The classic Bubba figure is portrayed in Japanese-style verse, addressing the whole spectrum of redneck culture from RVs and Wal-Mart to monster trucks, and hunting.

I write haiku when I'm feelin' blue and when love and pain make me want. Join us on a journey through the pain of betrayal, divorce and after... We love the traditional Japanese haiku format of 17 syllables on 3 lines: 5-7-5. It is very symmetrical, terse and disciplined. However, these are not your great grandfather's haiku. This is Modern American Haiku. We do keep the fundamental format, but that 's all. For one thing, we give them titles, which we believe helps the reader focus on the punch in each haiku. Second, there is word play. Third, there is the extra dimension of the images in which the haiku are embedded or by which they are framed. We believe the reader will be amazed at how well the illustrations deepen the haiku. Ted and Patricia

Parody: The Art That Plays with Art explodes the near-universal belief that parody is a copycat genre or that it consists of a collection of trivial and derivative forms. Parody is revealed as an über-technique, a principal source of innovation and invention in the arts. The technique is defined in terms of three major variations that bang, bind, and blend artistic conventions into contrasting pairings, the results of which are upheavals of existing conventions and the formation of unexpected and sometimes startling and revolutionary new configurations. Parodic art fashions a galaxy of contrasts, and from these stem an illusionistic sense of multiplicity and an array of divergent meanings and interpretive paths. This book, an extreme departure from existing analyses of parody, is nonetheless highly accessible and will be of major interest not only to scholars but to general readers and to professional writers as well. Parody: The Art That Plays with Art is particularly suited for readers interested in modernism, postmodernism, meta-art, criticism, satire, and irony.

Time leans toward inspiration and lends unto the end of time. And as life attempts to negotiate the mundane of the in-between, wishful thinking encapsulates what remains to be seen. Wishful Thinking is both the title of this book and the title of the illustration on the book cover. Another unique facet of this compilation of artwork is that both author and illustrator hail from Gary, Indiana. Wishful Thinking is poetic art that aspires to reach into the hearts and minds of those who desire to traverse the world of abstract conceptualization. Poetry is an art form, and the author wishes to speak to this particular audience using the art forms of prose, verse, poetic inspiration, and then American jingle genre of haiku. He desires to connect with and to implore sincere dalliances with his form of wishful thinking. So let yourself go and enjoy this material.

Suffused with a unique brand of irreverent humor, this account recalls the autobiographical explorations of the most significant alternative communities, ashrams, gurus, shamans, and consciousness-raising seminars of the past 40 years. Serving as a human guinea pig for many of the most popular cutting-edge New Age, human potential, and spiritual experiments, Eliezer Sobel recounts intercontinental adventures in India, Israel, Brazil, and Haiti. From Primal Therapy to the Dalai Lama, this perceptively witty analysis includes brushes with cults, wild experiments with sex and psychedelics, and encounters with visionary gurus and contemporary madmen.

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY PEOPLE AND USA TODAY • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK Nobody blows smoke like Nick Naylor. He’s a spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies–in other words, a flack for cigarette companies, paid to promote their product on talk and news shows. The problem? He’s so good at his job, so effortlessly unethical, that he’s become a target for both anti-tobacco terrorists and for the FBI. In a country where half the people want to outlaw pleasure and the other want to sell you a disease, what will become of Nick Naylor?

Self-Loathing for Beginners is a wickedly funny take on our relentlessly upbeat self-improvement culture. Breaking ranks with the happiness police who have convinced us that self-loathing is just one more thing to hate about ourselves, author Lynn Phillips will show you, the beginning self-loather, how to self-loathe properly. By studying this book’s mini-essays, Q&As, mantras, and tips from self-loathing masters, you will learn the most effective ways to develop your self-loathing potential. Whether you are sabotaging your career, bungling a relationship, or cheating on the latest fad diet, Self-Loathing for Beginners is the essential primer on how best to despise yourself!