Showing titles in Satire

Richard Brautigan's world is one of gentle magic and marvelous laughter, of the incredibly beautiful and the beautifully incredible. Trout Fishing in America is a pseudonym for the miraculous. A journey that begins at the foot of the Benjamin Franklin statue in San Francisco's Washington Square, that wanders through the wonders of America's rural waterways, and that ends, inevitably, with mayonnaise. Funny, wild, and sweet, Trout Fishing in America is an incomparable guidebook to the delights of exploration.

An unknown terrorist has released a biological weapon onto the American public. Anyone with an IQ over 84 is in danger - people's heads are exploding - the country is on lockdown. Everything is about to change forever. Luckily, some people are still alive. Like the president of the United States. And Congress. And millions of idiots determined to figure out why their heads aren't blowing up. Which brings us to David Dingle.

In this selection from the seventh scurrilous series of the topical comedy show, broadcast in 2002, Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis - plus the regular team of Marcus Brigstocke, Emma Kennedy, Jon Holmes and Mitch Benn - take a sideways look and an off-the-wall glance at a number of issues. Includes...

When love reigns supreme in Northridge High just outside Chicago, by the lake, it happens beneath the soft, pink-infused spotlights hovering over that most special night of the year - prom night. Passable in Pink is an Audible Original from New York Times best-selling author Mike Sacks (Stinker Lets Loose!). Sacks has teamed up once again with director Eric Jason Martin (Stinker Lets Loose!, Heads Will Roll) to adapt a forgotten John Hughes-type 1983 movie into a fully immersive cinematic audio experience, with an epic all-star cast.

According to Max Disher, an ambitious young black man in 1930s New York, someone of his race has only three alternatives: "Get out, get white, or get along." Incapable of getting out and unhappy with getting along, Max leaps at the remaining possibility. Thanks to a certain Dr. Junius Crookman and his mysterious process, Max and other eager clients develop bleached skin that permits them to enter previously forbidden territory. What they discover in white society, however, gives them second thoughts.

Pope Blatantly IV wishes to return to the papal autocracy of the Middle Ages. He devises a threefold plan: 1) to enforce universal Catholic geographical supremacy, 2) to criminalize sin, and 3) to ban “grease” in favor of doctrinal “dryness.” The Pope’s outlandish initiatives include annexing Antarctica using a team of bodybuilders and gluing borders, and monetizing salvation through Indulgences 2.0 and Pre-Death Canonizations. In opposition to the Pope’s extravagant claims, the “Grease Underground,” is formed.

'Have you met them yet, the new couple?' When Gav and Lou move into the house next door, Sara spends days plucking up courage to say hello. The neighbours are glamorous, chaotic and just a little eccentric. They make the rest of Sara's street seem dull by comparison. When the hand of friendship is extended, Sara is delighted and flattered. Incredibly, Gav and Lou seem to see something in Sara and Neil that they admire, too.

There's a different schemer or slimeball behind every door: cocaine duckpins who have survived only by the dumbest fortune, hard-luck gigolos desperate to score, undercover cops busting undercover cops who are running sting operations on undercover cops.

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE New York Times Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century "A brilliant literary murder mystery." —Chicago Tribune "Extraordinary. Tokarczuk's novel is funny, vivid, dangerous, and disturbing, and it raises some fierce questions about human behavior...

Interstellar con man Rex Nihilo has a price tag on his head. Railroaded into smuggling a shipment of contraband corn to a planet short on food, Rex finds himself on the run from an insidious corporation named Ubiqorp, which reaps obscene profits by keeping the planet dependent on shipments of synthetic rations. When Rex and his long-suffering robot companion Sasha are sentenced to work as slave labor on a massive Ubiqorp plantation, they learn the terrible secret behind the corporation's products.

DANNY WALLACE IS A MAN.And a man is a very tricky thing to be these days. A toe-curling moment, an embarrassing faux-pas or a bewildering social situation is always just round the corner. As well as annoying his wife in a dream, getting stuck in a Vapour Room and being invited to a government task force meeting with TV's Jon Tickle, Danny's life is turned upside down by a huge surprise.

It used to be: Make good grades, get good SAT scores, write a good essay, and you were on your way to a good college. Now? Kiss that world goodbye. Merit isn’t a sure thing. Connections are everything. And money talks– a lot. Enter Kelly Pritzker (Abbi Jacobson), a shrewd, New Jersey-based college “consultant” who isn’t above faking athletic profiles, seducing administrators, greasing palms, and juicing GPAs. When it comes to getting the under-qualified and uber-privileged into the Ivy League, Kelly’s the closest thing you’ll find to a guarantee...If you can afford her, that is.

Petronius’ Satyricon is a rampant and vivacious Roman adventure dating back to the first century, during the reign of Nero. It follows the exploits of Encolpius, an impoverished ex-gladiator, and his boy-lover Giton. The action is fleet and the narrative sweeping: over the course of their journey we meet a host of lewd and comical rogues, including beggars, prostitutes, poets, sodomites, and pedants, and witness many strange and curious events, including a remarkably vulgar multi-course feast, hosted by the pompous nouveau riche Trimalchio

If my time with Ryan Miller were a hit track on the radio, I imagine the lyrics would go something like this: We're so different, but they say opposites attract. Oops, I've fallen, and my heart doesn't want to come back. His dad lives right next to my mom, and after the two of them suffered an unexplained accident while taking down holiday decorations, both Ryan and I were forced to become the only 30something residents of Sunny Creek Village Independent Senior Living Community.

Dear Internet: I (33F) work at a local paper, and two months ago, my editor assigned me a huge project - run the upcoming, highly anticipated Bachelor Anonymous contest. Men from all over Southern California, vying for the coveted bachelor role, submitted their personal ads to my paper. The readers voted, and Single Dad Seeks Juliet won by a landslide. Enter Mr. Bachelor Anonymous (40M), the single-dad Romeo seeking his Juliet. Blah, blah, blah, right? Wrong. This guy is the ultimate man in a six-foot-three, chiseled-muscle, freaking Adonis package with aquamarine eyes.

Bulgakov was a Soviet playwright, novelist, and short story writer best known for his humor and penetrating satire. Because of their realism and humor, Bulgakov's works enjoyed great popularity, but their trenchant criticism of Soviet mores was increasingly unacceptable to the authorities. Bulgakov's short stories are a world unto themselves—sharp, witty, and often unsettling. In these pages, the absurdity of Soviet life collides with the supernatural, the grotesque meets the comic, and reality is always just a step away from slipping into nightmare.

Meet our Eton Rogue: Seventeen-year-old Cary, now embarking on his extraordinary final year at Eton. Prince William has joined the school and the British tabloids are ravenous for headlines. Cary is the mole who's making thousands selling stories to the Sun newspaper—and while he's at it, he's secretly dating a housemaster's daughter.

Brought to you by Penguin. Years after escaping her unbearable artworld friends in New York for a new life in London, an unnamed writer finds herself back on the Lower East Side attending a dinner party hosted by Eugene and Nicole – an artist-curator couple – and attended by their...

A college instructor embarks on a fanatical quest to save his job—and enact righteous revenge—in this brilliantly acerbic satire of university politics during the early Cold War years Henry Mulcahy's future is in question. An instructor of literature at Jocelyn College, an institute of higher learning renowned for its progressive approach to education, he has just received word that he will not be teaching next semester. He strongly suspects that his dismissal has been engineered by his nemesis, the college president, who Henry believes resents his superior skills as an educator.

Meet Noh Inji: thirty years old, five wedding rings so far, and she’s never once been in love. When Inji takes a job at Wedding & Life, the popular matchmaking service, she never imagines her role will be with NM, their secretive marriage division that rents out ‘field spouses’ for a fixed period to their elite clientele. Just like a real marriage, Inji’s assignments involve a wedding, some sex and a spot of housework. When one of Inji’s old husbands, a mysterious high-profile music producer, requests her back for another year of marriage, Inji’s own dark past will begin to unravel.