"The highly educated person in modern America is commonly suspicious of religion and an advocate of secular reason and science—in short, an atheist. The author of this book was raised and educated to be just such a nonbeliever, but through powerful numinous experiences came to reject the atheism of his upbringing. This is the “waking up” of the book’s title, a waking up to the deeper truths of the soul. Its pages record a spiritual autobiography, a journey from doubt to a life-affirming faith in the coming of the Cosmic Christ."

Product Description: One of the most celebrated and controversial authors in America delivers his first novel—a sweeping chronicle of contemporary Los Angeles that is bold, exhilarating, and utterly original. Dozens of characters pass across the reader's sight lines—some never to be seen again—but James Frey lingers on a handful of LA's lost souls and captures the dramatic narrative of their lives: a bright, ambitious young Mexican-American woman who allows her future to be undone by a moment of searing humiliation; a supremely narcissistic action-movie star whose passion for the unattainable object of his affection nearly destroys him; a couple, both nineteen years old, who flee their suffocating hometown and struggle to survive on the fringes of the great city; and an aging Venice Beach alcoholic whose life is turned upside down when a meth-addled teenage girl shows up half-dead outside the restroom he calls home...read more

Product Description: Technically this is a novel. About a guy and his punk band. Who start out shitty, but persevere, and eventually become pretty popular. If I mentioned that Ben Foster is better known as Ben Weasel from Screeching Weasel, you'll get a much more nuanced idea about what this book is about, and certainly, what this novel MIGHT be based upon...read more

A collection of fourteen stories explores the limits of what we can expect from ourselves and others, told through a circle of characters ranging from New Orleans and Portland to Manhattan and Paris. Original.