This collection of short writings is remarkable for its variety--both in terms of length and style. This might be attributed to Twain experimenting with form as growth, of moving from the brevity of his often humorous journalism toward themes that could sustain more lengthly treatment. This book has speeches, short stories, poems, hoaxes, satires, fables, travelogues, burlesques, first and third person narratives, and biographical and autobiographical...

An American in Ireland encounters mystery, romance—and an extremely disruptive pig: “Very funny . . . a payoff that is as unexpected as it is satisfying” (Publishers Weekly).
Possibly the most obstreperous character in literature since Buck Mulligan in James Joyce’s Ulysses, Mr. Caldwell’s pig distracts everyone from his or her chosen mission. Aaron McCloud has come to Ireland

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This is the story of what happens when men who think themselves smarter than they are face off against a man who's smarter than he seems. Set entirely in the dining room of a cheap boarding house, Coffee and Repartee chronicles the clever, funny, competitive table talk of the boarders. Formal credentials and personal pretensions to mental superiority all crumble in the face of precisely the right come-back, time after time. (Source: Simon and Schuster)...

"After finding a box just the right size to hide in, a little fox tries to play some tricks on his big friend, Pig, but things do not work out exactly as he planned." --

Gumluck, a young, naíve wizard, does his best to help the local townspeople (and a small friendly ghost) with his sometimes critical raven sidekick, Helvetica.

Mrs. Green announces that a new student is joining the class, and he is coming from far away. Immediately, everyone makes their guesses about where he is from. Hubie has his own suspicion--the new kid is from Mars!

From the perils of French dentistry to the eating habits of the Australian kookaburra, from the squat-style toilets of Beijing to the particular wilderness of a North Carolina Costco, we learn about the absurdity and delight of a curious traveler's experiences. Whether railing against the habits of litterers in the English countryside or marveling over a disembodied human arm in a taxidermist's shop, Sedaris takes us on side-splitting adventures that...

"Dressing as princesses and knights, Fancy Nancy and her friends go off in search of a unicorn in her backyard." --

The Heffley family road trip starts off full of promise, then quickly takes several wrong turns--with everything from a fender bender to crazed seagulls--but even the worst road trip can turn into an adventure, and this is one the Heffleys will not soon forget.

"One day, Mac (smartest boy in his class in a small town in California) receives a telephone call from the Queen of England, recruiting him to find the crown jewels (well, actually just the Coronation Spoon) and so Mac embarks on his first adventure as a secret agent--with the assurance that the Queen will give him a note excusing him from school." --