Humor Theory

Jody Dyer has gained as much insight as she has weight since publishing her last book, Theories: Size 12, Laugh! You know you want to. Readers will recoil then real as Dyer shares her middle-aged perspective on BIG topics like: online dating, the myth that is natural beauty, orthopedic bras, adults in college, group work, becoming your mother, teacher money hustlers with ADHD, "not pyramid scheme" direct marketing, redneck money-saving summer skills, modernized senior superlatives, God and prayer in schools, school field day with millennial teachers, men vs. women at work, filing taxes as a...

Basie Wenger, a 24-year-old trained percussionist from Philadelphia, impulsively takes on a sudden posting as choir director for a church in Kansas City. Trying to adjust to small town life is difficult enough.

WHAT IS IT REALLY LIKE LIVING IN A HAUNTED HOUSE? Despite popular belief it’s a horror show filled with screaming apparitions and terror-filled nights, sometimes it isn’t very scary at all, but it can be interesting and entertaining. GHOST THEORIES, Raising a Family in a Haunted House, is the true story of an ordinary family cohabitating with mischievous entities that sometimes interrupt a normal day, or night. Join Jeff, Maurine, Sheri and Rae on their 5-year journey as they discover what being haunted is really like

Lee Gavin and his band of ne-er-do-wells are back in an all new pulse pounding, roller coaster ride of excitement crime novel. No, not really. But if you like your crime with a whole lot of belly laughs, The Theory of Everything is right up your alley. Kick back and spend some time with Lee, Ian and the gang and be warned, laughter is contagious. From Edgar and Nero Award nominee l Lamanda.

Paul is a recently demoted adjunct instructor of freshman comp, a divorced but doting Brooklyn father, and a self-desc­ribed “curmudgeonly crank” cataloging his resentment of the priorities of modern life in a book called The Luddite Manifesto. Outraged by the authoritarian creeps ruining the country, he is determined to better the future for his young daughter, one aggrieved lecture at a time.

Every time Kevin Spencer sees Tina Zabinski, the Most Beautiful Girl in the World, he’s in danger of tripping, falling, and making a fool of himself. He can hardly say a word to her. But Kev knows he’d be the perfect boyfriend for Tina. He’s not bragging. Just pointing out the obvious. Kev decides to take a scientific approach to getting a date with Tina. After all, love is based on chemistry. When new kid Cash Devine zeroes in on Tina, Kevin hustles to find the formula that will make her forget all about Cash.

Kevin has a big talent. Some might call it compulsive lying. He calls it common sense. Kev doesn’t mean to cause trouble by lying all the time; he’s just trying to make everything easier for everyone (and himself). And, of course, a few harmless, um, falsehoods are crucial to his plan to convince Tina that he’s the perfect boyfriend for her. In Gary Paulsen’s irresistible and chaotic comedy, Kevin’s lies spiral out of control until he’s faced with the need to do the unthinkable: tell the truth.

A corrupt police detective enjoying semi-retirement in Tidewater Virginia stumbles onto an unsolved homicide. Given his nature, he’d be happy to leave it unsolved, but a few of his friends and neighbors have other ideas and steer him to a chance at redemption.

As a punishment for lying, Kevin has lost his allowance. He doesn’t lie now, but he’s broke. He’s got to find a way to make money. Lots of it, so he can impress Tina Zabinski, the World’s Most Beautiful Girl, and ask her on a date. So Kevin gets creative - and his life becomes a financial comedy of errors. Does he really have what it takes to get filthy rich at age fourteen? In Gary Paulsen’s hilarious follow-up to Liar, Liar, Kevin’s schemes lead him into situations that are sweet, some that are sticky, and some that are downright stinky.

Popular culture in America today is dominated by the left. But so many young conservatives in America want to stand up for their beliefs in their classrooms, at their jobs, with their friends, or on social media, but they don’t have the tools to do so. In How to Win Friends and Influence Enemies, Will Witt arms Gen Zs and millennials with the knowledge and skills to combat the leftist narrative they hear every day.

Some people lead and some people get out of the way. It’s a universal rule. A cosmic inevitability. Kevin Spencer is one lucky guy. Tina Zabinski, the World’s Most Beautiful, Most Perfect, Best-Smelling Girl, is finally his girlfriend. But now that he’s got the girl, will he be able to keep her?E nter his mortal enemy, Cash Devine. Handsome, smooth-talking Cash is running for class president, and he seems to have his eye on Tina. Kev’s got to dazzle her, so he decides to exercise his great political mind and run against Cash. There’s just one little problem: Kevin has to win. Gary Paulsen continues his exploration of the quirky, inventive mind of fourteen-year-old Kevin in this hilarious companion to Liar, Liar; Flat Broke; and Crush.

Henri Koskinen firmly believes in the power of common sense and order. That is until he moves in with Laura Helanto and her daughter. As Henri realises he has inadvertently become part of a group of local dads, a competing adventure park is seeking to expand their operations, not always sticking to the law in the process. Is it possible to combine the increasingly dangerous world of the adventure-park business with the unpredictability of life in a blended family? At first glance, the two appear to have only one thing in common: neither deals particularly well with a mounting body count.

Family fun takes center stage in three-time Newbery Honor winner Gary Paulsen’s hilarious novel for middle-school boys. Kevin Spencer is the glue that holds his family together. When his wacky relatives decide to have a double wedding in the backyard, Kevin takes charge. Planning two weddings is a great way to impress his girlfriend, Tina Zabinski, the Most Beautiful and Best-Smelling Girl in the World.

Jody Dyer slaps humor on everyday life as skillfully as a veteran line cook throws country ham on a flat top grill. Readers compare her to Lewis Grizzard and Fannie Flagg, but Dyer has a unique, modern, edgy voice with Appalachian roots and universal appeal. In Theories: Size 12, readers gain a new perspective on marching bands, zoos, sports parents, teachers, outdoor weddings, tailgates, bicycle guys, and much, much more. Dyer says what we're all thinking but afraid to say, and she does so with a rare combination of fearless wit and literary finesse—a combination as lip-smacking good as ...

Sixth grade has been pretty disaster-free for aspiring astronaut Maple McNutt—which is impressive, given the number of worries and possible catastrophes that run through her head every day. (So far, Earth hasn’t been devoured by a black hole and a cockroach hasn’t crawled out of her toothpaste mid-squeeze. Phew!) But then her best friend of seven-point-two years, Sunny Gwon, accuses her of being unfun and starts hanging around with a new group of friends.

A novel of seduction and madness, hate and love, set in the world of Argentinean academia and animated by the spirits of Wittgenstein, Rousseau, Nabokov, and Bolano.

Gabriel is a stranger in a small Breton town. Nobody knows where he came from or why he's here. Yet his small acts of kindness, and exceptional cooking, quickly earn him acceptance from the locals. His new friends grow fond of Gabriel, who seems as reserved and benign as the toy panda he wins at the funfair. But unlike Gabriel, the fluffy toy is not haunted by his past….

It would be easier for Thomas Mullen to move on from what he'd seen if Sarah stopped calling. It would be even better if she stopped appearing to him, and only him, to remind him of what he was powerless to stop. But months later, after Thomas loses his phone and the random woman who recovers it arranges to return it to him, his predicament intensifies. This woman tells him that while she's had his phone, his mother has called. His mother really needs him to call her back. And who is Sarah?

If you want more, you have to give less. That's the secret to dating in high school. By giving as little as they expect to get in return, 17-year-old Aubrey Housing and her three best friends have made it to the second semester of their senior year heartbreak-free. And it's all thanks to a few simple rules: don't commit, don't be needy, and don't give away your heart.

Of all human qualities, humor is perhaps the most puzzling. In this very first history of humor, author and humorist William Hartston looks at every aspect of the evolution of humor and our attitudes toward it with a view to developing a proper theory of everything humorous.