humor

Enduring Endurance

Enduring Endurance
Title: Enduring Endurance
ASIN: B00EHLWGTQ
Category:
Series:
Published: August 10, 2013
Author:
Author's Twitter: @acspahn
Infusing the traditional science fiction format with humor and awkward coworkers, Enduring Endurance follows the not-so-best-and-brightest of humanity as they explore the galaxy by accident.   Infusing the traditional science fiction format with humor and awkward coworkers, Enduring Endurance follows the not-so-best-and-brightest of humanity as they explore the galaxy by accident. Captain Thomas Withers expects the worst when he’s assigned command of the Endurance, the least-respected ship in the United Earth Law Enforcement Corps. He gets it, and then some. After a poorly executed experiment throws Thomas and his crew out of Earth’s solar system and into humanity’s first meeting with aliens, he must rely on the outcasts of the corps, not only to get home, but to survive the trip at all.   Please note:  The Endurance series is no longer available as separate volumes. The complete series of books 1 to 5 is available as one book.  Please click here.

Assessed 

Please note:  The Endurance series is no longer available as separate volumes. The complete series of books 1 to 5 is available as one book.  Please click here. 

 

Walking with Elephants

Walking with Elephants
Title: Walking with Elephants
ASIN: B006BG7G90
Publisher:
Published: November 17, 2011
Bridget Jones meet Erma Bombeck — Walking with Elephants, a lighthearted slice-of- life story, brings to the table the serious work/family issues facing women today.   Suze Hall is at a crossroads. Her nemesis at work, Wanda, has been promoted and now will be her boss. Her husband, Bob, is leaving her and the three kids for a six-month sabbatical down under. To top it off, her best friend, Marcia, is missing in action–playing footsie with some new boyfriend!   Adding to this disaster stew, David, the gorgeous hunk who broke her young-girl’s heart has coincidentally popped back into her life and has something she desperately needs to keep her job. Walking with Elephants, a lighthearted slice-of- life story, brings to the table the serious work/family issues facing women today. It explores the modern dichotomy of a workplace that is filled with homemakers who still must cook, clean, carpool on nights and weekends, shop for prom dresses, and “create” the holidays–such as Suze. But it also is filled with women who have the same drive as men, have no family responsibilities, and will do what ever it takes to get ahead. So step into the shoes of Suze Hall and commiserate over workplace politics, titillate your sexual fantasies, ride the wave of a working mother, and fall-down laughing.

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Delivering Virtue

Delivering Virtue
Title: Delivering Virtue
ASIN: B01528UA9A
Published: November 7, 2015
Author's Twitter: @briankindall
Poetic rogue Didier Rain is hired by The Church of the Restructured Truth to deliver a baby – Virtue – to be the bride of the Prophet Nehi at his church’s new settlement in the wilderness territories. A picaresque novel set in the American frontier of 1854. “It’s 1854 in the American West and Didier Rain – rogue, poet, and would-be entrepreneur – is hired by an upstart church to deliver a child bride to the sect’s prophet across a frontier fraught with perils.” Delivering Virtue is a picaresque novel set in the American frontier of 1854. A poetic rogue by the name of Didier Rain is hired by The Church of the Restructured Truth to fulfill a prophecy. He is to deliver a baby – Virtue – to be the bride of the Prophet Nehi at his church’s new settlement in the wilderness territories. The story is an account of the trials Rain endures on this journey, attempting to adhere to the contract he signed prescribing his sacrosanct behavior throughout, while wrestling with his more base animal inclinations. As he walks this precarious line between the sacred and the profane, Virtue remains Didier Rain’s guiding miracle, showing him the true meaning of salvation by journey’s end.

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The Ribs and Thigh Bones of Desire

The Ribs and Thigh Bones of Desire
Title: The Ribs and Thigh Bones of Desire
ASIN: B00NZDOYP6
Published: December 9, 2014
Author's Twitter: @sheerhubris
Will they or won’t they? Should they or shouldn’t they? It’s the summer of 1977 in a small college town, and physics professor David Asken has just lost his young family in a plane crash he somehow survived. Sixteen-year-old neighbor Molly Carmichael used to be the babysitter, but now will be keeping house for him while he recuperates. David’s quietly planning to end his life just as soon as he can drive again. Molly’s trying to cope with being known as Tampon Girl, thanks to a sculpture by her notorious artist mother, but she will have to deal with much worse after a drunken teenage party. In this engrossing coming-of-age novel by the author of The Awful Mess, both man and girl must grow up the hard way, and it’s their unexpectedly tender connection, fraught with potential scandal, that may just help them do it. This provocative novel asks: Is there ever a time when doing the wrong thing might be exactly right? Warning: Offers adult themes, bad language, violence, and a blistering feminist critique of how men always leave that crap in the bottom of the sink. May also keep you reading way too late into the night.

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To Do the Deal, A Novel in Stories

To Do the Deal, A Novel in Stories
Title: To Do the Deal, A Novel in Stories
ASIN: B00NUAOTPY
Illustrator: GB Tran
Published: September 22, 2014
Author:
This humorous career and family drama will captivate anyone who has ever held a job, lived in a family, or been on either side of a sales transaction. To Do the Deal, A Novel in Stories is about the quotidian — the challenges, minute dramas, and endearing moments that make up the every day. Set in a suburb of Washington, DC, To Do the Deal sets its focus not on the power brokers that dominate the nation’s capital but rather, on one family that is muddling along. Through ten stories, one each set in the years 1991 through 2000, we follow Kenneth Bodine on his quest to make a decent living in commission sales. We also follow his wife, Jodi, who tries hard as wife, worker, and mother and who often gets it right but just as often overthinks. To Do the Deal will appeal to readers who like witty stories, well told; who appreciate carefully plotted narratives; and who want to be entertained by an ensemble cast of deftly drawn characters. The language is literary yet light: readers who put check marks in the margins next to lines that resonate will mark a lot of pages. Beyond the appeal of its writing, To Do the Deal will captivate anyone who has ever held a job, lived in a family, or been on either side of a sales transaction.

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The Scottish Movie

Scottish Movie, The
Title: Scottish Movie, The
ASIN: B008YCE50C
Published: August 15, 2012
Author:
Why is 'Macbeth' known as 'the unlucky play'? Young Harry's unpublished novel has the answer. And when some Hollywood producers steal it, they find themselves making a very unlucky movie.   Harry Greenville, a young actor and part-time writer struggling to make a living in modern Los Angeles, writes a novel about Shakespeare. ‘It’s 1606 and the Bard needs a new play for King James, who is notoriously hard to please. As history tells us, he comes up with ‘Macbeth’. But the rehearsals are dogged by illnesses and accidents, the royal premiere gets the royal thumbs down, and the actors consider the play to be more than unlucky – they believe it’s cursed. The question is: Why?’ Harry’s novel offers an intriguing answer, and he posts the first draft on a website in the hope that a Hollywood agent will discover it. And someone in the movie business does discover it – but not the kind of person Harry had in mind. The result is a truly Shakespearean tale of theft, revenge, and just desserts.

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Mightier than the Sword

Mightier than the Sword
Title: Mightier than the Sword
ASIN: B00G4NJDZA
Category:
Series:
Publisher:
Published: October 22, 2013
Author:
Author's Twitter: @acspahn
Murder. Death threats. Working with the team that fired him six years ago. It’s a busy week for Viktor Ivanokoff. When Viktor is pulled off of the UELE Endurance to help solve the murder of his one-time captain, he’s eager to help. The case provides a challenge, as well as a chance to outperform his former colleagues. But as the investigation takes him into the far reaches of the solar system, he discovers that his work may carry greater stakes than a simple opportunity for payback. Please note:  The Endurance series is no longer available as separate volumes. The complete series of books 1 to 5 is available as one book.  Please click here.

Assessed 

Please note:  The Endurance series is no longer available as separate volumes. The complete series of books 1 to 5 is available as one book.  Please click here.

 

After the Dog Died

After The Dog Died
Title: After The Dog Died
ASIN: B005IDBN14
Publisher:
Published: August 20, 2011
Author:
Jim and Candy want more from life. They team up, slide into a life of crime, and find happiness in a recreational vehicle.   Through a strange narrative style, the author paints an oddly jovial picture of being broke, in debt, jobless, and heading towards hopeless in modern day Australia. Laugh out loud material and a pair of protagonists who although shallow and up to no good, you can really root for. A great debut novel and one to read poolside or on a long train journey.

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An Animal Life: The Beginning

An Animal Life: The Beginning
Title: An Animal Life: The Beginning
ASIN: B00AJ46X6W
Published: November 6, 2012
Author:
Author's Twitter: @HowardKrum
A nirreverent, romantic comedy with an animal medical mystery set in veterinary school. The best TV analogue for the tone and story is a cross between “M*A*S*H” and “ER.”    Millions dream of veterinary school, few make it in. The chosen discover an irreverent, romantically- charged, academic gauntlet that brings out the best and worst that humans can be. An Animal Life: The Beginning was inspired by the real-life adventures of four veterinary school classmates. This first book in the series opens as Dr. Violet Marie Green (a beautiful zoo vet extraordinaire) is darting a giraffe from the open cockpit of a helicopter. As the first veterinarian at the world’s largest zoo, Violet should be ecstatic but her self-medicated gastric ulcer warns that all is not right in The Peaceable Kingdom. Almost immediately a mysterious and invariably fatal neurological disease emerges. Horses, zebra, flamingoes, crows and even people are dropping dead all around the zoo. With her goofy-sweet and brilliant friend, Stan the Path Man, she and her vet students solve the case and reveal that the bully of a lead animal keeper (with obvious designs to bed Violet) has been in cahoots with a sport-hunting ranch in Texas (you won’t believe what he did…).

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