Laughing All the Way to Work: A Survival Guide for Today's Administrative Assistant is the result of a combination of a sense of humour and thirty years of secretarial experience and living to tell the tale. Laughing is not a secretarial manual, but is a guide. A manual is useful, but a guide you will read. Laughing and Survival are key words in the title because without the one you could never do the other. Laughing is filled with common-sense practical and useful tools for the secretary that are not taught in the classroom but come from experience on the job. It is an easy-to-read book that entertains as well as educates. Laughing is not all about work however. There is a section called The Rest of Your Life to help the busy office worker with after-work hints and tips. Laughing will appeal to both the student just entering the administrative assistant field and the office worker already on the job.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE LEACOCK MEDAL FOR HUMOUR, THE KOBO EMERGING WRITER PRIZE AND TWO SASKATCHEWAN BOOK AWARDS Zarqa Nawaz has always straddled two cultures. She’s just as likely to be agonizing over which sparkly earrings will “pimp out” her hijab as to be flirting with the Walmart meat manager in a futile attempt to secure halal chicken the day before Eid. “Little Mosque on the Prairie” brought Zarqa’s own laugh-out-loud take on her everyday culture clash to viewers around the world. And now, in Laughing All the Way to the Mosque, she tells the sometimes absurd, sometimes challenging, always funny stories of being Zarqa in a western society. From explaining to the plumber why the toilet must be within sitting arm’s reach of the water tap (hint: it involves a watering can and a Muslim obsession with cleanliness “down there”) to urging the electrician to place an eye-height electrical socket for her father-in-law’s epilepsy-inducing light-up picture of the Kaaba, Zarqa paints a hilarious portrait of growing up in a household where, according to her father, the Quran says it’s okay to eat at McDonald’s—but only if you order the McFish.

Regina (Gigi) Spacola spent her entire college career working hard. She only had two rules to live by. Rule #1 was to work hard and get good grades. Rule #2 was don’t make the same mistake her friends made. Don’t date Jeremy Cotton! He was known for breaking every girl’s heart and she was not going to fall victim to his seductive ways. To that very end, Gigi succeeded in glorious fashion on both accounts. Then, they bumped into each other during a college graduation celebration and their lives would never be the same again. Over the course of the summer, Gigi started a new job as a sale woman for QualTel Communications. She spends her days learning about their products and developing the skills required to be a successful salesperson. But a whole new level of fun comes when she starts meeting customers and experiencing a series of mishaps that show you just how Gigi found herself laughing all the way to the bank. While her days are full of dedication and adventure, she spends her nights living a modern-day Cinderella story with one of Boston’s young princes. As the son of the richest lawyer in Boston and founding partner of the largest and most prestigious law firm in Boston, Jeremy introduces his girl to life among Boston’s elite. It may have started as a conquest, but he soon learns that Gigi isn’t just any girl. She is the one. Just when he is ready to live happily ever after, the prince of Boston is put in an impossible position. To keep a promise to his father, he must give up his girl for the first term of law school. Before leaving for Harvard Law, Jeremy must prove to Gigi that he truly loves her and find a way for their relationship to endure the four-month hiatus.

When life is funny, make some jokes about it. Billy Plimpton has a big dream: to become a famous comedian when he grows up. He already knows a lot of jokes, but thinks he has one big problem standing in his way: his stutter. At first, Billy thinks the best way to deal with this is to . . . never say a word. That way, the kids in his new school won’t hear him stammer. But soon he finds out this is NOT the best way to deal with things. (For one thing, it’s very hard to tell a joke without getting a word out.) As Billy makes his way toward the spotlight, a lot of funny things (and some less funny things) happen to him. In the end, the whole school will know -- If you think you can hold Billy Plimpton back, be warned: The joke will soon be on you!