-
Modern Romance
Aziz Ansari
Of course, if you haven’t already read it, this should be your first stop on the Aziz train. In today’s landscape with online dating and apps, you’d think it would be a cinch to find love. But as Aziz says, “the world is available to us, but that may be the problem.” A problem he tries to break down with a mix of anecdotes, humor and hard facts when needed.
-
Fresh Off the Boat (TV Tie-in Edition)
Eddie Huang
Every family with an immigrant story can relate to the challenges of assimilating to the new country without throwing away the old. Add a couple of eccentric parents (dad’s a restauranteur with cockamamy ideas and big dreams; mom’s determined to protect her kids even if it totally embarrasses them) and you’ve got yourself a recipe for hilarity.
-
One More Thing
B. J. Novak
Novak’s surreal book of short stories explores what heaven would be like for celebrities and musicians of different generations all competing for attention at the same time, a relationship with a clingy robot, a Las Vegas-based intervention gone awry and more slightly bizarro scenarios.
-
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
Mindy Kaling
Mindy and Aziz both share an insider-outsider perspective on American idiosyncrasies that offers a lot of insight into the ways we do things, but with the “laughing-with-us-not-at-us” perspective shared by someone going through it all at the same time.
-
Wallflower at the Orgy
Nora Ephron
A collection of some of her best magazine articles from the mid- to late-60s, the Academy Award–nominated screenplay writer and bestselling author throws her witty, sharp and vulnerable point of view at everything from pop culture pillars like Helen Gurley Brown and Mike Nichols to more intimate issues in a woman’s life like beauty standards and sex.
-
I Was Told There'd Be Cake
Sloane Crosley
Sloane Crosley’s mercurial wit is the shining beacon in her observant and relentlessly funny first book of essays about being a young women trying to make it in New York City’s competitive and oftentimes idiosyncratic publishing world.
-
Tiny Beautiful Things
Cheryl Strayed
Before she was a bestselling author, Strayed was the anonymous advice columnist for a literary website under the pen name “Sugar.” Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious but always empathetic, her column forgives us our trespasses while holding us accountable for them at the same time.
With season one of Aziz Ansari’s Master of None nominated for four Primetime Emmy awards (comedy series, lead actor, directing, and writing), but the second season not out until 2017, fans of the Netflix show are champing at the bit for more. So to tide us over, here are 14 books about comedy, romance, and the immigrant experience told in essays, novels and memoirs that we can dig into until Aziz hits us with his funny and wise observations next April.
Featured image: dmitriylo/Shutterstock.com