Empfehlungen basierend auf "Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition"

Better watch out ...It's that time of year again. Hogswatchnight. ‘Tis the season to be jolly, to hang mistletoe and holly, and other stuff ending in olly.‘Tis the season when the Hogfather himself dons his red suit and climbs in his sleigh pulled by -- of course! -- eight hogs and brings gifts to all the boys and girls of Discworld.But this year, there's a problem. A stranger has taken the place of the Hogfather. Well, not exactly a stranger. He's actually pretty well known. He carries a scythe along with his bag of toys, and he's going to SLEIGH everyone he sees tonight.Ho ho ho.Even the laugh is wrong. The switch has been arranged by the Auditors, mysterious superbeings who want our universe to be a collection of rocks swinging in curves through space. Life is messy. Why not get rid of it? And who better than -- you know who?Somebody has to rescue the real Hogfather before this morbid impostor tracks soot on the world's carpets. It's up to Ankh-Morpork's intellectual elite, the assembled wizards of Unseen University -- with the help of a monster-bashing nanny, the world's worst inventor, plus a bona-fide, honest-to-god god (the oh god of hangovers, to be precise) -- to come up with a plan to save the universe.And they'd better hurry. The bogus Hogfather is asking the wrong questions. Like: How come rich kids get all the nice toys? How come the poor kids are left with the cheap stuff?"That's life," he is told.Which cuts no ice with Death.

At fourteen, Adrian Mole's life continues to be nothing but a set of tragic circumstances: His tempestuous relationship with an alluring schoolmate tortures him, while his intellectualism continues to be ignored by the British press. Despite it all he remains as agonizingly funny as ever in this, the second of his diaries.

‘The finest book ever written about England and the English’ Stuart Maconie ‘J. B. Priestley is one of our literary icons of the 20th Century and it is time that we all became re-acquainted with his genius.’ Dame Judi Dench Three years before George Orwell made his expedition to the far and frozen North in The Road to Wigan Pier, celebrated writer and broadcaster JB Priestley cast his net wider, in a book subtitled ‘a Rambling but Truthful Account of What One Man Saw and Heard and Felt and Thought During a Journey Through England During the Autumn of the Year 1933.’ Appearing first in 1934, it was a huge and immediate success. Today, it still stands as a timeless classic: warm-hearted, intensely patriotic and profound. An account of his journey through England – from Southampton to the Black Country, to the North East and Newcastle, to Norwich and home – English Journey is funny and tender. But it is also a forensic reading of a changing England and a call to arms as passionate as anything in Orwell’s bleak masterpiece. Moreover, it both captured and catalysed the public mood of its time. In capturing and describing an English landscape and people hitherto unseen, writing scathingly about vested interests and underlining the dignity of working people, Priestley influenced the thinking and attitudes of an entire generation and helped formulate a public consensus for change that led to the birth of the welfare state. Prophetic and as relevant today as it was nearly ninety years ago, English Journey is an elegant and readable love letter to a country Priestley finds unfathomable.

In the absence of his managing sister, the ninth Earl of Emsworth calls in the Hon. Galahad Threepwood to help him pair off the assorted godsons, impostors and pretty girls. Fortunately, many years membership of the Pelican Club have given Galahad the edge in quick thinking.

Contains the novels Uncle Fred in the Springtime, Uncle Dynamite, Cocktail Time and the short story "Uncle Fred Flits By".

John Healy's The Grass Arena describes with unflinching honesty his experiences of addiction, his escape through learning to play chess in prison, and his ongoing search for peace of mind. This Penguin Classics edition includes an afterword by Colin MacCabe. In his searing autobiography Healy describes his fifteen years living rough in London without state aid, when begging carried an automatic three-year prison sentence and vagrant alcoholics prowled the parks and streets in search of drink or prey. When not united in their common aim of acquiring alcohol, winos sometimes murdered one another over prostitutes or a bottle, or the begging of money. Few modern writers have managed to match Healy's power to refine from the brutal destructive condition of the chronic alcoholic a story so compelling it is beyond comparison. John Healy (b. 1943) was born into an impoverished, Irish immigrant family, in the slums of Kentish Town, North London. Out of school by 14, pressed into the army and intermittently in prison, Healy became an alcoholic early on in life. Despite these obstacles Healy achieved remarkable, indeed phenomenal expertise in both writing and chess, as outlined in the autobiographical The Grass Arena. If you enjoyed The Grass Arena, you might like Last Exit to Brooklyn, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. 'Sober and precise, grotesque, violent, sad, charming and hilarious all at once'Literary Review 'Beside it, a book like Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London seems a rather inaccurate tourist guide'Colin MacCabe

“Kennedy's justly acclaimed Albany Cycle [is] one of the imperishable products of American literature since the Second World War. These books can be read singly or in sequence, but read they must be. Kennedy is one of our necessary writers.”—GQ  Legs inaugurated William Kennedy’s celebrated cycle of novels set in Albany, New York. True to both life and myth. Legs evokes the flamboyant career of the legendary gangster Jack “Legs” Diamond, who was finally murdered in Albany, and his showgirl mistress as they blaze a trail across the tabloid pages of the 1920s and 1930s.   The second novel in the Albany cycle depicts Billy Phelan, a slightly tarnished poker player, pool hustler, and small-time bookie, as he moves through the lurid nighttime glare of a tough Depression-era town. Full of Irish pluck, he works the fringes of Albany sporting life with his own particular style—until he falls from underworld grace.   In the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Ironweed, Francis Phelan, ex-ballplayer, part-time gravedigger, and full-time drunk, has hit bottom. Years ago he left Albany after killing a scab during a workers’ strike, and again after he accidentally—and fatally—dropped his infant son. Now, in 1938, Francis is back, roaming familiar streets and trying to make peace with ghosts of the past and present.William Kennedy’s Albany Cycle of novels reflect what he once described as the fusion of his imagination with a single place. A native and longtime resident of Albany, New York, his work moves from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, chronicling family life, the city’s netherworld, and its spheres of power—financial, ethnic, political—often among the Irish-Americans who dominated the city in this period. The novels in his cycle include, Legs, Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game, Ironweed, Quinn’s Book, Very Old Bones, The Flaming Corsage, and Roscoe.

We got our first taste of Adrian Plass's outrageous humour in The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass, Age 37 3⁄4 and The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass, Age 45 3⁄4. With over 2 million copies sold, these beloved bestsellers naturally placed the author's fanciful alter-ego in great demand as an inspirational speaker. And of course, his touring experiences have led to all-new stories to share with his friends. This sequel to the first two books will doubtless secure the Sacred Diarist's reputation as a spiritual authority. It's probably not the reputation he's hoping for, but it's the perfect medium for a bucketful of laughter. So meet the speaker, meet the crew and take a seat. It's time to join Adrian Plass on tour! Anne seems to think it would be a good idea to let people see some of the diary entries I've written in connection with the little seven-day speaking tour that she and I have just done ... On that innocent note, Adrian Plass whisks us along on one of the zaniest tours in his career as a Christian speaker. Besides his wife, his fictional entourage includes Gerald, his grown son, who is now a wise-cracking vicar; high-strung Leonard Thynn and his talented but surrealistic girlfriend, Angels Twitten; and the tour's Scripture-spouting benefactor, Barry Ingstone. First stop is the church of St. James the Hardly Visible at All, where a dour caretaker is waiting to set the tone for things to come. So hop on board - the tour is leaving, and you don't want to miss a thing.

Consisting entirely of staff emails, this novel invites the reader to spend a fortnight in the company of Miller Shanks, an advertising agency that scales dizzying peaks of incompetence, backstabbing and pure sleaze.

Horace Rumpole turns down yet another invitation to exchange the joys and sorrows of life as an Old Bailey hack for the delights of the sunshine state, where Senior Citizens loll on beaches and the sarcastic tones of the Mad Bull (Judge Roger Bullingham) are heard no more. He settles instead for the beaded bubbles of Chateau Pommeroy�s ordinary claret, the domestic chill emanating from She Who Must Be Obeyed, and his role �extraordinaire� as Defender of the Faith: �Never plead guilty�.