Humor Books - Page 10

The Levity Effect: Why It Pays to Lighten Up

Adrian Gostick, Scott Christopher

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The benefits of the Levity Effect are not conjecture but are built on extensive research and case studies from some of the world's most successful organizations. New York Times-bestselling authors Adrian Gostick and Scott Christopher provide powerful examples from Boeing, Nike, KPMG, Yamaha, Enterprise, Zappos and dozens of others, showing how lightening up can drive real business results. The book also outlines the extensive research into the subject--studies that cut against the grain of traditional business thinking--including compelling data from the Great Place to Work® Institute's 1-million-person database, which reveals that "Great" companies consistently earn significantly higher marks for "fun."p>In The Levity Effect, the authors will organize their case around a series of "effects" that happen when you lead with levity. The book will outline the extensive research into the subject--studies that cut against the grain of traditional business thinking. It will also build on the authors' consulting work to create fun and engaging cultures with some of the world's largest organizations and will include interviews with successful people who have learned to use humor in their lives.

Candyfreak: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE CHOCOLATE UNDERBELLY OF AMERICA

Steve Almond

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 97 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Read with Caution! 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Caution: This book resulted in a several pound gain caused by a Twin Bings, a few Idaho Spuds, and a box of Old Faithfuls (wonderful!). All in all, a very expensive and hazardous book!

Don't drool over this ;-) 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

O.M.G!! This book is fantastic. I myself have a major sweet tooth and love love love chocolate. I stumbled across this book by accident and I'm so glad I did. I can't believe the writers name is Steve Almond. He has visited many many candy factories across the country and learned things about long forgotten candy brands and products. It's actually surprisingly interesting and really enjoyable, especially if you're also into chocolate and candy. Although I didn't grow up in America and so don't know many of these products, the fact that I enjoyed reading this just the same, is proof that it's a great read and should have appeal to anyone who loves sugar.

Editorial Review:

Perhaps you remember The Marathon, Oompahs, Bit-O-Choc, or Kit Kat Dark. Where did they go? Driven by his obsession, stubborn idealism, and the promise of free candy, self-confessed candyfreak Steve Almond takes off on a quest to discover candy's origins in America, to explore little companies that continue to get by on pluck and perseverance, and to witness the glorious excess of candy manufacturing. Part candy porn, part candy polemic, part social history, part confession, Candyfreak explores the role candy plays in our lives as both source of pleasure and escape from pain. By turns ecstatic, comic, and bittersweet, Candyfreak is the story of how Steve Almond grew up on candy---and how, for better and worse, candy has grown up too.

There's Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 50 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Poundstone bares her soul in a memoir both poignant and laugh-out-loud funny.

Appearing on stage with a stool, a microphone, and a can of Diet Pepsi, Paula Poundstone's ability to create humor on the spot is legendary. Much of her material is based on her life as a single mother with a full house: three children, nine cats, a cat-eating dog, a bearded dragon lizard, an elderly bunny, and one determined ant left over from an ant farm.

Her autobiography is a hilarious tour through Poundstone's absurdist brand of life's truth and consequences. She tackles everything from the silly to the heart-wrenching--family, history, religious revelations, dishwashing, alcoholism, and her experience with America's legal system, which nearly brought her career to an abrupt end.

Part memoir, part monologue, told with a pinch of self-deprecation and a dash of startling honesty, There's Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say is wryly observant, ironic, funny, touching, and smart, like Poundstone herself.

Leave it to Psmith

Wodehouse, P.G.

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Last Of Psmith Is The Best 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

"Leave It to Psmith" was originally published in the U.K. on November 30, 1923 by Herbert Jenkins, and in the U.S on March 14, 1924 by George H. Doran. The edition I am reviewing is from "The Everyman Wodehouse" series published by Everyman's Library in the U.K., and for those in the U.S., you may be able to find the equivalent quality in "The Collector's Wodehouse" series which is being published by Overlook Press.

I did not have high expectations for this book, because I didn't think "Psmith in The City" was very good, but Wodehouse's writing clearly improved greatly over those 13 years, and the merging of the Psmith character with the cast at Blandings Castle was great chemistry. The character of Ronald Eustace Psmith (formerly known as Rupert Psmith and in both cases the P is silent), was much more interesting in this book than I found him before. He fits right in with the other Blandings characters such as Lord Emsworth, Freddie Threepwood, and a great foil for Rupert Baxter.

In this story, we have a diverse set of characters, all converging on Blandings Castle, and more than a few with the idea of stealing Lady Constance's necklace. Their motives are rather diverse, but whether they want it for money, freedom, or love, there is no shortage of people out to get it. As one would expect in any Wodehouse story, there is a fair amount of assumed identities and amazing coincidences which drive the story forward. Psmith, himself takes on the identity of Mr. Ralston McTodd, a poet from Canada in his pursuit of the beautiful Eve Halliday. The best part of the book, in my opinion, is the flower pot scenes, which is some of the funniest writing I have read in a long time.

As the second of the Blandings Castle novels, and the last of the Psmith novels, this was a great improvement on both of those series. The Blandings series would continue to grow from this point, and there are many more great stories in that series. I do not believe the character of Psmith appears again in any of Wodehouse's stories, but the fully developed Psmith that appears in this work does foreshadow such characters as Jeeves and Uncle Fred. If you didn't care for Psmith in the previous works, you may still want to give this one a try. This is Wodehouse at his best.

Editorial Review:

The Hon. Freddie Threepwood is in financial difficulties of his own devising, along with his henpecked uncle. Dim brained Freddie wants to marry the elusive Eve Halliday, while his Uncle Joe wants to raise money to help out his runaway stepdaughter.

The Bear in the Attic

Patrick F. McManus

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

any patrick mcmanus book 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

As a middle school reading teacher, with 35 years of experience, I can tell you that this is the one author I recommed for reluctant readers, especially boys. I discovered this author when our second son decided he didn't like to read. Well, he didn't read much but he loved Outdoor Life and the books by Mr. McManus.
I would encourage parents and teachers to read these books and find the attraction these will have on boys of middle school age.
ascott
west virginia

Editorial Review:

Starting with his trademark outdoorsmans wit, Patrick F. McManuss newest collection ponders the strange allure of the RV, the existential implications of being lost, the baffling tendency of animals to outsmart those who wish to hunt them, and the singular pleasure of doubling the size of every fish one doesnt actually catch.Combining the curmudgeonly voice of Dave Barry and the innocent tone of Garrison Keillor, McManus brilliantly captures the everyday absurdities that comprise our existence. Alongside hishumor, McManuss inimitable vision consistently evokes a childlike wonder at the natural world. Even if we are running low on food, the compass is broken, and we are fairly certain we have just spotted a family of Sasquatches frolicking in the treetops, The Bear in the Attic makes the outdoors seem wildly irresistible.

The Dog Says How

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Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A popular storyteller and National Public Radio commentator weaves scenes of childhood antics and adult absurdities into tales that provoke laughter—and elicit tears.

Kevin Kling is a master storyteller, as anyone knows who has seen him perform or heard him on National Public Radio's All Things Considered. Drawing on his memories—an eventful Christmas at the Klings, taxidermy class, hopping freight trains, getting struck by lightning, joining a circus, eating things before knowing what they are—he invites us into his life of growing up in Minnesota, traveling the world, and relying on the strangeness of others.

He also shares tales of overcoming personal tragedy, including a congenital arm disability and a near-fatal motorcycle accident. As a result of the accident, he could no longer type and had to learn to use voice-recognition software. The computer translated the barks of his dog into "How," hence the title, The Dog Says How.

Hilarious and tender, comical and deeply poignant, these 29 tales will please anyone who loves a good story.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir

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Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

BONUS FEATURE: Exclusive interview with the author.

From one of the most beloved and bestselling authors in the English language, a vivid, nostalgic and utterly hilarious memoir of growing up in the middle of the United States in the middle of the last century. A book that delivers on the promise that it is “laugh-out-loud funny.”

Some say that the first hints that Bill Bryson was not of Planet Earth came from his discovery, at the age of six, of a woollen jersey of rare fineness. Across the moth-holed chest was a golden thunderbolt. It may have looked like an old college football sweater, but young Bryson knew better. It was obviously the Sacred Jersey of Zap, and proved that he had been placed with this innocuous family in the middle of America to fly, become invisible, shoot guns out of people’s hands from a distance, and wear his underpants over his jeans in the manner of Superman.

Bill Bryson’s first travel book opened with the immortal line, “I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.” In this hilarious new memoir, he travels back to explore the kid he once was and the weird and wonderful world of 1950s America. He modestly claims that this is a book about not very much: about being small and getting much larger slowly. But for the rest of us, it is a laugh-out-loud book that will speak volumes – especially to anyone who has ever been young.

Swim against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go with the Flow

Jim Hightower, Susan DeMarco

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 81 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Don’t look around, but the corporate and political powers that be want you to put this book down, right now. It definitely is NOT on their approved list.

Swim against the Current is one of those books that the power elites don’t like seeing in stores, much less in your hands - not merely because it challenges their established order, but especially because our book reveals paths that folks like you can use to escape their rigid, hierarchical structures and discover a bit more satisfaction in life.

They prefer that you pick up one of those escapist novels over there across the store, rather than finding out that the greatest escape of all can be from stultifying conventional wisdom. We Americans are constantly harassed into thinking that we can’t break the mold that those in charge have made for us. But as a friend of ours puts it: “Those who say it can’t be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.”

It’s the uplifting stories of mavericks that we tell here. They’ve broken free of the corporate tentacles, free of business-as-usual politics, free of top-down elites. They’re figuring out new ways to do commerce, ways to create political channels that empower grassroots Americans, and ways to live their lives.

As these folks show, resistance is not futile . . it’s fertile. Join the fun! Happy listening!

Executricks: Or How to Retire While You're Still Working

Stanley Bing

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Not what I was looking for...... 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Fairly well written. Silly. Entertaining. But not what I was hoping to read when I ordered it. No real meat, or new ideas.
I rated it well b/c it is well written, and I blame myself for not checking deeper to see that it was a humorous book. I was hoping for something similar to 4 Hour Work Week.

Don't listen to the naysayers! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I actually am in management and can tell you that Bing hits the nail on the head. In a very entertaining way, he gives great career advice. In fact, some of it helped me understand better the shannigans in my office.

This isn't going to be interesting or helpful to someone who isn't in the corporate world at the level of middle management or above.

Executricks-Real World Business 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is by far one of my favorite books. I think the overall tone of the book and the effective satire used in the book is amazing. What is amazing is how closely this relates to the business world and how astonishing this hits the mark. It points out the absolute craziness our current state. It also shows how new devices have enabled this "remote work environment", in any system their will be exploitation but this is a "How To Guide" of epic significance.

There are two ways to take this book. From an Entrepreneurs aspect, "Know Thy Enemy" When we look at systems and developing such systems we must learn how to reduce these loopholes. Or Do We? Drawing parallels from the 4 hour work week and the 80/20 principal, is this new work agreement really a bad thing? Wasteful time is not conducive to productivity.

Overall no matter if you are an Entrepreneur, a CEO or a simple employee, this book gives invaluable information on how "Business" really works!

Editorial Review:

Stanley Bing discovers the secret to retiring while continuing to work---and that secret involves becoming part of senior management.

The Pythons

Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Bob McCabe

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Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

For the first time all surviving Pythons have agreed to create the definitive, official, "completely-different-than-anything-done-before" audiobook on the Monty Python's Flying Circus and the 'genius' who created it.

Over thirty years ago a group of five Englishmen and one wayward American rewrote the rules of comedy. Monty Python's Flying Circus, an unheralded half-hour of sketches, hilarities, inanities, and animations first appeared on the BBC late one night in 1969. Its impact on the world has been felt ever since. This audio edition is a complilation of unique never-before-heard interviews with the Python team conducted by Bob McCabe while he researched the Python book, plus clips from the famous Monty Python sketches, including "The Parrot Sketch", "Nudge, Nudge, Wink Wink", "Spam" and the "Ministry of Silly Walks." Narration will be by Bob McCabe with Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin, and featuring, Eric Idle, John Cleese and Terry Jones.

Here is a unique glimpse at arguably the most important comic team of the modern age. Do you want Spam with that?