Humor & Comedy - Exodus Books

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You know a book's funny if you're reading it alone and laughing hysterically. Of course, the really great comic masterpieces are also deep reflections on humanity and life and death (like Huckleberry Finn or All Creatures Great and Small or Calvin & Hobbes). Frequently, though, you just need to guffaw, and the literary quality of the piece isn't quite as important as the laugh-factor.

Not that you want to read swill. Cheap laughs might be funny on the surface, but the jokes that actually say something are generally funnier than the ones that simply point and snicker. It's easy to think we're superior because we get the joke, but in reality a lot of modern comedy is no more than the absence of reverence. Real comedy is simply an incongruous presentation of a familiar idea that amuses with its absurdity while offering a new view.

Before you dismiss the need for humor on religious grounds (suggesting that Jesus is the Man of Sorrows, and so must we be in order to be like Him), remember that the "laughter is good medicine" image comes from the Bible (Proverbs 17:22), and that as the Creator of everything God invented laughter. He invented jokes. As the perfect man, Jesus probably told the best jokes ever.

We have a few of them—a rich person will enter heaven as easily as a camel getting through the eye of a needle, or the one about the Pharisee and the plebe who go into the temple at the same time to pray. Jesus clearly saw the absurdity of life (in both of the cases mentioned, the absurdity of human pride), and used it to direct people to the Author of Meaning.

Basically, laughter is really good and you should try it sometime. If you're a little rusty and need a boost, read a funny book: maybe the heartwarming but hysterical adventures of the Gilbreth clan in Cheaper by the Dozen, or the pure zaniness of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, or the heartwarming zaniness of Jeeves and Wooster. Whatever you do, smile more, frown less, and for goodness' sake take laughter seriously.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.

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	Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Sterling Classics by Mark Twain, illustrated by Scott McKowen from Sterling Publishing Co. for 6th-10th grade in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV) $14.95
	Adventures of Tom Sawyer Illustrated Junior Library Series 4 by Mark Twain, illustrated by Donald McKay from Grosset & Dunlap Realistic Fiction for 6th-10th grade in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV) $12.00 (1 in stock)
	Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, illustrated by Kamil Lohták from Simon and Schuster Realistic Fiction for 6th-10th grade in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass Windermere Readers #5 by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Milo Winter 1954 edition from Rand McNally for 4th-9th grade in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC) $10.00 (1 in stock)
	Big Bad Ironclad! Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #2 by Nathan Hale from Amulet Books for 4th-8th grade in Comic Books & Graphic Novels (Location: FIC-COMIC) $14.99 $9.00 (1 in stock)
	Blades of Freedom Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #10 by Nathan Hale from Amulet Books for 4th-8th grade in Comic Books & Graphic Novels (Location: FIC-COMIC) $14.99
	Classic Library: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer & Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain from Smithmark Publishers for 6th-10th grade in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA) $6.00 (1 in stock)
	Colonel Meacham's Giant Cheese by Rosemary S. Nesbitt for 4th-6th grade in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN) $4.50 (1 in stock)
	Donner Dinner Party Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #3 by Nathan Hale from Amulet Books for 4th-8th grade in Comic Books & Graphic Novels (Location: FIC-COMIC) $14.99
	Eddie the Dog Holder by Carolyn Haywood from William Morrow & Company for 4th-6th grade in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Ersatz Elevator Series of Unfortunate Events #6 by Lemony Snicket from HarperCollins Morbid Humor for 4th-8th grade in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN) $6.00 (1 in stock)
	Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath from Scholastic Inc. for 4th-6th grade in Humor & Comedy (Location: FIC-COM) $3.00 (1 in stock)
	Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath from Scholastic Inc. for 4th-6th grade 2002 Newbery Honor Book in Humor & Comedy (Location: FIC-COM) $4.00 (1 in stock)
	Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, illustrated by Kevin King from Simon and Schuster for 4th-10th grade in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $5.00 (1 in stock)
	Gift of the Magi and Other Stories by O. Henry, illustrated by P. J. Lynch from Candlewick Press for 4th-10th grade in Christmas & Advent (Location: HOLIDAY) $17.99
	Gopher, Tanker, and the Admiral by Shirley Climo, illustrated by Eileen McKeating from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. for 3rd-6th grade in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC) $25.00 (1 in stock)
	Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald from Dial Press for 4th-6th grade in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA) $4.50 (2 in stock)
	Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh 50th Anniversary from Delacorte Press Humorous Stories for 3rd-6th grade in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA) $7.00 (1 in stock)
	Here Lies the Librarian by Richard Peck First Edition from Dial Books for Young Readers for 4th-7th grade in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA) $6.50 (1 in stock)
	Holes with Bonus Material Holes Series #1 by Louis Sachar 10th Anniversary Edition from Farrar, Straus and Giroux for 4th-6th grade 1999 Newbery Medal winner in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV) $12.00 (1 in stock)
	Ida B by Katherine Hannigan 1^st edition from Greenwillow Books for 5th-9th grade in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA) $2.00 (1 in stock)
	James Herriot's Treasury for Children by James Herriot, illustrated by Ruth Brown & Peter Barrett Unabridged from Macmillan Realistic Fiction for 3rd-6th grade in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI) $25.99
	Lafayette! Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #8 by Nathan Hale from Amulet Books for 4th-8th grade in Comic Books & Graphic Novels (Location: FIC-COMIC) $14.99
	Love from Paddington from HarperCollins for Preschool-7th grade in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN) $9.99
	Major Impossible Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #9 by Nathan Hale from Amulet Books for 4th-8th grade in Comic Books & Graphic Novels (Location: FIC-COMIC) $14.99
	Miserable Mill Series of Unfortunate Events #4 by Lemony Snicket from HarperCollins Morbid Humor for 4th-8th grade in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN) $6.00 (1 in stock)
	Mr. Lemoncello's All-Star Breakout Game Mr. Lemoncello's Library #4 by Chris Grabenstein from Random House Books for Young Readers for 3rd-7th grade in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN) $8.99
	Once the Hodja by Alice Geer Kelsey, illustrated by Frank Dobias from Hale-Cadmus for 3rd-6th grade in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC) $4.00 (1 in stock)
	Pippi Goes on Board Pippi Longstocking #2 by Astrid Lindgren from Viking Press Humor for 2nd-6th grade in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN) $10.00 (1 in stock)
	Raid of No Return Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #7 by Nathan Hale from Amulet Books for 4th-8th grade in Comic Books & Graphic Novels (Location: FIC-COMIC) $14.99
	Sir Charlie Chaplin, the Funniest Man in the World by Paul Fleishman from Greenwillow Books for 4th-8th grade in Biographies (Location: BIO) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Stand Up, Mr. Dickens A Dickens Anthology by Charles Dickens, edited and abridged by Edward Blishen, illustrated by Jill Bennett from Houghton Mifflin for 4th-8th grade in Adapted or Abridged (Location: SER-ABR) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Tintin 3-in-1 Complete Collection Hardbound set by Herge from Little, Brown & Company Comic Book for 2nd-6th grade in Adventures of Tintin (Location: COM-TIN) $156.73
	Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting from Dover Publications for 3rd-7th grade 1923 Newbery Medal winner in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN) $14.95
	While Mrs. Coverlet Was Away by Mary Nash from Little, Brown & Company for 3rd-6th grade in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman 1^st edition from Greenwillow Books for 3rd-6th grade in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	William Shakespeare's Star Wars Trilogy: The Royal Imperial Boxed Set Includes: Verily, a New Hope; The Empire Striketh Back; The Jedi Doth Return William Shakespeare Star Wars by Ian Doescher from Quirk Books for 4th-10th grade in Boxed Sets & Literature Packages (Location: FIC-BOX) $47.97 $32.00 (1 in stock)
	Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by Robert Ingpen from Sterling Publishing Co. Humorous Animal Fantasy for 4th-8th grade in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN) $24.95
	Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by John Burningham from Viking Kestrel Books Humorous Animal Fantasy for 4th-8th grade in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN) $10.00 (1 in stock)
	Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by James Lynch from The Folio Society Humorous Animal Fantasy for 4th-8th grade in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN) $25.00 (1 in stock)
	Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck 1^st edition from Sun Dial Press for 4th-9th grade 2001 Newbery Award Winner in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA) $8.00 (2 in stock)

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