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Funniest BooksAugust 2014
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Most of these are described on Flavorwire's List of 25 Funny Books.
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A confederacy of dunces
by John Kennedy Toole
An obese New Orleans misanthrope who constantly rebukes society, Ignatius Reilly gets a job at his mother's urging but ends up leading a workers' revolt, in a twentieth anniversary edition of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Reprint.
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Woke up lonely : a novel
by Fiona Maazel
The founder of a cult-like commune for the lovelorn is himself in an unrequited relationship with his ex-wife, who was working as a covert agent to keep tabs on the operation, which attracted the notice of governments around the world. 20,000 first printing.
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The little disturbances of man
by Grace Paley
Records one woman's response to the love-hate relationships, inhibitions and selfconcerns of men and women
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The stench of Honolulu : a tropical adventure
by Jack Handey
The first novel from the humor writer best known for his Deep Thoughts musings on Saturday Night Live describes a quest through Hawaii after two friends are given a treasure map by a travel agent. 35,000 first printing.
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The ask
by Sam Lipsyte
After he loses his job as a development officer at a university, family man Milo Burke is given a chance to regain his permission, but only if he can reel in a potential donor, one who has requested his involvement and turns out to be his sinister college classmate. By the author of Home Land.
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White noise
by Don DeLillo
Jack Gladney, a professor of Nazi history at a Middle American liberal arts school, and his family try to handle normal family life as a black cloud of lethal gaseous fumes threatens their town
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Portnoy's complaint
by Philip Roth
New York lawyer Alexander Portnoy, a young man dominated by a demanding Jewish mother, plays out a sexual revenge in fact and fantasy, in a twenty-fifth anniversary edition of the popular novel. Reprint.
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Dead souls
by Nikolaĭ Vasil'evich Gogol'
Chichikov, an amusing and often confused schemer, buys deceased serfs' names from landholders' poll tax lists hoping to mortgage them for profit
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Metropolitan life
by Fran Lebowitz
A witty, sometimes curmudgeonly, often helpful look at various fads, crazes, morals, fashions, and mores in America today ranges from comments on good weather to a pontifical guide for the truly ambitious
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Most of the most of S.J. Perelman
by S. J. Perelman
A collection of works by one of America's most popular humorists offers his unique perspective on books, movies, New York socialites, the newspaper business, country life, travel, Hollywood, the publishing industry, and himself
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Don't get too comfortable
by David Rakoff
A collection of trenchant and insightful essays by the author of Fraud provides an eye-opening glimpse of the pervasive greed, selfishness, vapidity, and vanity of contemporary America's culture of excess. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.
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Heartburn
by Nora Ephron
Out of analysis and seven months pregnant, cookbook writer Rachel Samstat discovers that her husband is into analysis and an affair and suffers six weeks of intense heartburn. Reprint. 12,500 first printing.
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The portable Dorothy Parker
by Dorothy Parker
Collects short fiction, poems, reviews, and letters from the author renowned for her wit and satiric acumen
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Like you'd understand, anyway : stories
by Jim Shepard
In his first all new collection of short fiction in more than ten years, the author of Project X presents eleven stories that range across time and geography to offer portraits of the first woman in space and her cosmonaut lover, a compassionate executioner in Revolutionary Paris whose job forces a crisis in conscience, and a middle-aged Aeschylus still seeking parental approval. 15,000 first printing.
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The dud avocado
by Elaine Dundy
The Dud Avocado follows the romantic and comedic adventures of a young American who heads overseas to conquer Paris in the late 1950s. Edith Wharton and Henry James wrote about the American girl abroad, but it was Elaine Dundy's Sally Jay Gorce who told us what she was really thinking. Charming, sexy, and hilarious, The Dud Avocado gained instant cult status when it was first published and it remains a timeless portrait of a woman hell-bent on living. "I had to tell someone how much I enjoyed The Dud Avocado. It made me laugh, scream, and guffaw (which, incidentally, is a great name for a law firm)." -Groucho Marx "
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I was told there'd be cake : essays
by Sloane Crosley
A debut compilation of literary essays offers a revealing and humorous look at human fallibility and the vagaries of modern urban life as the author details the despoiling of an exhibit at the Natural History Museum, the provocation of her first boss, siccing the cops on her mysterious neighbor, and other offbeat situations. Original.
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Flatscreen : a novel
by Adam Wilson
"Flatscreen tells the story of Eli Schwartz as he endures the loss of his home, the indifference of his parents, the success of his older brother, and the cruel and frequent dismissal of the opposite sex. He is a loser par excellence-- pasty, soft, and high-- who struggles to become a new person in a world where nothing is new. Into this scene of apathy rolls Seymour J. Kahn. Former star of the small screen and current paraplegic sex addict, Kahn has purchased Eli's old family home. The two begin a dangerous friendship, one that distracts from their circumstances but speeds their descent into utter debasement and, inevitably, YouTube stardom. By story's end, through unlikely acts of courage and kindness, roles will be reversed, reputations resurrected, and charges (hopefully) dropped" -- p. [4] of cover
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A Dirty Job
by Christopher Moore
Charlie Asher, a neurotic and anxious hypochondriac who hates change, gets more than he had bargained for when his wife dies of a freak medical condition on the day his new daughter, Sophie, is born, as he is confronted by the challenges of being a widower, a single parent, and the focus of a strange and deadly series of bizarre occurrences. 150,000 first printing.
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Mapp and Lucia
by E. F. Benson
Debuting in 1931, this was part of Benson's series on the humorous adventures of Mrs. Emmeline Lucas, a.k.a. Lucia. In this installation, Lucia sets her sights on dethroning Elizabeth Mapp as the social dictator of the small town of Tilling.
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