Humor Anthology

The mystique of the river life has often been romanticized but rarely scrutinized. The brotherhood of mariners who live and work the waterways of the heartland is made up of a rare breed that usually keeps to itself. Towboat Joe has broken the golden rule of "what happens on the boat stays on the boat" by inviting us to set sail on an unprecedented voyage.

Whether Christmas is a time of unbridled joy, a season of past reflections, or an ordeal to be endured until the return to normalcy after the New Year, its impact is pervasive in most of our lives. Everyone's feelings are super sensitized, every emotion is heightened. The happy become giddy, the sad become despondent, the lonely become lonelier – unless, yes unless – the magic of Christmas has its way. So it is for the characters in these stories.

Mystical. Weird. Hilarious. It's a tale of idiots. It's a tale of life. A dumb cast of characters you have to see to believe. The surgeon on an acid trip. The lazy Uncle who fuses with his favorite chair. The boy who comes back from the dead for revenge. Bootsy Collins. What do these people have in common? About as much as you have with Kevin Bacon.

En este libro, una decena y media de autores utiliza como recurso la cara más negra del humor mexicano para relatar anécdotas, digamos, un poco extremas: hay suicidas que se encuentran, fantasmas que deben morir, payasos combustibles, burócratas perdedores, niñas buenas que deben cometer un solo acto de relativa maldad… Pero el oyente no debe temer, esos extremos solo van de lo desopilante a lo macabro. Un libro que quizá te mate de risa.

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".

In search of the ferocious truth, some would call trying to channel the spirit of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson a fool’s errand. But these are desperate times. So settle in for this trilogy of uppers, downers, screamers, laughers from John Bruni (Tales of Questionable Taste), Kent Hill (Hercules with a Shotgun) and Kevin Candela (Weedeaters: The Complete Acropalypse) as they bring you just what the doctor ordered.

With these 13 transfixing, ingenious stories, Ben Marcus gives us timely dystopian visions of alienation in a modern world - cosmically and comically apt. Never has existential catastrophe been so much fun.

These 11 stories by Joshua Ferris, many of which were first published in The New Yorker, are at once thrilling, strange, and comic. The modern tribulations of marriage, ambition, and the fear of missing out as the temptations flow like wine and the minutes of life tick down are explored with the characteristic wit and insight that have made Ferris one of our most critically acclaimed novelists.

The Basilwade stories were originally published on the CaféLit website, where you can access short stories that go nicely with a cuppa. We even suggest a drink! Dawn Knox’s stories contain characters and situations that may seem a little larger than life at first glance but we can soon see that everyone involved is very human. And don’t we all recognise the quirkiness of village/small-town life?

An enjoyable collection of 21 short stories that will make you smile, wonder about human nature and stifle a giggle. From the absurd to the thought provoking, the past to the present, this eclectic anthology of original tales takes an irreverent look at life, pokes a stick at officialdom, and explores the daft side of our existence.

A chance to laugh is a way to enjoy the absurdities of life whenever they occur. It is the quick mind that is ever alert to those situations that are laughable. Come listen to this collection of stories.

In The Wrong Heaven, anything is possible: bodies can transform, inanimate objects come to life, angels appear and disappear. Amy Bonnaffons draws us into a delightfully strange universe, in which her conflicted characters seek to solve their sexual and spiritual dilemmas in all the wrong places. While some of the worlds to which Bonnaffons transports us are more recognizable than others, all of them uncover the mysteries beneath the mundane surfaces of our lives. As provocative as they are deeply affecting, these stories lay bare the heart of our deepest longings.

This book consists of 27 short stories of murder, mystery and mayhem. This is book one in a series of eight short story compilation books.

I Will Open My Mouth in Parables is a collection of fictional short stories recounting events that take place in or near the small town of Quick, West Virginia. The stories are set in the 1950's and are told in the first person by "Richie Smith."

It's that time of the year again, the holiday season. Between checkout lines a mile long, the office party hangover, battles with traffic, and delayed flights, what's better to do than to listen to The Worst Noel and laugh your holiday aggravation away? The collection features an eclectic mix of writers with playful, often dark humor as the common thread.

E.E. King delivers a collection of short stories that are original, funny, and always thought provoking. From a hilarious tale of an animal activist who can't get anything right to a man tasked with writing a guidebook for heaven. These tales will delight you.

Fearless, candid, and incredibly funny, Lauren Holmes is a newcomer who writes like a master. She tackles eros and intimacy with a deceptively light touch, a keen awareness of how their nervous systems tangle and sometimes short-circuit, and a genius for revealing our most vulnerable, spirited selves. With heart, sass, and pitch-perfect characters, Barbara the Slut is a head-turning debut from a writer with a limitless career before her.

Incendiary Girls explores our baser instincts with vivid imagination and humor. In these stories, our bodies become strange and unfamiliar terrain, a medium for transformation. In "Fundamental Laws of Nature", a doctor considers her legacy, both good and bad, when she discovers that her mother has been reincarnated as a thoroughbred mare. In the title story, a mischievous angel chronicles the remarkable life of a girl just beyond death’s reach.

From the highly acclaimed author of Edisto and The Interrogative Mood, Padgett Powell's new collection of stories, Cries for Help, Various Stories, follows his mentor Donald Barthelme's advice that "wacky mode must "break their hearts". The surrealistic and comical terrain of most of the 44 stories here is grounded by a real preoccupation with longing, fear, work, loneliness, and cultural nostalgia. These universal concerns are given exhilarating life by way of Powell's "wit, his...dazzling turns of phrase" (Scott Spencer).

E.E. King offers a unique perspective on life, love and sometimes the meaning of the universe. This exuberant collection of short fiction and a novella is often hysterical, occasionally tragic and always thoughtful. Funny and dark, these tales will have you up all night.