Publisher: Sheba Blake Publishing
Immerse yourself in the glamor, glitz and turbulence of the period leading up to the 1920s with this satisfying collection of tales from author Mary Roberts Rinehard. Veering from romance to mystery and back again, this diverse volume is the perfect way to while away a pleasant afternoon.
From fifteen feet up, humanity looks even funnier. Beppe volunteered at the lookout tower for a year. He found a front-row seat to the absurd theater of daily life: private conversations—those impossible-to-ignore snippets of human comedy that begged to be listened to, a drone crash-landing in a wedding cake, a raccoon negotiating with pretzels, joggers locked in a silent war for lane dominance, and proposals so badly timed even the coyotes protested. In The Mangrullo: Absurd Encounters from the Lookout Tower, Cecilia Anastos brings these sharp, witty, and true-to-life anecdotes to the page with a mix of sarcasm, warmth, and keen observation. Part humor essay, part memoir, this collection celebrates the ridiculousness of human behavior and the strange beauty of ordinary moments when viewed from above. Perfect for fans of observational humor, satirical short stories, and essay collections that make you laugh out loud, The Mangrullo proves that people are funnier than the wildlife—and commas can be more dangerous than raccoons. Absurd. Sarcastic. Ridiculously true. Welcome to the view from the tower.Show book
Long before he proclaimed himself Emperor of the United States, a young Joshua Norton arrived at the Cape of Good Hope as part of a grand British scheme: the 1820 Settler scheme. His family, like thousands of others, was promised fertile land to serve as a buffer against the Xhosa kingdoms on the volatile Eastern Cape frontier. This wryly humorous and meticulously researched novel plunges you into the brutal reality of the Albany district, a land far from the promise of prosperity. Here, the Norton family struggles to farm unforgiving soil amidst a maelstrom of cultural conflict. The air is thick with tension between the newly arrived British, the established Dutch colonists, and the resilient Xhosa people defending their ancestral lands, all set against the backdrop of the relentless Frontier Wars. Witness Joshua’s formative years shaped by violence, economic ruin, and the stark absurdities of colonial ambition. It is on this scarred and contested ground that a boy is forged—his keen sense of justice warped by tragedy, his reality blurred by the immense pressure of a world perpetually at war. This is the definitive account of how a not-very-successful settler’s son began his extraordinary journey to become the beloved monarch of a realm that existed only in his magnificent, fractured mind.Show book
A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year: “Part social satire, part thriller, and entirely clever” (Elle). It is a midsummer’s evening in the English countryside, and the three grown Palmer children are coming to the end of an enjoyable meal in the company of their partners and offspring. From this pleasant vantage point they play a dinner-party game: What kind of society would you be willing to accept if you didn’t know your place in it? But the abstract question of justice, like all their family conversations, is eventually brought back to the more pressing problem of their eccentric mother, Frieda, the famous writer, who has abandoned them and her old life, and gone to live alone in Exmoor. Frieda has always been a powerful and puzzling figure, a monster mother with a mysterious past. What is she plotting against them now? Has some inconvenient form of political correctness led her to favor her enchanting half-Guyanese grandson? What will she do with her money? Is she really writing her memoirs? And why has she disappeared? Has the dark spirit of Exmoor finally driven her mad? The Witch of Exmoor brilliantly interweaves high comedy and personal tragedy, unraveling the story of a family whose comfortable, rational lives, both public and private, are about to be violently disrupted by a succession of sinister, messy events. “Leisurely and mischievous,” it is a dazzling, wickedly gothic tale of a British matriarch, her three grasping children, and the perils of self-absorption (The New Yorker). “As meticulous as Jane Austen, as deadly as Evelyn Waugh.” —Los Angeles TimesShow book
A decadent billionaire pursues immortality in this raucous, raunchy, globe-hopping novel by “the dirty old man of American letters” (Hollywood Reporter). The wealthiest man in the world, Judd Crane is also ruthless, sexually irresistible, and determined to conquer man's last frontier—eternal life. A man who always gets what he wants, Judd pursues his dream on a dangerous, obsessive journey from Yugoslavia to China, from his lush private island to a secret atomic city in the Brazilian jungle. Crane is willing to spend billions, risk death, outwit foreign agents, lose his entire empire and the woman he loves . . . until, at the moment of victory, he discovers the most important secret of all.Show book
Gwyn is having a hell of a day. Sure, her image in the mirror is gorgeous but she cannot remember her name and has no idea who or what she is. The past is a blank and her present is full of questions. As she moves into the future, Gwyn finds danger and absurdity abound.She discovers she is a grim reaper and humanity is in desperate need of her services. The dead refuse to rest and the living are oblivious to a looming catastrophe as the barrier between realms begins to disassemble. Gwyn’s major source of guidance is an ancient tome containing the memoirs of reapers from eons past. An enigmatic figure offers insight and protection. Gwyn wonders if the charmer is the savior he claims. Or does the darkly alluring Mr. Black harbor the key to the memories that have been stripped from her.Gwyn searches for answers while also trying to understand the amusing and illogical behaviors of the humans she reaps. Prepare to be entertained by a sarcastic take on destiny and the human condition where nothing is quite what it seems.Show book
No “learn to be a PI” video prepared her for this... When Samantha True witnesses Wind River's most popular principal keel over dead she knows three things. He's been murdered Proving it will be impossible They're gonna think she did it As she works to clear her name, Samantha learns "Principal Josh" is the king of slime balls. Eliminating suspects proves tricky when half the town has a motive for murder. It'll take the right private investigator to crack this killer's best laid plans. Warning: May cause spontaneous laughter. This mystery offers witty banter, characters you'll want to be friends with, and is a perfect escape to the Pacific Northwest. Laughing out loud in public may cause curious glances from strangers.Show book
