In these tall tales, McManus and his buddies learn how not to net a fish, why you should never get your hair cut by someone who's mad at you, what to do when a deer wanders into camp but your sleeping bag has frozen shut, and how to avoid bird-dog flatulence.

Traveling the highways and byways of the Pacific Northwest, the delightful backcountry characters of Kerplunk! understand how a life of hunting and fishing -- and its inherent potential for misadventure -- can resonate with larger meaning. McManus's characters know exactly why it costs $500 to make a fly lure that retails for $2 why installing a boat trailer hookup can lead to divorce and, most important, why you should always listen for the sound of your fishing line hitting the water -- because in life as it is in fishing, you don't know you're in the water until you hear the kerplunk!

Shut Up, I'm Talking is a startling account of Levey's journey into the nerve center of Middle Eastern politics at one of the most turbulent times in Israeli history. During his three years in the Israeli government, the Second Intifada continued on in fits and starts, Yasser Arafat died, Hamas came to power, and Ariel Sharon fell into a coma. Levey was repeatedly thrust into highly improbable situations -- from being the sole Israeli delegate (even though he's Canadian) at the U.N. General Assembly, with no idea how his country wanted to vote to nearly inciting an international incident with his high school French translation of an Arab diplomat's anti-Israel remarks to communicating with Israeli intelligence about the suspected perpetrators of suicide bombings to being offered leftover salami from Ariel Sharon's lunch. As Levey got better acquainted with the personalities in the government's inner sanctum, he witnessed firsthand the improvisational and ridiculously casual nature of the country's behind-the-scenes leadership -- and realized that he wasn't the only one faking his way through politics.

I Love You Man . . . but Not Like That is a humorous collection of sentiments about male friendships that convey everything beer-drinking, sports-loving, macho men may want to say but never will. Most men figure, why share brotherly love when all you really want is for your buddy to share his beer? Its tongue-in-cheek, mock-heartfelt sayings are written the way men really talk.

Some man-to-man expressions of friendship:

Intent to make amends, Heaven's powers-that-be allow Mitchell to return to Earth (with help from a bumbling angel named Adrian) to achieve a goal even better than enlightenment. He gets to exact revenge on the five jerks who made his life so miserable!

Ray Zardetto's The Five Jerks You Meet on Earth hilariouslyAbut respectfullyAparodies Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven, It turns the premise of that inspiring best-seller on its headAand it speaks to the avenging loser in all of us!