In I Don’t Care About Your Band, Julie Klausner turns the clichéd dating-misadventure memoir into a hilariously self-deprecating romp through the pitfalls of modern romance.

The New York-based comedienne, writer, and standup performer presents a chronological overview of her failed dalliances, from early adolescent experimentation to getting bedbugs after an obligatory post-coital sleepover. But rather than whining and wallowing over these mishaps, Klausner revels in her experiences with a self-amused candidness that speaks to everyone — whether single, attached, or somewhere in between.

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Following recent buzz about the significance of Shusaku Endo’s Deep River in LOST’s final season, we got to thinking about the role that books have played in the ever more complex saga of Oceanic flight 815. From ABC’s own Lost Book Club to Lostpedia’s comprehensive list of every cited work, the show’s literary references have already been scrutinized to death. But whatever these different texts might reveal (or not), J.J. Abrams’ trail of book crumbs also doubles as an excellent recommended reading list. With the show’s final season premiering Tuesday night, here’s a guide to the best Abrams-approved, LOST-themed books worth reading — whether or not you’ve ever even seen the island-based drama.

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The third in his series of fictionalized memoirs, J.M. Coetzee’s Summertime questions the author’s own relevance as a human being.

In the process of understanding why readers care about who he is, Coetzee tries to show himself as an awkward, un-sexualized man who is no more worthy of public curiosity than anyone else. Featuring a fictional interviewer, out-of-frame notes, and a series of less-than-flattering third-party accounts, Summertime is a deeply sardonic but ultimately entrancing self-portrait of the Nobel laureate.

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Divisive author and illustrator Joe Sacco’s Footnotes in Gaza combines hard reporting with an engrossing graphic-storytelling format to explore the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Sacco uses “comics journalism” — a genre he effectively invented with his previous books Palestine and Safe Area Goražde — to chronicle two reportedly overlooked Palestinian massacres that took place in the ’50s. The result is a poignant portrait of the ongoing conflict through an artistic but unflinching lens.

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Terry Teachout’s Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong sheds new light on the great Satchmo’s already well-documented life.

Taking a critical look at Armstrong’s dual roles as both artist and entertainer, Teachout, an arts critic for the Wall Street Journal, parses out the variously competing and complementary sides of the music icon’s legacy.

Along the way, he addresses the issues of race and identity that affected Armstrong’s persona, from his early days in New Orleans to his later years in the public eye. The result is a stunning new portrait of one of America’s most familiar yet enigmatic figures.

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Underground comix icon Robert Crumb paints the Bible in a new light with his illustrated version of the entire book of Genesis.

Sex, scandal, and subtle satire abound, but with each carefully rendered detail — and the inclusion of every word from the five opening chapters — Crumb has given a new frame to one of the most widely known stories in history. Sure, he’s been under fire since the book’s release, but when has Crumb not been under fire for something or other?

Explore Crumb’s website, read Vanity Fair’s interview with the artist, witness his personal take on the history of women, and buy the book.

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Zadie Smith’s Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays demonstrates the bestselling novelist’s prowess as an accessible critic and a relatable reader.

The volume collects essays spanning from the demanding rewards of David Foster Wallace’s work to a keen report on modern-day Liberia and a loving piece about her father’s snooty comedic preferences. The assortment of nonfiction meditations showcases work previously published in the likes of The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and The Guardian — the sum of which cements Smith’s appeal as an inviting intellectual guide.

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Collecting hundreds of angry letters written to the provocative star of Taxi and SNL, the coffee table-style book Dear Andy Kaufman, I Hate Your Guts! is a suitably ironic love letter to the oft-misunderstood comedian.

Kaufman satirically challenged the women of America to a wrestling match in the late ’70s, assuring that the winner would “get to marry [him],” receive $1,000, and have the apparently added joy of seeing him shave his head.

Dear Andy Kaufman features the most intriguing and odd selections of the impassioned responses that poured in from across the country — many of which include bizarre illustrations, photographs, and added challenges — in a tome that both honors Kaufman’s incendiary style and serves as a hate mail-paved time portal to an age of sensitive and persistent sexism.

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Javier Marías is the most important intellectual figure that you’ve probably never heard of. The Spanish author, translator, and columnist has published 14 books (11 of which are available in English), translated everyone from Thomas Hardy to Joseph Conrad to Vladimir Nabokov, and has been profiled and reprinted in such publications as The New Yorker, The Believer, and The Threepenny Review, but is somehow still not a household name. Ahead of a speaking engagement with already-a-household-name-author Paul Auster at the 92nd Street Y tonight, Marías chatted with Flavorpill about how translations can actually improve books, the Spanish authors you should be reading, and what it’s like being the king of a tiny, uninhabitable Caribbean island.

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Invisible, Paul Auster’s newest and perhaps most accomplished book, is a suspenseful, psychological query on the natures of art and life, good and evil, and truth and memory.

The story begins with Adam Walker, a bright-eyed aspiring poet at Columbia University in 1967, but quickly delves into a four-decade, multi-layered saga full of sexuality, violence, philosophical puzzles, and unpredictable resolutions. Told in three narrative voices — first, second, and third — it’s a daring literary experiment by one of contemporary literature’s most provocative writers.

Read Invisible online, check out an interview with Auster discussing the book in The Huffington Post, explore the definitive website on his life and work, and buy a copy for yourself.

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