Literature & Fiction

A bad best man’s speech can ruin a wedding. Why do we plan every detail of a perfect day and then give the groom’s idiot best friend five minutes of total power? Enter Nate (Glen Powell), a speechwriter-for-hire who helps people write incredible best man speeches. To keep the best man from embarrassing himself (and the newlyweds), Nate uses his list of don’ts: Don’t mention the exes, don’t be rated R, and don’t bum everyone out. Nate’s system never fails. That is, until he meets Dan (Nicholas Braun).

Meet Stephanie Plum, a bounty hunter with attitude. In Stephanie’s opinion, toxic waste, rabid drivers, armed schizophrenics, and August heat, humidity, and hydrocarbons are all part of the great adventure of living in Jersey. She’s a product of the “burg,” a blue-collar pocket of Trenton where houses are attached and narrow, cars are American, windows are clean, and (God forbid you should be late) dinner is served at six.

Author and comedian Daniel Foxx presents a wonderful collection of stories especially for the little darlings of the fabulously wealthy - that can also be enjoyed by YOU, the downtrodden, pitiful, ordinary adult! Listen to the everyday adventures of Rupert, Shallotte and Genevievette as they ski, holiday, and drift around Selfridges - whilst always keeping a healthy distance from the dreaded hoi polloi!

Frederick Fife was born with an extra helping of kindness in his heart. If he borrowed your car, he’d return it washed with a full tank of gas. The problem is there’s nobody left in Fred’s life to borrow from. At eighty-two, he’s desperately lonely, broke, and on the brink of homelessness. But Fred’s luck changes when, in a bizarre case of mistaken identity, he takes the place of grumpy Bernard Greer at the local nursing home. Now he has warm meals in his belly and a roof over his head—as long as his poker face is in better shape than his prostate and that his look-alike never turns up.

Jane has high hopes her life is about to turn around. After years of living precariously, she, her painter husband, Lenny, and their two kids have landed a stint as house sitters in a friend’s luxurious home high in the hills above Los Angeles, a gig that coincides magically with Jane’s sabbatical. If she can just finish her latest novel, Nusu Nusu, the centuries-spanning epic Lenny refers to as her “mulatto War and Peace,” she’ll have tenure and some semblance of stability and success within her grasp. But things don’t work out quite as hoped.

One wealth-obsessed man – who is also dead. One status-obsessed woman – who is the perfect accessory. Their four inheritance-obsessed children – each with a killer instinct. And a murder-obsessed outsider looking to expose them all. But there’s one thing money can’t buy… and that’s the truth.

Cat McCarthy has spent years extricating herself from the family business—an increasingly run-down theater camp—and all the drama contained within it. At thirty-seven, she’s putting the final touches on a new life as she renovates her dream cottage and awaits her first child. Does it worry her that the McCarthy legacy is in the hands of her disastrously irresponsible sister, Ginger? Sure. But the camp’s not Cat’s problem anymore.

Rhoda West is Silicon Valley’s favorite female CEO: the luminously charismatic founder of the fast-growing startup Radical, a wellness company whose core mission is the betterment of women’s lives. Rhoda’s Instagram page offers intimate glimpses of her personal life alongside promotions for the cult-status products developed in the Well, Radical’s secretive lab.

Bergdorf Blondes are a thing, you know, a New York craze. Absolutely everyone wants to be one, but it’s très difficult. Honestly, it requires a level of commitment comparable to, say, learning Hebrew or quitting cigarettes. But first, a little bit about moi. The gossips call me a champagne bubble of a girl. I’m fluent in French, intermittently. I gave up England for Princeton to my mother’s horror. By day, I write articles for a fashion magazine. By night, I’m on the prowl for the ultimate accessory a Bergdorf Blonde must have: an impossibly rich man with a very large diamond ring.

Ein Fest des Humors von SPIEGEL-Bestsellerautor Walter Moers – gelesen von Andreas Fröhlich. Ein Einhörnchen, das lieber rückwärts leben möchte; ein Werwolf, der ein Wiewolf sein will; eine fleischfressende Pflanze, die sich vegetarisch ernähren möchte; ein Trollbluthund, der lieber eine Kratze wäre – etliche Bewohner des Kontinentes Zamonien haben Probleme mit ihrer Identität und daher kein leichtes Leben.

A searing portrayal of Vienna's bourgeoisie, it begins with the arrival of an unnamed writer at an 'artistic dinner' hosted by a composer and his society wife-a couple he once admired and has come to loathe. The guest of honor, a distinguished actor from the Burgtheater, is late. As the other guests wait impatiently, they are seen through the critical eye of the writer, who narrates a silent but frenzied tirade against these former friends, most of whom have been brought together by Joana, a woman they buried earlier that day.

This is the complete series of Niall Ashdown and Luke Sorba's (strictly non-autobiographical) hilarious sitcom about two men in their forties who really don't know what to do with themselves. The duo attempt (and mostly fail) to make their mark on the world and prove that they really aren’t as pointless as they feel. Embarking on a series of haphazard adventures covering everything from the human condition to sex, food and some surprising things in-between, they are keen to prove to old school friends they have actually achieved in life.

With the most explosive election in American history approaching, a new recreational technology from Euphoria Incorporated takes society to extremes never seen before, and a strange movement known as The Assembly of Balderdash gains uncanny power that no one can explain. Growing up in the ghetto of Cincinnati decades earlier, Amira Steele didn't think she was anyone special...but little did she know that her childhood crisis of conscience would eventually lead her to the very center of the world stage.

Recently dumped and stuck with a mortgage, artist Esther Ray wants to burn the world, but instead, she reluctantly accepts a scrapbooking job from the deliriously wealthy Naomi Duncan. The scrapbooks, a secret birthday gift for Naomi’s husband, Bryce, trace the Duncan’s 25-year marriage.

Featuring Norman Rossington as Big Jim, listen to these six funny and anarchic tales from those demob days “when we was going to build the new Jerusalem – you know, before the world turned lax and sour”. Set on the building site of a seaside town in the1950s, and narrated by comedy legend Bernard Cribbins, this is classic BBC comedy at its best.

Things are going well for Jane Murphy, or so it seems. She’s making it in New York, a sort of wunderkind at the social media marketing startup where she works. She’s put an experimental writer, Jeremy Miller, on the map by helping him concoct a viral internet novel, told in fragments through various fake social media accounts. But privately, Jane feels trapped, ruled by her routines and her compulsions, caught up in an endless cycle of soothing and punishing herself.

From the author of The Good Wife of Bath comes this brilliant recreation of the vibrant, optimistic but politically treacherous world of London's Restoration theatre, where we are introduced to the remarkable playwright Aphra Behn, now a feminist icon but then an anomaly, who gravitated to the stage—a place where artifice and disguise are second nature and accommodates those who do not fit in.

Leigh Somerset wants to spend some quality time with her kids before they grow up, and her husband has always fancied himself sort of a Clark Griswold figure. So the Somersets will be spending their family vacation on the road, driving from suburban Milwaukee to Orlando, Florida. Already off to a rocky start, they stumble upon an abandoned, half-burned down farmhouse in Indiana, and the Somersets inadvertently unleash an eerie history that will follow them the rest of their trip.

This is the story of Corey Fah, a writer who has hit the literary jackpot: their novel has just won the prize for the Fictionalization of Social Evils. But the actual trophy, and with it the funds, hovers peskily out of reach. Neon-beige, with UFO-like qualities, the elusive trophy leads Corey, with their partner Drew and eight-legged companion Bambi Pavok, on a spectacular quest through their childhood in the Forest and an unlikely stint on reality TV. Navigating those twin horrors, along with wormholes and time loops, Corey learns—the hard way—the difference between a prize and a gift.

Filled with wit and charm, The Debutante Divorcée stars Sylvie Mortimer, a recently married socialite who is quick to discover that her marriage is far from photo-perfect. Her best friend, Lauren Blount, the chic-est of the Debutante Divorcées, is basking in her freedom, taking solo honeymoons, having divorce showers, and pursuing any man she chooses as part of her “Make-Out Challenge.”

It’s been two years since Rose wrote the article that exposed Poppy as a socialite grifter. Normally, one of her articles going viral would be cause for celebration, but the highly publicized trial that followed turned Poppy into the internet’s favorite celebrity. And Rose has been reeling from the aftermath ever since. Although Poppy served her time for defrauding some of the richest, most powerful men in the world, Rose knows this is only the tip of the iceberg for Poppy’s crimes. She just can’t prove it yet … At least not without the help of a devilishly handsome FBI agent gone rogue.

All over the city, they are watching: Black men paid to stand guard, invisible among the wealthy flâneurs and yet the only ones who truly see. From Les Grands Moulins to a Sephora on the Champs-Élysees, Ferdinand, Ossiri, and Kassoum find their way as undocumented workers amidst political infighting and the ever-changing landscape of immigration policy. Fast-paced and funny, poignant and sharply satirical, Standing Heavy is a searing deconstruction of colonial legacies and capitalist consumption and an unforgettable account of everything that passes under the security guards' all-seeing eyes.

Всемирно известный канадский юморист Стивен Ликок создал более тридцати сборников сатирических эссе и рассказов. Его остроумные произведения противоречат общественным нормам, высмеивают человеческие слабости, показывая мир, в котором логика уступает место причудам и воображению. Рассказы, представленные в этом сборнике, благодаря особому, неповторимому стилю Ликока, помогут вам отдохнуть от повседневной суеты и получить заряд позитивных эмоций и хорошего настроения.