MobileRead April 2012 Book Club Nominations

WT Sharpe · 03-19-2012, 12:20 PM

MobileRead Book Club
April Nominations

Help us select the next book that the MobileRead Book Club will read for April 2012.

The nominations will run through midnight EST March 30 or until 10 books have made the list. The first poll will then be posted and will be open for 4 days, followed by a 3 day run-off poll between the two* top vote getters.

Book selection category for April is:

Humor

In order for a book to be included in the poll it needs THREE NOMINATIONS (original nomination, a second and a third).

How Does This Work?
The Mobile Read Book Club (MRBC) is an informal club that requires nothing of you. Each month a book is selected by polling. On the last week of that month a discussion thread is started for the book. If you want to participate feel free. There is no need to "join" or sign up. All are welcome.

How Does a Book Get Selected?
Each book that is nominated will be listed in a pool at the end of the nomination period. The book that polls the most votes will be the official selection.

How Many Nominations Can I Make?
Each participant has 3 nominations. You can nominate a new book for consideration or nominate (second, third) one that has already been nominated by another person.

How Do I Nominate a Book?
Please just post a message with your nomination. If you are the FIRST to nominate a book, please try to provide an abstract to the book so others may consider their level of interest.

How Do I Know What Has Been Nominated?
Just follow the thread. This message will be updated with the status of the nominations as often as I can. If one is missed, please just post a message with a multi-quote of the 3 nominations and it will be added to the list ASAP.

When is the Poll?
The poll thread will open at the end of the nomination period, or once there have been 10 books with 3 nominations each. At that time a link to the initial poll thread will be posted here and this thread will be closed.

The floor is open to nominations. Please comment if you discover a nomination is not available as an ebook in your area.

* In case of a first or second place tie in the first voting poll, the run-off poll may have more than two choices.

Official choices with three nominations each:

(1) The Ginger Man by J. P. Donleavy [issybird, orlok, Hamlet53]
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

(2) The Night Life of the Gods by Thorne Smith [GA Russell, Hamlet53, WT Sharpe]
Inkmesh search / Patricia Clark Memorial Library (MobileRead)

Spoiler:

(3) Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock [nursedude, Asawi, issybird]
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

Description: According to Wikipedia: "Stephen Butler Leacock, (30 December 1869 28 March 1944) was a Canadian writer and economist... Early in his career, Leacock turned to fiction, humour, and short reports to supplement (and ultimately exceed) his regular income. His stories, first published in magazines in Canada and the United States and later in novel form, became extremely popular around the world. It was said in 1911 that more people had heard of Stephen Leacock than had heard of Canada. Also, between the years 1915 and 1925, Leacock was the most popular humourist in the English-speaking world. Humorists admire other humorists, and greatly admire other great humorists. So it was that Stephen Leacock, in Toronto, was delighted to read the fresh humor and wit of a young man in New York named Robert Benchley. Leacock opened correspondence with Benchley, encouraging him in his work and importuning him to compile his work into a book. Benchly did so in 1922, and acknowledged the nagging from north of the border. Near the end of his life, the American comedian Jack Benny recounted how he had been introduced to Leacock's writing by Groucho Marx when they were both young vaudeville comedians. Benny acknowledged Leacock's influence and, fifty years after first reading him, still considered Leacock one of his favorite comic writers. He was puzzled as to why Leacock's work was no longer well-known in the United States. [5]During the summer months, Leacock lived at Old Brewery Bay, his summer estate in Orillia, across Lake Simcoe from where he was raised and also bordering Lake Couchiching. A working farm, Old Brewery Bay is now a museum and National Historic Site. Gossip provided by the local barber, Jefferson Short, provided Leacock with the material which would become Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912), set in the thinly-disguised Mariposa. Although he wrote learned articles and books related to his field of study, his political theory is now all but forgotten." (from Diesel eBook Store)

(4) The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady by Elizabeth Stuckey-French [JSWolf, hpulley, drofgnal]
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

(5) Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern [WT Sharpe, hpulley, orlok]
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

(6) Mission Earth 1: The Invaders Plan by L. Ron Hubbard [voodooblues, John F, jemc]
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

Description: The Voltar Confederacy has a long-range strategy to invade Earth and use it in their conquest of the Galaxy. However, with the discovery that Earth is being destroyed by incessant pollution, Royal Officer Jettero Heller is sent on a top-secret mission to handle this threat to the planet's life. But why is Lombar Hisst, head of the Apparatus, Voltar's deadly intelligence agency, determined to sabotage the mission and see it fail? Can Heller possibly succeed or will he fall into the web of intergalactic intrigue spun by Hisst and his devious henchman, Soltan Gris? Find out as you embark on this mission full of dynamic characters and packed with plenty of twists, action and emotion.

"...a big, humorous tale of interstellar intrigue in the classical mold. I fully enjoyed it." -- Roger Zelazny "An incredibly good story, lushly written, vibrating with action and excitement. A gem." -- A.E. Van Vogt "On our scale of 1 to 10,... The Invaders Plan comes out at a 10. Its fabulous and fun reading." -- United Press International From Lord Invay, Royal Historian, Chairman, Board of Censors, Royal Palace, Voltar Confederacy: "Let me state it boldly and baldly: there is no such planet as Earth. If it ever existed at all, it certainly does not exist today or even within living memory. So, away with this delusion. On the authority of every highly placed official in the land I can assure you utterly and finally, THERE IS NO PLANET EARTH! And that is final!" With this emphatic disclaimer, we are introduced to Mission Earth, an epic told entirely and uniquely by the aliens that already walk among us. Earth is to be invaded and a Royal combat engineer must cross 22 light years to secretly infiltrate the planet. He is also crossing a scheme to use the resources of Earth's most powerful figure to overthrow the confederacy. With a convicted murderess who trains giant cat-like animals, a doctor who creates human biological freaks, a madman who controls Voltar's secret police and a clandestine Earth base in Turkey, a bizarre stage is set and narrated by an alien killer assigned to sabotage the mission and Earth--the planet that doesn't exist. (from Amazon.com)

(7) A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole and Walker Percy [RoccoPaco, Hamlet53, WT Sharpe]
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

Description: "A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two directions at once. Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs." Meet Ignatius J. Reilly, the hero of John Kennedy Toole's tragicomic tale, A Confederacy of Dunces . This 30-year-old medievalist lives at home with his mother in New Orleans, pens his magnum opus on Big Chief writing pads he keeps hidden under his bed, and relays to anyone who will listen the traumatic experience he once had on a Greyhound Scenicruiser bound for Baton Rouge. ("Speeding along in that bus was like hurtling into the abyss.") But Ignatius's quiet life of tyrannizing his mother and writing his endless comparative history screeches to a halt when he is almost arrested by the overeager Patrolman Mancuso--who mistakes him for a vagrant--and then involved in a car accident with his tipsy mother behind the wheel. One thing leads to another, and before he knows it, Ignatius is out pounding the pavement in search of a job. Over the next several hundred pages, our hero stumbles from one adventure to the next. His stint as a hotdog vendor is less than successful, and he soon turns his employers at the Levy Pants Company on their heads. Ignatius's path through the working world is populated by marvelous secondary characters: the stripper Darlene and her talented cockatoo; the septuagenarian secretary Miss Trixie, whose desperate attempts to retire are constantly, comically thwarted; gay blade Dorian Greene; sinister Miss Lee, proprietor of the Night of Joy nightclub; and Myrna Minkoff, the girl Ignatius loves to hate. The many subplots that weave through A Confederacy of Dunces are as complicated as anything you'll find in a Dickens novel, and just as beautifully tied together in the end. But it is Ignatius--selfish, domineering, and deluded, tragic and comic and larger than life--who carries the story. He is a modern-day Quixote beset by giants of the modern age. His fragility cracks the shell of comic bluster, revealing a deep streak of melancholy beneath the antic humor. John Kennedy Toole committed suicide in 1969 and never saw the publication of his novel. Ignatius Reilly is what he left behind, a fitting memorial to a talented and tormented life. --Alix Wilber The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel with the sad history turns 20 (LJ 4/15/80). This story about a young man's isolation still rings true at a time when millions interact more with computers than with other people. This anniversary edition contains a new introduction by Andrei Codrescu. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. (from Amazon.com)

(8) The Princess Bride by William Goldman [The Terminator, JSWolf, Nyssa]
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

(9) Idle Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow by Jerome K. Jerome [The Terminator, Asawi, hpulley]
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

(10) Expecting Someone Taller by Tom Holt [orlok, issybird, fantasyfan]
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

The nominations are now closed.

WT Sharpe · 03-19-2012, 12:20 PM

Wondering if a particular book is available in your country? The following spoiler contains a list of bookstores outside the United States you can search. If you don't see a bookstore on this list for your country, find one that is, send me the link via PM, and I'll add it to the list. In addition, if members let me know that an ebook is unavailable in a particular geographic location, I'll note it in this post, right beside the Inkmesh search for that particular book.

Spoiler:

The Nominations so far:

*** The Ginger Man by J. P. Donleavy [issybird, orlok, Hamlet53]
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

*** Expecting Someone Taller by Tom Holt [orlok, issybird, fantasyfan]
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

*** Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock [nursedude, Asawi, issybird]
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

Description: According to Wikipedia: "Stephen Butler Leacock, (30 December 1869 28 March 1944) was a Canadian writer and economist... Early in his career, Leacock turned to fiction, humour, and short reports to supplement (and ultimately exceed) his regular income. His stories, first published in magazines in Canada and the United States and later in novel form, became extremely popular around the world. It was said in 1911 that more people had heard of Stephen Leacock than had heard of Canada. Also, between the years 1915 and 1925, Leacock was the most popular humourist in the English-speaking world. Humorists admire other humorists, and greatly admire other great humorists. So it was that Stephen Leacock, in Toronto, was delighted to read the fresh humor and wit of a young man in New York named Robert Benchley. Leacock opened correspondence with Benchley, encouraging him in his work and importuning him to compile his work into a book. Benchly did so in 1922, and acknowledged the nagging from north of the border. Near the end of his life, the American comedian Jack Benny recounted how he had been introduced to Leacock's writing by Groucho Marx when they were both young vaudeville comedians. Benny acknowledged Leacock's influence and, fifty years after first reading him, still considered Leacock one of his favorite comic writers. He was puzzled as to why Leacock's work was no longer well-known in the United States. [5]During the summer months, Leacock lived at Old Brewery Bay, his summer estate in Orillia, across Lake Simcoe from where he was raised and also bordering Lake Couchiching. A working farm, Old Brewery Bay is now a museum and National Historic Site. Gossip provided by the local barber, Jefferson Short, provided Leacock with the material which would become Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912), set in the thinly-disguised Mariposa. Although he wrote learned articles and books related to his field of study, his political theory is now all but forgotten." (from Diesel eBook Store)

*** The Night Life of the Gods by Thorne Smith [GA Russell, Hamlet53, WT Sharpe]
Inkmesh search / Patricia Clark Memorial Library (MobileRead)

Spoiler:

*** A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole and Walker Percy [RoccoPaco, Hamlet53, WT Sharpe]
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

Description: "A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two directions at once. Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs." Meet Ignatius J. Reilly, the hero of John Kennedy Toole's tragicomic tale, A Confederacy of Dunces . This 30-year-old medievalist lives at home with his mother in New Orleans, pens his magnum opus on Big Chief writing pads he keeps hidden under his bed, and relays to anyone who will listen the traumatic experience he once had on a Greyhound Scenicruiser bound for Baton Rouge. ("Speeding along in that bus was like hurtling into the abyss.") But Ignatius's quiet life of tyrannizing his mother and writing his endless comparative history screeches to a halt when he is almost arrested by the overeager Patrolman Mancuso--who mistakes him for a vagrant--and then involved in a car accident with his tipsy mother behind the wheel. One thing leads to another, and before he knows it, Ignatius is out pounding the pavement in search of a job. Over the next several hundred pages, our hero stumbles from one adventure to the next. His stint as a hotdog vendor is less than successful, and he soon turns his employers at the Levy Pants Company on their heads. Ignatius's path through the working world is populated by marvelous secondary characters: the stripper Darlene and her talented cockatoo; the septuagenarian secretary Miss Trixie, whose desperate attempts to retire are constantly, comically thwarted; gay blade Dorian Greene; sinister Miss Lee, proprietor of the Night of Joy nightclub; and Myrna Minkoff, the girl Ignatius loves to hate. The many subplots that weave through A Confederacy of Dunces are as complicated as anything you'll find in a Dickens novel, and just as beautifully tied together in the end. But it is Ignatius--selfish, domineering, and deluded, tragic and comic and larger than life--who carries the story. He is a modern-day Quixote beset by giants of the modern age. His fragility cracks the shell of comic bluster, revealing a deep streak of melancholy beneath the antic humor. John Kennedy Toole committed suicide in 1969 and never saw the publication of his novel. Ignatius Reilly is what he left behind, a fitting memorial to a talented and tormented life. --Alix Wilber The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel with the sad history turns 20 (LJ 4/15/80). This story about a young man's isolation still rings true at a time when millions interact more with computers than with other people. This anniversary edition contains a new introduction by Andrei Codrescu. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. (from Amazon.com)

* Snodgrass Vacation by Dave Conifer [jhempel24]
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

*** The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady by Elizabeth Stuckey-French [JSWolf, hpulley, drofgnal]
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

*** Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern [WT Sharpe, hpulley, orlok]
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

*** Mission Earth 1: The Invaders Plan by L. Ron Hubbard [voodooblues, John F, jemc]
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

Description: The Voltar Confederacy has a long-range strategy to invade Earth and use it in their conquest of the Galaxy. However, with the discovery that Earth is being destroyed by incessant pollution, Royal Officer Jettero Heller is sent on a top-secret mission to handle this threat to the planet's life. But why is Lombar Hisst, head of the Apparatus, Voltar's deadly intelligence agency, determined to sabotage the mission and see it fail? Can Heller possibly succeed or will he fall into the web of intergalactic intrigue spun by Hisst and his devious henchman, Soltan Gris? Find out as you embark on this mission full of dynamic characters and packed with plenty of twists, action and emotion.

"...a big, humorous tale of interstellar intrigue in the classical mold. I fully enjoyed it." -- Roger Zelazny "An incredibly good story, lushly written, vibrating with action and excitement. A gem." -- A.E. Van Vogt "On our scale of 1 to 10,... The Invaders Plan comes out at a 10. Its fabulous and fun reading." -- United Press International From Lord Invay, Royal Historian, Chairman, Board of Censors, Royal Palace, Voltar Confederacy: "Let me state it boldly and baldly: there is no such planet as Earth. If it ever existed at all, it certainly does not exist today or even within living memory. So, away with this delusion. On the authority of every highly placed official in the land I can assure you utterly and finally, THERE IS NO PLANET EARTH! And that is final!" With this emphatic disclaimer, we are introduced to Mission Earth, an epic told entirely and uniquely by the aliens that already walk among us. Earth is to be invaded and a Royal combat engineer must cross 22 light years to secretly infiltrate the planet. He is also crossing a scheme to use the resources of Earth's most powerful figure to overthrow the confederacy. With a convicted murderess who trains giant cat-like animals, a doctor who creates human biological freaks, a madman who controls Voltar's secret police and a clandestine Earth base in Turkey, a bizarre stage is set and narrated by an alien killer assigned to sabotage the mission and Earth--the planet that doesn't exist. (from Amazon.com)

*** The Princess Bride by William Goldman [The Terminator, JSWolf, Nyssa]
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

*** Idle Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow by Jerome K. Jerome [The Terminator, Asawi, hpulley]
Inkmesh search

Spoiler:

issybird · 03-20-2012, 08:37 AM

I'm nominating The Ginger Man by J. P. Donleavy. The description from Goodreads:

Set in Ireland just after World War II, The Ginger Man is J.P. Donleavy's wildly funny, picaresque classic novel of the misadventures of Sebastian Dangerfield, a young American ne'er-do-well studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Dangerfield's appetite for women, liquor, and general roguishness is insatiable -- and he satisfies it with endless charm.

It's available at all the usual venues in the US and it's couponable at Kobo.

orlok · 03-20-2012, 12:59 PM

I'll second The Ginger Man. Years since I read it, but I do remember loving it.

orlok · 03-20-2012, 01:21 PM

I really wanted to nominate The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi, but I can't find it as an ebook, so I'll go for:

Expecting Someone Taller by Tom Holt

Quote:

Malcolm Fisher inherits a magic ring from a dying badger and becomes the much-disputed Ruler of the World. Everyone wants the ring--despite the fearsome curse upon it. And Malcolm is about to learn that some are born to greatness, and some are, well, badgered into it.

I read this years ago as well, and do remember it being laugh-out-loud funny. Available as an ebook from Amazon and Kobo amongst others.

nursedude · 03-20-2012, 01:27 PM

Perhaps: Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock. It's available at project Gutenberg in a variety of formats.

GA Russell · 03-20-2012, 02:04 PM

I nominate The Night Life of the Gods by Thorne Smith.

I read it in 1973 and loved it, and I'd enjoy reading it again.

It is available here in the Patricia Clark MobileRead Library.

"Thorne Smith's rapid-fire dialogue, brilliant sense of the absurd, and literary aplomb put him in the same category as the beloved P. G. Wodehouse. The Night Life of the Gods--the madcap story of a scientist who instigates a nocturnal spree with the Greek gods--is arguably his most sparkling comedic achievement."

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...ghlight=Thorne

Asawi · 03-20-2012, 02:07 PM

I second Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town

JSWolf · 03-20-2012, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nursedude

Perhaps: Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock. It's available at project Gutenberg in a variety of formats.

Description?

Hamlet53 · 03-20-2012, 02:42 PM

Second The Night Life of the Gods by Thorne Smith.

Third The Ginger Man by J. P. Donleavy.

RoccoPaco · 03-20-2012, 02:58 PM

I'd like to nominate "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole and Walker Percy.

From Amazon Reviews:
A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole’s hero is one Ignatius J. Reilly, “huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, and a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original character, denizens of New Orleans’ lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures” (Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun Times)

Hamlet53 · 03-20-2012, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RoccoPaco

I'd like to nominate "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole and Walker Percy.

From Amazon Reviews:
A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole’s hero is one Ignatius J. Reilly, “huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, and a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original character, denizens of New Orleans’ lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures” (Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun Times)

I will happily use my final vote to second this. One of the funniest books I have ever read.

WT Sharpe · 03-20-2012, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GA Russell

I nominate The Night Life of the Gods by Thorne Smith.

I read it in 1973 and loved it, and I'd enjoy reading it again.

It is available here in the Patricia Clark MobileRead Library.

"Thorne Smith's rapid-fire dialogue, brilliant sense of the absurd, and literary aplomb put him in the same category as the beloved P. G. Wodehouse. The Night Life of the Gods--the madcap story of a scientist who instigates a nocturnal spree with the Greek gods--is arguably his most sparkling comedic achievement."

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...ghlight=Thorne

That is hilarious. I third it. I loved his Topper as well. Amazing how his humor, written in the early 20th century, manages to stay so biting and irreverent.

jhempel24 · 03-20-2012, 04:45 PM

I nominate Snodgrass Vacation by Dave Conifer

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/6019#longdescr

Spoiler:

GA Russell · 03-20-2012, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

That is hilarious. I third it. I loved his Topper as well. Amazing how his humor, written in the early 20th century, manages to stay so biting and irreverent.

Tom, I read five Thorne Smith books one after the other in 1973. I think they were all freshly reissued at that time.

I enjoyed all of them; but for what it's worth, I found the most famous, Topper and its sequel, to be the worst two! Go figure!

03-19-2012, 12:20 PM	#1
WT Sharpe Bah, humbug! Posts: 39,072 Karma: 157049943 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Chesapeake, VA, USA Device: Kindle Oasis, iPad Pro, & a Samsung Galaxy S9.	April 2012 Book Club Nominations MobileRead Book Club April Nominations Help us select the next book that the MobileRead Book Club will read for April 2012. The nominations will run through midnight EST March 30 or until 10 books have made the list. The first poll will then be posted and will be open for 4 days, followed by a 3 day run-off poll between the two* top vote getters. Book selection category for April is: Humor In order for a book to be included in the poll it needs THREE NOMINATIONS (original nomination, a second and a third). How Does This Work? The Mobile Read Book Club (MRBC) is an informal club that requires nothing of you. Each month a book is selected by polling. On the last week of that month a discussion thread is started for the book. If you want to participate feel free. There is no need to "join" or sign up. All are welcome. How Does a Book Get Selected? Each book that is nominated will be listed in a pool at the end of the nomination period. The book that polls the most votes will be the official selection. How Many Nominations Can I Make? Each participant has 3 nominations. You can nominate a new book for consideration or nominate (second, third) one that has already been nominated by another person. How Do I Nominate a Book? Please just post a message with your nomination. If you are the FIRST to nominate a book, please try to provide an abstract to the book so others may consider their level of interest. How Do I Know What Has Been Nominated? Just follow the thread. This message will be updated with the status of the nominations as often as I can. If one is missed, please just post a message with a multi-quote of the 3 nominations and it will be added to the list ASAP. When is the Poll? The poll thread will open at the end of the nomination period, or once there have been 10 books with 3 nominations each. At that time a link to the initial poll thread will be posted here and this thread will be closed. The floor is open to nominations. Please comment if you discover a nomination is not available as an ebook in your area. * In case of a first or second place tie in the first voting poll, the run-off poll may have more than two choices. Official choices with three nominations each: (1) The Ginger Man by J. P. Donleavy [issybird, orlok, Hamlet53] Inkmesh search Spoiler: Set in Ireland just after World War II, The Ginger Man is J.P. Donleavy's wildly funny, picaresque classic novel of the misadventures of Sebastian Dangerfield, a young American ne'er-do-well studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Dangerfield's appetite for women, liquor, and general roguishness is insatiable -- and he satisfies it with endless charm. It's available at all the usual venues in the US and it's couponable at Kobo. (2) The Night Life of the Gods by Thorne Smith [GA Russell, Hamlet53, WT Sharpe] Inkmesh search / Patricia Clark Memorial Library (MobileRead) Spoiler: Description: Thorne Smith's rapid-fire dialogue, brilliant sense of the absurd, and literary aplomb put him in the same category as the beloved P. G. Wodehouse. The Night Life of the Gods—the madcap story of a scientist who instigates a nocturnal spree with the Greek gods--is arguably his most sparkling comedic achievement. Hunter Hawk has a knack for annoying his ultrarespectable relatives. He likes to experiment and he particularly likes to experiment with explosives. His garage-cum-laboratory is a veritable minefield, replete with evil-smelling clouds of vapor through which various bits of wreckage and mysteriously bubbling test tubes are occasionally visible. With the help of Megaera, a fetching nine-hundred-year-old lady leprechaun he meets one night in the woods, he masters the art (if not the timing) of transforming statues into people. And when he practices his new witchery in the stately halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art—setting Bacchus, Mercury, Neptune, Diana, Hebe, Apollo, and Perseus loose on the unsuspecting citizenry of Prohibition-era New York--the stage is set for Thorne Smith at his most devilish and delightful. From Amazon.com. (3) Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock [nursedude, Asawi, issybird] Inkmesh search Spoiler: Description: According to Wikipedia: "Stephen Butler Leacock, (30 December 1869 28 March 1944) was a Canadian writer and economist... Early in his career, Leacock turned to fiction, humour, and short reports to supplement (and ultimately exceed) his regular income. His stories, first published in magazines in Canada and the United States and later in novel form, became extremely popular around the world. It was said in 1911 that more people had heard of Stephen Leacock than had heard of Canada. Also, between the years 1915 and 1925, Leacock was the most popular humourist in the English-speaking world. Humorists admire other humorists, and greatly admire other great humorists. So it was that Stephen Leacock, in Toronto, was delighted to read the fresh humor and wit of a young man in New York named Robert Benchley. Leacock opened correspondence with Benchley, encouraging him in his work and importuning him to compile his work into a book. Benchly did so in 1922, and acknowledged the nagging from north of the border. Near the end of his life, the American comedian Jack Benny recounted how he had been introduced to Leacock's writing by Groucho Marx when they were both young vaudeville comedians. Benny acknowledged Leacock's influence and, fifty years after first reading him, still considered Leacock one of his favorite comic writers. He was puzzled as to why Leacock's work was no longer well-known in the United States. [5]During the summer months, Leacock lived at Old Brewery Bay, his summer estate in Orillia, across Lake Simcoe from where he was raised and also bordering Lake Couchiching. A working farm, Old Brewery Bay is now a museum and National Historic Site. Gossip provided by the local barber, Jefferson Short, provided Leacock with the material which would become Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912), set in the thinly-disguised Mariposa. Although he wrote learned articles and books related to his field of study, his political theory is now all but forgotten." (from Diesel eBook Store) (4) The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady by Elizabeth Stuckey-French [JSWolf, hpulley, drofgnal] Inkmesh search Spoiler: Description: This lively, intricately plotted, laugh-out-loud funny, and surprisingly touching family drama combines the wit of Carl Hiaasen with the southern charm of Jill McCorkle. Seventy-seven-year-old Marylou Ahearn is going to kill Dr. Wilson Spriggs come hell or high water. In 1953, he gave her a radioactive cocktail without her consent as part of a secret government study that had horrible consequences. Marylou has been plotting her revenge for fifty years. When she accidentally discovers his whereabouts in Florida, her plans finally snap into action. She high tails it to hot and humid Tallahassee, moves in down the block from where a now senile Spriggs lives with his daughter"s family, and begins the tricky work of insinuating herself into their lives. But she has no idea what a nest of yellow jackets she is stumbling into. Before the novel is through, someone will be kidnapped, an unlikely couple will get engaged, someone will nearly die from eating a pineapple upside-down cake laced with anti-freeze, and that"s not all . . . Told from the varied perspectives of an incredible cast of endearing oddball characters and written with the flair of a native Floridian, this dark comedy does not disappoint. From the Hardcover edition. (from Kobo) (5)* *Sht My Dad Says by Justin Halpern [WT Sharpe, hpulley, orlok] Inkmesh search Spoiler: Description:** After being dumped by his longtime girlfriend, twenty-eight-year-old Justin Halpern found himself living at home with his seventy-three-year-old dad. Sam Halpern, who is "like Socrates, but angrier, and with worse hair," has never minced words, and when Justin moved back home, he began to record all the ridiculous things his dad said to him: "That woman was sexy. . . . Out of your league? Son, let women figure out why they won't screw you. Don't do it for them." "Do people your age know how to comb their hair? It looks like two squirrels crawled on their heads and started fucking." "The worst thing you can be is a liar. . . . Okay, fine, yes, the worst thing you can be is a Nazi, but then number two is liar. Nazi one, liar two." More than a million people now follow Mr. Halpern's philosophical musings on Twitter, and in this book, his son weaves a brilliantly funny, touching coming-of-age memoir around the best of his quotes. An all-American story that unfolds on the Little League field, in Denny's, during excruciating family road trips, and, most frequently, in the Halperns' kitchen over bowls of Grape-Nuts, Sht My Dad Says is a chaotic, hilarious, true portrait of a father-son relationship from a major new comic voice. (from barnesandnoble.com) (6)* Mission Earth 1: The Invaders Plan by L. Ron Hubbard [voodooblues, John F, jemc] Inkmesh search Spoiler: Description: The Voltar Confederacy has a long-range strategy to invade Earth and use it in their conquest of the Galaxy. However, with the discovery that Earth is being destroyed by incessant pollution, Royal Officer Jettero Heller is sent on a top-secret mission to handle this threat to the planet's life. But why is Lombar Hisst, head of the Apparatus, Voltar's deadly intelligence agency, determined to sabotage the mission and see it fail? Can Heller possibly succeed or will he fall into the web of intergalactic intrigue spun by Hisst and his devious henchman, Soltan Gris? Find out as you embark on this mission full of dynamic characters and packed with plenty of twists, action and emotion. "...a big, humorous tale of interstellar intrigue in the classical mold. I fully enjoyed it." -- Roger Zelazny "An incredibly good story, lushly written, vibrating with action and excitement. A gem." -- A.E. Van Vogt "On our scale of 1 to 10,... The Invaders Plan comes out at a 10. Its fabulous and fun reading." -- United Press International From Lord Invay, Royal Historian, Chairman, Board of Censors, Royal Palace, Voltar Confederacy: "Let me state it boldly and baldly: there is no such planet as Earth. If it ever existed at all, it certainly does not exist today or even within living memory. So, away with this delusion. On the authority of every highly placed official in the land I can assure you utterly and finally, THERE IS NO PLANET EARTH! And that is final!" With this emphatic disclaimer, we are introduced to Mission Earth, an epic told entirely and uniquely by the aliens that already walk among us. Earth is to be invaded and a Royal combat engineer must cross 22 light years to secretly infiltrate the planet. He is also crossing a scheme to use the resources of Earth's most powerful figure to overthrow the confederacy. With a convicted murderess who trains giant cat-like animals, a doctor who creates human biological freaks, a madman who controls Voltar's secret police and a clandestine Earth base in Turkey, a bizarre stage is set and narrated by an alien killer assigned to sabotage the mission and Earth--the planet that doesn't exist. (from Amazon.com) (7) A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole and Walker Percy [RoccoPaco, Hamlet53, WT Sharpe] Inkmesh search Spoiler: Description: "A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two directions at once. Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs." Meet Ignatius J. Reilly, the hero of John Kennedy Toole's tragicomic tale, A Confederacy of Dunces . This 30-year-old medievalist lives at home with his mother in New Orleans, pens his magnum opus on Big Chief writing pads he keeps hidden under his bed, and relays to anyone who will listen the traumatic experience he once had on a Greyhound Scenicruiser bound for Baton Rouge. ("Speeding along in that bus was like hurtling into the abyss.") But Ignatius's quiet life of tyrannizing his mother and writing his endless comparative history screeches to a halt when he is almost arrested by the overeager Patrolman Mancuso--who mistakes him for a vagrant--and then involved in a car accident with his tipsy mother behind the wheel. One thing leads to another, and before he knows it, Ignatius is out pounding the pavement in search of a job. Over the next several hundred pages, our hero stumbles from one adventure to the next. His stint as a hotdog vendor is less than successful, and he soon turns his employers at the Levy Pants Company on their heads. Ignatius's path through the working world is populated by marvelous secondary characters: the stripper Darlene and her talented cockatoo; the septuagenarian secretary Miss Trixie, whose desperate attempts to retire are constantly, comically thwarted; gay blade Dorian Greene; sinister Miss Lee, proprietor of the Night of Joy nightclub; and Myrna Minkoff, the girl Ignatius loves to hate. The many subplots that weave through A Confederacy of Dunces are as complicated as anything you'll find in a Dickens novel, and just as beautifully tied together in the end. But it is Ignatius--selfish, domineering, and deluded, tragic and comic and larger than life--who carries the story. He is a modern-day Quixote beset by giants of the modern age. His fragility cracks the shell of comic bluster, revealing a deep streak of melancholy beneath the antic humor. John Kennedy Toole committed suicide in 1969 and never saw the publication of his novel. Ignatius Reilly is what he left behind, a fitting memorial to a talented and tormented life. --Alix Wilber The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel with the sad history turns 20 (LJ 4/15/80). This story about a young man's isolation still rings true at a time when millions interact more with computers than with other people. This anniversary edition contains a new introduction by Andrei Codrescu. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. (from Amazon.com) (8) The Princess Bride by William Goldman [The Terminator, JSWolf, Nyssa] Inkmesh search Spoiler: Anyone who lived through the 1980s may find it impossible—inconceivable, even—to equate The Princess Bride with anything other than the sweet, celluloid romance of Westley and Buttercup, but the film is only a fraction of the ingenious storytelling you'll find in these pages. Rich in character and satire, the novel is set in 1941 and framed cleverly as an “abridged” retelling of a centuries-old tale set in the fabled country of Florin that's home to “Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passions.” (9) Idle Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow by Jerome K. Jerome [The Terminator, Asawi, hpulley] Inkmesh search Spoiler: Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow is a collection of humorous essays by Jerome K. Jerome. The essays cover a range of topics from "On Being in Love" to "On Furnished Apartments" to "On Getting on in the World". Jerome established himself as one of England's favorite wits with his comic novel Three Men in a Boat. (10) Expecting Someone Taller by Tom Holt [orlok, issybird, fantasyfan] Inkmesh search Spoiler: Malcolm Fisher inherits a magic ring from a dying badger and becomes the much-disputed Ruler of the World. Everyone wants the ring--despite the fearsome curse upon it. And Malcolm is about to learn that some are born to greatness, and some are, well, badgered into it. The nominations are now closed. Last edited by WT Sharpe; 03-22-2012 at 09:27 AM. Reason: Updated through Post #61.

03-19-2012, 12:20 PM	#2
WT Sharpe Bah, humbug! Posts: 39,072 Karma: 157049943 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Chesapeake, VA, USA Device: Kindle Oasis, iPad Pro, & a Samsung Galaxy S9.	Wondering if a particular book is available in your country? The following spoiler contains a list of bookstores outside the United States you can search. If you don't see a bookstore on this list for your country, find one that is, send me the link via PM, and I'll add it to the list. In addition, if members let me know that an ebook is unavailable in a particular geographic location, I'll note it in this post, right beside the Inkmesh search for that particular book. Spoiler: Australian Angus Robertson Booktopia Borders Dymocks Fishpond Google Canada Amazon. Make sure you are logged out. Then go to the Kindle Store. Search for a book. After the search results come up, in the upper right corner of the screen, change the country to Canada and search away. Google Sony eBookstore (Upper right corner switch to/from US/CA) UK BooksOnBoard (In the upper right corner is a way to switch to the UK store) Amazon Foyle's Google Penguin Random House Waterstones WH Smith The Nominations so far: ***** The Ginger Man by J. P. Donleavy [issybird, orlok, Hamlet53] Inkmesh search Spoiler: Set in Ireland just after World War II, The Ginger Man is J.P. Donleavy's wildly funny, picaresque classic novel of the misadventures of Sebastian Dangerfield, a young American ne'er-do-well studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Dangerfield's appetite for women, liquor, and general roguishness is insatiable -- and he satisfies it with endless charm. It's available at all the usual venues in the US and it's couponable at Kobo. *** Expecting Someone Taller by Tom Holt [orlok, issybird, fantasyfan] Inkmesh search Spoiler: Malcolm Fisher inherits a magic ring from a dying badger and becomes the much-disputed Ruler of the World. Everyone wants the ring--despite the fearsome curse upon it. And Malcolm is about to learn that some are born to greatness, and some are, well, badgered into it. *** Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock [nursedude, Asawi, issybird] Inkmesh search Spoiler: Description: According to Wikipedia: "Stephen Butler Leacock, (30 December 1869 28 March 1944) was a Canadian writer and economist... Early in his career, Leacock turned to fiction, humour, and short reports to supplement (and ultimately exceed) his regular income. His stories, first published in magazines in Canada and the United States and later in novel form, became extremely popular around the world. It was said in 1911 that more people had heard of Stephen Leacock than had heard of Canada. Also, between the years 1915 and 1925, Leacock was the most popular humourist in the English-speaking world. Humorists admire other humorists, and greatly admire other great humorists. So it was that Stephen Leacock, in Toronto, was delighted to read the fresh humor and wit of a young man in New York named Robert Benchley. Leacock opened correspondence with Benchley, encouraging him in his work and importuning him to compile his work into a book. Benchly did so in 1922, and acknowledged the nagging from north of the border. Near the end of his life, the American comedian Jack Benny recounted how he had been introduced to Leacock's writing by Groucho Marx when they were both young vaudeville comedians. Benny acknowledged Leacock's influence and, fifty years after first reading him, still considered Leacock one of his favorite comic writers. He was puzzled as to why Leacock's work was no longer well-known in the United States. [5]During the summer months, Leacock lived at Old Brewery Bay, his summer estate in Orillia, across Lake Simcoe from where he was raised and also bordering Lake Couchiching. A working farm, Old Brewery Bay is now a museum and National Historic Site. Gossip provided by the local barber, Jefferson Short, provided Leacock with the material which would become Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912), set in the thinly-disguised Mariposa. Although he wrote learned articles and books related to his field of study, his political theory is now all but forgotten." (from Diesel eBook Store) *** The Night Life of the Gods by Thorne Smith [GA Russell, Hamlet53, WT Sharpe] Inkmesh search / Patricia Clark Memorial Library (MobileRead) Spoiler: Description: Thorne Smith's rapid-fire dialogue, brilliant sense of the absurd, and literary aplomb put him in the same category as the beloved P. G. Wodehouse. The Night Life of the Gods—the madcap story of a scientist who instigates a nocturnal spree with the Greek gods--is arguably his most sparkling comedic achievement. Hunter Hawk has a knack for annoying his ultrarespectable relatives. He likes to experiment and he particularly likes to experiment with explosives. His garage-cum-laboratory is a veritable minefield, replete with evil-smelling clouds of vapor through which various bits of wreckage and mysteriously bubbling test tubes are occasionally visible. With the help of Megaera, a fetching nine-hundred-year-old lady leprechaun he meets one night in the woods, he masters the art (if not the timing) of transforming statues into people. And when he practices his new witchery in the stately halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art—setting Bacchus, Mercury, Neptune, Diana, Hebe, Apollo, and Perseus loose on the unsuspecting citizenry of Prohibition-era New York--the stage is set for Thorne Smith at his most devilish and delightful. From Amazon.com. *** A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole and Walker Percy [RoccoPaco, Hamlet53, WT Sharpe] Inkmesh search Spoiler: Description: "A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two directions at once. Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs." Meet Ignatius J. Reilly, the hero of John Kennedy Toole's tragicomic tale, A Confederacy of Dunces . This 30-year-old medievalist lives at home with his mother in New Orleans, pens his magnum opus on Big Chief writing pads he keeps hidden under his bed, and relays to anyone who will listen the traumatic experience he once had on a Greyhound Scenicruiser bound for Baton Rouge. ("Speeding along in that bus was like hurtling into the abyss.") But Ignatius's quiet life of tyrannizing his mother and writing his endless comparative history screeches to a halt when he is almost arrested by the overeager Patrolman Mancuso--who mistakes him for a vagrant--and then involved in a car accident with his tipsy mother behind the wheel. One thing leads to another, and before he knows it, Ignatius is out pounding the pavement in search of a job. Over the next several hundred pages, our hero stumbles from one adventure to the next. His stint as a hotdog vendor is less than successful, and he soon turns his employers at the Levy Pants Company on their heads. Ignatius's path through the working world is populated by marvelous secondary characters: the stripper Darlene and her talented cockatoo; the septuagenarian secretary Miss Trixie, whose desperate attempts to retire are constantly, comically thwarted; gay blade Dorian Greene; sinister Miss Lee, proprietor of the Night of Joy nightclub; and Myrna Minkoff, the girl Ignatius loves to hate. The many subplots that weave through A Confederacy of Dunces are as complicated as anything you'll find in a Dickens novel, and just as beautifully tied together in the end. But it is Ignatius--selfish, domineering, and deluded, tragic and comic and larger than life--who carries the story. He is a modern-day Quixote beset by giants of the modern age. His fragility cracks the shell of comic bluster, revealing a deep streak of melancholy beneath the antic humor. John Kennedy Toole committed suicide in 1969 and never saw the publication of his novel. Ignatius Reilly is what he left behind, a fitting memorial to a talented and tormented life. --Alix Wilber The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel with the sad history turns 20 (LJ 4/15/80). This story about a young man's isolation still rings true at a time when millions interact more with computers than with other people. This anniversary edition contains a new introduction by Andrei Codrescu. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. (from Amazon.com*) Snodgrass Vacation by Dave Conifer [jhempel24] Inkmesh search Spoiler: Description: An irreverent but hilarious spoof on Disney World and the people who love it. Dave Jevik wasn’t too happy to hear that his wife had scheduled a family vacation to Snodgrass World Resort with the Zandanels. Loudmouth Vinnie is hard to put up with for an hour, let alone a week. But when Vinnie spots wheelchair-bound George Van Morrison in first class on the flight to Florida, the dreaded trip takes on a sense of purpose. Van Morrison claims he was injured at a restaurant owned by a friend back home and the lawsuit has already been filed. Dave and Vinnie just know he’s faking it and they have a week at Snodgrass World to save the restaurant by proving it. They’ll have to dodge fleets of wheel chairs and scooters long enough to expose him. Vinnie’s sharp-elbowed wife is indispensable as she leads the way past line-cutters, other people’s obnoxious children and the maniac driving the scooter with the on-board colostomy bag. When they befriend a crotchety bartender back at the hotel, Dave and Vinnie unexpectedly tap an inside source that just might help them get their man. Anybody who’s ever taken a trip to Disney World will recognize the people and places in Snodgrass Vacation, a hilarious and irreverent satire of theme park life. "This book was hilarious! I could relate to it on so many levels I felt the author was writing about me! From actually investigating worker's comp claims, to being stuck on vacations with obnoxious friends, to experiencing scouts and worms, I'm experienced it all first hand! It's hard to categorize this book as fiction! It was an absolute joy to read, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who has ever had the opportunity of being subjected to the antics of a theme park!" -- Smashwords review "I loved this book, anyone who has been to Disney will see & identify with the characters in this story. It did have me laugh out loud several times." -- Smashwords review ***** The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady by Elizabeth Stuckey-French [JSWolf, hpulley, drofgnal] Inkmesh search Spoiler: Description:** This lively, intricately plotted, laugh-out-loud funny, and surprisingly touching family drama combines the wit of Carl Hiaasen with the southern charm of Jill McCorkle. Seventy-seven-year-old Marylou Ahearn is going to kill Dr. Wilson Spriggs come hell or high water. In 1953, he gave her a radioactive cocktail without her consent as part of a secret government study that had horrible consequences. Marylou has been plotting her revenge for fifty years. When she accidentally discovers his whereabouts in Florida, her plans finally snap into action. She high tails it to hot and humid Tallahassee, moves in down the block from where a now senile Spriggs lives with his daughter"s family, and begins the tricky work of insinuating herself into their lives. But she has no idea what a nest of yellow jackets she is stumbling into. Before the novel is through, someone will be kidnapped, an unlikely couple will get engaged, someone will nearly die from eating a pineapple upside-down cake laced with anti-freeze, and that"s not all . . . Told from the varied perspectives of an incredible cast of endearing oddball characters and written with the flair of a native Floridian, this dark comedy does not disappoint. From the Hardcover edition. (from Kobo) **** Sht My Dad Says* by Justin Halpern [WT Sharpe, hpulley, orlok] Inkmesh search Spoiler: Description: After being dumped by his longtime girlfriend, twenty-eight-year-old Justin Halpern found himself living at home with his seventy-three-year-old dad. Sam Halpern, who is "like Socrates, but angrier, and with worse hair," has never minced words, and when Justin moved back home, he began to record all the ridiculous things his dad said to him: "That woman was sexy. . . . Out of your league? Son, let women figure out why they won't screw you. Don't do it for them." "Do people your age know how to comb their hair? It looks like two squirrels crawled on their heads and started fucking." "The worst thing you can be is a liar. . . . Okay, fine, yes, the worst thing you can be is a Nazi, but then number two is liar. Nazi one, liar two." More than a million people now follow Mr. Halpern's philosophical musings on Twitter, and in this book, his son weaves a brilliantly funny, touching coming-of-age memoir around the best of his quotes. An all-American story that unfolds on the Little League field, in Denny's, during excruciating family road trips, and, most frequently, in the Halperns' kitchen over bowls of Grape-Nuts, Sht My Dad Says is a chaotic, hilarious, true portrait of a father-son relationship from a major new comic voice. (from barnesandnoble.com) **** Mission Earth 1: The Invaders Plan by L. Ron Hubbard [voodooblues, John F, jemc] Inkmesh search Spoiler: Description: The Voltar Confederacy has a long-range strategy to invade Earth and use it in their conquest of the Galaxy. However, with the discovery that Earth is being destroyed by incessant pollution, Royal Officer Jettero Heller is sent on a top-secret mission to handle this threat to the planet's life. But why is Lombar Hisst, head of the Apparatus, Voltar's deadly intelligence agency, determined to sabotage the mission and see it fail? Can Heller possibly succeed or will he fall into the web of intergalactic intrigue spun by Hisst and his devious henchman, Soltan Gris? Find out as you embark on this mission full of dynamic characters and packed with plenty of twists, action and emotion. "...a big, humorous tale of interstellar intrigue in the classical mold. I fully enjoyed it." -- Roger Zelazny "An incredibly good story, lushly written, vibrating with action and excitement. A gem." -- A.E. Van Vogt "On our scale of 1 to 10,... The Invaders Plan comes out at a 10. Its fabulous and fun reading." -- United Press International From Lord Invay, Royal Historian, Chairman, Board of Censors, Royal Palace, Voltar Confederacy: "Let me state it boldly and baldly: there is no such planet as Earth. If it ever existed at all, it certainly does not exist today or even within living memory. So, away with this delusion. On the authority of every highly placed official in the land I can assure you utterly and finally, THERE IS NO PLANET EARTH! And that is final!" With this emphatic disclaimer, we are introduced to Mission Earth, an epic told entirely and uniquely by the aliens that already walk among us. Earth is to be invaded and a Royal combat engineer must cross 22 light years to secretly infiltrate the planet. He is also crossing a scheme to use the resources of Earth's most powerful figure to overthrow the confederacy. With a convicted murderess who trains giant cat-like animals, a doctor who creates human biological freaks, a madman who controls Voltar's secret police and a clandestine Earth base in Turkey, a bizarre stage is set and narrated by an alien killer assigned to sabotage the mission and Earth--the planet that doesn't exist. (from Amazon.com) *** The Princess Bride by William Goldman [The Terminator, JSWolf, Nyssa] Inkmesh search Spoiler: Anyone who lived through the 1980s may find it impossible—inconceivable, even—to equate The Princess Bride with anything other than the sweet, celluloid romance of Westley and Buttercup, but the film is only a fraction of the ingenious storytelling you'll find in these pages. Rich in character and satire, the novel is set in 1941 and framed cleverly as an “abridged” retelling of a centuries-old tale set in the fabled country of Florin that's home to “Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passions.” *** Idle Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow by Jerome K. Jerome [The Terminator, Asawi, hpulley] Inkmesh search Spoiler*: Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow is a collection of humorous essays by Jerome K. Jerome. The essays cover a range of topics from "On Being in Love" to "On Furnished Apartments" to "On Getting on in the World". Jerome established himself as one of England's favorite wits with his comic novel Three Men in a Boat. Last edited by WT Sharpe; 03-22-2012 at 09:26 AM. Reason: Updated through Post #61.*

03-20-2012, 04:45 PM	#14
jhempel24 Wizard Posts: 2,157 Karma: 7068605 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite, B&N Nook Colro	I nominate Snodgrass Vacation by Dave Conifer http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/6019#longdescr Spoiler: An irreverent but hilarious spoof on Disney World and the people who love it. Dave Jevik wasn’t too happy to hear that his wife had scheduled a family vacation to Snodgrass World Resort with the Zandanels. Loudmouth Vinnie is hard to put up with for an hour, let alone a week. But when Vinnie spots wheelchair-bound George Van Morrison in first class on the flight to Florida, the dreaded trip takes on a sense of purpose. Van Morrison claims he was injured at a restaurant owned by a friend back home and the lawsuit has already been filed. Dave and Vinnie just know he’s faking it and they have a week at Snodgrass World to save the restaurant by proving it. They’ll have to dodge fleets of wheel chairs and scooters long enough to expose him. Vinnie’s sharp-elbowed wife is indispensable as she leads the way past line-cutters, other people’s obnoxious children and the maniac driving the scooter with the on-board colostomy bag. When they befriend a crotchety bartender back at the hotel, Dave and Vinnie unexpectedly tap an inside source that just might help them get their man. Anybody who’s ever taken a trip to Disney World will recognize the people and places in Snodgrass Vacation, a hilarious and irreverent satire of theme park life.

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03-20-2012, 08:37 AM	#3
issybird o saeclum infacetum Posts: 21,110 Karma: 234185759 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: New England Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5	I'm nominating The Ginger Man by J. P. Donleavy. The description from Goodreads: Set in Ireland just after World War II, The Ginger Man is J.P. Donleavy's wildly funny, picaresque classic novel of the misadventures of Sebastian Dangerfield, a young American ne'er-do-well studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Dangerfield's appetite for women, liquor, and general roguishness is insatiable -- and he satisfies it with endless charm. It's available at all the usual venues in the US and it's couponable at Kobo.

03-20-2012, 12:59 PM	#4
orlok Close to the Edit! Posts: 9,797 Karma: 267994408 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis, Amazon Fire 8", Kindle 6"	I'll second The Ginger Man. Years since I read it, but I do remember loving it.

03-20-2012, 01:27 PM	#6
nursedude Zealot Posts: 131 Karma: 17102 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Ontario, Canada Device: Kobo (Original), KT, iPad 1, iPhone 4S, iPad 3rd gen	Perhaps: Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock. It's available at project Gutenberg in a variety of formats.

03-20-2012, 02:04 PM	#7
GA Russell Argos win Grey Cup! Posts: 7,674 Karma: 31487351 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Raleigh, NC Device: Paperwhite, Kindles 10 & 4 and jetBook Lite	I nominate The Night Life of the Gods by Thorne Smith. I read it in 1973 and loved it, and I'd enjoy reading it again. It is available here in the Patricia Clark MobileRead Library. "Thorne Smith's rapid-fire dialogue, brilliant sense of the absurd, and literary aplomb put him in the same category as the beloved P. G. Wodehouse. The Night Life of the Gods--the madcap story of a scientist who instigates a nocturnal spree with the Greek gods--is arguably his most sparkling comedic achievement." https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...ghlight=Thorne

03-20-2012, 02:07 PM	#8
Asawi Gadgetoholic Posts: 1,467 Karma: 3865860 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Sweden Device: Kobo Libra2, Tolino Vision 6	I *second* Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town

03-20-2012, 02:42 PM	#10
Hamlet53 Nameless Being	Second The Night Life of the Gods by Thorne Smith. Third The Ginger Man by J. P. Donleavy.

03-20-2012, 02:58 PM	#11
RoccoPaco Enthusiast Posts: 29 Karma: 396 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Nook	I'd like to nominate "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole and Walker Percy. From Amazon Reviews: A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole’s hero is one Ignatius J. Reilly, “huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, and a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original character, denizens of New Orleans’ lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures” (Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun Times)

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