Frank Buck is a fat f*ck. A slob, a middle-aged loser, he’s living in Chicagoland with his mother and collecting disability checks, drinking Svedka vodka and driving aimlessly through the nighttime city in the one thing in his life that brings him joy and freedom—a 1989 Cadillac Brougham D’Elegance.

Unfortunately he also has a talent.

His great weight, his ballast, makes him a remarkable shot with all manner of weapons. And this eventually draws him into the orbit of a local gangster and psychopath, a Polaroid-toting maniac named Rodger. In short order Frank is trapped in a seemingly endless and cartoonish routine of bloodshed and gore, a criminal Sisyphus pushing a soul-wearying boulder—or perhaps a biblical figure blundering towards an improbable Golgotha.

Joseph G. Peterson has attracted a devoted readership for his unique blend of sad and funny writing—a series of remarkable books centered around lovable losers stuck in absurdly existential situations reminiscent of both Camus and the Coen Brothers. Here he’s created perhaps his most memorable book, a pulpy reverie unlike anything you’ll ever read.

With Jerks, Sara Lippmann rides the proverbial clutch between wanting and having. Ambivalent mothers, aging suburbanites, restless teens, survivalist parents, and disaffected wives—desire is a live wire, however frayed; a reminder that life, for all its sputtering stall outs, is still worth living. The messy characters in these eighteen stories may hack up their bedsheets with group sex, anonymous sex, infidelity, and a literal handsaw, but there's tenderness, too, among the lust and rage. With crisp precision, ample honesty and desperate humor, Lippmann delivers an irresistibly fraught cast of characters at various stages of undress.

Nestor Gomez was sure he had found love with his new girlfriend. The only problem? His girlfriend was still in love with a real dog. No, really—a seventy-pound pitbull mix. And after having been…well, nearly emasculated by a dog that bit him high on the thigh when he was a young boy, Nestor had developed a paralyzing phobia of our four-legged friends. Soon he was faced with a dilemma…could he learn to love the creatures that had aroused in him such terror, or would he lose the love of his life on account of her pet? (To say nothing of all the other little challenges that loom large in life—a hand-me-down-mattress with poky springs, nosy neighbors with belligerent blogs, pesky police, and an evil cat.)

Rescued Me is a lively little memoir from one of Chicago’s greatest live storytellers. It’s a true and touching story about finding the courage to love after you’ve been hurt—literally and figuratively! And it’s a wonderful monument to the growth and change we must find in ourselves if we are to move past our fears and into a bigger and better life.

(A portion of every sale will be donated to local animal charities. Which might give you a little clue as to how the story turns out.)