I read Lolita as a college freshman and laughed out loud as Nabokov made me love the goofy, intelligent, and clearly sociopathic Humbert Humbert. Nabokov’s fun was palpable; it made me want to write. And knee-jerk criticisms of Lolita drove me crazy – how can people take themselves so seriously as to be offended by fictional characters? To me, an author’s ability to inspire genuine empathy for characters with distorted, irreverent, or socially unacceptable perspectives is both genius and riotously fun (something that people too busy looking for a reason to be offended will unfortunately never appreciate). Hope you enjoy this book list for people who don’t take themselves too seriously!
Is it too much to ask that a managed care facility refund a year's advance payment when your grandfather dies before he can move in? Frank Johnson doesn't think so, which is why the thirty-three-year-old moved himself into a nursing home, purely out of spite.
When a stuttering foster kid and a spunky suicidal tween are thrust into Frank’s stale life, it launches a string of absurd decisions, inappropriate behaviors, and unexpected glimpses of tenderness that ultimately turn a New Jersey suburb upside down. A laugh-out-loud celebration of bad choices for good causes, Managed Care is an offbeat story about three misfits on the social fringes of suburbia and their ridiculous campaign to introduce an unfiltered version of intimacy to their vapid, impersonal community.
I loved all of McCaffrey’s The Claire Trilogy books and recommend reading them first, but Finding Jimmy Moran will always occupy a special place in my heart.
McCaffrey is a born storyteller – he pulls you into his world and makes it feel like your own. The book is gritty, hilarious, sometimes gut-wrenching and (while allegedly fiction) it is also one of the most accurate representations of the wild west reckless abandon enjoyed by New York kids growing up in the 1970s and ’80s.
It’s the type of book that makes you want to break out a bottle of good Irish whiskey and read in a single sitting.
"The Claire Trilogy gives us Jimmy Moran, resurrected mob lawyer turned alien godfather of a crew of mystical misfits, including Claire the Mule. Finding Jimmy Moran shows the world the magical origins that make Jimmy tick. Don't miss this." -Ivy Logan, author of Broken (The Breach Chronicles)
Who is Jimmy Moran? It starts with a lucky penny. Then a muse who bestows a mystical gift. Or maybe a curse? Family, friends, and fights abound as Jimmy breaks the law, looks for love in all the wrong places and experiences loss that transforms…
Sowrider is so unfiltered that it makes you wonder if he’s even aware that social boundaries exist.
NWG2 is a bizzaro, acid trip karmic rebirth journey through history and while the plot is a lot of fun, what really stands out to me is the author’s voice. He’s like the funniest guy in a high school locker room – taking bawdy right to the point of cringe, never afraid to cross a forbidden line, never failing to crack you up.
I just hope he never gets into any kind of psychological treatment, because it might ruin a perfectly insane author.
I’ve probably read Apathy and Other Small Victories a dozen times.
The first time was on an international flight, and I was laughing so hard that I was legitimately concerned that the seat next to me was going to call for an air marshal to lock me down. Like a modern-day, more introspective cousin of JP Donleavy’s The Ginger Man, this book will either offend the hell out of you or have you laughing out loud on just about every page. It will always be one of my all-time favorites.
A scathingly funny debut novel about disillusionment, indifference, and one man's desperate fight to assign absolutely no meaning to modern life.
The only thing Shane cares about is leaving. Usually on a Greyhound bus, right before his life falls apart again. Just like he planned. But this time it's complicated: there's a sadistic corporate climber who thinks she's his girlfriend, a rent-subsidized affair with his landlord's wife, and the bizarrely appealing deaf assistant to Shane's cosmically unstable dentist.
When one of the women is murdered, and Shane is the only suspect who doesn't care enough to act like he didn't…
The Other Hotel was my first Jack Stroke book and after the first few pages I was hooked.
The writing is easy, authentic, and unpretentious – reading it quickly made me feel like I was hanging out with an old friend. The plot is twisted, the characters are off-the-hook, and Stroke has the unique capacity to inject a sense of apathetic calm into situations where all hell is breaking loose – making the book a tremendous amount of fun.
I recommend starting with Volume One of the series, which is fantastic. But I’m calling out Volume Two in this particular list because it’s where Jerry, one of my favorite characters ever, really hits his stride.
Not to take anything away from Jack (the first-person protagonist who exhibits a dry, laid-back sense of humor in the face of all kinds of outrageous paranormal absurdities) but for me Jerry is a perfect example of a character that doesn’t take himself, or anything else in the world, seriously at all.
Without a doubt the best dark humor series set in a gas station that I’ve read in years.
Drunk customers. Shoplifting raccoons. Otherworldly visitors. As night shift clerk at the twenty-four-hour gas station at the edge of town, Jack has pretty much seen it all.
That is, until his best friend reveals the body of a local politician hidden in the trunk of a car, setting off a chain of events with apocalyptic potential. Soon, Jack finds himself entangled in a supernatural conspiracy involving monster hunters, sociopaths, doomsday cultists, and... garden gnomes?
Armed with nothing but his wits, sarcasm, and alarming amounts of coffee, can Jack stay alive long enough to see another morning shift? Or will he,…
Guaritori awakens from a coma to find that he's lost twenty years--and his entire world.
Fiancée, family, and friends are all missing, perhaps dead. Technology has failed, and magic has risen, leaving society in ruins. Most survivors are at the mercy of anyone who has strong enough magic. Guaritori has none. He finds a protector, but his troubles are far from over.
The new society in which he finds himself is superficially friendly but surrounded by enemies and full of secrets. Guaritori doesn't know it yet, but the biggest secret is his. If his protector knew who he truly was, she would kill him.
Coming out of a coma after twenty years, Guaritori--Garth to his friends--discovers that the world he knew no longer exists.
Advanced technology has failed. Magic, which he didn't know even existed, has become much more powerful. Supernatural groups battle for supremacy, forcing human beings to seek shelter wherever they can find it. Garth's only hope for survival lies with a varied group including a shape-shifter, an alchemist, a tarot card reader, a blacksmith with a flaming sword, and others. But a prophecy foretells that he will bring about the downfall of their leader, the mysterious Ms. M.
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