Incredibly Interesting Authors

Maria Konnikova’s new book, The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It . . . Every Time, takes a deep dive into the psychology of con artists and the psychology of the trusting people they take advantage of. It’s a scary and fascinating book that reveals the methods and motives of con artists like Bernie Madoff, Jim Bakker, and Lance Armstrong, and explains why everyone is vulnerable to the con artist’s game, even other con artists.

Lewis Carroll’s beloved Alice is well known for her colorful adventures in Wonderland. But it wasn’t until she graced the pages of comic books that her experiences became truly bizarre. For many years, comic book historian Craig Yoe has been cataloging comic book depictions of Alice. Alice in Comicland is the fruit of his research. Yoe has discovered comic book stories in which Alice rides in a flying saucer, meets Santa Claus, undergoes a sex change, and stars in banned 1950s horror comics. These stories were written and drawn by some of the best comic book artists in the industry, including Walt Kelly, Alex Toth, Dan DeCarlo, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Davis, Dave Berg, and Jack Kirby. Why is Alice a perennial star of comic books? Two reasons: first, she is as internationally famous as Mickey Mouse, and second, she’s in the public domain, so there are no licensing hassles. I expect Alice will be part of comic books for as long as comic books are around. Buy a copy if Alice In Comicland on Amazon

Isabel Greenberg is a writer and illustrator who lives and works in North London. In her graphic novel The Encyclopedia of Early Earth, Greenberg combines art, mythology, and humor to tell a story of star-crossed love. It takes readers back to a time before history began, when another—now forgotten—civilization thrived. The people who roamed Early Earth were much like us: curious, emotional, funny, ambitious, and vulnerable. In this series of illustrated and linked tales, Greenberg chronicles the explorations of a young man as he paddles from his home in the North Pole to the South Pole in search of a missing piece of his soul. There, he meets his true love, but their romance is ill-fated. Early Earth’s unusual and finicky polarity means the lovers can never touch.

In his book Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks, and the Hidden Powers of the Mind (reviewed here), Alex Stone starts by recounting his tragically humiliating disqualification at an international magic competition. So ashamed was he by the unceremonious ejection from the stage that he gave up magic and pursued a post-grad degree in physics. Eventually the lure of the conjuring arts called him back, but this time around, Stone got serious. He sought mentors, practiced incessantly, researched magic history, and read up on the psychology of deception and the limits of human perception.

For nine years the popular website Futility Closet has collected arresting curiosities in history, literature, language, art, philosophy, and mathematics. This book presents the best of them: pipe-smoking robots, clairvoyant pennies, zoo jailbreaks, literary cannibals, corned beef in space, revolving squirrels, disappearing Scottish lighthouse keepers, reincarnated pussycats, dueling Churchills, horse spectacles, onrushing molasses, and hundreds more. Plus the obscure words, odd inventions, puzzles and paradoxes that have made the website a quirky favorite with millions of readers — hundreds of examples of the marvelous, the diverting, and the strange, now in a portable format to occupy your idle hours. Here’s my interview with Greg about his new book and his new career as a full-time curator of curiosities. Buy a copy of the Futility Closet book on Amazon.

John Durant is a leader of the growing ancestral health movement. Durant study evolutionary psychology at Harvard prior to founding Paleo NYC and Barefoot Runners NYC, the largest Paleo and barefoot running groups in the world. In his new book The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health, Durant argues for an evolutionary – and revolutionary – approach to health. Blending science and culture, anthropology and philosophy, Durant distills the lessons from his adventures and shows how apply them to day-to-day life. He blogs at HunterGatherer.com

Leander Kahney has covered Apple for more than a dozen years and has written three popular books about Apple, including Inside Steve’s Brain and The Cult of Mac. His newest book is a biography of Apple’s senior VP of design, called Jony Ive: The Genius behind Apple’s Greatest Products Millions are familiar with Apple’s legendary aesthetic. It’s what makes their products instantly recognizable, and is synonymous with craft, care, and quality. And though the design is iconic, few are familiar with the man behind the design: Jonathan Ive, chief designer. Not only has Ive made Apple one of the most valuable companies in the world — his design has overturned entire industries, from music and mobile phones to PCs and tablets. Unlike his former boss and creative partner Steve Jobs, Ive shuns the spotlight. Naturally shy and soft-spoken, he lets his work speak for itself. In Jony Ive: The Genius behind Apple’s Greatest Products, Kahney offers a gripping and thorough examination of a remarkably creative career and provides insight into the principles underlying Ive’s success. Here’s my interview with Leander in the second episode of my new podcast, Incredibly Interesting Authors.

Scott Adams is not only a world-famous cartoonist, he’s also a world-class failure. And he’s the first to admit it. In his new book, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, the Dilbert creator explains how failure can lead to success if you develop the right skills to make the most of your mistakes. Part memoir and part business guide, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, is the entertaining and useful story of Adams’ remarkable success within the context of dozens of failures.