Book picks similar to
The Zebra Derby by Max Shulman
20th-century
novels
fiction
all-ebooks
By the Shores of Gitchee Gumee
Tama Janowitz - 1996
From the author of Slaves of New York and The Male Cross-Dresser Support Group, this satire in the all-too-rare genre of Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One tells a compelling story of the sex lives of people and invertebrates at the end of America's 20th century.
Driving in the Dark
Deborah Moggach - 1994
Now a coach driver, he is at the most crucial crossroads of his life. His wife has thrown him out. The crisis serves only to deepen his despair over another failed liaison - until he elects to steer his coach on a spectacularly reckless quest for the son he has never seen.
Talking into the Ear of a Donkey: Poems
Robert Bly - 2011
In the title poem, Bly addresses the "donkey"—possibly poetry itself—that has carried him through a writing life of more than six decades.from "Talking into the Ear of a Donkey" "What has happened to the spring," I cry, "and our legs that were so joyful In the bobblings of April?" "Oh, never mind About all that," the donkey Says. "Just take hold of my mane, so you Can lift your lips closer to my hairy ears."
Maximum Bob
Léonard Elmore - 1991
-Washington Post Book World A character so outrageous he could only have come from the ingenious imagination of Elmore Leonard, lewd, lecherous, law-bending Florida jurist Judge Robert Maximum Bob Gibbs has been judged guilty by a grudge-bearing malefactor and sentenced to death-by alligator, if necessary. Maximum Bob is a delightfully dark classic thriller from the greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever (New York Times Book Review), and any reader who loved getting gleefully lost in criminal mayhem of Get Shorty, Rum Punch, Out of Sight, The Hot Kid, or any number of the inimitable Leonards numerous crime fiction masterworks will get maximum enjoyment out of this one. Product Details: Hardcover Publisher: Imprint unknown (September 26, 1991) ISBN-10: 0670843121 ISBN-13: 978-0670843121 Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
Ten O'Clock Horses
Laurie Graham - 2000
The first avocado pears are appearing at the greengrocer's, people are thinking about carpeting their lavatories and boxing in their banisters, and Ronnie Glover, housepainter, husband and father, is feeling the first vague stirrings of discontent with his life. Then, out of the blue, the fabulous, sophisticated (and married) Jacqueline bursts into his life and teaches him to tango. She seems to offer everything he ever dreamt of. But is it all too good to he true?
Player Piano
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - 1952
Paul’s rebellion is vintage Vonnegut—wildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality.Alternate cover edition here
The Amelia Butterworth Mysteries
Anna Katharine Green - 2011
Miss Butterworth is a nosy high-society lady whose wealth and lack of family give her the free time solve several Victorian-era crimes.Anna Katharine Green (1846-1935) was a pioneering American author of detective fiction. Her legally accurate and intricately-plotted works served to inspire later generations of writers, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, who patterned her 'Miss Marple' character after Green's spinster crimefighter Amelia Butterworth. Includes an active table of contents with back-linking for easy navigation.• That Affair Next Door• Lost Man’s Lane• The Circular Study
Big Fish
Daniel Wallace - 1998
He saved lives, tamed giants. Animals loved him. People loved him. Women loved him (and he loved them back). And he knew more jokes than any man alive.Now, as he lies dying, Edward Bloom can't seem to stop telling jokes -or the tall tales that have made him, in his son's eyes, an extraordinary man. Big Fish is the story of this man's life, told as a series of legends and myths inspired by the few facts his son, William, knows. Through these tales -hilarious and wrenching, tender and outrageous- William begins to understand his elusive father's great feats, and his great failings.
Another Part of the Forest
Lillian Hellman - 1948
Marcus Hubbard, rich, despotic and despised, made a fortune during the Civil War by running the blockade and worse. In his family life he is equally injurious: one son he bulldozes while the other he holds in contempt for his frailty. By Marcus's side stands his mentally deranged wife and, finally, Regina, the adored daughter amoral, conniving, and beautiful as an evil flower. Marcus, it would seem, has been on the top of the heap long enough and someone must depose him. Turning the tables on a tyrant has always made for high drama, and when Hellman puts her brilliant talents to work on such a theme the result is a play of great theatrical intensity.
Heartburn
Nora Ephron - 1983
For in this inspired confection of adultery, revenge, group therapy, and pot roast, the creator of Sleepless in Seattle reminds us that comedy depends on anguish as surely as a proper gravy depends on flour and butter.Seven months into her pregnancy, Rachel Samstat discovers that her husband, Mark, is in love with another woman. The fact that the other woman has "a neck as long as an arm and a nose as long as a thumb and you should see her legs" is no consolation. Food sometimes is, though, since Rachel writes cookbooks for a living. And in between trying to win Mark back and loudly wishing him dead, Ephron's irrepressible heroine offers some of her favorite recipes. Heartburn is a sinfully delicious novel, as soul-satisfying as mashed potatoes and as airy as a perfect soufflé.
Survivor
Chuck Palahniuk - 1999
He is all alone in the airplane, which will crash shortly into the vast Australian outback. Before it does, he will unfold the tale of his journey from an obedient Creedish child and humble domestic servant to an ultra-buffed, steroid- and collagen-packed media messiah, author of a best-selling autobiography, Saved from Salvation, and the even better selling Book of Very Common Prayer (The Prayer to Delay Orgasm, The Prayer to Prevent Hair Loss, The Prayer to Silence Car Alarms). He'll reveal the truth of his tortured romance with the elusive and prescient Fertility Hollis, share his insight that "the only difference between suicide and martyrdom is press coverage," and deny responsibility for the Tender Branson Sensitive Materials Sanitary Landfill, a 20,000-acre repository for the nation's outdated pornography. Among other matters both bizarre and trenchant.Not since Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night and Jerzy Kosinski's Being There has there been as dark and telling a satire on the wages of fame and the bedrock lunacy of the modern world. Unpredictable, compelling, and unforgettable, Survivor is Chuck Palahniuk at his deadpan peak; and it cements his place as one of the most original writers in fiction today.
Side Effects
Woody Allen - 1980
Included here are such classics as REMEMBERING NEEDLEMAN, THE KUGELMASS EPISODE, a new story called CONFESSIONS OF A BUGLAR, and more.
Stupid 911 Calls (Volume 1)
S. Schell - 2011
A collection of 45 ridiculous 911 emergency calls, submitted by 911 Call Center Operators across the U.S.Dedicated to you, the Taxpayer who funded these calls.Note: A quick 10-minute read of humorous quotes from real calls.Just enough for a grin of the day!
God Knows
Joseph Heller - 1984
You already know David as the legendary warrior king of Israel, husband of Bathsheba, and father of Solomon; now meet David as he really was: the cocky Jewish kid, the plagiarized poet, and the Jewish father. Listen as David tells his own story, a story both relentlessly ancient and surprisingly modern, about growing up and growing old, about men and women, and about man and God. It is quintessential Heller.
October Ferry To Gabriola
Malcolm Lowry - 1971
It is not a completed novel, however. According to Margerie Lowry, the author's widow, this published version is her "sorting out" of numerous drafts of chapters, paragraphs and even sentences that Lowry began to write in 1946.