By Albert Brooks
Recommended By Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director

“A near-future world struggles with the challenges of a dramatically aging population revitalized by the cure for cancer, a scenario that is challenged by an unprecedented natural disaster that drives the government into bankruptcy (From the Publisher).”

By Tim Manley
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager

Favorite fairy tale characters are depicted as living in the 21st century and find themselves braving creeps on dating sites, gluten allergies, and Facebook stalkers.

By Jon Stewart

The host of the award-winning humorous news program offers tongue-in-cheek insight into American democracy with coverage of such topics as the republican qualities of ancient Rome, the antics of our nation's founders, and the ludicrous nature of today's media.

By George Orwell
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager
With Jean Simpson, Readers' Services Librarian

Tuesday, July 14, 2015. 7:30 PM.

A satire on totalitarianism in which farm animals overthrow their human owner and set up their own government.

Became the movie: Animal Farm.

By Josh Bazell
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

In this debut thriller, an intern at a run-down Manhattan hospital who's atoning for his former life as a mob hit man encounters in the course of a single day a patient with a mystery illness, a 21-year-old girl about to have a leg amputated, and a former mob associate.

By Chuck Palahniuk

Invited by a notorious playboy to a Paris hotel, a Manhattan legal associate discovers that she is a test subject for the final development of sex toys for women.

By Roger Rosenblatt
Recommended By Brenda Cherry, Reference Librarian

 “In his second novel, Rosenblatt creates a satire about higher education that would be hilarious if it didn't come quite so close to the truth. The essence of college life taken to the extreme will make readers laugh out loud (Library Journal).”

By Chuck Thompson
Recommended By Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian

“Describes the author’s road trip investigation into the cultural divide of the United States during which he met possum-hunting conservatives and prayer warriors before concluding that both sides might benefit if the South seceded (From the Publisher).”

By Ben Fountain
Recommended By Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian
With Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian

Tuesday, May 14, 2013.  7:30 PM.

A satire set in Texas during America's war in Iraq that explores the gaping national disconnect between the war at home and the war abroad. Follows the surviving members of the heroic Bravo Squad through one exhausting stop in their media-intensive "Victory Tour" at Texas Stadium, football mecca of the Dallas Cowboys, their fans, promoters, and cheerleaders.

By Charles Dickens

Ester Summerson is the ward of Mr. Jarndyce whose case in Chancery Court seems to have no end.

By Tom Wolfe

Sherman McCoy, a young investment banker in Manhattan, finds himself arrested following a freak accident and becomes involved with prosecutors, politicians, the press, and assorted hustlers.

By Kurt Vonnegut

The author questions the condition of modern man in this novel depicting a science fiction writer's struggle to find peace and sanity in the world.

By Voltaire

The story of Candide, a naive youth who is conscripted, shipwrecked, robbed, and tortured by the Inquisition without losing his will to live, is accompanied by four other stories.

By Eric Garcia

Cassandra tackles the L.A. dating scene by chaining men in her basement & giving them lessons on how to treat a lady.

By Joseph Heller
With Sonia Grgas, Health Reference Librarian

Tuesday, September 29, 2015. 1:30 PM.

Depicts the struggles of a U.S. airman attempting to survive the lunacy and depravity of a World War II base.

Became the movie: Catch 22.

By Dave Eggers
Recommended By Amy B., Children's Librarian

“Hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful Internet company, Mae Holland begins to question her luck as life beyond her job grows distant, a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, and her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public (From the Publisher).”

By Joseph Heller

In this sequel (to Catch-22), Milo Minderbinder, Yossarian, the chaplain, and little Sammy Singer come to the end of their lives and the end of the century, all linked, this time, to an uneasy peace and old age. Here they fight not the Germans, but The End.

By Bruce Norris
Recommended By Barry Ernst, Reference Librarian

“Presents a satire that explores race and property in a Chicago neighborhood first in 1959 and revisited in 2009 (From the Publisher).”

By John Kennedy Toole
Recommended By Sharon Long, Assistant Library Director

"A masterwork of comedy.... The novel astonishes with its inventiveness, it lives in the play of its voices. A Confederacy of Dunces is nothing less than a grand comic fugue (New York Times Book Review)."

By Mark Twain

A blow on the head transports a Yankee to 528 A.D. where he proceeds to modernize King Arthur's kingdom by organizing a school system, constructing telephone lines, and inventing the printing press.

Became numerous movies: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1921, 1949, 1989-TV movie), A Connecticut Yankee (1931, 1955-TV movie), A Connecticut Rabbit in King Arthur’s Court (1978- TV movie), Unidentified Flying Oddball (1979), A Kid in King Arthur’s Court (1995), A Kid in Aladdin’s Palace (1998-TV movie) *spin-off*, A Young Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1996), A Knight in Camelot (1998-TV movie), and Black Knight (2001).

By Thomas Pynchon

When Oedipa Maas is named as the executor of her late lover's will, she discovers that his estate is mysteriously connected with an underground organization.

By Chuck Pakahniuk

Abandoned at a Swiss boarding school while her billionaire parents pursue the adoptions of new children during the Christmas season, 11-year-old Madison dies from a drug overdose and arrives in Hell, where she forges Breakfast Club-style friendships with other dead youths and seeks a confrontation with Satan.

By Sarai Walker

Biding her time alone until she can have weight-loss surgery, Plum joins an underground community of empowered women and agrees to a series of challenges, including work with a group that stages anti-misogyny terrorist acts.

By Herman Koch
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

Meeting at an Amsterdam restaurant for dinner, two couples move from small talk to the wrenching shared challenge of their teenage sons' act of violence that has triggered a police investigation and revealed the extent to which each family will go to protect those they love.

By Elaine Hsieh Chou
Recommended By Audrey Honigman, Library Clerk

While finishing her PhD dissertation on the late canonical poet Xiao-Wen Chou, graduate student Ingrid Yang discovers a curious note in the archives and upends her entire life trying to unravel the note’s message, ultimately making an explosive discovery.

By Jonathan Lethem

A multigenerational saga focuses on two extraordinary women including tyrannical Communist Rose, who terrorizes her neighborhood with her absolute beliefs; and her brilliant but willful daughter, Miriam, who flees her mother's suffocating influence to embrace the Age of Aquarius counterculture of Greenwich Village.

By Jon Stewart

Presents a humorous summation of the history of humanity and our achievements in society, government, religion, science, and culture.

By Smauel Butler

The nineteenth-century English philosopher satirizes the hypocraisy of his own society through sketches depicting an imaginary world.

By Chuck Palahniuk

In a confusing world poised on the brink of mayhem, Tyler Durden, a projectionist, waiter, and anarchic genius, comes up with an idea to create clubs in which young men can escape their humdrum existence and prove themselves in barehanded fights.

By James Frey
Recommended By Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian

Written from the perspective of his family, friends, and followers, in the same way the story of Jesus Christ was told in the New Testament, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible is the story of Ben Zion Avrohom, also known as Ben Jones, also known as the Messiah, also known as the Lord God.

By Jess Walter

Follow Matt in his weeklong quest to save his marriage, his sanity and his dreams.

By Christopher Buckley

Florence Farfarletti has a plan for female emancipation in the Middle East, and enlists the help of a diverse group to help her carry out her plan of reaching her audience with TV shows.

By David Abrams

A satirical tale set in the chaotic world of Baghdad's Forward Operating Base Triumph traces the daily experiences of men and women soldiers who avoid combat by remaining at the base and spending their days playing video games, watching television and getting acquainted in empty portable toilets.

By Anthony Bourdain
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager

With the chefs of Los Angeles ruling the town like crime lords, sushi chef Jiro, a chef known for decapitating patrons who dare request a California roll, is sought after by both the "Internationalists" and the "Vertical farm" families.

By Anthony Bourdain

Jiro, born the heir to a Yakuza crime family, never longed to travel the criminal path laid out before him, but instead chose to secretly study the rich culinary history of his homeland, something that would have significant repercussions if discovered by his gangster father.

By Joseph Heller

This deeply moving novel is the story of David – yes, King David – but as you’ve never seen him before, you already know David as the legendary warrior king of Israel, husband of Bathsheba, and father of Solomon; now meet David as he really was: the cocky Jewish kid, the plagiarized poet, and the Jewish father.

By Marie Phillips
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager

"British blogger Phillips's delightful debut finds the Greek gods and goddesses living in a tumbledown house in modern–day London and facing a very serious problem: their powers are waning, and immortality does not seem guaranteed. In between looking for work and keeping house, the ancient family is still up to its oldest pursuit: crossing and double–crossing each other (From Publishers Weekly)."

By Neil Gaiman
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager

The world is going to end next Saturday, but there are a few problems--the Antichrist has been misplaced, the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse ride motorcycles, and the representatives from heaven and hell decide that they like the human race.

By David Rakoff
Recommended By Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director

“Presents a whimsical defense of pessimism that intersperses accounts of the author’s own experiences with wry observations on universal absurdities and injustices (From the Publisher).”

By Lore Segal
Recommended By Audrey Honigman, Library Clerk

“A dark comedy about life in post-September 11 America features characters struggling with a broken medical system in a Manhattan emergency room where an upsurge in sudden-onset Alzheimer’s raises questions about a possible terrorist plot (From the Publisher).”

By Margaret Atwood
Recommended By Jessikah Chautin, Community Engagement Specialist, Meghan F., Children's Services Librarian

A look at the near future presents the story of Offred, a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, once the United States, an oppressive world where women are no longer allowed to read and are valued only as long as they are viable for reproduction.

By Angela S. Choi

Determined to thwart her parents' plans to marry her off into Asian suburbia, Fiona seeks her freedom at any price.

By Douglas Adams
With Jackie Ranaldo, Head of Readers' Services

Monday, August 9, 2010.  7 PM.

Join Douglas Adams’s hapless hero Arthur Dent as he travels the galaxy with his intrepid pal Ford Prefect, gettig into horrible messes and generally wreaking hilarious havoc.

Became the movie: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

By David Duchovny

When cow Elsie Bovary sneaks out of her pasture, she makes a discovery that shakes her very world to its core, forcing her, along with a motley crew of fellow animals, to escape to a better, safer world in search of mutual understanding and acceptance.

By Grady Hendrix
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager, Kaye Spurrell, Readers' Services Librarian

After strange things start happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, three employees volunteer to work an overnight shift to investigate, but what they discover is more horrifying than they could have imagined.

By The Harvard Lampoon

Presents a humorous spoof on the novel The Hunger Games, which follows the efforts of a young girl who is roped into a survival contest in order to save her community in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic world.

By Josh Lieb

12-year-old Oliver Watson has everyone convinced that he is extremely stupid and lazy, but he is actually an evil genius.

By Martin Amis

Richard Tull, a fortyish book reviewer and failed novelist, is driven to distraction by the effortless and unmerited success of fellow Oxonian Gwyn Barry. While Barry's simpleminded novels become overnight best sellers, Tull's dense experimental manuscripts send a succession of literary agents to the hospital with migraine. Tull finally decides it's payback time, and this novel chronicles his slapstick attempts to annihilate his friend.

By Jonas Karlsson
Recommended By Rosemarie Germaine, Senior Library Clerk

An unassuming Swedish video store clerk receives an invoice in the amount of 5.7 kronor to pay for every one of his life experiences.

By Gary Shteyngart
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

When his seemingly perfect life implodes, a self-made millionaire takes a cross country bus trip in search of his college sweetheart and the ideals of his youth.