Best Humor Literary Criticism

Praised throughout the cartoon industry by such luminaries as Art Spiegelman, Matt Groening, and Will Eisner, Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics is a seminal examination of comics art: its rich history, surprising technical components, and major cultural significance. “If you read, write, teach or draw comics; if you want to; or if you simply want to watch a master explainer at work, you must read this book.” (Neil Gaiman). “Cleverly disguised as an easy-to-read comic book, Scott McCloud’s simple-looking tome deconstructs the secret language of comics while casually revealing secrets of time, space, art and the cosmos!

According to church founder Bobby Henderson, the universe and all life within it were created by a mystical and divine being: the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Some say it’s the assuring touch from the FSM’s “noodly appendage.” Then there are those who love the worship service, which is conducted in pirate talk and attended by congregants in dashing buccaneer garb. Within these pages, Bobby Henderson outlines the true facts– dispelling such malicious myths as evolution (“only a theory”), science (“only a lot of theories”), and whether we’re really descended from apes (fact: Humans share 95 percent of their DNA with chimpanzees, but they share 99.9 percent with pirates!). An elaborate spoof on Intelligent Design, The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is neither too elaborate nor too spoofy to succeed in nailing the fallacies of ID.

"A truth-riot of a book!" She has been hailed by Bono and Shonda Rhimes for her singular voice and stinging political commentary...You may not have heard her name yet. But you probably will, because Luvvie Ajayi, a Nigerian-born "professional shade thrower," as she calls herself, is offering incisive, hilarious commentary on polarizing issues (race and gender in particular), and she has found her audience." "This truth-riot of a book gives us everything from hilarious lectures on the bad behavior all around us to razor sharp essays on media and culture. ―Shonda Rhimes, New York Times bestselling author of Year of Yes and executive producer of Scandal and Grey's Anatomy. "I don't know how Luvvie Ajayi got so smart so young about so many things, from feminism to social media, from the pervasiveness of rape culture to the excellence of Red Lobster's Cheddar Bay Biscuits. "You will love Luvvie Ajayi's I'm Judging You , and you will argue with it, laugh hysterically at it, shout "AW HELL YES" at it, and carry parts of it in your heart to dissect or inspire...Perfect for starting important and meaty discussions about all of the topics your mama told you never to bring up at polite dinner parties...religion, race, relationships, reality tv. “The ultimate handbook on the dos and don’ts of socially navigating the digital era. "A smart, vividly humorous handbook...Overall, [Ajayi's] “do-better” calls for us to reclaim common sense, compassion, and critical thinking, in both personal and online interactions. ―Booklist, starred review "By exposing the uncool, unwashed underbelly of American society, Ajayi's essays force readers to reconsider their stances on a variety of issues, including social media and the public airing of everything, celebrities, sex tapes, the various types of friendships one might have, feminism, religion. "When I heard Luvvie was writing a book, I knew the following things would happen as surely as day follows night: I would read it, and I would love it...Luvvie is correct about more things more often than any single human woman has the right to be, and has the most stylish and deft command of language this side of P.G. ―. Mallory Ortberg, bestselling author of Texts from Jane Eyre " I'm Judging You is a brilliant, laugh-out-loud manual for the generation that can configure a wireless router but still hasn't realized social media is not the place for child support issues.

They were the Golden Girls, and for seven seasons, this hilarious quartet enchanted millions of viewers with their witty banter, verve, sass, and love, and reaffirmed the power of friendship and family. Drawing on interviews with the show’s creators, actors, guest stars, producers, writers, and crew members, Jim Colucci paints a comprehensive portrait of the Girls both in front of the cameras and behind the scenes. Thanks to Colucci’s Golden Girls Forever, I now have the perfect companion for my nightly binge. “Jim Colucci has given the die-hard Golden Girls fan an absolute, in-depth look into one of the most iconic shows on television. “It’s wonderful to see Blanche, Rose, Sophia and Dorothy honored by a true pal and confidant like Jim Colucci.

The dishiest read of the year.” – Janet Maslin, “Ten Favorite Books of the Year,” New York Times. “Here’s Johnny!” Probably everyone in America knows the phrase, whether they watched every episode of The Tonight Show or none because they had to go to bed early on school nights. Bushkin explains why Carson, a voracious (and very talented) womanizer, felt he always had to be married; why he couldn’t visit his son in the hospital and wouldn’t attend his mother’s funeral; and much more. Featured Photos of Johnny Carson Frank Sinatra and Johnny Carson during rehearsals for the 1981 Reagan Inaugural Gala. Carson, Bushkin says, “was endlessly witty and enormously fun to be around,” but he also could be “the nastiest son of a bitch on earth.” The text provides multiple examples of both sides of Carson’s Mr. Hyde personality, but, of course, it is the petulant, boozing, womanizing Johnny that will draw the most attention: throwing tantrums over perceived slights at Ronald Reagan’s inauguration, at having to wait for a suite at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, at Joan Rivers’ decision to launch a competing late-night show without first informing Carson, and, above all, at his mother’s refusal to acknowledge both Carson’s success and his lavish gifts to her (his mother’s coldness, Bushkin and many others believe, was at the root of Carson’s own iciness in personal relationships).

It often begins in childhood in a darkened theater, grows into something more serious for high school actors, and reaches its passionate zenith when it comes time for love, marriage, and children, who will start the cycle all over again. The Secret Life of the American Musical makes you feel as though you’ve been there in the rehearsal room, in the front row of the theater, and in the working offices of theater owners and producers as they pursue their own love affair with that rare and elusive beast―the Broadway hit. Viertel combines a scholarly approach with a light touch that enables us to see anew familiar songs and musical theater moments we'd long taken for granted." "Viertel’s knowledgeable, engaging blueprint of [the] Broadway musical framework is instructive fun for cognoscenti and general readers alike." The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows Are Built is a delightful, accessible guide to why your favorite productions work. "Viertel articulates his rules of commercial success so lucidly that even seasoned hands will come away with a clearer understanding of why some shows work while others flop." "Viertel has written what will become a classic textbook on the architecture and construction of the American musical . What Harold Bloom did for Shakespearean exegesis and Peter Drucker for management, Viertel has done for theater: written a definitive work by raising the curtain and laying bare the work of playwrights, composers, librettists, choreographers, and directors." “Jack Viertel writes about the master craftsmen of the American musical, past and present, and reveals his own mastery on every page―his knowledge of the Broadway musical and of the intricate formula in the making of a show (or the breaking of it), and his passion for Broadway and the citizens who make the street come alive. “In The Secret Life of the American Musical , Jack Viertel, a Broadway producer and dramaturgical swami, has broken down Broadway’s greatest musicals into their constituent storytelling parts (a sort of anatomy of joy) and delivered a showstopper: one of the best-written, most illuminating, and most infectiously entertaining books on the genre I know. ‘It’s boffo!’ as they say on the Rialto.” ―John Lahr, author of Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh. By simultaneously (and brilliantly) embracing and deconstructing a beloved American art form, he brings us back to our most innocent selves, and all we can do is be grateful to him for reminding us of who we used to be.” ―Scott Rudin.

A Little Book on Form takes up the central contradiction between poetry as genre and the poetics of the imagination. A Little Book on Form brilliantly synthesizes Hass’s formidable gifts as both a poet and a critic. It began as a series of notes and reading lists for a seminar I was invited to teach at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop in the winter of 1995. . For the second half of the class, I asked each student to make a presentation on an idea of form in some discipline or craft other than poetry. There were talks on the formal ordering of 1970s disco albums, form in the photographs of Cartier-Bresson, the building of a wooden canoe, and of a computer program, the plots of films noir, and the architectural design of mosques.

Here is Ernest Hemingway’s first published story and a classic by William Faulkner, who admitted in his biographical note that he began to write “as an aid to love-making.” Nancy Hale’s story describes far-reaching echoes of the Holocaust; Tillie Olsen’s story expresses the desperation of a single mother; James Baldwin depicts the bonds of brotherhood and music. Moore writes that the process of assembling these stories allowed her to look “thrillingly not just at literary history but at actual history — the cries and chatterings, silences and descriptions of a nation in flux.” 100 Years of The Best American Short Stories is an invaluable testament, a retrospective of our country’s ever-changing but continually compelling literary artistry. For the centennial celebration of this beloved annual series, master of the form Lorrie Moore selects forty stories from the more than two thousand that were published in previous editions. Moore writes that the process of assembling these stories allowed her to look thrillingly not just at literary history but at actual history the cries and chatterings, silences and descriptions of a nation in flux.

A richly illustrated and expanded collector’s edition of Martin Gardner’s The Annotated Alice , including Through the Looking-Glass , to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. This volume brings together Martin Gardner’s legendary original 1960 publication, The Annotated Alice ; his follow-ups, More Annotated Alice and the Definitive Edition ; his continuing explication through the Knight Letter magazine; and masterly additions and updates edited by Mark Burstein, president emeritus of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America. A rare, never-before-published portrait of Francis Jane Lutwidge, Lewis Carroll's mother Over 100 new or updated annotations, collected since the publication of Martin Gardner's Definitive Edition of The Annotated Alice in 1999 More than 100 new illustrations, in vibrant color, by Salvador Dalí, Beatrix Potter, Ralph Steadman, and 42 other artists and illustrators, in addition to the original artwork by Sir John Tenniel A preface by Mark Burstein, president emeritus of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America, and all of Gardner's introductions to other editions A filmography of every Alice-related film by Carroll scholar David Schaefer. His most famous works are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There; and The Hunting of the Snark.

In his passionate, luminous novels, David James Duncan has won the devotion of countless critics and readers, earning comparisons to Harper Lee, Tom Robbins, and J.D. Duncan claims that each person owns scores of river teeth and that they have the potential to guide, wound, and withstand time's erasure.

From the author of Men Explain Things to Me , a personal, lyrical narrative about storytelling and empathy – a fitting companion to Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award In this exquisitely written new book by the author of A Paradise Built in Hell , Rebecca Solnit explores the ways we make our lives out of stories, and how we are connected by empathy, by narrative, by imagination. The catalyst for the latest spiraling inquiry by Lannan Literary Award–winning creative nonfiction master Solnit is her mother’s Alzheimer’s.

The Conspiracy against the Human Race is renowned horror writer Thomas Ligotti's first work of nonfiction. Should the human race voluntarily put an end to its existence? Do we even know what it means to be human?

In her Introduction, Spacks considers Austen’s life and career, the continuing appeal of Pride and Prejudice , and its power as a stimulus for fantasy (Maureen Dowd, writing in The New York Times , can hold forth at length on Obama as a Darcy-figure, knowing full well her readers will “understand that she wished to suggest glamour and sexiness”). Reading Pride and Prejudice with Spacks as a guide illuminates the richness of Austen's historical context, as the annotations draw attention to important material that might initially be missed...This beautifully produced and informative guide to reading Austen's brilliant and beloved novel in its historical context will be a welcome addition to the library of anyone who has read, or plans to read, Pride and Prejudice more than once...Both specialists and fans will find it a great pleasure to read, learn from, and argue with Spacks's annotated edition of this classic novel. So interesting and comprehensive are Spacks's notes on Austen, she could conceivably even introduce the author to a few male readers who might otherwise have veered away from all the bonnets and ruffles...Spacks is fascinating on the topic of Austen, and especially on the author's deft use of dialogue and observation to layer dense levels of meaning into her stories, the notes do open up new vistas of enjoyment and understanding, especially for those approaching the goings-on at Longbourn for the first time...Spacks's notes can be invaluable...For history buffs and period fetishists, who must surely comprise some significant part of the audience for historical romance, this annotated Pride and Prejudice is a treasure trove...This edition should prove equally refreshing to even the most ardent of Miss Bennet's amateur readers. A treat for the legions of Jane Austen enthusiasts, Pride and Prejudice: The Annotated Edition is an oversized volume packed with period illustrations and notation, illuminating the text and the life of Austen. [A] handsomely produced annotated edition...Spacks' annotations are illuminating...The dozens of illustrations--a watercolor of Austen by her sister, for example, and images of late 18th-century drawing rooms--add a layer of visual delight and edification to the clarifying notes Spacks offers. Austen's most famous novel needs no introduction, but it does benefit from the hundreds of loving notes--historical references, vocab tips, and more--provided by Austen scholar Patricia Meyer Spacks.

Combining the best of Hitchens's polemical punch and intellectual elegance in a tightly woven and subtle argument, this book addresses not only why Orwell matters today, but how he will continue to matter in a future, uncertain world.Christopher Hitchens, one of the most incisive minds of our own age, meets Orwell on the page in this provocative encounter of wit, contention and moral truth. Christopher Hitchens is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair .

Happy 90th birthday (10/14/16), to one of the world's most beloved icons of literature, Winnie-the-Pooh! In which it is revealed that one of the world's great Taoist masters isn't Chinese--or a venerable philosopher--but is in fact none other than that effortlessly calm, still, reflective bear. Is there such thing as a Western Taoist?

The Sherlock Holmes Book , the latest in DK's award-winning Big Ideas Simply Explained series, tackles the most "elementary" of subjects — the world of Sherlock Holmes, as told by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. "All in all, it's an absolute stunning resource for any Sherlock fan, and a perfect companion to offer any new reader of the original Doyle stories." "[A]n encyclopedic, illustrated exploration of the entire canon of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's tales of Sherlock and Dr.

Formatted in an easy-to use A-to-Z layout, this guide is packed with information and thrilling comic book art and features more than 1,100 characters including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Joker, and much more. Matthew K. Manning has contributed to over 40 books and comic books, including DK's Batman™: A Visual History , DC Comics: A Visual History , and DC Comics: Year by Year .

By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean is nothing less than the story of how humans first started building the globalized world we know today.

In this beautifully illustrated compendium of all things Outlandish, Gabaldon covers the first four novels of the main series, including: • full synopses of Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, and Drums of Autumn • a complete listing of the characters (fictional and historical) in the first four novels in the series, as well as family trees and genealogical notes. • a comprehensive glossary and pronunciation guide to Gaelic terms and usage. • The Gabaldon Theory of Time Travel, explained. • frequently asked questions to the author and her (sometimes surprising) answers. • an annotated bibliography. • essays about medicine and magic in the eighteenth century, researching historical fiction, creating characters, and more. • professionally cast horoscopes for Jamie and Claire. • the making of the TV series: how we got there from here, and what happened next (including “My Brief Career as a TV Actor”). • behind-the-scenes photos from the Outlander TV series set. For anyone who wants to spend more time with the Outlander characters and the world they inhabit, Diana Gabaldon here opens a door through the standing stones and offers a guided tour of what lies within. For nine years, four books, and nearly 4,000 pages, Diana Gabaldon has entranced readers with her talent for historical authenticity, dramatic plot lines, and strong characters in the Outlander series.

In celebration of of the 75th anniversary of this classic bestseller, this stunningly illustrated, beautifully packaged, larger-format hardcover edition will be beloved by fans of Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology of all ages. She regarded as the high point of her life a 1957 ceremony in which King Paul of Greece named her an honorary citizen of Athens.