The 10 books on this stack
-
Witches Abroad
Terry Pratchett · 1991
"One of our greatest fantasists, and beyond a doubt the funniest."--George R. R. Martin A trio of witchy godmothers discovers just how difficult it can be to prevent a servant girl from marrying a prince and save a kingdom in this brilliantly funny Discworld novel from internationally bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett. Once upon a time there was a fairy godmother named Desiderata who had a good heart, a wise head, and poor planning skills--which, unfortunately, left the Princess Emberella in the care of her other (not quite so good nor wise) godmother. Now it's up to Discworld's witches Magrat Garlick, Granny Weatherwax, and Nanny Ogg to hop on broomsticks and make for far-distant Genua to stop a wedding--to ensure a servant girl does not marry the Prince. It's a journey plagued with detours, including the occasional vampire, werewolf, and falling house (they are witches and this is a fairy tale). But the trouble really begins once these reluctant foster-godmothers arrive in Genua to torpedo this particularly enchanting "happily ever after," especially when it comes with glass slippers and a power-hungry fairy godmother who has made destiny an offer it can't refuse. As even these clever crones discover, it's hard to resist a good tale, even when the fate of a kingdom depends on it. The Discworld novels can be read in any order, but Witches Abroad is the third book in the Witches series. The Witches collection in order: Equal Rites Wyrd Sisters Witches Abroad Lords and Ladies Maskerade Carpe Jugulum
-
The 100-year-old man who climbed out the window and disappeared
Jonas Jonasson · 2012
The international publishing sensation--over two million copies sold A reluctant centenarian much like Forrest Gump (if Gump were an explosives expert with a fondness for vodka) decides it’s not too late to start over... After a long and eventful life, Allan Karlsson ends up in a nursing home, believing it to be his last stop. The only problem is that he's still in good health, and in one day, he turns 100. A big celebration is in the works, but Allan really isn't interested (and he'd like a bit more control over his vodka consumption). So he decides to escape. He climbs out the window in his slippers and embarks on a hilarious and entirely unexpected journey, involving, among other surprises, a suitcase stuffed with cash, some unpleasant criminals, a friendly hot-dog stand operator, and an elephant (not to mention a death by elephant). It would be the adventure of a lifetime for anyone else, but Allan has a larger-than-life backstory: Not only has he witnessed some of the most important events of the twentieth century, but he has actually played a key role in them. Starting out in munitions as a boy, he somehow finds himself involved in many of the key explosions of the twentieth century and travels the world, sharing meals and more with everyone from Stalin, Churchill, and Truman to Mao, Franco, and de Gaulle. Quirky and utterly unique, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared has charmed readers across the world. Jonas Jonasson is a former journalist and media consultant. He lives in Sweden.
-
Bridget Jones's Diary
Helen Fielding · 1996
The multi-million-copy number one bestseller One of The Sunday Times 's top 100 bestselling books of the past 50 years Welcome to Bridget's first diary: mercilessly funny, endlessly touching and utterly addictive. A dazzlingly urban satire on modern relationships? An ironic, tragic insight into the demise of the nuclear family? Or the confused ramblings of a pissed thirty-something? As Bridget documents her struggles through the social minefield of her thirties and tries to weigh up the eternal question (Daniel Cleaver or Mark Darcy?), she turns for support to four indispensable friends: Shazzer, Jude, Tom and a bottle of Chardonnay. Helen Fielding's first Bridget Jones novel, Bridget Jones's Diary , sparked a phenomenon that has seen four books, newspaper columns and the smash-hit film series Bridget Jones's Diary, The Edge of Reason, Bridget Jones's Baby and Mad About the Boy. 'Hilariously funny, miraculously observed, endlessly touching' - Jilly Cooper, The Daily Telegraph Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature. Bridget Jones's Diary was featured in 'The 100 bestselling books of the past 50 years' published by The Sunday Times on 18/08/2024
-
Lucky Jim
Kingsley Amis · 1998
A hilarious satire of British university life. It is a young man's book, in fact a book of two young men. They are not exactly angry young men, but they are extremely irritable. College friends with similar backgrounds, they graduated from both Oxford University and World War II to find themselves in an England in terminal decline. It has lost overseas possessions that had once been its pride, and the people in charge are snobs and incompetents. Worst of all, no one seems to appreciate the young men's genius: neither the women they meet not the publishers to whom they send their works. "Lucky Jim" Dixon has accidentally fallen into a job at one of the new red brick universities. A moderately successful future in the History Department beckons as long as Jim can keep in with eccentric Professor Welch, survive a madrigal-singing weekend, deliver a lecture on 'Merrie England' and resist Christine, the hopelessly desirable girlfriend of Welch's awful son, Bertrand. Here the reader is lead through a gallery of English bores, cranks, frauds, and neurotics with whom Jim must contend in order to hold on to his cushy academic perch and win the girl of his fancy.
-
Three Men in a Boat
Jerome Klapka Jérôme · 2003
Three Men In A Bold Boat is a wonderful twist on the original Three Men in a Boat. If you are a long time fan of the Jerome K. Jerome original, you'll be curious how true this book is to the original. The book makes a departure from the original and may be the most wacky by-product for the Jerome K. Jerome fan. In this expanded edition of Three Men in a Boat, 85 percent of the original text has been preserved but fused with how Jerome K. Jerome would write it today.... It's the perfect read for literature lovers, Jerome K. Jerome fans, and anyone who loves a reanimated Three Men in a Boat.
-
Me Talk Pretty One Day
David Sedaris · 2001
David Sedaris's new collection, Me Talk Pretty One Day, tells a most unconventional life story. It begins with a North Carolina childhood filled with speech-therapy classes ("There was the lisp, of course, but more troubling than that was my voice itself, with its excitable tone and high, girlish pitch") and unwanted guitar lessons taught by a midget. From budding performance artist ("The only crimp in my plan was that I seemed to have no talent whatsoever") to "clearly unqualified" writing teacher in Chicago, Sedaris's career leads him to New York (the sky's-the-limit field of furniture moving) and eventually, of all places, France. Sedaris's move to Paris poses a number of challenges, chief among them his inability to speak the language. Arriving a "spooky man-child" capable of communicating only through nouns, he undertakes language instruction that leads him ever deeper into cultural confusion. Whether describing the Easter bunny to puzzled classmates, savoring movies in translation (It is Necessary to save the Soldier Ryan), or watching a group of men play soccer with a cow, Sedaris brings a view and a voice like no other--"Original, acid, and wild," said the Los Angeles Times--to every unforgettable encounter."--Jacket.
-
Good Omens
Neil Gaiman · 1990
The classic collaboration from the internationally bestselling authors Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, soon to be an original series starring Michael Sheen and David Tennant. ?Season 2 of Good Omens coming soon! “Good Omens . . . is something like what would have happened if Thomas Pynchon, Tom Robbins and Don DeLillo had collaborated. Lots of literary inventiveness in the plotting and chunks of very good writing and characterization. It’s a wow. It would make one hell of a movie. Or a heavenly one. Take your pick.” —Washington Post According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner. So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon—both of whom have lived amongst Earth's mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle—are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture. And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist . . .
-
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams · 2012
In one complete volume, here are the five classic novels from Douglas Adams’s beloved Hitchhiker series. Now celebrating the pivotal 42nd anniversary of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, soon to be a Hulu original series! The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read) Seconds before the Earth is demolished for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is saved by Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised Guide. Together they stick out their thumbs to the stars and begin a wild journey through time and space. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe The moment before annihilation at the hands of warmongers is a curious time to crave tea. It could only happen to the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his comrades as they hurtle across the galaxy in a desperate search for a place to eat. Life, the Universe and Everything The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky– so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals can avert Armageddon: mild-mannered Arthur Dent and his stalwart crew. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish Back on Earth, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed-out imagination. But a gift-wrapped fishbowl with a cryptic inscription thrusts him back to reality. So to speak. Mostly Harmless Just when Arthur Dent makes the terrible mistake of starting to enjoy life, all hell breaks loose. Can he save the Earth from total obliteration? Can he save the Guide from a hostile alien takeover? Can he save his daughter from herself? Includes the bonus story “Young Zaphod Plays It Safe” “With droll wit, a keen eye for detail and heavy doses of insight . . . Adams makes us laugh until we cry.”—San Diego Union-Tribune “Lively, sharply satirical, brilliantly written . . . ranks with the best set pieces in Mark Twain.”—The Atlantic
-
Catch-22
Joseph Heller · 1904
A bombardier, based in Italy during World War II, repeatedly tries to avoid flying bombing missions while his colonel tries to get him killed by demanding that he fly more and more missions. A microcosm of the 20th century world as it might look to someone dangerously sane. One of the strongest creations of the mid-century.
-
Confederacy of Dunces
John Kennedy Toole · 1982
One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World' 'My favourite book of all time... it stays with you long after you have read it - for your whole life, in fact' Billy Connolly A monument to sloth, rant and contempt, a behemoth of fat, flatulence and furious suspicion of anything modern - this is Ignatius J. Reilly of New Orleans, noble crusader against a world of dunces. The ordinary folk of New Orleans seem to think he is unhinged. Ignatius ignores them, heaving his vast bulk through the city's fleshpots in a noble crusade against vice, modernity and ignorance. But his momma has a nasty surprise in store for him: Ignatius must get a job. Undaunted, he uses his new-found employment to further his mission - and now he has a pirate costume and a hot-dog cart to do it with... Never published during his lifetime, John Kennedy Toole's hilarious satire, A Confederacy of Dunces is a Don Quixote for the modern age, and this Penguin Modern Classics edition includes a foreword by Walker Percy. 'A pungent work of slapstick, satire and intellectual incongruities ... it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue' The New York Times