Funny Biography

Andrew Sean Greer can’t wait to get home to San Francisco after a writer’s residency in Kansas. But when his mother, Sandra, decides to come along for the ride, he has a new goal: get her to crack a smile at every stop, whether breathtaking or breathtakingly kitschy. He’s always known his mother to be as efficient and serious as a chemist (which she happens to be), always in gray, eyebrow cocked, and handling challenges with grace. To mix things up, Andrew develops an elaborate itinerary of planned chaos.

An indispensable, richly informative, and always entertaining sourcebook on Provence by the writer who has made the region his own. Though organized from A to Z, this is hardly a conventional work of reference. It is rather a selection of those aspects of Provence that Peter Mayle in almost...

The Sweet Potato Queens like men. They like them so much that they have devoted an absolutely inordinate amount of time to the pursuit of men, marriage, and great sex. And then, when that doesn t work out, they've devoted an inordinate amount of time to divorce, gittin another one and having...

Kinky Friedman, the original Texas Jew boy, guides readers through the sights, sounds, food, and various and sundry oddities of his favorite Texas city. Known for live music and food, Austin is also the home of Willie Nelson, Janis Joplin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and a number of other music legends...

Kinky Friedman, the original Texas Jewboy, takes us on a rollicking, rock-and-rolling tour of his favorite city: Austin. Maybe you want to know which restaurant President Bush rates as his favorite Austin burger joint. Or maybe you want a glimpse of Willie Nelson’s home life (hint: Willie...

Leaving Cuba was traumatic for my family. Assimilating in Hoboken, New Jersey, was challenging and often comical. Situations that seemed insurmountable as a child are funny in retrospect...now that I know the outcome!

I never planned to write about my life with cerebral palsy (CP), but after years of absurd, frustrating, and hilarious experiences, I had to share them. This book is part memoir, part guide to navigating an able-bodied world when your body has its own agenda. From my mom almost being mistaken for a prostitute to a first date disaster in a movie theater, my life is full of bizarre encounters. Doctors talk over me, cops have been afraid of me, and strangers treat me like a sideshow.

Eric Litsky brings us on a funny, rollicking, heartfelt trip down memory lane, from coming of age adventures, to growing up and still being the free-spirited and roguish adult that keeps the neighborhood on its toes. And then there was the time I nearly burnt down my house. I didn’t mean to. I blame it on the poor science education I received at PS 176. One afternoon I watched the movie “Young Tom Edison” on channel 9’s “Million Dollar Movie.” I thought it would be a great idea to invent something that would change the world.

No Smiling Allowed is a comedic take on life in the former Soviet Union, as an immigrant in America. Julia Bendis has compiled many years of funny stories about her old-fashioned and traditional Russian parents, their understanding of how life works in the United States, their hilarious adventures, and her own younger generation's view of what it was like to blend in as a weird-looking kid from Russia.

His friends warned him not to try the fried pudding at the carnival, but Dan didn’t listen. A short story in comics from Guys Read: Thriller, edited by Jon Scieszka...

Benny’s friend Ray come up with his craziest invention idea yet: a machine that grants wishes. But when Benny realizes he has some wishes that need granting, he starts to wonder if it might just work. A short story from Guys Read: Thriller, edited by Jon Scieszka...

There’s nothing better than taking your timid little cousin Thad to one of those sweet haunted houses the 4-H Club decorates for Halloween. Except, of course, if the house turns out to actually be haunted. A short story from Guys Read: Thriller, edited by Jon Scieszka...

In the hills of Appalachia, humor and wisdom are mixed up forever in funny, wise stories that seem to grow more lustrous with each telling. Here are two of the best: "Uncle Frank Invents the Electron Microphone", Appalachian folk wisdom rolled into one of Davis' funniest stories; "Uncle Frank and the Crown Feed Boys", Davis' legendary Uncle Frank teaches a couple of traveling salesmen the lesson of their lives.

Two fake psychics, one real haunted house—what could go wrong? A short story from Guys Read: Thriller, edited by Jon Scieszka...

River and Niko find their dad is missing, and they have no choice but to track him down. But when they discover the clues lead to a shady reptile dealer, they start to think they might have gotten in over their heads. A short story from Guys Read: Thriller, edited by Jon Scieszka...

A train ride home from a school field trip turns sinister when two kids spot a body on the tracks. A short story from Guys Read: Thriller, edited by Jon Scieszka...

Tim Diamond—the world’s worst private detective—takes on his most dangerous case yet, and it’s going to be up to his brother to keep him out of trouble. A short story from Guys Read: Thriller, edited by Jon Scieszka...

The ad promised you’d be able to see into the spirit world. But they couldn’t work for real . . . could they? A short story from Guys Read: Thriller, edited by Jon Scieszka...

Nate’s best friend Jeremy is missing, and Nate seems to be the only one worried that he’s been captured by hideous creatures that live in the sewers. A short story from Guys Read: Thriller, edited by Jon Scieszka...

It's here: Volume One of the official Guys Read Library. Jon Scieszka's Guys Read initiative was founded on a simple premise: that young guys enjoy reading most when they have reading they can enjoy. And out of this comes a series that aims to give them just that. Ten books, arranged by theme...