uneasy coming of age as the world made its chaotic way into a new millennium. It also established Meghan Daum as a leading literary voice, widely celebrated for her fresh, provocative approach to the hidden fault lines of America’s cultural landscape. From her New Yorker essays about the financial demands of big-city ambition and the ethereal, strangely old-fashioned allure of cyber-relationships to her dazzlingly hilarious riff about musical passions that give way to middle-brow paraphernalia, Daum delves into the center of things while closely examining the detritus that spills out along the way. With precision and well-balanced irony, Daum implicates herself as readily as she does the targets that fascinate and horrify her.

A gripping introduction to the world of Peter F. Hamilton’s Commonwealth Saga, Misspent Youth is set in the near-future, over three hundred years before Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained. For fans of Iain M. Banks and Stephen Baxter. Jeff Baker is granted the gift of eternal youth. However, it’s not all it seems . . . It is 2040 and, after decades of research, we can finally rejuvenate a human being. At seventy-eight years old, Jeff Baker – renowned inventor and philanthropist – has given the world much of his creative genius. He’s therefore selected as first choice for this gift. At first, rejuvenation feels like a miracle. Until the glow begins to fade. Personal relationships start to break down and the world waits for more brilliant new work. Living the dream will come at a cost, but can Jeff pay the price? ‘The owner of the most powerful imagination in science fiction’ – Ken Follett, author of The Pillars of the Earth ‘Hamilton handles massive ideas with enviable ease’ – Guardian

A master of the personal essay candidly explores love, death, and the counterfeit rituals of American life in this "brave, funny compendium" (Slate) Nearly fifteen years after her debut collection, My Misspent Youth, captured the ambitions and anxieties of a generation, Meghan Daum returns to the personal essay with The Unspeakable, a powerful collection of ten new works. Where her previous collection explores what it is to be a struggling twenty-something urban dweller with an overdrawn bank account and oversized ambition, The Unspeakable contends with parental death, the decision not to have children, and more-a new set of challenges tackled by a writer at her best, investigated in the same uncompromising voice that made Daum one of the most engaging thinkers writing today. In The Unspeakable, Daum pushes back against the false sentimentality and shrink-wrapped platitudes that surround so much of the contemporary American experience. But Daum also operates in a comic register. With perfect precision, she reveals the absurdities of the New Age search for the "Best Possible Experience," champions the merits of cream-of-mushroom-soup casserole, and gleefully recounts a quintessential "only-in-L.A." story of playing charades at a famous person's home. Combining the piercing insight of Joan Didion with humor reminiscent of Nora Ephron's, Daum dissects our culture's most dangerous illusions while retaining her own joy and compassion. Through it all, she dramatizes the search for an authentic self in a world where achieving an identity is never simple and never complete.

From the acclaimed author and columnist: a laugh-out-loud journey into the world of real estate—the true story of one woman’s “imperfect life lived among imperfect houses” and her quest for the four perfect walls to call home. After an itinerant suburban childhood and countless moves as a grown-up—from New York City to Lincoln, Nebraska; from the Midwest to the West Coast and back—Meghan Daum was living in Los Angeles, single and in her mid-thirties, and devoting obscene amounts of time not to her writing career or her dating life but to the pursuit of property: scouring Craigslist, visiting open houses, fantasizing about finding the right place for the right price. Finally, near the height of the real estate bubble, she succumbed, depleting her life’s savings to buy a 900-square-foot bungalow, with a garage that “bore a close resemblance to the ruins of Pompeii” and plumbing that “dated back to the Coolidge administration.” From her mother’s decorating manias to her own “hidden room” dreams, Daum explores the perils and pleasures of believing that only a house can make you whole. With delicious wit and a keen eye for the absurd, she has given us a pitch-perfect, irresistible tale of playing a lifelong game of house.

“[A]ffectingly personal, achingly earnest, and something close to necessary.” —Vogue “Personal, convincing, unflinching.” —Tablet From an author who’s been called “one of the most emotionally exacting, mercilessly candid, deeply funny, and intellectually rigorous writers of our time” (Cheryl Strayed, #1 New York Times bestselling author) comes a seminal book that reaches surprising truths about feminism, the Trump era, and the Resistance movement. You won’t be able to stop thinking and talking about it. In this gripping work, Meghan Daum examines our country’s most intractable problems with clear-eyed honesty instead of exaggerated outrage. With passion, humor, and personal reflection, she tries to make sense of the current landscape—from Donald Trump’s presidency to the #MeToo movement and beyond. In the process, she wades into the waters of identity politics and intersectionality, thinks deeply about campus politics and notions of personal resilience, and tests a theory about the divide between Gen Xers and millennials. This signature work may well be the first book to capture the essence of this era in all its nuances and contradictions. No matter where you stand on its issues, this book will strike a chord.

New York Times Notable Book: A Manhattanite seeks Midwestern bliss and finds something else in this “funny, literate [and] often touching story” (People). Television correspondent Lucinda Trout is unhappy about the superficiality and shallowness of her life in New York, not to mention the latest stratospheric rent hike. Seeking an escape, she proposes a new project: She’ll move far, far away, to the wholesome, most-livable-list town of Prairie City, and send “Quality of Life Report” segments back to the network. But her mental image of the nation’s heartland doesn’t quite match up to the reality she finds. Prairie City may not be Manhattan, but it isn’t Mayberry either—and while housing may be cheaper here, life and love are just as complicated. Now Lucinda has to confront the challenge of truly finding her own place in the world, in the wildly acclaimed first novel by the New York Times-bestselling and PEN Award-winning author of The Problem with Everything. “Daum brings a crisp, wisecracking voice to her novel . . . An admirably nuanced view of the American heartland.” —The New Yorker “Daum’s enormous comic gift—and her ability to use it in the service of fundamentally serious issues—is an unexpected delight.” —The New York Times Book Review “A confident first novel, full of wit and deft social criticism, often very funny and frequently wise.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “With a keen eye and trenchant wit, Meghan Daum skewers the obsessive narcissism and sense of entitlement that passes for real values in our media-driven culture. Always funny, often painfully so, The Quality of Life Report is more than simply satirical. It is an intelligent and heartfelt tale of a young woman, making radical choices and waking up to her life.” —Ruth Ozeki, author of The Book of Form and Emptiness