The Concise Guide to Sounding Smart at Parties: An Irreverent Compendium of Must-Know Info from Sputnik to Smallpox and Mao to Marie Curie

This breezy compilation of trivia on a myriad of subjects does just what the title promises: enable the reader to offer authoritative (or at least informed) commentary in social settings. Matalon and Woolsey group by subjects ranging from sports and science to war, religion and even music, and cover everything from Three Mile Island to Columbian cocaine magnate Pablo Escobar. Each subject gets a page or two of exposition, as well as pithy bon mots to throw out in order to bring up the topic, i.e ""Their prices are so high only Sir Edmund Hillary shops there."" The snarky humor makes for entertaining reading in small doses, though the stream of wisecracks and asides can wear thin on lengthier perusal. Still, the research is impressive and bound to give cocktail conversationalists more than enough intellectual ammunition for a lifetime of parties.