Søgeresultater: 606

Summary: An orphaned teenager moves in with his cocktail-waitress aunt in 1950s Palm Springs, in a novel with “its full share of hilarious, and touching, moments” ( Booklist ).   “Swinging from poignant drama to edgy satire to farce, Albert’s moving and funny first novel pairs an awkward orphaned adolescent immersed in 1950s rock ’n’ roll and an unconventional ‘kept’ woman. In 1957, confused, taciturn and fat 15-year-old Harold Abelstein, survivor of a car crash that killed his parents, goes to live with his Aunt Enid, a Palm Springs, Calif., cocktail waitress whose flowery perfumes, loud talk and constant pinching and touching make him uncomfortable. Enid’s rent and car are provided gratis by her part-time lover, incredibly self-absorbed Archie Blatt, a St. Louis garment manufacturer who pops in a few times a year to escape his invalid wife and teenage daughters. Though resenting her dependence, Enid faces a bigger problem when her manipulative, self-pitying father, Abe, who walked out on the family 25 years ago, suddenly reappears, shabby, reeking of whiskey and terminally ill. Tensions snap as Abe grows ever sicker and then Archie shows up, forcing four disparate souls to fitfully coexist under one roof. With a fine ear for dialogue, Albert perfectly captures a time and place—and the emotional chafing between family members who can't help but care for one another, despite themselves.” — Publishers Weekly  

Summary: David Edgar – one of Britain's greatest living playwrights – introduces a collection of his outstanding works David Edgar is among the UK's leading contemporary dramatists, well known for his powerful plays chronicling Britain's changing political landscape over the past 50 years. This radio anthology begins with the award-winning Destiny , adapted for radio by Edgar himself, in which he analyses the rise of the right-wing National Front movement. In Saigon Rose , the sexual revolution is under the spotlight, as a couple and their cohorts are forced to face the darker side of the Swinging Sixties. This is followed by a play adapted from the journals of a South African lawyer – The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs is a dramatic account of his arrest and solitary confinement. Mary Barnes recounts the struggles of the titular heroine with her own madness, and Ecclesiastes deals with a fundamentalist preacher. A Movie Starring Me centres around a TV soap star and her obsessive fan, while Entertaining Strangers is about the struggle between a fundamentalist parson and a town's first woman brewer. The 1984 miners' strike forms the backdrop to That Summer. Two plays from Edgar's 'Iron Curtain Trilogy' are next: The Shape of the Table and Pentecost , examining themes of negotiation in the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Talking to Mars looks at the collapse of the Cold War through the eyes of an international radio station. The Secret Parts is a gripping murder mystery, adapted for radio by David Edgar from the novel written by his late wife Eve Brook. Playing with Fire is a powerful exploration of racial tensions in multicultural Britain, and Something Wrong about the Mouth is about a man who wants to commission a portrait of a woman he can't produce, dressed for an event that didn't occur. If Only finds a Labour spin doctor, a Tory MP and a Lib Dem party worker stranded by the Icelandic ash cloud. David Edgar's 2019 solo show, Trying It On , sees him delving into the background of his landmark play, Maydays . This collection concludes with Maydays , refashioned by Edgar into a sweeping three-part audio epic charting the journey of idealistic young activists from the far-left to the die-hard right. Track List: 01: Introduction by David Edgar 02-05: Destiny 06-08: Saigon Rose 09-11: The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs 12-13: Mary Barnes 14-15: Ecclesiastes 16-17: A Movie Starring Me 18-19: Entertaining Strangers 20-21: That Summer 22-23: The Shape of the Table 24-28: Pentecost 29-30: Talking to Mars 31-32: The Secret Parts 33-34: Playing with Fire 35: Something Wrong About the Mouth 36-37: If Only 38: Trying It On 39-41: Maydays Written by David Edgar The Secret Parts written by Eve Brook Text copyright © David Edgar 1976 (Saigon Rose, Destiny), 1977 (Ecclesiastes), 1978 (The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs), 1979 (Mary Barnes), 1983 (Maydays), 1987 (That Summer), 1990 (The Shape of the Table), 1991 (A Movie Starring Me), 1994 (Pentecost), 1996 (Talking to Mars), 2005 (Playing with Fire), 2007 (Something Wrong About the Mouth), 2013 (If Only), 2018 (Trying It On) The Secret Parts text copyright © Eve Brook 2000 All rights reserved © 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (p) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Summary: Four women find humor, truth, romance, and a better path forward by deconstructing memory and emotion—and expose a wannabe cult leader along the way. Hunter is lost. Her husband left her for Angelica, her former best friend whose new hit memoir is spreading unsavory lies about Hunter. She's unemployed with no prospects, and the San Francisco flea market she's wandering on a weekday is so foggy that she literally doesn't know where she is. It's only after a helpful visit and a gift from a stranger who appears from the mist that Hunter finds her resolve. She begins a support group for women looking for new beginnings—only to have Angelica start one, too. In the next room over. One that feels very cult-y. The Talking Stick is the adventure of Hunter and the three women who join her reclamation journey. Together, they reexamine their pasts, explore their grief, addictions, parenting, and marriages, and discover that some of their most-cherished memories are romanticized versions of the truth. Meanwhile, they unearth other memories—memories that challenge how they've been living for years. And, with the help of a lawyer who prefers life on a houseboat to the pretensions of the city, Hunter unravels Angelica's scheme. The Talking Stick is a fast-paced dramedy set in the Bay Area, told with the characteristic humor of Donna Levin, an author whom Kirkus called "A witty, modern voice" and the Los Angeles Times deemed "a novelist to keep high on your reading list."

Summary: "I don't think I will find a book I love more this year." —Jane Green, New York Times bestselling author "Funny, poignant, joyous, explosive, but most of all affirming of our connections to one another. You Only Call When You're in Trouble is a book to cherish. A book that loves you back. What more could you want, my gosh? Read it!" —Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less Is Lost Is it ever okay to stop caring for others and start living for yourself? After a lifetime of taking care of his impossible but irresistible sister and his cherished niece, Tom is ready to put himself first. An architect specializing in tiny houses, he finally has an opportunity to build his masterpiece—"his last shot at leaving a footprint on the dying planet." Assuming, that is, he can stick to his resolution to keep the demands of his needy family at bay. Naturally, that's when his phone rings. His niece, Cecily—the real love of Tom's life, as his boyfriend reminded him when moving out—is embroiled in a Title IX investigation at the college where she teaches that threatens her career and relationship. And after decades of lying, his sister wants him to help her tell Cecily the real identity of her father. Tom does what he's always done—answers the call. Thus begins a journey that will change everyone's life and demonstrate the beauty or dysfunction (or both?) of the ties that bind families together and sometimes strangle them. Warm, funny, and deeply moving, You Only Call When You're in Trouble is an unforgettable showcase for Stephen McCauley's distinctive voice and unique ability to create complex characters that jump off the page and straight into your heart

Summary: The complete 22nd series of the popular BBC Radio 4 impressions show - plus three Christmas Specials Dead Ringers is back, taking a satirical sledgehammer to the news and mercilessly mocking the great and the good. In Series 22, the team give us their unique take on our favourite politicians and celebrities, from 'The Donald' Trump and Boris Johnson ('Fwaah!') to Kirsty Wark, Sue Barker and Clare Balding. Priti Patel reveals her latest plan for asylum seekers, Keir Starmer cultivates his 'bad boy' image and, following the success of her furry Russian hat, Liz Truss picks the perfect headwear to impress the British people. Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak contracts a nasty dose of the 1970s and Jacob Rees-Mogg takes on some surprising new roles... Plus, the cost of living crisis hits Ready Steady Cook , Huw Edwards is forced to make the news a little less harrowing, Scooby Doo investigates the terrifying poltergeist haunting 10 Downing Street - and in the Upside Down, the Stranger Things gang are confronted with a monster worse than any Demogorgon. Also featured are three fabulously funny festive specials, in which we take a behind-the-scenes look at the World Cup in Qatar, hear some choice extracts from Matt Hancock's Covid diaries, and discover the unexpected collaborator who helped King Charles craft his first Christmas speech... Cast and credits Series 22 starring Jon Culshaw, Lewis MacLeod, Jan Ravens, Debra Stephenson and Duncan Wisbey Christmas Specials starring Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Duncan Wisbey, Naomi McDonald and Anil Desai Produced and created by Bill Dare Production Co-ordinators: Caroline Barlow, Sarah Sharpe and Katie Baum Sound design: Rich Evans Written by Nev Fountain, Tom Jamieson, Laurence Howarth, Ed Amsden, Tom Coles, Rebecca Bain, James Bugg, Sarah Campbell, Cody Dahler, Robert Dark, Sophie Dickson, Toussaint Douglass, Jade Gebbie, Cameron Loxdale, Katie Sayer, Peter Tellouche, Edward Tew and Rachel E. Thorn First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 17 June-22 July 2022 (Series 22), 9-23 December 2022 (Christmas Specials) © 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd.

Summary: A Real Simple Must-Read Book of Summer 2023 "Mai Nguyen has proven herself to be a real standout." —Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author A tender, humorous, and page-turning debut about a Vietnamese Canadian family in Toronto who will do whatever it takes to protect their no-frills nail salon after a new high end salon opens up—even if it tears the family apart. Perfect for readers of Olga Dies Dreaming and The Fortunes of Jaded Women . Vietnamese refugees Debbie and Phil Tran have built a comfortable life for themselves in Toronto with their family nail salon. But when an ultra-glam chain salon opens across the street, their world is rocked. Complicating matters further, their landlord has jacked up the rent and it seems only a matter of time before they lose their business and everything they've built. They enlist the help of their daughter, Jessica, who has just returned home after a messy breakup and a messier firing. Together with their son, Dustin, and niece, Thuy, they devise some good old-fashioned sabotage. Relationships are put to the test as the line between right and wrong gets blurred. Debbie and Phil must choose: do they keep their family intact or fight for their salon? Sunshine Nails is a light-hearted, urgent fable of gentrification with a cast of memorable and complex characters who showcase the diversity of immigrant experiences and community resilience

Summary: Seven more series of the popular BBC Radio 4 impressions show - plus a selection of unbroadcast material Since the turn of the millennium, Dead Ringers has been giving us its skewed, hilarious take on the famous and the infamous. The show has won a British Comedy Award, a Sony Gold Award, and a Press Guild Award for Radio Programme of the Year - and won a legion of fans with its merciless parodies, mocking every programme, institution and politician you hold dear. Satire meets silliness in these seven series, as the gravelly-voiced Doctor inquires about interstellar travel on the London Eye, Scooby Doo and the gang enter the terrifying London Congestion Zone, and Stephen Fry presents a BAFTA tribute to someone - but he's not entirely sure who... Elsewhere, some familiar voices phone up the European Space Agency, the team add a bit of festive cheer to Crimewatch and Embarrassing Bodies , and Mel and Sue give their double entendres a good old squeeze in The Great British Innuendo. Also featured is a sparkling selection of unbroadcast material from the razor-sharp BBC Radio 4 comedy. NB: Contains humour and language that some listeners may find offensive Cast and credits Starring John Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Mark Perry, Kevin Connelly, Phil Cornwell, Duncan Wisbey, Lewis MacLeod and Debra Stephenson, with Brian Bowles Created by Bill Dare Produced by Bill Dare, Katie Tyrell, Mario Stylianides and Katie Marsden Music composed by John Whitehall Written by Nev Fountain, Tom Jamieson and Laurence Howarth with: Ed Amsden, Daniel Audritt, Jack Bernhardt, Colin Birch, Simon Blackwell, James Bugg, Sarah Campbell, Carl Carter, Lucy Clarke, Tom Coles, Tony Cooke, Ali Crockatt, Rhodri Crooks, Jon Culshaw, Bill Dare, Max Davis, John Finnemore, Gerard Foster, Paul Gannon, Jon Holmes, Gabby Hutchinson Crouch, Robin Ince, Paul Kerensa, Gráinne Maguire, Laura Major, Henry Naylor, Benjamin Partridge, Steve Punt, Pete Reynolds, Tony Roche, David Scott, Chris Thompson, Richard Ward, Mark Watson, Duncan Wisbey First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 16 August-6 September 2002 (Series 8), 10-31 January 2003 (Series 9), 5 September-3 October 2003 (Series 10), 16 September-21 October 2005 (Series 11), 30 July-3 September 2014 (Series 12), 26 December 2014-2 January 2015 (Series 13), 10 April-8 May 2015 (Series 14) © 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd.

Summary: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • The New York Times best-selling author of The Nix is back with a poignant and witty novel about a modern marriage and the bonds that keep people together. Mining the absurdities of contemporary society, Wellness reimagines the love story with a healthy dose of insight, irony, and heart. "A stunning novel about the stories that we tell about our lives and our loves, and how we sustain relationships throughout time—it's beyond remarkable, both funny and heartbreaking, sometimes on the same page.” —NPR When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the gritty '90s Chicago art scene, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight, each eager to claim a place in the thriving underground scene with an appreciative kindred spirit. Fast-forward twenty years to suburban married life, and alongside the challenges of parenting, they encounter the often-baffling pursuits of health and happiness from polyamorous would-be suitors to home-renovation hysteria.    For the first time, Jack and Elizabeth struggle to recognize each other, and the no-longer-youthful dreamers are forced to face their demons, from unfulfilled career ambitions to childhood memories of their own dysfunctional families. In the process, Jack and Elizabeth must undertake separate, personal excavations, or risk losing the best thing in their lives: each other

Summary: “This tragicomic novel is heartfelt, touching, and delightfully quirky. You’ll fall in love with the offbeat cast of characters (both living and dead) and find yourself rooting for them right through the last page.”— Good Housekeeping (Book Club pick) A lost young woman returns to small-town New Hampshire under the strangest of circumstances in this one-of-a-kind novel of life, death, and whatever comes after from the acclaimed author of Rabbit Cake . ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Book Riot • Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize It was a source of entertainment at Maple Street Cemetery. Both funny and sad, the kind of story we like best.  Natural-born healer Emma Starling once had big plans for her life, but she’s lost her way. A medical school dropout, she’s come back to small-town Everton, New Hampshire, to care for her father, who is dying from a mysterious brain disease. Clive Starling has been hallucinating small animals, as well as having visions of the ghost of a long-dead naturalist, Ernest Harold Baynes, once known for letting wild animals live in his house. This ghost has been giving Clive some ideas on how to spend his final days. Emma arrives home knowing she must face her dad’s illness, her mom’s judgment, and her younger brother’s recent stint in rehab, but she’s unprepared to find that her former best friend from high school is missing, with no one bothering to look for her. The police say they don’t spend much time looking for drug addicts. Emma’s dad is the only one convinced the young woman might still be alive, and Emma is hopeful he could be right. Someone should look for her, at least. Emma isn’t really trying to be a hero, but somehow she and her father bring about just the kind of miracle the town needs. Set against the backdrop of a small town in the throes of a very real opioid crisis, Unlikely Animals is a tragicomic novel about familial expectations, imperfect friendships, and the possibility of resurrecting that which had been thought irrevocably lost

Summary: A uniquely humorous and deeply profound novel from a legendary stand-up comedian that follows the thoughts of a 1960s third grader during a single day at school. Steven Wright is one of the most significant and influential stand-up comedians in history. Rolling Stone ranked him fifteenth on their "50 Best Stand-ups of All Time" list, while the New York Times has written of his enduring legacy: "If you made a family tree of modern stand-up, he would top one of the few major and expanding branches. The children of Mr. Wright pack the comedy scene today." Now comes his first novel, which is sure to be unlike anything you've ever read. From the outside, Harold is an average seven-year-old third grader growing up in the 1960s. Bored by school. Crushing on a girl. Likes movies and baseball—especially the hometown Boston Red Sox. Enjoys spending time with his grandfather. But inside Harold's mind, things are a lot more complex and unusual. His thoughts come to him as birds flying through a small rectangle in the middle of his brain. He visits an outdoor cafe on the moon and is invited aboard a spaceship by famed astronomer Carl Sagan. He envisions his own funeral procession and wonders if the driver of the hearse has even been born yet. Harold documents the meandering, surreal, often hilarious, and always thought-provoking stream-of-consciousness ruminations of the title character during a single day in class. Saturated with the witticisms and profundities for which Wright's groundbreaking stand-up has long been venerated, this novel will change the way you perceive your daily existence. To quote one of its many memorable lines: "Everything doesn't have to make sense. Just look at the world and your life."

Summary: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize "A masterwork . . . the novel astonishes with its inventiveness . . . it is nothing less than a grand comic fugue."— The New York Times Book Review A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole's hero, one Ignatius J. Reilly, is "huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans' lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures" (Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun-Times )

Summary: 'Funny, fast and farcical. I loved it' JOJO MOYES The hilarious romantic comedy from NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING AUTHOR Sophie Kinsella Samantha thrives under pressure. A high-powered London lawyer, all she can concentrate on is taking the next step in her career; eating, sleeping, seeing friends – even taking a breath – will have to wait. But just when she's about to get everything she has ever wanted, Samantha makes a mistake. A fifty-million-pound, career-destroying mistake. Unable to face the consequences, she does the unimaginable and runs away... Catching the first train she can, she finds herself in the countryside, outside a beautiful grand house. Mistaken for another woman, she falls into a new job as the family's housekeeper. Disaster ensues. In a blink, her life has shifted from writing briefs to washing them – and she has no idea how to work the washing machine. Let alone the oven. A former master of the takeaway menu, she's now expected to whip up fine cuisine. But gradually, she falls in love with her new life in a wholly unexpected way. Will her employers ever discover the truth? Will Samantha's old life ever catch up with her? And if it does...will she want it back? ***** EVERYBODY LOVES SOPHIE KINSELLA: ***** 'I couldn't put it down.' LOUISE PENTLAND (SprinkleofGlitter) 'I almost cried with laughter' DAILY MAIL 'Life doesn't get much better than a new Sophie Kinsella novel' RED 'Hilarious . . . you'll laugh and gasp on every page' JENNY COLGAN