Overview

One of the most anticipated books of 2017: Boston Globe, New York Times Book Review, New York's ""Vulture"", The Week, Bustle, BookRiot An NPR Best Book of 2017An AV Club Favorite Book of 2017A Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2017A Goodreads Choice Awards nominee David Sedaris tells all in a book that is, literally, a lifetime in the making. For forty years, David Sedaris has kept a diary in which he records everything that captures his attention-overheard comments, salacious gossip, soap opera plot twists, secrets confided by total strangers. These observations are the source code for his finest work, and through them he has honed his cunning, surprising sentences. Now, Sedaris shares his private writings with the world. Theft by Finding, the first of two volumes, is the story of how a drug-abusing dropout with a weakness for the International House of Pancakes and a chronic inability to hold down a real job became one of the funniest people on the planet. Written with a sharp eye and ear for the bizarre, the beautiful, and the uncomfortable, and with a generosity of spirit that even a misanthropic sense of humor can't fully disguise, Theft By Finding proves that Sedaris is one of our great modern observers. It's a potent reminder that when you're as perceptive and curious as Sedaris, there's no such thing as a boring day.

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9781478915768

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Reviews

Sedaris' diaries are the wellspring for his cuttingly funny autobiographical essays, and he now presents a mesmerizing volume of deftly edited passages...Sedaris is caustically witty about his bad habits and artistic floundering...A candid, socially incisive, and sharply amusing chronicle of the evolution of an arresting comedic artist. --Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review)

Sedaris fans will thrill to this opportunity to poke around in the writer's personal diaries, which he has faithfully kept for four decades and used as raw material for his hilarious nonfiction as well as his performances. --<b>Paul S. Makishima</b>, <b><i>Boston Globe</i>

Diary entries shouldn't be this good, but considering Sedaris' output, it's not surprising that this collection is a worthy addition to his name. --Caitlin PenzeyMoog, A.V. Club The Sedaris diaries are laced with snark, wit and trenchant observations, personal and public... --Jim Higgins, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Sedaris' gift is to make you stop and think one moment and laugh out loud the next. --Associated Press This is Sedaris, who can be wickedly funny as well as deliciously insightful about modern mores - so the nuggets are big and shiny and well worth panning for. An otherwise ho-hum entry can be punctuated by a literary sucker punch. --David Holahan, USA Today Starve and Struggle. Feast. Bloat. These are the three stages that all artists - with some variation - go through in their careers...So it's encouraging to read 25 years of David Sedaris's diaries, and not just because he manages to defeat Bloat. It's helpful to see that a voice as original, hilarious and sometimes as infuriating as his was put through the same Struggle and Starve meat grinder that most of us go through...No one escapes Bloat, but many survive it. Maybe not with the grace, whining, hilarity and eye-rolling that Sedaris does. But through all 25 years of Theft by Finding - of soap opera addictions and spider feeding, family kookiness (Sedaris notes the day Charles Addams dies; it feels like the passing of a baton) and language lessons - Sedaris's developing voice is the lifeline that pulls him through the murk. --Patton Oswalt, New York Times Book Review The essays have naturally stirred curiosity about the diary itself. With his new book, Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, Sedaris satisfies that curiosity. --Michael Upchurch, Boston Globe If you've had the good fortune of seeing Sedaris on tour, you've probably heard him read from one of his snarky and hilariously solipsistic diary entries. Finally, they're collected in one place for the first time. --Entertainment Weekly Sedaris' personal essays are put together so carefully that none of the seams show; they often ingeniously build to a sneak attack of wisdom or poignancy in the final lines... David Sedaris may be living a charmed life, [but] whether or not you believe in good luck charms, I recommend you buy the book and get the details immediately. --Marion Winik, Newsday Wildly entertaining....This book is flat-out memerizing. --Laurie Hertzel, Minneapolis Star-Tribune Filled with rich and unfailingly sharp observations...There are moments of sadness...but this is not a sad book; instead, it's a gloriously weird one...This is a diary that shows us how Sedaris' powers of observation and his intense investment in his own perspective have enriched his life and, by extension, ours. --Kelly Blewett, BookPage It's an astounding feat to stay funny-wildly, wickedly, ingeniously so-for more than 20 years. Yet David Sedaris has somehow pulled it off...with eviscerating wit and radiant humanity...Fans will no doubt delight in the entries that will turn into Sedaris's most beloved essays. --Fiona Maazel, O, The Oprah Magazine Peak Sedaris....a real journey, and catnip for his most loyal fans. --Jinnie Lee and Maura M. Lynch, WMagazine.com As brilliant and hilarious as anything Sedaris has previously published. --Zack Ruskin, SF Weekly A master of incisive and comic cultural criticism....Theft by Finding reveals intimate details of this literary luminary's life and mind-all told with his singular sense of humor. --Harper's Bazaar Scintillating... Sedaris is a latter-day Charlie Chaplin: droll, put-upon but not innocent, and besieged by all sorts of obstreperous or menacing folks... Sedaris's storytelling, even in diary jottings, is so consistently well-crafted and hilarious that few will care whether it's embroidered. --Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) PRAISE FOR THEFT BY FINDING: The thrill of Sedaris's nonfiction lies in the absurd details of his memories, burnished with enough polish and comic timing to wonder how true they are (after you've stopped laughing). Now we'll finally have access to the raw material -- fragments of the writer's personal diaries that you might recognize from the banter in his prolific and hilarious live readings. --Boris Kachka, New York -Scintillating... Sedaris is a latter-day Charlie Chaplin: droll, put-upon but not innocent, and besieged by all sorts of obstreperous or menacing folks... Sedaris's storytelling, even in diary jottings, is so consistently well-crafted and hilarious that few will care whether it's embroidered.---Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) -A David Sedaris book is always a welcome addition to any personal library - his hilarity, his self-deprecation, his compassion for (and amusement with) the human condition, and his clear joy at making his readers laugh out loud are all what make a David Sedaris book great.---E. Ce Miller, Bustle -For those curious about the mind of a comic genius, this is a great place to start.- --Melissa Kravitz, amNewYork -Raw glimpses of the humorist's personal life as he clambered from starving artist to household name... though the mood is usually light, the book is also a more serious look into his travails as an artist and person... A surprisingly poignant portrait of the artist as a young to middle-aged man.- --Kirkus (starred review) -Sedaris' diaries are the wellspring for his cuttingly funny autobiographical essays, and he now presents a mesmerizing volume of deftly edited passages...Sedaris is caustically witty about his bad habits and artistic floundering...A candid, socially incisive, and sharply amusing chronicle of the evolution of an arresting comedic artist.- --Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review) -An illuminating autobiographical journey through decades' worth of his diaries.---Harper's Bazaar -Sedaris fans will thrill to this opportunity to poke around in the writer's personal diaries, which he has faithfully kept for four decades and used as raw material for his hilarious nonfiction as well as his performances.---Paul S. Makishima, Boston Globe Sedaris' diaries are the wellspring for his cuttingly funny autobiographical essays, and he now presents a mesmerizing volume of deftly edited passages...Sedaris is caustically witty about his bad habits and artistic floundering...A candid, socially incisive, and sharply amusing chronicle of the evolution of an arresting comedic artist. --Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review) Sedaris fans will thrill to this opportunity to poke around in the writer's personal diaries, which he has faithfully kept for four decades and used as raw material for his hilarious nonfiction as well as his performances. --Paul S. Makishima, Boston Globe Raw glimpses of the humorist's personal life as he clambered from starving artist to household name... though the mood is usually light, the book is also a more serious look into his travails as an artist and person... A surprisingly poignant portrait of the artist as a young to middle-aged man. --Kirkus (starred review) An illuminating autobiographical journey through decades' worth of his diaries. --Harper's Bazaar A David Sedaris book is always a welcome addition to any personal library - his hilarity, his self-deprecation, his compassion for (and amusement with) the human condition, and his clear joy at making his readers laugh out loud are all what make a David Sedaris book great. --E. Ce Miller, Bustle For those curious about the mind of a comic genius, this is a great place to start. --Melissa Kravitz, amNewYork David Sedaris has become a signifier of taste and intelligence....Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls was the kind of book that I finished and just immediately wanted to start reading again. ---Anna Peele, Esquire The funniest writer in America....Sedaris is thoughtful and sweet in addition to being slyly hilarious. ---Leigh Haber, O, the Oprah Magazine Artfully milked embarrassing personal incidents for literary laughs...There are plenty of well-cut gems, including one about an ill-fated adoption of some sea turtles that's both hilarious and touching. ---Thom Geier, Entertainment Weekly Sedaris is a remarkably skilled storyteller and savvy essayist. He weaves together vivid images and sensations into a coherent whole that packs a serious emotional punch....Yes, David Sedaris is really that good. And based, on this latest collection, he's getting only better. ---Heather Havrilesky, Los Angeles Times Quintessential Sedaris....Essays on everything from air travel to today's child-rearing techniques by a writer who's a master of pointing out the absurd in everyday life. ---Craig Wilson, USA Today PRAISE FOR LET'S EXPLORE DIABETES WITH OWLS Deeply satisfying.... Sedaris can bring to mind Anthony Trollope, P.G. Wodehouse, Alice Munro, and Woody Allen, sometimes in the same paragraph. --David Carr, New York Times Book Review

As brilliant and hilarious as anything Sedaris has previously published. --Zack Ruskin, SF Weekly

David Sedaris has become a signifier of taste and intelligence....<i>Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls</i> was the kind of book that I finished and just immediately wanted to start reading again. ---Anna Peele, <i>Esquire</i>

Sedaris' diaries are the wellspring for his cuttingly funny autobiographical essays, and he now presents a mesmerizing volume of deftly edited passages...Sedaris is caustically witty about his bad habits and artistic floundering...A candid, socially incisive, and sharply amusing chronicle of the evolution of an arresting comedic artist. --<b>Donna Seaman</b>, <b><i>Booklist (starred review)</i>

Author Information

David Sedaris is the author of the books Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Holidays on Ice, Naked, and Barrel Fever. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and BBC Radio 4. He lives in England.

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