JONATHAN AMES'S LATEST BOOK, his eighth, is a hilarious, erotically charged, and insightful collection of articles, essays, cartoons, and short stories. With an HBO series based on this collection's centerpiece, Bored to Death; a beloved novel, The Extra Man, soon to be released as a movie; a critically acclaimed graphic novel, The Alcoholic; and an ongoing series of strange literary and not-so-literary performance events, Ames has proven himself to be a writer of diverse and unusual talents.

In The Double Life Is Twice as Good, Ames's odd, Zelig-like life as a writer is on full display, as he covers the U.S. Open and a Goth music festival, profiles Marilyn Manson and Lenny Kravitz, gives a speech at an annual gathering of passionate corduroy lovers, and attends a class on how to better pleasure women. On the fiction side, the short stories feature plenty of eros, heartbreak, and sexualities of all stripes and inclinations.

Ames's unique style and humor shines throughout this new volume, reminding us yet again why The Portland Oregonian dubbed him an edgier David Sedaris.

"The double life of the writer — the doggedly functional outer persona surrounding the neurotic inner core — comes through in this sparkling if scattershot collection from New York's gonzo scribe. In his forays into lifestyle journalism, Ames (Wake Up, Sir) is perennially out of place whether among scary teens at a suburban gothic fest or vapid club hoppers in Manhattan's glitzy meatpacking district. He's ill at ease just being himself in memoiristic essays, from a European travelogue to an account of recent boxing stunts. His fictional alter egos are similarly out of their comfort zones; in the sly anti-noir 'Bored to Death,' an Amesian writer poses as a PI and flounders when the lark becomes too real. As always, Ames's own bodily functions, baldness and angst take center stage — 'Am I darker than Marilyn Manson?' he broods in a profile of the goth pied piper — along with his graphic sex scenes, which play out as detached procedurals in which he self-consciously monitors his partners for signs of orgasm This miscellany contains some weak items — college diary entries? — dredged out of a bottom drawer. But at his best, Ames still beguiles with his offbeat, defiantly hangdog sensibility. Photos. (July)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Described by "The Portland Oregonian" as an edgier David Sedaris, writer and performance artist Ames delivers a hilarious and sometimes risqu collection of articles, essays, and fiction.

Jonathan Ames is the author of the novels Wake Up, Sir!, The Extra Man, and I Pass Like Night; a graphic novel, The Alcoholic (with artwork by Dean Haspiel), and the essay collections I Love You More Than You Know, My Less Than Secret Life, and What's Not to Love? He is the winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a former columnist for New York Press. Ames performs frequently as a storyteller and has been a recurring guest on David Letterman. He has fought in two amateur boxing matches as "The Herring Wonder," and he has peformed in a number of shows. Ames had the lead role in the IFC film "The Girl Under the Waves," was a porn-extra in the porn film "C-Men," and played himself in a pilot episode for the Showtime network. At the time, he said, "It's the role I've been waiting for!" He lives in Brooklyn, New York.