Literature > Satire
Bluebeard
by Kurt Vonnegut
Broad humor and bitter irony collide in this fictional autobiography of Rabo Karabekian, who, at age seventy-one, wants to be left alone on his Long Island estate with the secret he has locked inside his potato barn. But then a voluptuous young widow badgers Rabo into telling his life story--and Vonnegut in turn tells us the plain, heart-hammering truth about man's careless fancy to create or destroy what he loves.
Year: 1987
Genre: Satire
Breakfast of Champions
by Kurt Vonnegut
In Breakfast of Champions, one of Kurt Vonnegut's most beloved characters, the aging writer Kilgore Trout, finds to his horror that a Midwest car dealer is taking his fiction as truth. What follows is murderously funny satire, as Vonnegut looks at war, sex, racism, success, politics, and pollution in America and reminds us how to see the truth.
Year: 1973
Genre: Satire
Cat's Cradle
by Kurt Vonnegut
Cat's Cradle is Kurt Vonnegut's satirical commentary on modern man and his madness. An apocalyptic tale of this planet's ultimate fate, it features a midget as the protagonist, a complete, original theology created by a calypso singer, and a vision of the future that is at once blackly fatalistic and hilariously funny. A book that left an indelible mark on an entire generation of readers, Cat's Cradle is one of the twentieth century's most important works--and Vonnegut at his very best.
Year: 1963
Genre: Apocalpyse, Satire
Deadeye Dick
by Kurt Vonnegut
Deadeye Dick is Kurt Vonnegut's funny, chillingly satirical look at the death of innocence. Amid a true Vonnegutian host of horrors--a double murder, a fatal dose of radioactivity, a decapitation, an annihilation of a city by a neutron bomb--Rudy Waltz, aka Deadeye Dick, takes us along on a zany search for absolution and happiness. Here is a tale of crime and punishment that makes us rethink what we believe . . . and who we say we are.
Year: 1982
Genre: Satire
Equal Rites
by Terry Pratchett
A dying wizard tries to pass his staff on to the eighth son of an eighth son. When it is revealed that the he is a girl named Esk, the news of the female wizard sends the citizens of Discworld into a tail-spin.
Year: 1987
Genre: Epic Fantasy, Satire
Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury
Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce. But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn't live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.
Year: 1953
Genre: Satire, Science Fiction
Galapagos
by Kurt Vonnegut
"Galapagos" takes the reader back one million years, to A.D. 1986. A simple vacation cruise suddenly becomes an evolutionary journey. Thanks to an apocalypse, a small group of survivors stranded on the Galapagos Islands are about to become the progenitors of a brave new, and totally different human race. Here, America's master satirist looks at our world and shows us all that is sadly, madly awry -- and all that is worth saving
Year: 1985
Genre: Post Apocalypse, Satire
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
by Kurt Vonnegut
Eliot Rosewater--drunk, volunteer fireman, and President of the fabulously rich Rosewater Foundation--is about to attempt a noble experiment with human nature . . . with a little help from writer Kilgore Trout. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater is Kurt Vonnegut's funniest satire, an etched-in-acid portrayal of the greed, hypocrisy, and follies of the flesh we are all heir to.
Year: 1965
Genre: Satire
Going Postal
by Terry Pratchett
A splendid send-up of government, the postal system, and everything that lies in between in this newest entry in Terry Pratchett's internationally bestselling Discworld series. Convicted con man and forger Moist von Lipwig is given a choice: Face the hangman's noose, or get Ankh Morpork's ancient Post Office up and running efficiently! It was a tough decision . . .
Gun, with Occasional Music
by Jonathan Lethem
Gumshoe Conrad Metcalf has problems--there's a rabbit in his waiting room and a trigger-happy kangaroo on his tail. Near-future Oakland is a brave new world where evolved animals are members of society, the police monitor citizens by their karma levels, and mind-numbing drugs such as Forgettol and Acceptol are all the rage. Mixing elements of sci-fi, noir, and mystery, this clever first novel from the author of Motherless Brooklyn is a wry, funny, and satiric look at all that the future may hold.
Year: 1994
Genre: Hardboiled, Near Future, Satire, Speculative Fiction
Hocus Pocus
by Kurt Vonnegut
Here is the adventure of Eugene Debs Hartke. He's a Vietnam veteran, a jazz pianist, a college professor, and a prognosticator of the apocalypse (and other things Earth-shattering). But that's neither here nor there. Because at Tarkington College--where he teaches--the excrement is about to hit the air-conditioning. And it's all Eugene's fault.
Year: 1990
Genre: Satire
Jailbird
by Kurt Vonnegut
Jailbird takes us into a fractured and comic, pure Vonnegut world of high crimes and misdemeanors in government—and in the heart. This wry tale follows bumbling bureaucrat Walter F. Starbuck from Harvard to the Nixon White House to the penitentiary as Watergate’s least known co-conspirator. But the humor turns dark when Vonnegut shines his spotlight on the cold hearts and calculated greed of the mighty, giving a razor-sharp edge to an unforgettable portrait of power and politics in our times.
Year: 1979
Genre: Satire
Making Money
by Terry Pratchett
Amazingly, former arch-swindler-turned-Postmaster General Moist von Lipwig has somehow managed to get the woefully inefficient Ankh-Morpork Post Office running like . . . well, not like a government office at all. Now the supreme despot Lord Vetinari is asking Moist if he'd like to make some real money. Vetinari wants Moist to resuscitate the venerable Royal Mint--so that perhaps it will no longer cost considerably more than a penny to make a penny.
Monstrous Regiment
by Terry Pratchett
War has come to Discworld . . . again. And, to no one's great surprise, the conflict centers around the small, arrogantly fundamentalist duchy of Borogravia, which has long prided itself on its unrelenting aggressiveness. A year ago, Polly Perks's brother marched off to battle, and Polly is willing to resort to drastic measures to find him. So she cuts off her hair, dons masculine garb, and--aided by a well-placed pair of socks--sets out to join the army.
Mort
by Terry Pratchett
bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett makes Death a central character in Mort, his fourth sojourn to Discworld, the fantasy cosmos where even the angel of darkness needs some assistance. When inept, but well-intentioned Mort gets only one offer for an apprenticeship--with Death--he can't exactly turn it down. But Mort finds that being Death's right-hand man isn't as bad as it seems--until he falls back to his old, bumbling ways.
Year: 1987
Genre: Epic Fantasy, Satire
Raising Steam
by Terry Pratchett
Steam is rising over Discworld. . . . Mister Simnel has produced a great clanging monster of a machine that harnesses the power of all the elements--earth, air, fire, and water--and it's soon drawing astonished crowds. To the consternation of Ankh-Morpork's formidable Patrician, Lord Vetinari, no one is in charge of this new invention. Who better to take the lead than the man he has already appointed master of the Post Office, the Mint and the Royal Bank?
Slapstick
by Kurt Vonnegut
Slapstick presents an apocalyptic vision as seen through the eyes of the current King of Manhattan (and last President of the United States), a wickedly irreverent look at the all-too-possible results of today's follies. But even the end of life-as-we-know-it is transformed by Kurt Vonnegut's pen into hilarious farce--a final slapstick that may be the Almighty's joke on us all.
Year: 1976
Genre: Satire
Slaughterhouse-Five
by Kurt Vonnegut
Billy Pilgrim is the son of an American barber. He serves as a chaplain's assistant in World War II, is captured by the Germans, and he survives the largest massacre in European history the fire bombing of Dresden. After the war Billy makes a great deal of money as an optometrist, and on his wedding night he is kidnapped by a flying saucer from the planet Tralfamadore. So begins a modern classic by a master storyteller.
Year: 1969
Genre: Satire, Science Fiction, World War II
Sourcery
by Terry Pratchett
Rincewind, the legendarily inept wizard, has returned after falling off the edge of the world. And this time, he's brought the Luggage. But that's not all... Once upon a time, there was an eighth son of an eighth son who was, of course, a wizard. As if that wasn't complicated enough, said wizard then had seven sons. And then he had an eighth son -- a wizard squared (that's all the math, really). Who of course, was a source of magic -- a sourcerer.
Squeeze Me
by Carl Hiaasen
From the best-selling author of Skinny Dip and Razor Girl, a hilarious new novel of social and political intrigue, set against the glittering backdrop of Florida's gold coast. It's the height of the Palm Beach charity ball season: for every disease or cause, there's a reason for the local luminaries to eat (minimally), drink (maximally), and be seen. But when a prominent high-society dowager suddenly vanishes during a swank gala, and is later found dead in a concrete grave, panic and chaos erupt.
Year: 2020
Genre: Comic Thriller, Missing Person, Satire, Whats New
Strip Tease
by Carl Hiaasen
Only in America could an innocent, if drunken, guest of honor at a strip club bachelor party become a mortal threat against Big Money and Big Government. Only in South Florida, land of roadside honky-tonks and sinister pleasure boats--not to mention blackmail and murder--would a virtuous topless dancer join forces with a cool but clueless cop. And only in the fiction of Carl Hiaasen do readers experience riveting suspense, razor-sharp characters, and the most wicked humor imaginable.
Year: 1993
Genre: Comic Thriller, Extortion, Satire
The Bonfire of the Vanities
by Tom Wolfe
This bitingly hilarious American satire will forever define late-twentieth-century New York style. Tom Wolfe's bestselling modern classic tells the story of Sherman McCoy, an elite Wall Street bond trader who has it all: wealth, power, prestige, a Park Avenue apartment, a beautiful wife, and an even more beautiful mistress, until one wrong turn sends Sherman spiraling downward in a humiliating fall from grace.
Year: 1987
Genre: 1980s, Legal Thriller, Satire
The Color of Magic
by Terry Pratchett
Imagine, if you will . . . a flat world sitting on the backs of four elephants who hurtle through space balanced on a giant turtle. In truth, the Discworld is not so different from our own. Yet, at the same time, very different . . . but not so much.
Year: 1983
Genre: Epic Fantasy, Satire
The Light Fantastic
by Terry Pratchett
The side-splitting sequel to The Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic by bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett takes readers on another offbeat journey with bumbling wizard Rincewind and hapless tourist Twoflower--both last seen falling off the edge of Discworld.
Year: 1986
Genre: Epic Fantasy, Satire
The Truth
by Terry Pratchett
The denizens of Ankh-Morpork fancy they've seen just about everything. But then comes the Ankh-Morpork Times, struggling scribe William de Worde's upper-crust newsletter turned Discworld's first paper of record. An ethical journalist, de Worde has a proclivity for investigating stories--a nasty habit that soon creates powerful enemies eager to stop his presses. And what better way than to start the Inquirer, a titillating tabloid that conveniently interchanges what's real for what sells.
Timequake
by Kurt Vonnegut
On February 13th, 2001, according to Vonnegut, the universe will tire momentarily of expanding forever. What's the point? Maybe it would be more fun to shrink for a change, and have a reunion of all the stuff back where it began. Then it could make a great big BANG again. It will shrink back to February 17th, 1991, but will then decide that expansion is the way to go, after all.
Year: 1997
Genre: Satire
Unseen Academicals
by Terry Pratchett
The wizards at Ankh-Morpork's Unseen University are renowned for many things--wisdom, magic, and their love of teatime--but athletics is most assuredly not on the list. So when Lord Vetinari, the city's benevolent tyrant, strongly suggests to Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully that the university revive an erstwhile tradition and once again put forth a football team composed of faculty, students, and staff--or lose the funding that pays for their nine daily meals--the wizards of UU find themselves in a quandar
Welcome to the Monkey House
by Kurt Vonnegut
"Welcome To The Monkey House" is a collection of Kurt Vonnueguts shorter works. Originally printed in publications as diverse as "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science fiction" and "The Atlantic Monthly," what these superb stories share is Vonnegut's audacious sense of humor and extraordinary range of creative vision.
Year: 1968
Genre: Satire, Science Fiction