The gates of the prison slowly open. The frail bent man limps out after seventeen years. Little does he understand of the trap he is walking into. Can he stay alive? Can he keep his children safe? Does he have the skill it will take? It will take all he learned in prison and more. Strap yourself in, it will be a bumpy ride.

Welcome to the hilarious, strange, elegiac, outrageous world of David Sedaris!In Naked, Sedaris turns the mania for memoir on its ear, mining the exceedingly rich terrain of his life, his family, and his unique worldview-a sensibility at once take-no-prisoners sharp and deeply charitable.A tart-tongued mother does dead-on imitations of her young son's nervous tics to the great amusement of his teachers; a stint of Kerouackian wandering is undertake...

This timeless classic now features a foreword written by New York Times bestselling author Judy Blume, as well as an exclusive interview with Beverly Cleary herself!In the first novel from Newbery Medal–winning author Beverly Cleary, boys and girls alike will be charmed instantly by an average boy whose life is turned upside down when he meets a lovable puppy with a nose for mischief.Just as Henry Huggins is complaining that nothing exciting ever happens, a friendly dog sit...

“Damn, this book is good.”—**Jon Stewart“A biting, darkly hilarious collection of personal essays that begs to be read aloud.”—Chicago Tribune**Emmy Award–winning writer Adam Resnick began his career at Late Night with David Letterman before honing his chops in movies and cable television, including HBO’s The Larry Sanders Show. While courageously admitting to being “euphorically antisocial,” Resnick plunges readers deep into his ...

"My imagination is always skulking about in a wrong place." And now Doyle Redmond, thirty-five-year-old nowhere writer, has crossed the line between imagination and real live trouble. On the lam in his soon-to-be ex-wife's Volvo, he's running a family errand back in his boyhood home of West Table, Missouri -- the heart of the red-dirt Ozarks. The law wants his big brother, Smoke, on a felony warrant, and Doyle's supposed to talk him into giving up. But Smoke is hunkered down in the hills w...

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • From the best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All Over but the Shoutin', the warmhearted and hilarious story of how his life was transformed by his love for a poorly behaved, half-blind stray dog.Speck is not a good boy. He is a terrible boy, a defiant, self-destructive, often malodorous boy, a grave robber and screen door moocher who spends his days playing chicken with the Fed Ex man, picking fights with th...

Frank "Dolly" Dillon has a job he hates, working sales and collections for Pay-E-Zee Stores, a wife named Joyce he can't stand, and an account balance that barely allows him to pay the bills each month. Working door-to-door one day, trying to eke money out of folk with even less of it than he has, Dolly crosses paths with a beautiful young woman named Mona Farrell. Mona's being forced by her aunt to do things she doesn't like, with men she doesn't know -- she wants out, any way she can get...

As a middle child raised middle class and stuck out in the middle of Louisiana, hilarious writer and actress Sarah Thyre often found her in–between existence far less than desirable. Even from a young age, Sarah found ways of shirking her own hated identity — whether by stealing someone else's or lying about her own. She changed her name, claimed to be a great outdoorsman, and solicited donations for her favorite charity — which turned out to be, in fact, her. In addition, Sarah lived thro...

"Larry Brown writes like a force of nature."—Pat ConroyLarry Brown caught the rapt attention of readers and critics with the 1988 publication of Facing the Music, his prize-winning first collection of stories. The following year, his first novel, Dirty Work, won national acclaim as a work of uncompromising power and honesty. Big Bad Love, his third book, collects ten new stories. Dealing with sex, with drink, with fear, with all kinds of b...

A humorous, illustrated, pocket field guide describing where to find—or where to avoid—the most disturbed North American birds. The Mincing Mockingbird Guide to Troubled Birds allows anyone to quickly identify psychotic, violent or mentally unstable bird species—and provides the perfect gag gift for your bird loving (or fearing) friends and family.Throughout the book the reader will discover tales of murder, assault, mental breakdowns, obesity, drug abuse ...

Quirky, humorous illustrated wisdom from the hilarious author of Your Life is a Life of Hope!—"His extraordinary, one-of-a-kind writing style will greet you with offbeat humor and see you out the door with profound hope, optimism, and gratitude" (Mari Andrew, author of Am I There Yet?)."Lord Birthday is in a category all his own. It must be lonely out in geniusland, but I'm glad he's there. Exceptionally, uproariously funny." —Tom Toro, car...

In this hilarious, affecting collection of personal essays, M.A.C. Farrant tackles the absurdities of family life from both sides of the generational divide: as a young girl growing up in a dysfunctional, cobbled-together family in the 1960s, and as a mother herself to three willful teenagers. The pieces are funny and sharp, completely original while describing an utterly familiar world. Combining David Sedaris' self-deprecation and deep sense of the absurd with Erma Bombeck's skewering of...