Essays & Memoirs Audiobooks | Comedy

Sure, I'll Be Your Black Friend: Notes From the Other Side of the Fist Bump

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a good white person of liberal leanings must be in want of a Black friend. In the biting, hilarious vein of What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life comes Ben Philippe’s candid memoir-in-essays, chronicling a lifetime of being the Black friend (see also: foreign kid, boyfriend, coworker, student, teacher, roommate, enemy) in predominantly white spaces. In an era in which “I have many black friends” is often a medal of Wokeness, Ben hilariously chronicles the experience of being on the receiving end of those fist bumps. He takes us through his immigrant childhood, from wanting nothing more than friends to sit with at lunch, to his awkward teenage years, to college in the age of Obama, and adulthood in the Trump administration—two sides of the same American coin. Ben takes his role as your new black friend seriously, providing original and borrowed wisdom on stereotypes, slurs, the whole “swimming thing,” how much Beyoncé is too much Beyoncé, Black Girl Magic, the rise of the Karens, affirmative action, the Black Lives Matter movement, and other conversations you might want to have with your new BBFF. Oscillating between the impulse to be 'one of the good ones' and the occasional need to excuse himself to the restrooms, stuff his mouth with toilet paper, and scream, Ben navigates his own Blackness as an 'Oreo' with too many opinions for his father’s liking, an encyclopedic knowledge of CW teen dramas, and a mouth he can't always control. From cheating his way out of swim tests to discovering stray family members in unlikely places, he finds the punchline in the serious while acknowledging the blunt truths of existing as a Black man in today’s world. Extremely timely, Sure, I’ll Be Your Black Friend is a conversational take on topics both light and heavy, universal and deeply personal, which reveals incisive truths about the need for connection in all of us. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Ben Philippe (Author), James Fouhey (Narrator)

Audiobook

[French] - Marcher sur un Lego et autres raisons d’aimer la vie

Pourquoi j’aime tant la vie alors que tout m’irrite? Je l’ignore. Mais je sais que tu es un peu comme moi, ami lecteur, amie lectrice. Ce livre douloureusement autobiographique est pour toi, je sais qu’il te fera du bien. Tu vois, déjà, tu te sens moins seul(e). Et la solitude, c’est irritant. Presque autant qu’être avec des gens.

Stéphane Dompierre (Author), Martin Vachon (Narrator)

Audiobook

Today I F****d Up

A toe curling, laugh out loud collection of worst day disasters. I'd always rolled my eyes when people describe things as 'happening in slow motion'. Surely everything happens in regular time and it's only when you replay it in your head that it seems to slow down?But as the car lurched forward and I found myself sailing through the back of the garage, I finally understood what they meant. When a trip to meet his new girlfriend's grandparents ends in disaster (think a crashed ute, an angry wasp and a cranky farmer with a shotgun), Thomas Mitchell knows one thing for sure: bad days make for great stories. While we might not like to admit it, we can't help but find a sneaky pleasure in other people's misfortune. It's the reason fail compilations rack up millions of views on YouTube or television shows like Funniest Home Videos exist at all. Deep down we're addicted to the downfall of our fellow humans, and if there was ever a point in history when we needed a laugh, it's now. Today I F***D Up is a collection of tall tales but true that are equal parts hilarious and horrifying; a timely reminder that no matter how terrible things get, they could always be worse. So much worse. Praise for Today I F***D Up `I signed my first ever book for a kid who dreamed of writing his own books.. and here he is, turning disasters, catastrophes, abject humiliations and pure mortification into pure gold. Essential reading for anyone who's been there as many times as I have. Read the book and you'll laugh for sure, and you might even cry!' Markus Zusak `You know those days where everything goes wrong? We've all had them and now Thomas Mitchell has written a book about them. It's very funny. You can do what we love to do the most... laugh at other people's expense.' Larry Emdur `If you're in need of a good laugh do yourself a favour and give it a read.' Francesca Hung `Thomas Mitchell has written a book. He says it's hilarious and I concur!' Samantha Armytage `I'm reading this - it's so good. Thomas Mitchell is very funny. And talented. If you want a laugh and a great read - can't recommend it enough.' Sally Obermeder `He's hilarious!' Kylie Gillies `Ever had a bad day? It's nothing compared to the hilarious stories in this book. Filled to the brim with stories about dating, sex, losing your job, capitulating in a job interview and accidentally throwing a house party (we've all been there), Mitchell has compiled the best of the best for your enjoyment.' Pop Sugar `Bad day? This book will help you feel 100 per cent better about your life choices.' TV WEEK

Thomas Mitchell (Author), Coralie Bywater, Simon Kennedy (Narrator)

Audiobook

How to be a Brit: The Classic Bestselling Guide

Brought to you by Penguin. George Mikes's perceptive manual for everyone who longs to attain True Britishness provides a complete guide to the British Way of Life. Having been born in Hungary, he eventually spent more than forty years in the field, and the fruits of his labour include insights on important topics including the weather, how to be rude and how to panic quietly. Loved by readers and authors alike, How to Be a Brit contains Mikes's three major works - How to be an Alien, How to be Inimitable and How to be Decadent. If you're British, you'll love it; if you're a foreigner, you'll appreciate it. - How to plan a town: 'Street names should be painted clearly and distinctly on large boards. Then hide these boards carefully.' - Queuing: 'An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one.' - Sex: 'Continental people have sex lives: the English have hot water bottles.' © George Mikes 1986 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

George Mikes (Author), Richard Goulding (Narrator)

Audiobook

And Other Essays

In this essay collection, Michael Cohen presents the odd idea of the suicide note as a writing project that can be critiqued like any other, describes encounters with illegal border crossers in south Texas, and ponders the sudden popularity of books about atheism. Books are a frequent subject here, and Cohen makes an argument for The Maltese Falcon as the Great American Novel, searches for the perfect, the Platonic, nature handbook, and compares playing golf to reading about it. Reading is, for him, as engrossing a form of experience as any other—say hitchhiking through the Southwest with an old friend, the joys of flying small planes, or the charm of studying ancient Greek while people-watching at the gym, all experiences chronicled here. He looks back at the effect a 1956 collision of two airliners over the Grand Canyon had on him as a kid fond of flying, and how he learned about the joys of good food during a wanderjahr in Europe. Many of these essays begin with a question: whether Americans deserve their reputation for materialism, why we seem to have lost the climate change battle, and whether talking to yourself might really be beneficial. Another frequent topic is how our ideal places cannot avoid being bruised by time. He looks at what happened as the Tucson bars of his college days closed or morphed into very different places. He traces seasonal changes in the desert. He notes what happens to its effect when a giant cross beside I-40 in Texas is joined by equally giant windmills. And he takes a mind’s-eye tour through Paris’s terrace cafés and their literary associations after the 2015 terrorist attack there. Michael's previous collection with IP is A Place to Read

Michael Cohen (Author), Dan Cohen (Narrator)

Audiobook

My Social Distancing and Naked Spa in Japan: Fear, Relationship and A Breakthrough

My Social Distancing I’m not good at being with people by nature. I always like to being alone and stay inside my room. Basically, any contact with others is uncomfortable. Not to mention phone calls, public places are dreadful for me unless they are near empty with few people. I hate to have a person standing right behind me at the checkout counter in a supermarket. Whenever I take a train, I search for a car that has the least passengers. My so-called ‘body bubble’ seems excessively large. I often almost utter a scream when a person bumps into or even slightly brushes me. Needless to say, chattering with others is excruciating. My apartment building has a communal spa for the residents and I use it everyday. The residents are inevitably acquainted with each other and small talk between them is rampant in the spa. I’m often caught up in it and desperately try to find closure of the conversation by sweating all over. To avoid an ordeal, I’m usually careful not to share time together with familiar residents as much as possible. When I see them, I practically run away. My partner calls me a robot because of my behavior. The time of recent social distancing shouldn’t bother a person like me. Social distancing has been already my thing for a long time. At least I had believed so. I had thought it wouldn’t hurt a natural ‘social-distancer’ as myself. But I found I was wrong. One of my favorite Japanese comedians from my childhood died the other day. Until just recently, he had appeared on various TV shows and his funny face had been the norm for TV. The daily TV time in a Japanese living room has changed suddenly, completely. He was a nationally popular comedian who earned the monstrous TV rating. When I was a child, my family gathered in front of TV for his show at 8 p.m. every Saturday and laughed so hard together. Kids at school would talk about the show next Monday and laugh again together...

Hidemi Woods (Author), Hidemi Woods (Narrator)

Audiobook

Captain Bob Visits the Farm

From the author of the Fun Loving Finn, memoir series, which explored Finn's hippie years, comes Finn on the Farm. The series offers stories fun of boyhood adventures of growing up on the family farm in rural Missouri. In Captain Bob Visits the Farm, things get exciting when cousin Caleb visits the farm.

Finn Briscoe (Author), Hearthstone Audio, Michael Mcsweeney (Narrator)

Audiobook

You Can't Lose Them All: Tales of a Degenerate Gambler and His Ridiculous Friends

In this informative and entertaining book, learn from Cousin Sal how not to gamble your life away -- along with many other life lessons -- so you don't have to learn the hard way. Over the last forty years, Cousin Sal has made bets with doctors, lawyers, teachers, agents, bookies, writers, comedians, radio DJs, tv producers, baseball players, front office executives, bandleaders, movie stars, publicists, weed lab owners, hedge fund operators, and even professional wrestlers. From his early days growing up in Brooklyn and Long Island flipping baseball cards to now hosting podcasts and TV shows and managing several offshore accounts we don't talk about, Cousin Sal has truly become the average American sports fan's go to source for gambling tips. So here's how not to do it . . . With hilarious tales of love and loss, winning and (a lot) of losing, crazy family and fatherhood, and a life saga that inspired the Phil Collins' song, 'Against All Odds,' Cousin Sal has now written THE Vegas super-system, MIT-algorithmic, sharp-approved book for how to gamble like a pro -- or at least not how not to go broke and lose your kids to Child Protective Services.

Sal Iacono (Author), Jimmy Kimmel, Sal Iacono (Narrator)

Audiobook

Yards and Stripes: A funny book about work, business and gardening.

Crocodile Dundee with a lawn mower . . . The rest of the exhibition was largely uneventful, as I spent most of the time perched on a stool, racking my brain as to how on earth you put stripes on a lawn. A clumsy Australian is living in New York, when he decides to start a gardening business in the United States. He doesn’t know a weed from a wisteria, but relocates to Greenwich, Connecticut, where he rents an apartment, buys some equipment and promptly chops down the wrong tree. Yards and Stripes is the story of a forty-something Aussie, who stumbles upon the opportunity to launch a successful Australian lawn care and landscaping franchise in the US. He has no experience or interest in gardening, but excited at the prospect of building a nationwide franchise network, he thinks to himself ‘How hard could it be?’ Struggling to deal with banks, suppliers and the odd angry neighbor, we follow his often hilarious and always eventful journey, as he strives against all odds to establish his business. We learn that stinging nettles and shorts are not a good mix, while being introduced to a host of colorful characters, such as Mad Annie Marsh, Nasty Mrs. Phillips and the Trash Monster. If you have ever thought ‘I want to work for myself,’ or you simply enjoy tending to your own garden, you will love this wonderful book. Get your copy now.

Michael Francis (Author), Michael Francis (Narrator)

Audiobook

Survival of the Thickest: Essays

From the stand-up comedian, actress, and host beloved for her cheeky swagger, unique voice, and unapologetic frankness comes a book of comedic essays for fans of Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kaling and We're Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union. If you've watched television or movies in the past year, you've seen Michelle Buteau. With scene-stealing roles in Always Be My Maybe, First Wives Club, Someone Great, Russian Doll, and Tales of the City; a reality TV show and breakthrough stand-up specials, including her headlining show Welcome to Buteaupia on Netflix, and two podcasts (Late Night Whenever and Adulting), Michelle's star is on the rise. You'd be forgiven for thinking the road to success—or adulthood or financial stability or self-acceptance or marriage or motherhood—has been easy; but you'd be wrong. Now, in Survival of the Thickest, Michelle reflects on growing up Caribbean, Catholic, and thick in New Jersey, going to college in Miami (where everyone smells like pineapple), her many friendship and dating disasters, working as a newsroom editor during 9/11, getting started in standup opening for male strippers, marrying into her husband's Dutch family, IVF and surrogacy, motherhood, chosen family, and what it feels like to have a full heart, tight jeans, and stardom finally in her grasp.

Michelle Buteau (Author), Michelle Buteau (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Particulars of Peter: Dance Lessons, DNA Tests, and Other Excuses to Hang Out with My Perfect Do

From one of the Internet's most original voices, a hilarious journey through the odd corners of obsessive dog ownership and the author's own infatuation with her perfect dog Peter. The author met Peter in the spring of 2017. He -- calm, puppy-eyed, with the heart of a poet and the soul of, also, a poet -- came to her first as a foster. He was unable to stay with his previously assigned foster for reasons that are none of your business, but which we will tell you were related to frequent urination. The rescue needed someone free of the sort of responsibilities that would force her to regularly leave the house for either work or socializing, and a writer was the natural choice. Thus began a love story for the ages. The Particulars of Peter is a funny exploration of the joy found in loving a dog so much it makes you feel like you're going to combust, and the author's potentially codependent relationship with her own sweet dog, Peter. Readers will follow Peter and his owner to Woofstock, 'the largest outdoor festival for dogs in North America,' and accompany them to lessons in Canine Freestyle, a sport where dogs perform a routine set to music, creating the illusion that they're dancing with their owners. From learning about Peter's DNA, to seeing if dogs can sense the presence of ghosts, The Particulars of Peter will give readers a smart, entertaining respite from the harsh world of humans into the funny little world of dogs. Readers will accompany this lovable duo through exciting trips, lessons, quiet moments of connection, and probably a failure or two. By fusing memoir and infotainment, The Particulars of Peter promises to refresh the perennially popular dog lit category in a scrumptiously bighearted barnstormer of a book.

Kelly Conaboy (Author), Dara Rosenberg, Kelly Conaboy (Narrator)

Audiobook

Life Is a 4-Letter Word: Laughing and Learning Through 40 Life Lessons

Laugh and Learn with These Life LessonsInsights from a veteran psychologist: Dr. David Levy is a media consultant who has appeared on over 70 television and radio broadcasts, from CNN to National Geographic, to provide psychological perspectives on current events. His previous works have been published internationally, many of them becoming bestsellers. In this book, Levy approaches readers on a more personal level but carries the same expertise that he’s shared with viewers and listeners worldwide. Valuable life lessons: Levy’s book takes a different approach than others in the self-help genre. Rather than being instructional, Levy shares bits of wisdom through telling his own stories. In other words, he offers life lessons without lecturing or preaching. Written in a style that is engaging and humorous, readers will find relatable truths in Levy’s uplifting stories and wise advice. A journey to wisdom: The path to living a smarter lifestyle is not always smooth. Levy encourages readers to embrace all the feelings his book may bring out as they read his stories, from laughing to wincing, and learning along the way. Discover the power of positive thinking as Levy shares a lifetime journey of personal reflections, growth, and wisdom. Dive into Dr. David Levy’s latest book, Life Is a 4-Letter Word, and find… - 40 autobiographical essays, each one containing a relatable and applicable life lesson - A unique source of both humor and inspiration that reassures readers that life is good - A self-help book for men and women from a published professional in psychology If books such as You are a Badass, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F—, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, and Sometimes You Win—Sometimes You Learn have interested you, then Life Is a 4-Letter Word should be your next read!

Dr. David A. Levy (Author), Al Benelli (Narrator)

Audiobook

Essays & Memoirs Audiobooks in Comedy