Tag Archive for: Gift Guide

In the words of Christmas crooner Andy Williams, it’s the holiday season, and whoop-dee-doo. Yes, it’s the time of year in which you spread good cheer by buying lots of presents for those you hold dear. (That didn’t intend to rhyme; I was briefly possessed by the ghost of Andy Williams, who haunts Humorist Books headquarters, previously an Arby’s franchise the singer owned.)

As lovely as it can be to give a gift, shopping for the correct present for each person for whom you’re obligated to buy a gift can be a potentially expensive, nerve-wracking hassle. Well, Humorist Books is in the business of making gifts and matching them to the right people. It’s true — we make humor books, and in the publishing business those are often referred to as “gift books.”

So, from all of us here at Humorist Books, here’s our gift to you — the opportunity to buy things. We’ve got a lot of great titles in our catalog, both recently published and less recently published, and there’s something for everyone here. Bonus: None of these cost more than, like, fifteen bucks. You can’t put a price tag on love, but you kind of have to during the holidays in the midst of a tenuous economy.

 

Santa’s Brother Sandy Saves Christmas, by Mike Reiss

This delightfully illustrated storybook by The Simpsons writer Mike Reiss adds a new character to the holiday mythology — Santa’s ne’er-do-well but ultimately good guy laze-about brother, Sandy.

Perfect for: Young children, parents of young children, Christmas people.

 

 

 

How to Be an Old Person, by Brian Boone

Presented as a lifestyle guide for the newly old, this thoroughly illustrated book details and catalogs all of the curious things with which old people are obsessed, from grapefruits to Wheel of Fortune to endlessly puttering.

Perfect for: Recent retirees, old souls, moms, dads.

 

 

 

 

Welcome to Woodmont College: No Refunds, by Mike Sacks and Jason Roeder

A viciously hilarious, perfectly-pitched send-up of smug, self-awareness-lacking college promotional materials that exposes the shameless commercialism of higher education.

Perfect for: That person who is obsessed with a college sports team and you don’t want to buy them another piece of licensed apparel, people just entering or about to enter college.

 

 

 

Attack of the Rom-Com, by Martti Nelson

In this celebration and satire of romantic comedy, an understandably love-averse woman is forced to reckon with her past and herself and find True Love during a series of nightmarish rom-com scenarios engineered by a carnival psychic gone mad.

Perfect for: Rom-com lovers, romance novel readers, those whose cynical veneer isn’t fooling anyone

 

 

 

Limerature 101: Literary Classics in Five Lines or Less, by Lance Hansen

Hansen has condensed the entirety of literary history into one jam-packed book. He profiles legendary authors (via an original, hand-drawn portrait) and then praises and mocks their most famous contribution to the arts with a summary in the form of a limerick.

Perfect for: Bookish types, artsy types, poets, jokesters.

 

 

 

The Lobster Heist, by Erin McLaughlin

A poignant coming-of-age novel, alternately sweet and nasty, about a young slacker hunting for his biological family all while creating one of his own making out of a friend group. Naturally, this all involves the theft, transport, and behavioral habits of a rare metallic-blue lobster.

Perfect for: Readers of young adult fiction, new adult fiction, people who just want to feel something

 

 

 

What Am I Doing Here? A Simpsons Writer Visits the World’s Hellholes So You Don’t Have To, by Mike Reiss 

When he’s not writing for The Simpsons, Mike Reiss goes on strange vacations at the behest of his wife. They’ve gone to just about every non-tourist trap and moderately inhospitable place on Earth. They even took a trip in that doomed submersible!

Perfect for: Seasoned travelers, those recently struck by wanderlust, comedy nerds.

 

The History of Human Achievement: A Beezle, Buzzle, & Barb Book, by Brandon Hicks

In this third entry in award-winning cartoonist Brandon Hicks’ series of children’s storybooks for adults, three low-level, ineffectual demons disparage everything remarkable about the great things that mankind has achieved.

Perfect for: History buffs, comics and cartoon enthusiasts.