When I saw that this book opens with Ronson's Insane Clown Posse interview (which is one of my favorite things ever), I was afraid it would be downhill from there.

Topics range from "Indigo children" to a foiled school shooting plot in North Pole, Alaska (the town where it's always Christmas) to a portrait of obsessive-compulsive genius in the form of Ronson's explorations through the thousands of boxes of stuff spread out all over Stanley Kubrick's estate.

This is a collection of journalism by Jon Ronson, published in various places and over a period of around 20 years. I wish I could remember the original review but I can't and I am so unhappy about this now, I don't even feel like it. He is most remembered for his inspirational leadership in the second world war and his rousing speeches urging Britain to fight on. The final chapter examines his legacy and attempts to answer the question: how justifiable is his reputation in view of his achievements? He is the author of many bestselling books, including Frank: The True Story that Inspired the Movie , Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries , The Psychopath Test , The Men Who Stare at Goats and Them: Adventures with Extremists .

The would-be killers, like all students in North Pole high school, answered letters from children all over the world addressed to "Santa, North Pole" under elfish pseudonyms. It's very conversational, and you can hear the memories of the interviews in his voice: meeting Stanley Kubrick's family, the Insane Clown Posse, his re-hashing of the Frank story, the "right-to-die" movement advocates, the "Real Life Super Hero" movement, the Jesus Christians voluntarily donating kidneys to strangers . The story of Maf the dog is a hilarious and highly original peek into the life of a complex canine hero – he was very much a real historical figure, with his license and photographs sold at auction along with Marilyn’s other person affects. Clubland Confidential is the true story of the rise and fall of a decadent nocturnal empire that stretched over several American cities and spawned its own subculture of celebrities and wannabes. Thus ends my journey through Jon Ronson's entire bibliography - at least, all of his substantive, published works.S. Lewis' trilemma as an impressive and unassailable logical argument, even though perusal of the Wikipedia article will indicate that the trilemma has had serious argument since it was first presented. Frustrating as all get go too, because it's written so well it's as if we, the reader, were actually taking part in these extraordinary events and conversations, and I want to ask. I preferred his other works such as So You've Been Publicly Shamed and The Psychopath Test as they had an overarching idea or theme to them.

The poet and musician Anthony Joseph met and spoke to Lord Kitchener just once, in 1984, when he found the calypso icon standing alone for a moment in the heat of Port of Spain s Queen’s Park Savannah, one Carnival Monday afternoon. My favourite piece in the book, "Santa's Little Conspirators", is the story of a group of 13 year old high-school students in the town of North Pole, Alaska, accused of conspiring to commit a Columbine-style massacre at their school (they were stopped before anyone was hurt).

Jon Ronson is always entertaining: his persistent curiosity and willingness to grab a flight to go ask so-and-so about such-and-such seems so audacious while at the same time feeling perfectly natural. His ability to self-appraise, and layer the narration with his observations and reflections, are fascinating in their honesty. In this elegantly-tooled volume, Adam Sweeting gets the lowdown on cover versions – the worst, the most popular, the most frequently recorded, the most successful, the stupidest, the most tasteless, the most influential, and the ones nobody got around to yet. He goes to a UFO convention in the Nevada Desert with Robbie Williams, asks Insane Clown Posse (who are possibly America's nastiest rappers) whether it's true they have actually been evangelical Christians all along, and rummages through the extensive archives of Stanley Kubrick. Unlike Ronson's previous books of (if I remember Jon Stewart's phrase correctly) "satirical investigative journalism," Lost at Sea is more anthology than narrative, with the only unifying theme being that people are just really damned strange.

He's met a man who tried to split the atom in his kitchen and asked a conscious robot if she's got a soul. The Amazing Adventures of Phoenix Jones Jon follows a group of real-life superheroes as they try and fight crime on the streets of America. A good example of this is the chapter entitled "A Message From God" where Ronson attends the Alpha Course. It's also very interesting to see how Ronson treats some of his subjects - he often expresses genuine sympathy and concern for their well-being, and seems to form lasting relationships with them. His topics range from real-life superheroes to "psychic" Sylvia Browne, and his writing, while pithy and skeptical, shows a remarkable amount of humor and compassion.even though it's easy to verify online that the Alpha Course is frequently -- and some contend primarily -- marketed to and attended by new Christians seeking guidance after their initial conversion, and that the marketing of the course as a silver bullet for agnostics is deliberately misleading to make it seem more effective. Discover the joy of reading with us, your trusted source for affordable books that do not compromise on quality. Combining life-writing with poetic prose, Anthony Joseph gets to the heart of the man behind the music and the myth, reaching behind the sobriquet to present a holistic portrait of the calypso icon Lord Kitchener. Frequently hilarious, sometimes disturbing, always entertaining, these compelling encounters with people on the edge of madness will have you wondering just what we’re capable of. But I wonder whether any act of sex, when described with such precision, would sound equally unpleasant.