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Humor / Pop Culture
So begins Carl Hiaasen's attempt to prepare young men and women for their future. And who better to warn them about their precarious paths forward than Carl Hiaasen? The answer, after reading Assume the Worst, is: Nobody.
And who better to illustrate--and with those illustrations, expand upon and cement Hiaasen's cynical point of view--than Roz Chast, best-selling author/illustrator and National Book Award winner? The answer again is easy: Nobody.
Following the format of Anna Quindlen's commencement address (Being Perfect) and George Saunders's commencement address (Congratulations, by the way), the collaboration of Hiaasen and Chast might look typical from the outside, but inside it is anything but.
This book is bound to be a classic, sold year after year come graduation time. Although it's also a good gift for anyone starting a job, getting married, or recently released from prison. Because it is not just funny. It is, in its own Hiaasen way, extremely wise and even hopeful. Well, it might not be full of hope, but there are certainly enough slivers of the stuff in there to more than keep us all going.
Doonan has witnessed models unable to work for fear of ghosts, gone deep-sea fishing with a couturier pal and his jailbird companion, and watched Anna Wintour remain perfectly calm while the ceiling fell literally in the middle of Fashion Week. Once you start looking, he says, you ll notice telltale signs of lunacy everywhere. Style insiders see patterns and trends in everything; they suffer from outsize personality disorders and delusions of grandeur; and of course, they have a predilection for theatrical makeup and artfully destroyed clothing. No one is more suited to the asylum than the truly die-hard fashionista after all, eccentricity and extremism are the foundations of great style.
With his gimlet eye for the absurd and a love for eccentricity, Doonan s personal and professional stories never fail to entertain. The David Sedaris of the style universe (The Boston Globe) gives us the scoop on the kooky, cutthroat but always fabulous fashion world, and proves himself one of the sharpest humorists writing today."
"I laughed so hard reading this book."--David Sedaris "Funny . . . surprisingly deep . . . laced with revelatory insights."--Los Angeles Times "Superb . . . A reason that [it] is a superior example of an overcrowded genre--the comedian memoir--is Mr. Maron's hardheaded approach to his history, the wisdom of experience."--The New York Times "Marc Maron is a legend because he is both a great comic and a brilliant mind. Attempting Normal is a deep, hilarious megashot of feeling and truth as only this man can administer."--Sam Lipsyte Praise for Marc Maron and WTF
"The stuff of comedy legend."--Rolling Stone "Marc Maron is a startlingly honest, compelling, and hilarious comedian-poet. Truly one of the greatest of all time."--Louis C.K. "I've known Marc for years and I can tell you first hand that he's passionate, fearless, honest, self-absorbed, neurotic, and screamingly funny."--David Cross "Revered among his peers . . . raw and unflinchingly honest."--Entertainment Weekly "Devastatingly funny."--Los Angeles Times
"For a comedy nerd, this show is nirvana."--Judd Apatow
"People make a mess."
Marc Maron was a parent-scarred, angst-filled, drug-dabbling, love-starved comedian who dreamed of a simple life: a wife, a home, a sitcom to call his own. But instead he woke up one day to find himself fired from his radio job, surrounded by feral cats, and emotionally and financially annihilated by a divorce from a woman he thought he loved. He tried to heal his broken heart through whatever means he could find--minor-league hoarding, Viagra addiction, accidental racial profiling, cat fancying, flying airplanes with his mind--but nothing seemed to work. It was only when he was stripped down to nothing that he found his way back.
"Attempting Normal" is Marc Maron's journey through the wilderness of his own mind, a collection of explosively, painfully, addictively funny stories that add up to a moving tale of hope and hopelessness, of failing, flailing, and finding a way. From standup to television to his outrageously popular podcast, "WTF with Marc Maron, " Marc has always been a genuine original, a disarmingly honest, intensely smart, brutally open comic who finds wisdom in the strangest places. This is his story of the winding, potholed road from madness and obsession and failure to something like normal, the thrillingly comic journey of a sympathetic f***up who's trying really hard to do better without making a bigger mess. Most of us will relate.
Praise for "Attempting Normal"
" "
"I laughed so hard reading this book."--David Sedaris
"Funny . . . surprisingly deep . . . laced with revelatory insights.""--Los Angeles Times"
"Superb . . . A reason that [it] is a superior example of an overcrowded genre--the comedian memoir--is Mr. Maron's hardheaded approach to his history, the wisdom of experience."--"The New York Times"
"Marc Maron is a legend because he is both a great comic and a brilliant mind. "Attempting Normal" is a deep, hilarious megashot of feeling and truth as only this man can administer."--Sam Lipsyte
Praise for Marc Maron and "WTF"
"The stuff of comedy legend."--"Rolling Stone "
"Marc Maron is a startlingly honest, compelling, and hilarious comedian-poet. Truly one of the greatest of all time."--Louis C.K.
"I've known Marc for years and I can tell you first hand that he's passionate, fearless, honest, self-absorbed, neurotic, and screamingly funny."--David Cross
"Revered among his peers . . . raw and unflinchingly honest."--"Entertainment Weekly"
"Devastatingly funny."--"Los Angeles Times"
" "
"For a comedy nerd, this show is nirvana."--Judd Apatow
[Away with Words] is low wit in its highest form. . . Mr. Berkowitz is sensitive throughout to the evanescence and contingency of punning and to the fleeting chemistry of a live pun-on-pun matchup crackling with energy. -Wall Street Journal
Fast Company reporter Joe Berkowitz investigates the bizarre and hilarious world of pun competitions from the Punderdome 3000 in Brooklyn to the World competition in Austin.
When Joe Berkowitz witnessed his first Punderdome competition, it felt wrong in the best way. Something impossible seemed to be happening. The kinds of jokes we learn to repress through social conditioning were not only being aired out in public--they were being applauded. As it turned out, this monthly show was part of a subculture that's been around in one form or another since at least the late '70s. Its pinnacle is the O. Henry Pun Off World Championship, an annual tournament in Austin, Texas. As someone who is terminally self-conscious, Joe was both awed and jealous of these people who confidently killed with the most maligned form of humor.
In this immersive ride into the subversive world of pun competitions, we meet punsters weird and wonderful and Berkowitz is our tour guide. Puns may show up in life in subtle ways sometimes, but once you start thinking in puns you discover they're everywhere. Berkowitz's search to discover who makes them the most, and why, leads him to the professional comedian competitors on @Midnight, a TV show with a pun competition built into it, the writing staff of Bob's Burgers, the punniest show on TV, and even a humor research conference. With his new unlikely band of punster brothers, he finally heads to Austin to compete in the World Championship. Of course, in befriending these comic misfits he also ended up learning that when you embrace puns you become a more authentic version of yourself.
The authors of the New York Times bestseller Awkward Family Photos are back with a hilarious tribute to the unbreakable and sometimes uncomfortable bond between people and their pets.
There are few things more rewarding than having a pet. They love us unconditionally, shower us with attention, and because of them, we actually live longer. So, what can possibly be awkward about our animal BFFs? Well . . . nothing. In fact, we're the awkward ones. We adore our pets, but let's face it--sometimes L-O-V-E makes us go a little overboard. Like giving them middle names, throwing them elaborate birthday parties, and making them a Christmas sweater to match with the rest of the family. Truth is, what they cherish most is our companionship. And maybe that's the reason we care about them so much--because for such simple pleasures, they allow us to be as awkward as we want.A Children's Book About Beer?
Yes, believe it or not--but B Is for Beer is also a book for adults, and bear in mind that it's the work of maverick bestselling novelist Tom Robbins, inter-nationally known for his ability to both seriously illuminate and comically entertain.
nce upon a time (right about now) there was a planet (how about this one?) whose inhabitants consumed thirty-six billion gallons of beer each year (it's a fact, you can Google it). Among those affected, each in his or her own way, by all the bubbles, burps, and foam, was a smart, wide-eyed, adventurous kindergartner named Gracie; her distracted mommy; her insensitive dad; her non-conformist uncle; and a magical, butt-kicking intruder from a world within our world.
Populated by the aforementioned characters--and as charming as it may be subversive--B Is for Beer involves readers, young and old, in a surprising, far-reaching investigation into the limits of reality, the transformative powers of children, and, of course, the ultimate meaning of a tall, cold brewski.