This has been a
good year for new books on Jewish humor, so in the few days left before
Hanukkah, we thought you'd be interested in some of the best ones, to enjoy for
yourselves or to give as gifts. Here are the titles, authors, brief
descriptions, and links to their Amazon pages.
Was Elvis
Jewish? That’s not all this book will tell you. There’s something for everyone
here, including the religious and the irreverent, the young and the
not-so-young. Most of the information will be unknown to you. It’s been
scattered and often lost in various and hard-to-find newspaper stories,
websites, and books. But now these anecdotes, facts, jokes, lists, and pieces
of history and commentary—both heavy and light—are in one very readable and
riveting volume.
From the
co-creator of the celebrated Big Book of Jewish Humor comes a
laugh-out-loud collection of jokes about growing older that makes fun of memory
loss, marriages, medicine, sex, the afterlife, and much more, making this the
perfect gift for almost anyone who was born before you were.
Growing older
can be unsettling and surprising. (How on earth did this happen? Where did
the years go?) So what better way to deal with this new stage of life than to
laugh about your new reality? Die Laughing includes more than enough
jokes (not to mention cartoons!) to let that laughter burst out.
If
you call it a mechayeh when you take off your Spanx,
Say,
“Darn, I’ve got bubkes” when your checking account is empty,
And
stock the refrigerator with all their favorites when the kids come home ...
...
then you’ll recognize yourself, your bubbe, and the entire mishpuchah in
"The Whole Spiel," a collection of funny essays that takes a
heartfelt look at modern life as a member of the tribe.
Read
about the great shnecken vs. rugelach battle, the newly discovered Jewish
summer holiday of Simchat Squash, and why yesterday’s nebbish is today’s
millionaire tech nerd.
Michael
Krasny has been telling Jewish jokes since his bar mitzvah, and it’s been said
that he knows more of them than anyone on the planet. He certainly states his
case in this wise, enlightening, and hilarious book that not only collects the
best of Jewish humor passed down from generation to generation, but explains
the cultural expressions and anxieties behind the laughs.
COMMENTARY
brings you its collection of over sixty Jewish jokes.
Are you going
to have a Jewish baby, and do you need a name... or just some laughs? Then this
book is for you! New York Times best-selling book creator Bill Adler teams up
with Mad Magazine's killer team of Arnie Kogen and Mort Drucker to deliver not
only over 300 possible names for your little blessing, but also an explanation
of what strange or interesting sort of person you'll get if you give them that
name! Peppered with more than 50 of Drucker's great illustrations, this is
perfect book to use as a gift, or to whomp spiders with.
