Humor Anthology

If someone had told Noah Donovan he was going to be stuck in an elevator with a very beautiful, slightly odd bartender and her fluffy packrat, he never would have believed it. Fortunately, the quirky brunette leaves the very cuddly rodent behind. Unfortunately, she’s married. In Lexi Allison’s job, she’s accustomed to warding off unwanted advances with a fake wedding ring. So when she meets a tatted-up hunk in an elevator, she’s quick to revert to her default tall tale. This guy certainly knows how to push her buttons, but the thing is, they’re the right buttons.

After Reece Matthews' sister is sexually assaulted he begins a video blog. It's his way of getting his head around it all and easing the pain. As he tells the story viewing figures grow. But when the perpetrators of the crime are let out on bail Reece cannot subdue his feelings. He announces the names and address of the men who assaulted his sister and a social justice takes place. Reece is arrested and charged with inciting violence, which leaves him to question whether the government is overreaching its authority and the future of his country.  

El misterio que rodea el pasado de su esposa, y que él se comprometió a respetar, entorpece la aclaración del nerviosismo y la inquietud de la señora Cubitt. Holmes tranquiliza a Hilton Cubitt y le promete su ayuda una vez termine un caso delicado que está resolviendo. 

A baby rat freed from the bottom of a dumpster becomes a white ibis wandering the wet driveway after a storm. Goodbye, hello, goodbye. It was the garbage times; it was time for something else. A tale of two tales, connected by a mysterious sunlit portal.   

Berlin ist die Kneipe auf dem verlassenen Marktplatz eines Kaffs namens Brandenburg. Manchmal tanzen wir auf den Tischen, manchmal liegen wir darunter, jeder war schon mal mit jedem im Bett und Weihnachten ist Lokalrunde. Endlich! Nach "Wahnsinn in Gesellschaft" gibt es nun Lea Streisands zweites Solowerk mit Geschichten aus dem sogenannten Großstadtalltag.

In the stories of Confidence, there are ecstasy-taking PhD students, financial traders desperate for husbands, owners of failing sex stores, violent and unremovable tenants, aggressive raccoons, seedy massage parlors, experimental filmmakers who record every second of their day, and wives who blog insults directed at their husbands. There are cheating husbands. There are private clubs, crowded restaurants, psychiatric wards. There is one magic cinema, and everyone has a secret of some kind.  

A group of hackers gain access to a prominent young actress’s cloud account and leaks explicit images of her Online. Lisa Hudson finds herself suddenly thrust into a new limelight basking under the glow of never-ending male attention. The attention intensifies leading up to her week-long tour for a movie shoot. Jared is stunned that his gorgeous wife is managing to handle the violation of her privacy so calmly. At first furious and disgusted at the leak, he finds himself intrigued and curious at his wife’s willingness to entertain the spotlight. 

A palm reader notifies Lord Arthur that murder is in his future. But not his murder - he’s the murderer. This really throws a wrench into his wedding plans, for Lord Arthur is soon to be married to the most beautiful lady in London. In fact he loves her so much, he decides to postpone the wedding until his business is done. Now, for a tasteful homicide....

Can a stolen parking space, a punch in the face, and a wild birthday party lead a couple to romantic bliss? Beth and Jake meet and slug it out over a parking space. Little did the other know the two were attending the same birthday party. Sparks fly and hilarious disaster supervenes. Jake is fascinated and intrigued by the petite power powerhouse he calls Lips. And Beth is … well, Beth holds tight to a secret. A very dark secret that prevents her from entertaining serious relationships. And much to her annoyance, the man she calls Dick doesn’t take no for an answer.

"'Io non so com'è la gente!' soleva ripetere don Marchino per lo meno una ventina di volte al giorno, insaccandosi nelle spalle e aprendo le mani a ventaglio davanti al petto, con gli angoli della bocca contratti in giù: 'Io non so com'è la gente!'".

"Benedizione" inizia così, con le parole di Don Marchino, parroco di campagna che sembra vivere in un mondo tutto suo, completamente indifferente a tutto quello che lo circonda. Ancora una volta Pirandello ci regala un piccolo grande gioiello, una novella che che ci mette di fronte all'assurdità della vita e della morte.

Pubblicata per la prima volta su Rassegna Contemporanea nell'agosto del 1911, "I fortunati" è una novella in cui Pirandello critica in maniera molto dura il mondo della chiesa, senza per questo rinunciare alla sua tagliente ironia. Conosciamo così Don Arturo Filomarino, giovane prete del piccolo paesino di Montelusa (paesino immaginario che, molto probabilmente, è Girgenti), che deve fare i conti con una pesantissima eredità.

Luigi Pirandello scrive ancora una volta un piccolo grande capolavoro presentandoci una storia intrisa di humor nero. Tanti i temi al centro di questa novella, narrata con sapiente maestria da Gaetano Marino: la morte, il cimitero, il matrimonio, il sesso... tante sfaccettature di una realtà sempre e comunque inafferrabile.

In questa novella di Luigi Pirandello, Gaetano Marino ci narra la storia di Spatolino, muratore capomastro che lavora per il comune, famoso per la sua fede e la sua devozione. Una novella in cui Pirandello si diverte a descrivere con grande ironia la società siciliana del tempo e, soprattutto, il suo rapporto con la fede e la religione cattolica.

Ascoltare "Marsina stretta" ci permette di immergerci in pieno in tutto l'umorismo pirandelliano. Tutto parte da un abito scomodo, la "marsina stretta" appunto, che opprime il Professor Gori, colpevole di avere qualche chilo di troppo. Ma sarà proprio quest'abito da cerimonia troppo stretto a rappresentare una svolta nella storia, tra drammi imprevisti e colpi di sorpresa paradossali in puro stile pirandelliano.

Lo sguardo di Pirandello ci accompagna con la consueta ironia in un piccolo paesino della Sicilia post unitaria. Assistiamo così ad una tragicomica "sfida" tra un oste e un avvocato taccagno, che stupisce l'ascoltatore con il suo inatteso risultato.

Saverio Càrzara e la signora Fana, sono marito e moglie. La loro è un'esistenza serena, tanto che l'animo quieto della moglie nel corso degli anni è riuscito a placare anche il temperamento focoso del marito. La signora Fana però è fin troppo calma, tanto che spesso cade vittima di attacchi di sonno che spaventano non poco suo marito. Pirandello scrive un altro piccolo grande capolavoro capace di mostrare tutti i paradossi della condizione umana.

Three spooky short stories from Stoker-nominated author Tom Leveen, reaching back into his early writing career. Two are a little funny, the other is a little scary. 

Clint Lukas' kompromissloser Held geht malochen, obwohl er Arbeit scheiße findet, macht Filme, obwohl er Filmleute nicht ertragen kann, hält sich für einen Frauenversteher und hat trotzdem immer Streit mit ihnen. Woran das liegt, dass immer alles so kompliziert sein muss? An ihm wohl kaum. Findet er jedenfalls. Clint Lukas lebt seit seinem zwanzigsten Lebensjahr in Berlin. Er hat nichts studiert und keinen Beruf gelernt.

Ordinary realities and yearnings to transcend them lead to miraculous other worlds in this dazzling collection of stories. A woman's deceased father appears in her dreams with clues about the afterlife; a Russian professor in a small American town constructs elaborate fantasies during her cigarette break; a man falls in love with a marble statue as his marriage falls apart. With the emotional insight of Chekhov, the surreal satire of Gogol, and a unique blend of humor and poetry all her own, Tolstaya transmutes the quotidian into aetherial alternatives.

From an acclaimed and original writer comes a new collection of stories bursting with absurdist plot twists and laced with trenchant wit. The title story delivers a cringingly biting dissection of racial attitudes in contemporary America, and Clarke also turns his eagle eye to subjects like PTSD, the fate of child actors, and, most especially, marital discord in stories like "Considering Lizzie Borden, Her Axe, My Wife" and "The Misunderstandings".