30 Very Funny Books--Seriously By Gina Barreca, Ph.D. It's a dreary day, so I thought I'd indulge myself and come up with a list of my favorite comedies. A caveat, however: this is not a fancy English-professor-y list of the finest, most exquisitely crafted, most erudite or intellectually sophisticated works on paper in the language. This is a list of the books that make me laugh until my mascara starts to run. These are books to read over your first cup of coffee or just before you go to sleep . Remember: a day you've laughed is day you haven't wasted--even if you didn't get out of bed. Some days you need a jump-start to get to the funny parts of life. You've probably heard of most of these titles, and maybe you've already read several of them. You ready? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. And of course this is just the beginning.
Mind-Bending Sci-Fi Books For A Fantastical Summer Chris Silas Neal Publishers like to throw around the term "speculative fiction," but you won't see too many fans of the genres it comprises — fantasy and science-fiction — bandying it about. For one thing, it's redundant; all fiction speculates, or it isn't fiction. More importantly, true fans of science fiction or fantasy don't feel a particular need to justify that love, much less dress it up in more "respectable" language. It's a mug's game, after all: Those readers who reflexively turn up their noses at genre fiction will continue to do so, no matter what name it goes by. But nevermind the semantics. The assertion is that these disparate books offer satisfying, intellectually chewy pleasures perfect for a summer afternoon. Heaven's Needle By Liane Merciel, paperback, 480 pages, Pocket Star, list price: $7.99 Embassytown By China Mieville, hardcover, 368 pages, Del Rey, list price: $26 The Quantum Thief By Hannu Rajaneimi, hardcover, 336 pages, Tor, list price: $24.99 Graveminder
4 Sites with LOTS Of Completely Free Ebooks That Don’t Suck If you’re a fervent reader and nerd like I am, you’ve probably encountered quite a lot of writing online. However, most of them are either absolute garbage or entirely illegal. It’s hard to find good, legal reads online – unless you know where to look. There are several sites that offer classic out-of-copyright writing, or publishes new e-books online as promotions. If you know where to look, you can feast on these completely free Ebooks for all the time you’ve got, and today is the day we’ll show you where to look. Planet eBook Planet eBook is a classy site that offers classic literature for free. However, Planet eBook doesn’t just give you any piece of ‘free literature’. Furthermore, if you feel like a book is ‘missing’ from it’s collection, you put it up as a suggestion. All books on Planet eBook can be read on the site, but can also be downloaded as a PDF, both in a 1-page and 2-page version. ManyBooks Classic Reader PublicBookshelf
Dudeism - Ordination by the Religion of The Big Lebowski Find Free Kindle Books Disclaimer: this post is about free, legal Kindle books, of which there are shedloads (seriously, scroll downwards). It’s not sponsored by Amazon or anyone else. And if you’re reading, you probably have a Kindle. But if you were thinking of buying a Kindle for the first time, click through using the banner below – it won’t cost you anything, and this humble, pathetically modest writer gets a tiny amount of cash to help keep his silver champagne bucket full and his Ferrari well-tuned. Ta. How to fill your Kindle with oodles of stuff, legally and for free. Don’t get me started on how I fell for my Kindle in 7 minutes. Thing is…as nice as it is tracking down an e-copy of a book you suddenly find you can’t live without, it costs money. Better than the best school ever, I’m sure you’ll agree. So here’s what I do. These are the sites I’ve used to find free Kindle books. And yes, I’m after your suggestions. (click screenshots to go to their websites) More. Hold onto your hat. “What? Apple? Update:
Summer's Biggest, Juiciest Nonfiction Adventures Chris Silas Neal The publishing and film industries are innately intertwined — the peanut butter and chocolate of the entertainment world. This complementary, crackling energy between New York and Hollywood determines the big narratives that fill our popcorn-munching hours and drive idle chatter during coffee breaks. It makes sense, then, that they tend to follow the same release schedules, reserving the spring and early autumn for indie offerings, and the summer and holidays for potential blockbusters. There is no literary genre that says "big, juicy hit" like nonfiction adventure; these are titles so packed with action and drama that they feel like movies in waiting (and in fact, most of them are). The Man In The Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise And Spectacular Fall Of A Serial Impostor By Mark Seal; hardcover, 336 pages; Viking Adult, list price: $26.95 Anyone who has read Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. By Dorothy Wickenden; hardcover, 304 pages; Scribner, list price: $26
Game On! 5 Winning Summer Sports Books Chris Silas Neal While the traditional "beach read" set heads off for the summer with pails and shovels in hand, those who prefer a box score and a beer in the bleachers might be just as happy to settle in with a few good reads of their own. Writing about sports can mean anything from a juicy novel about love among athletes to an academic study of the game — whatever game is your favorite — to the obsessive superstar biography that raises up or knocks down a hero. A good sports book might drag you out onto the field or into the locker room; it might go spelunking in the brain of a master or visit the world of the fan. In these five offerings, baseball is a hero's playground and a parent's testing ground, basketball bumps up uncomfortably against heroin addiction, sports journalism undergoes one of its most important transitions, and the sports geek's endless need to understand flowers in full.
Cathleen Falsani: The Dudeist Bible: Just Take It Easy, Man What would the Dude do? That is the central spiritual, if not theological, concern of the Church of the Latter-day Dude, the totally not-fake religion based on the ethos of Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski, the slacker savior of Joel and Ethan Coen's 1998 cult masterpiece "The Big Lebowski." Organized (or rather, disorganized) in 2005, the Church of the Latter-day Dude, aka "Dudeism," which prides itself for being "the slowest growing religion in the world," has ordained more than 120,000 Dudeist priests worldwide -- including yours truly. Dudeism has evolved (yes, slowly) over the last six years from its birth as the brainchild of founder Oliver Benjamin, a journalist and native Californian who splits his time between Los Angeles and Chiang Mai, Thailand. But the transmission of Dudeist beliefs and practices have been largely an informal affair that has escaped formal codification. Much like Buddhism, Dudeism is more of a philosophy than an actual religion. The problem is basically semantic.
The Dudespaper - Lebowski Lifestyle Greg Carey: What Does the Bible Actually Say About Marriage? When you attend a wedding at church, what passages of Scripture do you expect to hear? Congregations occasionally invite me to speak on the current same-sex marriage debates, and I ask them this question. Their answers are remarkably consistent. Someone invariably mentions 1 Corinthians 13, the famous "Love Chapter." Love is patient, love is kind, love never insists on its own way and so forth. Wonderful advice for marriage, but Paul was not talking about marriage. Others call out, "Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God" (Ruth 1:16; NRSV). The second creation story in Genesis comes up: "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh" (Genisis 2:24). One other passage frequently surfaces in weddings but rarely in mainline Protestant churches, the Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodists and United Church of Christ congregations that invite me to speak. Not a Lot to Say