Frank Carlson Library

"In this new collection of essays that are mostly about the life part, the author writes about e-mail, parenthood, the mental scars that dodgeball can leave, and what she really should have done about a skunk before it thought it owned more of her house than she did. The shrewd insights about everyday escapades--both touching and humorous--are honest, entertaining, and about stuff that we all understand: life, kids, falling down, and the amazing thing...

A renowned Syracuse University professor builds on her memoirs and literary anecdotes to outline her personal writing process while identifying the elements of a successful memoir.

In thinking about her native land, Julia Reed quotes another Southern writer, Willie Morris, who said, Its the juxtapositions that get you down here. These juxtapositions are, for Julia, the soul of the South and in her warmhearted and funny new audiobook, South Toward Home, she chronicles her adventures through the highs and the lows of Southern life the Delta hot tamale festival, a masked ball, a rollicking party in a boat on a sand bar, scary Christian...

"In Dad is Fat, stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan, who's best known for his legendary riffs on Hot Pockets, bacon, manatees, and McDonald's, expresses all the joys and horrors of life with five young children--everything from cousins ("celebrities for little kids") to toddlers' communication skills ("they always sound like they have traveled by horseback for hours to deliver important news"), to the eating habits of four year olds ("there is no difference...

Illustrations and brief text introduce colors and the concepts of shape and size.

As both a tomboy and a late bloomer, comedian Jessi Klein grew up feeling more like an outsider than a participant in the rites of modern femininity. Now Klein offers a funny yet poignant take on a variety of experiences along her strange journey to womanhood and beyond. These include her "transformation from Pippi Longstocking-esque tomboy to are-you-a-lesbian-or-what tom man," attempting to find watchable porn, and identifying the difference between...

Dunlop Fantasia has a passion for marketing, excellent ideas, hovercrafts and avoiding rehab. A dark, complicated family upbringing sets him on course for early divorce, a blunder with his father's mistress, making TV shows, the heartbreaking death of a manservant, pursuit of celebrity endorsements and winning respect for his growing advertising empire. Follow his satirical exploration of wealth, self-help advice, business success, gritty optimism...

From everyone's favorite TikTok oracle, Devrie Donalson (aka @devriebrynn), comes a hearty dose of her sometimes jaded, always funny, and surprisingly soulful wisdom. For fans of Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson and Everything's Trash, But It's Ok by Phoebe Robinson. Through her TikTok videos, Devrie has chronicled only a small part of her journey as a single woman-leaving her unsatisfying life behind and flying to Scotland in pursuit of a version...

The Devil's Dictionary (1906) is a work of satire by Ambrose Bierce. Although he is commonly remembered for his chilling short stories on the experiences of Civil War soldiers, Bierce was recognized in his day as a leading journalist and humorist who spent decades ruffling feathers and drawing laughter with his witty opinion columns, poems, and definitions. Toward the end of his career, he decided to compile these satirical definitions into a book,...

Readers may be shocked to discover that America's most provocative (and conservative) satirist, P. J. O'Rourke, was at one time a raving pinko, with scars on his formerly bleeding heart to prove it. In Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut, O'Rourke chronicles the remarkable trajectory that took him from the lighthearted fun of the revolutionary barricades to the serious business of the nineteenth hole. How did the O'Rourke of 1970,...