Traditionally, women share their secrets with their hairdressers. But what about their manicurists, masseurs, chi gong teachers, and tattoo artists? In Damage Control, women wax poetic about the experts and gurus who help them love themselves, sharing stories of everything from friendships born in the make-up chair to the utter dismay of a truly horrible haircut.

Minnie Driver finally meets a Frenchman who understands her hair . . . and tries to teach her not to hate it.

Marian Keyes remembers the blow-dry that pushed her over the edge.

Francesca Lia Block tells the ugly story of the plastic surgeon who promised to make her beautiful.

Rose McGowan explains why it's harder to be depressed when you're glamorous . . . and shows how it takes a village to transform from mere mortal to movie star.

Witty and wise, Damage Control is an intimate, sometimes dark, look at our experiences with the professionals who pluck, prod, and pamper every inch of our bodies--and a reminder why we surrender ourselves to their (hopefully) very capable hands.

There's nothing like singing a favourite hymn to the wrong tune to get everyone up in arms - the congregation will blame the vicar, the vicar will blame the organist, the organist will take it out, as usual, on the choir who claim they never, ever, sing any other tune. By this and other such common occurrences, a low grade war of attrition is constantly maintained in local churches everywhere. It keeps everyone on their toes. And there is no better observer of the volatile relations between the clergy, the choir and the organist than Reg Frary who has seen it all in almost seventy years' first hand experience of sitting in the choir stalls Sunday by Sunday.

Celia Rivenbark is an intrepid explorer and acid commentator on the land south of the Mason-Dixon Line. In this collection of screamingly funny essays, you'll discover:
*How to get your kid into a character breakfast at Disney World (or run the risk of eating chicken out of a bucket with Sneezy)*Secrets of Celebrity Moms (don't hate them because they're beautiful when there are so many other reasons)*ebay addiction and why "It ain't worth having if it ain't on ebay"*Why today's children's clothes make six-year-olds look like Vegas showgirls with an abundance of anger issues*And so much more!
Celia Rivenbark's essays about life in today's South are like caramel popcorn---sweet, salty, and utterly irresistible.

Comprising the classic bestsellers "Getting Even, Without Feathers," and "Side Effects," this definitive collection of comic writings is from a man who needs no Introduction. Really-this book has no Introduction.
"The Insanity Defense" reveals many sides of Woody Allen as he holds forth on the most human of urges ("Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only for food: frequently there must be a beverage"); reflects on death ("I don't believe in an afterlife, although I am bringing a change of underwear"); and notes the effect on history wrought by trick chewing gum, the dribble glass, and other novelties. There is also an inspiring story of the futile race to beat Dr. Heimlich to the punch: "The food went down the wrong pipe, and choking occurred. Grasping the mouse firmly by the tail, I snapped it like a small whip, and the morsel of cheese came loose. If we can transfer the procedure to humans, we may have something. Too early to tell."
All Woody Allen fans will cherish this uproarious treasury-and those who don't enjoy The Insanity Defense are just plain crazy.
"If you don't care if you break into helpless whoops of laughter on buses, trains, or wherever you happen to be reading it."
"-Chicago Tribune," on "Without Feathers"
"Brilliant flights of fancy whose comic detail and inspired silliness are at once dramatic and controlled."
"-The New York Times, " on "Side Effects"

Romping through his private and professional lives, a child psychologist culls funny, outrageous and sometimes sad vignettes in which he:
is spooked by a lump of blue coal is involved in a nun's death orders up a pornographic pizza meets a beady-eyed snowman lends Betsy Ross a helping hand is outwitted by a raccoon treats Santa Claus for a seasonal depression conjures up a killer dog as a pet resolves a child's birthday dilemma is stumped by a locked room murder mystery confronts a Latino Santa Claus in a grocery store survives in the world of competitive bridge tournaments, and still has the energy to write more unique and off-beat stories, blending reality with fantasy, in a light-hearted and amusing style.

Jen Lancaster hates to burst your happy little bubble, but life in the big city isn't all it's cracked up to be. Contrary to what you see on TV and in the movies, most urbanites "aren't" party-hopping in slinky dresses and strappy stilettos. But lucky for us, Lancaster knows how to make the life of the lower crust mercilessly funny and infinitely entertaining. Whether she's reporting rude neighbors to Homeland Security, harboring a crush on her grocery store clerk, or fighting-and losing-the Battle of the Stairmaster- Lancaster explores how silly, strange, and not-so-fabulous real city living can be. And if anyone doesn't like it, they can kiss her big, fat, pink, puffy down parka.

Luann DeGroot is a 16 year old girl who's full of spirited personalityAand agonizing confusion.

Like all teens, she's happy if she can stumble through a day without totally embarrassing herself. She lives with typical parents and an annoying older brother. Luann and her best buds, Bernice and Delta, along with a lively cast of characters from Pitts School, struggle with the euphoric highs and devastating lows that torment the life of a contemporary teen. From small events (a pop quiz) to large (a daring fire rescue), "Luann 3" delivers the kind of poignant, honest, amusing stories that have made "Luann" a reader favorite for 21 years.

"Luann" is featured in 400 newspapers worldwide, and LuannsRoom.com receives 80,000 hits a day. "Luann" consistently ranks in the top five in newspaper surveys and is often number one with female readers. "Luann, the Musical," from Pioneer Drama, has been performed by hundreds of theater groups across the country.

It's been a decade since political cartoonist Tom Toles collected his panels in book form. He's had a busy decade and plenty of time to further sharpen both his wit, commentary, and pen. NOW Who Do We Blame? presents an editorial master at the top of his game, in all of his whimsical, sometimes scathing, and always insightful glory.

Toles, editorial cartoonist for the Washington Post, includes his favorite frames from the past several years. His subjects include the 9/11 Commission, the 2004 presidential election, terrorism, the Middle East conflict, Yasser Arafat, Afghanistan, Iraq, and of course President George W. Bush. The collection title, in fact, comes from a panel showing Bush at his desk, covered with miniatures of the "GOP White House," "GOP Senate," "GOP House," and "GOP Supreme Court." "Now who do we blame?" asks the puzzled Commander in Chief.

Such is the humor, satire, and intelligence of one of the most accomplished and widely read political cartoonists working today. Toles, who draws himself as the artist working in the lower right corner of his panels, takes on every issue and every powerbroker that crosses the national screen.

An opportunity to enjoy world wide humour.

From beer pong to final exams, from instant messaging to hooking up with people whose last names are a complete mystery, "The CollegeHumor Guide to College" is the bible to getting through college with minimum work and maximum fun. The authors, six recent graduates from colleges around the country, fill readers in on how to do their own laundry, how to pick the best (easiest) professors, and how to tell if someone has an STD just by looking at them. From the creators of the smash-hit website, "The CollegeHumor Guide to College" is perfect for anybody who can make it past twelfth grade, and an incredibly mean gift for those who can't.

Darrin Bell's "Candorville" is an insightful comic strip for today's world. Brutally honest but still evenhanded, "Candorville" takes on some of society's toughest issues, giving readers something to think about-as well as smirks, chuckles, and guffaws.

"Another Stereotype Bites the Dust" is a collection of creator Darrin Bell's "Candorville" cartoon strip. In this thought-provoking strip Bell uses a diverse group of friends to paint a real yet humorous portrait of inner-city America. An educated underachiever, Lemont Brown is an aspiring writer. Socially conscious, he wants to work at changing the world and infusing it with wisdom and justice--if only he could pay his rent. Lemont's childhood friend Susan Garcia is a book-smart and street savvy Mexican-American woman who won't let bigotry or any glass ceiling keep her down. And Lemont's friend Clyde (aka "C-Dog") is a streetwise thug and undiscovered rapper who'd rather mooch off his mother than get a job.

"Another Stereotype Bites the Dust" deals with some tough issues--poverty, homelessness, racism, and personal responsibility--with knowing irony and incisive satire. Bell uses edgy dialogue and modern situations to jab everything from political correctness to political spinning, from political hindsight to office politics, making it a hit with the socially aware.

If you live in the Midwest, you have to know how to laugh. Tornados, floods, drought, and miles and miles of flat land: if you don t have a sense of humor, you might want to consider living somewhere else. Humor is as natural to the Midwest as cow pats and corn mazes, seed caps and road kill, Johnny Carson and David Letterman.

This book gathers some of the best stories from the humorists of the big belly of America, past and present. Here are Mark Twain, George Ade, Finley Peter Dunne, Don Marquis, and Ring Lardner; James Thurber, Ruth McKenney, Erma Bombeck, Calvin Trillin, and Garrison Keillor Midwesterners, one and all. There s even a piece from William Dean Howells, not usually known for his knock-me-down humor. You ll also find tales from Ambrose Bierce, Kin Hubbard, Sinclair Lewis, Mike Royko, Donald Kaul, P. J. O Rourke, and Bill Bryson.

Here is a book to curl up with when the cows don t come home, the crick s flooded, and the fox has bedded down in the henhouse. It ll put a smile on your face and make you glad you don t live in New York City, even if you do."

Gary and Glenn McCoy's delightfully absurd comic panel blends superheroes, office humor, huggable animals, and twisted relationships in a bizarre marriage of Gary Larson, the "New Yorker," Conan O'Brien, and "Mad Magazine." Put succinctly, the brothers McCoy present "comics for a bold new world."

Creating a world where greeting cards heal hospital patients, police officers pull over children driving bumper cars, babies use the patch to quell the pacifier habit, and nudists find out what constitutes a streaker in their colony, the St. Louis area natives alternate writing and drawing duties for the daily panel.

The brothers each have been nominated for multiple National Cartoonists Society awards, and Glenn has won in three categories. Gary McCoy's past as a comedian (he won HBO's Stand-Up Stand-Off contest for the St. Louis area in 1995) also shines through in the strip's offbeat humor.

Their impressive freelance client list reads like a who's who in cartooning: Disney, DreamWorks, and Hyperion, to name just a few.

In an imaginary lagoon near the island of Kapupu in the South Pacific lives a group of nutty but sophisticated underwater creaturesAcomplete with neuroses that rival those of humans (also known as "hairless beach apes"). Somehow their wet world is oddly yet hilariously similar to our own.

Sherman, a great white shark, is a typical guy (well, except for that pesky dorsal fin), and Megan is his ruthless but nurturing wife. Rounding out the aquatic crew are Fillmore the turtle, geeky fish Ernest, and macho hermit crab Hawthorne. Salty old Captain Quigley, who lost his leg to Sherman years ago, is determined to exact his revenge.

Sherman and friends effectively reflect human behavior and occasionally must confront humans' encroachment on their unspoiled habitat. Environmental groups have applauded this comic strip with a social conscience for promoting marine conservation.

"Sherman's Lagoon" has been syndicated since 1991, currently by King Features, and has a circulation of more than 200 daily newspapers on five continents.

Spot the Frog is a wild and gentle strip, an oddball of modern comics. The humor springs from misadventure and friendship, where the characters are more likely to lend a hand than give a push. Spot the Frog hops from the page in high spirits, pleasant and good-natured, a refreshing alternative to the daily concerns of a cynical world. The change is like a cool breeze across a pond on a blistering summer day.

Spot the Frog is the first collection of Mark Heath's charming new comic strip. Through its pages readers meet Spot, an amiable little amphibian; grandfatherly Karl, Spot's favorite two-legged mammal; and Buddy, a bespectacled fellow-frog who is Spot's best pal. This trio finds its way in and out of life's challenges and joys, never needing more than each other and their immediate surroundings to generate plenty of laughs and lighter views of the world at large.

Spot the Frog is a tribute to Heath's originality, his beautifully rendered characters, and the artist-writer's ability to successfully swim against the stream.

Author Phil Freedman offers a humorous collection of 'wit and wisdom" from his local newspaper column, "WHATEVER." Freedman published "WHATEVER" in a local paper in Aspen, Colorado, until his editor fired him for anti-semantic (please read the preceding word carefully) reasons. He subsequently published "WHATEVER" for three years on a weekly Web site. "Izzy, Do We Have Any Trojans?" is a compendium of the best of those columns.

Freedman is no James Thurber, but neither is Dave Barry. In fact, his readers have favorably compared Freedman with Barry, but his style is more thought provoking and reflects his academic background.

He uses sarcasm, irony (both steam and dry), wit (and without), cynicism, mysticism, insane-icism, mixed metaphor, oxymorons, regular morons, pun, parody, parable, alliteration, and even misquotes. When the situation invites, he enjoys playing with phonynyms. "Phonynym," as you may have guessed, is a term for made-up words that don't exist. But don't look it up. "Phonynym" is a phonynym. His readers have referred to him as a 'word crafter." Others, as a 'word crap-per."

In this entertaining series, readers of all ages will find interesting and unusual facts about popular topics. How did Steinbeck keep his beer cold? Where did the title Breakfast at Tiffany's come from? From Shakespeare to J.K. Rowling, learn the inside facts you always wanted to know (but were afraid to ask). Great for schoolwork, travel fun, or armchair reading. Illustrated.

Rose is Rose has long garnered attention from fans across the country and around the world. When the National Cartoonists Society named Rose creator Pat Brady Outstanding Cartoonist of 2004 it only confirmed what those readers already knew in their hearts: Brady rolls out one of the best strips in the business.

Red Carpet Rose is Brady's first book since he received the NCS honors. As the seven previous Rose is Rose books have done before, this one continues the tales of the hilarious Gumbo family: Rose, her husband, Jimbo, and their devilish, delightful, and demanding son, Pasquale. Brady deftly captures the innocent and ageless qualities of wonder and awe at the world's boundless experiences, as seen through the lives of his beloved characters.

Whether the Gumbos are sharing a simple family moment in the park, Pasquale is pushing his little-boy limits, or Rose is morphing into her Biker Chic alter ego, this Rose is Rose compilation of daily and Sunday strips delivers all the fun, laughter, and family-loving moments that mark Brady's work. This is cartooning at its best!

'A mellow, gentle read with a lot of words of wisdom' Independent Let Dawn French guide you through the year with her witty and wise seasonal insights. __________ Me You: Not A Diary is a pocket diary without the diary part. Or the pocket. It includes everything you loved about the original but without the calendar pages. To keep a working diary alongside Dawn, we recommend the hardback edition of Me You: A Diary. Me You is a place for me and you to reflect on the patterns and changes of the year. It's full of my thoughts about the seasons, the months and what matters. It's your guide to reflecting on the year you've just had - or the one still to come. Dive in, the paper's lovely . . . _________ 'A witty outlook on life. This will have you laughing about your year' Prima 'It's beautiful, like Dawn, and stuffed full of goodies' Jo Brand

An insightful comic strip filled with edgy dialogue and thoroughly modern situations, "Candorville: Thank God for Culture Clash" by Darrin Bell is made for today's world. It fearlessly covers bigotry, poverty, homelessness, biracialism, personal responsibility, and more while never losing sight of the humor behind these weighty issues. The strip targets the socially conscious by tackling tough issues with irony, satire, and humor.

"Candorville: Thank God for Culture Clash" celebrates diversity by poking a little fun at it.

It's different "over there." Everybody east of Washington, Oregon, and California knows it. But defining the West Coast as "not like the East Coast" leaves way too much of the story untold. No, far better to turn to Adrian Raeside's This Is Your First Rock Garden, Isn't It?, perhaps one of the most informative-and certainly funniest-explanations to ever depict the westernmost portion of our country.

Raeside represents the perfect comic commentator on what makes "Other Coasters" tick. He was born a Kiwi, lived in England, and now resides in British Columbia-close enough for a good view without having to get mixed up in the muddle that passes for the West Coast lifestyle and its many subcultures. Instead, the cartoonist accurately sheds light and humor on residents who put their own unique spin on everything from cars and coffee to extreme sports and the latest out-there technology.

This Is Your First Rock Garden, Isn't it?, Raeside's second Other Coast collection, captures all the quirks and comical traits that give these occasionally odd occupants their confidence, panache, and ability to ignore the rest of the country. Eccentric, fashionable, political, hysterical-This Is Your First Rock Garden, Isn't It? has it all.

Warning: the truth can be shocking, seductive, offensive, outrageous...even disgusting!

Are you perplexed by the mysteries of the universe, confounded by the workings of the human body, prone to pondering the great imponderables? At long last, the answers are here for every inquiring mind that's not afraid to face up to the cold, hard facts of life. The author who brought you That Book . . . of Perfectly Useless Information now addresses the quirky, the eclectic, and the essential conundrums of our age in Why Girls Can't Throw . . . and Other Questions You Always Wanted Answered, including: What's the kindest way to tell a friend he has halitosis?Is it cheaper to send yourself as a package to Australia rather than fly on an airplane?Are there any benefits to smoking?Is it true that Keith Richards used to regularly replace all the blood in his body?

Wherever there is an italic, the hickory descended. It fell about as regularly and after the fashion of the stick beating upon the bass drum during a funeral march. But the beast, although convinced that something serious was impending, did not consider a funeral march appropriate for the occasion. He protested, at first, with vigorous whiskings of his tail and a rapid shifting of his ears.