On his 70th birthday, Herbert published a collection of his best, funniest, naughtiest and most daring essays and sketches. The old favourites are here, together with a collection of his lesser-known works. His satirical edge and witty insight loses nothing over the years and continues to delight, entertain and surprise readers young and old.
In Look Back and Laugh, John Schmidtke laughs about the crazy things that happened in his family. The wonderful thing is that the longer ago it was and the worse it got, the funnier it gets. Is your life like that? We're talking about the silly stuff that usually ruins your day. The mistakes, misstatements, accidents, misfortunes, problems. Don't let them ruin your life! If bad things happened, it isn't because you're unlucky. It's because you're normal! Your past, the downs as well as the ups, can be a real blessing. It all depends on how you look at them. Laughter is the key. Whatever happened (ridiculous, riotous or ruinous) happened. If you can laugh at it, you can live with it. There is humor in everything. All you have to do is find it. Laughter is good medicine too. When you think back on even a bad event with laughter, it will bring a smile instead of tears or anger. It'll help you-and everyone around you-because happiness is catchy. Go ahead, friend. Buy this read! Find out why John says, "If life is taking you to the Funny Farm, you might as well laugh along the way!"
Liz Prince invites you to spend a year walking in her (Converse) shoes! Look Back and Laugh collects the 365 comic strips she drew to document every day of her life in 2016. Follow Liz through such life-changing adventures as: buying a house, moving to a new state, getting married, crippling insomnia, and as always, lots of cats, cats, cats! Full of humor, pathos, and insight, these comics reveal the ups and downs that make up the glamorous micro-celebrity life of a freelance cartoonist.
When life is funny, make some jokes about it. Billy Plimpton has a big dream: to become a famous comedian when he grows up. He already knows a lot of jokes, but thinks he has one big problem standing in his way: his stutter. At first, Billy thinks the best way to deal with this is to . . . never say a word. That way, the kids in his new school won’t hear him stammer. But soon he finds out this is NOT the best way to deal with things. (For one thing, it’s very hard to tell a joke without getting a word out.) As Billy makes his way toward the spotlight, a lot of funny things (and some less funny things) happen to him. In the end, the whole school will know -- If you think you can hold Billy Plimpton back, be warned: The joke will soon be on you!
A tragicomic story of bad dates, bad news, bad performances, and one girl's determination to find the funny in high school from the author of Denton Little's Deathdate. Winnie Friedman has been waiting for the world to catch on to what she already knows: she's hilarious. It might be a long wait, though. After bombing a stand-up set at her own bat mitzvah, Winnie has kept her jokes to herself. Well, to herself and her dad, a former comedian and her inspiration. Then, on the second day of tenth grade, the funniest guy in school actually laughs at a comment she makes in the lunch line and asks her to join the improv troupe. Maybe he's even . . . flirting? Just when Winnie's ready to say yes to comedy again, her father reveals that he's been diagnosed with ALS. That is . . . not funny. Her dad's still making jokes, though, which feels like a good thing. And Winnie's prepared to be his straight man if that's what he wants. But is it what he needs? Caught up in a spiral of epically bad dates, bad news, and bad performances, Winnie's struggling to see the humor in it all. But finding a way to laugh is exactly what will see her through. **A Junior Library Guild Selection**
Believe In Your Own Fairytale narrates a young woman’s quest to achieve dreams all thought impossible. While being raised in a poor, black household on a small island does not make one the perfect candidate for a happily-ever-after, Fletcher shows that fairytales are real for those who find the magic in themselves. It is a journey of self-discovery, relationship with God and overcoming hardships including grief, disappointment, depression, poverty, anxiety and overcoming many psychological barriers to manifest true purpose. If you’ve ever doubted that your dreams are too big or maybe never believed in fairytales at all, then this is the book for you. It is designed for all the wanderers, dreamers and every person who has felt like their goals were so big it scared them and everyone else around them. It is for those who lack support from others and struggle daily to achieve their lifelong goals. Yuh’ see when you’re born in 1990 and yuh’ grow up as an only child to a poor, black, single-parent mother in the Caribbean, wanting to become a New York Times best-selling author and broadcast journalist living in the big apple seems like a real FAIRYTALE. My childhood dream of becoming the “Caribbean Carrie Bradshaw” was often mocked and turned away by locals who told me, “give up Kay-Marie dem’ ting’ does only happen in books and movies”. Determined to prove everyone wrong and do so by age 25, I set out on the pursuit of happiness as a young, naïve but strong-minded island-girl. However, my journey to achieve these goals was often disrupted by many hardships and this book details how I dealt with them. These include grief, disappointment, depression, and poverty, anxiety, crossing geographical borders and overcoming many psychological barriers. The unexpected death of my grandmother and uncle, which made me struggle to complete university, was just one of many. This caused me great turmoil, since Education had to be my ticket into a better life. After being rejected to do my post-grad studies in the U.S., I was forced to take an ordinary desk job to earn a living. Meanwhile, I hoped that finding true love would be a worthy compromise. Sadly, I looked for it in all the wrong guys. Luckily, I landed my dream job as a journalist at the largest local news station back home. Soon after taking it however, my old dream resurfaced and I was finally given the chance to migrate to the United States. By then, I had to choose between giving up the life I’d always imagined overseas and accepting what seemed to be my new fate in Trinidad. But, what happened next completely overturned my life. After surviving a horrific car accident on my 25th birthday, I woke up to an epiphany that my fairytale was much more than just becoming a big city girl. Taking a leap of faith to go after my dreams, developing a relationship with God, and discovering my true purpose in life became my real happily ever after. This book also gives an entirely new outlook to the traditional concept of what we know a ‘fairytale’ to be. Unlike others, each chapter unravels a whole new definition of the term ‘fairytale’ and intends to convince the minds of those who never believed in fairytales at all. When you read this book you will discover that your fairytales are your dreams, your purpose, your truth, your vision, your deepest thoughts, your inner magic, your baby, your goals, your prophetic call, your diamond, your destiny, and your recipe for success, just to name a few. X
Husbands and wives--a story as old as time and as new as J. Lo and whoever it is she's married to this month. Daniel Will-Harris spins a hilarious new take on this age-old subject, tackling everyday topics from tiny BBQs to giant chickens; putting up shelves to putting down cookies; puppies to panic; curtains to karma. Will-Harris says "You're going to look back and laugh at this someday." That's something I tell myself and what I do in these stories--rewrite the past and change shock to shtick, transform tears to laughter. 50,000 Internet readers already agree, recommending their friends to Will-Harris' site and e-mail list. That's why they're among the most popular and fastest-growing story sites and lists on the web. Here's what actual readers are saying: "Anyone who's ever been married, or even known a person of the opposite sex, will love these stories. Non-stop hilarity from start to finish!" The author's wife (well, she would, wouldn't she). "Hilarious! My wife and I couldn't stop laughing. Will-Harris is like the literary love child of Dave Barry and David Sedaris." Brad Plitt "A comic gem!" Sheila Bennet "I read them at my desk and laughed so loud my co-workers thought I was crazy--until they read them and laughed out loud, too!" Sharone Osburn "I had tears of laughter running down my cheeks." John Stanley "Hysterical! My wife and I laughed for 10 minutes!" Pat Daley
The capacity for humour is one of life's blessings. So why is it so lacking in the theory and even the practice of analysis and therapy? Why Don’t Psychotherapists Laugh? is the first book of its kind about a neglected and even taboo topic: the place of enjoyment and good humour in psychotherapy. Why Don’t Psychotherapists Laugh? traces the development of professional psychotherapy and its almost exclusive focus on life's tragedies. This may naturally suit some practitioners; others may learn that a proper therapeutic persona is serious, even solemn. But what are they and their clients missing? Ann Shearer draws on ideas about humour and its functions from antiquity to contemporary stand-up comedy and beyond, to explore how it works in both mind and body. Shearer demonstrates how even the blackest humour may yield psychological information, and how humour can help build therapeutic relationships and be a catalyst for healing. Through real-life stories from consulting rooms, told by both therapists and clients, the author shows how a sense of enjoyment and good humour can restore life to people in distress- and how destructive a lack of these may become. This book offers food for thought about the theory and practice of psychotherapy. It encourages analysts and therapists from different schools to look again at some of the assumptions on which they base their practice and teaching, and provides a resource for further reflection on the therapeutic task. Taking a psychological look at where humour comes from, what it's about and why we need it, this book will also intrigue anyone who wants to know more about the kinds of people psychotherapists are, what they do and why. Written in a highly accessible style, Why Don't Psychotherapists Laugh? will appeal to psychotherapists with a range of trainings and allegiances, their teachers in vocational and academic institutions and their clients, as well as to readers with an interest in psychotherapy, humour and psychology.