view/request
A collection of articles originally written for a weekly British magazine chronicles Bryson’s humorous reintroduction to life in America: “The intricacies of modern American life still often leave me muddled.” From dental floss hotlines, to cupholders, to the abundance of trees in New Hampshire, Bryson entertains us with his laugh-out-loud writing.
Tagged: Humor, Non-fiction, Travel
view/request
He is known as Junior on the Spokane Indian reservation he calls home, and Arnold at the all-white school Reardan in the nearby farm-town. Arnold/Junior Spirit leads a split existence once he decides that he needs to change schools in order to give himself the chance of escaping the poverty and alcoholism that he is surrounded by on the reservation. A book filled with tragedy manages to be uplifting and funny, with cartoons drawn by Arnold interspersed throughout. This young adult novel tells a universal coming-of-age story. This was also one of the Top Ten Challenged Books in 2010 according to ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom – a great reason to read it!
Tagged: Coming-of-age, Fiction, Humor
view/request
As a Doctor Who nerd and an admirer of several of the lead actors in this long running science-fiction series, it is difficult to come up with a favorite episode or story. One finds much of what is discussed on various websites, television programs, magazines, blogs… or real life conversations for that matter tend to fall under the categorizing or ranking of books, films, music, athletes, politicians, restaurants, etc. Is this need for placement really all that necessary? Must our filing cabinets extend throughout all of space and time?
Let’s just say, that the The Talons of Weng-Chiang from the Tom Baker era is a story that I really, really enjoy.
Robert Holmes, who was one of the more prolific and humorous writers of the Doctor Who enterprise, scripts an exciting adventure taking place in Victorian London. Our time traveling protagonist called “the Doctor” and his assistant Leela find themselves mixed up an other worldly, underground cult, battling a giant sewer rat and dealing with a scary looking puppet (I know, right?!!). The episode has a Sherlock Holmes motife: the vested Doctor is fully equipped with a long herringbone overcoat, a deerstalker hat and cravat. Furthermore, Holmes (this time I’m talking about Robert) playfully throws in several references to Conan Doyle’s writings.
The Talons of Weng-Chiang is an excellent introduction to Doctor Who if you’re unfamiliar with the series. The script is dynamite, there are memorable, comedic supporting roles and it ABSOLUTELY STARS THE GREATEST ACTOR TO PLAY THE DOCTOR. Busted… caught ranking, categorizing and picking favorites. I guess it’s just what we do.
Tagged: Humor, Science fiction, TV series
view/request
view/request
Selections from Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s Welcome to the Monkey House, an anthology of shorter fiction, appeared on the Showtime channel in the early 1990’s. The series was on the air for a brief time, but all of the episodes exist on a dvd that we’ve just received from the Pleasant St. Video collection.
Welcome to the Monkey House is fascinating from the outset; the author makes an on camera introduction to the episodes. His opening dialog is the only instance of seeing him on film/tape that I can recall (until this moment, I’ve used my imagination to estimate his mannerisms via book jacket photographs!).
The stories and the overall feel of the series strike a kinship with David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks. Both idiosyncratic television programs were on the air around the same time, draw from 1950’s style and also deal with the abnormal. A mysterious double life, a sadistic battle of wits involving humans as chess pieces, a woman’s obsession with home design catalogs and a child’s eventful night without a babysitter all feature in Welcome to the Monkey House.
Vonnegut has always struck me as someone who has the ability of skillfully introducing science fiction elements or ideas into his writing without having them seem far removed from contemporary society. Though he often delves into the world of science fiction, I can’t classify him solely as a science fiction writer. His laconic central characters tend to ease us into strange, new worlds by having a dark sense of humor or an overall surly, sarcastic attitude toward the present state. For instance, a soap opera actor portraying a doctor is lead into mansion that houses an elderly woman whose only original body part is her head. The actor is initially surprised, but accepts the situation within moments after the orchestrator of this scientific achievement gives his explanation in the most blasé fashion possible.
Kurt Vonnegut’s stories are wonderfully captured in this series and feature performances by Madeline Kahn, Frank Langella, Jon Cryer and many more fine character actors. It was a short lived television program, but it managed to capture some of the author’s bizarrely brilliant concepts.
Tagged: Drama, Fiction, Humor, Science fiction
view/request
Jasper Fforde’s latest offering in the Thursday Next series is a metafictional tour de farce. The original Thursday — literary police Special Operations Agent (ret.) and the star of her own series of novels-with-novels — has disappeared, and it’s up to her fictional character to find her by impersonating the real Thursday. There’s a border dispute in BookWorld between the genres of Racy Novel and Women’s Fiction, and if Thursday doesn’t show up for the peace talks, war might ensue. Fforde sprinkles his story with characters and allusions from the classics and popular fiction, and makes liberal use of puns including setting up whole subplots just for a punch line. His style is uncategorizable and nearly indescribable, at least not in a way that makes any sense, but irresistibly entertaining and uniquely inventive. This sequel refers back to things that happened (or didn’t) in previous titles in the series, and it might help to start with the first installment, The Eyre Affair.
Tagged: Fantasy, Fiction, Humor, Literary fiction
view/request
The sometimes actor, television presenter/personality, unlicensed internet judge and humorist, John Hodgman, has a brilliant collection of nonsense in the universe called The Areas of My Expertise. Fear not, his writings do not simply float in the nebulous; it’s all compiled in a BOOK!
In it we find delightful and ridiculous made up facts and anecdotes concerning hobos (he provides 700 hobo names), werewolves and various bizarre historical factoids. It’s also filled with entertaining lists (“Nine Presidents Who Had Hooks For Hands”) and dubious advice (see the amusing section on effective attack ads or “How To Win a Fight” ). This book is excess at its best.
ps- If you enjoy this volume, there’s more.
view/request
In his touching preface, writer Dave Eggars refers to Kurt Vonnegut Jr. as a “hippie Mark Twain”. Never has Vonnegut’s appeal been described so accurately. While Mortals Sleep features unpublished, short fiction pieces by the Slaughterhouse- Five, Breakfast of Champions and Cats Cradle author. This is the second posthumously released collection (the first being Look At the Birdie) and it focuses solely on the author’s early work before receiving literary notoriety. In these stories, we get a preview of themes and tones that will exist later in his most famous writings: mainly bizarro science fiction and his select brand of acerbic wit and humor (this is where we mostly relate his Twain influence).
Tagged: Fiction, Humor, Science fiction
view/request
Thurber’s comic genius pervades this compilation of his short stories, essays and cartoons. It’s full of treasures like The night the bed fell, The catbird seat, The secret life of Walter Mitty, and the ever-current Fables for our time. His wit ranges from deadpan to farcical, from whimsical to satirical. His command of the American language is elegant and hilarious, his drawings without equal. The only drawback to this Library of America omnibus is that it doesn’t include everything and once addicted, you’ll have to go back to the shelves for more.
view/request
Our friends at Wax Poetics Magazine have released a book which compiles the craziest album covers one can possibly imagine. After the introductory pages by David Hollander, we say goodbye to commentary and are left only with high quality images of curated wacky lp covers. This is one of those books where one can flip through endlessly. Some of the images are truly original, inspired works of art, whereas others are just plain and unbridled insanity. Colorful and psychedelic explosions sit along side grinning, mustachioed men on roller skates and “Music For Your Plants”… Better yet, the artwork for the record “Music To Massage Your Mate By” could leave just about anyone in stitches.
Thanks has to go to all of the contributors who collect these treasures at various flea markets, record shops and thrift stores. Weirdos!
Tagged: Art, Humor, Music, Non-fiction
view/request
David Sedaris, our favorite expatriate, quirky, self-deprecating funny man, has penned a new collection of short stories. The issues and tone are certainly classic Sedaris, but this time his subjects are animals! For instance, a baboon hairdresser is having difficulty finding a common gossip angle with a cat who is at the salon for an appointment… also, a self righteous lab rat wishes diseases on those who aren’t kind to her. Readers who enjoy dark, observational humor will enjoy this wonderful collection.
view/request
This movie shows that life is an adventure. An imperfect, slightly dysfunctional family of six sets out on a road trip, and all their quirky personalities are crowded together in one bright yellow van that cannot hope to contain them. As they encounter ever more emotional and mechanical breakdowns the characters learn how to handle imperfection and failure. They encounter situations which are sometimes dark, yet still hilarious. With lots of situational irony and dry humor, Little Miss Sunshine is a story which will make life’s difficulties feel like just little bumps in the road.
Tagged: Families, Feature film, Humor