If you've ever laughed your way through David Sedaris's cheerfully misanthropic stories, you might think you know what you're getting with Calypso—but you'd probably be wrong. Sedaris buys a beach house in the Carolinas, envisioning long, relaxing vacations with his loved ones, and the retreat (which he names Sea Section) indeed proves to be idyllic, except for one thing: you can't take a vacation from yourself. Now in his 60s, he sets his formidable powers of observation toward middle age and mortality. The stories are very, very funny in this New York Times Notable Book, but much of the comedy touches on that vertiginous moment when your own body betrays you, and you realize that you have way more past than future.

"Unquestionably the king of comic writing…. Calypso is both funnier and more heartbreaking than pretty much anything out there."—Guardian (London)