Forty of the greatest fictional festivities as seen through the eyes of the world’s greatest writers.People love to party. And writers love to attend and document these occasions. The party is a useful literary device, not only for social commentary and satire but also as an occasion where characters can meet, fall in and out of love, or …
Do men and women laugh at the same things?Is laughter contagious?Has anyone ever really died laughing?Is laughing good for your health?Drawing upon ten years of research into this most common-yet complex and often puzzling-human phenomenon, Dr. Robert Provine, the world’s leading scientific expert on laughter, investigates such aspects of his subject as its evolution, its role in social …
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERLaurie Notaro has an uncanny ability to attract insanity—and leave readers doubled over with laughter. Need proof? Check out The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death and try not to bust a gut. Join Notaro as she experiences the popular phenomenon of laser hair removal (because at least one …
The Joke and Its Relation to the Unconscious (Penguin Classics)
Why do we laugh? The answer, argued Freud in this groundbreaking study of humor, is that jokes, like dreams, satisfy our unconscious desires. The Joke and Its Relation to the Unconscious explains how jokes provide immense pleasure by releasing us from our inhibitions and allowing us to express sexual, aggressive, playful, or cynical instincts that would otherwise remain hidden. …
The National Joker: Abraham Lincoln and the Politics of Satire
Abraham Lincoln’s sense of humor proved legendary during his own time and remains a celebrated facet of his personality to this day. Indeed, his love of jokes—hearing them, telling them, drawing morals from them—prompted critics to dub Lincoln “the National Joker.” The political cartoons and print satires that mocked Lincoln often trafficked in precisely the same images and …
In Texas “Yankee” is a loose term covering a lot of ground. If you’re not a Texan or a southerner, you’re a Yankee and therefore, to many Texans, suspect.There are many rites of passage to being a Yankee in Texas: the first time you spot a pickup with a gun rack; the first time you realize that a …
The Idiot Girls’ Action-Adventure Club: True Tales from a Magnificent and Clumsy Life
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER“I’ve changed a bit since high school. Back then I said no to using and selling drugs. I washed on a normal basis and still had good credit.” Introducing Laurie Notaro, the leader of the Idiot Girls’ Action-Adventure Club. Every day she fearlessly rises from bed to defeat the evil machinations of …
It Looked Different on the Model: Epic Tales of Impending Shame and Infamy
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLEREveryone’s favorite Idiot Girl, Laurie Notaro, is just trying to find the right fit, whether it’s in the adorable blouse that looks charming on the mannequin but leaves her in a literal bind or in her neighborhood after she’s shamefully exposed at a holiday party by delivering a low-quality rendition of “Jingle Bells.” Notaro …
As much as a Rat’s Tail: Korean slang, invective & euphemism- the “Insider’s guide” An irreverent look at Language within Culture Get ‘street’ with A Rat’s Tail – Learn what the kids are really saying, all the Korean they will never teach you in class. Korean is rich with …
The Wicked Wit of Winston Churchill (The Wicked Wit of series)
Sir Winston Churchill remains a British hero, lauded for his oratorical skill. He wrote histories, biographies, memoirs, and even a novel, while his journalism, speeches and broadcasts run to millions of words. From 1940 he inspired and united the British people and guided their war effort. Behind the public figure, however, was a man of vast humanity and …