Funny Women Top the Book Charts

Funny women are coming into their own. Six of the top 10 books in the humor category of the New York Times best-seller list this October are written by women: Why Not Me? and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling (No. 1 and No. 7 spots respectively), Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson (No. 2), Self-Helf by Miranda Sings (No. 4), Yes Please by Amy Poehler (No. 5), and Bossypants by Tina Fey (No. 8). Also note that, for the first time since it was established in 1996, the 2015 Thurber Prize for American Humor, went to a female author: Julie Schumacher for her novel Dear Committee Members. Now it's not that there haven't been female stars in the comic ranks before; Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett were icons long before the current crop of funny women. But more than a 50% female share of humor best-sellers is amazing. The next big step will be a woman host for one of the late-night talk shows! Of course, female humorists still face hurdles if former Disney CEO Michael Eisner could opine publicly to comedic actress Goldie Hawn at the Aspen Ideas Festival this July that "unbelievably beautiful women...are not funny." Eisner reflects a lingering gender gap; while both men and women tell pollsters that a "sense of humor" is a top attractiveness factor, it turns out that women mean they are attracted to men who make them laugh, but men mean they are attracted to women who laugh at their jokes. Hopefully, women are breaking through the laughter barrier in American culture at last. Why will that be a good thing? In a New York Times "Women in the World" article celebrating Schumacher's Thurber Prize win, author Brigit Katz explained "when funny people present us with their personal history and we acknowledge it--with laughter, with nominations, or with awards--those experiences become validated as stories worth telling." So consider yourselves a bit more validated, ladies, and check out the NYT humor best sellers: http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2015-10-11/humor/list.html

Put Biographies on Your Summer Reading List

I'm a fan of fiction, but I also love biographies and memoirs--from weighty tomes like Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson to slim books heavy with inspiration like I Am Malala by the youngest Nobel Peace Prize-winner Malala Yousafzai, from souffles like Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert to the hard-to-swallow agonies of Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, from the laughter of Bossypants by Tina Fey to the lyrical grief of The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. I'm certainly not alone in appreciation of biographical literature. Biographies, autobiographies, memoirs and biographical fiction (which embellishes historical fact with imagined elements) are very popular in the book marketplace. Ever wondered why? When publisher Alfred A. Knopf checked with its 70,000-odd followers on Twitter to ask why biographies are popular, the answers fell into four categories: To better understand a certain era (history); to better understand a favorite artist (or hero); to learn something about life from someone who’s lived it; and to be inspired. In other posts, biography readers explain that they hope to mine the lives of others for lessons that will promote self-discovery and inspire personal courage, hope and change. Some say they seek a sort of mentoring at a remove, via others' path to achievement and forewarning of pitfalls. And still other readers say they hope to promote mental and spiritual growth by exposure to different perspectives, experiences, times and cultures. A well-written biography can certainly aid readers with those goals. So put a few biographies on your summer reading list. For the "top 100 biographies and memoirs to read in a lifetime," courtesy of Amazon, go to http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=11021806011