One of America’s funniest women opens up in this real and raw memoir, encouraging readers to face life’s trials with unshakeable faith and joy. A stand-up comedian beloved for her combination of feisty wit and Southern charm, Pierce knows all too well that life is funny—until it’s not. But she also knows that it will become funny again. She’s held on to that hope—and that promise—through tragedy and triumph. And now she’s finally ready to tell her full story. In Life Is Funny until It’s Not, Pierce recounts a preacher’s daughter’s childhood filled with heartbreak, including abuse, her parents’ divorce, and the sudden deaths of her two sisters in the span of two years. Even after she achieved success in her comedy tours, trials and tragedy dogged her through marriage, motherhood, and widowhood. But God was there with her through every sorrow and every joy. This story of unshakeable hope and faith will inspire readers to turn to God and trust his faithfulness. Chonda Pierce has a white-knuckle faith—the kind you almost dare to have taken from you. And she wants her readers to share her unapologetic courage to hope—as well as a few laughs along the way.

Life Is Funny but It Ain't No Joke recounts the spiritual journey of the author, who forgets his divine identity and then mistakenly identifies with his mind as himself and experiences the dire consequences that inevitably follow. The author then takes you along with him as he courageously undertakes the "hero's journey," which allows him to reclaim his true identity, his authentic life, and to discover more than 125 striking, original wisdom sayings during his venture within. These pearls of wisdom are designed to help free you from the prison of your mind, so you can begin living the life you were born to live.

E. R. Frank’s seminal first novel weaves together the stories of eleven teenagers in one city over seven years in this groundbreaking and “impressive debut” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Why does Gingerbread always have a smile on his face? “Because life is funny,” he tells Keisha. But for her—and almost everyone else in her Brooklyn neighborhood—there doesn’t seem to be much to laugh about. China, Ebony, and Grace are best friends, but Grace’s mother isn’t crazy about her being friends with two girls who aren’t white, and each cut Ebony makes on her wrist seems to drive them even further apart. Just across the schoolyard there’s Eric who has to raise his younger brother Mickey, even though no one expects him to amount to anything. Meanwhile, Sonia’s Muslim parents expect everything of her, and it may be more than she is able to give after she suffers a shattering loss. When Drew brings his father’s Jaguar into Sam’s family’s auto body shop across town they seem to be from opposite sides of the tracks, but Drew’s the one hiding a dark family secret. And he’s not the only one.

The first book ever from an icon of American comedy -- a hilarious combination of stories from his career and observations about life That stammer. Those basset-hound eyes. That bone-dry wit. There has never been another comedian like Bob Newhart. His comedy albums, movies, and two hit television series have made him a national treasure and placed him firmly in the pantheon of comedy legends. Who else has a drinking game named after him And now, at last, Newhart puts his brilliant and hysterical world view on paper. Never a punch-line comic, always more of a storyteller, he tells anecdotes from throughout his life and career, including his beginnings as an accountant and the groundbreaking success of his comedy albums and The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart, which gave him fifteen years on primetime television. And he also gives his wry, comedic twist to a multitude of topics, including golf, drinking, and family holidays. Today, Newhart appears on Desperate Housewives, in hit movies such as Elf, and in theaters around the country. Reruns of his shows air constantly on Nick at Nite -- have recently been released with great success for the first time ever on DVD. With this book, Bob Newhart gives his millions of fans a first ever opportunity to sample his unique brand of humor -- including excerpts from some of his classic routines -- on the printed page.

Like many ambitious New York City teenagers, Craig Gilner sees entry into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School as the ticket to his future. Determined to succeed at life—which means getting into the right high school to get into the right college to get the right job—Craig studies night and day to ace the entrance exam, and does. That's when things start to get crazy. At his new school, Craig realizes that he isn't brilliant compared to the other kids; he's just average, and maybe not even that. He soon sees his once-perfect future crumbling away.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise.

A refreshingly honest and witty exploration of one woman’s journey through depression. For many, depression is associated with shame and humiliation—even a lack of faith. But Laughing in the Dark is like getting genuine advice from a kind friend. And in her words you’ll find hope and renewed confidence that will guide you through your own darkness and into the light. - If you are currently suffering from depression—this book will help you realize you’re not alone. - If you have a loved one dealing with depression—this book will help you understand. - If you are a mental health professional—you now have a new tool to encourage your clients. Along with the humor, Chonda Pierce shares practical insight, biblical teaching, emotional support, and sympathetic concern. Whether you’ve experienced depression in your own life or in the life of someone you love, this friend has something to offer you: help, hope and, believe it or not, plenty of laughter.

My life has been full of unbelievably strange events. Many are funny, and a few are sad. This book is a compilation of the experiences from before I came to Christ to later in my life, seeing God work in and around people and countries where I have served as a pastor, traveling speaker, and a missionary. My hope with this book is to offer laughter, understanding, hope during sad and painful times, and faith in God. The everyday normal person desperately needs to return to the truth about God and his word and to faith that is real and life-changing. In my life, I went from atheist to believer to traveling speaker to pastor and have personally experienced what God wants to do in each of our lives. Here is a small record of life as it has played out for me. It is my hope and prayer that you will read it and be entertained and encouraged and that you will be energized to believe again. Some names have been changed for obvious reasons.

Written for people who are trying to be what theyre wearing but dont have the same taste in clothes that other people would like, Clothes Really Do Make the Man contains more than 2,500 jokes and one-liners that offers readers ways they can fashion their own lives into a stylish ensemble that will make them model citizens to everyone they want to meet or didnt want to, anyway. Willidau has patterned a writing style that sews together all the designs hes modeled for his life. Ken Willidaus philosophy is that looking it is as good as being it if people dont look past that to see the truth that lies within. Willidau fashions himself in a manner that will leave even the most formally dressed person as a casual giggling mess. And youll be put in stitches, too. Chapters attempt to design a whole person from the clothes he has chosen to show off as his interpretation of himself for others to determine what it is for them to be seeing. Among them, Mittens on Strings, Hand-Me-Down Jeans, Tie-Dyed T-shirt, Flood Pants, Balaclava and Thinking Cap are just part of the complete outfit that make the whole man. The walk down the runway is spent with a patchwork of jokes using wit, dark humour, jokes that will knock your socks off, tongue-in-cheek, jokes needling you gentle reader, plays on words and double entendre humour. Spending your day with Ken will make you look at yourself differently no matter what you think others are seeing for themselves. Clothes Really Do Make the Man provides the perfect cover for those days you want to look like someone who, obviously, reads books and not whatever that is youre wrapped up in now that youve made yourself a slave to fashion to just be read like that yourself. Lets wear a book out.

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE AND THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • One of Modern Library’s 100 best nonfiction books of all time • One of Esquire’s 50 best biographies of all time “A towering biography . . . a brilliant chronicle.”—Time This classic biography is the story of seven men—a naturalist, a writer, a lover, a hunter, a ranchman, a soldier, and a politician—who merged at age forty-two to become the youngest President in history. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt begins at the apex of his international prestige. That was on New Year’s Day, 1907, when TR, who had just won the Nobel Peace Prize, threw open the doors of the White House to the American people and shook 8,150 hands. One visitor remarked afterward, “You go to the White House, you shake hands with Roosevelt and hear him talk—and then you go home to wring the personality out of your clothes.” The rest of this book tells the story of TR’s irresistible rise to power. During the years 1858–1901, Theodore Roosevelt transformed himself from a frail, asthmatic boy into a full-blooded man. Fresh out of Harvard, he simultaneously published a distinguished work of naval history and became the fist-swinging leader of a Republican insurgency in the New York State Assembly. He chased thieves across the Badlands of North Dakota with a copy of Anna Karenina in one hand and a Winchester rifle in the other. Married to his childhood sweetheart in 1886, he became the country squire of Sagamore Hill on Long Island, a flamboyant civil service reformer in Washington, D.C., and a night-stalking police commissioner in New York City. As assistant secretary of the navy, he almost single-handedly brought about the Spanish-American War. After leading “Roosevelt’s Rough Riders” in the famous charge up San Juan Hill, Cuba, he returned home a military hero, and was rewarded with the governorship of New York. In what he called his “spare hours” he fathered six children and wrote fourteen books. By 1901, the man Senator Mark Hanna called “that damned cowboy” was vice president. Seven months later, an assassin’s bullet gave TR the national leadership he had always craved. His is a story so prodigal in its variety, so surprising in its turns of fate, that previous biographers have treated it as a series of haphazard episodes. This book, the only full study of TR’s pre-presidential years, shows that he was an inevitable chief executive. “It was as if he were subconsciously aware that he was a man of many selves,” the author writes, “and set about developing each one in turn, knowing that one day he would be President of all the people.”