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Find out moreTitles to make you laugh out loud. Or just smile. Or both.
A humorous gift book: collection of oxymorons, amusingly illustrated by Paul Thomas. As we all know, the oxymoron is one of the great beauties of the English language. It has been defined as 'a figure of speech that juxtaposes elements that appear to be contradictory'. Famous examples would include 'bitter-sweet', 'open secret' and 'compassionate Conservatism'.
Hapless would-be journalist Laura Lake goes undercover at wedding season. But she hasn't prepared for disappearing brides, secret royal orgies or a jealous office rival. Will Laura get the scoop of the year? Or will she be out on her ear?
Born into the litters of two rival families, star-cross'd lovers Romeo and Juliet fall tuft-over-paw for each other before learning that they are sworn enemies. 'O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?' squeaks Juliet from her balcony, before declarations of undying affection are made and a secret wedding is planned. But the path of true love does not run smooth, and Romeo soon finds himself banished from the city of Verona after playing his part in a fatal brawl with Juliet's family. In a desperate attempt to scurry away together, they devise a plan fraught with danger that eventually leads to heart-break...
What if there's a hidden dimension to Donald Trump; a sensitive, poetic side? Driven by this question, Rob Sears began combing Trump's words for signs of poetry.What he found was a revelation. By simply taking the 45th President of the United States' tweets and transcripts, cutting them up and reordering them, Sears unearthed a trove of beautiful verse that was just waiting to be discovered.
Michael Holland is a grim reaper working the worst beat in the worst town. Michael’s best friend is a pot-smoking tooth fairy, his boss is the angel of death, his psychiatrist can read his mind, and he counts bogeymen, demons, and clones as his acquaintances. His nine-to-five is a succession of stupidity, clearing up the remains of the latest Darwin Award winner or dealing with the detritus of some apocalyptic clerical error, and it only seems to be getting worse. Michael is as equally disillusioned with death as he was with life, but at least life made more sense. In Forever After, Michael starts to question whether his immortality is really worth having. He sees clueless souls cross over every day, and battling confused succubi, tormented psychopaths, evil henchmen, and even a demon who thinks he’s Santa Claus is getting boring. Is there something more exciting for this grim reaper to do in this sad little town? This darkly humorous novel is set in a fantasy world that exists parallel to ours?a world where anything is possible, very little makes sense, and nothing is as it seems.
I know why I'm doing all this,' I said. 'Everything I do in life is trying to get her back. I think if I do enough things ...that maybe she'll come back.' When Eddie Izzard was six, he and his brother Mark lost their mother. That day, he lost his childhood too. Despite or perhaps because of this, he has always felt he needed to take on things that some people would consider impossible. In Believe Me, Eddie takes us on a journey which begins in Yemen (before the revolution), then takes us to Northern Ireland (before The Troubles), England and Wales, then across the seas to Europe and America. In a story jam-packed with incident he tells of teddy bear shows on boarding school beds, renouncing accountancy for swordfighting on the streets of London and making those first tentative steps towards becoming an Action Transvestite, touring France in French and playing the Hollywood Bowl. Above all, this is a tale about someone who has always done everything his own way (which often didn't work at first) and, sometimes almost by accident but always with grit and determination, achieving what he set out to do.
Tim Dowling’s candid and highly humorous weekly Guardian column charts his life with his wife and three sons… unless they are cross with his exposés when they become ‘Sean his life partner and their three adopted research chimps’. Cherry picking entries from his column Dad, You Suck takes a Dowling family view at modern fatherhood and gives a wonderfully refreshing slap in the face to all the uber perfect, hyper positive parenting so prevalent in the media. As well as giving you lots of giggles, a fair few belly laughs and the odd (don’t be drinking water on public transport when reading) snorts it makes you realise you are not alone! Any parent, especially the father, will instantly relate to so many of Tim’s musing on life and hopefully the luxury of time has turned the cringe into a wry smile.
What's the best way to sort your laundry? Why is Facebook so good at predicting what you like? How do you find new music? Readers around the world have embraced Ali Almossawi's whimsical illustrations and his funny, clarifying explanations of complex subjects. In Bad Choices Almossawi demystifies a new topic of increasing relevance to our lives: algorithms. This is a book for anyone who's looked at a given task and wondered if there was a better, faster way to get it done. What's the best way to organize a grocery list? What's the secret to being more productive at work? How can we better express ourselves in 140-characters? Presenting us with alternative methods for tackling each scenario, Almossawi guides us to better choices that borrow from same systems that underline a computer word processor, a Google search engine, or a Facebook ad. Once you recognise what makes a method faster and more efficient, you'll become a more nimble, creative problem-solver, ready to face new challenges.
Enid Blyton's books are beloved the world over and The Famous Five have been the perennial favourite of her fans. Now, in this new series of Enid Blyton for Grown-Ups, George, Dick, Anne, Julian and Timmy are keen to show Aunt Fanny how much she means to them.
Based on her bestselling range of greetings cards, Cath Tate brings you her unique take on a subject close to all our hearts: love. From grand passion to long-married cosiness, all aspects of this universal emotion are here, in more than 50 hand-coloured vintage photos paired with witty captions.
A book of 101 tips for people engaged in the increasingly popular Dry January movement, in which you give up alcohol for the whole of January. Tips range from the practical ('Put a lock on your drinks cabinet and give someone else the key') to the less practical ('Deliberately get infected with an illness requiring a month-long course of antibiotics') and from the sensible ('Keep a daily total of all the money you're saving') to the silly ('Unfriend anyone on Facebook with a birthday in January').
Give up alcohol you say? Why, of course they can! Talk about an easy challenge! Five old friends set about this simple task and find all of a sudden that: the days are longer; they get to see each other for who they really are; the empty laughter of ordinary conversation is so much harder to fake. Yes, they're saving money and losing weight, but the world itself seems to take on a slow, dreary inevitability. Soon they begin to snap at each other, and then fight - until they begin to wonder, have the Five at last found the challenge that will defeat them?
Edward Estlin Cummings knew a thing or two (take a look at our Poetry Section if you don’t believe us!) and we have to agree with him. Humour is at the heart of human life and you’ll find it in fine form in this section. From favourite TV shows to quirky memoirs; hilarious novels to witty verse; books to dip into, books to devour. We know that humour is subjective and so we’ve spread the net pretty wide as we trawled the comedy oceans for the funniest fish. Un’shellfish’ly, we’ve compiled monthly lists of eclectic recommendations so that you can easily find whatever tickles your fins. There are books here to give as gifts, to savour on your own, or to enjoy with others. Books of laugh out-loud jokes and anecdotes to make you smile on the train, plane, bus or any other public place. After all, laughter is infectious. Spread it around.