Synopses & Reviews
During the course of living (mumble, mumble) years, Dave Barry has learned much of wisdom,* (*actual wisdom not guaranteed) and he is eager to pass it onto the next generation, the generation after that, and to those idiots who make driving to the grocery store in Florida a death-defying experience.
In brilliant, brand-new, never-before-published pieces, Dave passes on home truths to his new grandson and to his daughter Sophie, who will be getting her learners permit in 2015 (So youre about to start driving! How exciting! Im going to kill myself”). He explores the hometown of his youth, where the grown-ups were supposed to be uptight fifties conformists, but seemed to have a lot of unMad Menlike fununlike Daves own Baby Boomer generation, which was supposed to be wild and crazy, but somehow turned into neurotic hover-parents. He dives into everything from the inanity of cable news and the benefits of Google Glass (You will look like a douchebag”) to the loneliness of high school nerds (You will never hear a high school girl say about a boy, in a dreamy voice, Hes so sarcastic!”), from the perils of home repair to firsthand accounts of the soccer craziness of Brazil and the just plain crazy craziness of Vladimir Putins Russia (He stares at the camera with the expression of a man who relaxes by strangling small furry animals”), and a lot more besides.
By the end, if you do not feel wiser, richer in knowledge, more attuned to the universe . . . we wouldnt be at all surprised. But youll have had a lot to laugh about!
Review
“The aptly titled Lunatics delivers exactly what one would expect from two award-winning humorists: an outrageously funny, irreverent, over-the-top comic mystery. How funny is Lunatics? It’s the sort of book that inspires snorts, may make you spit out your soda and burst into hysterical laughter in public.”—The Miami Herald
Review
“A screwball comedy of errors and a rare political satire. Barry and Zweibel bring us what we need: comic relief.”—The Boston Globe
Review
“Creative, unusual and over the top. The outlandish scenarios are certainly entertaining, and as bizarre as their adventures are, there’s a strange sense of believability to the story. That helps keep the story fresh and the pages turning.”—Associated Press
Review
“A novel who those who love one-liners, outrageous characters and loopy plots. An antidote, if one is needed, to gritty urban realism.” —Kirkus Reviews
Review
“Putting Barry and Zweibel in close proximity is sort of like juggling torches while walking a wire over a vat of kerosene; sooner or later, there’s gonna be a big, big bang. A rocket-fueled romp whose pages practically turn themselves.”—BookPage
Review
“An outrageously funny, irreverent, over-the-top comic mystery.”—
Sun Sentinel “A s**tload of hilarious fun.”—The Kentucky Democrat
“As bizarre as their adventures are, there's a strange sense of believability…That helps keep the story fresh and the pages turning…Creative, unusual and over the top.” —The Associated Press
“Rare political satire…With world affairs in the toilet, Barry and Zweibel bring us what we need: comic relief.”— The Boston Globe
Review
Praise for YOU CAN DATE BOYS WHEN YOURE FORTY
“Happily, everything bad is good, when Barry applies [his] humor.”--Contra Costa Times
“[A] hilarious collection . . . Barry is particularly sidesplitting when describing his role as the 65-year-old dad of a 13-year-old daughter. His description of taking his teen to a Justin Bieber concert is brilliantly funny . . . Parents and non-parents alike will find plenty of laughs.”--Publishers Weekly
“Humorous take on life . . . Barry offers a baby-boomer perspective on a faster-paced life of electronic gadgetry and the Internet and ponders the aging process, including getting mail marketing Medicare and watching Viagra commercials in the company of your children.”--Booklist
“[A] wide-ranging collection of funny essays . . . even those who don't have children and have never lived in Miami or searched for a Wi-Fi connection in the Israeli desert will appreciate Barry's lighthearted absurdity.”--Kirkus Reviews
Praise for INSANE CITY
“Picture The Hangover with a splash of Miami Vice, and you get Dave Barry's Insane City. . . This is a quick, fun (and laugh-out-loud funny) read, and the action never slows.”—Fort Worth Star-Telegram
"[A] very funny new novel . . . [Barry's] sly observations, well-delineated characters, and intricate plotting mesh perfectly."—Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
One of them is a bestselling Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist. The other is a winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Together, they form the League of Comic Justice, battling evildoers in the name of . . . Okay, we made that line up. What they do form is a writing team of pure comic genius, and they will have you laughing like idiots.
Philip Horkman is a happy man-the owner of a pet store called The Wine Shop, and on Sundays a referee for kids' soccer. Jeffrey Peckerman is the sole sane person in a world filled with goddamned jerks and morons, and he's having a really bad day. The two of them are about to collide in a swiftly escalating series of events that will send them running for their lives, pursued by the police, soldiers, terrorists, subversives, bears, and a man dressed as Chuck E. Cheese.
Where that all takes them you can't begin to guess, but the literary journey there is a masterpiece of inspiration and mayhem. But what else would you expect from the League of Comic Justice?
Synopsis
Philip Horkman is a happy man, the owner of a pet store called The Wine Shop, and on Sundays a referee for a local kids’ soccer league. Jeffrey Peckerman is the proud and loving father of a star athlete in the girls’ ten-and-under soccer league, and he’s not exactly happy with the ref.
The two of them are about to collide in a swiftly escalating series of events that will send them running for their lives, pursued by the police, soldiers, subversives, bears, revolutionaries, pirates, and a black ops team that does not exist. Where all that takes them you can’t even begin to guess, but the literary journey there is a masterpiece of inspiration, chaos, and unadulterated, well, lunacy. And they might even learn a lesson or two along the way.
Synopsis
An uproariously funny examination of what one generation can teach to anotheror notfrom the Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Timesbestselling author of You Can Date Boys When Youre Forty and Insane City.
During the course of living (mumble, mumble) years, Dave Barry has gained much wisdom* (*actual wisdom not guaranteed) and he is eager to pass it onto the next generation, the generation after that, and to those idiots who make driving to the grocery store in Florida a death-defying experience.
In brilliant, brand-new, never-before-published pieces, Dave passes on home truths to his new grandson and to his daughter, Sophie (who will be getting her learners permit in 2015, the thought of which scares Dave silly). He explores the hometown of his youth, when all the men went to the city in suits and hats but still seemed to be having un-Mad Menlike fun, and how they turned into the neurotic hover-parents of today. He dives into everything from Google Glass (bottom line: You feel like an idiot”) to why men hate birthdays and anniversaries; from How to Speak Spanish to firsthand accounts of the soccer craziness of Brazil and the just-plain-crazy craziness of Putins Russia, and a lot more besides.
By the end, if you do not feel wiser, richer in knowledge, and more attuned to the universe
it wouldnt be surprising. But youll have had a lot to laugh about!
About the Author
Dave Barry is proud to have been elected Class Clown by the Pleasantville High School class of 1965. From 1983 to 2004, he wrote a weekly humor column for The Miami Herald, which in 1988 won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. He is the author of some thirty books, his most recent bestsellers including his Peter Pan prequels, written with Ridley Pearson; his Christmas story The Shepherd, The Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog; Dave Barry’s History of the Millennium (So Far); and I’ll Mature When I’m Dead. Barry lives in Coral Gables, Florida, with his family and a domestic staff of forty-seven.
Alan Zweibel is an original Saturday Night Live writer who The New York Times said has “earned his place in the pantheon of American pop culture.” He is the winner of lots and lots of Emmy Awards for his work in television, which also includes It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, Monk, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and PBS’s Great Performances. He won the Thurber Prize for his novel The Other Shulman, and collaborated with Billy Crystal on the Tony Award–winning play 700 Sundays. Zweibel and his wife, Robin, live in Short Hills, New Jersey, because they enjoy paying exorbitantly high property taxes.