Comedy Humor World

Lula, a 26 -year-old Albanian woman living surreptitiously in New York City on an expiring tourist visa, hopes to make a better life for herself in America. When she lands a job as caretaker to Zeke, a rebellious high school senior in suburban New Jersey, it seems that the security, comfort, and happiness of the American dream may finally be within reach. Her new boss, Mister Stanley, an idealistic college professor turned Wall Street executive, assumes that Lula is a destitute refugee of the Balkan wars.

Arnold Appleforth claims getting old is all about attitude. And if that's the case, he needs all the attitude he can get, because his journalistic career is on life support, his sex life nonexistent (except for a recent regrettable incident at a well-known chain restaurant), his financial position precarious and his alcohol consumption prodigious. Add to that his abysmal parenting of his three (or is it four?) children and the biohazard status of his flat, and life isn't a bed of roses.

The Remarkable History of the Legendary Christmas Dragon: How an Innocent Young Dragon Found a Forever Friend, a Name, and became Santa's Pocket Alarm. ("No more Clement Moores!") This imaginative American fable for the Holidays confronts the mysteries of dragons, vampire bats, sea serpents, time travel and the North Pole with wry, heartwarming humor as the pleasant, ordinary lives of the citizens of a tiny Medieval kingdom are interrupted by an angry witch "vanishing" their beloved royal twins.

Nineteen-year-old Nayeli works at a taco shop in her Mexican village and dreams about her father, who journeyed to the US to find work. Recently it has dawned on her that he isn't the only man who has left town. In fact there are almost no men in the village - they've all gone north. While watching The Magnificent Seven, Nayeli decides to go north herself and recruit seven men - her own "Siete Magníficos" - to repopulate her hometown and protect it from the bandidos who plan on taking it over.

After her husband's unexpected departure a year ago, poor Valentina is stuck. Help arrives in the form of an unwelcome guest: her mother, who shows up unannounced at Valentina's doorstep to take her on a 12-day Mediterranean cruise full of unexpected detours. If you've always longed to go on a cruise, ship out with Valentina. And if you've never wanted to go on a cruise, go anyway. You are likely find yourself alternately delighted and surprised by her quirky encounters at sea and alluring ports of call.

The full title of Swift's pamphlet is A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burtden to their Parents, or the Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Publick."The tract is an ironically conceived attempt to "find out a fair, cheap, and easy Method" for converting the starving children of Ireland into "sound and useful members of the Commonwealth." Across the country poor children, predominantly Catholics, are living in squalor because their families are too poor to keep them fed and clothed.

For one Long Island podiatrist, it takes an impromptu act of vandalism just to make him aware of his own being. Walking home in the sub-zero wind chill of a Friday night, he stumbles on a bottle of horseradish and mindlessly hurls it through the window of a popular store selling over-sexed tween fashions. This one tiny, out-of-character impulse turns his life vivid and terrifying, triggering waves of fear, crooked cops, and suspicions of anti-Semitism, both accurate and paranoid.

A best-selling author of books for adults and children, Mark Childress pens his most outrageous work yet with Georgia Bottoms. The titular heroine is the epitome of the church-going Southern belle, except for one teeny-tiny aspect of her life. Georgia’s family inheritance has long since evaporated, and to maintain her genteel lifestyle, Miss Bottoms has taken six affluent lovers—the fly in the ointment being that one is a married preacher who’s about to reveal their infidelity to the whole congregation.

Tom Jones is a splendid Hogarthian panorama of 18th-century English life and morals, encompassing both city and country, and comprising some of the greatest comic characters in British literature. First published in 1749, it was an instant success and has gone on to become a classic of its genre. Quite simply, there has never been anything like it.

Fifteen years ago in the colourful bustle of Vietnam, Celine and Patrick met and shared four blissful days together. It felt like true love, but soon reality tore them apart and Celine moved on. But now, when she sees him unexpectedly on a busy London street, suddenly nothing else matters. As she deals with the mixed emotions of an amicable divorce, Celine becomes preoccupied with her daughter and the dating agency she founded - not least when her ex-husband, Mike, asks her to find him someone new.

Daphne Maritch doesn't quite know what to make of the heavily annotated high school yearbook she inherits from her mother, who held this relic dear. Too dear. The late June Winter Maritch was the teacher to whom the class of '68 had dedicated its yearbook, and in turn she went on to attend every reunion, scribbling notes and observations after each one - not always charitably - and noting who overstepped boundaries of many kinds. In a fit of decluttering (the yearbook did not, Daphne concluded, "spark joy"), she discards it when she moves to a small New York City apartment.

In the court of the “King”, everyone knows their place. But as the Artist wins hearts and egos with his ballads, uncomfortable truths emerge that shake the Kingdom to its core. Part surreal fable and part narco-lit romance, this prize-winning novel from Yuri Herrera questions the price of keeping your integrity in a world ruled by patronage and power.

Raj Bhatt is often unsure of where he belongs. Having moved to America from Bombay as a child, he knew few Indian kids. Now middle-aged, he lives mostly happily in California with a job at a university. Still, his white wife seems to fit in better than he does at times, especially at their tennis club, a place he's cautiously come to love. But it's there that, in one week, his life unravels. It begins at a meeting for potential new members: Raj thrills to find an African American couple on the list; he dreams of a more diverse club. But in an effort to connect, he makes a racist joke.

From Benjamin Franklin's newspaper hoax that faked the death of his rival to Abbie Hoffman's attempt to levitate the Pentagon - pranksters, hoaxers, and con artists have caused confusion, disorder, and laughter in Western society for centuries. Profiling the most notorious mischief-makers from the 1600s to the present day, Pranksters explores how "pranks" are part of a long tradition of speaking truth to power and social critique.

Rosie Maldonne is outspoken and sexy. She's also unemployed, and, with three children and a cat, life is a little tough. The four of them - well, five, if you count the cat - live in the South of France, in a run-down trailer near a vacant lot. They make do, living off her part-time waitressing job and a little help from the state.

Zara James never expected to fall in love, leaving the hopeless romantic lifestyle to her friends. She also never imagined she'd be expecting a baby and married to the one guy she fought so hard to keep at arm's length. Faced with life's challenges of insecurities, pregnancy hormones, and the pressures of being a new wife in the burbs of Atlanta, Georgia, Zara tries to master them one cupcake at a time. Well, that is until her world is turned upside down by one accident that could change everything.

Rosie Maldonne thought she hit it big when she stumbled upon an envelope of cash in Queen of the Trailer Park. But with a nasty flu keeping her laid out, school fees due, and Christmas on the way, she finds herself back in the red. Time to find a real job. After weeks of searching, Rosie is losing hope when the man of her dreams happens to post a new position: cleaning for an elderly person. Perfect! She lands the job, but the new role brings more than the promise of romance.

Things are finally looking up for Rosie: she's debt-free, or at least almost, her trailer is in great condition, and she even has time to take her three kids on a Christmas vacation. But she knows the smooth sailing can't last. Rosie is always there for a friend in need, and before she knows it, she has her hands full. Again. To cover for her best friend, Véro, she fills in as housekeeper for a renowned psychoanalyst.

From the people who bought you The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared another quirky, thought-provoking, Swedish comic novel with attitude. Titus Jensen is waiting for his big break, but he’s middle aged, has a fondness for alcohol, and no one takes him seriously. He makes ends meet by giving public readings from obscure books at festivals. He can’t help thinking there has to be more to life for an author of his quality…

When he was in his first year of secondary school, something extraordinary happened. He stumbled, completely by accident, into a Great New World, a world of fantastic sex, opportunity, and Fetus Factories. That's what this book's about. And it's written by the man himself, Axol O'Lerpler.