Please Excuse My Daughter

Look out for Julie's new book, The Almost Legendary Morris Sisters. From the author of Friendkeeping and Love at First Bark, one woman's hilarious, bittersweet account of growing up in a family of career-shunning, dependence-seeking women and her journey to a state of twenty-first-century self-reliance. Julie Klam was raised as the only daughter of a Jewish family in the exclusive WASP stronghold of Bedford, New York. Her mother was sharp, glamorous, and funny, but did not think that work was a woman's responsibility. Her father was fully supportive, not just of his wife's staying at home, but also of her extravagant lifestyle. Her mother's offbeat parenting style-taking Julie out of school to go to lunch at Bloomingdale's, for example-made her feel well-cared-for (and well-dressed) but left her unprepared for graduating and entering the real world. She had been brought up to look pretty and wait for a rich man to sweep her off her feet. But what happened if he never showed up? When Julie gets married to a hardworking but not wealthy man-one who expects her to be part of a modern couple and contribute financially to the marriage-she realizes how ambivalent and ill-equipped she is for life. Once she gives birth to a daughter, she knows she must grow up, get to work, and teach her child the self-reliance that she never learned. Delivered in an uproariously funny, sweet, self-effacing, and utterly memorable voice, Please Excuse My Daughter is a bighearted memoir from an irresistible new writer.

Looking for ways to escape or shift blame is a fundamental part of life. Here’s a survival guide full of ready-made excuses, from the student’s classic “My dog ate my homework,” to the motorist’s “Was that sign the speed limit, Officer? I thought it was the town’s population,” to the dieter’s “I wasn’t getting enough to eat on one diet, so I had to go on three.” You’ll welcome these ready-made alibis and cop-outs for business, school, sports, family, romance, and other situations where you might find yourself in hot water.

Only the Faces Change is a humorous, touching story of teachers, both good and bad, of students searching for truth in education and in their personal lives, and of failed bureaucratic attempts to improve the system. Herb Williams encourages students to speak for themselves through discussions and notes (Dear Herbies) from a coffee can; satirizes directives from principals, counselors, attendance supervisors, and parents; solicits contributions from colleagues (From the Campus Inn); incorporates the latest rumors from one who knows them all (The Ear With an Attitude); and integrates satirical columns from his newspaper days (Fiction and Fact from the Almanac). For over fifteen years, Herb Williams wrote a humor column, titled ?Life and Times, ? published in three different newspapers in Norwalk, Cerritos, and Redlands, California. This is his third book in addition to his travel memoir, North to Alaska with a No-Account Cat and his ?how to? booklet, Easy Writing Across the Curriculum or Anywhere Else.

An anguished language expert provides the latest collection of unfortunate typos, tragically misplaced modifiers, and other hilarious language snafus.

A Washington Post best nonfiction book pick of 2021 “It is biography as an expression of love.” – The New York Times New York Times–bestselling author Julie Klam’s funny and moving story of the Morris sisters, distant relations with mysterious pasts. Ever since she was young, Julie Klam has been fascinated by the Morris sisters, cousins of her grandmother. According to family lore, early in the twentieth century the sisters’ parents decided to move the family from Eastern Europe to Los Angeles so their father could become a movie director. On the way, their pregnant mother went into labor in St. Louis, where the baby was born and where their mother died. The father left the children in an orphanage and promised to send for them when he settled in California—a promise he never kept. One of the Morris sisters later became a successful Wall Street trader and advised Franklin Roosevelt. The sisters lived together in New York City, none of them married or had children, and one even had an affair with J. P. Morgan. The stories of these independent women intrigued Klam, but as she delved into them to learn more, she realized that the tales were almost completely untrue. The Almost Legendary Morris Sisters is the revealing account of what Klam discovered about her family—and herself—as she dug into the past. The deeper she went into the lives of the Morris sisters, the slipperier their stories became. And the more questions she had about what actually happened to them, the more her opinion of them evolved. Part memoir and part confessional, and told with the wit and honesty that are hallmarks of Klam’s books, The Almost Legendary Morris Sisters is the fascinating and funny true story of one writer’s journey into her family’s past, the truths she brings to light, and what she learns about herself along the way.

The “impossible to put down” compendium of linguistic bloopers and blunders: a hilarious collection of malapropisms, mixed metaphors and more (San Francisco Chronicle). In Anguished English, Richard Lederer collects some of the worst—and funniest—English language errors ever committed to print. From legendary student screwups to horrible headlines and cringe-worthy advertising copy, Lederer shares a treasure trove of laugh-out-loud flubs and gaffes worthy of a Pullet Surprise. “Hilarious.”—Chicago Tribune “Richard Lederer is the true king of language comedy. Anguished English is the funniest book I have ever read.”—Sidney Sheldon