Showing titles in Comedy & Humor

In God Is My Broker, Buckley aims his sharp humor at the self-help gurus; and the likes of Stephen Covey, Anthony Robbins, and Deepak Chopra had better watch out. Down to their last $304, the abbots in this story make a bunch of money playing the stock market - and then get carried away in today's commercialism and self-help principles when they begin to market their homemade wine. From redecorating their decrepit digs in the "peasant chic" style to outrageous television commercials, these monks will stop at nothing to get to the top of the wine business!

When Dave Barry goes mano a mano with the Information Superhighway, it's guaranteed to be a rip-roaring adventure. This self-proclaimed computer geek and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist starts with the motto, "Never read the instructions," and slides from there into the world of hardware, software, Windows 95, and the critical issue of RAM ("the bottom line is, if you're a guy, you cannot have enough RAM").

Mark Twain is at his irreverent best with this hilarious parody of the 19th-century mystery. The tale begins with the murder of Flint Buckner and a heinous crime against a young woman. A man with special gifts - no less a personage than Sherlock Holmes! - enters the scene to solve the mystery and avenge the lady. He matches wits with an improbable villain, Archy Stillman, while Ham Sandwich and Wells Fargo look on, and almost gets himself lynched in the process.

If there's even a smidgen of Scrooge in your psyche, just say, "Bah-Humbug!" and laugh at this satire of the treacly best seller, The Christmas Box. Among the variations on the theme are: The Christmas Vox, in which a young man finds himself having phone sex with Ms. Santa Claus; The Christmas Jury Box, a touching memoir by a sequestered O.J. juror who misses her fruitcake; and The Christmas Box Lunch, the touching tale of a caterer's X-mas. You'll be pleased to learn that the true meaning of Christmas is receiving.

The Three Little Pigs and the Perils of Subsidized Housing, Cinderella and the Glass Ceiling, Hillary the Snow Queen - these rehabilitated "classics" and many more would be required bedtime reading under the regime of President Gingrich, or "Uncle Newt," as he likes his little pals to call him. Yes, all the orphans at the new Boy's Town, their bellies full of ketchup, will be enraptured by these GOP fairy tales celebrating the Contract with America and cautioning youngsters about the evil Welfare State of long ago. These bedtime stories could keep you awake all night. Narrator Arte Johnson won an Emmy for his work on the classic TV show, Laugh-In.

Conspiracy buff or not, who can resist a book that blows the lid off some of our time's most controversial issues? For example, if astronauts, pilots, and nearly every culture since time immemorial believe UFOs exists, why does the U.S. government deny it? And just how could the President of the United States die of a frontal would inflicted by a sniper shooting from behind?

Dave Barry Is from Mars and Venus is a hysterical compilation of the outrageous columnist's best pieces. Read all about Dave's unfortunate Wheel of Fortune appearance, his "non-lunch" with Hillary Rodham Clinton, and much more from a guy who knows where he's coming from.

Welcome to the wonderful world of under-evolved bosses, style-of-the-week buzzword management, hapless coworkers, and other worthy fodder. Sound like your company? Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip about a harried but determined '90s antihero, brings you his hilarious take on the bizarre realities of life in corporate America.

Pet peeves been trailing mud all over your nice, bright outlook? Let Chonda Pierce help you clean up your attitude with a little deep-cleansing, sparkling-fresh humor! This comedian, singer, and preacher's daughter has a knack for finding merriment in those little things that can drive anyone crazy. Chonda's wacky stories won't just get you laughing so hard you'll forget what was bugging you. They go deeper, illustrating profound spiritual truths. As a Christian, it's easy to assume that life's little sticking points shouldn't aggravate you.

Whether it's a 300-year-old ghost who's scared out of his wits, a tenderhearted statue with a mission of mercy, or the suave Lord Savile who cannot commit a crime, the characters in these stories by witty Oscar Wilde make the tales priceless delights. Absurd, ironic, poignant, or scathing, these small gems of the storyteller's art are sure to become favorites. This collection, narrated by Frank Muller, includes "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime," "The Model Millionaire," "The Nightingale and the Rose," and more.

This collection of humorous anecdotes, voiced by the gifted impersonator John Byner, is an enduring testament to George Burns' wit and charm.

Sissy Hankshaw, an almost flawlessly beautiful small-town girl with big-time dreams, hitchhikes her way into your heart, your hopes, and your sleeping bag in Tom Robbins's magical, funny, and most famous novel. Follow Sissy's amazing odyssey from Virginia to chic Manhattan to the Dakota Badlands, where FBI agents, cowgirls, and ecstatic whooping cranes explode in a deliciously drawn-out climax.

American Comedy Award-winner Brian Regan lights up the stage in this live performance. He has been on Letterman five times, the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and had his own comedy special on Showtime called Something's Wrong with the Regan Boy. In his Playboy interview, Dennis Miller named Regan one of his favorite comedians. As he performs around the country, people are constantly requesting favorite routines. This recording answers that call.

Trollope's classic novel features Reverend Septimus Harding, the elderly warden of the Barchester alms-house. However, for a man devoting himself to helping the poor, Reverend Harding's salary is rather lucrative. Aiming to ease his conscience and quiet his neighbors' whispers, he decides to divest himself of all the income he earns at the alms-house. But this decision causes unforeseen complications. The first of his Barsetshire series, this novel provides a detailed, gently satirical portrayal of 19th century British life.

Imagine this: When the stock market crashes on the Thursday before Easter, you, an ambitious broker, not overly successful or ethical, know you're facing the Weekend from Hell. With only 72 hours to scheme and scramble your way out of this nightmare, you find yourself confronted with a 300-pound psychic, a tattooed stranger, African rituals, legendary amphibians, outer space, and your own sexuality.

In a stunning literary debut, Carrie Fisher chronicles the excruciatingly funny adventures of Suzanne Vale, young film star and drug addict, who survives a rehab clinic only to rejoin the equally harrowing world of Hollywood. Out there on the edge, despair flips into hilarity, and we're left laughing as Suzanne struggles to come to terms with her various fantasylands. Carrie Fisher's reading of her first novel evokes the deliciously irreverent humor that formed the lens through which she looked at life in the '80s.

Don't think John Pinette is funny just because he's fat and is always talking about food. What's wrong with you? Don't you eat? Even if you don't tip the scale, you'll be able to find common ground with his hysterical routines that have landed him appearances on such important stages as

Caroline's Comedy Hour,

Showtime's Comedy All Stars, and

An Evening at the Improv. Or perhaps you already know Pinette as the "fat mugging victim" on the last episode of

Seinfeld.

Without bothering to get approval from the President, the State Department, or even the FTC, Dave Barry's publishers sent him to Tokyo. You'd think they would have known better. Now the word is Barry has set back our diplomatic relations with the whole Pacific Rim by a couple of decades. Japanese culture, dining, sport, and industry all come under Barry's relentless scrutiny.

Now is not the time to start that fitness program! Instead, laugh along with humorist Dave Barry as he debunks, demotivates, and delights on the subject of fitness. Hear his inimitable views on exercise ("the best time would be the first thing after Easter, but not the one coming up"), weights ("big-time lifters have turned into 400-pound hairy sweaty shapeless grunting masses of tissue. And the men are even worse"), and much more.

In this ingeniously funny collection of humorous riffs, those who thought Martin's gifts were confined to the screen will discover what readers of the New Yorker already know: that Martin is also a master of the written word. Hilariously funny and intelligent in their skewering of the topic at hand, these pieces feature Martin at his finest.