Humor Memoir

We have descriptors for many periods of life, but there is a period of profound change that many women face, often in their late 20s to early 40s, that does not yet have a name. Nell Frizzell is calling this period of flux “the panic years", and it is often characterized by a preoccupation with one major question: Should I have a baby? Frizzell uses personal stories from her own experiences in the panic years to illuminate the larger social and cultural trends and gives voice to the uncertainty, confusion, and urgency that tends to characterize this time of life.

What is life for Giles and Mary outside the willow-patterned cocoon? Giles is a countryman who relishes solitude. His wife, Mary, thrives in company and enjoys frequent escapes to London. After 30 years in a marriage of opposites, Giles and Mary have adapted to a life of domestic misunderstandings within comical misadventures.

Al Franken, Giant of the Senate is a book about an unlikely campaign that had an even more improbable ending: the closest outcome in history and an unprecedented eight-month recount saga, which is pretty funny in retrospect. It's a book about what happens when the nation's foremost progressive satirist gets a chance to serve in the United States Senate and, defying the low expectations of the pundit class, actually turns out to be good at it.

Clinton Kelly is probably best known for teaching women how to make their butts look smaller. But in I Hate Everyone, Except You, he reveals some heretofore unknown secrets about himself, like that he's a finicky connoisseur of 1980s pornography, a disillusioned critic of New Jersey's premier water parks, and perhaps the world's least enthused high school commencement speaker.

If it's navel-gazing you're after, you've come to the wrong place; ditto treacly self-examination. Rather, his observations turn outward: a fight between two men on a bus, a fight between two men on the street; collecting Romanian insults, or being taken round a Japanese parasite museum. There's a dirty joke shared at a book signing, then a dirtier one told at a dinner party - lots of jokes here. Plenty of laughs. These diaries remind you that you once really hated George W. Bush, and that not too long ago, Donald Trump was a harmless laughingstock, at least on French TV.

As far back as he can remember James Corden has only ever wanted to be in one place: in front of you, doing something to make you laugh, cry, shout, or giggle uncontrollably. At the age of 4, he grandstanded throughout his baby sister’s christening, standing on a chair in front of the whole congregation, pulling faces and cracking everyone up. Despite himself, the vicar was impressed. And from then on he couldn’t get enough of the spotlight, even when it always seemed to avoid him. Throughout his teens, he and his Dad trudged up and down towards London....

Jam-packed with misinformation, outright lies, and probable slander, The Incredibly Inaccurate Biography of Andy Richter is totally - and tonally - wrong. A “lie-ography,” if you will, manufactured by some of America’s funniest and most ignorant writers, each working independently of the others, all following one guiding principle: a mutual disregard for the truth. And a mutual disdain for Andy.

We all know Drew Carey from his award-winning stand-up career, and his hit television show, but do we really know Drew Carey, the person? In his first book, the bawdy and irreverent Dirty Jokes and Beer, find out about all the many sides to this misunderstood Hollywood star.

i>39 Years of Short-Term Memory Loss is a seriously funny, offbeat, and irreverent memoir that chronicles the early days of Saturday Night Live and features some of its greatest personalities---Al Franken, Lorne Michaels, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Michael O'Donoghue, and Chris Farley.

In this ingeniously funny collection of humorous riffs, those who thought Martin's gifts were confined to the screen will discover what readers of the New Yorker already know: that Martin is also a master of the written word. Hilariously funny and intelligent in their skewering of the topic at hand, these pieces feature Martin at his finest.

Without bothering to get approval from the President, the State Department, or even the FTC, Dave Barry's publishers sent him to Tokyo. You'd think they would have known better. Now the word is Barry has set back our diplomatic relations with the whole Pacific Rim by a couple of decades. Japanese culture, dining, sport, and industry all come under Barry's relentless scrutiny.

Hilarious best friends Cat and Nat created a massive online community of moms by sharing their ultra-real and just a bit R-rated dispatches from the mom trenches. From what not to eat a few days after giving birth (chicken wings) to the most effective ways to dodge post-partum sex, Cat & Nat’s Mom Truths shares everything no one will tell you about having kids.

THE MAN IN THE TENT is Tony Beardsall’s lively, informative account of his life since moving under canvas at the age of fifty-one. This volume contains parts one to four at a reduced price. Please click on the author’s name to see the description for each part.

Running with Scissors is the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of being Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her psychiatrist, a dead ringer for Santa and a lunatic in the bargain.

As one of the world's leading experts on disaster, Lucy Easthope has been at the centre of the most seismic events of the last few decades - advising on everything from the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami to the 7/7 bombings, the Salisbury poisonings, the Grenfell fire and the COVID-19 pandemic. She has travelled across the world in this unusual role, seeing the very worst that people have to face and finding that even the most extreme of situations, we find the very best of humanity. In her moving memoir, she reveals what happens in the aftermath.

As the youngest of four in a tight-knit Jamaican family, Cooper cut her teeth in the mean cornfields of suburban Maryland. Soon she became a charmingly neurotic woman trying to break her worst patterns and reclaim her linen closet. From an early obsession with hair bands to her struggle to escape the immigrant-to-basic-bitch pipeline to her use of the Internet as a marriage counselor (after being fired by two real ones) and the curse of her TED Talk vibe, Cooper invites us to share in her triumphs and humiliations as she tries (and fails) to balance her own dreams with the American dream.

Jen Lancaster is here to take a hard look at our elevating anxieties, and with self-deprecating wit and levelheaded wisdom, she charts a path out of the quagmire that keeps us frightened of the future and ashamed of our imperfectly perfect human lives. Take a deep breath, and her advice, and you just might get through a holiday dinner without wanting to disown your uncle.

This is the memoir of Jimmy, a successful business mogul. At fifty, Jimmy reflects on a life lived at full throttle—a monkey who turned ambition into an empire. From dominating Wall Street to launching luxury brands and enjoying the high life aboard his yacht, his memoir dives into the deals, risks, and triumphs that made him a legend. A story of grit, glamour, and unrelenting drive, this is Jimmy’s ultimate tell-all about living on top of the world.

This compilation of dozens of incredible true stories gathered over a 39 year railroad career, spotlights the unexpected hilarity involved in working in public transportation. Personal experiences run the gamut from sexual escapades to train accidents and even hijackings, almost all of which culminate with laughter. Chapters include: Light at the End of the Tunnel, Not Quite the Mile High Club, I Could Have Slept with Sandra Bullock, My Homosexual Years (sort of ;), How I Met Your Mother, Mr. Poopy Pants, Do Not Hump, I Was Lost But Now I'm Found, and many more. Commuters, train enthusiasts...

When 20-year-old Jay Mohr moved to New York City, he never thought he would land his first real job on Saturday Night Live. But he did - and what followed were two crazy years of trying to keep up with his talented cast mates and get on the air as often as possible. Jay offers an intimate first-person account of the inner workings of Saturday Night Live - the audition, the pitch meetings, and how skits make the final cut of the show. Jay also dishes on the guest hosts, the musical guests, and, of course, his cast mates.