Jonathan Franzen arrived late, and last, in a family of boys in Webster Groves, Missouri. The Discomfort Zone is his intimate memoir of his development from a "small and fundamentally ridiculous person", through an adolescence both excruciating and strangely happy, into an adult with embarrassing and unexpected passions.

Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections was the best-loved and most-written-about novel of 2001. Now in How to Be Alone, discover the personal narratives and dead-on reportage that earned Franzen a wide readership before the success of The Corrections. "Franzen's standing as a significant, indeed, essential literary voice is resoundingly reaffirmed," says Booklist.

The Corrections is a grandly entertaining novel for the new century - a comic, tragic masterpiece about a family breaking down in an age of easy fixes. Richly realistic, darkly hilarious, deeply humane, it confirms Jonathan Franzen as one of our most brilliant interpreters of American society and the American soul.

"Change We Can't Believe In", by James Surowiecki; "Panther(s)!", by Nick Paumgarten; "Good Neighbors", by Jonathan Franzen; "Show or Tell", by Louis Menand; "Naughty Nurse", by Nancy Franklin.

Sherman Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. His several books include the novel Reservation Blues and the story and poetry collections Ten Little Indians, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, which he adapted for the film Smoke Signals, and The Business of Fancydancing, which he adapted for film and also directed.

Certainly, all the writing in The New Yorker is memorable, and this collection is no exception. The authors include such best sellers as Malcolm Gladwell, Seymour Hersh, and Jonathan Franzen - and the subjects range from the lives of short-order cooks to the secrets of college admissions.

"Disk Averse" by James Surowiecki; "Dear Diarist" by Larissa MacFarquhar; "Crosstown Bus" by Alec Wilkinson; "My Bird Problem" by Jonathan Franzen; and "Telling Stories" by Peter Schjeldahl.

The June 6, 2005 issue of The New Yorker includes: "Ladies First" by Rebecca Mead, "Best in Class" by Margaret Talbot, "Talking Chimp Gives his First Press Conference" by Paul Simms, "The Retreat" by Jonathan Franzen,"The Record Effect" by Alex Ross, and "The Current Cinema" by Anthony Lane.