Books to Make You Laugh discussed on October 29th

He's back: the curse of customer service departments everywhere--Ted L. Nancy, letter writer extraordinaire whose imbecilic queries have a way of eliciting equally idiotic answers from some of the world?s biggest companies and dignitaries.

From the bestselling author of Letters from a Nut comes the latest collection of seemingly serious but crazed correspondence. All New Letters from a Nut includes more than 200 letters, from bizarre to outright loony requests and compliments written by Mr. Nancy to Icelandic malls, German theme parks, shoe museums, foreign presidents, commode companies, waffle cone businesses, and the Hotel Del Fino in Greece along with their equally sincere but hilarious responses.

With his previous books, Ted L. Nancy distinguished himself as America's favorite postal humorist. This latest compilation highlights his comic status through letters to an upscale Amsterdam hotel requesting a room for his 300 hamsters and him to put on his play HAMSTERDAM; to Vons Supermarkets complaining that their Diet Black Cherry soda is sending him paranormal messages; to Armour Meats seeking a 59-foot piece of bologna and a note to the City of Glendale, California, asking for help in starting his new comedy club, THE JOKESTRAP; and many more?.

Throughout Ted L. Nancy demonstrates his genius for convincing people his absurd queries are dead serious, demonstrated by the responses he receives. All New Letters From a Nut is unabashedly silly, unapologetically sophomoric, and 100% funny.

Judith Viorst, beloved author of ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE NO GOOD VERY BAD DAY started her books about aging with IT'S HARD TO BE HIP OVER 30 AND OTHER TRAGEDIES OF MARRIED LIFE.

It's hard to believe she's already writing about being eighty! What does it mean to be eighty? In her wise and playful poems, Judith Viorst discusses marriage, friendship, grand parenthood, and all the particular marvels and otherwise of this extraordinary decade. She describes the wonder of seeing the world with new eyes not because of revelation but because of a successful cataract operation. She promises not to gently fade away, and not to drive after daylight's faded away either. She explains how she's gotten to be a "three-desserts" grandmother ("Just don't tell your mom!"), shares how memory failure can keep you married, and enumerates her hopes for the afterlife (which she doesn't believe in, but if it does exist, her sister-in-law better not be there with her).

As Viorst gleefully attests, eighty is not too old to dream, to flirt, to drink, and to dance. It's also not too late to give up being cheap or to take up with a younger man of seventy-eight. Zesty, hopeful, and full of the pleasures of living, Viorst's poems speak to her legions of readers, who recognize themselves in her knowing observations, in her touching reflections, and in her joyful affirmations. Funny, moving, inspirational, and true - the newest in Judith Viorst's beloved "decades" series extols the virtues, victories, frustrations, and joys of life.