If You Like David Sedaris...

Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America  by Steve Almond (338.4 ALMOND)
Almond embarks on a hilarious, sugar-high tour through America's last remaining independent candy companies. 

Long Time Leaving: Dispatches From Up South by Roy Blount, Jr. (975 BLOUN)
Ever since beloved Southern writer Blount moved to Massachusetts, he's been trying to use his "regional ambivalence...to get Aunt Dixie and Uncle Sam on speaking terms." In this diverse collection of humorous essays and occasional verse, Blount tackles a number of topics, including Emmanuel Kant, the mind-boggling "Bushy Juggernaut" and the correct grammatical usage of y'all (always plural). Concerned largely with his own pleasures and peccadilloes, Blount sings the praises of New Orleans's jazzy Boswell sisters, staying up late and the company of Jack Russell terriers ("like living with a movie star who seems to be able to handle quite a lot of cocaine). Adorned with poetical lists and quirky details, Blount's work is unflaggingly passionate and provocative over a range of subjects, including food, politics and all things Southern.

Cathedrals of Kudzu: a personal landscape of the South by Hal Crowther (814 CRO)
In his foreword Fred Hobson dubs North Carolinian Crowther "a throwback" who resembles the best literary journalists of the early 1900s more than contemporary essayists. Indeed the self-described "born Luddite, anchorite, forest hermit, destroyer of telephones" is an uncommon essayist: a moralist, a widely read generalist, a modern-day Mencken who never hesitates to offend when extolling the virtues or probing the flaws of his favorite subject, the South.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by David Eggers (B EGGERS)
This memoir is the story of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother.

Fierce Pajamas: An Anthology of Humor Writing from The New Yorker edited by Henry Finder and David Remnick (817 FIE)
Remnick, New Yorker editor since 1999, and Finder, the magazine's editorial director, recommend taking this book in small doses; however, New Yorker humor is not for everyone. Do not read this book if you suffer from an irony deficiency. Also, do not read this book if you are allergic to E.B. White, Robert Benchley, S.J. Perelman, Dorothy Parker, Woody Allen, Veronica Geng, Steve Martin, or Jack Handey. Side effects include the urge to do literary research (to track down the targets of spoofs) and the discovery of some very funny writers who may be unknown to you.

A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana by Haven Kimmel (B KIMMEL)
When Haven Kimmel was born in 1965, Mooreland, Indiana, was a sleepy little hamlet of three hundred people. Laced with fine storytelling, sharp wit, dead-on observations, and moments of sheer joy, Haven Kimmel's straight-shooting portrait of her childhood gives us a heroine who is wonderfully sweet and sly as she navigates the quirky adult world that surrounds her. 

Julie and Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen by Julie Powell (641.5 POWEL)
Julie & Julia is the story of Julie Powell's attempt to revitalize her marriage, restore her ambition, and save her soul by cooking all 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I, in a period of 365 days. The result is a masterful medley of Bridget Jones' Diary meets Like Water for Chocolate, mixed with a healthy dose of original wit, warmth, and inspiration that sets this memoir apart from most tales of personal redemption.

Fraud  by David Rakoff (081 RAKOF)
In his first collection of essays, Rakoff single-handedly raises self-depreciation to an art form as he presents an object lesson in not taking life too seriously.

Skipping Towards Gomorrah by Dan Savage (306 SAV)
Probably the most read sex columnist in the United States, Savage is also widely regarded as one of the great humorists of our time. Anyone who reads his nationally syndicated "Savage Love" column weekly well knows his power to burst the bubble of the pompous. Even his title is a pop at Robert Bork's jeremiad, Slouching Towards Gomorrah. Here he takes readers on a tour of the country, focusing on the seven deadly sins and their manifestation in our time.

I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris (793.2 SEDAR)
Sedaris's sidesplitting guide to throwing parties hopes to return readers to the times when the word "entertainment" was "charmingly old-fashioned." While her tongue is firmly in cheek, novice party-planners will actually find some helpful hints along the way as Sedaris offers instructions and real recipes.

Dispatches From the Tenth Circle: The Best of The Onion  ed. by Robert Siegel (081 DISPA)
This compilation of headlines and articles satirizes modern life and newspaper journalism. The Onion's first book, Our Dumb Century, won the 1999 Thurber Prize for American Humor.

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell (973 VOWEL)
This wacky, weirdly enthralling exploration of the first three American presidential assassinations. Vowell takes readers on a pilgrimage of sorts, visiting everything from grave sites and simple plaques (like the one in Buffalo that marks the place where McKinley was shot) to places like the National Museum of Health and Medicine, where fragments of Lincoln's skull are on display. An expert tour guide, Vowell brings into sharp focus not only the figures involved in the assassinations, but the social and political circumstances that led to each – and she does so in the witty, sometimes irreverent manner that her fans have come to expect.