Literary Lapses
10 best books like Literary Lapses (Stephen Leacock): The Mitchells: Five for Victory, The Story of a Bad Boy, The Pratchett Portfolio: A compendium of characters from the Discworld, Meet Me in St. Louis, Maldoror and Poems, Doonesbury Dossier: The Reagan Years, The Bear That Wasn't, Henry's Awful Mistake, Pigs Is Pigs, Mark Twain's Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review
| Author | Hilda van Stockum |
| ISBN | 1883937051 |
The five Mitchell children are based on the author's own family. In the first of three books about their adventures, Daddy has just gone off to World War II. One of his final words to his daughter Joan is, "No dogs " She would dearly love such a pet, but life is full and so many new friends -- pets as well as people...
| Author | Thomas Bailey Aldrich |
| ISBN | 1406806641 |
In a time when children's books were populated with well-behaved little gentlemen, Thomas Bailey Aldrich dared to present an alternative point of view - childhood as he remembered it. Tom Bailey is no angel. At times a bully, a vandal, and a troublemaker, he has a healthy zest for life and a perhaps over-developed...
| Author | Terry Pratchett |
| ISBN | 0575063483 |
Terry Pratchett's incredible Discworld, floating through space on the backs of four elephants* standing on a giant turtle, supports some of the most popular characters ever imagined in the world of fantasy fiction. But the Discworld people are real, and here they are, warts (except, of course, in...
| Author | Sally Benson |
| ISBN | 1891442260 |
There are times when a film does a more enjoyable job with a book than the book does for itself. "Meet Me in Saint Louis" is one of the great old movie musicals, and probably provided the best performance ever given by Judy Garland. The book, on the other hand, is nothing extraordinary in the genre of happy-old-time-family...
| Author | Comte de Lautréamont |
Alternate version of this book.
‘It is not right that everyone should read the pages which follow; only a few will be able to savour this bitter fruit with impunity.’
So wrote the self-styled Comte de Lautréamont (1846–70) at the beginning of this sensational Chants de Maldoror.
One...
| Author | G.B. Trudeau |
| ISBN | 0030000726 |
Garretson Beekman "Garry" Trudeau is an American cartoonist, best known for the Doonesbury comic strip. In 1970, Trudeau's creation of Doonesbury was syndicated by the newly formed Universal Press Syndicate. Today Doonesbury is syndicated to almost 1,400 newspapers worldwide and is accessible...
| Author | Frank Tashlin |
| ISBN | 0486287874 |
"A fable for grownups that will be fun for children. Sit down with the book and get your own bearings." — New York Herald Tribune
With the first signs of approaching winter, the Bear's thoughts naturally turn to a cozy cave and a long snooze till spring. But when he awakes a few months later, he is surprised...
| Author | Robert M. Quackenbush |
| ISBN | 0819310395 |
Henry the Duck sure gets himself into some sticky situations! Just when he thinks dinner is almost ready, he spots an ant in the house. Children and parents alike will love following disaster-prone Henry through his adventures in cooking, cleverly written and illustrated by Robert Quackenbush.
Don't...
| Author | Ellis Parker Butler |
| ISBN | 1410103226 |
This American classic is a humorous turn-of-the-century story about a train agent and the definition of a guinea pig. This hilarious tale of bureaucracy run amok at the Interurban Express Company, and exponential growth of the Guinea pig population shows what can happen when ignorance and bureaucrats...
| Author | Mark Twain |
| ISBN | 0299234746 |
Mark Twain’s Own Autobiography stands as the last of Twain’s great yarns. Here he tells his story in his own way, freely expressing his joys and sorrows, his affections and hatreds, his rages and reverence—ending, as always, tongue-in-cheek: “Now, then, that is the tale. Some of it is true.”...
| Author | Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley |
| ISBN | 1419131079 |
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving,...
| Author | William Dean Howells |
| ISBN | 0671003267 |
"'Here is a charming Christmas tale. Read this to your little one.' I took the book from her outstretched arm and examined the title, Christmas Every Day by William Dean Howells." So wrote Richard Paul Evans in his bestselling The Christmas Box, which captivated millions of readers across America,...
| Author | Earl Derr Biggers |
| ISBN | 1587153017 |
The Agony Column is a perfect brew of mystery and romance of the very old-fashioned variety. Perhaps no one other than M.M. Kaye blended these two elements as well as Earl Derr Biggers. Forever remembered for his creation of Charlie Chan, the great detective from Hawaii, many of Biggers' other novels...
| Author | Anthony Hyde |
| ISBN | 0140083987 |
In his widely acclaimed, intelligently written first novel, Anthony Hyde gives us the thrilling story of a search -- from Canada to Georgetown to Paris to Leningrad, and finally to an isolated Russian village -- for a missing man, a missing fortune, and the key to a tantalizing mystery half a century...
| Author | Alfred Jarry |
| ISBN | 1900565250 |
An anthology of previously untranslated texts by Alfred Jarry beginning with his first work, Black Minutes of Memorial Sand. Included are theoretical texts, aberrant journalism, and highly-wrought Symbolist poems; a practical guide to building a time machine; and the bizarre dramatic buffoonery...
Mr. Britling Sees it Through
H.G. Wells' attempt to make sense of World War I. It begins with a lighthearted account of an American visiting England for the first time, but the outbreak of war changes everything. Day by day and month by month, Wells chronicles the unfolding events and public reaction as witnessed by the inhabitants...
| Author | Patrick Ryan |
| ISBN | 0552076708 |
It's a shame this book isn't more popular than it is. It's more of a shame that the rest of Ryan's work is even less accessible, because if his other books have even 10% the skill of this, they are well worth reading. While not as good as Catch 22 (which is damn near impossible to beat), it runs a close second...
Paris Out of Hand: A Wayward Guide
| Author | Karen Elizabeth Gordon |
| ISBN | 0811809692 |
From the author of The Transitive Vampire, comes an invitation to a strangely illuminated City of Light, Paris out of Hand. This seductively beautiful replica of a 19th-century travel book—replete with illustrations of sights you will never see and maps that may plummet you into a different era—guides...
Pan Kaplan má stále třídu rád
| Author | Leo Rosten |
| ISBN | 8071061026 |
Laskavý humor příběhu je postaven především na zápase s angličtinou nejen pana Kaplana, ale i dalších přistěhovalců do New Yorku. Krejčí Hyman Kaplan má takřka geniální schopnost přešít jazyková pravidla tak, aby netísnila jeho neuvěřitelnou vyřídilku. Urputná...
| Author | Robert Benchley |
| ISBN | 0226042189 |
Robert C. Benchley's sketches and articles, published in periodicals like Life, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker, earned him a reputation as one of the sharpest humorists of his time; his influence—on contemporaries such as E. B. White, James Thurber, and S. J. Perelman, or followers like Woody Allen,...
| Author | Robin Driscoll |
| ISBN | 0836217608 |
*This review is based on my 1993 edition of this book. A second edition was released in 2010
First published in the UK in 1993, Mr. Bean's Diary is the result of teamwork between Robin Driscoll (British actor / writer for the Mr. Bean show) and Mr. Bean himself, Rowan Atkinson. Here, fans of the...
The Tunnel Under the World by Frederik Pohl, Science Fiction, Fantasy
"The Tunnel under the World" was first published in 1954 in Galaxy magazine. On the morning of June 15th, Guy Burckhardt woke up screaming out of a dream. It was more real than any dream he had ever had in his life. He could still hear and feel the sharp, ripping-metal explosion, the violent heave that had...
Paradigms Lost: Tackling the Unanswered Mysteries of Modern Science
| Author | John L. Casti |
| ISBN | 0380711656 |
The origins of life ... Extraterrestrials ... Our genetic destiny ... The roots of language and learning ... Quantum physics and the shape of the universe ... Artificial intelligence .. In a masterful "trial by reason," author John L. Casti presents all sides of the most important and vital scientific...
