Davy Rothbart, writer, former NPR contributor and creator of “Found Magazine,” is the sort of generous, empathetic person the world doesn’t much produce anymore. He is also a person with a keen sense for the absurd, as this collection shows. “Found” is a kind of collaborative project between Davy, his friends and people around the globe who send in discarded notes, letters and photographs to be collated into an amazing artifact of humanity. The current book is a collection of samples from the first three issues of the magazine and a number of new items. They range from the trivial and bizarre, to some of the most profoundly personal glimpses into people’s lives you’ll ever read.

“I think the least interesting way to look at this stuff is to say, ‘Oh, look at all these idiots,’” Rothbart told me recently. “There’s something very intimate and powerful and connecting to read someone’s personal note and almost feel them pressing out against you.”

Rothbart’s interest in the material he finds blowing down the street or wedged between the slats of a bench is more than just a simple voyeuristic thrill, though he admits that’s part of it. “I think that a certain degree of voyeurism is healthy. We’re surrounded by strangers all day, sitting in the cafe or at a bus stop. It’s natural to be curious about other people’s experiences and what their world is like.”

Not wanting to sound too lofty, Rothbart also loves the weird humor in pieces like the flier found in Vancouver, B.C. that reads: “Ever cut your skin for fun? Sell your ass? Sleep in the street? Do you like pain? Take heroin? If so LETS START A BAND.” But he’s also drawn out of a sense of connection. “I feel like it’s some kind of way of celebrating all the different lives that are being led. Even within one person’s life there’s both comedy and tragedy.”

Comedy and tragedy and all points in between are represented here. From the cryptic, “IT STAYED ON THE GRILL BITCH!” to the devastating note written in a kid’s handwriting, “Dear Dad I Love you so much Just so you no I cry for you evry night. I love you so much dad.”

“I think a lot of people out there are sensitive to things around us and people around us,” says Rothbart. “People like me can’t get enough of this kind of connection.”

Read “Found” and read into people’s lives who aren’t so very different—or less ridiculous—than you or me. —Kristopher Monroe

Visit foundmagazine.com.

Natasha and Other Stories
by David Bezmozgis, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $18

David Bezmozgis, the most hyped new author of the year, has been compared to the likes of Bernard Malamud and Philip Roth, apparently be-cause he’s Jewish. But when reading his debut collection “Natasha,” it’s James Joyce’s “Dubliners” that comes to mind. Like Joyce, Bezmozgis has a real appreciation for the minutiae of daily life and the important little things, as is well evidenced in “Roman Berman, Massage Therapist.” Other stories like “Tapka” and “An Animal to the Memory” are too heavy-handed, the author aiming for a banal sort of epiphany. But on the whole, it’s a strong collection. —Jeremy M. Barker

Grab Bag
by Derek McCormack, Akashic Books, $14.95

The third book in Dennis Cooper’s “Little House on the Bowery” series, “Grab Bag” is a devious delight. It is comprised of two separate books: “Dark Rules” and “Wish Book.” Both are a series of short stories which chronicle the misadventures of a young man looking for attention. In both cases, he only finds it when everything around him has come undone. McCormack’s sparse prose is darkly comedic and unsettling, like circus clowns are to little children. And yet it is so oddly fascinating that you can’t bear to turn away. —Steven Seighman