Historical Humor

There are dreamers, those who are afraid to dream, and that rare individual who lives all of their dreams in one lifetime. Sissy falls into the last category. Whether traveling around the globe or settling in quiet locations in the Midwest, Sissy always finds an adventure, and if she doesn’t, adventure finds her. She never sees obstacles, only opportunities. A life well lived will be fraught with mistakes, the highs and lows of good and bad decisions, and the ultimate knowledge of winning the game. In her own words, “I don’t think our mistakes define our existence. Life is a process ...

This novel centers on the figure of Ilya Ilyich Oblomov, a member of the dying class of the landed gentry, who spends most of his time lying in bed gazing at life in an apathetic daze, encouraged by his equally lazy servant Zakhar and routinely swindled by his acquaintances. But this torpid existence comes to an end when, spurred on by his crumbling finances, the love of a woman, and the reproaches of his friend, the hardworking Schtoltz, Oblomov finds that he must engage with the real world and face up to his commitments.

Nothing ruins your day like a quest with a ransom note. Especially when you're a fake wizard with real problems. I was supposed to be dead. Instead, I'm stumbling through medieval Britain with Merlin's ghost backseat-driving my magical education. And now? Princess Guinevere's gone missing, and everyone's looking at me like I'm supposed to know what to do about it. Fantastic.

Welcome to the Palace movie theater! Now Showing: Philandering husbands, ghostly sidekicks, and a murder or two. When Nora Paige’s movie-star husband leaves her for his latest co-star, she flees Hollywood to take refuge in San Francisco at the Palace, a historic movie theater that shows the classic films she loves. There she finds a band of misfit film buffs who care about movies (almost) as much as she does. She also finds some shady financial dealings and the body of a murdered stranger. Oh, and then there’s Trixie, the lively ghost of a 1930’s usherette who appears only to Nora and...

Dr. Siri Paiboun is summoned to the mountains of Huaphan Province, where for years the leaders of the current communist government hid in caves, waiting to assume power. Now a major celebration of the new regime is scheduled to take place, but an arm is found protruding from the concrete walk laid from the president’s former cave hideout to his new house beneath the cliffs. Siri must supervise the disinterment of the body attached to the arm, identify it, and determine the cause of death.

In his eagerly anticipated sequel to Jeeves and the King of Clubs, Ben Schott leads Jeeves and Wooster on another elegantly uproarious escapade. From the mean streets of Mayfair to the scheming spires of Cambridge, we encounter a joyous cast of characters: chiseling painters and criminal bookies, eccentric philosophers and dodgy clairvoyants, appalling poets and pocket dictators, vexatious aunts and their vicious hounds.

Flashman is back! When the memoirs of Sir Harry Flashman, the celebrated Victorian soldier and scoundrel, first came to light 30 years ago, we were introduced to adventures related with verve, dash, and meticulous historical detail. Now come three new episodes in the career of this eminent and disreputable adventurer.

A Culinary Journey Through History The Celebrity Cookbook explores the truly important question: What on earth did famous people eat? Part cookbook, part comedy, part historical expedition gone slightly off course, this book is your guide to the favourite meals and drinks of emperors, rock stars, poets, pirates, and philosophers—some of whom really should have seen a nutritionist. The Celebrity Cookbook is a no-nonsense, laugh-out-loud collection of the actual (and occasionally ridiculous) favourite meals and drinks of the world’s most famous people—alive, dead, or somewhere in ...

In this historical fiction novel, set in Oyster Harbors in 1929, a young debutant, Lady Antoinette Ashton-Cooper, yearns for a career in journalism and to fly her own plane like her hero Amelia Earhart. After obtaining a job as feature editor for the Barnstable Patriot, she is assigned a clumsy young photographer from Harvard. During their time together on assignments they discover they both want to be independent and make a difference in the world. Fate intervenes as an unidentified body washes up on shore, providing the two with a mystery and an opportunity to become closer. Add into the ...

In this humorous re-imagining of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet's pet cat causes an unfortunate accident to befall the haughty Mr. Darcy, forcing the injured gentleman to reluctantly take up residence at Longbourn - more specifically, in the parlor of Longbourn! In pain, forbidden to leave by his doctors, Mr. Darcy cannot escape the ridiculous antics of the Bennet clan. And when Georgiana Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam, and Lady Catherine de Bourgh arrive to visit the invalid, chaos, confusion, and hilarity ensue!

It's 1939, in New York City. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdiniesque escape, has just pulled off his greatest feat: smuggling himself out of Hitler's Prague. He's looking to make big money, fast, so that he can bring his family to freedom. His cousin, Brooklyn's own Sammy Clay, is looking for a partner in creating the heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit the American dreamscape: the comic book.

In 1962, Jackie Hart moved to Naples, Florida, from Boston with her husband and children. Wanting something personally fulfilling to do with her time, she starts a reading club and anonymously hosts a radio show, calling herself Miss Dreamsville. The racially segregated town falls in love with Miss Dreamsville, but doesn't know what to make of Jackie, who welcomes everyone into her book club, including a woman who did prison time for allegedly killing her husband....

'63 will take you inside the huddle as the 1963 Chicago Bears challenge for the World Championship of Professional football. These Monster's of The Midway took no prisoner's on their march to glory. This story told through the eyes of the players and coaches who were there provides a compelling look back at professional football in the early 1960s.

England is in trouble! A priceless violin has been stolen, and there's only one person who can help: Mac B., kid spy. Mac's adventure takes him on a top-secret museum night watch, zip-lining in Italy with his trusty corgi sidekick, and on an undercover mission in the heart of enemy territory. But when he ends up as a captured prisoner, is the mission lost for good?

“One of the wildest, funniest, and most memorable trips ever dreamed up by a novelist. Wagoner is a master story-teller.” Chicago Tribune It’s 1859, and twenty-year-old Ike Bender, eager to escape the yoke of his brutal father, runs away from his family’s hard-scrabble Nebraska farm with dreams of making his fortune in the gold-rush country around Pike’s Peak, where his older brother Kit has already fled. Ike sets out alone, armed with only his home-made wheelbarrow, a side of bacon, an old pick-ax, a few dollars, and the love of plucky, head-strong teenager Millicent Slaughter to...

Coward, scoundrel, lover and cheat, but there is no better man to go into the jungle with. Join Flashman in his adventures as he survives fearful ordeals and outlandish perils across the four corners of the world. Given the choice between defending Britannia’s frontier against the mighty Sikh army and pleasuring a ravishing maharani in the Court of the Punjab, Flashman knew where he’d rather be. Of course, that was before he found out about the torture chambers or the malevolent influence of the Mountain of Light…

Harry Flashman: the unrepentant bully of Tom Brown's schooldays, now with a Victoria Cross, has three main talents - horsemanship, facility with foreign languages, and fornication. A reluctant military hero, Flashman plays a key part in most of the defining military campaigns of the 19th century, despite trying his utmost to escape them all. What was Harry Flashman doing on the slopes of Little Bighorn, caught between the gallant remnant of Custer's 7th Cavalry and the attack of Sitting Bull's braves?

NEWS FLASH: The Bushwhacked in Time series is complete--three Standalone Time Travel Romances that continue the legacy of the Reklaw family! Titles include Bushwhacked Bride, Bushwhacked Groom, and the newest, A Bushwhacked in Time Wedding. All at everyday low prices! From #1 Kindle Bestselling Time Travel Romance author Eugenia Riley: BUSHWHACKED BACK IN TIME TO FACE A SHOTGUN WEDDING! Lucky Lamont never knew what hit him. One minute, he was in the present, shooting up the Broken Buck Motel, where his tramp of a girlfriend had betrayed him with his best friend. The next, Lucky finds ...

Jack Gantos' rocket-paced follow-up to the Newbery Medal–winning novel Dead End in Norvelt opens in the 1960s, deep in the shadow of the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis. But instead of Russian warheads, other kinds of trouble are raining down on young Jack Gantos and his utopian town of Norvelt in western Pennsylvania. After an explosion, a new crime by an old murderer, and the sad passing of the town's founder, twelve-year-old Jack will soon find himself launched on a mission that takes him hundreds of miles away.

Tales of My Ancestors is like watching the History Channel broadcast via "The Twilight Zone." It will take you on a journey through time with historical figures like Bat Masterson, Queen Elizabeth, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Cochise, Saint Margaret of Scotland, and players from the last Chicago Cubs team to win a World Series. You'll be there to witness the Salem Witch Trials, the Civil War, the signing of the Magna Carta, and the first steps onto colonial American soil. You'll run into William the Conqueror and a pale horse of death, learn how Shakespeare might have been inspired to ...