Manners Comedy

In Modern Manners, cultural guru P. J. O'Rourke provides the essential accessory for the truly contemporary man or woman - a rulebook for living in a world without rules. Traditionally, good manners were a means of becoming as bland and invisible as everyone else, and thus of avoiding calling attention to one's own awkwardness and stupidity.

Campbell Flynn, art historian, professor, and fêted fixture of the literati, always knew that when his life came crashing down, it would happen in public—yet he never imagined that a single year in London would expose so much. He’s never taken other people half as seriously as they take themselves, which is the first of his mistakes. The second is a new project: opportunistic and precisely calibrated to rake in a fortune.

With her phenomenally popular Miss Julia series, author Ann B. Ross has graced the New York Times and other best seller lists on her way to capturing the hearts of her many dedicated fans. Miss Julia, a graceful Southern lady with impeccable manners and a penchant for problem solving, has become a beloved heroine for countless admirers.

Have you ever wished you could live in an earlier, more romantic era? Ladies, welcome to the 19th century, where there's arsenic in your face cream, a pot of cold pee sits under your bed, and all of your underwear is crotchless. (Why? Shush, dear. A lady doesn't question.) Unmentionable is your hilarious, scandalously honest (yet never crass) guide to the secrets of Victorian womanhood.

When Arabella Grant’s wicked aunt dies suddenly, both Arabella and her cousin Lady Isabelle cannot help but feel relieved. She’d made their lives miserable, and now Lady Issie is free to read to her heart’s content, and Bella is free from taunts about her ignoble birth. Their newfound freedom is threatened, however, when Issie’s great-aunt commands her to travel to London for a come-out Issie has never wanted. Issie, who is in poor health, is convinced she’ll drop dead like her mother did if she drops into a curtsy before the queen.

For Susan Green, messy emotions don’t fit into the equation of her perfectly ordered life. She has a flat that is ideal for one, a job that suits her passion for logic, and an “interpersonal arrangement” that provides cultural and other more intimate benefits. But suddenly confronted with the loss of her mother and the news that she is about to become a mother herself, Susan’s greatest fear is realized. She is losing control.

In Miss Julia Hits the Road, she is becoming increasingly concerned about her gentleman friend, Sam, who has suddenly started wearing cowboy boots, sending her flowers, and writing bad poetry. And when he shows up on a Harley-Davidson Road King and asks her to hop on, she's convinced he's lost his mind. Meanwhile, her invaluable housekeeper, Lillian, has been evicted from her home by her greedy landlord. Deciding that Lillian's need is greater than her own fear (not to mention loss of dignity), Miss Julia takes Sam up on his offer and sets off on a motorcycle Poker Run.

The Grand Tour to Forty A Novel of Expensive Mistakes and Exquisite Timing Meet Del Renault: French-German aristocrat, reluctant tech executive, and professional avoider of life's larger questions. As his fortieth birthday looms like a particularly well-dressed apocalypse, Del embarks on a year-long odyssey through the world's most glamorous cities, armed with nothing but a trust fund, a cutting wit, and an alarming addiction to rosé wine and LEGO Ferrari sets. From the sun-soaked tennis courts of Sitges (where he loses spectacularly) to the champagne-hazed casino floors of Monaco (where ...

Everyone in Highley eagerly anticipates the arrival of Reginald Abernathy, the new master of Albon Manor. Everyone, that is, except Lord William Bascomb. William knows he’ll be expected to woo Reginald’s sister, and he can't summon the interest for it. But when the Abernathys arrive at last, William discovers he’s interested after all - in Reginald. Reginald is the most handsome, most dashing, most intriguing man he’s ever known. Better yet, he seems to share William's preference for men.

Mrs. Bennet’s marital schemes aren’t the only horrors Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy face this season in Hertfordshire… After learning Netherfield is set to lease at last, Elizabeth Bennet ventures onto the shadowed estate for a glimpse of Longbourn’s newest neighbors. There she finds herself confused by the eccentric Bingley sisters and drawn to the enigmatic Mr. Darcy. But the forbidding grounds whisper of mysteries as sinister as they are ancient. A web of growing madness draws Elizabeth closer to Netherfield and Mr. Darcy, a gentleman whose troubled past is tied to the awakening...

Second-guessing a double agenda While treating a patient in the fall of 1972, Daisy managed to winkle out of him that he worked for MI6. Then she blabbed about a planned visit to East Berlin with her friend Margery, who was a chemistry researcher at King’s College. Back at the office, the man asked his spooks to do some background checks. It turned out that without even knowing it his blind physiotherapist and her chum had an indirect connection to a high-ranking communist party boss… Meanwhile, in East Berlin, clever operatives of the GDR secret services realized that Margery must know...

One afternoon, Casper Potts was enjoying lunch in his apartment with one of the Ladies’ Casserole Club members when he heard a scuffle at his front door. Excusing himself from his current companion, he opened his door to find two women fighting over a marking pen attached to the Ladies’ Casserole Club scheduling board. What happened to change this introverted widower into the most sought-after male at The Oaks, a luxurious senior living facility located in the hills above Hollywood?

Sieben Exfreunde. Sieben vertane Chancen. Wer war der Richtige? Esther hat einen tollen Freundeskreis, einen interessanten Job, aber kurz vor ihrem dreißigsten Geburtstag gerät sie in eine tiefe Krise. Denn jedes Date ist ein Reinfall. Einzig ihre beiden Freundinnen wissen Abhilfe: Sich schon tagsüber mit reichlich Roséwein betrinken. Dabei stoßen sie auf eine alte Cosmow, Bibel aller Frauen, in der steht: Jede Frau führt im Leben sieben Arten von Beziehungen, und nur eine davon ist die große Liebe. Esther ist schockiert: Sie hat all diese Beziehungen geführt und ihre Chance verpasst.

Learn the art of good manners in only 60 minutes of conversation and instruction.

Ist das Liebe, oder kann der weg? Hannah, die als Coach für fachgerechtes Ausmisten arbeitet, soll ausgerechnet dem neuen Flirt ihrer Freundin ein geordnetes Zuhause verpassen. Prompt entbrennt mit dem eigenwilligen Pascal erbitterter Streit: behalten oder ab in die Tonne? Doch je mehr Hannah aufräumt, desto tiefer manövriert sie sich mitten ins emotionale Chaos - denn plötzlich findet sie nicht nur eine echte Leiche auf dem Dachboden, sondern sie fühlt sich auch so merkwürdig zu Pascal hingezogen.

Devid Striesow liest die besten Geschichten und Gedichte von Erich Kästner über sich selbst und andere Männer - ironisch, bissig und beunruhigend wahr: "Da liegt man nun, so nackt, wie man nur kann, hat Seife in den Augen, welche stört, und merkt, aufs Haar genau: Man ist ein Mann. Mit allem, was dazugehört" . Dieser Geschenkband über die wundersame Spezies "Mann" ist von der Kästner-Expertin Sylvia List herausgegeben.

A neurotic young graduate student looking for distraction from her doomed thesis is inexplicably swept off her feet by a narcissistic philosophy professor. The obsession continues even after he has dumped her for someone even needier and she has given up on school and become a television writer. Meeting again in New York, they begin an adulterous affair that, of course, can only end in some kind of crisis.

Da denkste, du hast den Jackpot gezogen und dann entpuppt sich der Typ als Idiot. Also, der Jonas. Wobei der Nils auch einer war, nur anders. So wird das wohl nichts mit dem Liebes-Happyend. Mutti liegt mir schon ständig in den Ohren, weil ich mit 29 meine Schäfchen dahingehend immer noch nicht im Trockenen habe. Dafür bin ich aber ja im Beruf erfolgreich, als Juristin und Führungskraft. Allerdings gibt es auch da einen kleinen Störfaktor: diese komische Phobie, und die wird immer mehr zum echten Problem. Deswegen muss die hurtig wieder verschwinden.

Brook Ogden's counseling practice as the Breakup Doctor is so busy that she's expanded to offer group sessions. Her radio show and advice column have made her a local celebrity, and even her personal life, after some gruesome breakups of her own, is in recovery: Ben Garrett started out as a revenge date against an ex but has turned into so much more.

When Palena's high class parents buy her a piano, they have no idea what societal heights and depths the instrument will help cause, in their lives, and the lives of others. Nor do they yet fully understand the perils of masquerade balls. But they will. Oh, they will. Novella length (roughly 17,500 words).