Miraculum Monstrum is an epic hybrid narrative about Tristia Vogel, a female artist who experiences a radical physical transformation, beginning with the excrescence of apparent wings. Though she is possibly an anomalous mutation resulting from worldwide ecological upheaval, the bird/woman is co-opted by a religious cult that claims to have prophesied her experience; she is thus written as the central figure of their scriptural text. The fragmentary poem that is Miraculum Monstrum, which bears the same name as the fictitious codex quoted throughout, is presented within a catalog for an exhibit of visual artifacts and writings that chronicle this speculative history. The exhibition curator persona performs a duel function as narrative voice within the poem and critical commentator on the exhibit.

" The humor of the Old South -- tales, almanac entries, turf reports, historical sketches, gentlemen's essays on outdoor sports, profiles of local characters -- flourished between 1830 and 1860. The genre's popularity and influence can be traced in the works of major southern writers such as William Faulkner, Erskine Caldwell, Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, and Harry Crews, as well as in contemporary popular culture focusing on the rural South. This collection of essays includes some of the past twenty five years' best writing on the subject, as well as ten new works bringing fresh insights and original approaches to the subject. A number of the essays focus on well known humorists such as Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, Johnson Jones Hooper, William Tappan Thompson, and George Washington Harris, all of whom have long been recognized as key figures in Southwestern humor. Other chapters examine the origins of this early humor, in particular selected poems of William Henry Timrod and Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," which anticipate the subject matter, character types, structural elements, and motifs that would become part of the Southwestern tradition. Renditions of "Sleepy Hollow" were later echoed in sketches by William Tappan Thompson, Joseph Beckman Cobb, Orlando Benedict Mayer, Francis James Robinson, and William Gilmore Simms. Several essays also explore antebellum southern humor in the context of race and gender. This literary legacy left an indelible mark on the works of later writers such as Mark Twain and William Faulkner, whose works in a comic vein reflect affinities and connections to the rich lode of materials initially popularized by the Southwestern humorists.

This riotous assembly of unrespectable creatures comprises 42 short accounts of southern Africa’s vibrant collection of wild animals.

From the one-of-its-kind aardvark to the wilfully ignorant ostrich; the Houdini-like honey badger to the precariously specialised klipspringer; and from the curvaceous, sports-model springbok to the recklessly insensitive hyena – this book airs the dirty laundry (and shares the trade secrets) of some of our wackiest, most eccentric fauna. Many of the stories are illustrated with delightful line drawings.

Basing his accounts on accurate, true-to-life detail, but always looking on the light side, author David Muirhead captures the weird and wonderful lives of his subjects, investigating their often exaggerated reputations, their habits, weaknesses, armouries and modi operandi.

At once informative and hugely entertaining, this riotous assembly will appeal to anyone with the slightest interest in wildlife and – for its excellent entertainment value – will make a particularly wonderful gift.

A sharp, funny, and engaging introduction to socialist ideas, movements, and solutions for a world in crisis. Now with 50% more socialism! Socialism...Seriously is a warm and witty introduction to the radical traditions of protest and politics that stretch from Karl Marx through today's movements for democracy, equality, and a livable planet. In this thoroughly revised and expanded edition, Danny Katch uses humor and imagination to take an unflinching look at the rising threats posed by climate change, billionaire oligarchs, and the far right-and makes a compelling case that a socialist world is both necessary and possible. Katch separates the lies spun by capitalism's defenders from the system's brutal realities, and is candid about debates and challenges facing the socialist movement today. This book is for people who want to take a deeper look at what socialism is... but maybe not that deep. Sincere, irreverent, informative, and playful, Socialism... Seriously is a unique and timely contribution to our movements for justice.

Being given yet another pointless 'man manual' that told him fifty ways to tie a bow tie in under 30 seconds made James May, co-presenter of The Grand Tour, certain there was a need for another kind of book. This book, in fact. He reckons there are nine vital things that a chap should be able to do. Not stuff you can download from the internet, but really important things. You never know when you might need to land an A330 Airbus, or deliver twins. And there may well be a moment when being able to play a bit of classical music on the piano is absolutely crucial to your success with women. So read, learn and be prepared - you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.

'Bilston is a magician with words' - Guardian The perfect, witty gift for Valentine's and beyond. Alexa, what is there to know about love? is a wonderful collection of poems by Brian Bilston, Twitter's 'unofficial poet laureate', in which he frets over the challenges of modern life, extols the pleasures of books, broods over politics, and ponders the curiosities of language. But at its heart, this is a collection of poems about love. From our caveman days to the internet era, from first dates to love in old age, Alexa, what is there to know about love? has a love poem for every time, place and occasion - and will stir the soul of even the most jaded romantic. 'Brian Bilston is a laureate for our fractured times.' - Ian McMillan 'Someone who knows their way round both a joke and a bittersweet narrative.' - The Times 'Part John Cooper Clarke, part Frank Sidebottom . . . all brilliant.' - Esquire

Inspired by the wit and wisdom of the Right Honourable John Bercow MP, arguably the only MP to come out of Westminster's handling of Brexit with a shred of dignity, Be More Bercow will help you declare orr-derrr in your life. Every day we are faced with a multitude of polarized views: at home, at work and on social media. But how should we navigate these choppy and socially precarious waters? Who is going to put some order and structure to this crazy upside-down world we have found ourselves in? The answer is YOU! Comprising witty quotes from the man himself ('I don't want to crawl over the entrails of past disputes'), fun self-improving activities (sort elements of your life into the 'noes' and 'ayes' lobbies, unlock and declare a winner) and inspiring stories from the Speaker (in 1996 to enable himself to attend selection meetings for two safe Conservative seats almost simultaneously, he chartered a helicopter and duly won the nomination for Buckingham). Be More Bercow is the only companion you need for your journey through the Brexit process and beyond.

*The perfect gift for the incurably curious* 'The best trivia book of the season.' THE SPECTATOR 'Mind-blowing.' DAILY MAIL 'Genuinely interesting.' POPULAR SCIENCE Which lottery numbers should I pick? Is it true that we are made entirely of stardust? Can dogs tell the time? Why do songs get stuck in my head? If Rome wasn't built in a day, how long did it take? Do plants make noises? Where is last Wednesday? These are just a few of the questions put to the QI Elves by the listeners of BBC Radio 2's The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show. This book is a collection of their cracking, unexpected and frequently hilarious answers. Chock full with extra facts and illustrations from the Elves, 222 QI Answers to Your Quite Ingenious Questions will spark wonder and joy. Includes a foreword from Zoe Ball. *** For more from the team behind QI's hit TV show check out the QI FACTS series of books, @qikipedia and listen to their weekly podcast at nosuchthingasafish.com or visit qi.com

If you know a pearfect numpty who needs a bit of sage advice, chia them up with this little book of upbeat and adorkable fruit puns. #youokalehun? About the series This cute and colourful series of fruit-pun-filled gift books are the perfect pick-me-ups for you, your friend or your partner in crime. Do you need to avocuddle, or are you grapeful for someone who's a bit of a melon? Then share the clove with these little books: AvoCuddle, WhataMelon, You are my Raisin for Living, Don't Give a Fig, I am Grapeful, You are 24 Carrot Gold. *veg, nuts and seeds are fair game

Recognising it's not always easy to say no, Nicole takes readers through real-life examples familiar to anyone who has found themselves saying yes when they really didn't want to, providing guidance on how to: Say no effectively and appropriately in any situation - Use techniques that come naturally to make saying no as stress-free as possible - Fend off unwanted invitations nicely but firmly - Set healthy boundaries with loved ones, family, friends, and colleagues - Tell yourself no when you need to - Let go of guilt, worry, and regrets and do what's right for you - Everyone needs healthy boundaries - let this charming book help you set them and make learning to say no much easier.

New York Times bestselling author and star of 2 Dope Queens Phoebe Robinson is back with a new, hilarious, and timely essay collection on gender, race, dating, and the dumpster fire that is our world. Wouldn't it be great if life came with instructions? Of course, but like access to Michael B. Jordan's house, none of us are getting any. Thankfully, Phoebe Robinson is ready to share everything she has experienced to prove that if you can laugh at her topsy-turvy life, you can laugh at your own. Written in her trademark unfiltered and witty style, Robinson's latest collection is a call to arms. Outfitted with on-point pop culture references, these essays tackle a wide range of topics: giving feminism a tough-love talk on intersectionality, telling society's beauty standards to kick rocks, and calling foul on our culture's obsession with work. Robinson also gets personal, exploring money problems she's hidden from her parents, how dating is mainly a warmed-over bowl of hot mess, and definitely most important, meeting Bono not once, but twice. She's struggled with being a woman with a political mind and a woman with an ever-changing jeans size. She knows about trash because she sees it every day--and because she's seen roughly one hundred thousand hours of reality TV and zero hours of Schindler's List. With the intimate voice of a new best friend, Everything's Trash, But It's Okay is a candid perspective for a generation that has had the rug pulled out from under it too many times to count.

A collection of the notable last recorded words of the dying, "Famous Last Words" is, unexpectedly, bursting with life, hope, wisdom, and often laughter. Here are writers, philosophers, athletes, gangsters, kings, queens, movie stars, and politicians, in all sorts of moods and states of preparedness. Some merely want to say goodbye to loved ones, others want to create a legacy. And some are caught completely off guard, like Civil War general John Sedgwick, answering his troops' urgings to take cover: They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist-.There's the droll: It's the wallpaper or me. One of us has to go (Oscar Wilde); the blase How are the Mets doing today? (Moe Berg); the cranky: It wasn't worth it (Louis B. Mayer); the wistful: That was the best ice cream soda I ever tasted (Lou Costello); the optimistic: I shall hear in heaven (Beethoven); and the overly optimistic: I've never felt better (Douglas Fairbanks).Ultimately, every one of these parting statements is a reflection of the person behind it. Each is accompanied by a mini-biography of the speaker, including the context of death, from the golf course (That was a great game of golf, fellers Bing Crosby) to a favorite armchair (Go on, get out. Last words are for fools who haven't said enough-Karl Marx).

A hilarious and timely essay collection about race, gender, and pop culture from comedy superstar and 2 Dope Queens podcaster Phoebe Robinson Being a black woman in America means contending with old prejudices and fresh absurdities every day. Comedian Phoebe Robinson has experienced her fair share over the years: she's been unceremoniously relegated to the role of "the black friend," as if she is somehow the authority on all things racial; she's been questioned about her love of U2 and Billy Joel ("isn't that...white people music?"); she's been called "uppity" for having an opinion in the workplace; she's been followed around stores by security guards; and yes, people do ask her whether they can touch her hair all. the. time. Now, she's ready to take these topics to the page-and she's going to make you laugh as she's doing it. Using her trademark wit alongside pop-culture references galore, Robinson explores everything from why Lisa Bonet is "Queen. Bae. Jesus," to breaking down the terrible nature of casting calls, to giving her less-than-traditional advice to the future female president, and demanding that the NFL clean up its act, all told in the same conversational voice that launched her podcast, 2 Dope Queens, to the top spot on iTunes. As personal as it is political, You Can't Touch My Hair examines our cultural climate and skewers our biases with humor and heart, announcing Robinson as a writer on the rise.

David Mitchell’s 2014 bestseller Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse must really have made people think – because everything’s got worse. We’ve gone from UKIP surge to Brexit shambles, from horsemeat in lasagne to Donald Trump in the White House, from Woolworths going under to all the other shops going under. It’s probably socially irresponsible even to try to cheer up.

But if you’re determined to give it a go, you might enjoy this eclectic collection (or eclection) of David Mitchell’s attempts to make light of all that darkness. Scampi, politics, the Olympics, terrorism, exercise, rude street names, inheritance tax, salad cream, proportional representation and farts are all touched upon by Mitchell’s unremitting laser of chit-chat, as he negotiates a path between the commercialisation of Christmas and the true spirit of Halloween. Read this book and slightly change your life!

Get ready to see man's best friend from a whole new angle in this hilarious collection of dog photographs. Everyone loves an under dog. And now, for the first time, in this collection of brilliantly hilarious images, we get to be literally under every sort of dog. From Finn the Cockerpoo to Dora the Springer Spaniel and Dave the Bulldog, here are the funny, sweet personality-full images of dogs, along with touching stories and fascinating facts about the different breeds. These sweet, unusual images of dogs reveal their quirky personalities and are the paw-fect gift for the dog lover in your life.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:
Every time Allie Brosh posts something new on her hugely popular blog Hyperbole and a Half the internet rejoices.
Touching, absurd, and darkly comic, Allie Brosh's highly anticipated book "Hyperbole and a Half "showcases her unique voice, leaping wit, and her ability to capture complex emotions with deceptively simple illustrations.
This full-color, beautifully illustrated edition features more than fifty percent new content, with ten never-before-seen essays and one wholly revised and expanded piece as well as classics from the website like, "The God of Cake," "Dogs Don't Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving," and her astonishing, "Adventures in Depression," and "Depression Part Two," which have been hailed as some of the most insightful meditations on the disease ever written.
Brosh's debut marks the launch of a major new American humorist who will surely make even the biggest scrooge or snob laugh. We dare you not to.
FROM THE AUTHOR:
This is a book I wrote. Because I wrote it, I had to figure out what to put on the back cover to explain what it is. I tried to write a long, third-person summary that would imply how great the book is and also sound vaguely authoritative--like maybe someone who isn't me wrote it--but I soon discovered that I'm not sneaky enough to pull it off convincingly. So I decided to just make a list of things that are in the book:
Pictures
Words
Stories about things that happened to me
Stories about things that happened to other people because of me
Eight billion dollars*
Stories about dogs
The secret to eternal happiness*
*These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness

Die laanie Bernie Fabing by Vannie Kaap wil wiet: Is alles oraait byrie hys? Dis ’n bundel van hul mees popular memes en sluit oek nuwe eksklusiewe content in, wat nooit aanlyn sal verskyn nie.

Vannie Kaap is ’n plaaslike brand wat gewild geraak het toe hul inhoud op Facebook viral gaan. Vannie Kaap, gestig in 2015, se doel is om Kaapse kultuur te eer, maar dit het oek ’n movement geword om ander kulture oor die Cape Coloured se herkoms en taal te leer. Die deure vannie eerste Vannie Kaapwinkel het in 2017 oepgemaak en daar’s tans winkels innie V&A Waterfront, Cape Gate en Canal Walk.

“Is alles oraait byrie hys?” is die tagline wat gepaard gaan met die Vannie Kaap brand – aanlyn en op merchandise. En as jy nog nie van hulle gehoor het nie . . . raak wys!

Wry, hilarious, and profoundly genuine, this debut collection of literary essays from Sloane Crosley is a celebration of fallibility and haplessness in all their glory.
From despoiling an exhibit at the Natural History Museum to provoking the ire of her first boss to siccing the cops on her mysterious neighbor, Crosley can do no right despite the best of intentions -- or perhaps because of them. Together, these essays create a startlingly funny and revealing portrait of a complex and utterly recognizable character who aims for the stars but hits the ceiling, and the inimitable city that has helped shape who she is. "I Was Told There'd Be Cake" introduces a strikingly original voice, chronicling the struggles and unexpected beauty of modern urban life.
Sloane Crosley is also the author of "How Did You Get This Number."

WARNING: NOT SUITABLE FOR ART LOVERS. PERFECT FOR DOG LOVERS. The Sunday Times bestselling author of Rubbish Pet Portraits presents... Who's a Clever Boy, Then? is a hilarious exploration into the bizarre behaviour of our beloved four-legged friends. Ever considered your pooch to be super smart? Or claimed they are 'actually very intelligent'? Dog whisperer and illustrator extraordinaire @portraitsbyhercule reveals what your dog is really thinking when they are... ... being petted: I'm going to milk this for as long as possible because you haven't seen what I've done in the bathroom yet. ... staring at you adoringly: Put your phone down, Susan, and I'll give you more likes than Facebook ever will. ... giving you evils: I'm not saying it's definitely time to get the hoover out, Kev, but I'm picking up fluff in places I don't want to pick up fluff.

Let your fellow human beans know that everything will be okale with this little book of upbeat and adorkable fruit puns. #cosyoureworthit About the series This cute and colourful series of fruit-pun-filled gift books are the perfect pick-me-ups for you, your friend or your partner in crime. Do you need to avocuddle, or are you grapeful for someone who's a bit of a melon? Then share the clove with these little books: AVOCUDDLE, WHATAMELON, YOU ARE MY RAISIN FOR LIVING, DON'T GIVE A FIG, I AM GRAPEFUL, YOU ARE 24 CARROT GOLD. *veg, nuts and seeds are fair game

The perfect gift for the incurably curious. With an introduction from Zoe Ball.

This edition includes all new, even more ingenious questions and answers! It was previously published in hardback as Funny You Should Ask... Again.

Which lottery numbers should I pick?
Is it true that we are made entirely of stardust?
Can dogs tell the time?
Why do songs get stuck in my head?
If Rome wasn't built in a day, how long did it take?
Do plants make noises?
Where is last Wednesday?

These are just a few of the questions put to the QI Elves by the listeners of BBC Radio 2's The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show. This book is a collection of their cracking, unexpected and frequently hilarious answers.

Chock full with extra facts and illustrations from the Elves, 222 QI Answers to Your Quite Ingenious Questions will spark wonder and joy.

A debut collection of hilarious essays and endearing missteps on the road to becoming fame-ish—now in paperback!It’s not easy being kind of famous. Fortune. Younger men. Exclusive invites. Being mistaken for different actresses who are slightly prettier and more famous than you. It’s all part of the gig, and Mary Lynn Rajskub is a pro. Hilarious and self-deprecating, FAME-ISH is Mary Lynn Rajskub’s debut collection of riotously funny essays. Smart, satirical, and relatable, this book gives new meaning to the word icon as Mary Lynn navigates the entertainment world against the backdrop of her own quirky idiosyncrasies. She describes what it’s like to make out with Tom Cruise, be a waitress at Denny’s, and find your life’s purpose in 300 indecipherable, not-easy-steps—all in a day’s work. Mary Lynn is honest about her experiences with bisexuality, her college years as a slug, and the bright lights of stardom, ultimately giving the people what they want: an endearing, hilarious look at what it’s like to almost make a name for yourself in Hollywood.

In THE MYSTERIUM David Bramwell and Jo Keeling (authors of THE ODDITORIUM), present a user guide to the strange and unexplained corners of modern life. THE MYSTERIUM catalogues a host of bizarre, funny and intriguing stories for a post-Nessie generation still fascinated by the unknowable. Drawing on contemporary folklore, unsolved mysteries, and unsettling phenomena from the dark corners of the internet, this book celebrates the joy of asking questions and the thrill of finding answers which stop you dead in your tracks. Featuring a group of men who scared themselves to death, Space's version of the Bermuda Triangle, a cat who can sniff out the dying and the tale of Slender Man, the monster who stepped out of Photoshop and into our nightmares, this fascinating book is a catalogue of the extraordinary, the strange, the mysterious and the downright creepy.