Expansive, exuberant, and relentlessly eclectic, Matthew James Babcock's debut essay collection, Heterodoxologies, mixes the long view with the quick glance to examine every abstruse angle of a life lived in the Rocky Mountain Northwest. Those pieces long enough to change a life--ruminations on breakdancing and bullying, body dysmorphic disorder and virginity--sit cheek-by-jowl with breezy snapshots on assassins, roller rinks, and bowling alleys--dashes of nonfiction short enough to read while you wait for the traffic light to change. Even if you've never had an imagined conversation with Jane Austen, or been awakened from a dream visit to a fictional town in Indiana, if you've never been smitten with scabies or watched your brother's garage band make it most of the way out of the garage, Heterodoxologies reminds us that the flipside of our expectations is exactly what we need.