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Humor & Giftbooks

Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life (and Comedy)

Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life (and Comedy)

Apatow, Judd
$18.00
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE A.V. CLUB - Includes new interviews!

From the writer and director of Knocked Up and the producer of Freaks and Geeks comes a collection of intimate, hilarious conversations with the biggest names in comedy from the past thirty years--including Mel Brooks, Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Sarah Silverman, Harold Ramis, Seth Rogen, Chris Rock, and Lena Dunham.

Before becoming one of the most successful filmmakers in Hollywood, Judd Apatow was the original comedy nerd. At fifteen, he took a job washing dishes in a local comedy club--just so he could watch endless stand-up for free. At sixteen, he was hosting a show for his local high school radio station in Syosset, Long Island--a show that consisted of Q&As with his comedy heroes, from Garry Shandling to Jerry Seinfeld. They talked about their careers, the science of a good joke, and their dreams of future glory (turns out, Shandling was interested in having his own TV show one day and Steve Allen had already invented everything).

Thirty years later, Apatow is still that same comedy nerd--and he's still interviewing funny people about why they do what they do.

Sick in the Head
gathers Apatow's most memorable and revealing conversations into one hilarious, wide-ranging, and incredibly candid collection that spans not only his career but his entire adult life. Here are the comedy legends who inspired and shaped him, from Mel Brooks to Steve Martin. Here are the contemporaries he grew up with in Hollywood, from Spike Jonze to Sarah Silverman. And here, finally, are the brightest stars in comedy today, many of whom Apatow has been fortunate to work with, from Seth Rogen to Amy Schumer. And along the way, something kind of magical happens: What started as a lifetime's worth of conversations about comedy becomes something else entirely. It becomes an exploration of creativity, ambition, neediness, generosity, spirituality, and the joy that comes from making people laugh.

Loaded with the kind of back-of-the-club stories that comics tell one another when no one else is watching, this fascinating, personal (and borderline-obsessive) book is Judd Apatow's gift to comedy nerds everywhere.

Praise for Sick in the Head

"I can't stop reading it. . . . I don't want this book to end."--Jimmy Fallon

"An essential for any comedy geek."--Entertainment Weekly

"Fascinating . . . a collection of interviews with many of the great figures of comedy in the latter half of the twentieth century."--The Washington Post

"Open this book anywhere, and you're bound to find some interesting nugget from someone who has had you in stitches many, many times."--Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"An amazing read, full of insights and connections both creative and interpersonal."--The New Yorker

"Fascinating and revelatory."--Chicago Tribune

"Anyone even remotely interested in comedy or humanity should own this book."--Will Ferrell

Roxanne says: A must read for any comedy aficionado or anyone brave enough to try stand-up! Apatow interviews all the greats: Seinfeld, Shandling, etc.

Sicker in the Head

Sicker in the Head

Apatow, Judd
$18.99
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - An all-new collection of honest, hilarious, and enlightening conversations with some of the most exciting names in comedy--from lifelong comedy nerd Judd Apatow.

"When I need to read an interview with a comedian while in the bathroom, I always turn to Judd Apatow for deeply personal insights into the comedic mind. Place one on your toilet today."--Amy Schumer

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Vulture

No one knows comedy like Judd Apatow. From interviewing the biggest comics of the day for his high school radio show to performing stand-up in L.A. dive bars with his roommate Adam Sandler, to writing and directing Knocked Up and producing Freaks and Geeks, Apatow has always lived, breathed, and dreamed comedy.

In this all-new collection of interviews, the follow-up to the New York Times bestselling Sick in the Head, Apatow sits down with comedy legends such as David Letterman, Whoopi Goldberg, and Will Ferrell, as well as the writers and performers who are pushing comedy to the limits, and defining a new era of laughter: John Mulaney, Hannah Gadsby, Bowen Yang, Amber Ruffin, Pete Davidson, and others. In intimate and hilariously honest conversations, they discuss what got them into comedy, and what--despite personal and national traumas--keeps them going.

Together, they talk about staying up too late to watch late-night comedy, what kind of nerds they were high school, and the right amount of delusional self-confidence one needs to "make it" in the industry. Like eavesdropping on lifelong friends, these pages expose the existential questions that plague even the funniest and most talented among us: Why make people laugh while the world is in crisis? What ugly, uncomfortable truths about our society--and ourselves--can comedy reveal? Along the way, these comics reminisce about those who helped them on their journey--from early success through failure and rejection, and back again--even as they look ahead to the future of comedy and Hollywood in a hyper-connected, overstimulated world.

With his trademark insight, curiosity, and irrepressible sense of humor, Apatow explores the nature of creativity, professional ambition, and vulnerability in an ever-evolving cultural landscape, and how our favorite comics are able to keep us laughing along the way.

Fast Fierce Women: 75 Essays of Flash Nonfiction

Fast Fierce Women: 75 Essays of Flash Nonfiction

Barreca, Gina
$18.95

Praise for Fast Funny Women, last year's breakout in the Fast Women Series, edited by Gina Barreca

If you're a woman and you like humor in your life--plus intelligence--get this book.

--Nancy Thayer, author of Family Reunion

Every man should read this book.

--Jay Heinrichs, author of Thank You for Arguing

The 2nd book in the FAST WOMEN SERIES, with fierce new works from writers you know by heart--NYT bestselling novelist Caroline Leavitt, NPR's own Maureen Corrigan, award-winning poet Phillis Levin, stand-up comic Leighann Lord, Founder and Director of the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop Teri Rizvi, playwright Beth Blatt, screenwriter Pamela Katz, activist and author Leslie Morgan Steiner, Rabbi Marisa Elana James, Pastor Jamie Spriggs, activist and teacher Ebony Murphy-Root--alongside other familiar and emerging authors whose original pieces were commissioned.

Fast Funny Women: 75 Essays of Flash Nonfiction

Fast Funny Women: 75 Essays of Flash Nonfiction

Barreca, Gina
$18.95

Winner, 2021 Foreword INDIES award

"Every man should read this book." --Jay Heinrichs, author of Thank You for Arguing

75 women writers, ages 20 to 89, were invited by editor Gina Barreca to make a party out of their life's most unnerving, challenging, illuminating, desperate, and hilarious moments. You know many of these brilliant women, but you've never heard them like this! With new works commissioned for the book from:

  • Marge Piercy, NYT Bestseller and member of the American Academy of Poets
  • Jane Smiley, Pulitzer-Prize winner
  • Mimi Pond, NYT bestseller graphic artist
  • Liza Donnelly, New Yorker staff cartoonist
  • Fay Weldon, Commander of the British Empire
  • Ilene Beckerman, bestselling author of Love, Loss, and What I Wore
  • Nicole Hollander, Sylvia creator
  • Lisa Landry and Leighann Lord, stand-up comics
  • And many more! Political campaigners, devoted teachers, lousy daughters, good mothers, would-be nuns, admired sportswriters, grad-school-wanna-bes, revenge-driven sisters, frustrated roommates, body-fluid-sorting professionals, lace-loving fashion mavens, intrepid daters, hungry lovers, justice-seeking nasty-women, ACE wedding celebrants, trapped wives, and women with all kinds of ammunition tell their stories--and their stories are all under 750 words.

    Solutions and Other Problems

    Solutions and Other Problems

    Brosh, Allie
    $22.00
    INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

    Allie Brosh--beloved author and artist of the extraordinary #1 New York Times bestseller Hyperbole and a Half--returns with a long-awaited collection of "hilarious and slyly poignant" (People), autobiographical, illustrated essays.

    Solutions and Other Problems includes humorous stories from Allie Brosh's childhood; the adventures of her very bad animals; merciless dissection of her own character flaws; incisive essays on grief, loneliness, and powerlessness; as well as reflections on the absurdity of modern life. "No one sums up the hilarity, devastation, and bizarreness of life quite like comic artist and blogger Allie Brosh" (NPR).

    This full-color, beautifully illustrated edition features all-new material with more than 1,600 pieces of art. Solutions and Other Problems marks the return of a beloved American humorist who has "the observational skills of a scientist, the creativity of an artist, and the wit of a comedian" (Bill Gates).

    Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

    Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

    Cipolla, Carlo M.
    $15.00
    A masterly book --Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan
    A classic --Simon Kuper, Financial Times

    An economist explains five laws that confirm our worst fears: stupid people can and do rule the world

    Throughout history, a powerful force has hindered the growth of human welfare and happiness. It is more powerful than the Mafia or the military. It has global catastrophic effects and can be found anywhere from the world's most powerful boardrooms to your local bar.

    It is human stupidity.

    Carlo M. Cipolla, noted professor of economic history at the UC Berkeley, created this vitally important book in order to detect and neutralize its threat. Both hilarious and dead serious, it will leave you better equipped to confront political realities, unreasonable colleagues, or your next dinner with your in-laws.

    The Laws:

    1. Everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals among us.
    2. The probability that a certain person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
    3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person while deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses themselves.
    4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals.
    5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.

    Best of the Rejection Collection

    Best of the Rejection Collection

    Diffee, Matthew
    $17.95
    The best of the worst: these cartoons rejected by The New Yorker were deemed too dumb, too weird, or too naughty--but not for lack of laughs!

    Every week, hundreds and hundreds of cartoons pour into The New Yorker. Most are rejected. Doesn't matter how big a deal the cartoonist is, either. Roz Chast, David Sipress, Kim Warp, Sam gross, Ed Steed, Emily Flake, Navied Mahdavian, or Mary Lawton--if the work in question is too weird, too naughty, too juvenile, or too dark, it's out. Luckily for us, Matthew Diffee has been bravely sifting through the circular file to rescue the best of the worst.
    Here are 297 cartoons in a revised second edition featuring more than 50 new cartoons--even better, even worse! The cartoon set-ups may be familiar--a couple in bed, a few people stranded on a desert island, a doctor and patient in an examining room--but the joke are anything but, with twists so unexpected, you can't help but laugh out loud.


    Bryn says: Talk about a perfect beach read, you'll take a look into the trash bin of The New Yorker's cartoon editor and laugh out loud at what we didn't get to see between the magazine's pages. A reminder that even the best can get passed over. Oh, and you'll also get to know some of your favorite cartoonists/rejects. 

    Doggos Doing Things Magnets

    Doggos Doing Things Magnets

    Doing Things Media
    $9.95
    Bring your favorite dog memes off the screen with these Doggos Doing Things Magnets, based on the wildly popular Instagram account of the same name.

    Box includes:

  • 10 photographic "meme magnets" featuring hilarious photos of floofers, borkers, and puppos along with doggo language captions
  • A 32-page mini book with additional images of cute puppers (ranging from smol flufferinos to long bois), all featuring laugh-out-loud captions
  • Complete Book of Cat Names (That Your Cat Won't Answer to, Anyway)

    Complete Book of Cat Names (That Your Cat Won't Answer to, Anyway)

    Eckstein, Bob
    $14.95

    Reader, beware! A cat's name will set the tone for the rest of their personal and professional life. Recent studies from dubious cat blogs have shown that 80 percent of cat owners regret the name they gave their feline friends. The number one reason: it became too popular. Fear not. Whether the goal is a name to carry on family tradition or to find something new and different, The Complete Book of Cat Names is packed with options, along with all-new, cat-themed cartoons by Eckstein, making this crucial step in owning a pet a pleasure.

    Here, you will find the most popular cat names (to avoid), bookstore cat names (Homer or Pip), cat names for foodies (S'more or Capers), James Bond villain cats (Golden Paws or Jinx), and many more. In addition, Eckstein provides handy charts for identifying a cat's type (inside or outside, sassy or sweet). It's the perfect gift for any cat owner.

    I Feel Bad About My Neck

    Ephron, Nora
    $16.00