By David Sedaris. (We have SIGNED copies) For forty years, David Sedaris has kept a diary in which he records everything that captures his attention-overheard comments, salacious gossip, soap opera plot twists, secrets confided by total strangers. These observations are the source code for his finest work, and through them he has honed his cunning, surprising sentences. Now, Sedaris shares his private writings with the world. Theft by Finding, the first of two volumes, is the story of how a drug-abusing dropout with a weakness for the International House of Pancakes and a chronic inability to hold down a real job became one of the funniest people on the planet. Written with a sharp eye and ear for the bizarre, the beautiful, and the uncomfortable, and with a generosity of spirit that even a misanthropic sense of humor can’t fully disguise, Theft By Finding proves that Sedaris is one of our great modern observers. It’s a potent reminder that when you’re as perceptive and curious as Sedaris, there’s no such thing as a boring day .
Theft by Finding: Diaries (1977-2002)
Touch
By Courtney Maum. A trend forecaster hired by a leading tech company suddenly finds herself in the position of wanting to overturn her own predictions when she senses the beginning of a movement against electronics in favor of compassion, empathy, and “in-personism.”
You Need More Sleep: Advice from Cats
By Francesco Marciuliano
Our feline friends have spent eons observing, napping, pondering, napping, and taking notes about the human condition. In between naps, they’ve realized that we humans could use some catlike guidance when it comes to handling the ups and downs of life. In this book they’ve condescended to share their invaluable wisdom in short advice columns such as “Always Stay at Least 30 Feet from a Loved One” and “Never Let Anyone Dress You.” Whether it’s coping with romance, surviving a social gathering, or clawing your way to the top of the corporate ladder only to realize you can’t get down, the cats in this book will have you relaxed and ready to take on the world! Just after one more nap.
Funny Family Jokes: Something for Everyone from Age 9 to 99
Funny Family Jokes
Manufactured by Reader’s Digest
“Knock! Knock! Who’s there? Justin. Justin who? Justin the neighborhood and thought I’d come over.”
Reader’s Digest has a long tradition of providing our readers with laughter through our many humor features. In the Reader’s Digest Funny Family Jokes we have compiled some of the funniest jokes, riddles, and one-liners that can be shared across generations, around the dinner table or the campfire. Truly, there’s something for everyone from 9 to 99. We hope you and your family will take the time to read, share and laugh together. Did you hear that NASA has launched several cows into orbit? It was the herd shot around the world.
The Book With No Pictures
The Book with No Pictures
By B.J. Novak
A #1 New York Times bestseller, this innovative and wildly funny read-aloud by award-winning humorist/actor B.J. Novak will turn any reader into a comedian.
You might think a book with no pictures seems boring and serious. Except… here’s how books work. Everything written on the page “has” to be said by the person reading it aloud. Even if the words say…
BLORK. Or BLUURF.
Even if the words are a preposterous song about eating ants for breakfast, or just a list of astonishingly goofy sounds like BLAGGITY BLAGGITY and GLIBBITY GLOBBITY.
Cleverly irreverent and irresistibly silly, The Book with No Pictures is one that kids will beg to hear again and again. (And parents will be happy to oblige.)
“Shouldn’t You Be in School?”
“Shouldn’t You Be in School?”
By Lemony Snicket
“Is Lemony Snicket a detective or a smoke detector?”
Do you smell smoke? Young apprentice Lemony Snicket is investigating a case of arson but soon finds himself enveloped in the ever-increasing mystery that haunts the town of Stain’d-by-the-Sea. Who is setting the fires? What secrets are hidden in the Department of Education? Why are so many schoolchildren in danger? Is it all the work of the notorious villain Hangfire? How could you even ask that? What kind of education have you had?
Maybe you should be in school?
Texts from Jane Eyre: And Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters
By Mallory Ortberg
Hilariously imagined text conversations – the passive aggressive, the clever, and the strange – from classic and modern literary figures, from Scarlett O’Hara to Jessica Wakefield.
Mallory Ortberg, the co-creator of the cult-favorite website The Toast, presents this whimsical collection of hysterical text conversations from your favorite literary characters. Everyone knows that if Scarlett O’Hara had an unlimited text-and-data plan, she’d constantly try to tempt Ashley away from Melanie with suggestive messages. If Mr. Rochester could text Jane Eyre, his ardent missives would obviously be in all-caps. And Daisy Buchanan would not only text while driving, she’d text you to pick her up after she totaled her car. Based on the popular web-feature, Texts from Jane Eyre is a witty, irreverent mashup that brings the characters from your favorite books into the twenty-first century.
I Knead My Mommy: And Other Poems by Kittens
By Francesco Marciuliano
Just when we all thought things couldn’t get any cuter, from the author of the New York Times bestselling I Could Pee on This comes I Knead My Mommy, a book of confessional poems about the triumphs, trials, and daily discoveries of being a kitten. From climbing walls to claiming hearts, these little cats bare all in such instant classics as “And Then You Said ‘No,'” “Ode to a Lizard I Didn’t Know Is Also a Pet in This House,” and “I Will Save You.” With adorable photos of the poetic prodigies throughout, this volume gives readers a glimpse into their confused and curious feline minds as they encounter the world around them.
Flip-Flops After 50 comes to Byrd’s Books on May 2nd at 6:30 p.m. with Cindy Eastman!
Join us at Flip-Flop Night on Friday May 2nd at 6:30p.m. at Byrd’s Books! Celebrate Spring, wear your favorite flip-flops and join us as we laugh and discuss Cindy Eastman’s new book, “Flip-Flops After 50: And Other Thoughts On Aging I Remembered to Write Down.”
About the book: 
“Flip-flops After 50 “will amuse, enlighten, and provoke readers to think about the topics that affect all of us. Who hasn’t dealt with the emotions from family events, stress from lousy jobs, or the bittersweet feelings when the kids leave home? Not to mention body image, high school reunions, and parenting. Eastman’s conversational style and easy humor tackle the sublime and the ridiculous, the sacred and the profane. After a certain age–and it’s no secret that it’s 50–Eastman argues that attitudes change for the better. Making decisions gets easier, although there’s no guarantee that life does. Even so, her writing allows us to take a look at our own issues with the reassuring handholding of a confidante. (April 8 release)
Advance praise:
“Cindy Eastman’s Flip-Flops After Fifty: And Other Thoughts on Aging I Remembered to Write Down is as funny, warm, and inviting as its title. Filled with the kind of everyday humor that made Erma Bombeck everybody’s favorite columnist, Eastman’s wit and generosity reach out to embrace the reader. With every laugh, there’s a moment of recognition and a sense of camaraderie.
—Dr. Gina Barreca, professor of English and feminist theory and author of It’s Not That I’m Bitter
About the author:
Cindy Eastman’s work is informed by her ability to be an observer as well as a participant in her life. With her dry sense of humor, she is able to address a variety of topical subjects and deliver an insightful analysis that’s both provocative and amusing. Currently she coordinates a supervised visitation service with her husband in his counseling practice and facilitates diversity and anti-bullying trainings for the Anti-Defamation League. She also teaches a writing course for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the Waterbury campus of UConn. Eastman makes her home in Connecticut with her husband, Angelo, and their cat. She is working on a second book when not babysitting her grandson.
Hyperbole and a Half
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened
By Allie Brosh
Every time Allie Brosh posts something new on her hugely popular blog Hyperbole and a Half the internet rejoices.
Touching, absurd, and darkly comic, Allie Brosh’s highly anticipated book Hyperbole and a Half showcases her unique voice, leaping wit, and her ability to capture complex emotions with deceptively simple illustrations.
This full-color, beautifully illustrated edition features more than fifty percent new content, with ten never-before-seen essays and one wholly revised and expanded piece as well as classics from the website like, “The God of Cake,” “Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving,” and her astonishing, “Adventures in Depression,” and “Depression Part Two,” which have been hailed as some of the most insightful meditations on the disease ever written.
Brosh’s debut marks the launch of a major new American humorist who will surely make even the biggest scrooge or snob laugh. We dare you not to.
FROM THE AUTHOR:
This is a book I wrote. Because I wrote it, I had to figure out what to put on the back cover to explain what it is. I tried to write a long, third-person summary that would imply how great the book is and also sound vaguely authoritative – like maybe someone who isn’t me wrote it – but I soon discovered that I’m not sneaky enough to pull it off convincingly. So I decided to just make a list of things that are in the book:
- Pictures
- Words
- Stories about things that happened to me
- Stories about things that happened to other people because of me
- Eight billion dollars*
- Stories about dogs
- The secret to eternal happiness*
*These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness!
