Naked

Sometimes the truth is funnier than fiction. In 17 essays, David Sedaris covers topics including his obsessive-compulsive tendencies as a child to count and lick everything (including the chalkboard), hitchhiking with a wheel chair-bound companion, coming out at Greek camp and ending with an awkward visit to a nudist colony as a teenager.

Appeals: dark humor, quirkiness

If you like the too-crazy-and-funny-to-believe memoirs of David Sedaris, you might also enjoy Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs.

Sedaris, David. Naked. 1997. 224 pages.

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

From musical hauntings to music therapy, Musicophilia passionately explores the mysterious power of music through stories of patients with neurological disorders or recent brain trauma, musicians and everyday people.

Appeals: Sacks writes about science that in a way that is both accessible and not dumbed-down; compelling characters; good footnotes and references that will guide an interested reader to many other great books and movies.

If you enjoy science writing, you might also enjoy I Have Landed: The End of a Beginning in Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould or Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach.

Sacks, Oliver. Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. 2007. 381 pages.

Understanding Comics: the Invisible Art

A meta-comic, this graphic novel provides a thoughtful, visually-stimulating history of comics as a form of artistic expression and communication.

Appeals: Quick, fun read. Will appeal not only to comic fans but also to anyone interested in visual communication. Provides an effective overview of the medium.

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: the Invisible Art. 1993. 224 pages.

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

The Professor and the Madman is a sensational story of how a mad murderer became one of the most important contributors to the construction of the first great index to the English language: the Oxford English Dictionary.

Appeals: Reads a bit like a thriller. Inside scoop on individuals that reveals a bigger story of the work entailed in creating a dictionary. Gruesome, gritty, and sure to improve your vocabulary. For word nerds and people interested in the dark depths of the human psyche.

If you like historic tales of murderers, you might also like The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson or In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.

Winchester, Simon. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. 1998. 288 pages.