Collection: Humor

"A deft, informative, and often screamingly funny primer on the ways that machine learning can (and often does) go wrong." --Margaret Harris, Physics World
"You look like a thing and I love you" is one of the best pickup lines ever...according to an artificial intelligence trained by the scientist Janelle Shane, creator of the popular blog AI Weirdness. Shane creates silly AIs that learn how to name colors of paint, create the best recipes, and even flirt (badly) with humans--all to understand the technology that governs so much of our human lives.
We rely on AI every day, trusting it for matters both big and small, from unlocking our phones to hospital care. But how smart is AI really...? Shane delivers the answer to every AI question you've ever asked, and some you definitely haven't--such as: How can a computer design the perfect sandwich? What does robot-generated Harry Potter fan fiction sound like? And is the world's best Halloween costume really "vampire hog bride"?

In this smart, often hilarious introduction to the most interesting science of our time, Shane shows how these machines learn, fail, and adapt--and how they reflect both the best and worst of humanity.

"I can't think of a better way to learn about artificial intelligence, and I've never had so much fun along the way." --Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals

Big, brainy science for the littlest listeners.

Accurate enough to satisfy an expert, yet simple enough for baby, this clever board book showcases the use of logic, sequence, and patterns to solve problems. Can Baby think like a coder to fix her train? Beautiful, visually stimulating illustrations complement age-appropriate language to encourage baby's sense of wonder. Parents and caregivers may learn a thing or two, as well!

Author's Note:
The goal of the Baby Loves Science books is to introduce STEM topics in a developmentally appropriate way. As a precursor to learning programming languages and syntax, Baby Loves Coding presents the concepts of sequencing, problem solving, cause and effect, and thinking step-by-step. Practicing these skills early creates a solid foundation for reading, writing, math and eventually, programming.

An introvert spends a year trying to live like an extrovert with hilarious results and advice for readers along the way.

What would happen if a shy introvert lived like a gregarious extrovert for one year? If she knowingly and willingly put herself in perilous social situations that she'd normally avoid at all costs? Writer Jessica Pan intends to find out. With the help of various extrovert mentors, Jessica sets up a series of personal challenges (talk to strangers, perform stand-up comedy, host a dinner party, travel alone, make friends on the road, and much, much worse) to explore whether living like an extrovert can teach her lessons that might improve the quality of her life. Chronicling the author's hilarious and painful year of misadventures, this book explores what happens when one introvert fights her natural tendencies, takes the plunge, and tries (and sometimes fails) to be a little bit braver.

From award-winning actor and comedian Paul Scheer, a candid and hilarious memoir-in-essays on coming to terms with childhood trauma and finding the joy in embracing your authentic self.

Paul Scheer has entertained countless fans and podcast listeners with stories about the odd, wild, and absurd details of his life. Yet these tales have pointed to deeper, more difficult truths that the actor and comedian has kept to himself. Now, he is finally ready to share those truths for the first time--but, of course, with a healthy dose of humor.

Blending the confident, affable voice that has won him a dedicated following with a refreshing level of candor, Joyful Recollections of Trauma chronicles Paul's often shocking, admittedly tumultuous childhood and how the experiences of his youth have reverberated throughout his life. In his comedy, Paul has always been unafraid to "go there," to play naïve, cringeworthy characters, imbuing them with disarming charm and humanity. That daring openness is on display in the pages of this memoir, but in true Paul fashion, it is also surprising, eye-opening, and side-splitting.

In this madcap journey through the inner working of his mind and creative process, Paul Scheer demonstrates once again that the truth is often stranger--and funnier--than fiction. Joyful Recollections of Trauma offers a unique perspective on universal themes: growing up, working through a challenging childhood, staying true to yourself, and finding success, fulfillment, and happiness in often strange and difficult circumstances. Throughout, Paul shares both the hard-fought lessons and the laughter that can be found in the darkest parts of life, and reminds us that what matters is not what you've been through but who you are becoming.

This uproarious collection includes three books in one: Garfield Hangs Out, Garfield Takes Up Space, and Garfield Says a Mouthful.

The tubby trickster is at it again, and the joke's always on Jon!

Over the years, Garfield's pulled some great stunts on his hapless--and helpless--owner: gluing the phone to Jon's ear; greasing the bottom of his shoes; and giving Jon a Mohawk while he slept (hey, you snooze, you lose!).

But it's all in fun. Deep down, Garfield knows he needs Jon. Who else is going to pay the pizza delivery guy?

Kick back, relax, and join the fat cat for an extra-large laughfest of hilarious high jinks!

The GARFIELD FAT CAT 3-PACK series collects the GARFIELD comic-strip compilation books in a new, full-color format. Garfield may have gone through a few changes, but one thing has stayed the same: his enormous appetite for food and fun. So enjoy some supersized laughs with the insatiable cat, because too much fun is never enough!

The New York Times Bestseller!
Named one of Vulture's "10 Best Comedy Books of 2022"

From New York Times bestselling author, and Family Guy writer Gary Janetti comes Start Without Me, a collection of hilarious, laugh out loud, true life stories about the small moments that add up to a big life.

Gary Janetti is bothered. By a lot of things. And thank God he's here to tell us.

In Start Without Me, Gary returns with his acid tongue firmly in cheek to the moments and times that defined him. He takes us by the hand as we follow him through the summers he spends in his twenties, pursuing both the perfect tan and the perfect man to no avail and much regret. At his Catholic high school, he strikes up an unlikely friendship with a nun who shares Gary's love of soap operas, which becomes a salvation to them both. And don't get him started on how a bad hotel room can ruin even the best vacation. This laugh-out-loud collection of true-life stories from the man "behind his generation's greatest comedy" (The New York Times) is for anyone who has felt the joy in holding a decade-long grudge.

Whether you are a new convert to Janetti or one of the million who follow him on social media for a daily laugh, Start Without Me will have you howling at Gary's frustrations and nodding along in agreement at the outrages of life's small slights. It's the literary equivalent of a night out with your funniest friend that you wish would never end.

Archie Bongiovanni, the comics artist behind the award-winning hit A Quick and Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns, explores queerness in the shockingly frank and funny graphic novel Mimosa.

Best friends and chosen family Chris, Elise, Jo, and Alex work hard to keep themselves afloat. Their regular brunches hold them together even as the rest of their lives threaten to fall apart. In an effort to avoid being the oldest gays at the party, the crew decides to put on a new queer event called Grind--specifically for homos in their dirty 30s.

Grind is a welcome distraction from their real problems: after a messy divorce, Chris adjusts to being a single parent while struggling to reconnect to their queer community. Elise is caught between feelings for her boss and the career of her dreams. Jo tries to navigate the murky boundaries of being a supportive friend and taking care of her own needs. And Alex is guarding a secret that might change his friendships forever. While navigating exes at work, physical and mental exhaustion, and drinking way, way too much on weekdays, this chosen family proves that being messy doesn't always go away with age.

Science is so f*cking rad. We don't deserve it.

What actually is quantum physics? If you can answer that questions without bullsh*tting the person standing next to you in the bookstore, you can stop reading right now. But although most of us don't actually understand quantum physics, we know that it's mystical and awesome, and if we understood it we'd probably be rich and beautiful and happy, right? After all, there are plenty of people out there trying to sell you quantum crystals to align your quantum energy with your quantum destiny. Can they all be wrong?

Spoiler: yes. Yes, they can. There is no such thing as quantum crystals. Sorry!

Luckily, as pseudo-science takes over the internet and it's getting harder and harder to separate alternative facts from real science, Chris Ferrie (an actual quantum physicist!) is here to explain quantum physics in a way that makes sense, so you can see the hucksters and bullsh*tters coming from a mile away--and school them in what quantum entanglement actually is (it has nothing to do with your romantic life). If you f*cking love science and want to be slightly less dumb than you were when you woke up this morning, Quantum Bullsh*t is the truly out-of-this-world book for you.

Free yourself and your family from the f*cking clutter before you croak!

Inspired by The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, Nobody Wants Your Sh*t will light a fire under your untidy ass with humor and helpful organizing tips that you'll actually want to use.

Like a delightfully foul-mouthed best friend, this book dishes out the funny, unpretentious advice you need to hear most. You'll discover how to deal with your sh*t like there's no tomorrow, live in the moment without the f*cking mess, and make your life and your eventual death a hell of a lot easier. With this witty guide, you'll learn how to:

• ditch the d*mn indecision
• get your sh*t together and feel fantastic
• give your busy family a f*cking break
• and more!

Whether you're getting ready to move in, move on, or just move your ass, Nobody Wants Your Sh*t will help you take control of your f*cking life.

From the author of Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay, a hilariously candid and refreshingly honest account of Stefanie Wilder-Taylor's journey to breaking up with alcohol for good.

When Stefanie Wilder-Taylor became a mother, being able to connect with other moms over drinks or enjoy a glass of wine at the end of a stressful day felt life-affirming. From liquor cabinet concoctions in high school to tequila shots in her early stand-up comedy days to grocery store wine in young motherhood, alcohol was the seasoning that could give almost any activity more flavor. A drink instantly took the edge off and made even the most difficult adversary (be it a tough crowd in a comedy club or a judgmental PTA mom) not just bearable but fun.

As the years go by, Stefanie wonders if her relationship with alcohol is different from other people's. Is everyone else struggling this hard to moderate? Is it even legal to watch The Bachelor without a glass of white wine?

Having spent a lifetime grappling with the question of whether or not she is a "real" alcoholic, one evening brings Stefanie close to the edge of losing it all. Miraculously unscathed, she decides that she doesn't need to dive all the way down to a stereotypical rock bottom before deciding to stop drinking; if sobriety will improve her life, that's a good enough reason to quit. Stefanie's memoir is a tender and funny farewell letter to a beloved but toxic friend.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - From the former United States Poet Laureate and New York Times bestselling author of Aimless Love, a collection of more than 135 small poems, eleven of them new to this edition, and each a thought or observation compressed to its emotional essence

"Whenever I pick up a new book of poems, I flip through the pages looking for small ones. Just as I might have trust in an abstract painter more if I knew he or she could draw a credible chicken, I have faith in poets who can go short."--Billy Collins

You can spot a Billy Collins poem immediately. The amiable voice, the light touch, the sudden turn at the end. He "puts the 'fun' back in profundity," says poet Alice Fulton. In his own words, his poems tend to "begin in Kansas and end in Oz."

Now "America's favorite poet" (The Wall Street Journal) has found a new form for his unique poetic style: the small poem. Here Collins writes about his trademark themes of nature, animals, poetry, mortality, absurdity, and love--all in a handful of lines. Neither haiku nor limerick, the small poem pushes to an extreme poetry's famed power to condense emotional and conceptual meaning. Inspired by the small poetry of writers as diverse as William Carlos Williams, W.S. Merwin, Kay Ryan, and Charles Simic, and written with Collins's recognizable wit and wisdom, the poems of Musical Tables show one of our greatest poets channeling his unique voice into a new phase of his exceptional career.

3:00 AM

Only my hand
is asleep,
but it's a start.

From New York Times bestselling author Shel Silverstein, the creator of the classics Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, and Every Thing On It, comes a wondrous book of poems and drawings.

This special edition contains 12 never-before-published poems. Filled with unforgettable characters like Screamin' Millie; Allison Beals and her twenty-five eels; Danny O'Dare, the dancin' bear; the Human Balloon; and Headphone Harold, this collection by the celebrated Shel Silverstein will charm young readers and make them want to trip on their shoelaces and fall up too!

So come, wander through the Nose Garden, ride the Little Hoarse, eat in the Strange Restaurant, and let the magic of Shel Silverstein open your eyes and tickle your mind.

And don't miss Runny Babbit Returns, the new book from Shel Silverstein!

A novel for your cat, written in its native language. The word "meow" repeated over 80,000 times, to rapturous effect.

Publisher's description:

"Meow meow meow meow meow, meow. Meow meow meow meow. Meow? Meow."

So begins Sam Austen's searing debut novel: an expansive, stream-of-consciousness fusillade decipherable only by cats, which may very well be a raucous, cogent satire laying waste to the literary establishment and the concept of language itself.

Or it may not.

Here, the experts weigh in:

"Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow. Meow meow meow meow meow meow, meow meow, meow. Meow meow."

- Professor Beans, Unaltered Domestic Shorthair

"Meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow! Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow. Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow."

- Constable Stubbs, Breed Indeterminate

"Meow meow, meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow. Meow, meow meow meow meow. Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow meow meow meow."

-Cuddle Princess, Devon Rex (very affectionate!)

"Meow meow meow meow meow. Meow meow. Meow meow meow meow meow meow."

- Fyodor Dostoevsky

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - "Witty, dry, and gimlet-eyed, this is a necessary corrective in a world where Autistic women are all either written off as quiet and docile, or erased entirely." --Devon Price, Ph.D., author of Unmasking Autism

Scottish comedian Fern Brady was told she couldn't be autistic because she'd had loads of boyfriends and is good at eye contact. In this frank and surreal memoir, she delivers a sharp and often hilarious portrait of neurodivergence and living unmasked.

Finalist for the Porchlight Business Book Award - A Harper's Bazaar Best Book of the Year

After reading about autism in her teens, Fern Brady knew instinctively that she had it--autism explained her sensory issues, her meltdowns, her inability to pick up on social cues--and she told her doctor as much. But it took until she was thirty-four for her to get diagnosed.

Strong Female Character is about the years in between, and the unique combination of sexism and ableism that so often prevents autistic women from getting diagnosed until adulthood. Coming from a working-class Scottish Catholic family, Fern wasn't exactly poised to receive an open-minded acceptance of her neurodivergence. With the piercing clarity and wit that has put her at the top of the British comedy scene, she now reflects on the ways her undiagnosed autism influenced her youth, from the tree that functioned as her childhood best friend to the psychiatric facility where she ended up when neither her parents nor school knew what to do with her.

In a memoir as hilarious as it is heartbreaking, Fern leaves no stone unturned while detailing her futile attempts at employment, her increasingly destructive coping mechanisms, and the meltdowns that left her mind (and apartment) in ruins. Her chaotic, nonlinear journey--from stripping to getting arrested to finding a lifeline in comedy to her breakout appearance on the Taskmaster TV show as her full, unmasked self--is both a remarkable coming-of-age tale and a dark but poignant tribute to life at the intersection of womanhood and neurodiversity.

Strong Female Character is a story of how being female can get in the way of being autistic and how being autistic gets in the way of being the 'right kind' of woman.

Newly minted doctor Jane McGill is in hell.Not literally, of course. But between her drug addict patients, sleepless nights on call, and battling wits with the sadistic yet charming Sexy Surgeon, Jane can't imagine an afterlife much worse than her first month of medical internship at County Hospital. And then there's the devil herself: Jane's senior resident Dr. Alyssa Morgan. When Alyssa becomes absolutely hell-bent on making her new interns pay tenfold for the deadly sin of incompetence, Jane starts to worry that she may not make it through the year with her soul or her sanity still intact.

From New York Times bestselling author and legendary Jeopardy! host and champion Ken Jennings comes a hilarious travel guide to the afterlife, exploring to die for destinations from literature, mythology, and pop culture.

Ever wonder which circles of Dante's Inferno have the nicest accommodations? Where's the best place to grab a bite to eat in the ancient Egyptian underworld? How does one dress like a local in the heavenly palace of Hinduism's Lord Vishnu, or avoid the flesh-eating river serpents in the Klingon afterlife? What hidden treasures can be found off the beaten path in Hades, Valhalla, or TV's The Good Place? Find answers to all those questions and more about the world(s) to come in this eternally entertaining book from Ken Jennings.

Written in the style of iconic bestselling travel guides, Jennings wryly outlines journeys through the afterlife, as dreamed up over 5,000 years of human history by our greatest prophets, poets, mystics, artists, and TV showrunners. This comprehensive index of 100 different afterlife destinations was meticulously researched from sources ranging from the Epic of Gilgamesh to modern-day pop songs, video games, and Simpsons episodes. Get ready for whatever post-mortal destiny awaits you, whether it's an astral plane, a Hieronymus Bosch hellscape, or the baseball diamond from Field of Dreams.

Fascinating, funny, and irreverent, this "gung-ho travel guide to Heaven, Hell, and beyond" (The New Yorker) will help you create your very own bucket list--for after you've kicked the bucket.