Mr. Personality: Profiles and Talk-pieces (Picador Books)

A superb collection, Mr. Personality brings together the best of Mark Singer’s profiles and “Talk of the Town” pieces from The New Yorker (1977–1989). In these thirty-three witty and offbeat pieces, Singer presents a slice of New York and its citizens in a way that only he can. From prolific filmmaker Errol Morris and a family of superintendents to one of the last great zipper-fixers, a court buff in Brooklyn, and Mr. Personality himself, these remarkable portraits offer something for every reader.