Made Us Laugh: Nonfiction
Nonfiction
Packing for Mars by ISBN: 9780393068474Publication Date: 2010-08-02throughout the entire book, I laughed like a kid snickering in sex education class, but in a good way.
Mary Roach appeals to the inner adolescent in her reader and as a result makes learning about space travel really funny (and kind of gross!). I would give this book the subtitle "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Space Travel but Were Afraid to Ask."
When You Are Engulfed in Flames by ISBN: 9780316143479Publication Date: 2008-06-03I definitely smiled from beginning to end and let out lots of audible snorts, especially when David writes about his sisters.
David Sedaris is surely one the best comic writers. He can be funny in a mean way sometimes (earning him some extra laughs), but for me, the real joy of his essays comes from his overflowing love for his family.
Bossypants by ISBN: 9780316056861Publication Date: 2011-04-05I kind of nose-laughed a couple times. Other librarians report to have full-on belly laughed.
Nice, light writing by a very funny lady.
Consider the Oyster by ISBN: 9780865473355Publication Date: 1988-10-01I swear that this book about cooking and eating oysters made me laugh non-stop. I read this in one sitting at a trendy coffee shop. I could barely contain my glee. If I wasn't laughing, I was continuously looking up at my fellow coffee drinkers practically begging them to ask me what I'm reading. No one asked. Their loss.
M.F.K. Fisher's writing is immaculate and her wittiness is unsurpassed.
Bonk by ISBN: 9780393064643I really do love Mary Roach. She's just so funny and so informative. In this book, she focuses on (and obsesses over) the scientific research that is conducted about sex and all things related.
I can only imagine that researchers duck when they see her coming, because she is persistent and tries to find work-arounds for situations where she would normally be barred. In this book, she is prohibited from watching research activities involving a couple having sex in an MRI tube. Her reaction was to coerce her (reluctant) husband into joining HER in the tube.
She described the artificial insemination techniques of pigs in Norway, erectile dysfunction surgery, the history of Hysteria and its treatments, and the exhaustive pioneering studies in the mid 20th century.
It is fascinating and hilarious.
Me Talk Pretty One Day by Call Number: 814.54 SEDISBN: 9780316777728In this collection of essays, David Sedaris covers his brief careers, first as a "conceptual artist" who was really just addicted to drugs, then as an incompetent English professor, his attempts to learn French (while living in Paris with his boyfriend) and his constantly swearing younger brother (who calls himself the Rooster.)
Every story had me laughing out loud. His perspective on his unique family life, and his own personal quirks, combined with his dry sense of humor will make me read everything he writes. -Katie Karkheck
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth by Call Number: 818.5407 STEISBN: 9780446579223This picture-heavy mock reference book is set up as a post-apocalyptic explanation of the human race to our future alien overloards, which aims to explain all things historical and scientific. It's hilarious and recommended for fans of the particularly silly Daily Show stories. -Katie Karkheck
I Like You by Call Number: 793.2 SEDISBN: 9780446578844Amy Sedaris' book on hospitality will help with any situation - from hosting a dinner for lumberjacks to cooking for one. She also has tips on what to do with torn pantyhose, how to properly house a rabbit and never-before-seen beauty secrets. The whole book is illustrated with Sedaris' demonstrations and costumes and etiquette tips.
This is one etiquette book not to be taken seriously.
The Portable Dorothy Parker by ISBN: 0143039539Publication Date: 2006-03-28The second revision in sixty years, this sublime collection ranges over the verse, stories, essays, and journalism of one of the twentieth century's most quotable authors.
For this new twenty-first-century edition, devoted admirers can be sure to find their favorite verse and stories. But a variety of fresh material has also been added to create a fuller, more authentic picture of her life's work. There are some stories new to the Portable, "Such a Pretty Little Picture," along with a selection of articles written for such disparate publications as Vogue, McCall's, House and Garden, and New Masses. Two of these pieces concern home decorating, a subject not usually associated with Mrs. Parker. At the heart of her serious work lies her political writings-racial, labor, international-and so "Soldiers of the Republic" is joined by reprints of "Not Enough" and "Sophisticated Poetry-And the Hell With It," both of which first appeared in New Masses. "A Dorothy Parker Sampler" blends the sublime and the silly with the terrifying, a sort of tasting menu of verse, stories, essays, political journalism, a speech on writing, plus a catchy off-the-cuff rhyme she never thought to write down.
The introduction of two new sections is intended to provide the richest possible sense of Parker herself. "Self-Portrait" reprints an interview she did in 1956 with The Paris Review, part of a famed ongoing series of conversations ("Writers at Work") that the literary journal conducted with the best of twentieth-century writers. What makes the interviews so interesting is that they were permitted to edit their transcripts before publication, resulting in miniature autobiographies.
"Letters: 1905-1962," which might be subtitled "Mrs. Parker Completely Uncensored," presents correspondence written over the period of a half century, beginning in 1905 when twelve-year-old Dottie wrote her father during a summer vacation on Long Island, and concluding with a 1962 missive from Hollywood describing her fondness for Marilyn Monroe.
