Historical Humor

This humorous and factual history of five lads who grew up to become Founding Fathers brings the early days of American history to life with sass and substance, in Lane Smith's inimitable style.

There is very little that Lizzie Patterson wouldn’t do for those she cares about. That is especially true for her two neighbors in the quiet corner of the canyon that’s been her home for over fifty years and her refuge since she retired from the profession she loved but was more than ready to walk away from. Recently she’s accepted a role in a movie her first husband is producing after years of turning down all the other offers that came her way since her retirement. Many believe that her reason for doing so is because Clay Tobin has agreed to play the lead character in the same movie...

Resourceful Bingo Riggs and his partner, Handsome Kusak, are in the sucker-bait business, snapping candid pics of tourists off Central Park. Their fly-by-night enterprise can be irresistible to souvenir lovers, but with one camera in a pawnshop and their developing room in the bathtub of a two-room dump near Hell’s Kitchen, their venture is wretchedly underexposed - until they stumble upon an insurance fraud scheme between the allegedly dead eccentric Mr. S. S. Pigeon and his business partner and beneficiary.

In a world where creativity is outlawed, dustpan maker Eddie Sweep discovers a time-traveling dustpan named Dustin. Joined by historical allies, Eddie embarks on a hilarious journey through history to collect artifacts that could overthrow the oppressive Conformity Council. From ancient China to the Fall of Rome, Eddie faces challenges that transform him from a timid factory worker to an unlikely hero. With wit, heart, and temporal hijinks, “Dustin Time” proves that sometimes, the most powerful tool for changing the world is a mop and a dustpan with attitude! Will Eddie save the future ...

Undaunted by a threatening storm, Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley insists he must deliver his letter to Miss Elizabeth Bennet - then tragedy strikes. Riddled with guilt, Elizabeth comes to the aid of the comatose Mr. Darcy and stays by his side until he regains consciousness. She soon learns that although Mr. Darcy has awoken, he has not returned to himself. And with no memory of his first disastrous proposal, he has concluded that there is nothing he wants more than to propose to Miss Elizabeth.

Gwen, the quick-witted Princess of England, and Arthur, future lord and general gadabout, have been betrothed since birth. Unfortunately, the only thing they can agree on is that they hate each other. When Gwen catches Art kissing a boy and Art discovers where Gwen hides her diary (complete with racy entries about Bridget Leclair, the kingdom's only female knight), they become reluctant allies. By pretending to fall for each other, their mutual protection will be assured.

Having fled Japanese-occupied Korea for the gleaming promise of the United States with nothing but four dollars and a suitcase full of Shakespeare to his name, the young, idealistic Chungpa Han arrives in a New York teeming with expatriates, businessmen, students, scholars, and indigents. Struggling to support his studies, he becomes a traveling salesman, a domestic worker, and a farmer, and observing along the way the idealism, greed, and shifting values of the industrializing 20th century. East Goes West casts a sharply satirical eye on the demands and perils of assimilation.

It's 1964. Eleven-year-old Fin and his glamorous, worldly, older half sister, Lady, have just been orphaned, and Lady, whom Fin hasn't seen in six years, is now his legal guardian and his only hope. That means Fin is uprooted from a small dairy farm in rural Connecticut to Greenwich Village, smack in the middle of the swinging '60s. He soon learns that Lady-giddy, careless, urgent, and obsessed with being free-is as much his responsibility as he is hers.

Robin "Puck" Blackthorn is young, rich, handsome as sin, and delights in the life he lives. A single stolen kiss at a masquerade ball should be nothing more than a lark, but that explosive embrace has unexpected consequences when he is suddenly thrust into helping a beautiful damsel in distress. Regina Hackett hadn't wanted to attend the masquerade with her cousin. When that cousin disappears, she turns to Puck for help, only to realize they've stumbled onto a dark and dangerous secret that threatens not only her cousin, but Regina's entire world. As the two embark on a dangerous journey ...

RITA Award winner Melody Carlson's sassy tale highlights the healing influence of family, friends, faith - and unexpected love - on a 31-year-old single gal who's down but not out. The day she dons her Valentino boots, Cassidy's life starts spinning out of control. Her boss fires her, her boyfriend dumps her, and someone steals her identity. And binging on chocolate doesn't help.

1870s, Sicily. Much to the displeasure of Vigàta's stubborn populace, the town has just been unified under the Kingdom of Italy. They're now in the hands of a new government they don't understand and definitely don't like. Eugenio Bortuzzi has been named prefect for Vigàta, a regional representative from the Italian government to oversee the town. But the rowdy and unruly Sicilians don't care much for this rather pompous mainlander nor the mediocre opera he's hell-bent on producing in their new municipal theater.

A delightful, sophisticated, romantic bestseller... back in print for the first time in over 90 years! "Lighter than air, and as bouyant and breezy as the wind. It's the icing on the cake, the silver lining on the cloud, the gilding on the lily. And if the whole world soon isn't 'Green' with envy, we don't know a bestseller when we read one." Pittsburgh Press Catherine Douglas is a traditional, American Southerner living with her widowed father and brother in Paris in the 1930s. Her life is complicated by her charming father's affairs, the hopeless literary aspirations of her lovable ...

A Kasey Michaels Alphabet Regency Romance. Everyone has read the plot involving a beautiful young runaway debutante masquerading as boy. But in A Difficult Disguise, Rosalie Darley, taking the name Billy, does her hiding in plain sight, working in the stables at the estate of her unknowing guardian, Fletcher Belden. Ah, but is Fletcher really that blind, or is he playing a game of his own? Kasey Michaels Alphabet Regency Romance Titles: The Belligerent Miss Boynton The Tenacious Miss Tamerlane The Rambunctious Lady Royston The Lurid Lady Lockport The Savage Miss Saxon The Questioning Miss ...

In Bournville, a placid suburb of Birmingham, sits a famous chocolate factory. For eleven-year-old Mary and her family in 1945, it's the centre of the world. The reason their streets smell faintly of chocolate, the place where most of their friends and neighbours have worked for decades. Mary will go on to live through the Coronation and the World Cup final, royal weddings and royal funerals, Brexit and Covid-19. She'll have children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Many have marvelled at General Napier's daring 1868 expedition through the treacherous peaks and bottomless chasms of Abyssinia to rescue a small group of British citizens held captive by the mad tyrant Emperor Theodore. But the vital role of Sir Harry Flashman, V.C., in the success of this campaign has hitherto gone unrecorded.

Edi and Ash have been best friends for over forty years, a bond formed by a lifetime of memories. Since childhood they have seen each other through life's milestones: stealing vodka from their parents, REM concerts, unexpected Scottish wakes, marriages, infertility, children. As Ash notes, 'Edi's memory is like the back-up hard drive for mine.' When Edi is diagnosed with the final stages of terminal ovarian cancer, she makes the painstaking decision to leave behind her husband and son to move to a hospice down the road from Ash.

Richard Milhous Nixon lived one of the most improbable lives of the 20th century. He faced down the Russians, the Chinese, and, ultimately, his own government. The man went from political mastermind to a national joke, sobbing in the Oval Office, leaving us with one burning question: How could he have lost it all? Here, for the first time, is the tale told in his own words: the terrifying supernatural secret he stumbled upon as a young man, the truth behind the Cold War, and the truth behind the Watergate cover-up.

Chichikov, a mysterious stranger, arrives in a provincial town with a bizarre but seductive proposition for local landowners. He proposes to buy the names of their serfs who have died but who are still registered on the census, saving their owners from paying tax on them. But what collateral will Chichikov receive for these "souls"?

Five hundred years ago Henry VIII had a fearsome temper and bloodthirsty reputation to match; more beast than human, some might say. . .Henry the Eighth was the bloodiest king ever to have sat on the throne of England. This fast-paced, exciting, inventive, and just plain bloody retelling of his reign will bring to light the real man behind the myth. Be dragged back kicking and screaming five hundred years into Tudor England.

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.