“For me, it all came together when I was actually hungover and reading The Fireside Grown-Up Guide To The Hangover. I learned how important it is to sleep off a hangover, but not in front of your co-workers. And I enjoyed the loveliest little cautionary tale about Susan’s walk of shame.”

You have to grow up, at least to some degree. But adulthood can be a lonely, scary, soul-searching time, which you must seemingly navigate all on your own. Fortunately, that’s not the case at all; you’re not alone, thanks to The Fireside Grown-Up Guides.

The Grown-Up Guides parody classic children’s books. They’re basically Dick and Jane for would-be grown-ups. But funnier. And darker.

Though I was always under the impression we spoke pretty much the same language, the Fireside guides are actually the American adaptation of the U.K.’s best-selling Ladybird Books for Grown-Ups series. Regardless, the American version delivers simple, prudent advice and fables for adults who may be wondering how to deal with such grown-up situations as a hangover, a husband, a mother, or mindfulness. At least that’s what the first four volumes cover, while pairing easily-palatable parables with engaging, retro illustrations.

For me, it all came together when I was actually hungover and reading The Fireside Grown-Up Guide To The Hangover. With sweet, simple, deadpan storytelling, it filled me with childlike wonder while presenting helpful advice and interesting facts—true knowledge that can only be gleaned from going through it. As my headache waned, I learned how important it is to sleep off a hangover, but not in front of your co-workers. And I enjoyed the loveliest little cautionary tale about Susan’s walk of shame.

Pretty soon my hangover was gone. Sure, it may have also had something to do with all that Advil and bacon I ate, but still, I feel like the book really helped me accept my fate, and to find joy within it. My wife can only hope that my experience with The Fireside Grown-Up Guide To The Husband will have the same sort of helpful effects.

The first four The Fireside Grown-Up Guides go on sale October 11, for about $10 bucks a pop. Another four volumes are due out come Spring of 2017.

The post The Fireside Grown-Up Guides Make Adulting Easier appeared first on FactoryTwoFour.

Indian Motorcycle: America’s First Motorcycle Company

Holmstrom takes us through Indians entire sordid life. Birth, life, death, resurrection – it’s all detailed here alongside every model the company released and each engine or technical improvement. This is no rose-colored tinting of the past however. Holmstrom casts a critical and wholly independent view of Indian Motorcycle’s history, calling out mistakes and missteps as he sees them. All this is paired with beautiful modern and delightfully vintage photography and advertisements that give the words real life.

As a coffee table book, it’s a delight to thumb through and read snippets of history. As a historical record of the company and its products through the decades, I doubt it could rivaled by a textbook. If you have a deep passion for Indian Motorcycles or for biking history, Indian Motorcycle: America’s First Motorcycle Company is a must have.

The post This Book Is An Indian Motorcycle Bible appeared first on FactoryTwoFour.

That’s not to say that Goodman doesn’t present positive steps forward or solutions to our collective level of screwed, but the eye opening facts in Future Crimes are the anecdotes and statistics about just how naive we are about all our connected devices. Having spent his career in cybercrime for everyone from the LAPD to Interpol, Goodman certainly knows what he’s talking about. In addition to his excellent TED Talk, he has lectured around the world and even teaches at the prestigious Silicon Valley Singularity University. He knows what he’s talking about is what I’m saying here. So when he says that we are in danger of losing the race to “own” our technology, we should probably listen up.

Reading this book, you’ll see stories of technology crimes you’re familiar with (the Target data breach for example) and others honestly too horrible to make the nightly news (like the international online auctioning of child rape). It’s these kinds of distributed crimes that we now have to deal with, and our own lax attitude towards mobile and connected devices is largely at fault. Future Crimes isn’t all doom and gloom however. Not only does a reading of this book make you want to immediately drop everything and become a cybercriminal (Don’t. You will get caught.), but Goodman offers up solutions we can take as individuals, as well as collectively at the government level.

We don’t a review a lot books here on FactoryTwoFour, and I’m loathe to call Future Crimes or any other book a “must read,” but let’s just say I strongly encourage you to pick this one up and read for yourself both the hidden world we are living in, and the one we could very well inhabit if we are not careful.

The post Future Crimes are Terrifying appeared first on FactoryTwoFour.