David Sedaris

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Wisconsin

Essays

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

de89e85a-36ae-43cc-af07-27a84835f773-1

Ben Purkert

Minnesota

A Novel

"I laughed more times than I can count . . . A phenomenal debut novel by one of my favorite writers." --CLINT SMITH "Nails down the hypocrisies of modern masculinity and capitalism with the graceful hand of poet." --ALEXANDRA KLEEMAN "Purkert's writing is a gift and it shines through these pages." --HANIF ABDURRAQIB A knockout debut novel that tackles a haunting question: What do our jobs do to our souls? Seth is a junior copywriter whose latest tagline just went viral. He's the agency's hottest new star, or at least he wants his coworker crush to think so. But while he's busy drooling over his future corner office, the walls crumble around him. When his job lets him go, he can't let go of his job. Thankfully, one former colleague can't let him go either: Robert "Moon" McCloone, a skeezy on-the-rise exec better suited to a frat house than a boardroom. Seth tries to forget Moon and rediscover his spiritual self; he studies Kabbalah with an Orthodox rabbi by day while popping illegal prescription pills by night. But with each misstep, Seth strays farther from salvation--though he might get there, if he could only get out of his own way. In his debut novel, Purkert incisively peels back the layers of the male ego, revealing what's rotten and what might be redeemed. Brimming with wit, irreverence, and soul-searching, The Men Can't Be Saved is a startlingly original examination of work, sex, addiction, religion, branding, and ourselves.

The Men Can't Be Saved

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Dai Sijie

For this second novel, Dai Sijie has invented a most fantastic, yet profoundly enlightening, quest set in modern China. Mr. Muo is a forty-year-old scholar and devotee of Freud who leaves France and returns to his native China to free his college love from prison. He must procure a virgin for the corrupt and sadistic Judge Di so that the Judge will pardon the woman for whom, as it turns out, Muo has harbored an essentially unreciprocated love for twenty years. This wild premise is just the starting point for Muo’s—and the reader’s—even more wild and superbly entertaining adventure across the Chinese countryside. While he scours the country for a virgin, Muo determines to practice the teachings of Freud by offering low-cost dream interpretation to the Chinese people he encounters along the way. But Muo is a novice in dream interpretation as well as in the ways of love. The results of his encounters with the Chinese women, are, therefore, laden with awkwardness, embarrassment, and, occasionally, absurdity—both in his interpretation of their dreams and in his investigation into their purity. Along the way, Muo attracts the love of an ugly older policewoman, loses his virginity to his long-time friend and neighbor, and, when he finally meets a young virgin for Judge Di, finds himself, inevitably, falling in love with her himself. No obstacle deters Muo from his quest. He battles an array of colorful and sometimes frightening Chinese characters, including the savage hill bandits (Lolo), corrupt judges and politicians, convict restaurateurs, an herbalist who observes panda droppings, and the peasants who submit to Muo’s amateur psychoanalysis. 

Through Muo’s expedition, Sijie spares no detail. Embellishing his acute insight into human behavior with madcap humor, Sijie philosophizes on the capricious nature of love, the confused state of modern China, and dream interpretation as a way of understanding the human state. His creation—Mr. Muo—is a tribute to supreme optimism and the tenaciousness of the individual spirit.


Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Maryland

After years of studying Freud in Paris, Mr. Muo returns home to bring the benefits of psychoanalysis to twenty-first-century China and to somehow free his college sweetheart, now a political prisoner, a quest that leads him to the sadistic local magistrate.

Mr Muo's Travelling Couch

82b6dc7a-6747-4238-8934-fa29839c5680-1

Jenny Jackson

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

New Jersey

A deliciously funny, sharply observed debut of family, love, and class, this zeitgeisty novel follows three women in one wealthy Brooklyn clan

"A vibrant and hilarious debut...Pineapple Street is riveting, timely, hugely entertaining and brimming with truth." --Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author of The Nest

Darley, the eldest daughter in the well-connected old money Stockton family, followed her heart, trading her job and her inheritance for motherhood but giving up far too much in the process; Sasha, a middle-class New England girl, has married into the Brooklyn Heights family, and finds herself cast as the arriviste outsider; and Georgiana, the baby of the family, has fallen in love with someone she can't have, and must decide what kind of person she wants to be. 

Rife with the indulgent pleasures of life among New York's one-percenters, Pineapple Street is a smart, escapist novel that sparkles with wit. Full of recognizable, loveable--if fallible--characters, it's about the peculiar unknowability of someone else's family, the miles between the haves and have-nots, and the insanity of first love--all wrapped in a story that is a sheer delight.

Pineapple Street

84fe521f-2856-4324-ae5d-5ded2502a674-1

Voltaire

Illinois

Tells the story of Candide, a naive youth, who is conscripted, shipwrecked, robbed, and tortured by the Inquisition without losing his will to live

Candide

57b68c2e-26ff-40ac-92c4-b3b6ee368197-1

Denis Leary

Oklahoma

A Feel Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid

The four-time Emmy-nominated comic satirist of Rescue Me presents irreverent cultural observations about how society is taking itself too seriously, in an account that shares anecdotes from his Irish-Catholic upbringing, high-pressure family life, and work as a performing artist. 200,000 first printing.

Why We Suck

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Kevin Nguyen

Virginia

A wry and edgy debut novel about race and startup culture, secrecy and surveillance, social media and friendship “A knowing, witty, and thought-provoking exploration of love, modern isolation, and what it means to exist—especially as a person of color—in our increasingly digital age.”—Celeste Ng, bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • The New York Public Library • Parade • Kirkus Review Lucas and Margo are fed up. Margo is a brilliant programmer tired of being talked over as the company’s sole black employee, and while Lucas is one of many Asians at the firm, he’s nearly invisible as a low-paid customer service rep. Together, they decide to steal their tech startup’s user database in an attempt at revenge. The heist takes a sudden turn when Margo dies in a car accident, and Lucas is left reeling, wondering what to do with their secret—and wondering whether her death really was an accident. When Lucas hacks into Margo’s computer looking for answers, he is drawn into her private online life and realizes just how little he knew about his best friend. With a fresh voice, biting humor, and piercing observations about human nature, Kevin Nguyen brings an insider’s knowledge of the tech industry to this imaginative novel. A pitch-perfect exploration of race and startup culture, secrecy and surveillance, social media and friendship, New Waves asks: How well do we really know one another? And how do we form true intimacy and connection in a tech-obsessed world? Praise for New Waves “Nguyen’s stellar debut is a piercing assessment of young adulthood, the tech industry, and racism. . . . Nguyen impressively holds together his overlapping plot threads while providing incisive criticism of privilege and a dose of sharp humor. The story is fast-paced and fascinating, but also deeply felt; the effect is a page-turner with some serious bite.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A blistering sendup of startup culture and a sprawling, ambitious, tender debut.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

New Waves

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Mateo Askaripour

California

For fans of Sorry to Bother You and The Wolf of Wall Street comes a blazing, satirical debut novel about a young man given a shot at stardom as the lone black salesman at a mysterious, cult-like, and wildly successful startup where nothing is as it seems.

Black Buck

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Martha Grimes

Cindy Sella struggles with writer's block and a lawsuit by her unscrupulous former agent, L. Bass Hess, who is targeted by bumbling hitmen Candy and Karl's zany efforts to drive him out of New York City.

The Way of All Fish

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#hardcover #noo nonfiction #satire #humor #newyorker #davidsedaris #comedy #essays 

Vermont

Rivka Galchen

Pennsylvania

The startling, witty, highly anticipated second novel from the critically acclaimed author of Atmospheric Disturbances The story begins in 1618, in the German duchy of Württemberg. Plague is spreading. The Thirty Years' War has begun, and fear and suspicion are in the air throughout the Holy Roman Empire. In the small town of Leonberg, Katharina Kepler is accused of being a witch. Katharina is an illiterate widow, known by her neighbors for her herbal remedies and the success of her children, including her eldest, Johannes, who is the Imperial Mathematician and renowned author of the laws of planetary motion. It's enough to make anyone jealous, and Katharina has done herself no favors by being out and about and in everyone's business. So when the deranged and insipid Ursula Reinbold (or as Katharina calls her, the Werewolf) accuses Katherina of offering her a bitter, witchy drink that has made her ill, Katharina is in trouble. Her scientist son must turn his attention from the music of the spheres to the job of defending his mother. Facing the threat of financial ruin, torture, and even execution, Katharina tells her side of the story to her friend and next-door neighbor Simon, a reclusive widower imperiled by his own secrets. Drawing on real historical documents but infused with the intensity of imagination, sly humor, and intellectual fire for which Rivka Galchen is known, Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch will both provoke and entertain. The story of how a community becomes implicated in collective aggression and hysterical fear is a tale for our time. Galchen's bold new novel touchingly illuminates a society and a family undone by superstition, the state, and the mortal convulsions of history.

Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch

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#hardcover #fiction #blackbuck #satire #blackauthors 

Texas

Robert Siegel

Sarcasm + fake news + more sarcasm with a dose of doom scrolling. Makes a great gift. 

Excellent condition, unread, new copy. 

The Best of the Onion

"The Onion is laugh-out-loud, go-tell-your-friends, get-angry-you-didn't-think-of-it funny."
-Conan O'Brien

"Outside of maybe Dario Fo, an Italian who few are sure exists, the Onion people make the most consistently perfect and excoriating social commentary we currently have. But will those Nobel bastards honor them, too? Only God, our merciless and just God, knows."
-Dave Eggers

"The funniest publication in the United States."
-The New Yorker

"This publication is tasteless and destructive to our shared values. Read it for yourself and you'll see what I mean. Seriously, what else could make me laugh-much less laugh uproariously-while being offended week after week after week?"
-Al Gore

"The Onion is the funniest thing in news since Dan Rather's spooky stare."
-Matt Groening

"Brutal satire that rushes into the far reaches of race, class, sexuality, and culture where many publications-and critics-fear to tread."
-Chicago Tribune

"The Onion, unlike any other entity in our media culture, offers a refreshingly honest look at our complicated life."
-Ken Burns

Dispatches from the Tenth Circle

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For fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid, Sally Rooney, and Rebecca Serle, Tory Henwood Hoen's The Arc is a smart, high concept love story that asks: is it possible to optimize our most intimate relationships? LOVE, DISRUPTED Thirty-five-year-old Ursula Byrne, VP of Strategic Audacity at a branding agency in Manhattan, is successful, witty, whip-smart, and single. She’s tried all the dating apps, and let’s just say: she’s underwhelmed by her options. You’d think that by now someone would have come up with something more bespoke; a way for users to be more tailored about who and what they want in a life partner––how hard could that be? Enter The Arc: a highly secretive, super-sophisticated matchmaking service that uses a complex series of emotional, psychological and physiological assessments to architect partnerships that will go the distance. The price tag is high, the promise ambitious––a level of lifelong compatibility that would otherwise be unattainable. In other words, The Arc will find your ideal mate. Ursula is paired with forty-two-year-old lawyer Rafael Banks. From moment one, this feels like the electric, lasting love they’ve each been seeking their whole adult lives. But as their relationship unfolds in unanticipated ways, the two begin to realize that true love is never a sure thing. And the arc of a relationship is never predictable...even when it's fully optimized.

The Arc

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Susan Isaacs

Utah

Movie producer Sy Spencer -- one of the premier summer residents of the Hamptons, Long Island's oh-so-fashionable beach resort for everyone who is anyone -- has hosted his last power clambake, thanks to whoever shot him dead beside his oceanfront pool. Heading the investigation is Hamptons native Steve Brady. His prime suspect is Sy's ex-wife Bonnie, a strangely appealing and energetic woman both in and out of bed. As the case against Bonnie builds, so does Brady's obsession with her. Before long, he's laying the case and his career on the line for her, ignoring all the rules, all the evidence, and all common sense

Magic Hour

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Emma McLaughlin

Nicola Kraus

New York

"WANTED: "
"One young woman to take care of a four-year-old boy."
"Must be bordering on masochistic."
"Must relish sixteen-hour shifts with a nap-deprived pre-schooler."
"Must love getting thrown up on, literally and figuratively, by everyone in his family"
"Mostly, must love being treated like fungus found growing out of employers Hermes bag."
"Those who take it personally need not apply."
""
Who "wouldn't "want this job?
""
Nanny is a struggling grad student with no visible piercings. Mrs. X, of Park Avenue, doesn't work, clean, cook, or raise her own child. She makes appointments and lists. Nanny needs a job. Mrs. X needs someone accommodating. Nanny and Mrs. X need each other. In return, Nanny is subjected to erratic shifts, irregular paychecks, and the sullen moods of her four-year-old charge. Sentenced to every play date known to Central Park, and every gourmet-snack run she can handle, Nanny needs a diversion that an afternoon martini can't fulfill. Then she discovers a secret about Mr. X. Navigating a marriage on the rocks and the increasingly paranoid, impossibly demanding attitude of her employer, Nanny is redefining servitude. Because now, Nanny has something worth more than Mrs. X's ill-fitting Prada castoffs as a thankless bonus.
Nanny's acquiring the power of revenge
"

The Nanny Diaries

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Rhode Island

A provocatively entertaining, savagely funny satire on Donald Trump by Britain's greatest comic novelist.

Pussy is the story of Prince Fracassus, heir presumptive to the Duchy of Origen, famed for its golden-gated skyscrapers and casinos, who passes his boyhood watching reality shows on TV, imagining himself to be the Roman Emperor Nero, and fantasizing about hookers. He is idle, boastful, thin-skinned and egotistic; has no manners, no curiosity, no knowledge, no idea and no words in which to express them. Could he, in that case, be the very leader to make the country great again?

Pussy

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#hardcover #humor #3D #stephencolbert #3DGlasses #satire #politicalhumor 

Re-Becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't

Covering subjects ranging from health care to the economy to food, Colbert "gives America the dose of truth it needs to get back on the right track it's already on"--Dust jacket flap.

America Again

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Jane Roper

"If you liked Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, read The Society of Shame by Jane Roper." --The Washington Post

In this timely and witty combination of So You've Been Publicly Shamed and Where'd You Go, Bernadette? a viral photo of a politician's wife's "feminine hygiene malfunction" catapults her to unwanted fame in a story that's both a satire of social media stardom and internet activism, and a tender mother-daughter tale.

Kathleen Held's life is turned upside down when she arrives home to find her house on fire and her husband on the front lawn in his underwear. But the scandal that emerges is not that Bill, who's running for Senate, is having a painfully cliched affair with one of his young staffers: it's that the eyewitness photographing the scene accidentally captures a period stain on the back of Kathleen's pants.

Overnight, Kathleen finds herself the unwitting figurehead for a social media-centered women's right movement, #YesWeBleed. Humiliated, Kathleen desperately seeks a way to hide from the spotlight. But when she stumbles upon the Society of Shame--led by the infamous author Danica Bellevue--Kathleen finds herself part of a group who are all working to change their lives after their own scandals. Using the teachings of the society, Kathleen channels her newfound fame as a means to reap the benefits of her humiliation and reclaim herself. But as she ascends to celebrity status, Kathleen's growing obsession with maintaining her popularity online threatens her most important relationship IRL: that with her budding activist daughter, Aggie.

Hilarious and heartfelt, The Society of Shame is a pitch-perfect romp through politics and the perils of being "extremely online"--without losing your sanity or your true self.

The Society of Shame

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William Hamilton

Never read. Cover shows some wear from shelving (see photos) 

Widely praised in hardcover and now available in paperback, this comedy of contemporary Manhattan manners has all the panache of a Preston Sturges film and many of the trappings: a blue-blooded heiress, a handsome young artist, ladies who lunch and men who drink, not to mention trust funds, social climbers, and Christie's auctions galore.

The Lap of Luxury

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Oregon

Stephen Colbert

Michigan

#paperback #thebolds #series #theboldsinteouble #childrens #childrensbooks #ages8-12 #illustrated #funny #satire 

Mississippi

The Bolds are back for another hilarious tale!This time, Teddington's wildest family have decided to stay at home and keep their heads down - it isn't always easy hiding tails and fur under clothes, and it's important not to raise suspicion amongst their human neighbours. But trouble soon comes skulking when a very sly fox starts making a big nuisance of himself. It's up to the Bolds to try and stop him - but the solution has them foxed...

The Bolds in Trouble

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#paperback #thebolds #series #theboldstotherescue #childrens #childrensbooks #ages8-12 #illustrated #funny #satire 


More wildly funny animal madness from dream team Julian Clary and David Roberts! The Bolds are a family of hyenas living as humans in a suburban house. But now their kindness to animal waifs and strays has become legendary, and more and more animals keep turning up to stay! Roger the sheep flocks to their house, and Fifi the poodle turns up to learn some new tricks, whilst Sheila the crocodile decides to stay for a while. But when the Bolds take in a couple of race horses who are on the run, they worry their animal magnetism is getting to be too much. Have these hyenas bitten off more than they can chew?

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David Sedaris

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

Ben Purkert

The Men Can't Be Saved

Dai Sijie

Mr Muo's Travelling Couch

Jenny Jackson

Pineapple Street

Voltaire

Candide

Denis Leary

Why We Suck

Kevin Nguyen

New Waves

Mateo Askaripour

Black Buck

Martha Grimes

The Way of All Fish

David Sedaris

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

Rivka Galchen

Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch

Mateo Askaripour

Black Buck

Robert Siegel

Dispatches from the Tenth Circle

Tory Henwood Hoen

The Arc

Susan Isaacs

Magic Hour

Emma McLaughlin; Nicola Kraus

The Nanny Diaries

Howard Jacobson

Pussy

Stephen Colbert

America Again

Jane Roper

The Society of Shame

William Hamilton

The Lap of Luxury

Voltaire

Candide

Stephen Colbert

America Again

Julian Clary; David Roberts (Illustrator)

The Bolds in Trouble

Julian Clary; David Roberts (Illustrator)

The Bolds to the Rescue