The Little Nugget
- Author: Wodehouse Pelham Grenville
- Genre: Humor
“The Little Nugget” is one of the earliest works of Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, an English writer, whose prolific writings continue to be widely read.
An eleven-year-old Ogden Ford, a pompous, overweight son of an American millionaire is a costly target for several separate kidnappers, trying to get hold of this unpleasant child. Both thriller and romance, it is a wonderful example of Wodehouse's classic comedy. The light-hearted story is full of amusing characters and humorous situations, though sometimes melancholic, falling into reflections on love.
Psmith, Journalist
- Author: Wodehouse Pelham Grenville
- Genre: Humor
Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, classic of English comic prose of the 20th century, is a creator of legendary Jeeves and Wooster, as well as numerous other characters, whose brilliant aphorisms have already become common, popular sayings. “Psmith, Journalist” relates of an untiring adventurer, who gets into a pretty mess at every turn, trying to busy himself with something useful. All the problems that follow are solved in an elegant and ingenious manner. It is a story, full of sparkling humor, about unimaginable adventures of a high society idler. Coming to a conclusion that good old England it is too much for his great ideas, Psmith sets off to New York, where he finds himself in the centre of criminal events.
The King in Yellow
- Author: Chambers Robert William
- Genre: Board Games
"The King in Yellow" is a book within a book. This is a bunch of slightly connected short stories all dealing with the effect of a two act play titled "The King in Yellow". The stories in this collection, published in 1895, are set in a fictional militaristic 1920s in the USA and Europe. The tales are told from a number of different perspectives, by socialites, soldiers, and artists. Each of them tells how the lives of the narrator and colleagues have been affected by reading "The King in Yellow", a disputable play that has been accused by the church and suppressed by governments. The book tragically affected the lives of those who were reading it. Some find themselves followed by shadowy agents, while others become confused and delusional. Others acted out the play's sad and decadent events, while some just go crazy. The idea of the play itself is only alluded to, or hinted at in brief extracts. One thing is absolutely clear – it’s a tragedy. But the actions of its central characters, including the mysterious King in Yellow himself, remain mysterious and unexplainable. Anyone who is keen on dark macabre tales will certainly love this book!
Snuff
- Author: Chuck Palahniuk
- Genre: Satire
The main characters certainly have had enough of the world, with what they have made of it, with their fortunes having turned on single instances and bad choices, in this case almost all of them sexual. Most everyone is ragingly bitter and resentful, untrue and self-serving, bent on rectifying only their problems, regardless of effects on others. The story runs on damaged adults hurting others, intentionally and instinctively, out of selfishness and revenge, or even to manufacture a more compatible companion. It's about the need for fame, the need for redemption, the resentment of future lost, and the clawing need to retain one's perceived best position, all taking place in arena of porn, the "...job you only take after you abandon all hope."
This is not a novel about the sex industry, but there is some behind-the-scenes detail. Palahniuk's detailed portrait of the washed-up porn star Miss Cassie Wright is not as complete and detailed as I had anticipated. I don't know why, but every time I pictured her, a strange combination of Kitten Natividad and Lisa DeLeeuw came to mind. Ah, but I digress. She is more or less the central character, at least that around which all others and the main story revolve, but I was a tad disappointed in that we didn't get more from her. Much of this was necessary for plot purposes, but I thought we'd get a bit more inside her head, and hear a bit more about what Palahniuk has observed about the porn experience. Cassie is a treasure trove of obscure Hollywood factoids, though, all of them thoroughly fun and enlightening.
Who Moved My Cheese?
- Author: Dr Spencer Johnson
- Genre: Humor
What the message of Who Moved My Cheese? is that all can come to see it as a blessing, if they understand the nature of cheese and the role it plays in their lives. Who Moved My Cheese? is a parable that takes place in a maze. Four beings live in that maze: Sniff and Scurry are mice--nonanalytical and nonjudgmental, they just want cheese and are willing to do whatever it takes to get it. Hem and Haw are "littlepeople," mouse-size humans who have an entirely different relationship with cheese. It's not just sustenance to them; it's their self-image. Their lives and belief systems are built around the cheese they've found. Most of us reading the story will see the cheese as something related to our livelihoods--our jobs, our career paths, the industries we work in--although it can stand for anything, from health to relationships. The point of the story is that we have to be alert to changes in the cheese, and be prepared to go running off in search of new sources of cheese when the cheese we have runs out.
Survivor
- Author: Chuck Palahniuk
- Genre: Satire
Tender Branson, the last surviving member of a religious cult, chronicles his entire life story as he is set to plummet to his death aboard a jet liner. He relives his childhood, his dull jobs cleaning rich people's houses, and how he came to be the pseudo-savior the world was looking for
Tell-All
- Author: Chuck Palahniuk
- Genre: Satire
Tell-All is told from the viewpoint of Hazie Coogan, a woman who has been taking care of actress Katherine "Miss Kathie" Kenton for ages. She's faithfully cleaned every spot in the house, watched every would be lover, polished every flaw in Miss Kathie's appearance. When a new man steps up to claim Kenton's love, Hazie just knows that he's out to use the aging starlet in some sort of scam. When Hazie & Miss Kathie discover a secret manuscript written by said lover, they find that he's planning to write a scandalous tell-all of his life with Miss Kathie- complete with a grand finale death scene.