How I Made $3,200,000 from My Hobby By Michael Bernhart
Don’t let the title fool you: this isn’t non-fiction, you won’t find any get rich quick schemes here. But it does speak to how Bernhart’s lead character, the regally-named Maxwell Smythe Brown IV, doesn’t take much of anything very seriously. A funny and engaging voice, Brown has a very good knack for getting himself into trouble. He’s a pretty dynamic guy: a professor, an Air Force pilot, married to a difficult but beautiful student. And then Brown’s life takes a turn for the fantastic: a collector of antiquarian maps, he learns the location of a treasure from the 17th century […]
Set in the British East Midlands, the small town of Oatvale is blessed with miles of countryside, a long drive from anywhere of interest, and a smattering of no less than seven pubs, some more disreputable than others. Almost a zoo of local “characters”, the only kind of normal occupying the town is “a little bit odd”, and someone almost average can hardly escape at least a story of something extraordinary. Such is the fate of one Rob Thomas, who’s bad luck is flipped almost as marvelously as how he once caused a trouble-maker to somersault over in a single […]
Murphy Drummer is bad luck personified. As Murphy’s Law states: anything bad that can happen will happen. This is Murphy’s lifelong mantra. After a lifetime of causing havoc wherever he goes, he becomes the ultimate agoraphobe and locks himself inside so he can’t cause any more damage. Keeping himself busy with a multitude of hobbies, Murphy becomes the “Hobby Guy” with a devoted following. Eventually, Murphy has to leave the safety of his cocoon and comes in contact with his polar opposite: Joy Daley, who is touched by lady luck wherever she goes, and who might just change Murphy’s luck […]
An Animal Life: A Chance to Cut is the second book in Howard Krum’s award-winning series about life as a vet. Part 2 follows a group of veterinary students in their second semester, focusing on Mike London, a cocky vet school senior who nearly ends a dog’s life and tries to rebuild his life. The phrase “A chance to cut” is a surgeon’s motto: “A chance to cut is a chance to heal,” so London tries to mend his life through medicine, humor and romance.
Humor is hard. Pathos is much easier. Show a character being chased by a monster, and if you’re good at your craft, readers will sweat and squirm. Show poor orphaned children dying of hunger, and you may draw tears from your readers even if you aren’t that good. But make a joke, and who knows? A sense of humor is like taste in food. What appeals to one person might repulse another. How do you feel about fried chicken livers? See what I mean? So I always admire an author who writes humor, especially the kind of humor that you’ll […]
Just Pru, by Anne Pfeffer, is a laugh out loud, heartwarming story about a twenty-five-year-old woman named Prudence Anderson.
Workman’s Complication by Rich Leder is the immensely entertaining first book in his series McCall & Company, following the exploits of down-on-her-luck private investigator/struggling actress Kate McCall. In the first installment, McCall tries to balance starring in an Off-Broadway vampire musical, investigating her father’s death at the Monument Insurance building, inheriting his PI business, and trying to solve her first case: a workman’s comp case where a construction worker broke his back and might be taking a benevolent old businessman for all his money.
The Bleaklisted Books is a sarcastic and original book that tells how one cat really feels about literary masterpieces.