Within its covers are unforgettable episodes from the remarkable series of memoirs that began with All Creatures Great and Small-"the ones my family and I have laughed at over the years and the ones my readers have said they most enjoyed," as Herriot, himself, put it. Yet the book is far more than a simple anthology: Its gorgeous pages also include hundreds of line drawings and color photographs, capturing Herriot's Yorkshire in a worthy complement to the writer's words.The 1991 publication of Every Living Thing, rendered the original edition of this book incomplete. This fall will mark the publication of the complete, definitive edition with the addition of five of his best, more recent stories, as well as new art. Once again The Best of James Herriot becomes the quintessential Herriot volume-one of those invaluable books that will be loved as much in decades to come as it is today.

    It's an acknowledged bit of wisdom that authors all learn at one time or another: Don't let your publisher write the promotional material. Words like "countless millions," "knee-slapping hilarious," and "cult following" are found peppering one's sacred book jacket like pigeon droppings on a statue of the Virgin Mary...which naturally is how I think of my work.The truth is that the only "cult following" my comic strip had when this book appeared consisted of my mother. Bless her heart, she still reads it daily. She'll hand the funny page to me, point to it, scrunch her eyes together and say, "Honey, what were you trying to say here?" If opus spits watermelon seeds at Milo, she'll say to me, "So this is a sort of comment on the watermelon industry?" So you see, to my publisher and to my mother, I remain a victim of unrealistic expectations.In the meantime, please accept my apologies for the way Opus is drawn within this volume. I had no experience drawing birds in 1982 and you will notice that his beak tends to randomly shrink or expand. To this day, my mother thinks it symbolically represented the changing fortunes of my bachelor love life. Maybe it did, Mom, and maybe it didn't.Berke BreathedAugust 1987

    To get into a spot of bother. Circumstances, aided and abetted by Aunt Agatha, Aunt Dahlia, Bingo Little, Tuppy, Sippy and others, seem to conspire against him, and a frightful muddle ensues.Enter Jeeves, the source of all solace. Jeeves of the infinite sagacity. Jeeves, that noiseless provider of deliverance from the hangover, a bird of the ripest intellect, calm and wise enough to rescue Bertie and his pals from the most fearful scrapes. Jeeves, that subtle master of prudence, good taste and ineffable composure. Where would that chump Bertie be without him?This omnibus edition will delight newcomers to Wodehouse as well as those already familiar with his sunny universe and his sparkling prose. It contains Right Ho, Jeeves; The Inimitable Jeeves; and Very Good, Jeeves.

    His writings in The New Yorker and other prominent periodicals have made him one of the most widely read of Russian émigré authors. In Ours, he traces four generations of Russian family life – and the very course of modern Soviet history – through a portrait of the Dovlatov clan: from Uncle Aron, whose political convictions wavered with his own unstable health; to upstanding Cousin Boris, the family’s pride, who found he was happy only when in trouble with the authorities; to larger-than-life Grandpa Isaak; to the wildly comic story of how Dovlatov met his wife; to off-the-wall tales of parents and cousins, uncles and children, and even the pet dog.In the tradition of the great Russian satirists, featuring the same irreverence and irony for which Dovlatov’s previous works were celebrated, Ours is an engaging and thoroughly enjoyable group self-portrait by one of the freshest voices to emerge from the Soviet Union.

    an alternate cover edition can be found hereMore humerous observations and insights into the agonies and ecstacies of hunting, fishing, and camping by the author of They Shoot Canoes, Don't They?and other celebrations of life in the wild.

    The prospect of a summer job as a tour guide at the Pushkin Hills Preserve offers him hope of regaining some balance in life as his wife makes plans to emigrate to the West with their daughter Masha, but during Alikhanov’s stay in the rural estate of Mikhaylovskoye, his life continues to unravel.Populated with unforgettable characters—including Alikhanov’s fellow guides Mitrofanov and Pototsky, and the KGB officer Belyaev—Pushkin Hills ranks among Dovlatov’s renowned works The Suitcase and The Zone as his most personal and poignant portrayal of the Russian attitude towards life and art.

    And not to mention Death, who's not so bad once you get to know him.

    Two feature the supremely popular Bertie Wooster and his butler, Jeeves. Includes The Return of Jeeves, Bertle Wooster Sees It Through, Spring Fever, The Butler Did It, and The Old Reliable.

    Its affectionate, wacky, and wryly realistic portrayal of an American family’s typical Christmas joys and travails in small-town Depression-era Indiana has entered our imagination and our hearts with a force equal to It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street.This edition of A Christmas Story gathers together in one hilarious volume the gems of autobiographical humor that Jean Shepherd drew upon to create this enduring film. Here is young Ralphie Parker’s shocking discovery that his decoder ring is really a device to promote Ovaltine; his mother and father’s pitched battle over the fate of a lascivious leg lamp; the unleashed and unnerving savagery of Ralphie’s duel in the show with the odious bullies Scut Farkas and Grover Dill; and, most crucially, Ralphie’s unstoppable campaign to get Santa—or anyone else—to give him a Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot range model air rifle. Who cares that the whole adult world is telling him, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid”?The pieces that comprise A Christmas Story, previously published in the larger collections In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash and Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories, coalesce in a magical fashion to become an irresistible piece of Americana, quite the equal of the film in its ability to warm the heart and tickle the funny bone.From the Hardcover edition.

    A bumper volume of the best poems by a hugely funny and quotable writer.

    The tale revolves around three characters: two humans and one duck. Jim Dodge is the author of "Not Fade Away" and "Stone Junction".

    This favorite of Percy fans continues to charm and beguile readers of all tastes and backgrounds. Lost in the Cosmos invites us to think about how we communicate with our world.

    At the same time they are intended to reach other levels.

    Like Girls and Boys, Big Ideas features many of her greatest cartoons, including her menacing "Poodle with a Mohawk". Line drawings throughout.

    Linus finds himself entangled in a love triangle (and stuck on top of a snow-covered roof). And Charlie Brown runs away from the law and becomes a vagrant baseball coach. The Peanuts crew is lovable, popular, and charming, but please whatever you do, don’t call Linus “My Sweet Babboo!”

    Divorce taught Grizzard that Sunday nights are endless and that strange things grow on food left uncovered in the refrigerator. If Love Were Oil, I'd be About a Quart Low is the bittersweet account of Grizzard's three marriages and three subsequent divorces. Based on his bestselling book of the same name, this program features the inimitable talent of Lewis Grizzard and his very personal, often humorous views on women.The Lewis Grizzard column is syndicated nationally in more than 250 newspapers. He has written eight bestselling books, and is in great demand as an after dinner speaker. He and his dog, Catfish, live in Atlanta, Georgia.Other titles by Lewis Grizzard available through Sound Editions from Random House: My Daddy was a Pistol and I'm a Son of a Gun and Elvis is Dead and I Don't Feel so Good Myself.

    To care for children, a husband, and oneself is a superhuman task, and any woman who appears to be expert at doing all three simultaneously is not Supermom--she's a good actress. For three decades, Erma Bombeck chronicled motherhood's daily frustrations and victories. In this classic anthology, she presents all sorts of mothers, and even a stay-at-home dad, on good days and bad. With hilarious anecdotes and deep compassion, she shows that there is no other profession that demands so much, and rewards so highly. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Erma Bombeck including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author's estate.

    These comical Indian tales feature Silas Ermineskin, an eighteen-year-old trickster and storyteller who has a genius for irony and a talent for trouble

    From from the sex-and-drugs-and-rock-and-roll diet to how to cure a broken heart, there is no better, funnier, truer guide to life, love, and the pursuit of men!

    ' dentity CrisisRecovering from a nervous breakdown, Jane is nursed and nagged by her energetic and overwhelming mother, Edith Fromage, who claims to have invented cheese. She also criticizes Jane for her suicide attempt, but then claims it never happened. Plus Jane is very confused by the fact that her mother and her brother Dwayne seem to be having an affair. But then at other times, her brother turns into her father, and then into her grandfather, and sometimes into a French count. So Jane isn’t really sure who he is. Her psychiatrist makes a house call and listens sympathetically to Jane’s recurring memory of attending a nightmarish production of “Peter Pan” in her youth. But then he goes off and has sex change, and returns as a woman, and Jane has trouble recognizing him. Then his wife shows up, also with a sex change, and the wife now looks like the psychiatrist. So poor Jane feels crazier still, though Edith and Dwayne/father/ grandfather/count think the new company is great fun, and everybody ends by conjugating the verb “dentity” : I dentity, you dentity, he she or it denties.The Actor's NightmareThe Actor's Nightmare is a short comic play by Christopher Durang. It involves an accountant named George Spelvin, who is mistaken for an actor's understudy and forced to perform in a play for which he doesn't know any of the lines.

    Wodehouse often said that he wished he'd spent more time playing golf and less "fooling about writing stories and things." Happily, the prolific and beloved satirist often took his pen to the green. Here, Wodehouse expert D.R. Bensen has collected a dozen pieces to delight golfers and those who know them -- even those who have never basked in the ecstasy of a perfect putt.

    The Clown-Around family has some misadventures on its way to visit Uncle Waldo.

    Bette Midler inspires with her words full of charm. As she tells us how Baby Divine escapes harm. How so much talent could be in one girl? To fathom it makes my poor brain start to whirl. She not only acts, sings, dances and writes! She's the brightest of stars in a world full of nights ...

    

    Find out what should go into the basic toolkit (a stout shovel is helpful and so are reinforced gauntlets); which species thrive in household life and which will cause BIG problems; and what dinosaurs are just right for circuses and zoos, in security, and for giving eggs and meat. For every dinosaur covered, there’s information on feeding, breeding, housing, and availability; maps of where they lived; details on weight and size; as well as other pertinent facts. The illustrations cleverly mix photography and art to bring humans and dinos together for the first time.

    This is where it all begins -- with the tourist Twoflower and his wizard guide, Rincewind.On a world supported on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown), a gleeful, explosive, wickedly eccentric expedition sets out. There's an avaricious but inept wizard, a naive tourist whose luggage moves on hundreds of dear little legs, dragons who only exist if you believe in them, and of course THE EDGE of the planet...

    Contents:*A Gent from Bear Creek (Novel) * The Riot at Cougar Paw* Pilgrims to the Pecos* Gents on the Rampage* The Apache Mountain War* Pistol Politics* The Conquerin' Hero of the Humbolts* A Ring-tailed Tornado* No Cowherders Wanted* Mayhem and Taxes * Evil Deeds at Red Cougar* Sharp's Gun Serenade* The Peaceful Pilgrim* While Smoke Rolled* A Elkins Never SurrendersCover Illustration: James Warhola

    It starts with the birth of a seemingly insignificant human being (especially from a haddock's point of view) who, sure enough turns out to play no further part in the film.

    This anthology collects its greatest moments. Selection of the Library of Science Book and the Book-of-the-Month Science Book clubs. 81,000 copies in print.

    Nick is a jolly, twinkly-eyed mountain man named Sainty. He drives a buckboard pulled swiftly through the sky by eight plump, friendly black bears.

    But, no bear hugs, please. Kathleen Keating and Mimi Noland combine their talents to show how and why all kinds of hugs have positive results on IQ, aging, self-esteem, and stress. Simple line art drawings of charismatic cartoon bears lend a whimsical touch to book guaranteed to touch your heart. A great gift idea for someone who needs a hug. A beary, beary uplifting book.

    

    Twenty-five hilarious script-parodies in all reveal just how dubious the distinction is today between literature and popular culture. The authors also provide behind-the-scenes look at what might have gone on at the studio in the final weeks of the show. No student of "Leave it to Beaver" or of great books will want to be without a copy of The Beaver Papers.

    This is the classic that ushered in so many imitators, imitators who did not get "it." "It" is slack, the desiderata that cannot be desired and is only attainable through "Bob," the evil god/male model who founded the Church of the SubGenius without bothering to "exist." If you read this holy book properly, you will learn to "pull the wool over your own eyes." While this volume may seem hilarious, it's also an incredibly adept deconstruction of religion in general and the human impulse to believe in and follow anyone who promises to give their lives meaning and structure. Plus, it's the only place to find the information you need to survive when the bad alien gods come out of the sky to kill, enslave, and entertain us. If you don't already have a copy, then hand in your hipness ID card and hang your head in shame.

    "A humorous celebration." --Booklist.

    Luminous Animals and Other Drawings, by Kliban, B.

    

    He still has the scars to prove it. Magnificat is a comic tribute to the mysterious relationship human beings have long had with the feline species.

    Naval Academy. When the book was first published in 1983 Roger Staubach, class of 1965, wrote, Anyone who has attended a service academy will recognize Philo T. McGiffin and his classmates. However, anyone who has ever had a dream or a goal will feel a special kinship with Philo. This is a book worth reading.Poyer's Philo, burdened with the name of Annapolis's legendary prankster of the class of 1882, attracts attention from the day he reports for Plebe Summer, and the upperclassmen soon make his life a living hell. Stoop-shouldered and meek, he seems an unlikely candidate to carry on the tradition of the original Philo, whose outrageous escapades had served as a symbol of subversive individualism to generations of midshipmen. At first Philo nearly buckles under from the strain, but gradually The Mouse learns to roar and ultimately to triumph in the grand style of his predecessor. Funny, touching, and enormously realistic, this madcap novel will bring back to everyone what it was like to be 17--and in deep trouble.

    Fortunately he is drawing, not singing.His cartoons are hung regularly throughout America, which is more important to him than having his works hung in the Museum of Modern Art (which they are not)."How many people look at Picasso or Matisse each time they get a glass of milk?" asks Bil.He is proud of the continued popularity of The Family Circus(c) now seen in 1,500 newspapers and on millions of refrigerators.

    A collection of comic strips, in which Snoopy makes the tennis tournament finals, Sally goes to bean bag camp, and Peppermint Patty fights for women's rights.

    The World According to Carp [Paperback]

    

    When Henry the Duck agrees to babysit his friend Clara's infant nephew, he doesn't suspect all his neighbors will want to leave their rambunctious babies with him, too! Full-color illustrations.

    A collection of riddles, games, jokes and facts about rabbits.

    Contains the novels Uncle Fred in the Springtime, Uncle Dynamite, Cocktail Time and the short story "Uncle Fred Flits By".

    Traces the history of stuffed animals from prehistoric times to the present; provides guidelines for buying and adopting them; and advises the new owner on the care, training, breeding, and showing of stuffies.

    She can't enlist her sons: the boys worship the ex-basketball star. He's commandeered Shay's tow truck, rallied her townspeople, and even orchestrated a hurricane to his advantage. Shay can't hold out forever against Dag's zany sensual tactics.... Does she even want to?The five-foot-eleven New England widow has two weeks to decide her fate-and the infuriating Norseman is already betting on what that future will be!

    11, 1950 under the title, The Rider on the Pale Horse.

    Line drawings by William Bramhall. New York: Clarkson, Potter, Inc., Publishers, 1983 First Edition First Printing. 6" x 8.5" tall; 207 pages with Glossary.

    

    

     In The Rounders, two stove-up cowboys, Dusty Jones and Wrangler Lewis, set out to break a wild roan named Old Fooler - part horse - part devil - if he doesn't break them first!

    

    Facetious and satirical mnemonics for themes from Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Ravel, Mozart, etc. Quite a delightful little book.

    

    

    

    

    

    Having followed instructions, he made up his pack with "green side out" only to have the word changed, resulting in having to do it all over again, "brown side out."These are the titles of the sea-stories in four books, stories which accurately reflect the Marine Corps from 1950 to 1979, comical, sad, and stories to bring back memories of the older Marines and paint a vivid picture for the newer ones. You'll meet some real characters -- Monk Monaco, Trash Eleven, Russell Wilcox, and many others who served their Corps proudly -- and with a real sense of honor -- and humor.

    But there are two Captain Klutz books! This is one of them, or number two!You will probably find number one hilarious, too! But let's just talk about this one, number two, which is number one on the best cellar list!