Join us on a literary world trip!

Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!

I want to read the book!

All characters reduced

The Vale of Laughter - A Novel - cover

The Vale of Laughter - A Novel

Peter De Vries

Publisher: Open Road Media

1
0
0

Summary

A brilliant, fiercely funny novel that ponders the eternal question: is it better to laugh or cry?  Joe Sandwich is a clown. Not literally, but what else do you call an eleven-year-old who goes to church to confess his good deeds: “I did my homework without being told”? A stockbroker who gets seasick watching the market tape and claims the gross national product is “deodorants”? A father who mows curse words into his lawn and names his son Hamilton because, well, who can resist a Ham Sandwich? Prankster, punster, cut-up, card—Joe needs to crack wise about everything. Has he figured out the secret to embracing the inherent absurdity of life, or is there some terrible anxiety at the root of his compulsion? Lots of people want to know, including his wife, Naughty, who is anything but; his mistress, Gloria Bunshaft; and her husband, Wally Hines, a humorless professor who specializes is the philosophy of humor. “If you look back,” says Joe, “you turn into a pillar of salt. If you look ahead, you turn into a pillar of society.” He prefers to live in the moment, from one gag to the next, but the joke he doesn’t see coming may get the biggest laugh of all.

Available since: 10/21/2014.

Print length: 348 pages.

Other books that might interest you

Auntie Poldi and the Vineyards of Etna - cover

Auntie Poldi and the Vineyards...

Mario Giordano

0
0
0

A Man Called Ove meets Inspector Montalbano, Auntie Poldi leaves no stone unturned in her quest for answers. Wine and murder - nothing is more likely to rouse Auntie Poldi's love of the chase.Still relishing the notoriety from her spectacular resolution of the Candela case, Poldi is alive to the faintest whiff of criminality.What to others might seem a series of misfortunes - the water supply cut off, a poisoned dog - is clearly, to Poldi, an escalation: the Mafia have had her in their sights ever since she solved Valentino's murder.Poldi has tasted blood. No one is above suspicion. And trouble will surely follow...

Executricks - Or How to Retire While You're Still Working - cover

Executricks - Or How to Retire...

Stanley Bing

0
0
0

The central question of every hard-working person's career is how to work less hard while still being able to buy a bottle of ninety-five-dollar Borolo without trembling. This is as true at age thirty as it is at more advanced ages. But by age forty, most of us are already thinking of exit strategies that will place us firmly off the grid for good. The question, then, is simple: How to retire while continuing to enjoy all the best things that haute-bourgeois life has to offer? The answer has been under our noses all along: Retire while still working! This might seem like a difficult proposition, but close examination of the concept reveals that there are many among us who have been exploring this boundary betwen a nice nap and the long sleep for quite some time. They are called "Senior Management," and we have a lot to learn from them.

Twilight Sleep - cover

Twilight Sleep

Edith Wharton

0
0
0

The celebrated author of The Age of Innocence offers a biting satire of Jazz Age society in this tale of indulgence, infidelity, and family dysfunction. Nona Manford is in love with the wrong man—or at least, she’s in love with a man whose wife won’t grant a divorce. When she isn’t preoccupied with her own romantic dilemma, Nona is busy trying to save the marriage of her stepbrother, Jim. But Jim’s wife, Lita, is desperate to escape her domestic role for a life of dancing, champagne, and glamour. And meanwhile, the family’s older generation isn’t faring much better.  An instant bestseller when it was first published in 1927, Edith Wharton’s Twilight Sleep is both a scathing satire of Jazz Age frivolity and a psychologically probing portrait of a family coming apart at the seams.

In Search of a Frickin' Hero - cover

In Search of a Frickin' Hero

M.H. Lee

0
0
0

For twenty frickin' years Ernigan has been searching for the chosen one who will save the world, and honestly he's about had it. Will "chosen one" number 83 finally be the one that says yes?

Abbott and Costello: Lou Builds...

Bud Abbott, Lou Costello
- 0
- 0
- 0
```
Costello plans to build a new house, but first he has to buy a lot.
```
Show book

Communication in Marriage - The Art of Positive Communication and How to Overcome Conflicts in Relationships and Grow Together - cover

Communication in Marriage - The...

Rina Mcnally

0
0
0

Communicate with clarity and confidenceUse communication skills to improve marriageImprove awareness; think more clearly and communicate more conciselyKnow how to effectively communicate with partnerYou will be able to identify communication mistakes you and your partner are making which are leading to tension and arguments.You will learn some of the top communication strategies in order to listen, be heard and reduce conflict in your relationships. 
Communication builds up your relationship. Lack of it can keep partners apart, and over time, lose affection and feelings for one another, even as they live under the same roof. Communication is the nourishment of relationships. Not just marriage relationship, relating with your coworkers, friends, families, kids, and parents demand some amount of effective communication and at a certain quality. 
Health-wise, effective communication reduces your stress level. In older couples, the cases of high blood pressure are reduced as couples will have less to worry about once issues are being discussed effectively.Importance of Communication in marriageWhat makes marriages work?Pathways of Effective Communication within MarriageRules for Effective CommunicationThe Art of Positive Marriage CommunicationHow to Utilizing the ABCs of Good CommunicationThe Mirror MethodWays to Effectively Become Emotionally Open In Your RelationshipUnderstand the True Meaning of Perfect RelationshipsThe Art of Intent ListeningSolving Intimacy ProblemsWho is the target audience? 
This book is for anyone who wants to improve communication to have a happier and healthier relationship with their significant other.