The best medicine for the season

If laughter is the best medicine, you might need a double dose

during the hectic holiday season, when anyone with less than a

stellar sense of humor might fail to appreciate the extraordinary

times in which we live.

Rather than heading for your nearest pharmacy, look to Newport

Beach Public Library shelves for lighthearted looks at contemporary

life.

Some of the most insightful come from Pulitzer Prize-winning

satirist Art Buchwald in his new “We’ll Laugh Again.”

Buchwald begins his collection of essays about the past decade

with recollections of Sept. 11. Continuing with commentary about past

and present presidents, downsizing, dot-coms, HMOs and Viagra, one of

America’s most lauded humorists reminds us that we can have fun with

the headlines, even if they incite headaches and worse.

The title is adapted from a more bleak remark that columnist Mary

McGrory made to Pat Moynihan after President Kennedy was shot.

For more barbed diatribes aimed at the powers that be, look to

popular commentator Michael Moore, who skewers the 2000 election and

everyone involved in it in his best-selling “Stupid White Men ... and

Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation!” Delivered with

irreverent humor, the critique of American society has plenty of

shameless slurs that may satisfy or infuriate depending on which side

of center you’re on.

Less political types may be more intrigued by the inner life of

girls, dates, brides, wives and mothers -- the focus of Gwen Macsa’s

“Lipshtick.” With perceptive observations about everything from

junior high dances to chin hairs, bad boys and sagging breasts, the

National Public Radio commentator offers a hilarious look at the

rites and wrongs of womanhood.

Jewish mom Jennifer Moses has tongue firmly planted in cheek when

she looks at some of life’s most harrowing trials in “Food and

Whine.” In a quirky memoir documenting the year in which her twins

were born, her mother was diagnosed with cancer and her husband

changed careers, the Erma Bombeck for the new generation captures the

comic underbelly of modern family life.

Finally, if you’re looking for the first truly indispensable book

of the new millennium, check out Al Franken’s new “Oh, the Things I

Know!”

In what he describes as “a guide to success, or, failing that,

happiness,” the Emmy Award-winning TV star takes readers on a journey

from first job to senior citizenship. Promising to lighten everyone’s

burden with wisdom about parents, bosses, spouses and children,

Franken serves up a perfect gift for students of life, no matter what

their age or where they are in the growing up process.

* “CHECK IT OUT” is written by the staff of the Newport Beach

Public Library. This week’s column is by Melissa Adams, in

collaboration with June Pilsitz. All titles may be reserved by

accessing the catalog at www.newportbeachlibrary.org.