I'm looking for recommendations for some books for my dad, who likes Tony Hillerman, Carl Hiaasen, Elmore Leonard, and John LeCarre. [more inside]
posted by creepygirl on Jun 13, 2009 - 25 answers

[BookRecommendationFilter] Looking for funny, happy books. [more inside]
posted by natalie b on May 13, 2009 - 58 answers

What are the cleverest, wittiest picture books you know? I'm looking for something you might recommend to a very smart kid who is still young enough to prefer picture books to chapter books. Another way of putting is, I'm looking for the picture book equivalent of McSweeney's. [more inside]
posted by yankeefog on Apr 21, 2009 - 57 answers

Can anyone recommend any funny novels about government and politics? [more inside]
posted by Myles on Dec 27, 2008 - 31 answers

Can you help me with titles, online shopping sources for 1950s tongue-in-cheek sex/marriage manual? [more inside]
posted by Lesser Shrew on Jun 21, 2008 - 5 answers

Can you suggest some books that will make a bunch of second graders laugh? I am scheduled as "Surprise Reader" in my son's second grade class this week, and I need some new (to me) humorous and/or weird picture books to read to the class. Previously William Steig and David Greenberg ("Slugs", "Snakes", and "Bugs") have gone over well, but I need some new material! Thanks!
posted by chr1sb0y on Mar 11, 2008 - 24 answers

I'm looking for books where the author immerses himself in an experience and then writes about it [more inside]
posted by reenum on Feb 7, 2008 - 54 answers

I'm looking for recommendations for fake science books, or humoristic books in the style of a science book. Examples: the Haggis-on-Whey books, or J.K. Rowling's "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". [more inside]
posted by easternblot on Jan 21, 2008 - 35 answers

I'm on the hunt for sites and/or blogs about big ideas... Who wants to join me? [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Jul 9, 2006 - 17 answers

Any suggestions for classic literature that offers the hope of belly laughs? I'm looking for laugh-out-loud funny classic fiction, preferably pre-1900. Kind of like this question, but with books instead of movies. [more inside]
posted by mediareport on May 8, 2006 - 62 answers

In the 1980s I came across a slim book about people with language-related mental disorders, such as a person who had a phobia of English and chose to speak French for the rest of his life. This book was NOT Lunatic Lovers of Language by Marina Yaguello. Can you identify it? [more inside]
posted by rwhe on Apr 22, 2005 - 5 answers

Does anyone have a link to a web site I vaguely remember seeing that summarizes classic novel plots in one or two sentences? For example, Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment could be "Special guy wonders if he’s entitled to commit murder. Turns out the answer is no." I stole that one from an article in the Scotsman that I did find, but I can't seem to find the site in question by googling.
posted by hazyjane on Feb 21, 2005 - 9 answers