In this classic crack-up of a book, Dave Barry gives his wacky perspective on sex, childbirth, parenting and other forms of slow, cruel torture. In Babies and Other Hazards of Sex, Dave exposes natural childbirth for what it is: a pop phenomenon of the 1960s that, along with paisley bell-bottoms and creative sideburns, deserves a rest. He examines the new federal law requiring prospective fathers to free themselves from their self-made macho prisons—to laugh, cry, love and just generally behave like certified wimps. Dave also reveals, for the first time in print, the secret chant for painless childbirth. Then learn why no secret chant could possibly take a woman’s mind off the fact that she is in such pain that she wants a gigantic comet to crash into the earth and kill her and her husband and the doctor and the nurses and everyone else in the world

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Dave Barry’s best-selling books Include: Dave Barry Does Japan, Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up, and Dave Barry Turns 40. Championed by the New York Times as “the funniest man In America,” Barry’s syndicated column for The Miami Herald now reaches over 250 newspapers across the country. Television has even succumbed to his wit—the popular sitcom “Dave’s World” is based on his life and columns

DAVE Barry was described in The New York Times Book Reviewas “the funniest man in America,” a claim he has been quick to disavow, except for the plaque on the front door. Nevertheless, the reviewer got there late: The Pulitzer Prize Committee had cited him for commentary earlier in 1988, and he got off with an appropriately light sentence (Even earlier, in 1986, he won the Distinguished Writing Award of the American Association of Newspaper Editors, but what do they know?). Apart from these facts—which, as Mr. Barry occasionally Puts it—we are not making up, the relevant details seem to be that he writes for The Miami Heraldand is syndicated in approximately 150 other newspapers, several of which make money despite this. Barry lives with his wife, Beth, and son, Robby, in a Coral Gables, Florida, house surrounded by giant mutant spiders. “Brilliant ... Barry not only changes the face of American history, he practically has to be restrained from taking up hammer and chisel to change the faces on Mount Rushmore as well.”—Associated Press “If you like to have fun with American history, here’s your chance. Dave Barry Slept Here is a zany, delightful twisting of just about everything important in America’s past.”—St. Louis Post Dispatch “A delight from the top of his introduction to the tip of his last outrageous footnote.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune “Impressive ... Genuinely fresh insight ... Dave Barry Slept Here might be the rallying point for reformers determined to restore rigor and bite to the public school curriculum.”—Greensboro News and Record “I wish I would have taken Dave Barry’s history class in high school instead of the one I did. Instead of getting in trouble for writing all over the desk, I would have been excused for an upset stomach from laughing so hard. And I would still be laughing now, years later.”—Grand Rapids Press “All the history you’ll ever need to know.”—Tampa Tribune-Times This Guy Has Also Written Dave Barry Turns 40 Dave Barry’s Greatest Hits Homes and Other Black Holes Bad Habits The Taming of the Screw Stay Fit and Healthy Until You’re Dead Claw Your Way to the Top Dave Barry’s Guide to Marriage and/or Sex Babies and Other Hazards of Sex

Dave Barry is the author of Babies and Other Hazards of Sex, Homes and Other Black Holes, Stay Fit and Healthy Until You’re Dead, Bad Habits, and Dave Barry’s Guide to Marriage and/or Sex. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his syndicated column. He lives in Coral Gables, Florida, with his family

“READ ‘EM AND LAUGH ...” “If there’s one thing you can count on from Dave Barry, it’s extreme humor. Non-stop yuks.”—Dallas News “Dave Barry is the only living writer who makes me laugh out loud, something he accomplished on virtually every page of his latest collection of craziness—from the introduction to the final page.”—The Boston Globe “Have you ever had a vacation where you didn’t lose the car keys or traveler’s checks, get a seat on the plane next to a crying baby or airsick adult or end up divorced without ever going near Nevada? If so, you probably wouldn’t understand what’s so funny about Dave Barry’s Only Travel Guide You’ll Ever Need. The rest of us, however, would.”—Kansas City Star “For good old belly laughs and delightful play with cliches of the language, there’s Dave Barry’s Only Travel Guide You’ll Ever Need.”—The Boston Phoenix Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist at the Miami Herald. His books include Homes and Other Black Holes, Dave Barry’s Greatest Hits, Dave Barry Slept Here, and Dave Barry Turns 40, among others

Dave Barry is a staff writer for the Miami Herald, where he writes about such topics as politics, world affairs, and giant mutant crickets attacking villages in Peru. His weekly humor column appears in more than 120 newspapers, and his writing has appeared in a number of national magazines. In 1986 he won the American Association of Newspaper Editors’ Distinguished Writing Award for commentary. In 1988 he won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary, an event that confirmed the widely held view that western civilization is headed down the toilet. Barry lives with his wife, Beth, and son, Robby, in Coral Gables, Florida, in a house that is slowly getting worse