Chump


Book Description

"Solid satire built on a deliciously farcical plot..." --Kirkus Reviews You can't save the world. Tell that to Beauregard Peebles, the Princeton-educated white medical student who makes it is his obligation to understand his black, drug-dealing, adolescent friend, Tyranius Roosevelt. By providing the Roosevelts his benevolent intervention - whether they ask for it or not - Beau hopes to stop them from doing the things they do to mess up their lives. It gets worse, as Beau spirals downward, donning blackface and dialect, and makes himself a nuisance with his racial antics, a modern-day Diogenes. Beau, for all his blundering, for all his arrogance, for all his obsessiveness and offensiveness, is honest - and funny. "Chump is a satirical look at American society, and it leaves no one unscathed. The poor welfare recipients, the liberals, and even the idealistic Chump and his doctor friends are all speared in this book. " --David D "Reeves forces us to accept that we deny our own thoughts and impulses via our politically correct defense mechanisms and herein lies a festering problem in race and class relations in America..." --AM in Park Slope "As an RN from LA County Hospital, the story was very believable. For many readers this may be tough to stomach, but I found their relationships very realistic..." --Ann Welton




Operation: Dump the Chump


Book Description

Poor Oscar Winkle! Ever since his little brother, Robert (not-so-affectionately known as Slobert), showed up seven and a half years ago, he's been specializing in ruining Oscar's life. So he comes up with Operation: Dump the Chump, a brilliant scheme to get even with the pesky creep.




Chump Change


Book Description

When he finds out his father is in a coma, aspiring writer and part-time drunk Bruno Dante, fresh from the nuthouse, must head to Los Angeles for a fraught family reunion in Dan Fante’s Chump Change. Now back in print to coincide with the publication of his new novel, 86’d, Chump Change follows Bruno through the tension and stress of facing his family—and the inevitable, pain-dulling drinking that lands him naked in a stolen car with an underage hooker whose pimp has stolen his wallet. Chump Change is “an honest misfit’s view of America far too few know.” (John Fowles, author of The French Lieutenant’s Woman).




Leave a Cheater, Gain a Life


Book Description

Leave a Cheater, Gain a Life is a no-nonsense self-help guide for anyone who has ever been cheated on. Here's advice not based on saving your relationship after infidelity -- but saving your sanity. When it comes to cheating, a lot of the attention is focused on cheaters -- their unmet needs or their challenges with monogamy. But Tracy Schorn (aka Chump Lady) lampoons such blameshifting and puts the focus squarely on the-cheated-upon (chumps) and their needs. Combining solid advice that champions self-respect, along with hilarious cartoons satirizing the pomposity of cheaters, Leave a Cheater, Gain a Life offers a fresh voice for chumps who want (and need) a new message about infidelity. This book will offer advice on Stupid sh*t cheaters say and how to respond, Rookie mistakes of the recently chumped and how to disarm your fears, Why chumps take the blame and how to protect yourself, and more. Full of snark, sass, and real wisdom about how to bounce back after the gut blow of betrayal, Schorn is the friend who guides you through this nightmare and gives you hope for a better life ahead.




The Champ & The Chump


Book Description

**WINNER OF BEST SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT BOOK AT THE BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2022** 'Hard-hitting and hilarious' - James Acaster 'Funny, moving and compelling' - Mike Costello A heart-warming, hilarious true story about fighting and family, based on the acclaimed stage show. For fans of books by Dave Gorman, James Acaster and Danny Wallace, along with boxing tales from the likes of Tyson Fury and Ricky Hatton. THE CHAMP Terry Downes - the charismatic cockney known as 'The Paddington Express' - was a world champion boxer, US Marine, gangsters' favourite and later a film star and businessman. THE CHUMP James McNicholas' PE teacher once told him he was so unfit he'd be dead by the time he was 23. James has spent his life pursuing a career in acting and comedy. In reality, that has meant stints as a car park caretaker and river cruise salesperson. After Terry's death, James finds himself in reflective mood, comparing his story of underachievement against that of his world champ grandad. What follows is an increasingly colourful journey through post-war Paddington to the blood-soaked canvases of Baltimore and Shoreditch, via Mayfair parties with the Krays. Along the way, James begins to dig into his own story, confronting the dysfunctional elements of his childhood, describing his often hilarious efforts to make it in the world of showbiz, and attempting to recreate Terry's trials by enlisting in a brutal military boot camp and boxing gym. When James is diagnosed with a frightening and mysterious neurological condition, the two tales of the fighter and the writer suddenly collide, and what began as a nostalgic journey takes on a far more important significance altogether. 'A wonderfully funny and heartfelt story of what family and lineage means. Even made me like boxing' - Josh Widdicombe 'An extraordinary family history, told with warmth and wit. Two remarkable underdog stories - come for the cockney scrapper who conquered the world, stay for the grandson and the fight of his life' - Greg Jenner 'If you like comedy and boxing this is the perfect book. James McNicholas is a very funny man and a brilliant writer' - Rob Beckett




The Chump Lady Survival Guide to Infidelity


Book Description

The Chump Lady Survival Guide to Infidelity is for anyone who has ever been played for a fool, lied to, and left as carrion for the divorce lawyers. Here's a book about infidelity that is not about saving your marriage single-handedly -- it's about saving your sanity. Based on the writings from her popular blog "Chump Lady," Tracy Schorn's guide is the decoder ring you need to translate the manipulations of cheaters. Full of advice, gallows humor, and cartoons deflating the pomposity of cheaters, this is your step-by-step guide to navigate your way out of the infidelity nightmare.




Dire and Puny


Book Description

A paint-peeling parody of "Fire and Fury". Despite an unpresidented lack of access to Chump’s house, investigative journalist Martha Skewermann recounts the unbelievable story behind the ethical and egoless, yet tragically star-crossed, civic leader Mayor Ronnie Chump, one of the greatest unelected public officials since Dinsdale Piranha. Following the butt-clenching events of the 2016 mayoral election,seasoned scribbler Martha Skewermann takes the reader on a thrilling journey through the politics of Washintown. She thus relives the tale of how the inimitable Chump - the world’s kindest and most inclusive politician - had the unexpected misfortune of accidentally torching his new white house while preoccupied with the welfare of others and caring for the underprivileged in his community. No mayor has ever united his people in grief so spectacularly. With a threadbare plot, a brilliantly formatted Contents page and a cast of the only the best people, Martha Skewermann’s Dire and Puny captures the pungent, smocky essence of the Chump administration. It will subject your sphincters to the ultimate stress-test.




The Pale King


Book Description

The "breathtakingly brilliant" novel by the author of Infinite Jest (New York Times) is a deeply compelling and satisfying story, as hilarious and fearless and original as anything Wallace ever wrote. The agents at the IRS Regional Examination Center in Peoria, Illinois, appear ordinary enough to newly arrived trainee David Foster Wallace. But as he immerses himself in a routine so tedious and repetitive that new employees receive boredom-survival training, he learns of the extraordinary variety of personalities drawn to this strange calling. And he has arrived at a moment when forces within the IRS are plotting to eliminate even what little humanity and dignity the work still has. The Pale King remained unfinished at the time of David Foster Wallace's death, but it is a deeply compelling and satisfying novel, hilarious and fearless and as original as anything Wallace ever undertook. It grapples directly with ultimate questions -- questions of life's meaning and of the value of work and society -- through characters imagined with the interior force and generosity that were Wallace's unique gifts. Along the way it suggests a new idea of heroism and commands infinite respect for one of the most daring writers of our time. "The Pale King is by turns funny, shrewd, suspenseful, piercing, smart, terrifying, and rousing." --Laura Miller, Salon




Cassell's Dictionary of Slang


Book Description

With its unparalleled coverage of English slang of all types (from 18th-century cant to contemporary gay slang), and its uncluttered editorial apparatus, Cassell's Dictionary of Slang was warmly received when its first edition appeared in 1998. 'Brilliant.' said Mark Lawson on BBC2's The Late Review; 'This is a terrific piece of work - learned, entertaining, funny, stimulating' said Jonathan Meades in The Evening Standard.But now the world's best single-volume dictionary of English slang is about to get even better. Jonathon Green has spent the last seven years on a vast project: to research in depth the English slang vocabulary and to hunt down and record written instances of the use of as many slang words as possible. This has entailed trawling through more than 4000 books - plus song lyrics, TV and movie scripts, and many newspapers and magazines - for relevant material. The research has thrown up some fascinating results




Amnesia


Book Description

The two-time Booker Prize winner now gives us an exceedingly timely, exhilarating novel—at once dark, suspenseful, and seriously funny—that journeys to the place where the cyber underworld collides with international power politics. When Gaby Baillieux releases the Angel Worm into Australia’s prison computer system, hundreds of asylum-seekers walk free. And because the Americans run the prisons (let’s be honest: as they do in so many parts of her country) the doors of some five thousand jails in the United States also open. Is this a mistake, or a declaration of cyber war? And does it have anything to do with the largely forgotten Battle of Brisbane between American and Australian forces in 1942? Or with the CIA-influenced coup in Australia in 1975? Felix Moore, known to himself as “our sole remaining left-wing journalist,” is determined to write Gaby’s biography in order to find the answers—to save her, his own career, and, perhaps, his country. But how to get Gaby—on the run, scared, confused, and angry—to cooperate? Bringing together the world of hackers and radicals with the “special relationship” between the United States and Australia, and Australia and the CIA, Amnesia is a novel that speaks powerfully about the often hidden past—but most urgently about the more and more hidden present.