Humor Anthology

The coat. It was elegant. It was beautiful. It was so close that he could have reached out and touched it. And it was unquestionably his. A Neverwhere short story from one of the brightest, most brilliant writers of our generation - the Sunday Times and New York Times best-selling author of the award-winning The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

From Roald Dahl, the master of the sting in the tail, a newly collected audiobook of his darkest stories, read by Juliet Stevenson, Cillian Murphy, Adrian Scarborough, Tamsin Greig, Stephanie Beacham and Andrew Scott. 'There is a pleasure sure in being mad, which none but madmen know.' Our greatest fear is of losing control - of our lives, but, most of all, of ourselves. In these 10 unsettling tales of unexpected madness master storyteller Roald Dahl explores what happens when we let go our sanity.

Yes, Jack Plank started out to be a pirate. His shipmates all liked him, and their ship, the Avarice, was certainly very beautiful. But after a while it was clear that he wasn’t much good at plundering. He just didn’t have the knack for it. So what to do? Jack did the only thing he could do - he went ashore to look for another line of work. The town was called Salt-wash, on the coast of the Caribbean Sea, and he had a lot of helpful advice from the people in Mrs. DelFresno’s boardinghouse.

“Creemos que somos únicos e irrepetibles. Nos han vendido la idea (y sin dudarlo la hemos comprado) de que nadie es como nosotros. Pero la realidad es que nos parecemos tanto a los demás que no nos damos cuenta. Crecemos con la necesidad de sentirnos integrados a nuestra comunidad y nos hacemos dependientes de las masas. Hacemos lo que hacen los demás, queremos ser como la gente que admiramos. Somos todo lo que vemos, escuchamos, leemos, comemos, bebemos, compramos, amamos y odiamos. Vivimos con el instinto gregario a flor de piel”.

Gogol's phantasmagorical tale about a man whose nose decides to abscond and begin living a life of its own is one of the earliest and most celebrated examples of absurdist literature. Apart from its recondite humor, it is remarkable for Gogol's skill in characterization and his ability to paint a picture of contemporary life in Russia in a few verbal brushstrokes.

HO HO HOMICIDE? When the man who plays Santa for the Maycroft Christmas Festival goes missing, the committee turns to Deena Sharpe to find him. Her reputation for solving mysteries is legendary. But when the case becomes a kidnapping, she's worried something sinister has happened. Sharpe Claus has plenty of suspects and enough finger pointing to keep Deena on her toes. Follow along as she tries to solve the case of the missing Santa! This fun, cozy Christmas novella can be read as a standalone in the Maycroft Mysteries by USA Today Bestselling Author Lisa B. Thomas. Like all the books in ...

Ebola Saves the Planet! and Other Wholesome Tales is a collection of 11 wild tales from the mind of Matthew A. Clarke.

SENT BACK FROM THE YEAR 2124, I’m Sorry, Here’s a Plasma Rifle is the last known work of author Aaron N. Hall before his tragic jet ski accident with a shipping container of rubber ducks. It contains seven short stories, eighteen poems, and four pastry recipes that highlight his affection for fantasy, science fiction, and the endearingly odd.

An awful poet, dumped by his girlfriend, roams through Italy, where he clearly doesn't belong; an oil delivery man falls in love with a clumsy woman and becomes even clumsier than she is; and a six-year-old and his father kill over 200 flies at a horse farm while the father wonders about life and death. Poor Advice and Other Stories, with its mix of the serious and the absurd, reveals Lou Gaglia's humor, imagination, and range.

Twelve early stories from the comic master, including the romantic truth behind the odd success of a Soho restaurant; the mysterious ways of a lucky black cat; a tale of three exiled baseball fans; a private detective in love with an actress in a touring company; a policeman in love with a parlor maid in the Battersea Park Road; Mr. Henry Wallace Mills of the two left feet; and the first appearance of Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, as Bertie is sent to New York to rescue his cousin from the clutches of a Vaudeville starlet...

Un caleidoscopio di incontri inattesi, di racconti folgoranti, di ironiche riflessioni. Con scrittura cristallina e rapidi tratti, Carofiglio disegna personaggi memorabili e, in un gioco di specchi tra verità e finzione, allestisce fulminee messe in scena dove appaiono intensi frammenti di mondo. Un piccolo gioiello in cui si alternano storie amare a situazioni comiche, osservate con impareggiabile sguardo critico e grande umanità.

Nathan Lochmueller studies birds for just enough money to live and learn on. He drives a glitter-festooned truck, the Gypsy Moth, and he is in love with Lola, a woman so free-spirited and mysterious she can break a man's heart with a sigh or a shrug. Around them swirls a remarkable cast of characters: the proprietor of Fast Eddie's Burgers, the genius behind "Thong Thursdays"; Uncle Dart, a Texan who brings his swagger to Indiana with profound and nearly devastating results; a snapping turtle with a taste for thumbs; a German Shepherd who howls backup vocals; and the very charismatic state of Indiana itself.

If you’ve just fallen into this beguiling treasure, then it’s in your best interest to just spank yourself and throw this book back in the vault where you found it. Because once opened, fabulous words that grow into sentences and paragraphs and stories will leave you with a massive rock-solid sense of the surreal. Leave now and we can both forget about this momentary plunge of lusciousness your eyes were about to feast on. Go! Prevail upon the legendary badassery life that is yours elsewhere. You have been thanked for your no-obligation, risk-free read of this secure blurb and I wish ...

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! The Empire State Building has vanished into thin air! Gone, too, are Grant’s Tomb and Grand Central Station, and all hell is breaking loose in New York City! What’s the story? One grizzled old newspaper reporter known simply as Pop - a role made for Walter Matthau - is on top of it...and better stay there, because his livelihood is on the line. If Pop fails to get to the bottom of the vanishing landmarks, his job will disappear as well - and land in the hands of the newspaper publisher’s son-in-law.

Poor Jacob Two-Two. Not only must he say everything twice just to be heard over his four brothers and sisters, but he finds himself the prisoner of the dreaded Hooded Fang. What had he done to deserve such a punishment? The worst crime of all - insulting a grown-up! Although he's small, Jacob is not helpless, especially when The Infamous Two come to his aid.

A boy wins $100,000 in a box of Frosted Flakes - only to discover that claiming the winnings may unravel his family. An acclaimed ambulance driver seeks the courage to follow his heart and throw it all away to be a singer-songwriter. A school principal unveils a bold plan to permanently abolish arithmetic. A new arrival in heaven, overwhelmed by infinite options, procrastinates over his long-ago promise to visit his grandmother. We meet a vengeance-minded hare. We learn why wearing a red T-shirt is the key to finding love; how February got its name; and why the stock market is sometimes just...down.

Jorge leaving the country meant one thing for me. A huge heartbreak. I wanted to take all of our annoying memories and trash them. A year went by before I heard that he was returning back to the States. He was still my best friend. And now, he was also my next-door neighbor. Turns out, he was in serious trouble. And I wanted to help when his company financials looked shady. Look, Jorge is a smart man. But he’s still a… man. Which means that he slept with his business partner and regretted it. And that one decision landed him in trouble. Well, now… pretending that he has a fake wife is...

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?

The collected short stories of the great Victor Canning, originally written and published in the 1950s and 1960s—full of humor, charm, and in true fashion of classic crime writing. Canning’s heartwarming vignettes and clever mysteries take us from a Welsh valley to a far-off island and across the French countryside—introducing unforgettable characters and stories along the way.

Firsten Guide is a tough, wise-cracking rebel leader who’s light years ahead of his time - and about to lead his crew into a battle that’s Beyond All Weapons. He and his fellow colonizers of Mars have faced a brutal crackdown engineered by Earth’s tyrannical government. But the resourceful Firsten has developed an extraordinary new fuel that enables him and his hardy band to escape into space - and time.