A Hamster is Missing in Washington, D.C.

Winner of the 2010 Gold Medal in Humor from the Independent Publishers Book Awards, humorist Ed Spivey Jr. has created a memoir of living, working, and raising kids in the nation's capital during the Bush years, a time of conflict, environmental degradation, and economic hardship (and that's just the part about his family). From a daughter's first dance to a lobbyist's first jail sentence and a cicada's first date (after waiting underground for 17 years, one gets anxious), Spivey captures the times with his well-honed talent for finding the funny. Spivey's book celebrates the uniquely American system of democracy that protects our God-given right to, year after year, do the dumbest things, and the author doesn't miss a one. In these troubled times, laughter is the best medicine, and A Hamster Is Missing in Washington, D.C. is just the prescription you need, unless you have an infection, in which case you'll also need an antibiotic.