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Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls

04/30/2013 by Leave a Comment

Lets Explore DiabetesBy David Sedaris

A guy walks into a bar car and…

From here the story could take many turns. When this guy is David Sedaris, the possibilities are endless, but the result is always the same: he will both delight you with twists of humor and intelligence and leave you deeply moved.

Sedaris remembers his father’s dinnertime attire (shirtsleeves and underpants), his first colonoscopy (remarkably pleasant), and the time he considered buying the skeleton of a murdered Pygmy.

With Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls, David Sedaris shows once again why his work has been called “hilarious, elegant, and surprisingly moving” (Washington Post).

Filed Under: Popular Non-Fiction Tagged With: ,

Vader’s Little Princess

04/23/2013 by Leave a Comment

Vaders Little PrincessBy Jeffrey Brown

In this irresistibly funny follow-up to the breakout bestseller Darth Vader and Son, Vader – Sith Lord and leader of the Galactic Empire – now faces the trials, joys, and mood swings of raising his daughter Leia as she grows from a sweet little girl into a rebellious teenager. Smart and funny illustrations by artist Jeffrey Brown give classic Star Wars moments a twist by bringing these iconic family relations together under one roof. From tea parties to teaching Leia how to fly a TIE fighter, regulating the time she spends talking with friends via R2-D2′s hologram, and making sure Leia doesn’t leave the house wearing only the a skirted metal bikini, Vader’s parenting skills are put hilariously to the test.

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Insane City

01/30/2013 by Leave a Comment

Insane CityBy Dave Barry

A dark comic masterpiece – the first solo adult novel in more than a decade from the Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times-bestselling author.

Seth Weinstein knew Tina was way out of his league in pretty much any way you could imagine, which is why it continued to astonish him that he was on the plane now for their destination wedding in Florida. The Groom Posse had already sprung an airport prank on him, and he’d survived it, and if that was the worst of it, everything should be okay. Smooth sailing from now on.

Seth has absolutely no idea what he’s about to get into. In the next several hours, he and his friends will become embroiled with rioters, Russian gangsters, angry strippers, a pimp as big as the Death Star, a very desperate Haitian refugee on the run with her two children from some very bad men, and an eleven-foot albino Burmese python named Blossom. And there’re still two days to go before the wedding.

As it turns out, it’s not smooth sailing, it’s more like a trip on the Titanic. And the water below him is getting deeper every minute. By the end, amid gunfire, high-speed chases, and mayhem of the most unimaginable sort, violent men will fall, heroes will rise, and many lives will change.

Seth’s, not least of all.

Filed Under: Featured, Popular Fiction Tagged With: ,

America Again

12/01/2012 by Leave a Comment

America Again: Re-Becoming the Greatness We Never Weren’t

By Stephen Colbert

Book store nation, in the history of mankind there has never been a greater country than America. You could say we’re the #1 nation at being the best at greatness.

But as perfect as America is in every single way, America is broken! And we can’t exchange it because we’re 236 years past the 30-day return window. Look around – we don’t make anything anymore, we’ve mortgaged our future to China, and the Apologist-in-Chief goes on world tours just to bow before foreign leaders. Worse, the L.A. Four Seasons Hotel doesn’t even have a dedicated phone button for the Spa. You have to dial an extension! Where did we lose our way?!

It’s high time we restored America to the greatness it never lost!

Luckily, America Again will singlebookedly pull this country back from the brink. It features everything from chapters, to page numbers, to fonts. Covering subject’s ranging from healthcare (“I shudder to think where we’d be without the wide variety of prescription drugs to treat our maladies, such as think-shuddering”) to the economy (“Life is giving us lemons, and we’re shipping them to the Chinese to make our lemon-flavored leadonade”) to food (“Feel free to deep fry this book – it’s a rich source of fiber”), Stephen gives America the dose of truth it needs to get back on track.

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
“America Again” Release
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

This book is an excellent gift for fans of the Colbert Report and anyone who enjoys goofy humor and political satire.

Filed Under: Holiday Picks Tagged With:

Does This Church Make Me Look Fat?

12/01/2012 by Leave a Comment

By Rhoda Janzen

What does it mean to give church a try when you haven’t really tried since you were twelve? At the end of her bestselling memoir Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, Rhoda Janzen had reconnected with her family and her roots, though her future felt uncertain. But when she starts dating a churchgoer, this skeptic begins a surprising journey to faith and love.

Rhoda doesn’t slide back into the dignified simplicity of the Mennonite church. Instead she finds herself hanging with the Pentecostals, who really know how to get down with sparkler pom-poms. Amid the hand waving and hallelujahs Rhoda finds a faith richly practical for life – just in time for some impressive lady problems, an unexpected romance, and a quirky new family.

Does This Church Make Me Look Fat? is for people who have a problem with organized religion, but can’t quite dismiss the notion of God, and for those who secretly sing hymns in their cars, but prefer a nice mimosa brunch to church. This is the story of what it means to find joy in love, comfort in prayer, and – incredibly, surprisingly – faith in a big-hearted God.

This book would make an excellent gift for fans of Rhoda Janzen’s memoir Mennonite in a Little Black Dress or any reader who has experienced a change or uncertainty in their religion.

Filed Under: Holiday Picks Tagged With: ,

Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores

09/26/2012 by Leave a Comment

By Jen Campbell

Customer: Have you read every single book in here?

Bookseller: No, I can’t say I have.

Customer: Well, you’re not very good at your job, are you?

A simple Twitter question posed by John Cleese – “What is your pet peeve?” – inspired Jen Campbell to start a blog collecting all the ridiculous conversations overheard in her bookstore, everything from “Did Beatrix Potter ever write a book about dinosaurs?” to the hunt for a paperback which could forecast the next year’s weather; from “I’ve forgotten my glasses, please read me the first chapter” to “Excuse me…is this book edible?”; and from “Can books conduct electricity?” to “My children are just climbing your bookshelves: that’s ok….isn’t it?”

If we didn’t know it already, this irresistible book is proof positive that booksellers are heroes, the world over.

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I Could Pee On This

09/26/2012 by Leave a Comment

By Francesco Marciuliano

Cat lovers will laugh out loud at the quirkiness of their feline friends with these insightful and curious poems from the singular minds of housecats. In this hilarious book of tongue-in-cheek poetry, the author of the internationally syndicated comic strip Sally Forth helps cats unlock their creative potential and explain their odd behavior to ignorant humans. With titles like “Who Is That on Your Lap?,” “This Is My Chair,” “Kneel Before Me,” “Nudge,” and “Some of My Best Friends Are Dogs,” the poems collected in I Could Pee on This perfectly capture the inner workings of the cat psyche. With photos of the cat authors throughout, this whimsical volume reveals kitties at their wackiest, and most exasperating (but always lovable).

Filed Under: Featured, Poetry, Drama & Art Tagged With: ,

Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It: False Apology Poems

04/24/2012 by Leave a Comment

By Gail Carson Levine

This Is Just to Say

If you’re looking for a nice happy book

put this one down and run away quickly

Forgive me sweetness and good cheer are boring

Inspired by William Carlos Williams’s famous poem “This Is Just to Say,” Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine delivers a wickedly funny collection of her own false apology poems, imagining how tricksters really feel about the mischief they make. Matthew Cordell’s clever and playful line art lightheartedly captures the spirit of the poetry. This is the perfect book for anyone who’s ever apologized…and not really meant it.

Filed Under: Poetry, Drama & Art Tagged With: ,

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened

04/17/2012 by Leave a Comment

By Jenny Lawson, The Bloggess

For fans of Tina Fey and David Sedaris – Internet star Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, makes her literary debut. Jenny Lawson realized that the most mortifying moments of our lives – the ones we’d like to pretend never happened – are in fact the ones that define us. In Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson takes readers on a hilarious journey recalling her bizarre upbringing in rural Texas, her devastatingly awkward high school years, and her relationship with her long-suffering husband, Victor. Chapters include: “Stanley the Magical, Talking Squirrel”; “A Series of Angry Post-It Notes to My Husband”; “My Vagina Is Fine. Thanks for Asking”; “And Then I Snuck a Dead Cuban Alligator on an Airplane.” Pictures with captions (no one would believe these things without proof) accompany the text.

“The Bloggess writes stuff that actually is laugh-out-loud, but you know that really you shouldn’t be laughing and probably you’ll go to hell for laughing, so maybe you shouldn’t read it. That would be safer and wiser.”

–Neil Gaiman

Filed Under: Autobiography & Biography, Featured, Popular Non-Fiction Tagged With: , ,

Sacré Bleu

04/03/2012 by Leave a Comment

By Christopher Moore

It is the color of the Virgin Mary’s cloak, a dazzling pigment desired by artists, an exquisite hue infused with danger, adventure, and perhaps even the supernatural. It is . . .

Sacré Bleu!

In July 1890, Vincent van Gogh went into a cornfield and shot himself. “Or did he?” Why would an artist at the height of his creative powers attempt to take his own life . . . and then walk a mile to a doctor’s house for help? Who was the crooked little “color man” Vincent had claimed was stalking him across France? And why had the painter recently become deathly afraid of a certain shade of blue?

These are just a few of the questions confronting Vincent’s friends–baker-turned-painter Lucien Lessard and bon vivant Henri Toulouse-Lautrec–who vow to discover the truth about van Gogh’s untimely death. Their quest will lead them on a surreal odyssey and brothel-crawl deep into the art world of late nineteenth-century Paris.

“Oh là là, quelle surprise,” and “zut alors!” A delectable confection of intrigue, passion, and art history–with cancan girls, baguettes, and fine French cognac thrown in for good measure–”Sacré Bleu” is another masterpiece of wit and wonder from the one, the only, Christopher Moore.

Filed Under: Featured, Popular Fiction Tagged With: ,

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