Literature & Fiction

The ratings and views are off the chart. The fans just can't get enough. The dungeon gets more dangerous each day. But in a grinder designed to chew up and spit out crawlers by the millions, Carl and Princess Donut need to work harder than ever just to survive.,,,

The top 10 list is populated. The sponsorship program is open. The difficulty is ramping up. The first three floors were nothing compared to what Carl and Donut now face....

Well, this year, after the Spring Planting season, I’m really gonna relax and put down roots. It’s the slow life for me. Sure, the talking animals and cultivators coming to live with me are a bit weird, but this year everything is gonna be basically normal....

Mark Manson turns his gaze from the inevitable flaws within each individual self to the endless calamities taking place in the world around us....

There are only three things in this world that are certain: death, taxes, and babies. Nobody knows this truth better than Emily McCoy, a third year resident working in Baby City, the affectionate nickname for the busy Labor and Delivery unit at a New York City hospital.

Unlike the rest of her family, Maggie Walsh has always done the right thing....

In a hilarious short story from New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman, the absurdities of modern life cause one man’s solitary world to spin suddenly, and comically, out of control.

The City Watch needs men! But what it's got includes Corporal Carrot, Lance-Constable Cuddy, Lance-Constable Detritus, Lance-Constable Angua and Corporal Nobbs....

A story close to Sandi Toksvig's heart, Friends of Dorothy is a wonderful, funny, touching novel about making a family that is not biological, but logical.

Arbuthnot ‘Arbie’ Swift arrives at Dashwood House, a glamorously modern hotel in the up-and-coming resort of Galton-next-the-Sea, but all plans for a relaxing stay are scuppered when one of the guests is found dead.

Through the ages of Britain, from the 15th century to the 21st, Edmund Blackadder has meddled his way along the bloodlines, aided by his servant and sidekick, Baldrick, and hindered by an assortment of dimwitted aristocrats....

Traumatized by the bombing of Dresden at the time he had been imprisoned, Pilgrim drifts through all events and history, sometimes deeply implicated, sometimes a witness....

The first time somebody tried to kill him was an accident. The second time was deliberate. Now Paul Mulchrone finds himself on the run with nobody to turn to except a nurse who has read one-too-many crime novels and a renegade copper with a penchant for violence. Together they must solve one of the most notorious crimes in Irish history....

Armageddon Day. That is how history will remember the date when two Overlords clashed amidst the war-torn streets of New Whitehall....

I would have trusted this man with my life. Until a couple of days ago, anyway. You know what they say - hope for the best, but plan for the worst. Max is quite accustomed to everything going wrong. She's St Mary's, after all. Disaster is her default state.

Large chests are said to encompass all manner of hopes and dreams. Men covet them. Women envy them. But one fact holds true - everyone wants to get their hands on some big ones....

Les Norton is not finding much joy in his search for the missing fim script. Especially not while fighting a sadistic giant, when the only thing that can save him is the Mongolian Death Lock....

Newly minted doctor Jane McGill is in hell. Not literally, of course. But between her drug addict patients, sleepless nights on call, and battling wits with the sadistic yet charming Sexy Surgeon, Jane can’t imagine an afterlife much worse than her first month of internship at County Hospital.

It’s amazing what the lack of immediate threat to one’s life and wellbeing can do for a person’s disposition....

It’s three days before Christmas, and detective-turned-chef Jodie ‘Nosey’ Parker is drafted in to cater a charity event run by a notorious millionaire at a 13th-century abbey on Bodmin Moor.

My husband is dead. I attended his funeral. I watched his casket be lowered six feet into the ground. (Actually, it may have been only five feet, but that still seems like more than enough.)

What happens when one takes a murderous psychopath and forces them to team up with a cowardly tinkerer? Though not a question Jeremiah ever expected to ponder, he is nevertheless looking forward to seeing what the aforementioned duo will cook up....

This funny, down-to-earth parody of Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up hands listeners the most useful tools for keeping crap clean and organized without all the pressure....

Les Norton, a big red-headed country boy from Queensland, has just arrived in the big smoke and is set to make his mark....

A stunning collection of Just William stories, narrated by Martin Jarvis. These BBC radio readings of the adventures of William have come to be some of the most loved adaptations....

There are only three things in this world that are certain: death, taxes, and babies. Nobody knows this truth better than Emily McCoy, a third year resident working in Baby City, the affectionate nickname for the busy Labor and Delivery unit at a New York City hospital. On a typical day in Baby City, Emily delivers more babies than the number of hours of sleep she manages to squeeze in that night. And definitely more than the number of dates she's been on since she started her training in OB/GYN two years earlier.

Anglo-Irish author Oliver Goldsmith was one of the most accomplished writers of the 18th century. A novelist, playwright, poet and essayist, he came to fame with his novel The Vicar of Wakefield and comic play She Stoops to Conquer. Both those classics are included here, with star casts including Julia McKenzie, Amanda Root, Peter Jeffrey and Sunny Ormonde.

The Widows Wine Club of Viv, Janet and Zelda have navigated choppy waters before. Having supported each other through the first shaky years of widowhood, the future was starting to look brighter. But when Janet is dealt another blow, it’s all hands on deck for the firm friends. Deciding what Janet needs is a change of scenery, Viv and Zelda book a luxury cruise on the Queen Mary 2, heading for the bright lights of New York. And once on board, the women are entranced. A floating pleasure palace, the Queen Mary is just what the doctor ordered.

Louisa May Alcott was born on 29th November 1832 in Germantown, Pennsylvania. She is most definitely a writer of her own experiences. Her father was a transcendentalist, philosopher and educational experimenter who founded, Fruitlands, a utopian community. Well-loved for her classic ‘Little Women’ she was a superb writer in difficult times for any woman, a strong advocate of women’s issues, the anti-slavery movement, temperance and social reform.

When Hope Bennett marries Carmela’s brother Leo she not only becomes a Fontana, but a Garden State Goddess—and not everyone is happy. Secrets will be revealed, decades-long rivalries will surface, and a sudden murder will lead to a reality reckoning no one is prepared for, least of all the show’s producer Eden who must race to catch a killer and save the most dramatic season of all time.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on 4th July 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, a town synonymous with the earlier Salem Witch Trials. It was instrumental in Hawthorne’s later use of American Gothic and dark romanticism in his writing. Hawthorne’s short stories were first published in magazines but in 1837 were collected and published as ‘Twice-Told Tales’. A steady literary career still did not come his way and so he worked in a good position at Salem’s port and married the love of his life Sophia Peabody. Finally, in 1850 came spectacular literary and commercial success with ‘The Scarlet Letter.’

Yes, the author of Gleefully Macabre Tales, Dead Clown Barbecue, Everything Has Teeth, Candy Coated Madness, and Freaky Briefs isn’t done with you yet. There will be serial killers. There will be cosmic horror. There will be extremely demented cooking competitions. There will be pink fizzy drinks. There will be Santa Claus, hangings in the Old West, body swaps, some light cannibalism, and monsters galore.

Was haben Sie gemacht?" - "Nix!" ... Diese Antwort kommt immer als erstes. Häufig so schnell, da habe ich das Wort "gemacht" noch gar nicht ausgesprochen. Die Kunden klingen dann wieder wie Schüler, die vom Lehrer beim Rauchen erwischt wurden und so tun, als wäre nichts gewesen, während ihnen die Wölkchen aus Nase und Ohren puffen. Wenn der Familienrechner den Geist aufgibt, beim Autohändler der Internetzugang nicht mehr funktioniert oder sich ältere Damen plötzlich ins Abenteuer Photoshop stürzen und dabei so munter wie schamfrei pikante Bilder öffnen, ist Computer-Experte Philipp Spielbusch zur Stelle.

In this satirical thriller that strikes uncomfortably close to real life events, President Adolf Wallace declares martial law and accuses the Democrats of rigging the election. Native Americans decide to band together and take back their country. Ensuing incidents call for an assessment of loyalties that could mean life or death. An EMP detonated by North Korea only makes matters worse.

Lady Diana Huxley is a Brontë heroine lost in a Jane Austen fever-dream. Haunted, heartbroken, and abruptly sent to live with her newly-married cousin in a palatial country estate, Diana just wants to blend in. Utterly unfamiliar with the customs and culture of Regency Era high society, Diana is more than content to play the role of silent companion to her chatty cousin, Maggie. She certainly didn’t come to New Glenbury to fall in love.

At the center of the worst mass shooting in US history is a black hole. Why did a wealthy, white middle-aged man who liked guns and gambling and once worked for the U.S. government cause this public tragedy? Set over three days in 2017, a small group of journalists is tasked with witnessing and making sense of senseless mass violence as the truth-telling structure collapses. They struggle with malleable facts, disinformation, and conspiracy theories; they are lured by and resist the increasingly popular notion of a hallucinatory mirror world, the sense that important truths are hidden.

This fictional collection of text conversations will get your blood boiling when you listen about demanding mother-in-laws, entitled sisters, cranky under-handed co-workers and other self-designated elites. Not to worry though! The underdog will be championed and the privileged lord or lady will be brought low through surprise twists.

In 1982, Wendy Wood was poised on the brink of stardom. Lead singer with talented local band, Velvet Temptation, she was a rising star of the Oxford music scene. Tipped for fame by the music press, success seemed inevitable. But conflict within the band, a series of betrayals and infidelities, and an unwelcome run of bad luck all played a part in shattering her dreams.

Social interaction has become an ancient art in the digital world of 2024. Meet Kai, Zara, Lucas, Nate, and their fellow misfit friends, who would rather hide behind their screens than face the terrifying reality of small talk and eye contact. But when a school “Digital Detox” event forces them into the wild world of face-to-face communication, hilarity ensues.

A funny tale with some humour and plenty of blood. When a funeral turns into a bloodbath, a little magic can keep it flowing.

Welcome to Hallmark, Vermont, the setting for every cliched Christmas dream. Idyllic and picturesque, it's where real Christmas magic happens. Here, a lonely librarian bumps into the man of her dreams and is swept away into a whirlwind romance. A big city girl runs into her high school sweetheart and rekindles a forgotten spark. A secret prince escapes the pressures of royalty - and finds his true love. Except this year, something sinister has infected Hallmark's Christmas magic, turning Christmas morning dreams into Christmas Eve nightmares.

China’s most outrageous character—the magical Monkey who battles a hundred monsters—returns to the fray in this seventeenth-century sequel to the Buddhist novel Journey to the West. In The Tower of Myriad Mirrors, he defends his claim to enlightenment against a villain who induces hallucinations that take Monkey into the past, to heaven and hell, and even through a sex change. The villain turns out to be the personification of his own desires, aroused by his penetration of a female adversary’s body in Journey to the West.

High school math teacher Ezra Pavic is having a hard time. His wife left him, his son barely tolerates him, and now he's being blindsided by something he never saw coming: the emotional spin cycle of parenting a parent. His mother Irene has dementia, and it's exhausting. Caring for her is a constant source of frustration, resentment, and guilt. Lots of guilt.

Are you too busy to breathe, let alone meditate? Overwhelmed by the idea of self-care routines that require hours, expensive candles, or pretending to like kale smoothies? Self-Care(ish) Sanity Hacks is here to help. This hilarious and practical guide skips the fluff and gets straight to self-care hacks that actually fit into a busy life—because you deserve to feel human, even if your schedule disagrees.

Littlethumb Sneezed is the tale of prolific artist and renowned philanthropist, Littlethumb Brooks. From the discovery of his creative genius as a child to his rise to fame, join Littlethumb on a satirical journey through the world of American pop culture. It is a life filled with love, laughter, charity, art, disguises, magic tricks, international intrigue and unfortunately, horrible tragedy. Also, there's a punk rocker named Tommy Toxic.

Imagine yourself on a journey full of strange situations and funny moments, as the events begin with an official employee from the Ministry of Education who is assigned to visit three different schools to evaluate their performance. The mission seems easy at first, but it turns into an unforgettable comedic adventure!

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is a satirical novella by the English schoolmaster and clergyman Edwin Abbott Abbott. The story describes a two-dimensional world occupied by geometric figures, where of women are simple line-segments, while men are polygons with various numbers of sides. Written pseudonymous by "A Square", the book used the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland to comment on the hierarchy of Victorian culture, but the novella's more enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions.

When overweight treadmill salesman Reginald Baskin finally meets a co-worker who doesn't make fun of him, it's his own bad luck that tech guy Maurice turns out to be a two thousand-year-old vampire.

Yusuf Karamak ist nur dem Namen nach Türke, ihn verbindet nichts mit dem Land seiner Eltern. Nicht einmal die Sprache versteht er. Warum ein Erbe, ein Papagei, ein Birnbaum und ein Jugendfreund seiner Ehefrau trotzdem dazu führen, dass er sich ein Hotel in Side andrehen lässt, einen Esel kauft und beinah auf einen Kangal pinkelt ... nun, kauft das Buch und findet es heraus. Aber Vorsicht, für Lachflashs bin ich nicht verantwortlich.

British comedy legend, Norman Wisdom plays small-time crook Norman Hood who’s just been released from prison for burglary. Hoping to make new life as an honest man, he is entrusted to widow Natalie Matthews (Moira Lister), who offers him a job and accommodation. However, she has an ulterior motive…Follow the farcical misadventures of Norman, played out with a huge cast of supporting actors as he tries to stick, but mostly fails, to the straight and narrow! Charming, gentle but ever so funny, Robbing Hood is a joy to listen to.