Maria Semple

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

Missouri

A Novel

Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom. Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle--and people in general--has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic. To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence--creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette

b596d963-77ac-4d5b-bd4c-183b4d26ce7b-1

Matt Haig

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Pennsylvania

Regarding humans unfavorably upon arriving on Earth, a reluctant extraterrestrial assumes the identity of a Cambridge mathematician before realizing that there's more to the human race than he suspected.

The Humans

5847ae1c-f73b-41c4-bb43-1d90a4b51f71-1

#hardcover #humor #politicalsatire #jonstewart #thedailyshow

Utah

A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction

America (the Book)

#hardcover #nonfiction #azizansari #relationships #parksandrec #autobiography #biography #humor 

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

North Carolina

A hilarious, thoughtful, and in-depth exploration of the pleasures and perils of modern romance from one of this generation’s most popular and sharpest comedic voices At some point, every one of us embarks on a journey to find love. We meet people, date, get into and out of relationships, all with the hope of finding someone with whom we share a deep connection. This seems standard now, but it’s wildly different from what people did even just decades ago. Single people today have more romantic options than at any point in human history. With technology, our abilities to connect with and sort through these options are staggering. So why are so many people frustrated? Some of our problems are unique to our time. “Why did this guy just text me an emoji of a pizza?” “Should I go out with this girl even though she listed Combos as one of her favorite snack foods? Combos?!” “My girlfriend just got a message from some dude named Nathan. Who’s Nathan? Did he just send her a photo of his penis? Should I check just to be sure?” But the transformation of our romantic lives can’t be explained by technology alone. In a short period of time, the whole culture of finding love has changed dramatically. A few decades ago, people would find a decent person who lived in their neighborhood. Their families would meet and, after deciding neither party seemed like a murderer, they would get married and soon have a kid, all by the time they were twenty-four. Today, people marry later than ever and spend years of their lives on a quest to find the perfect person, a soul mate. For years, Aziz Ansari has been aiming his comic insight at modern romance, but for Modern Romance, the book, he decided he needed to take things to another level. He teamed up with NYU sociologist Eric Klinenberg and designed a massive research project, including hundreds of interviews and focus groups conducted everywhere from Tokyo to Buenos Aires to Wichita. They analyzed behavioral data and surveys and created their own online research forum on Reddit, which drew thousands of messages. They enlisted the world’s leading social scientists, including Eli Finkel, Helen Fisher, Sheena Iyengar, Barry Schwartz, Sherry Turkle, and Robb Willer. The result is unlike any social science or humor book we’ve seen before. In Modern Romance, Ansari combines his irreverent humor with cutting-edge social science to give us an unforgettable tour of our new romantic world.

Modern Romance

57531afb-063d-4c17-83a7-2a6718fd66bc-1

#hardcover #humor #signedcopy #bipoc #blackauthor

Washington

Essays

"[A]nother hilarious essay collection from Phoebe Robinson."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Strikes the perfect balance of brutally honest and laugh out loud funny. I didn't want it to end."
--Mindy Kaling, New York Times bestselling author of Why Not Me?

With sharp, timely insight, pitch-perfect pop culture references, and her always unforgettable voice, New York Times bestselling author, comedian, actress, and producer Phoebe Robinson is back with her most must-read book yet.

In her brand-new collection, Phoebe shares stories that will make you laugh, but also plenty that will hit you in the heart, inspire a little bit of rage, and maybe a lot of action. That means sharing her perspective on performative allyship, white guilt, and what happens when white people take up space in cultural movements; exploring what it's like to be a woman who doesn't want kids living in a society where motherhood is the crowning achievement of a straight, cis woman's life; and how the dire state of mental health in America means that taking care of one's mental health--aka "self-care"--usually requires disposable money.

She also shares stories about her mom slow-poking before a visit with Mrs. Obama, the stupidly fake reassurances of zip-line attendants, her favorite things about dating a white person from the UK, and how the lack of Black women in leadership positions fueled her to become the Black lady boss of her dreams. By turns perceptive, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartfelt, Please Don't Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes is not only a brilliant look at our current cultural moment, it's also a collection that will stay with readers for years to come.

*Signed Copy* Please Don't Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes

4fcac64a-7bc7-425f-b2c4-f8d5795cb8d7-1

Janet Evanovich

The latest title in #1 New York Times bestselling author Janet Evanovich's popular Stephanie Plum series.

Dirty Thirty

c56571d0-a85e-4185-ba5b-d0d51ca990ff-1

Howie Mandel

Josh Young

"Don't Touch Me" is a candid and compelling memoir written by Howie Mandel, a renowned comedian and television personality. In this book, Mandel shares his personal journey with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), shedding light on the impact these conditions have had on his life and career, and how he managed to overcome challenges with humor and resilience.


Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Don't Touch Me

A frank, funny, no-holds-barred memoir, "Here's the Deal" reveals Mandel's ongoing struggle with OCD and ADHD--and tells how it has shaped his life and career. As heartfelt as it is hilarious, this is the story of one man's effort to draw comic inspiration out of his most vulnerable places.

Here's the Deal

de565974-5092-42b9-b97e-5bfe883affc9-1

Mindy Kaling

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

The writer and actress from "The Office" shares observations on topics ranging from favorite male archetypes and her hatred of dieting to her relationship with her mother and the haphazard creative process on the show.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and Other Concerns)

0deaa704-835d-408e-a1ad-d6a9deb3a861-1

Trish Doller

Great RomCom read

Large Paperback, Brand new, excellent condition. MSRP $17


Trish Doller's idyllic romance Off the Map proves sometimes a wrong turn can lead to the exact right destination.


On the road to love, you don't need a GPS...


Carla Black’s life motto is “here for a good time, not for a long time.” She’s been traveling the world on her own in her vintage Jeep Wrangler for nearly a decade, stopping only long enough to replenish her adventure fund. She doesn’t do love and she doesn’t ever go home.


Eamon Sullivan is a modern-day cartographer who creates digital maps. His work helps people find their way, but he’s the one who’s lost his sense of direction. He’s unhappy at work, recently dumped, and his one big dream is stalled out―literally.

Fate throws them together when Carla arrives in Dublin for her best friend’s wedding and Eamon is tasked with picking her up from the airport. But what should be a simple drive across Ireland quickly becomes complicated with chemistry-filled detours, unexpected feelings, and a chance at love - if only they choose it.

Florida

Trish Doller's idyllic romance Off the Map proves sometimes a wrong turn can lead to the exact right destination.

On the road to love, you don't need a GPS...

Carla Black's life motto is "here for a good time, not for a long time." She's been traveling the world on her own in her vintage Jeep Wrangler for nearly a decade, stopping only long enough to replenish her adventure fund. She doesn't do love and she doesn't ever go home.

Eamon Sullivan is a modern-day cartographer who creates digital maps. His work helps people find their way, but he's the one who's lost his sense of direction. He's unhappy at work, recently dumped, and his one big dream is stalled out--literally.

Fate throws them together when Carla arrives in Dublin for her best friend's wedding and Eamon is tasked with picking her up from the airport. But what should be a simple drive across Ireland quickly becomes complicated with chemistry-filled detours, unexpected feelings, and a chance at love - if only they choose it.

Off the Map

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There is slight damage to the front cover, please see pictures.   #fiction #ya #humor #madeintomovie #scifi #comingofage

Illinois

-Aaron Starmer skillfully welds sharp humor, deep loss, and roaring escapades. Truly the smartest and funniest book about spontaneous combustion you will ever read.---John Green, #1 bestselling author of The Fault In Our Stars With all the perfectly lovely young adult novels out there, you decided to check this one out? It's got spontaneously combusting teenagers in it, dude. Not the slow burning type either. We're talking the randomly exploding variety. Seniors in high school just walking along, heading to class, whistling Beyonce, when--WA-BAM -- they're suddenly dripping off the lockers. Is that really something you're into? Confession: I'm actually kinda into that too. So, now that we've established we're both thoroughly weird and, I assume, thoroughly open-minded, we can give it shot, right? Let's at least read the opening chapters of this bad-boy and see if it features some of the more intriguing elements such as . . . - Exploding teenagers (obviously). - Hallucinogenic mushrooms. - Pyromaniacal boyfriends. - Triplet toddlers in powder blue suits. - Amur leopards and doomsday preppers. - A foul-mouthed female POTUS. - Ashtanga yoga. - -Youtube sensations. - Self-driving Priuses. - Rogue FBI agents. - Mad scientists. - Homecoming. - Spring break. - Prom. - And . . . Jennifer Lawrence. Notice how I put Jennifer Lawrence last. She's in the book, so it's not cheating. And hey, if it takes America's most beloved movie star to sell this thing, then that's what it takes. So, in closing: Jennifer Lawrence. -Wildly inventive.---Entertainment Weekly -Must List- -A comically surreal novel that will blow your mind.---People Magazine

Spontaneous

37905f95-96b9-42d4-908f-243c28a485f7-1

Jenny Lawson

Indiana

A Funny Book about Horrible Things

"Jenny made me laugh so hard I feared for my safety! I think that's how she was able to get past my defenses and make me feel more okay about myself." -Allie Brosh, author ofHyperbole and a Half For fans of David Sedaris, Tina Fey, and Mindy Kaling-the new book from Jenny Lawson, author of the #1New York Times bestseller LET'S PRETEND THIS NEVER HAPPENED... In LET'S PRETEND THIS NEVER HAPPENED, Jenny Lawson baffled readers with stories about growing up the daughter of a taxidermist. In her new book,FURIOUSLY HAPPY, Jenny explores her lifelong battle with mental illness. A hysterical, ridiculous book about crippling depression and anxiety? That sounds like a terrible idea. And terrible ideas are what Jenny does best. According to Jenny: "Some people might think that being 'furiously happy' is just an excuse to be stupid and irresponsible and invite a herd of kangaroos over to your house without telling your husband first because you suspect he would say no since he's never particularly liked kangaroos. And that would be ridiculous because no one would invitea herd of kangaroos into their house. Two is the limit. I speak from personal experience. My husband says thatnone is the new limit. I say he should have been clearer about that before I rented all those kangaroos." "Most of my favorite people are dangerously fucked-up but you'd never guess because we've learned to bare it so honestly that it becomes the new normal. Like John Hughes wrote inThe Breakfast Club, 'We're all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it.' Except go back and cross out the word 'hiding.'" Jenny's first book, LET'S PRETEND THIS NEVER HAPPENED, was ostensibly about family, but deep down it was about celebrating your own weirdness.FURIOUSLY HAPPY is a book about mental illness, but under the surface it's about embracing joy in fantastic and outrageous ways-and who doesn't need a bit more of that?

Furiously Happy

ecdf4544-e137-441a-97d5-93a5ab2827e8-1

#japaneselit #humor #comedy #fiction #paperback 

New York

Stories

Winner of the Akutagawa Prize and the Kenzaburo Oe Prize, these eleven surreal tales, set in the offices, zoos, bus stops, boutiques, and homes of contemporary Japan "are reminiscent, at least to this reader, of Joy Williams and Rivka Galchen and George Saunders" (Weike Wang, The New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice). In the English-language debut of one of Japan’s most fearlessly inventive young writers a housewife takes up bodybuilding and sees radical changes to her physique, which her workaholic husband fails to notice. A boy waits at a bus stop, mocking commuters struggling to keep their umbrellas open in a typhoon, until an old man shows him that they hold the secret to flying. A saleswoman in a clothing boutique waits endlessly on a customer who won’t come out of the fitting room, and who may or may not be human. A newlywed notices that her spouse’s features are beginning to slide around his face to match her own. In these eleven stories, the individuals who lift the curtains of their orderly homes and workplaces are confronted with the bizarre, the grotesque, the fantastic, the alien--and find a doorway to liberation.

The Lonesome Bodybuilder

d6afa5b3-8495-454f-8eba-31ba2dfd8634-1

Blythe Roberson

From New Yorker and Onion writer and comedian Blythe Roberson, How to Date Men When You Hate Men is a comedy-philosophy book aimed at interrogating what it means to date men within the trappings of modern society...

How to Date Men When You Hate Men

9c2cd678-4196-4e5a-a57f-359e80a0d3a9-1

#paperback #nonfiction #autobiography #africa #biography #memoir #socialjustice #humor #trevornoah #dailyshow #comedy


Stories from a South African Childhood

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The compelling, inspiring, and comically sublime story of one man's coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Michiko Kakutani, New York Times * USA Today * San Francisco Chronicle * NPR * Esquire * Newsday * Booklist Trevor Noah's unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents' indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa's tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle. Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man's relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother--his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life. The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother's unconventional, unconditional love. Praise for Born a Crime "[A] compelling new memoir . . . By turns alarming, sad and funny, [Trevor Noah's] book provides a harrowing look, through the prism of Mr. Noah's family, at life in South Africa under apartheid. . . . Born a Crime is not just an unnerving account of growing up in South Africa under apartheid, but a love letter to the author's remarkable mother."--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "[An] unforgettable memoir."--Parade "What makes Born a Crime such a soul-nourishing pleasure, even with all its darker edges and perilous turns, is reading Noah recount in brisk, warmly conversational prose how he learned to negotiate his way through the bullying and ostracism. . . . What also helped was having a mother like Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah. . . . Consider Born a Crime another such gift to her--and an enormous gift to the rest of us."--USA Today "[Noah] thrives with the help of his astonishingly fearless mother. . . . Their fierce bond makes this story soar."--People

Born a Crime

3967a9d3-37d1-46cc-b050-8b6a41b19d4c-1

David Howe

Very good condition, minimal edge wear.

BG

Ohio

The unofficial unauthorized guide to Dr. WHO

On its first publication, The Television Companion was hailed as possibly the best guide ever to the BBC's cult science fiction show Doctor Who. Now, reissued (and available for the first time in North America) in a revised and updated edition, the book remains the definitive guide to the television worlds and adventures of the Doctor and his companions.

The Television Companion

8789b37b-bdda-4552-850a-e447b571a219-0

Kevin Hart

Neil Strauss

The question you’re probably asking yourself right now is: What does Kevin Hart have that a book also has?

According to the three people who have seen Kevin Hart and a book in the same room, the answer is clear:

A book is compact. Kevin Hart is compact.

A book has a spine that holds it together. Kevin Hart has a spine that holds him together.

A book has a beginning. Kevin Hart’s life uniquely qualifies him to write this book by also having a beginning.

It begins in North Philadelphia. He was born an accident, unwanted by his parents. His father was a drug addict who was in and out of jail. His brother was a crack dealer and petty thief. And his mother was overwhelmingly strict, beating him with belts, frying pans, and his own toys.

The odds, in short, were stacked against our young hero. But Kevin Hart, like Ernest Hemingway, J.K. Rowling, and Chocolate Droppa before him, was able to defy the odds and turn it around. In his literary debut, he takes us on a journey through what his life was, what it is today, and how he’s overcome each challenge to become the man he is today.

And that man happens to be the biggest comedian in the world, with tours that sell out football stadiums and films that have collectively grossed over $3.5 billion.

He achieved this not just through hard work, determination, and talent. “Hart is an incredibly magnetic storyteller, on the page as he is onstage, and that’s what shines through [in this] genial, entertaining guide to a life in comedy” (Kirkus Reviews).

Oregon

Life Lessons

New York Times bestselling author, superstar comedian, and Hollywood box office star Kevin Hart turns his immense talent to the written word by writing some words. Some of those words include: the, a, for, above, and even even. Put them together and you have a “hilarious but also heartfelt” (Elle) memoir on survival, success, and the importance of believing in yourself. The question you’re probably asking yourself right now is: What does Kevin Hart have that a book also has? According to the three people who have seen Kevin Hart and a book in the same room, the answer is clear: A book is compact. Kevin Hart is compact. A book has a spine that holds it together. Kevin Hart has a spine that holds him together. A book has a beginning. Kevin Hart’s life uniquely qualifies him to write this book by also having a beginning. It begins in North Philadelphia. He was born an accident, unwanted by his parents. His father was a drug addict who was in and out of jail. His brother was a crack dealer and petty thief. And his mother was overwhelmingly strict, beating him with belts, frying pans, and his own toys. The odds, in short, were stacked against our young hero. But Kevin Hart, like Ernest Hemingway, J.K. Rowling, and Chocolate Droppa before him, was able to defy the odds and turn it around. In his literary debut, he takes us on a journey through what his life was, what it is today, and how he’s overcome each challenge to become the man he is today. And that man happens to be the biggest comedian in the world, with tours that sell out football stadiums and films that have collectively grossed over $3.5 billion. He achieved this not just through hard work, determination, and talent. “Hart is an incredibly magnetic storyteller, on the page as he is onstage, and that’s what shines through [in this] genial, entertaining guide to a life in comedy” (Kirkus Reviews).

I Can't Make This Up

00f1dca7-dc1e-443e-a2b1-2887772b6340-1

Michael Ian Black

A (Mostly Serious) Letter to My Son

Comedian, actor, writer, and podcast host Michael Ian Black’s look at boyhood in the form of a heartfelt letter to his teenage son before he leaves for college, and a radical plea for rethinking masculinity and teaching young men to give and receive love, written in response to rising gun violence and building off his New York Times op-ed, “The Boys Are Not All Right.”

A Better Man

15263ae5-6e31-4c2a-b584-7d82ba67c447-1

Chelsea Handler

The star of "Chelsea Lately" aims her sharp wit at her family, her sex life, her career and her distinctively outrageous worldview.

Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang

dc2afe12-4613-46aa-8e52-e4af4096827f-1

Doug Lansky

#someloosepagesinfront #comedy #humor #paperback 

California

lost and loster in translation

Signspotting III

00556063-92af-45b1-86d1-69aa7d4e9561-1

Gaku Kuze

How did the cynical Uramichi end up hosting a TV show for small children? And how long is the studio going to let him keep teaching the kids the sorrow and exhaustion of life instead of, say, the ABCs? This dark comedy manga started as a webcomic and became a bestseller across Japan -- with an anime coming soon!

While grappling with unexpected overtime, unreasonable working conditions, and unflattering costumes, Uramichi makes the acquaintance of other jaded professionals deep behind the scenes. Digital strategist Saito and merchandising whiz Hanbei almost seem like his kindred spirits, but their respective bad attitude and even worse temper keep the doors to Uramichi's fragile heart firmly shut. There must be someone out there who understands...right?

Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan 2

96a21efb-5f0d-44cf-b0a1-8c44edd6a7f3-1

Just getting rid of books I’ve read and don’t need anymore 

A latest entry in the best-selling series finds intrepid sleuth Stephanie Plum, her grandmother and her other companions struggling to outmaneuver a killer who is targeting Vinnie, a case that is further complicated by Lula's involvement in a fraudulent investment scheme.

Sizzling Sixteen

47bdab1c-a02b-4a7c-9fd4-71584070b24c-1

Mel Brooks

Book is in terrific condition; jacket shows a little bit of use

My Remarkable Life in Show Business

At 95, the legendary Mel Brooks continues to set the standard for comedy across television, film, and the stage. Now, for the first time, this EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winner shares his story in his own words. "Laugh-out-loud hilarious and always fascinating, from the great Mel Brooks. What else do you expect from the man who knew Jesus and dated Joan of Arc?"--Billy Crystal For anyone who loves American comedy, the long wait is over. Here are the never-before-told, behind-the-scenes anecdotes and remembrances from a master storyteller, filmmaker, and creator of all things funny. All About Me! charts Mel Brooks's meteoric rise from a Depression-era kid in Brooklyn to the recipient of the National Medal of Arts. Whether serving in the United States Army in World War II, or during his burgeoning career as a teenage comedian in the Catskills, Mel was always mining his experiences for material, always looking for the perfect joke. His iconic career began with Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, where he was part of the greatest writers' room in history, which included Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, and Larry Gelbart. After co-creating both the mega-hit 2000 Year Old Man comedy albums and the classic television series Get Smart, Brooks's stellar film career took off. He would go on to write, direct, and star in The Producers, The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, and Spaceballs, as well as produce groundbreaking and eclectic films, including The Elephant Man, The Fly, and My Favorite Year. Brooks then went on to conquer Broadway with his record-breaking, Tony-winning musical, The Producers. All About Me! offers fans insight into the inspiration behind the ideas for his outstanding collection of boundary-breaking work, and offers details about the many close friendships and collaborations Brooks had, including those with Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Gene Wilder, Madeleine Kahn, Alfred Hitchcock, and the great love of his life, Anne Bancroft. Filled with tales of struggle, achievement, and camaraderie (and dozens of photographs), readers will gain a more personal and deeper understanding of the incredible body of work behind one of the most accomplished and beloved entertainers in history.

All about Me!

953871dd-463f-45b6-936b-d173d24234fb-1

Nick Offerman

Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers

The star of Parks and Recreation and author of the New York Times bestseller Paddle Your Own Canoe returns with a second book that humorously highlights twenty-one figures from our nation’s history, from her inception to present day—Nick’s personal pantheon of “great Americans.” To millions of people, Nick Offerman is America. Both Nick and his character, Ron Swanson, are known for their humor and patriotism in equal measure. After the great success of his autobiography, Paddle Your Own Canoe, Offerman now focuses on the lives of those who inspired him. From George Washington to Willie Nelson, he describes twenty-one heroic figures and why they inspire in him such great meaning. He combines both serious history with light-hearted humor—comparing, say, Benjamin Franklin’s abstinence from daytime drinking to his own sage refusal to join his construction crew in getting plastered on the way to work. The subject matter also allows Offerman to expound upon his favorite topics, which readers love to hear—areas such as religion, politics, woodworking and handcrafting, agriculture, creativity, philosophy, fashion, and, of course, meat.

Gumption

ab781030-e27c-4df0-8d5f-c8e15535219e-1

#hardcover #fiction #fredrikbackman #anxiouspeople #humor ##fiction #comedy #botm 

Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller A People Book of the Week, Book of the Month Club selection, and Best of Fall in Good Housekeeping, PopSugar, The Washington Post, New York Post, Shondaland, CNN, and more! “[A] quirky, big-hearted novel…Wry, wise, and often laugh-out-loud funny, it’s a wholly original story that delivers pure pleasure.” —People From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove comes a charming, poignant novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined. Looking at real estate isn’t usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can’t fix their own marriage. There’s a wealthy bank director who has been too busy to care about anyone else and a young couple who are about to have their first child but can’t seem to agree on anything, from where they want to live to how they met in the first place. Add to the mix an eighty-seven-year-old woman who has lived long enough not to be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a flustered but still-ready-to-make-a-deal real estate agent, and a mystery man who has locked himself in the apartment’s only bathroom, and you’ve got the worst group of hostages in the world. Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets, and passions that are ready to boil over. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them—the bank robber included—desperately crave some sort of rescue. As the authorities and the media surround the premises these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in motion a chain of events so unexpected that even they can hardly explain what happens next. Rich with Fredrik Backman’s “pitch-perfect dialogue and an unparalleled understanding of human nature” (Shelf Awareness), Anxious People is an ingeniously constructed story about the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope—the things that save us, even in the most anxious times.

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Save this search

Maria Semple

Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Matt Haig

The Humans

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

America (the Book)

Aziz Ansari; Eric Klinenberg

Modern Romance

Phoebe Robinson

*Signed Copy* Please Don't Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes

Janet Evanovich

Dirty Thirty

Howie Mandel; Josh Young

Here's the Deal

Mindy Kaling

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and Other Concerns)

Trish Doller

Off the Map

Aaron Starmer

Spontaneous

Jenny Lawson

Furiously Happy

Yukiko Motoya; Asa Yoneda (Translator)

The Lonesome Bodybuilder

Blythe Roberson

How to Date Men When You Hate Men

Trevor Noah

Born a Crime

David Howe

The Television Companion

Kevin Hart; Neil Strauss

I Can't Make This Up

Michael Ian Black

A Better Man

Chelsea Handler

Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang

Doug Lansky

Signspotting III

Gaku Kuze

Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan 2

Janet Evanovich

Sizzling Sixteen

Mel Brooks

All about Me!

Nick Offerman

Gumption

Fredrik Backman

Anxious People

Signed Copy Please Don't Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes