Guest post by Josh Hanagarne, the brilliant creator of World’s Strongest Librarian. You can follow Josh on Twitter.

Chip Kidd is best known for designing book jackets. Google his name, check out his portfolio, and you’ll understand why.

Fortunately, knowing nothing about art and less about graphic design, I am more drawn to Chip’s writing. But it’s not for everyone. Don’t believe me?

The dust jacket of The Cheese Monkeys features several blurbs about the book—and they’re all negative. How do you not love a guy that features the comments of his most shrill critics on the book itself?

The Story, Which Is Less Important Than The Mood

The Cheese Monkeys revolves around a graphic arts class at a small college. The main protagonist is named Happy, but he is not that happy.

His bizarre female counterpoint, Himillsy Dodd, is wonderfully unstable and carts around a weird little doll named Baby Laveen. Baby Laveen is always impeccably dressed and eerily lifelike.

The real meat of the story involves their interactions (wars) with their graphic design teacher, Winter Sorbeck.

On their first day of class, they walk into the classroom and take their seats. Winter bellows at them to “Get out! Do it with style this time!”

If that doesn’t sell you on the book, you ain’t alive, my friend. Winter has reasons for everything he does. He subjects a couple of students to the most brutal and hysterical tongue lashings ever committed to paper. It’s making me laugh just thinking about it.

I’m at work pretending to work as I write this, so I better wrap this up before I start laughing any harder.

But I’m Faking This Plot Summary

Very few things are indescribable. The Cheese Monkeys is as close as it gets for me. I’ve summed up the story, sort of, because that’s what we do. Something has to go on those dust jackets, right?

But this book is more about the experience of reading it than about what the words in the book say.

It’s equal parts beautiful, hilarious, horrifying, and bizarre. I don’t know if I’ve ever enjoyed a book more on a paragraph to paragraph level.

And I don’t know if I’ve closed a book and uttered a more sincere, “What in the hell?”

I love it. I love it more than I can say. I love it as much as the people on the dust jacket hate it.

And now I’m starting to laugh again. It’s that great.

If you read The Cheese Monkeys and it suits you, Kidd just released the follow up: The Learners.

It’s just as good, weird, sad, and wonderful. Oh, and it’s got those awesome Yale Milgram experiments where people were tricked into thinking they were delivering electric shocks to people with heart conditions

Please read it and come talk to me about it. Nobody reads this book and I’ve gotten very lonely.

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Josh Hanagarne writes World’s Strongest Librarian, a blog with advice about battling Tourette’s Syndrome, book recommendations, buying pants when you’re 6’8”, old-time strongman training, and more. Please subscribe to Josh’s RSS Updates to stay in touch.

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Post written by Laura Cococcia. You can follow Laura on Twitter.

I think my mother gave me Karen Salmansohn’s Even God is Single, So Stop Giving Me a Hard Time ages ago after a sad breakup. She also was a nun before she married my father, so had to throw in the God part somewhere.

Ever been single? 100% of you just said yes since none of us were married when we were born.
Salmansohn is uniquely hilarious in her assessment of singledom, famous singles and God as a single person. If God is single, and God (if you believe in one) is pretty cool and generous, then all singles must be just as fabulous, right?
Salmansohn says yes. Here are a few favorite lines to hook you:

“Married people are not necessarily better catches simply because they were caught. I mean, have you taken a look at some of the married people out there? Frankenstein was married.”
“Look at our cool single role models. Catwoman. Buddha. All superheroes.”
“Why am I single? It’s a mystery right up there with ‘why don’t other countries have better toilet paper.’”
I won’t rewrite the book for you, but you catch my drift. It’s a short read, so no massive commitment needed.
Whether you’re currently single, married, a raging serial monogamist, have multiple partners or (gasp!) simply want to be single to avoid the hassle, you’ll love this parody. Because we were all there at one time or another. And might be again.
And when you feel like you’re the Last Person on Earth That’s Not Married, just remember that God would go out for a beer with you if we could ever find him or her. God usually has a pretty busy schedule, but as a fellow single, God would make the time for a single girls or guys night out.

Tell me what you think. For starters:

What’s the funniest thing anyone has ever said to you about your relationship status, whether single, married or in between?

Or, if no one has ever said anything funny – tell us about the most embarrassing date you’ve been on and we’ll promise to share too.

You can read more about Karen Salmansohn on her site: http://notsalmon.com/

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Post written by Christa Avampato. You can follow Christa on Twitter.

Last weekend, I went to 92Y to hear Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn discuss their new book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.

The book chronicles their travels through Africa and Asia, interviewing women who are enduring unbelievable circumstances and exhibiting equally unbelievable strength. It is filled with data, facts, and figures that methodically document the travails of women in the developing world. Their stories simultaneously broke my heart and lifted me up. They are issuing a call to action, today, to each of us.

At times, the talk was difficult to listen to. It was hard to imagine what these women are feeling and thinking in their everyday lives. It’s hard to imagine that they can continue to persevere. Any challenges I face are nothing compared to the daily existence that is thrust upon these women. I walked home that night realizing that I am no different from these women, I have the life I have and they have the life they have by pure luck of the draw.

How can I not help them? If I were one of them, wouldn’t I want someone to help me?

After an hour of listening to details about the main topics of the book such as gender-based violence and maternal mortality, it’s logical to feel as if this problem is just too big. It’s too much and I am not enough. Kristof and WuDunn did an excellent job in the last thirty minutes of showcasing that yes, you can do something. We can all do something – and we need to. The women of the world need us. We need to give them a hand up if this world is to have any hope at all for peace and prosperity.

They told stories of remarkable triumph, of women who have literally pulled themselves to safety for miles after being cast out by their families due to some horrible abuse, of aid workers in the field who have risked life and limb to get women out of danger. There are thousands of groups in the world making a difference in the lives of women and we can join them by making contributions of time, money, and effort. One small step at a time, if we all step together, can turn the tide. Kristof and WuDunn showcase this idea beautifully in Half the Sky.

Dan Rather did an excellent job of moderating the discussion. His final question to Kristof and WuDunn was simple and shows his continual grace and ease in the art interviewing. “What didn’t I ask you that I should have?” asked Rather. To my great joy, they both emphasized the value of education I creating a more peaceful world and in creating better circumstances for the world’s women. Give them the opportunity to learn and we will see the benefits come back to us tenfold. Something so simple and so basic that we all take for granted. The opportunity to read, to express ourselves, to be curious and creative.

Yes, the world’s women need medical care and housing and food and water that they are not getting now in too many areas of the world. No one’s denying that. We’ve got to meet their basic needs first and foremost. What’s remarkable about education is that when given in conjunction with basic necessities, it ignites within people the desire and ability to help others and to help themselves. There’s a multiplicative effect of goodness that arises when education is viewed not as a privilege but as a necessity. Kristof and WuDunn reminded me that if we are to save lives, then we must save hearts and souls and minds as well.

Half the Sky is now available for purchase on Amazon, in hardcover and for the Kindle. The last chapter is entitled “What You Can Do: Four Steps to Take in the Next Ten Minutes”.

We’d love to hear how this topic and this book inspire you to take action to help the world’s women.

You can also participate in the Half of Sky Movement at: http://www.halftheskymovement.org/ and join Nicholas Kristof on Facebook and Twitter.

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Christa Avampato works in the field of innovation and product development and is a graduate of of UPenn (BA) and the Darden School at UVA (MBA). Her writing focuses on curating a creative and original life, drawing inspiration from a variety of topics including the arts, books, travel, new technology, and New York City.
In addition to being a the managing editor of TJCC, Christa writes abouts creativity and hope at Christa In New York and about entrepreneurship at Examiner.com. You can also find Christa on Twitter.

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