CUBBIEPHRENIA, is about a boy’s journey from the baseball sandlots on the cliffs of San Pedro to the vine covered park of Chicago’s Wrigley Field. Mickey O’Really fears his life is just a fantasy camp made up of stuff that will never be real. His bleacher bum uncle, St. Sligo, is his wizard/mentor on the superstition addled path that leads to the big leagues.CUBBIEPHRENIA, is about a boy’s journey from the baseball sandlots on the cliffs of San Pedro to the vine covered park of Chicago’s Wrigley Field. Mickey O’Really fears his life is just a fantasy camp made up of stuff that will never be real. His bleacher bum uncle, St. Sligo, is his wizard/mentor on the superstition addled path that leads to the big leagues. Teacher-turned-lunatic Mr. Shane stalks Mickey and aims to put an end to his hardball dreams. In his quest to win the World Series Mickey finds out that you can be hurt the most by those that are supposed to help.

If you are looking for a serious tale with a redeeming moral, find another book. This is a foible, not a fable, thus it has no intrinsic value whatsoever, so take a detour through the fickle world of Foible, where a sense of humor is your only weapon against incomprehension. These stories are a silly romp through the land of Faerie, poking fun at themselves and just about everything else.If you are looking for a serious tale with a redeeming moral, find another book. This is a foible, not a fable, thus it has no intrinsic value whatsoever, save to make you smile. These stories should be used with caution, not taken internally, and avoided by those who have a congenital lack of humor, who take themselves and the world too seriously, and those looking for something serious to read. So take a detour through the fickle world of Foible, where a sense of humor is your only weapon against incomprehension. These stories are a silly (and hopefully entertaining) romp through the land of Faerie, poking fun at everything you love about fairy tales, geek culture, and very possibly things that have very little to do with either. Finally available as a complete (albeit short) collection!On Princesses: Yes, the world needs another fairytale, just like your grandmother needs a Dwarf Grunge Band. Of course this is not just another fairy tale, it is a completely irreverent celebration of geeks, fairy goth-mothers, small annoying dogs, and yes, princesses.On Heroes: This little saga pokes fun at bureaucracy, paperwork, heroes, and the latest fad in looming environmental crises. Find out how to save the world in six easy lessons, or not.On Sleeping Beauties: Just when you thought you knew everything about a certain fairy tale, here comes a take on the story fit to baffle even renowned scholars in the genre, along with most everyone else. Take another jaunt into the land of Foible where most anything can happen, and often does, but be warned, this tale should not be read by those who take themselves, or their literature, too seriously.On Dragons: Of course we can't leave such topics as lawyers and a college education alone, here's another tale from the land of Foible!

In his latest New York Times bestseller, Hiaasen introduces impassioned, possibly bipolar, self-proclaimed queen of lost causes Honey Santana, who schemes to help rid the world of irresponsibility, indifference, and dinnertime sales calls.

Idle Ideas in 1905

When a gunman takes the hosts of a morning show hostage, we find the love and darkness behind the cheery banter. Two additional short stories.When a gunman takes the hosts of a morning show hostage, we find the love and darkness behind the cheery banter. Maggie tosses cigarettes in the same spot on her way to work every morning. She imagines the pile growing until her monument to misery is complete. Long before it is complete though, she will end it all. The only ones that can save her are the Blister Sisters, but they are busy running their beer tent at the town festival. Then there is the spring breaker on the make with the winner of a wet T-shirt contest. He has only known her since she took the stage and yet he has fallen in love with her.

'Brings the peerless Jeeves and Wooster barrelling back to life' *Daily Mail* A gloriously witty novel from Sebastian Faulks using P.G. Wodehouse’s much-loved characters, Jeeves and Wooster, fully authorised by the Wodehouse estate. ****Bertie Wooster is staying at the stately home of Sir Henry Hackwood in Dorset. He is more than familiar with the country-house set-up: he is a veteran of the cocktail hour and, thanks to Jeeves, his gentleman’s personal gentleman, is never less than immaculately dressed. On this occasion, however, it is Jeeves who is to be seen in the drawing room while Bertie finds himself below stairs – which he doesn’t care for at all. His predicament is, of course, all in the name of love … ‘A masterpiece … a pitch-perfect undertaking’ Spectator ‘Entirely delightful’ Financial Times ‘Delightfully witty, packed with puns’ Sunday Mirror ‘A polished sparkling genuine fake’ Herald

Claire is in the Dales trying to deal with Josh's revelations and her past with Michael. The snow is relentless and all Claire wants to do is curl up with a good book and a Starbucks. Carl and his PA Julia have other ideas, as they set out to find challenges to test Claire's resolve. Her biggest challenge is yet to come. 'Volume 3 contains March's installments from Amanda's writermummy blog'Claire's life revolves around Starbucks, stilettos and her career as an Advertising Account Director for AJC. That is until her boss Carl decides to send her on a mission to visit every one of the 200 YHA hostel in England and Wales as part of a marketing campaign. More used to five-star spa resorts than 'flea-infested hostels' Claire only takes the assignment to save face. It becomes clear to her the 'mission' is a ruse to make her resign. Volume Three follows Claire to the Derbyshire Dales, where she tries to understand Josh's revelations and her feelings for Michael. She also has to undertake the tasks presented by her boss's nasty PA Julia.However, Claire's biggest challenges are yet to come.

One dog's brief account of finding a cat and a rat (I mean puppy) and taking them both to heart.Her past was a lie. Her present is suspect. Now, The Future is coming for her….Samantha Marquet knows she’s being watched. What she doesn’t understand is why. After living with the sensation for seventeen years, sometimes she wonders if it’s all in her mind. Until the night her Shadow Watcher steps across her path, turning her world upside down.Recognizing his presence immediately, Sam isn’t afraid; she wants answers. But, the handsome stranger doesn’t give her any in their cryptic exchange. When he vanishes again, Sam is left with more questions than ever before.Before his motive is revealed, those the Shadow Watcher is sworn to protect Sam from move to strike. He appears again, in time to save her from a dangerous man. Only, this time Sam witnesses the attack, triggering a memory of seeing him once, before the watching began. At her father's funeral. And, he hasn't aged a day in the seventeen years since. With enemies Sam never knew existed closing in, her guardian is forced to reveal his oath to protect the Marquet family, their heirs and the secret they’ve kept safe for centuries. The secret holding the key to his youth – Sam’s inheritance. Something so precious, the most powerful men to live on Earth are willing to risk anything to possess it. As those fighting to control her inheritance threaten those she loves most, Sam is thrown into a world her parents went to great lengths to shield her from. A world where what seems impossible today is already possible tomorrow. Welcome to the Society in the Shadow of Civilization.

It begins, as the best superhero stories do, with a tragic accident that has unexpected consequences. The squirrel never saw the vacuum cleaner coming, but self-described cynic Flora Belle Buckman, who has read every issue of the comic book Terrible Things Can Happen to You!, is the just the right person to step in and save him. What neither can predict is that Ulysses (the squirrel) has been born anew, with powers of strength, flight, and misspelled poetry—and that Flora will be changed too, as she discovers the possibility of hope and the promise of a capacious heart. From #1 New York Times best-selling author Kate DiCamillo comes a laugh-out-loud story filled with eccentric, endearing characters and featuring an exciting new format—a novel interspersed with comic-style graphic sequences and full-page illustrations, all rendered in black-and-white by up-and-coming artist K. G. Campbell.

Hailed as a literary masterpiece, Robertson Davies' The Cornish Trilogy comes to a brilliant conclusion in The Lyre of Orpheus. Available as an eBook for the first time. There is an important decision to be made. The Cornish Foundation is thriving under the directorship of Arthur Cornish when Arthur and his beguiling wife, Maria Theotoky, decide to undertake a project worthy of Francis Cornish– connoisseur, collector, and notable eccentric–whose vast fortune endows the Foundation. The grumpy, grimy, extraordinarily talented music student Hulda Schnakenburg is commissioned to complete E.T.A. Hoffmann’s unfinished opera Arthur of Britain, or The Magnanimous Cuckold; and the scholarly priest Simon Darcourt finds himself charged with writing the libretto. Complications both practical and emotional arise: the gypsy in Maria’s blood rises with a vengeance; Darcourt stoops to petty crime; and various others indulge in perjury, blackmail, and other unsavory pursuits. Hoffmann’s dictum, “the lyre of Orpheus opens the door of the underworld,” seems to be all too true—especially when the long-hidden secrets of Francis Cornish himself are finally revealed. Baroque and deliciously funny, this third book in The Cornish Trilogy shows Robertson Davies at his very considerable best.

I imagined him in his beloved Brooklyn, strolling in Prospect Park and preaching to chance comers about his gospel of good books. "When you sell a man a book," says Roger Mifflin, the sprite-like book peddler at the center of this classic novella, "you don't sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue—you sell him a whole new life." In this beguiling but little-known prequel to Christopher Morley's belovedHaunted Bookshop, the "whole new life" that the traveling bookman delivers to Helen McGill, the narrator of Parnassus on Wheels, provides the romantic comedy that drives this charming love letter to a life in books. ** The Art of The Novella Series **Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.

Meet the Naughty Princess Club: a brand new series from USA Today bestselling author Tara Sivec that introduces readers to Fairytale Lane and the hilarity—and romance—that ensue when three women start a new business to make it rain. Once upon a time Cynthia was the perfect housewife. Between being the President of the PTA and keeping her home spotless without a hair (or her pearls) out of place, her life was a dream come true. Her husband was once her knight in shining armor, but now he’s run off with all their money…and the babysitter. Dressed as a princess at the annual Halloween block party on Fairytale Lane, she meets two other “princesses” also facing money troubles: antique store owner Ariel and librarian Isabelle. When the women are invited to wear their costumes to a party where they’re mistaken for strippers, Cindy, Ariel, and Belle realize that a career change could be the best way to make their money problems go bippity-boppity-boo. But can structured Cindy approach a stripper pole without sanitizing wipes? And could the blue-eyed anti-prince that has been crossing her path become Cindy’s happily ever after? At the Stroke of Midnight is a hilarious, empowering story where princesses can save themselves while slaying in stilettos.

Kurt Vonnegut’s first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a supercomputer and run completely by machines. Paul’s rebellion is vintage Vonnegut—wildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality. *From the Trade Paperback edition.*