Family Humor

Henry and his slobbering dog Mudge are visiting Great-Grandpa Bill, who lives in a house with lots of other grandpas. Henry likes the grandpas because they play checkers and rock in rocking chairs. Mudge likes them because they feed him mint candies. When Henry and Mudge leave the house to go exploring, they find a beautiful swimming pond. They come back to let everybody know, and soon all the grandpas want to go swimming. Henry's father says, "We'll have to go in our Skivvies."

We all use excuses for one reason or another. We use them to justify our own behavior and those of people we know and love. And sometimes for those we don’t. As humans, it’s just something we do. In his latest scholarly work, Anthony Ventrello presents excuses to get out of doing things from work, school, and even family weddings. With the help of pictures and personal experiences, Mr. Ventrello helps his readers learn that there is an excuse to get out of anything. Use at your own risk.

Rey is new to time travel and still learning how it works. She’s come back in time in a last-ditch attempt to prevent a future disaster. She doesn’t know if she can change the timeline but she’s determined to find out. She arrives outside Daily Grind a matter of weeks before the cafe will be destroyed in a fire that leaves one dead. It’s the perfect test. She seizes the opportunity and weaves her way into the fabric of the team. Dom runs Daily Grind, the cafe that turned his life round. But now it’s under threat of demolition and he doesn’t know if he has the energy to save it. ...

Back in the long ago '90s, Rachel Walsh was a mess. But a spell in rehab transformed everything. Life became very good, very quickly. These days, Rachel has love, family, a great job as an addiction counsellor, she even gardens. Her only bad habit is a fondness for expensive trainers. But with the sudden reappearance of a man she'd once loved, her life wobbles. She'd thought she was settled. Fixed forever. Is she about to discover that no matter what our age everything can change? Is it time to think again, Rachel?

They did more than just serve together… Even after taking to the open road as a long haul trucker, Adrian Stokes can't seem to run away from his memories of Iraq. His time in the Middle East is never far from his mind, not because of the war itself, but because of a man he shouldn’t have been in love with. He never thought he’d see him again, but when a contract takes Adrian through his lover-in-arm’s hometown, he knows he needs see him—even if it means getting his heart broken again. Chandler Longman joined the army to get away from his podunk town, but without any direction, he ...

Marnie MacGraw and Patrick Delaney have been in love for a few years now, enough to realize that they are imperfectly perfect together. Still, there are some things that maybe need a little attention. Marnie’s ebullient; he’s brooding. She thrives on change; he prefers stability. She sees marriage and parenthood in their future, but he can’t see beyond the shadow of an earlier tragedy. Then an eight-year-old surprise from Patrick’s past shows up on their doorstep, cartwheeling into their lives and spinning things in all directions.

It is now 1958, and a new family has moved in next door to Mrs. Dowdel: a Methodist minister and his wife and kids. Soon Mrs. Dowdel will work her particular brand of charm - or medicine, depending on who you're asking - on all of them: ten-yearold Bob, who is shy on courage in a town full of bullies; his two fascinating sisters; and even Bob's two parents, who are amazed to discover that the last house in town might also be the most vital.

While spacing out in Chemistry class, Lily scribbles some of her favorite song lyrics onto her desk. The next day, she finds that someone has continued the lyrics on the desk, and added a message to her. Intrigue! Soon, Lily and her anonymous pen pal are exchanging full-on letters - sharing secrets, recommending bands, and opening up to each other. Lily realizes she's kind of falling for this letter writer. Only who is he?

Unless you are a slug, a sea anemone, or mildew, you probably prefer not to be damp. You might also prefer not to listen to this audiobook, in which the Baudelaire siblings descend into the depths of despair, underwater. The horrors they encounter are too numerous to list, and include mushrooms, a mechanical monster, a distressing message from a lost friend, and tap dancing.

Pink, pink, pink. More than anything, Pinkalicious loves pink, especially pink cupcakes. Her parents warn her not to eat too many of them, but when Pinkalicious does...she turns pink! What to do?

How do you get the perfect gift for the love of your life? It’s Adrian and Chandler’s first Christmas together since their deployment in Iraq, and their very first holiday spent as a married couple and daddies to a boisterous, too-smart-for-her-own-good six-year-old. The two men have April’s gifts wrapped and ready under the tree… but what about their own? Adrian is scrambling to organize the adoption of Koko, a military working dog who was Chandler’s best friend in hard times overseas, and Chandler is on an impossible mission to find the classic car that once belonged to ...

Meet the Blunders: Bertie, Betsy, their children, Brutus and Bunny, along with their beloved grandma Old Lady Blunder, and their pet ostrich, Cedric. An ostrich is not a sensible pet, but then the Blunders are not sensible people. This family of upper-class twits live in a crumbling country house named Blunder Hall. When their home comes under threat, they must embark on a series of comic misadventures to save it.

Growing up in an orphanage, Leila was bullied for being different. She turned her hardship into skill by becoming an escape artist - a valuable trait when belonging to a group of magical best friends. But when a famous psychic comes to town, Leila and her pals won't be able to escape the big mystery heading their way. Whether chasing mad monkeys or banishing ghosts from haunted hotels, these six friends will do their best to keep Mineral Wells safe - but can they still protect themselves in the process?

For the first time in Spellman history, Isabel Spellman might be the most normal member of her family. Mom has taken on an outrageous assortment of extracurricular activities. Dad has a secret. Her brother and sister are at war, but neither will reveal the source of the conflict. While domestic disturbances abound, there is one source of sanity in the Spellman household: Demetrius Merriweather, employee of the month for 18 months straight. Things aren't any simpler on the business side of Spellman Investigations....

Did you know that Cinderella’s stepsisters got their eyes pecked out by birds? Really. And that Rumpelstiltskin ripped himself in half? And that in "The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage", a mouse, a bird, and a sausage all talk to each other? (Okay, I guess that one’s not that grim.) Those are the real fairy tales. But they have nothing on the fairy tales in this audiobook.

Theodosia Throckmorton has her hands full at the Museum of Legends and Antiquities in London. Her father may be head curator, but it is Theoand only Theowho is able to see all the black magic and ancient curses that still cling to the artifacts in the museum. Sneaking behind her fathers back, Theo uses old, nearly forgotten Egyptian magic to remove the curses and protect her father and the rest of the museum employees from the ancient, sinister forces that lurk in the museums dark hallways.

The Peterkin Papers record the antics of the most memorably and hopelessly bumbling of respectable American families. Confronted by the endless challenges of daily life, the Peterkins rise to every occasion with misguided aplomb: they sit out in the sun for hours and fail to go for a ride because they've forgotten to unhitch the horse.

Vera Thimble fell for a man whose family is one of the oldest in NYC—they own lots of things. Actually, she fell backwards on the escalator and broke his finger in the tangle. She's a veterinarian, so tried to fix it for him, naturally. It seems he fell in love with her for that kind gesture. Who knew that broken bones would be the highlight of their romance? But given she wasn’t his usual lovely actress or supermodel type, Vera was flattered. Until she found out what he really had planned for her and the family jewels. Now the cops wonder just what she did with the body.

Ramona's life changes the moment Howie Kemp's mysterious uncle arrives from Saudi Arabia. Howie and his sister, Willa Jean, talk only about Uncle Hobart. Ramona's mother makes secret phone calls and stops eating dessert, and Aunt Bea is hiding something, too. Whatever surprises are in store, Ramona is determined to be happy and helpful. Whether she's pleasant or pesty, brave or blunderful, she's always wonderful Ramona - forever!

Unraveling the tumultuous, decades-spanning story of the Dolan family’s friends, lovers, and adversaries, Double Feature is about letting go of everything - regret, resentment, ambition, dignity, moving pictures, the dead - and taking it again from the top. Combining propulsive storytelling and mordant wit against the backdrop of indie filmmaking, Double Feature brims with a deep understanding of the trials of ambition and art, of relationships and life, and of our attempts to survive it all.