Tough Talk with Sue Sylvester

Whether you know her as outrageous cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester from Glee, as delusional actress doing time as a cater-waiter Constance Carmell from the cult hit Party Down, or her many other memorable film and TV roles, you’re well aware that Jane Lynch is seriously funny. But what you probably don’t know, as her candid, comedic and ultimately uplifting new memoir Happy Accidents reveals, is that Lynch is one heckuva dragon slayer, too. Having finally overcome her struggles with her sexuality, alcoholism and anxiety, Lynch has finally found the happiness that has so long eluded her.

Love film ...

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Investigating Sacred Bulls**t with Penn Jillette

The Devil probably isn’t making him do it, but professional illusionist and troublemaker Penn Jillette is still bent on turning as many souls away from The Almighty as he possibly can. His latest release, God, No! Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales, is a humorous re-envisioning of the Ten Commandments for our modern—and more profane—age.

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After a day of drowning Teller in a tank full of hungry piranha and torching a bunch of trees with a jet engine for an upcoming Discovery Channel ...

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In the Rat Lab with Kelly Lambert

When neuroscientist Kelly Lambert looks at her lab rats, she can’t help but envision them in a slow-motion ballet with a backing track of classical music behind them. As psychology chair and co-director of the Office of Undergraduate Research at Randolph-Macon College in Virginia, she’s studied rodents for over 25 years. Now, she says, it’s high time scientists started looking at the much-maligned rat in profoundly new ways.

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With The Lab Rat Chronicles: A Neuroscientist Reveals Life Lessons from the Planet’s Most Successful Mammals, Lambert investigates how rats ...

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Dhani Tackles the Globe, Then Bookshelves

Dhani Jones is a professional football player, reality-TV star, sports analyst and men’s fashion designer. In other words, he’s a hard guy to pin down. During two seasons on the Travel Channel’s Dhani Tackles the Globe, he challenged the international community at its own game and won some well-earned friendships and respect in the process. This summer, Jones is stepping into a different arena altogether with the release of his debut book The Sportsman, which Kirkus called “a thought-provoking adventure that’s part travelogue, part sports journal and even part fitness manual.”

Here, Jones opens up about ...

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Business Lessons from 'Mob Rules'

The Mafia may not be the first place you’d turn to for tips on getting ahead in business, but former wiseguy-turned-author Louis Ferrante has news for you: Mobsters—at least the ones who haven’t been riddled with bullets or thrown in prison—have a proven track record of success worthy of emulation.

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Ferrante grew up in and around the mob, and although he long ago denounced its criminality and violence, he still believes that La Cosa Nostra (this thing of ours) represents a model of ethical business practice ...

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Spiritual Superheroes with Team Chopra

It’s been almost two decades since Deepak Chopra’s Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. And whether you celebrate the man or criticize him, few—with the notable exception of the late, great Alan Watts—have done more to help popularize Eastern thought in the Western world. Concepts like the “unified field of consciousness” and “pure potentiality” linking ancient traditions to modern quantum mechanics are no longer the stuff of esoteric mystics or science-fiction geeks, in large part to Chopra’s work.

Read more new and notable nonfiction books for June. 

Chopra teams up with son Gotham, a comic enthusiast ...

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'SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper'

Dr. Howard E. Wasdin is a chiropractor from Georgia who spends most of his days quietly adjusting bad backs and relieving pinched nerves. He also happens to be one of the toughest and most accomplished special operations commandos this nation has ever produced. His duties have included repelling off helicopters as part of the U.S. led effort to oust Saddam Hussein from Kuwait in 1991, to having been shot multiple times attempting to end warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid’s oppressive rule in Mogadishu, Somalia. Wasdin epitomizes the kind of almost superhuman effort synonymous with the Navy SEALS. In SEAL ...

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Getting Out of Your Own Way With Tyrese

He’s only 32, but after contending with everything from ghastly gangbangers to evil extraterrestrials, actor, recording artist and South Central, L.A.-product Tyrese Gibson figures he’s learned a lot about life, love and happiness. And now he’s itching to share that hard-won knowledge with the world. Gibson covers a lot of territory in How to Get Out of Your Own Way, an earnest self-help book aimed at improving lives and fostering positive relationships. But for a man who’s gone from the depths of poverty to the heights of fame and fortune, it’s really more ...

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‘Kingpin’ and the World of Data Hacking

Wired editor and former “black hat” hacker extraordinaire Kevin Poulsen left the dark side of the keyboard long ago in favor of his career as a crackerjack investigative reporter. Both skill sets, however, serve him exceedingly well in his debut book Kingpin. Poulsen delves deep into the mad world of another computer wunderkind, Max “Vision” Butler, who’s bent on becoming the cyber underworld’s boss of all bosses. Recently the author spoke with Kirkus about how vulnerable we truly are on the Internet, the lasting legacy of Matthew Broderick’s early film career and his appearance at SXSW this ...

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