DescriptionKurt Wenzel is the acclaimed author of the novel Lit Life . In Gotham Tragic, the New York-based writer skewers celebrity culture with dead-on humor and deft plotting. Wenzel's subject, Kyle Clayton, is an author whose drunken escapades draw as much interest as his novels. But when he attempts to turn over a new leaf, he finds that years of excess are not so easily left behind. His engagement to a Turkish woman and conversion to Islam are threatened by an old flame - and by militant Muslims who declare a fatwa against him.
DescriptionThis powerful and moving novel traces the extraordinary friendship of 2 strikingly different women over the course of 30 years. One is rich and pampered, the other poor and driven to succeed in show business. Experience the drama, excitement, free-spirited joy, and shattering tragedy of these unforgettable characters as they grow from youth into adulthood. A best selling novel that became a hugely successful film, Beaches is a funny, sentimental, and bittersweet tale, told with empathy and realism by one of America's most talented novelists.
DescriptionHis disreputable career encompasses bookmaking and dog-training, fight-management, and insurance broking. Plagued by bad debts, bad luck, and the formidable Aunt Julia, Ukridge remains as resourceful and irrepressible as ever.
DescriptionWritten when he was 25, Love Among the Chickens launched P.G. Wodehouse's career as a novelist and introduced the world to Ukridge, one of his most extraordinary inventions. Robert McCrum's introduction shows how this fascinating early book holds within it so many of the themes which Wodehouse was to make his own. This edition uses Wodehouse's 1920 revised edition of the 1906 original.
DescriptionThe birth of Jesus has been well chronicled, as have his glorious teachings, acts, and divine sacrifice after his 30th birthday. But no one knows about the early life of the Son of God, the missing years - except Biff, the Messiah's best bud, who has been resurrected to tell the story in this divinely hilarious yet heartfelt work, "reminiscent of Vonnegut and Douglas Adams" ( Philadelphia Inquirer ). Verily, the story Biff has to tell is a miraculous one, filled with remarkable journeys, magic, healings, kung fu, corpse reanimations, demons, and hot babes. Even the considerable wiles and devotion of the Savior's pal may not be enough to divert Joshua from his tragic destiny. But there's no one who loves Josh more (except maybe "Maggie, " Mary of Magdalan) and Biff isn't about to let his extraordinary pal suffer and ascend without a fight.
DescriptionA few days before Christmas, Betty, a 30-year-old woman with a young daughter, is about to sign her divorce papers. As Betty reveals her feelings about the end of her 8-year marriage, readers are drawn into a riveting inner dialogue of all the ups and downs she feels. Such is the story behind Raising My Titanic, a hilarious but heartrending diary that chronicles the trials and tribulations of Betty's first year of adjustment following her divorce. In a simple, down-to-earth style, author Mary Sheldon paints a brilliant portrait of a sensitive woman in transition, capturing the frustrations of learning to live all over again.
DescriptionLaddie...write my biography. Bung it down on paper...at a conservative estimate, we should clean up at least 50, 000 pounds apiece. Thus spake Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge to his long-suffering friend Corky Corcoran. Corky, whose literary efforts to…
DescriptionThe twenty-first in his series of solo recordings, his fourth recording for grown-ups, and the only live album in his catalogue, Mistakes Were Made features stories about Bill's experiences as a parent, a dog owner, a boat owner, and a notorious Ba…
DescriptionFormer Saturday Night Live writer Patricia Marx brings her clever, deadpan humor to this addictive novel about one woman's comic obsession with her first boyfriend. A neurotic young graduate student looking for distraction from her doomed thesis is inexplicably swept off her feet by a narcissistic philosophy professor. The obsession continues even after he has dumped her for someone even needier and she has given up on school and become a television writer. Meeting again in New York, they begin an adulterous affair that, of course, can only end in some kind of crisis. Smart, lively, and original, Him Her Him Again the End of Him is an endlessly entertaining re-imagining of the comedy of manners.
DescriptionLaughter is unique to man. This delightful anthology presents some of the funniest extracts in English literature. It opens with Anglo-Saxon riddles and continues with medieval memories, Tudor comic turns, and Restoration buffoonery. The rise of the novel in the 18th century brought classic humour from Swift, Sterne, and Smollet, passing the mantle to Charles Dickens in the 19th century. Included here are rarities from the antiquarian's cupboard. Children's literature produced unforgettable images from Wind in the Willows and Alice in Wonderland, while in the first half of the 20th century emerged unforgettable comic writers as diverse as Dorothy Parker and P.G. Wodehouse. Entertaining from start to finish.
