Showing results for "The Letters" in Literature & Fiction

At 104 years of age, Mrs Elsie Drake of Granville Gardens, London, is the sixth oldest woman in Britain. But fed up with sitting in her armchair all day, Elsie is ready for new adventures. And so, armed with a computer she can barely operate, she fires off dozens of letters to everyone from the Prime Minister to Greggs Bakeries, to see if they can help. Whether offering her services as the new Arsenal football mascot dressed as a giant hare, or simply sending Sainsbury's a load of meat, no one can escape the clutches of Elsie Drake.

In the summer of 2005, Mookie Hooper—think Diane Sawyer in a training bra—investigates a girl who went missing from Camp Cartwright, while confronting the budding anxieties of tweendom.

In this darkly comic novel, a group of women inhabits a world of constant surveillance, where informants lurk in the flower beds and false reports fly. Conspiracies abound in a community that normalizes paranoia and suspicion. Some try to flee - whether to a mysterious gambling bordello or to ancestral homes that can be reached only underground through muddy caves, sewers, and tunnels. Others seek out the refuge of Nest County, where traditional Chinese herbal medicines can reshape or psychologically transport the self. Each life is circumscribed by secrets and transcendent delusions.

Penniless and downtrodden at the loss of his wife and one of his daughters, Samuel Clemens turned to writing. The short stories and essays in Letters from the Earth find Clemens—under the pseudonym of Mark Twain—at perhaps his most quizzical and questioning state ever. Written as diary entries, Twain penned a series of letters from the point of view of a dejected angel on Earth who observes the many curious natures of man. These pieces, gathered by Twain's literary executor, feature sharp takes on the inconsistencies of Christianity and farcical criticisms of American life.

Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal phrase containing all the letters of the alphabet: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island’s Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop.

Dear Clementina is a collection of humorous letters from Stanley, a bemused, and at times bewildered, puppy to his pal Clementina. In each missive, Stanley strives to explain and interpret the complexities of life as he encounters them during his first year, and does so with a comic insight which is reserved for the innocent observer, an insight which will be appreciated by anyone with a sense of humor, or a dog, or preferably both.

The new audiobook from the best-selling author of Flesh Wounds, heartfelt and hilarious, Love, Clancy is an audiobook for anyone who has ever tried to imagine what their dog was thinking. Human beings often write about their dogs, but the dogs don't usually get a right of reply. In Love, Clancy, Richard Glover has collated the letters sent by Clancy to his parents in the bush. They are full of the young dog's musings about the oddities of human behaviour, life in the big city and his own attempts to fit in.

Daudet's atmospheric Letters from a Windmill, combined with Jerome K. Jerome's wonderfully idle ramblings. He was indeed the original founder of The Idler and famous for his classic novel Three Men and a Boat.

Asta Fung is sixteen and sulky. Her parents have moved the whole family to take over the Yau Sum takeaway in another town so Grandpa Charlie can be closer to the big hospital. She's had to give up her dog, her friends, her familiar teenage life. All too soon, she has to give up Grandpa Charlie too. What was the point? When the builder's son, Josh, hands her a bundle of love letters he found under the floorboards, Asta realises they were hidden there by Grandpa Charlie as a young man.

Julius Hutch has planned to spend his retirement years 'pottering' and worrying about his bills, but wakes one morning to discover a foreign merchant bank has put four million pounds into his account—and won't take it back. So Julius, a humble man, sets out to spend the money helping other people, and wooing Pauline, the local bank teller. Up against an enormous banking corporation and an unsavoury property developer, Julius soon discovers that rather than being crushed by these financial giants as he would have been in the past, he is rendered rather more delightfully impervious.

George Horace Lorimer (1867-1937) was an American journalist, author, and publisher. He is best known as the editor of The Saturday Evening Post, which he led from 1899 to 1936. This work contains the correspondence between the fictional self-made Chicago millionaire "Gorgon" Graham and his son Pierrepont who is coming of age and about to enter the family business. The letters are witty and filled with sound advice, like “I remember reading once that some fellows use language to conceal thought; but it's been my experience that a good many more use it instead of thought.”

This collection of stories by the great Russian writer Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) contains a selection of brilliant stories that show listeners just why he is considered among the best short story writers of all time. Enjoy three of his best: "The Overcoat", "The Lost Letter", and "May Night, or the Drowned Maiden".

Julian ‘Jilly’ Tetanich is a retired mafia contract killer who now owns a Pittsburgh bar full of colorful characters and whose best friend happens to be a slightly lapsed fantasy football-loving Catholic priest. When rogue Archangel Uriel descends from above with his God Squad sidekicks, they try to enlist Jilly to perform one more hit and save his immortal soul. All Hell breaks loose as the forces of good and evil prepare for this comedic showdown. Jilly will have to decide whether he should stick to his guns or dust them off one last time.

Bridget Jones penned a diary; Roxy writes letters. Specifically: She writes letters to her hapless, rent-avoidant ex-boyfriend - and current roommate - Everett. This charming and funny 20-something is under-employed (and under-romanced), and she’s decidedly fed up with the indignities she endures as a deli maid at Whole Foods (the original), and the dismaying speed at which her beloved Austin is becoming corporatized. When a new Lululemon pops up at the intersection of Sixth and Lamar where the old Waterloo Video used to be, Roxy can stay silent no longer.

The land of Ignorantia...bears striking similarities to the modern West. One of its older faithfuls writes to warn a young missionary who will soon arrive on Ignorantian shores. It is not as advertised. Steeples and cathedrals abound. Platitudinous and syrupy words drip from the lips of the Ignorantian churchmen. They have become convinced they know a book they seldom read, and it is no small Ignorantian tragedy. The letters seem to straddle the border of fiction and reality, but the state of affairs is familiar!

Sherman can't understand why his wife is so mad, but he doesn't really care. All he needs is some food. If any men out there can sympathize with his plight and drop something off for him, he'll be a happy man. If you want to know what happened and why Sherman is not only on the run from his wife but being carefully watched by the police, listen to his letter.

Never before have the infamous love letters between John and Blanche Bickerson seen the light of day. This amazing testament to the strength of marriage at last shows the true depth of feeling the squabbling couple felt for one another. And no, it wasn't always bickering! Now you can find out who they are, how they met, and what their backgrounds are. And you can experience, for a change, the love shared between a couple that was obviously made for one another.

Hear two hilarious but improbable letters, one from a very fed-up cat writing to her owner; the second, from a very worn-out husband who's tired of his wife and looking for some semblance of peace.

This is a fabulous collection of four stories by the great Russian master of the short form Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852). It includes his famous "The Fair at Sorochyntsi", "A Bewitched Place", "The Lost Letter", and "St. John's Eve" - all superb examples of Gogol's unsurpassed sense of humor and flair for satire.

You know how hard it is to get good advice if you've ever faced an indifferent lifeguard when you complained of an octopus in the public pool; if you've ever accidentally sprayed your face with gold paint and were afraid of being mistaken for a false idol; or if your husband failed to notice that you'd replaced yourself with a manikin. These and other common problems are addressed in Dear Babalu: Letters to an Advice Columnist, by Peter J. Manos.