Scattered LightBy: Jay BlueThe poems in this collection have been selected as individual points of light, sourced from a diverse array of perspective across the strands of personal experience. Much as the morning sun shares its spectrum through the bevel of ancient glass, this collection too intends to refract your senses and intrigue your desire to see more. What follows are images in reality’s fabric, conjured of the imagination, and borrowed from hints of history. Each s...

This classic comic novel about a midlife man whose life is spiraling out of control is a "heartbreaking delight . . . Nothing less than a joy" ( The Washington Post Book World).Screenwriter Harry Towns, a bicoastal playboy with a broken marriage and a child he rarely sees, has been reveling in the freewheeling atmosphere of the early 1970s. But when cracks start to appear in his perfectly constructed life, he has no option but to pick up the scattered piec...

An indefatigable, irresistible, and wildly inappropriate Jewish mother takes her 17-year-old son to school in this uproarious coming-of-age comedyTall and scattered-looking, Joseph has just graduated from high school and is ready for college. But is college ready for him? Apparently not, judging by the rejection letter he receives from Bates and the deafening silence that greets his application to Columbia.While his friends pack their bags for schoo...

A ridiculously funny novel about a devoted single dad who becomes an international hit man from the author of A Mother's KissesAfter losing his job as a poultry distributor, William Binny spends his mornings at the local diner polishing off a cheap breakfast and perusing the local paper. A widower with an 11-year-old daughter who could pass for 14, Binny has plenty of reasons to worry about the future. Salvation soon walks through the diner doors, however,...

A pencil-pushing policeman becomes a badass sleuth in this off-the-wall detective story from one of America's funniest writersKenneth LePeters (née Sussman) is a "quasi-dick." A public relations man for homicide bureaus, he carries a half-size badge and keeps his pearl-handled Smith & Wesson .38 locked in his desk drawer. Recently returned to the East Coast after 17 years in America's heartland, he finds the cosmopolitan air of a big-city police department refreshin...

Oscar-nominated screenwriter and accomplished playwright Bruce Jay Friedman is back with a compilation of some of his selected works. With sharp, black comedy and a punch of wit, his plays have delighted audiences since the 1960s and earned him rave reviews from The New York Times and The New Yorker. From God as a bathhouse steam room attendant, to the Spanish Armada that goes horribly right, 3.1 Plays captures the surreal with a flair that is uncompromised by Friedmans ability to write real ...

The New York Times–bestselling author finds the pulse of the aging American male in two ingeniously funny novels. "I just laughed myself sick" (Neil Simon).Two classic works of comic self-help fiction by "one of the funniest writers in America" available together for the first time in a single ebook edition (John Gregory Dunne).With its "sparkling . . . winsome and true" look at the single male in America—from his sad new apartment furnishings to h...

A parade of unforgettable characters emerge from the steam in this hilarious, supernatural bathhouse. There is Tandy, fresh from teaching art appreciation at the Police Academy; Meredith, whose last memory is buying a micro-miniskirt; Biberman, a karate silver-belt who masquerades as a paraplegic; and the mysterious Puerto Rican janitor given to omniscient musings and manipulating the fate of all mankind.An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Jason Alexander, Edward ...

An "irresistible" collection of short fiction by an author who "has been likened to everyone from J. D. Salinger to Woody Allen" ( The New York Times Book Review).Hailed by Newsweek as "a bona fide literary event," The Collected Short Fiction of Bruce Jay Friedman brings together dozens of the New York Times–bestselling author's greatest stories, which originally appeared in Esquire, The New Yorker, and other ma...

An ex-NYPD clerk teams up with a shady Broadway producer for a disastrous musical comedy in this hilarious novel by the New York Times–bestselling author . . .In addition to his desk job at the precinct, Paul Gurney has long been in charge of the department newsletter known as The Homicider—covering workplace news, dispensing advice, and disseminating interoffice gossip. But now, in the wake of a divorce, he's decided to retire. What will he do ne...

New York Times -Bestselling Author: A Jewish man struggles in midcentury suburbia in this dark comic novel "in the tradition of the Charlie Chaplin movie."— TimeThe first novel by Bruce Jay Friedman, the author of such classics as The Lonely Guy and A Mother's Kisses, Stern tells the story of a young Jewish man who relocates his family from the city to the suburbs—where they are besieged by voracious cat...

"Stern" follows the story of Irving Stern, a Jewish man living in New York City who finds himself disillusioned with his life and career. As an advertising executive, Stern is successful but deeply unhappy, feeling trapped in a world of superficiality and materialism.The novel explores Stern's existential crisis as he grapples with questions of identity, purpose, and authenticity. Feeling disconnected from his Jewish heritage and dissatisfied with his marriage and career, Stern embarks on ...