The Palace Of Laughter

Miles Wednesday, orphaned, unwashed and living in a barrel, has never been to a circus before—but then the Circus Oscuro is no ordinary circus. There's a strange beast called The Null and an array of sinister-looking clowns, and when an unusual little girl with wings falls from a tower during the performance, Miles's life is changed forever. As Miles and Little embark on an extraordinary journey to rescue two friends who have been captured at the Palace of Laughter, they discover nothing less than the power of friendship and the gift of family.

Orphaned, twelve-year-old Miles Wednesday discovers some surprising things about his past when he sets out with his angel companion Little and the blind explorer Baltinglass on a quest to recover the powerful Tiger's Egg stolen by the evil Cortado.

"An absolutely dazzling entertainment. . . . Arousing on every level—political, erotic, intellectual, and above all, humorous." —Newsweek "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting calls itself a novel, although it is part fairy tale, part literary criticism, part political tract, part musicology, and part autobiography. It can call itself whatever it wants to, because the whole is genius." —New York Times Rich in its stories, characters, and imaginative range, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is the novel that brought Milan Kundera his first big international success in the late 1970s. Like all his work, it is valuable for far more than its historical implications. In seven wonderfully integrated parts, different aspects of human existence are magnified and reduced, reordered and emphasized, newly examined, analyzed, and experienced.

The New York Times bestseller from the author of Dusk, Night, Dawn, Hallelujah Anyway, Bird by Bird, and Almost Everything “Lamott’s …most insightful book yet, Stitches offers plenty of her characteristic witty wisdom…this slim, readable volume [is] a lens on life, widening and narrowing, encouraging each reader to reflect on what it is, after all, that really matters.”—People What do we do when life lurches out of balance? How can we reconnect to one other and to what’s sustaining, when evil and catastrophe seem inescapable? These questions lie at the heart of Stitches, Lamott’s profound follow-up to her New York Times–bestselling Help, Thanks, Wow. In this book Lamott explores how we find meaning and peace in these loud and frantic times; where we start again after personal and public devastation; how we recapture wholeness after loss; and how we locate our true identities in this frazzled age. We begin, Lamott says, by collecting the ripped shreds of our emotional and spiritual fabric and sewing them back together, one stitch at a time. It’s in these stitches that the quilt of life begins, and embedded in them are strength, warmth, humor, and humanity.

A collection of jokes, riddles, tongue twisters, tricks, games, poems, and stories.

When the Circus Bolsillo lands in Larde, orphan Miles Wednesday and his angel-friend Little join its wondrous and chaotic show. They soon fall in with Doctor Tau-Tau, a mysterious and bumbling fortune-teller who once knew Miles's parents and claims Miles's father is very much alive. Miles sets out in secret with Doctor Tau-Tau, but to his surprise the search for his father quickly turns into a hunt for a much coveted and powerful Tiger's Egg—a stone fabled to contain the soul of a tiger. No one knows its true whereabouts, and as Miles and Little begin to puzzle the bits together, they uncover its curious connection to Miles's parents. Could the Egg be the key to the secrets of Miles's own past? Jon Berkeley's second novel in The Wednesday Tales continues the fantastical and often comical story of Miles Wednesday, as he sets forth on another strange adventure in pursuit of the truth.

Thirteen darkly comic stories, Dangerous Laughter is a mesmerizing journey that stretches the boundaries of the ordinary world.

In a world where color is magic and belief is power, four misfit immortals are picked by fate.Literally as old as dirt, Bai is tired of learning, tired of killing, tired of life. So he retreats to his mountain, taking the key to the Underworld with him.Jin needs that key. It is the only way to save her father, the Sun Emperor and ruler of the Heavens. But Jin is merely the Goddess of Beauty, and whoever cursed the Sun Emperor is now hunting her.The only being who will help her is Xiao, the God of Pleasure and her future husband. But Xiao lives in a drunken haze; can he really protect Jin when he can't even care for himself?Luckily Nanami, the world's second best thief, knows what to do. Steal Xiao's Infinite Jug and don't steal his heart-even if she really wants to. The meeting of these powerful but lonely beings will reveal secrets that could destroy the heavens-and dreams that might save the world.

What made the Romans laugh? Was ancient Rome a carnival, filled with practical jokes and hearty chuckles? Or was it a carefully regulated culture in which the uncontrollable excess of laughter was a force to fear—a world of wit, irony, and knowing smiles? How did Romans make sense of laughter? What role did it play in the world of the law courts, the imperial palace, or the spectacles of the arena? Laughter in Ancient Rome explores one of the most intriguing, but also trickiest, of historical subjects. Drawing on a wide range of Roman writing—from essays on rhetoric to a surviving Roman joke book—Mary Beard tracks down the giggles, smirks, and guffaws of the ancient Romans themselves. From ancient “monkey business” to the role of a chuckle in a culture of tyranny, she explores Roman humor from the hilarious, to the momentous, to the surprising. But she also reflects on even bigger historical questions. What kind of history of laughter can we possibly tell? Can we ever really “get” the Romans’ jokes?

A pig is invited to dinner with the queen in this delightfully funny misfit tale Bobo is rolling around in the mud when somebody slips a letter under his door. It’s an invitation to have dinner with the queen! “Why me?” Bobo wonders. What will he do at a fancy palace? He’s covered in fleas. He doesn’t know which fork to use. He has never been anywhere so grand! Indeed, when he arrives, Bobo feels terribly out of place. And trouble is following him wherever he turns! But maybe . . . he’s not the only one who’d like to let loose? For any kids who have tried their hardest to behave at a grown-up gathering, Bobo the boar is just the itchy, clumsy, endearing hero they’ve been waiting for.