Humorous fiction

Book SynopsisIt Can''t Happen Here. Are we so sure? Many would suggest that it certainly could happen ''here,'' which is precisely the point that Sinclair Lewis was making when he wrote this book in 1935. This, incidentally, was still a few years before the worst fears would unfold in Germany, giving the book a somewhat prophetic flair. Based on the American Democrat, Huey Long, it has been, despite that, often been associated with ''right wing'' movements. This is ironic, as only a few years later it would be the Democrat FDR that would put American-Japanese citizens into concentration camps using ''emergency powers,'' much as the book''s protagonist, Berzelius Windrip, was portrayed as doing, after beating FDR in 1936.  In case you miss the irony: the real-life FDR actually did what the fictional Windrip was portrayed as doing!The long history of abandoning civil rights using emergency powers was reprised more recently during the COVID pandemic, when Western nations and individual US states, ostensibly ''democracies,'' nonetheless invoked emergency powers to enact all sorts of authoritarian measures.Thus, when pondering whether or not ''it can happen here'' (which all assume it can) we are perhaps left with a more intriguing question: Why hasn''t it happened here? And then, once this has been answered, work to ensure that the factors that have prevented a full-blown authoritarian regime from materializing in the United States are retained and strengthened.

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Book SynopsisJanet Evanovich, the “most popular mystery writer alive” (The New York Times), is in top form as she sends Stephanie Plum on the trail of a stolen stash of dirty diamonds in this instant #1 New York Times bestseller.Stephanie Plum, Trenton’s hardest working, most underappreciated bounty hunter, is offered an assignment that seems simple enough. Local jeweler Martin Rabner wants her to locate his former security guard, Andy Manley (a.k.a. Nutsy), who he is convinced stole a fortune in diamonds from his safe. Stephanie is also looking for another troubled man, Duncan Dugan, a fugitive from justice arrested for robbing the same jewelry store on the same day. With her boyfriend Morelli away in Miami on police business, Stephanie is taking care of Bob, Morelli’s giant orange dog who will devour anything, from Stephanie’s stray donuts to the upholstery in her car. Morelli’s absence also means the inscrutable, irresistible security expert Ranger is front and center in Stephanie’s life when things inevitably go sideways. And he seems determined to stay there. To complicate matters, her best friend is convinced she is being stalked by a mythological demon hell-bent on relieving her of her wardrobe. An overnight stakeout with Stephanie’s mother and Grandma Mazur reveals three generations of women with nerves of steel and driving skills worthy of NASCAR champions. As the body count rises and witnesses start to disappear, it won’t be easy for Stephanie to keep herself clean when everyone else is playing dirty. It’s a good thing Stephanie isn’t afraid of getting a little dirty, too in this “uproarious, crazy, laugh-a-minute caper” (Booklist, starred review).

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Book SynopsisA uniquely humorous and deeply profound novel from a legendary stand-up comedian that follows the thoughts of a 1960s third grader during a single day at school.Steven Wright is one of the most significant and influential stand-up comedians in history. Rolling Stone ranked him fifteenth on their “50 Best Stand-ups of All Time” list, while the New York Times has written of his enduring legacy: “If you made a family tree of modern stand-up, he would top one of the few major and expanding branches. The children of Mr. Wright pack the comedy scene today.” Now comes his first novel, which is sure to be unlike anything you’ve ever read. From the outside, Harold is an average seven-year-old third grader growing up in the 1960s. Bored by school. Crushing on a girl. Likes movies and baseball—especially the hometown Boston Red Sox. Enjoys spending time with his grandfather. But inside Harold’s mind, things are a lot more complex and unusual. His thoughts come to him as birds flying through a small rectangle in the middle of his brain. He visits an outdoor cafe on the moon and is invited aboard a spaceship by famed astronomer Carl Sagan. He envisions his own funeral procession and wonders if the driver of the hearse has even been born yet. Harold documents the meandering, surreal, often hilarious, and always thought-provoking stream-of-consciousness ruminations of the title character during a single day in class. Saturated with the witticisms and profundities for which Wright’s groundbreaking stand-up has long been venerated, this novel will change the way you perceive your daily existence. To quote one of its many memorable lines: “Everything doesn’t have to make sense. Just look at the world and your life.”Trade Review“Like Catcher In the Rye on mushrooms. Read this goddamn book. It’s a masterpiece. Steven Wright is a genius.” —Bill Burr "Really funny and touching. Harold is beautifully written. Only Steven Wright could write this, and I love it." —Conan O'Brien “A strange and wonderful book…There are shades of Vonnegut in Wright, and shades of John Irving's Owen Meany in the precocious Harold.” —Michael Ian Black, The New York Times Book Review “If Kurt Vonnegut and Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson wrote a literary version of Harold and the Purple Crayon, they might have concocted an absurdist novel like Harold. Or maybe, Harold could only have come from the off-kilter but fertile musings of stand-up legend Steven Wright...His deadpan delivery elevated him to the top of the stand-up world in the 1980s. That same originality and dry humor ricochets throughout his novel.” —Stuart Miller, The Los Angeles Times "Harold is often funny…as if Donald Barthelme had been assigned to rewrite The Little Prince. Wright has invented something here: A story about a child that refuses to be childlike, authored by an author who refuses to pretend that there’s order to the disorganized mind of a too-smart kid who can’t keep on task.” —Mark Athitakis, The Washington Post “Readers enthralled by stand-up comedian Wright’s uniquely brainy, topsy-turvy, metaphysical, and epigrammatic humor will revel in Harold’s uncanny, sharply funny, and profound ponderings in this sardonic yet tender tale of life’s mysteries and the mind’s marvels.” —Donna Seaman, Booklist

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