Short Stories Humor

The one thing that could be expected to disturb the peace of life at Blandings is the incursion of imposters. Blandings has imposters like other houses have mice. On this occasion there are two of them--both intent on a dangerous enterprise.

Johannes Cabal, a brilliant scientist and notorious snob, is single-mindedly obsessed in heart and soul with raising the dead. Well, perhaps not soul.... He hastily sold his years ago in order to learn the laws of necromancy. But now, tormented by a dark secret, he travels to the fiery pits of Hell to retrieve it. Satan, who is incredibly bored these days, proposes a little wager: Johannes has one year to persuade 100 people to sign over their souls, or he will be damned forever.

A gritty, darkly satirical short story about power, persuasion, and the peril of turning a blind eye to uncomfortable truths. Set aboard a seemingly ordinary tour bus, this story unpacks how truth can be twisted, trust can be bought with promises, and entire groups can be led astray, not through force, but through flattery, fear, and the seductive comfort of belonging. What begins as a frustrating travel delay quickly spirals into a chilling lesson in manipulation. A charismatic stranger promises salvation, but delivers only chaos, division, and delusion. Some passengers resist. Most stay ...

A collection of highly imaginative short pieces that speak to our times with deadly accuracy. Vintage Atwood creativity, intelligence, and humor: think Alias Grace. Margaret Atwood turns to short fiction for the first time since her 2006 collection, Moral Disorder, with nine tales of acute psychological insight and turbulent relationships bringing to mind her award-winning 1996 novel, Alias Grace.

Santa. Zombies. The HOA. Life in the suburbs isn’t all birthday parties and bounce houses.

Teach your child patience! * * * * * * * * * "You forgot the mail?" The king yelled at the snail. But the snail stayed as calm as could be. He was not afraid of the king, you see. He knew where the gift was; he knew what to do. The monsters learned that patience pays off too. We are all familiar with the phenomenon of children wanting everything "here and now". This story describes just such a situation. I hope you and your children will enjoy it and learn from it. 子どもたちに辛抱について教えてくれる１冊！ 「郵便を忘れただと？」王様はカタツムリ君に...

Every nosy neighbor, gossipy friend, and meddling relative is just one good mystery away from becoming a detective. From behind locked doors or out in broad daylight, driven by chance or curiosity, amateur sleuths get in over their heads in these six hair-raising, hilarious stories.

David Foster Wallace made an art of taking readers into places no other writer even gets near. In his exuberantly acclaimed collection, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, he combines hilarity and an escalating disquiet in stories that astonish, entertain, and expand our ideas of the pleasures that fiction can afford.

One day, Stan and Jan Berenstain were captured by a family of bears. It was a family of three - an overenthusiastic Papa whose high opinion of himself was exceeded only by his ability to do silly things (often placing himself in jeopardy from bees, skunks, low-hanging branches, whales, irate farmers, etc.) a wise, steady Mama with a firm grip on reality, and a bright enterprising little boy cub.

Happy Birthday to Me! I’m turning 21 … and there’s Only ONE Thing I Want . . . My birthday's coming up. Will I finally get what I want? What I wanted most for my twenty-first birthday was to be fisted by my stepbrother, Kyle. I've made my wish and blew out the candles, now all I need is for Kyle to make my birthday wish come true. Will it be a birthday to remember? Will my rock-solid stepbrother be willing to stretch my tight and hot little hole? Will I get a birthday bonus as well? Short erotica: 10,000 words.

A short and steamy instalove romance. Grace I need a place to lay low, get my head together, and sort out what the hell I’m doing with my life. Gran’s old cottage is the perfect hideaway. Until Jesse the builder turns up to renovate the place. He’s destroying my peace, and not just with the constant noise. His chiseled chest and bulging biceps are a distraction. But maybe he’s just the distraction I need. Jesse I’ve got the perfect plot of land, and I’ve got plans for my own place. The only thing I’m missing is someone to share it with. When I get knocked off my ladder and ...

I had simple goals. Move to a small town don't date women that hate my guts. Unless she's sexy, has curves in all the right places and needs a fake fiancee too. Easy Right? Wrong! My usual type. Blonde with commitment issues and a little crazy. The new neighbor that hates me and my loud parties? She's not my type. But my body says that's a lie. I want to see more of those sexy curves and I can use a fake fiancée to get out of trouble with the team. Will she take me up on my offer to fake it? Will she let me convince her she's the only woman for me? A Steamy Enemies to Lovers Curvy Girl ...

This collection of sharply observed animal-themed tales is a delight, told with David Sedaris's trademark blend of hilarity and goodnaturedness. Though the characters may not be human, the situations in these stories bear an uncanny resemblance to the insanity of our own everyday interactions.

This book is different to the others in the series because the pieces here were originally wriiten for a newspaper column. Everything in here is, however, set in Bilbury and involves the usual village characters (plus some new ones). `I have just read Bilbury Pie (recommended by a local library). I enjoyed it so much I read it like eating a box of chocolates - two or three chapters at a time to make it last and savour the flavour. I thank you for giving people pleasure and plenty of smiles.' - Mrs G, Banbury, England The author of Bilbury Pie, Vernon Coleman, is a Sunday Times bestselling ...

It is said that a picture may be worth a thousand words, but an old photograph can inspire many more. In this beguiling book, Alexander McCall Smith casts his eye over five chanced-upon photographs from the era of black-and-white photography and imagines the stories behind them. Who were those people, what were their stories, why are they smiling, what made them sad?

As the new manager of the Perfect Passion Company, Katie’s mission is to help the lonely hearts of Edinburgh. With the assistance of her amiable and handsome office neighbor, William, she finds herself using a personal touch to find matches for the city’s lovelorn citizens. When an airline pilot comes to her looking for a woman to take care of him, Katie sends him to cooking school. The case of a hotelier with a particularly overbearing mother may require a delicate two-pronged approach.

This eclectic short story collection of dark stories is set both in modern times and in fictional locales. These tales are tinged with themes of revenge served cold as found in Snake In The Shadows, The Unpleasant Demise of Simon Stone and Day of Atonement. Threads of dark humor from A Vampire For Some Seasons offer some comic respite. Within the core of all these stories, lie more questions than answers about the depravity of the human condition, all of which should be addressed in the cool safety of the light of day.

The “best short story writer in English” (Time) is back with a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice, and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. With his trademark prose—wickedly funny, unsentimental, and perfectly tuned—Saunders continues to challenge and surprise: here is a collection of prismatic, deeply resonant stories that encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality.

This is a collection of the third six short stories in the Caverns and Creatures series.

Here are a dozen stories to delight all Wodehouse addicts.... A crooning tenor is attempting to captivate the affections of the Rev. Rupert Bingham’s fiancée; Lord Emsworth is striving to remove a pumpkin-shaped blot on the family escutcheon; the Hon. Freddie Threepwood is making a last-ditch attempt to convert Lady Alcester to the beneficial quality of Donaldson’s Dog-Joy; and in the bar-parlor of the Anglers’ Rest, Mr. Mulliner fascinates everyone with the secret history of old Hollywood.