Language Humor

A new collection from David Sedaris is cause for jubilation. His recent move to Paris has inspired hilarious pieces, including Me Talk Pretty One Day, about his attempts to learn French. His family is another inspiration. You Cant Kill the Rooster is a portrait of his brother who talks incessant...

A master class in the art of persuasion, as taught by professors ranging from Bart Simpson to Winston Churchill, newly revised and updated. The time-tested secrets taught in this book include Cicero's three-step strategy for moving an audience to action, and Honest Abe's Shameless Trick for...

For readers of Shark Heart and Hollow Kingdom, a funny, magical, and tender novel following a lonely, conflict-averse man whose sudden ability to understand animals sends him on a wild romp around NYC, and ultimately helps him discover his own voice. Strolling through Central Park on a blind...

''A must read! If you want to get your Cajun on, you’ve got to read John Gravois’ fabulous little book,'' says Ken Wells, ex-Wall Street Journal writer and Page One editor, and author of Gumbo Life: Tales from the Roux Bayou' and the Cajun classic coming-of-age novel, 'Meely LaBauve. "It’s fun, factual and full of history, Cajun idioms and their pronunciations. This authentic son of the bayou does a huge service in compact form by helping to illuminate a culture that remains Even if you don't speak a word of French now, with this Berlitz phrase book parody you’ll be able to answer, ...

This book was not written by linguists. It was not approved by the Greek state. It was not funded by the European Union. It was written by people who have lived here long enough to know. If you have ever whispered “malaka” into your coffee before 08:00, this book is peer-reviewed by you. The Great Malaka Odyssey is a literary, observational, and occasionally affectionate field guide to life in Greece—especially Crete—where scooters scream at midnight, sidewalks are washed during droughts, tourists ask for directions they will not follow, and the word malaka somehow means everything....

WHY, after almost five million years, did our early ancestors suddenly believe they had to alter their very beings and their way of life to achieve the spoken word…something they’d never heard, had no knowledge of and had no reason to believe they needed?

An out-of-work actor accepts the role of a lifetime—sitting soundlessly in a lecture theater, zipped into a large leather bag—to aid a professor’s psychological experiment. What could possibly go wrong? In Luke Kennard’s audacious new novel, a penniless and out-of-work actor picks up a...

Not only do Southerners talk slowly, but sometimes the whole language is hard to understand. No one realizes that more than Memphis belle Leelee Satterfield. Watching her tackle life and love in Vermont was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to antics, charades, mischief, and romance. Now that she’s back in Memphis, and starting a new relationship with Peter, the Yankee chef from her New England inn, you’d think she’d sit back and enjoy her newly crafted life back home in Dixie. But that just wouldn’t be as much fun.

Harness the power of silence and let your presence speak volumes. Words matter but your body language speaks loud and clear without them. It’s what you’re not saying out loud that matters most. Before you open your mouth, your microexpressions, posture, gestures, and even the tilt of your...

There are dirty jokes, and then there are jokes so depraved, so awful, so disturbed that even the raunchiest comic wouldn’t dare tell them. These are those jokes. These are the filthiest jokes ever told. This book is full of jokes that use the most taboo subjects – disgusting bodily functions, shockingly illicit sex, revolting acts with animals -- to make the reader simultaneously laugh and cringe. But this book goes beyond sharing jokes so filthy that no reputable person would be caught reading it. Professional comedians teach you tricks and techniques to write, deliver, and land a ...

From the celebrated twenty-nine-year-old author of the everywhere-heralded short-story collection St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves (“How I wish these were my own words, instead of the breakneck demon writer Karen Russell’s . . . Run for your life. This girl is on fire”—Los...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Award-winning actor Alan Alda tells the fascinating story of his quest to learn how to communicate better, and to teach others to do the same. With his trademark humor and candor, he explores how to develop empathy as the key factor. “Invaluable.”—Deborah...

With his trademark humor and flair, bestselling linguist John McWhorter busts the myths and shares the history of the most controversial language topic of our times: pronouns The nature of language is to shift and evolve—but every so often, a new usage creates a whole lot of consternation...

This is a compilation of true, often humorous stories and serious observations about the lives and customs of Appalachians from the old days to modern times. Topics include mountain customs and traditions with forays into herbal remedies, moonshining, religion and language, along with the difficulties of being absorbed into cultures outside of the hills. A few of the forty-four chapters include: Aunt Berthy and the Fires of Hell, Enlightenment Comes to the Mountains, Old Time Religion in Appalachia, Uncle Bryant: Mountain Medicine Man, Appalachian Medicine Chest, Catfish in a Log, ...

One of Charles Bukowski's best, this beer-soaked, deliciously degenerate novel follows the wanderings of aspiring writer Henry Chinaski across World War II-era America. Deferred from military service, Chinaski travels from city to city, moving listlessly from one odd job to another, always...

"A burst of delight on every page!" Mignon Fogarty, host of the Grammar Girl podcast Did you know that an "astronaut" is literally a "star sailor," that a thesaurus is, in fact, a "treasure trove" of words, and that someone who is "sinister" is actually just "left-handed"? Have you ever wondered...

Want to understand what people in Cologne are really saying at the kiosk, in the Brauhaus, during Carnival, or at 2 a.m. outside a kebab shop? Cologne Urban Dictionary is a hilarious and practical collection of 500 authentic Cologne slang expressions, local sayings, party phrases, carnival vocabulary, street language, and everyday urban expressions used across Germany’s most fun-loving city. From Kölsch-fueled nightlife and legendary Karneval chaos to Veedel culture, brewery traditions, Rhine riverside hangouts, and local insider humor, this book captures the real voice of Cologne street...

Dreyer’s English meets Schott’s Original Miscellany in this delicious tour of the lesser-known wonders of the language world, perfect for language lovers, word nerds, and the incurably curious. A delightful rollick through language unlike any you’ve ever experienced. As the inventor of the...

Abridged for audio. Read by the author, Clive James. With fascinating essays on towering figures from Anna Akhmatova to Stefan Zweig, via Charles de Gaulle, Hitler, Thomas Mann and Wittgenstein, Cultural Amnesia is one of the crowning achievements in Clive James's illustrious career as a critic...

A hilarious and incisive exploration of the joys of reading from a teacher, bibliophile, and Thurber Prize Semifinalist We read to escape, to learn, to find love, to feel seen. We read to encounter new worlds, to discover new recipes, to find connection across difference, or simply to pass a...