Wainuiomata Book Club
Humour
August 2015
Star Island / Carl Hiaasen
"Twenty-two-year-old pop star Cherry Pye is attempting a comeback from her latest drug and
alcohol disaster. Ann DeLusia is Cherry's 'undercover stunt double', standing in for Cherry
whenever she is too wasted to go out in public. But one night Ann-as-Cherry is mistakeny
kidnapped from a Miami hotel by an obsessed paparazzo named Bang Abbott. This is a
gripping and wickedly satirical tale of celebrity culture. Hiaasen has easy targets in
misbehaving celebrity sightings, tabloid stalkings, and spin control experts, and he makes the
most of them".
A short history of tractors in Ukrainian : a novel / Marina Lewycka.
For years, Nadezhda and Vera, two Ukrainian sisters, raised in England by their refugee
parents, have had as little as possible to do with each other - and they have their reasons. But
now they find they'd better learn how to get along, because since their mother's death their
aging father has been sliding into his second childhood, and an alarming new woman has just
entered his life. Valentina, a bosomy young synthetic blonde from the Ukraine, seems to think
their father is much richer than he is, and she is keen that he leave this world with as little
money to his name as possible. If Nadazhda and Vera don't stop her, no one will. But
separating their addled and annoyingly lecherous dad from his new love will prove to be no
easy feat - Valentina is a ruthless pro and the two sisters swiftly realize that they are mere
amateurs when it comes to ruthlessness.
In times of fading light / Eugen Ruge
In Times of Fading Light begins in 2001 as Alexander Umnitzer, who has just been diagnosed
with terminal cancer, leaves behind his ailing father to fly to Mexico, where his grandparents
lived as exiles in the 1940s. The novel then takes us both forward and back in time, creating a
panoramic view of the family's history: from Alexander's grandparents' return to the GDR to
build the socialist state to his father's decade spent in a Gulag for criticising the Soviet regime
to his son's desire to leave the political struggles of the twentieth century in the past. With
wisdom, humour and great empathy, and drawing on his own family history, Eugen Ruge
majestically traces the stories of both this particular family and the GDR, while exploring the
tragic intertwining of politics, love and family under the East German regime.
The uncommon reader / Alan Bennett
The Uncommon Reader is none other than HM the Queen who drifts accidentally into reading
when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace. She reads widely and
intelligently. Her reading naturally changes her world view and her relationship with people
such as the oleaginous prime minister and his repellent advisers.
The Fry chronicles / Stephen Fry.
Thirteen years ago, "Moab is My Washpot", Stephen Fry's autobiography of his early years,
was published to rave reviews and was a huge bestseller. In those thirteen years since,
Stephen Fry has moved into a completely new stratosphere, both as a public figure, and a
private man. Now he is not just a multi-award-winning comedian and actor, but also an author,
director and presenter. In January 2010, he was awarded the Special Recognition Award at the
National Television Awards. Much loved by the public and his peers, Stephen Fry is one of the
most influential cultural forces in the country. This dazzling memoir promises to be a
courageously frank, honest and poignant read. It will detail some of the most turbulent and
least well known years of his life with writing that will excite you, make you laugh uproariously,
move you, inform you and, above all, surprise you.
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Wainuiomata Book Club
Humour
August 2015
Bedlam / Christopher Brookmyre.
Heaven is a prison. Hell is a playground. Would it be your ultimate fantasy to enter the world of
a video game? A realm where you don't have to go to work or worry about your health; where
you can look like a hero or a goddess; where you can fly space-ships, slay dragons, yet all of it
feels completely real. A realm where there are no consequences and no responsibilities. Or
would it be your worst nightmare? Stuck in an endless state of war and chaos where the pain
and fear feels real and from which not even death can offer an escape. Prison or playground.
Heaven or hell. This is where you find out. This is white-knuckle action, sprawling adventure,
merciless satire and outrageous humour like you've never experienced. This is Bedlam.
Black vodka : ten stories / Deborah Levy
'Kissing you is like new paint and old pain. It is like coffee and car alarms and a dim stairway
and a stain and it's like smoke.' ('Placing a Call') How does love change us? And how do we
change ourselves for love or for lack of it? Ten stories by acclaimed author Deborah Levy
explore these delicate, impossible questions. In Vienna, an icy woman seduces a broken man;
in London gardens, birds sing in computer start-up sounds; in ad-land, a sleek copywriter
becomes a kind of shaman. These are twenty-first century lives dissected with razor-sharp
humour and curiosity, stories about what it means to live and love, together and alone.’
Bluebeards workshop : & other stories / Pierre Furlan
"Bluebeard's workshop is a cycle of seductive and provocative stories about the games people
play and the tales they tell. Why does the old lady across the street dangle desperate
messages from her window? What is the secret to writing a worldwide bestseller? Can a day at
the beach at Paekakariki, the sight of Wellington harbour at dusk, or a new pair of shoes in
Dunedin, change your perspective on life? With quirky humour and extraordinary insights,
Pierre Furlan explores universal human frailty"
Dark diversions : a traveller's tale / John Ralston Saul.
When he’s not encountering dictators in Third World hot spots, Saul’s narrator moves in
privileged circles on both sides ofthe Atlantic, insinuating himself into the lives of well-to-do
aristocrats. Through his exploits we experience a fascinating world of secret lovers, exiled
princesses, death by veganism, and religious heresies. The emotional fireworks of these
inhabitants of the First World are sharply juxtaposed with the political infighting of the dictators
andthe corruption, double-dealing, and fawning that attend them. But as he becomes further
enmeshed in these worlds, the outsider status of the narrator grows more ambiguous: Is he a
documentarian of privileged foibles and fundamental inequity, or an embodiment of the very
“dark diversions” he chronicles?
Dark lies the island : stories / by Kevin Barry
A kiss that just won't happen. A disco at the end of the world. A teenage goth on a terror
mission. And OAP kiddie-snatchers, and scouse real-ale enthusiasts, and occult weirdness in
the backwoods. Dark Lies the Island is a collection of unpredictable stories about love and
cruelty, crimes, desperation, and hope from the man Irvine Welsh has described as the most
arresting and original writer to emerge from these islands in years. Every page is shot through
with the riotous humour, sympathy and blistering language that mark Kevin Barry as a pure
entertainer and a unique teller of tales.
library.huttcity.govt.nz
facebook.com/HuttCityLibraries
Wainuiomata Book Club
Humour
August 2015
More books related to theme:
Fiction:
Death in the Middle Watch : A Carolus Deene Mystery / by Leo Bruce
The descendants : a novel / Kaui Hart Hemmings
Exit lines / Joan Barfoot
The Friday gospels / Jenn Ashworth
Hale & Hardy : tales and recollections from a country practice / Paul Carter
The inimitable Jeeves / P.G. Wodehouse
The last bachelor / Jay McInerney
The man in the wooden hat / Jane Gardam
The widow's guide to sex & dating / Carole Radziwill
The Wilt inheritance / Tom Sharpe
The woman who went to bed for a year / Sue Townsend
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