Humor

Yes, You’re Pregnant, but What About Me?

Kevin Nealon has penned a humorous look at the trials of pregnancy, Yes, You’re Pregnant, But What About Me? His first book is a funny take on his becoming a father at the age of 53, a time of life "when most fathers are packing their kids off to college." Milestones include: his attempt to market the naming rights to his child to major corporations; overcoming the boredom of doctors’ waiting rooms filled with nothing but parenting magazines; and learning that "there are two kinds of guys on this planet: the ones that have gone through pregnancy with their partners, and the guys that haven’t."

Off the Deep End

In Off the Deep End, W. Hodding Carter also offers a funny look on his decision, at the age of 41, to attempt to qualify for the Olympics. We soon learn that his ambition to become the next Mark Spitz has been lifelong, and that he reluctantly put aside his dream of Olympic gold years before to grudgingly begin his life as a working stiff/grown-up. Carter is careful to assure readers that he is not just "some sort of Olympic-wannabe nutjob" and that he was not making a comeback because, after all, he’d never made it in the first place.

How to Really Stink at Golf

Jeff Foxworthy and Brian Hartt have written a funny book about some of the absurdities of playing on the links called How to Really Stink at Golf.  Presented as a "how-to" manual, it offers such a pithy advice as, "Try to get to the golf course right at your tee time.  This way you can avoid the hassle of warming up..you’re only going to hit five good shots in the course of the day, so why waste on the driving range?"

The Downhill Lie

Carl Hiaasen is a Miami Herald columnist who since 1979 has reported on the South Florida development schemes that threaten the area’s natural beauty, and in his novels (since 1986) he has frequently spoofed the greed and corruption that’s threatened the unique ecosystem of the area.

A departure, The Downhill Lie is a personal memoir about Hiaasen’s relationship with golf.  Hiaasen writes that the game is seductive:  giving a player just enough good shots to persuade him not to give up on improving his game.  In fact, Hiaasen writes that he quit playing golf in the early ‘70’s.  But he has recently taken the game up again, and as he recollects his father’s introducing him to the game and sees his young son take it up, considers the role it’s played in his life.

Other Hiaasen novels include Tourist Season (1986), Skin Tight (1989), Native Tongue (1991), Strip Tease (1993), Stormy Weather (1995),  Sick Puppy (2000), Basket Case (2002), Skinny Dip (2004), and Nature Girl (2006).  Strip Tease was made into a movie in 1996 which starred Demi Moore and Burt Reynolds.

Hoot (2002) and Flush (2005) are young adult novels; Hoot won two children’s literature awards and was made into a movie of the same name (2006) starring Jimmy Buffett.