The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists by Gideon Defoe

This book is patently absurd, unapologetically silly, and utterly brilliant. The adventures of The Pirate Captain and his band of cutthroats sit somewhere between the Spanish Inquisition skits of Monty Python and the best of Blackadder, with a flair for anachronism that gives these books a voice all their own. In this particular adventure the pirates cross paths with Charles Darwin, but his research and the controversy it spawns might be slightly different from what you recall from history class. (And somehow the preposterous predicaments the crew find themselves in make you think more deeply about the actual social issues surrounding Darwin than you ever did during that boring lecture.)

There is nothing like a book that makes you laugh out loud to put things in perspective. Worried that creeping socialism has started to gallop because of the global economic crisis? Then read The Pirates! In an Adventure with Communists.

Self-conscious because you never read Moby Dick and find most classical literature a raging bore? Then read The Pirates! In an Adventure with Ahab.

Still mistrusting of the French? Read the forthcoming The Pirates! In an Adventure with Napoleon to learn all you need to know about the cultural undercurrents behind the constant bickering within the EU.

If you want to regain your sanity, stop watching the news and read these books.