Simon Rich

A hilarious collection inspired by a former Saturday Night Live writer's real experiences in Hollywood, chronicling the absurdity of fame and the humanity of failure in a world dominated by social media influencers and reality TV stars. Simon Rich is "one of the funniest writers in America" (Daily Beast) -- a humorist who draws comparisons to Douglas Adams (New York Times Book Review), James Thurber, and P.G. Wodehouse (The Guardian). With Hits and Misses, he's back with a hilarious new collection of stories about dreaming big and falling flat, about ordinary people desperate for stardom and the stars who are bored by having it all. Inspired by Rich's real experiences in Hollywood, Hits and Misses chronicles all the absurdity of fame and success alongside the heartbreaking humanity of failure. From a bitter tell-all by the horse Paul Revere rode to greatness to a gushing magazine profile of everyone's favorite World War II dictator, these stories roam across time and space to skewer our obsession with making it big -- from the days of ancient Babylon to the age of TMZ. The baby -- Riding solo: the Oatsy story -- The foosball championship of the whole entire universe -- Birthday party -- The book of Simon -- Relapse -- Hands -- New client -- The great jester -- Physicians' lounge, April 1st -- Menlo Park, 1891 -- Tom Hanks stories -- Adolf Hitler: the GQ profile -- Any person, living or dead -- Upward mobility -- Dinosaur -- Artist's revenge -- Stage 13

Laugh till you cry in this new collection of stories from the award-winning  “Serena Williams of humor writing” ( New York Times Book Review ) about raising babies and trying  not to be one.    Called a “comedic Godsend” by Conan O’Brien and “the Stephen King of comedy writing” by John Mulaney, Simon Rich is back with New Teeth, his funniest and most personal collection yet.   Two murderous pirates find a child stowaway on board and attempt to balance pillaging with co-parenting. A woman raised by wolves prepares for her parents’ annual Thanksgiving visit. An aging mutant superhero is forced to learn humility when the mayor kicks him upstairs to a desk job. And in the hard-boiled caper “The Big Nap,” a weary two-year-old detective struggles to make sense of “a world gone mad.”   Equal parts silly and sincere, New Teeth is an ode to growing up, growing older, and what it means to make a family.

In Center of the Universe , God struggles to balance the demands of his career with the needs of his long-term girlfriend. In Magical Mr. Goat , a young girl's imaginary friend yearns to become "more than friends." In Unprotected , an unused prophylactic recalls his years spent trapped inside a teen boy's wallet. The stories in Simon Rich's new book are bizarre, funny, and yet...relatable. Rich explores love's many complications-losing it, finding it, breaking it, and making it-and turns the ordinary into the absurd. With razor-sharp humor and illustrations, and just in time for Valentine's Day, Rich takes readers for an exhilarating, hilarious ride on the rollercoaster of love.