Humor Anthology

Welcome to another kind of terror as Peter Straub leads us into the outer reaches of the psyche. Here the master of the macabre is at his absolute best in seven exquisite tales of living, dying, and the terror that lies in between.

A writer Time magazine has said "everybody should read", Sam Lipsyte, author of the New York Times best-selling The Ask, offers up The Fun Parts, a book of bold, hilarious, and deeply felt fiction. A boy eats his way to self-discovery, while another must battle the reality-brandishing monster preying on his fantasy realm. In another story, an aerobics instructor, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, makes the most shocking leap imaginable to save her soul. These are just a few of the tales, some first published in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and Playboy, that unfold in Lipsyte’s richly imagined world.

Ordinary realities and yearnings to transcend them lead to miraculous other worlds in this dazzling collection of stories. A woman's deceased father appears in her dreams with clues about the afterlife; a Russian professor in a small American town constructs elaborate fantasies during her cigarette break; a man falls in love with a marble statue as his marriage falls apart. With the emotional insight of Chekhov, the surreal satire of Gogol, and a unique blend of humor and poetry all her own, Tolstaya transmutes the quotidian into aetherial alternatives.

In this collection of stories from the world of The Last Word Bookstore, we witness the highs and lows, the victories and defeats, the real and the ridiculous of the world's greatest profession: Bookselling. This anthology contains both stories from the first three Last Word novels as well as several brand new literary adventures. Come join Sal, Camden, and all the other inmates of this biblio-asylum as we see once again what happens when The Sopranos meets Fawlty Towers...in a bookstore.

True love is ageless... Half-Baked Maggie Milne has everything she needs—a loving family, a delightful bakery, good books, and cat food. But when Stephen Fox, a health food nut, opens a sporting goods store and café across the street and some of Maggie’s loyal customers begin to replace their morning donuts with gluten-free grub, Maggie’s ire, as well as her yeasty rolls, begins to rise. It’s double- chocolate donuts meets kefir. Can two fifty-somethings from separate grocery store aisles overcome their differences? The Christmas Swindle Aspiring author Lauren Hallstrom has one ...

In "The Robot Who Looked Like Me," a busy man and a busy woman find a way to carve out time to romance each other—by having look-alike robots made to do the job—who then run away together.

Driving with a donkey stuffed in the back seat; jackdaws pecking brains out through the roof of a confessional box; cat piss and astronauts. This is the world not as you see it, but as it is, twisted from the maverick mind of Blindboy Boatclub. These are stories of the strange unsettlings in the souls of men caught in between the past and the possible; stories of heart-blinding rage and disquieting compassion. Topographia Hibernica is a collection that unravels the knotted threads of humanity, nature and colonisation from a contemporary Irish perspective.

Eve has her own story, and she's been waiting millennia for Barbara McBride-Smith to tell it. It's the same for Mrs. Noah. Talk about misunderstood or under-appreciated women! McBride-Smith singles them out for her trademark feminist humor. And following Eve and Mrs. Noah's stories are four of McBride-Smith's retellings of Greek myths from her West Texas good-ole-girl perspective.

The Burglars' Club is the most exclusive of exclusive Gentleman's Clubs in Victorian London. To pay their dues, members must steal something very valuable and hard to get, and present it to the club at the following meeting (They return it afterwards, of course, if possible). Full of comedy, suspense, and mystery. The award-winning Colonial Radio Theatre on the Air brings these wonderful stories to life with a full cast, music, and sound effects.

The Yellow Wallpaper is Charlotte Gilman's best known work. Written from the perspective of a woman suffering post-partum psychosis, it draws the listener into a world which is both terrifying and fascinating, where strange events occur and where even the wallpaper takes on a sinister and creepy significance. The narration and language are masterful, but it is the way the listener is invited to empathise and almost experience the mental illness first hand which make a lasting impression.

A cheerful snack mascot who snaps under the pressure. The nightmarish effects of the most depressing holiday song of all time. A virtual-reality environment that allows you to enact your most depraved fantasies...sort of. Giant mutant cockroaches doing battle with zombies in the Old West. An unnerving discovery in the Book of Revelations. The true secret of silent comedian Buster Keaton's success. Plus a Halloween curse, a lot of psychopaths, and much more!

Two guys fighting over a beautiful girl might agree – on reflection, and after a few pills and many pints of lager – that their friendship is actually more important than a woman. Hilarious, shocking and hugely entertaining, 'Victor Spoils' has all the classic Irvine Welsh ingredients.

Jorge Sanchez, a new and upcoming author has put together his first three published short stories into one book. They range from chaos breaking out at a funeral to a Birkenstock wearing Doctor. With his laid back story telling style and self-deprecating sense of humor you will find yourself chuckling out loud as you read along. Also, included is a bonus short story previously not published and only available in this edition. In this collection: Cheesecake, tea and a funeral. A boy, a stone and a throw, Skiing, wine and other minority disasters.

What do the Minotaur, Rasputin, the first man hung for murder in America, and the Countess of Blood all have in common? No, they aren't related. They all appeared on the Bombay Family's Hit List! In this collection of Bombay Bedtime Stories, you'll find out what Bombays did before Gin Bombay came along. From pet dodo birds to Ancient Greece and twentieth century Russia, get the stories Bombay children have been told for thousands of years. Stories that have been shrouded in blood - sworn to secrecy . . . until now!

Erin Craig "delivers" on a story about a new girl in town and the cute pizza delivery boy, Auriane Desombre captures our hearts with teens communicating through window signs, and Bill Konigsberg takes us along on daily walks with every step bringing us closer to love. There's flirting and romance from Rachael Lippincott, a tale of a determined girl with a mask-making business from Erin Hahn, and a music-inspired love connection from Sajni Patel. Brittney Morris turns enemies to lovers with the help of a balcony herb garden.

Ever wondered what it's like to be born into a family of assassins? Gin Bombay knows, and now she's sharing her family's deepest, darkest secrets. The Bombay Family Bedtime Stories continue with My Heroes Have Always Been Hitmen! Four more family stories have been released from the vault, including Rio Bombay, wanna-be cowboy and wild west gunslinger; Caspian, the first Bombay to have to take out another Bombay; Aberdeen, the hoop-skirted Antebellum Assassin; and Dublin Bombay, the Scottish Viking Slayer! History is at its most hilarious as this darkly funny family tells all.

The Pan of Hamgee, starving outlaw, bumps into Big Merv: the meanest, scariest gangster in the City, and without thinking what he is doing, steals his wallet. When Big Merv realises what has happened our hero's future looks short. Will he talk his way out of it or will he be "recycled" into a stanchion of the Outer Ring Road extension?

In Dinosaur School Basil Brontosaurus is teased at playschool by all the other little dinosaurs, who call him stupid. His mother tells him he's special because he has two brains—one in his head and one is his back. Basil is so pleased that he starts to throw his weight around at playschool. That is, until he meets a large Tyrannosaurus rex!

"If there’s a lesson to be learned, it’s that logic is the sworn enemy of grief," writes Halimah Marcus, co-editor of Electric Literature, in her introduction to “Firewood," a hilarious and devastating story by J. Robert Lennon. "When the narrator’s wife (expectedly) leaves him, too devastated to admit the obvious, he concocts an impossible explanation for her disappearance. All I’ll say is that it involves the woodpile. The invented story is more horrible than the truth, but somehow easier to manage."

In 'A Fault on the Line' you will meet a husband who values a televised Hibs v Hearts game more than his wife’s life.This short story features in the collection 'Reheated Cabbage' and is available unabridged on audio for the first time. Hilarious, shocking and hugely entertaining, it has all the classic Irvine Welsh ingredients.