The Knew York Times

by Ian Frazier

When Ian Frazier's first collection of humorous essays, Dating Your Mon, was published in 1986, Time's reviewer Paul Gray called it "hilarious" and warned readers to" read sparingly... By 1996 another collection may appear". And he was rights. Frazier's new collection, Coyote v. Acme, includes twenty-two more side-splitting glimpses into some of the more oddball corners of the American mind. The title essay imagines the opening statement of an attorney for cartoon character Wile E. Coyote in a product liability suit against the Acme Company, supplier of unpredictable rocket sleds and faulty spring-powered shoes. Other essays are about the golfing career of comedian Bob Hope, a commencement address given by a Satanist college president, a suburban short story attacked by Germans, the problem of issues versus non-issues, and the theories of revolutionary stand-up comedy from Comrade Stalin.

by David Sedaris

David Sedaris returns with his most deeply personal and darkly hilarious book. If you've ever laughed your way through David Sedaris's cheerfully misanthropic stories, you might think you know what you're getting with Calypso. You'd be wrong. When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. And life at the Sea Section, as he names the vacation home, is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it's impossible to take a vacation from yourself. With Calypso, Sedaris sets his formidable powers of observation toward middle age and mortality. Make no mistake: these stories are very, very funny--it's a book that can make you laugh 'til you snort, the way only family can. Sedaris's powers of observation have never been sharper, and his ability to shock readers into laughter unparalleled. But much of the comedy here is born out of that vertiginous moment when your own body betrays you and you realize that the story of your life is made up of more past than future. This is beach reading for people who detest beaches, required reading for those who loathe small talk and love a good tumor joke. Calypso is simultaneously Sedaris's darkest and warmest book yet--and it just might be his very best.

by Bob Fenster

From the genius of funnyman Bob Fenster, who brought you Duh!, They Did What!?, and Well, Duh!, comes another in real-life idiocy. The Duh Awards honors the intellectually challenged and utterly inept. From historical explorers to politicians to celebrities to everyday people, no one is spared from lampoon. Ever notice there seems to be an award show for just about everything? And that everyone who wins is rich, beautiful, and brilliant? Good-looking, intelligent winners are everywhere. The Duh Awards is for the rest of us. These awards are handed out to the not-so-smart, the underworked, the overpaid, the wacky, the weird, and the downright stupid. And it's about time! Chapters include such ridiculousness as: Boss of the Year and Other Slave Driver Awards; Champion Scoffers, Scorners, Insulters, and Other All-Star Wise Guys; and Only in Hollywood-The Anti-Oscars. Here are just a excerpts from this hilarious book: The Know-a-Little, Talk-a-Lot Society presents the Anti-Expert Awards: In 1931 President Herbert Hoover somehow missed the impact of the Great Depression when he offered this solution: "If someone could get off a good joke every ten days, I think our troubles would be over." Winning Mind Games: All-Star Shockers, Psych-Outs, and Gross Champs: During the halftime show of the 2004 Super Bowl, singer Justin Timberlake removed part of singer Janet Jackson's shirt to reveal one of her star breasts on national TV. This upset viewers who had tuned in to watch rapper Nelly

by Joe Bageant

A Web columnist describes the permanent and largely invisible underclass that resides in many American small towns, examining a section of society that exists in a world of taverns, churches, and double-wide trailers.

by Jon Ronson

From the acclaimed author of "Them" comes a truly disturbing, often hilarious look at the U.S. military's long flirtation with the paranormal--and the psy-op soldiers who are still fighting the battle.

by Peter Mayle

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this witty and warm-hearted account, Peter Mayle tells what it is like to realize a long-cherished dream and actually move into a 200-year-old stone farmhouse in the remote country of the Lubéron with his wife and two large dogs. He endures January's frosty mistral as it comes howling down the Rhône Valley, discovers the secrets of goat racing through the middle of town, and delights in the glorious regional cuisine. A Year in Provence transports us into all the earthy pleasures of Provençal life and lets us live vicariously at a tempo governed by seasons, not by days.

by Thomas Cathcart

This New York Times bestseller is the hilarious philosophy course everyone wishes they’d had in school. Outrageously funny, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar... has been a breakout bestseller ever since authors—and born vaudevillians—Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein did their schtick on NPR’s Weekend Edition. Lively, original, and powerfully informative, Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar... is a not-so-reverent crash course through the great philosophical thinkers and traditions, from Existentialism (What do Hegel and Bette Midler have in common?) to Logic (Sherlock Holmes never deduced anything). Philosophy 101 for those who like to take the heavy stuff lightly, this is a joy to read—and finally, it all makes sense! And now, you can read Daniel Klein's further musings on life and philosophy in Travels with Epicurus and Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change it.

by Garrison Keillor

"Garrison Keillor made it possible, after twenty years of black humorto be both funny and nice, hip and winsome, scathing and loving, all in the flick of a single many-barbed quip - -The Washington Post Book World "Keillor's literary style is as flexible and assured as his vocal delivery. It can slip from mood to mood so subtly and quickly you're never quite sure where you are. [His] writing has the silvery slip of running water, so graceful and easy it's hard to believe it can carry so much that is jagged and unresolved. His integrity lies in his not smoothing away those rough edges in the swift current of his prose; they're bruisingly, sometimes cuttingly there." -The Village Voice

by Adam Carolla

Imagine a world where New York Times bestselling author, comedian, actor, television, and podcast host Adam Carolla is the President of the United States. Can’t do it? You don’t have to! Adam has done it for you! Podcast king Adam Carolla first shared his unique, but always funny world view in his New York Times bestseller In Fifty Years We’ll All Be Chicks—but he’s not done. In President Me, Carolla shares his vision for a different, better America free from big issues like big government down to small problems like hotel alarm clock placement. Running on an anti-narcissism platform, President Carolla calls for a return to the values of an earlier time when stew and casserole were on every dinner table and there were no “service dogs” on airplanes. President Me hits right at the heart of what makes our country really annoying, and offers a plan to make all of our lives, but mostly Adam’s, much better.

by Adam Carolla

Three-time New York Times bestseller Adam Carolla is back to take on social media, social justice warriors, and a society gone to s**t. In I’m Your Emotional Support Animal, Adam Carolla examines how our culture went careening off a cliff. We used to have one that created real warriors who fought world wars. Now it spawns social justice warriors who fight Twitter wars. He takes on those who are traumatized by Trump and “emotional support animal” owners who proclaim their victimhood at every airport. He stands up for the collateral damage of the #MeToo movement and for freedom of speech on “safe space” filled college campuses. Examining the calculated commercials churned out by Madison Avenue, like the ones about cars “made with love,” Carolla rants on ads designed to either bum us out or make us think the corporation is run by Mr. Rogers. Turning to social media, Adam takes down the “hashtag heroes” who signal their virtue daily from atop Twitter mountain. And in the era of the Roomba, performances by dead celebrity holograms, and meals-on-demand delivery services, he looks down the road at our not-so-bright future as a species. Frank, funny, and utterly unapologetic, this is not a book for those who need a trigger warning, but is THE book for everyone who wants to hit the snooze bar on the “woke” culture.

by Hal Rammel

A magical tour through the imaginary terrain of the comic imagination as revealed in children's lore, literature, folktales, travel lies, film comedies, cartoons, comic books, and folksongs. With 14 bandw illustrations. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

by Adam Carolla

The comedian, actor, television host, podcast king, and New York Times bestselling author of President Me, Not Taco Bell Material, and In Fifty Years We’ll All Be Chicks now lays down the law on the plight of the modern parent. Parents, do you often think that if your kids had to grow up the way you did—without iPads, 70-inch flatscreen TVs, American Girl dolls, and wifi in the climate controlled minivan—that they might actually be better off? Do you feel underappreciated or ignored? Do you worry you’re raising a bunch of spoiled softies who will never know how to do anything themselves—because you do everything for them? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you need Daddy, Stop Talking. Adam rips parenthood a new one, telling it straight about what adults must do if they don’t want to have to support their kids forever. Using his own crappy childhood as a cautionary tale, and touting the pitfalls of the kind of helicopter parenting so pervasive today, Daddy, Stop Talking is the only parenting book you should ever read. Here, too, is sage advice to Adam’s own kids—and to future parents—on what matters most: dating; drinking and drugs; buying your first house and car; puberty; and what kind of assholes his kids (and yours) should avoid becoming. Even if his own son and daughter pretty much ignore everything he says, you shouldn’t. And you’re welcome. Again.

by Sam Tallent

Billy Ray Schafer is a comedian. Forty-six years old, estranged from his children, divorced twice, and bloated on cocaine and booze, Billy Ray is at the lowest point of his misspent life. A former headliner known throughout the country, he now finds himself grinding out a shabby existence in the seedy underbelly of stand-up comedy. Over the course of one grim, snowbound week in Wichita, Billy Ray must reckon with the choices that brought him here. Sam Tallent's debut novel is a hilarious, harrowing, and unflinching descent into the world of the working road comic.