Pure laughter, whether our own or others, makes us all feel more comfortable with the world and situations we find ourselves in. Why something is funny is hard to say but we know that there are people who are funny and can say funny things. It’s an immediate advantage for them.In this volume your hosts including Mark Twain, Nikolai Gogol, J M Barrie, O Henry and many others who range from the simply funny and the absurd to ….. well, other ways of funny.1 - Stories to Make Y...

Grouping together works by various authors into a theme should be relatively simple. Choose a theme, choose an author, choose a story. But some themes can be a little baffling. Modernism is a lovely bright term that should do exactly what it says on the cover. Yet the authors and stories themselves can be baffling in some respects or streamlined and clean lined words in another. Definitions of what is Modernism can seem arbitrary or blurred. In essence we can agree on some but not on other...

Ring Lardner’s influence on American letters is arguably greater than that of any other American writer in the early part of the twentieth century. Lauded by critics and the public for his groundbreaking short stories, Lardner was also the country’s best-known journalist in the 1920s and early 1930s, when his voice was all but inescapable in American newspapers and magazines. Lardner’s trenchant, observant, sly, and cynical writing style, along with a deep understanding of human foibles, m...

In this series we turn the pages of classic short stories to put together the literary building blocks of how a particular genre or theme began, how it built its foundations to become the well-loved and well-worn genre that it is today.Do authors have the same ideas at more or less the same time? Or can they sniff out an opportunity as to which way the tastes of an audience are moving.Success undoubtedly builds success and in literary terms we can more politely say that imi...

Throughout the long centuries of human history is the want, and the need, to share information, to exchange ideas and for that knowledge and experience, for curiosity and learning, to be the basis of a civil society.In literature the ambition is much narrower. In order to be known, to be popular, you had to be published. And for that people had to know you existed and your ideas worth reading. Obviously for most of humanity’s time people couldn’t read and texts couldn’t be publishe...

In the quaint town of Chastleton, a peculiar visitor arrives, casting a shadow over the lives of its unsuspecting residents. Young Gloom, a mischievous and enigmatic figure, brings with him a whirlwind of chaos and misfortune. As he weaves his way through the town, leaving a trail of broken hearts and shattered dreams in his wake, the people of Chastleton are forced to confront their own vulnerabilities and the fragility of their existence. With each encounter, Young Gloom exposes the hidd...

Times are changing. Instead of obsessing about what they’re against, progressives have begun to think about what they’re for—to prepare once again to play their role as agents of bold ideas and political and social transformation. Finding new confidence and imagination, they have begun to renew their political capital. The essays in this volume draw on that new store of capital to sketch the outlines of a progressive agenda for 21st-century America. Authors such as Van Jones, Dean Baker, A...

Back when going to the movies meant a whole afternoon or evening's entertainment not just the one movie Audiobook radio is proud to be home to the Hollywood Double Bill. Adapted for radio with all the frills including the big stars and hosted by Roger Prior.