Books like 'The Practical Heart: Four Novellas'
Readers who enjoyed The Practical Heart: Four Novellas by Allan Gurganus also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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The Bluff by Emma St. Clair
Rated: 5.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIt's hard to be professional when you hate and are attracted to your boss in equal measure... -
![Stories by T. Coraghessan Boyle]()
Stories by T. Coraghessan Boyle
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsT. C. Boyle is one of the most inventive and wickedly funny short story writers at work today. Over the course of twenty-five years, Boyle has built up a body of short fiction that is remarkable in its range, richness, and exuberance... -
![Torch Song Trilogy by Harvey Fierstein]()
Torch Song Trilogy by Harvey Fierstein
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDrama, American Literature, Gay and Lesbian Studies, PlaysTorch Song Trilogy is a collection of three plays by Harvey Fierstein rendered in three acts: International Stud, Fugue in a Nursery, and Widows and Children First! The story centers on Arnold Beckoff, a torch song singing Jewish drag queen living in New York City in the late 1970 and 1980s... -
![The Complete Plays by Joe Orton]()
The Complete Plays by Joe Orton
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThis volume contains every play written by Joe Orton, who emerged in the 1960s as the most talented comic playwright in recent English history and was considered the direct successor to Wilde, Shaw, and Coward... -
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![Three Plays: Blithe Spirit / Hay Fever / Private Lives by Noël Coward]()
Three Plays: Blithe Spirit / Hay Fever / Private Lives by Noël Coward
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFilled with languid aristocrats trading witticisms as they wait for martinis, this collection of three Noel Coward plays encapsulates the qualities that made him one of the most popular playwrights of the 1930s and '40s and one of the great personalities of the century.In Blithe Spirit , Charles Condomine receives a visit from his first wife, Elvira... -
![Haute Couture by Joslyn Westbrook]()
Haute Couture by Joslyn Westbrook
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBreaking News: Mr. Right Is Always Mr. Wrong... Lauren Blake, fashionista extraordinaire, has what almost every woman wants: Glamour. Fortune. Prestige. Plus a new driver who she finds terribly annoying, despite his good looks. As the creator of the popular clothing line she's worked years to build, Lauren's got no time for love... -
![Bedtime Stories for Privileged Children: Charming tales of wealth and entitlement for tots who were simply born better by Daniel Foxx]()
Bedtime Stories for Privileged Children: Charming tales of wealth and entitlement for tots who were simply born better by Daniel Foxx
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAuthor and comedian Daniel Foxx presents a wonderful collection of stories especially for the little darlings of the fabulously wealthy - that can also be enjoyed by YOU, the downtrodden, pitiful, ordinary adult! Read about the everyday adventures of Rupert, Shallotte and Genevievette as they ski, holiday, and drift around Selfridges - whilst always keeping a healthy distance from the dreaded... -
![Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? by Johan Harstad]()
Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? by Johan Harstad
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA pop-saturated epic novel about the second man on the moon, and the quiet thirty-year-old gardener who idolizes him. A story of unconventional psychiatry, the Faroe Islands, amateur boat building, and the journey across the space that divides us from other people: a journey as remote and dangerous as the trip to the moon itself... -
![The Answer Is No: A Short Story by Fredrik Backman]()
The Answer Is No: A Short Story by Fredrik Backman
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn a hilarious short story from New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman, the absurdities of modern life cause one man’s solitary world to spin suddenly, and comically, out of control.Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much... -
![Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte]()
Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the Whiting and O. Henry–winning author of Private Citizens (“the first great millennial novel,” New York Magazine), an electrifying novel-in-stories that follows a cast of intricately linked characters as rejection throws their lives and relationships into chaos.Sharply observant and outrageously funny, Rejection is a provocative plunge into the touchiest problems of modern life... -
![Descent of Man by T. Coraghessan Boyle]()
Descent of Man by T. Coraghessan Boyle
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn seventeen slices of life that defy the expected and launch us into the absurd, T.C. Boyle offers his unique view of the world. A primate-center researcher becomes romantically involved with a chimp; a Norse poet overcomes bard-block; collectors compete to snare the ancient Aztec beer can, Quetzacoatl Lite; and Lassie abandons Timmy for a randy coyote... -
![This Champagne Mojito Is the Last Thing I Own by Ross O'Carroll-Kelly, Paul Howard]()
This Champagne Mojito Is the Last Thing I Own by Ross O'Carroll-Kelly, Paul Howard
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWe don't think we can improve on the author's own summary of his book: I am many things, roysh -- unbelievable babe magnet, red-hot lover, loyal kind of goy, best forward who never played for Ireland -- but there's a few things I was basically sure I'd never be, related to a jailbird for storters, or listening to the old dear getting randier than a goat in heat, or even a father, for that matter... -
![The Shelbourne Ultimatum by Ross O'Carroll-Kelly, Paul Howard]()
The Shelbourne Ultimatum by Ross O'Carroll-Kelly, Paul Howard
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAfter his brush with death Ross O'Carroll-Kelly - schools rugby legend, award-winning author and lover of the ladeez - is back with a renewed lust for life - all thrillingly revealed in The Shelbourne UltimatumRoss wakes up from his coma to find a country that has changed beyond recognition. Shrewsbury Road has become a ghost estate. Marks and Spencer are selling microwavable coddle... -
![The Beasts of Success by Jasun Ether]()
The Beasts of Success by Jasun Ether
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn this dog-eat-dog world, three friends find themselves getting nowhere in their careers despite their education and work skills. They decide to make their own rules to the game of life and play dirty to get ahead. Each of them concoct schemes to sabotage colleagues and clear the path for their swift advancement... -
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![The Harpole Report by J.L. Carr]()
The Harpole Report by J.L. Carr
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe Harpole Report is the third novel by J. L. Carr, published in 1972. The novel tells the story mostly in the form of a school log book kept by George Harpole, temporary Head Teacher of the Church of England primary school of "Tampling St. Nicholas". Like all of Carr's novels, it is grounded in personal experience... -
![¡Espérame en Siberia, vida mía! by Enrique Jardiel Poncela]()
¡Espérame en Siberia, vida mía! by Enrique Jardiel Poncela
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"¡Esperame en SIberia, vida mia!" es una "novela de aventuras" con viajes desesperados, de huida permanente, sembrados de sobresaltos. Tambien es una novela de amor, aunque con menor grado de erotismo que las anteriores... -
![The Orange Mocha-chip Frappuccino Years by Ross O'Carroll-Kelly, Paul Howard]()
The Orange Mocha-chip Frappuccino Years by Ross O'Carroll-Kelly, Paul Howard
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSo there I was, roysh, enjoying college life, college birds and, like, a major amount of socialising. Then, roysh, the old pair decide to mess everything up for me. And we're talking totally here. Don't ask me what they were thinking. I hadn't, like, changed or treated them any differently, but the next thing I know, roysh, I'm out on the streets... -
![The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld by Terry Pratchett, Stephen Briggs]()
The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld by Terry Pratchett, Stephen Briggs
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsFor more than two decades, Terry Pratchett has been regaling readers with tales of Discworld—a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants, which are standing on the back of a giant turtle, flying through space... -
![The Oh My God Delusion by Ross O'Carroll-Kelly, Paul Howard]()
The Oh My God Delusion by Ross O'Carroll-Kelly, Paul Howard
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThat risk assessor ex of Sorcha's turned out to be right - it really was the end of the world as we knew it ...See, I thought the porty was going to last forever. I certainly didn't believe the current economic blahdy blah was going to affect people like me... -
![Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang]()
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNominated for six Tony Awards®, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is one of the most lauded and beloved Broadway plays of recent years. Vanya and his adopted sister Sonia live a quiet life in the Pennsylvania farmhouse where they grew up, but their peace is disturbed when their movie star sister Masha returns unannounced with her twenty-something boy toy, Spike... -
![Mundo Cruel: Stories by Luis Negrón]()
Mundo Cruel: Stories by Luis Negrón
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLuis Negrón’s debut collection reveals the intimate world of a small community in Puerto Rico joined together by its transgressive sexuality. The writing straddles the shifting line between pure, unadorned storytelling and satire, exploring the sometimes hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking nature of survival in a decidedly cruel world... -
![Barney: A novel (about a guy called Barney) by Guy Sigley]()
Barney: A novel (about a guy called Barney) by Guy Sigley
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsYou’re not supposed to get fired from the public service. Meet Barney. He’s an average guy in his mid-thirties with questionable social skills and progressive germophobia. He likes routine. He likes to keep his head down. Life’s pretty safe…until he’s spectacularly fired from a ten-year public service career... -
![Blott on the Landscape by Tom Sharpe]()
Blott on the Landscape by Tom Sharpe
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAll is picturesquely typical of rural England at its best. Sir Giles, an MP of few principles and curious tastes, plots to destroy all this by building a motorway smack through it, to line his own pocket and at the same time to dispose of his wife, the capacious Lady Maude... -
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![Hits and Misses by Simon Rich]()
Hits and Misses by Simon Rich
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 16 ratings'Simon Rich is outrageously, lavishly gifted'- Caitlin Moran'Simon Rich is the funniest writer alive'- Matt Haig'How fabulously funny'- Lauren Laverne'One of my favourite authors'- B J NovakFrom a bitter tell-all by a horse who made a man famous and then got left behind to a gushing magazine profile of one of your favorite World War II dictators, these stories trawl through history to skewer our... -
![Dog Sees God by Bert V. Royal]()
Dog Sees God by Bert V. Royal
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen CB's dog dies from rabies, CB begins to question the existence of an afterlife. His best friend is too burnt out to provide any coherent speculation; his sister has gone goth; his ex-girlfriend has recently been institutionalized; and his other friends are too inebriated to give him any sort of solace... -
![Semi-Tough by Dan Jenkins]()
Semi-Tough by Dan Jenkins
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMade into a hilarious and timeless film starring Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson, and Jill Clayburgh, and recently named number seven on Sports Illustrated's Top 100 Sports Books of All Time, Semi-Tough is Dan Jenkins's masterpiece and considered by many to be the funniest sports book ever written... -
![Beyond Therapy by Christopher Durang]()
Beyond Therapy by Christopher Durang
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBruce and Prudence are deeply into therapy. Prudence's macho therapist is urging her to be more assertive while Bruce's wacky female therapist wants him to meet women by placing a personal ad. She does not fully comprehend that Bruce has a male lover who is not pleased by Bruce's desire to date a woman: Prudence... -
![Bombardiers by Po Bronson]()
Bombardiers by Po Bronson
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller What Should I Do with My Life?, Bombardiers is Po Bronson’s first novel, a devastating satire of the business world told through the lens of a crazed and colorful group of salespeople forced to push increasingly absurd financial products... -
![The Echo Chamber by John Boyne]()
The Echo Chamber by John Boyne
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 24 ratings'His relish is infectious' Times'The funniest book I've read in ages. Savage but compelling' Ian Rankin'Funny, rumbustious, unstinting and wonderfully Hogarthian' The Observer'Sharp, funny, and beautifully written... a brilliant reflection on the landscape we now live in' Joanna Cannon_______________What a thing of wonder a mobile phone is... -
![Paradise News by David Lodge]()
Paradise News by David Lodge
Rated: 3.79 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsParadise, tourist style. It's a very long way from home. Bernard Walsh is in Hawaii on family business, escorting his querulous father to the bedside of a long-forgotten aunt. His mission transports him from quiet obscurity in Rummridge, England, to a lush tropical playground, from cloistered solitude into the unfamiliar company of package tourists: honeymooners; young women looking for Mr... -
![Castle Faggot by Derek McCormack, Dennis Cooper]()
Castle Faggot by Derek McCormack, Dennis Cooper
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsCastle Faggot is Derek McCormack's darkest and most delicious book yet, a satire of sugary cereals and Saturday morning cartoons set in an amusement park more deranged than anything Disney dreamed up. At the heart of the park is Faggotland, a playland for gay men, and Castle Faggot, the darkest dark ride in the world... -
![What the Butler Saw by Joe Orton]()
What the Butler Saw by Joe Orton
Rated: 3.70 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"Joe Orton's last play, What the Butler Saw, will live to be accepted as a comedy classic of English literature" (Sunday Telegraph) The chase is on in this breakneck comedy of licensed insanity, from the moment when Dr Prentice, a psychoanalyst interviewing a prospective secretary, instructs her to undress... -
![Jenny and the Jaws of Life: Short Stories by Jincy Willett, David Sedaris]()
Jenny and the Jaws of Life: Short Stories by Jincy Willett, David Sedaris
Rated: 3.71 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn these wonderfully funny and poignant stories, Willett's eccentric, complex characters think and do the unconventional. Soft, euphonic women gradually grow old; weak, unhappy men confront love and their own mortality; and abominable children desperately try to grow up with grace... -
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![Broken Piano for President by Patrick Wensink]()
Broken Piano for President by Patrick Wensink
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe greatest political allegory since Animal Farm, written by the most fantastic-smelling author of our time.Ever drank too much and forgot what happened? Don't be embarrassed. Deshler Dean faces this problem every day of his life.Dean is far more brilliant and productive when he's blackout drunk... -
![November by David Mamet]()
November by David Mamet
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsDavid Mamet's Oval Office satire depicts one day in the life of a beleaguered American commander-in-chief.It's November in a Presidential election year, and incumbent Charles Smith's chances for reelection are looking grim. Approval ratings are down, his money's running out, and nuclear war might be imminent... -
![Bear v. Shark by Chris Bachelder]()
Bear v. Shark by Chris Bachelder
Rated: 3.69 of 5 stars · 15 ratings"So it's kind of like a parlor game, then?... The question is apparently of Ancient Eastern extraction....It seems to be a gut thing. The answer just feels right and then you come up with reasons....Given a relatively level playing field -- i.e... -
![Scharnow by Bela B. Felsenheimer]()
Scharnow by Bela B. Felsenheimer
Rated: 3.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn Scharnow, einem Dorf nördlich von Berlin, ist der Hund begraben. Scheinbar. Tatsächlich wird hier gerade die Welt Schützen liegen auf der Lauer, um die Agenten einer Universalmacht zu vernichten, mordlustige Bücher richten blutige Verheerung an, und mittendrin hat ein Pakt der Glücklichen plötzlich kein Bier mehr... -
![An Arab Melancholia by Abdellah Taïa]()
An Arab Melancholia by Abdellah Taïa
Rated: 3.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAn autobiographical portrait of a gay Arab man, living between cultures, seeking an identity through love and writing.I had to rediscover who I was. And that's why I left the apartment.... And there I was, right in the heart of the Arab world, a world that never tired of making the same mistakes over and over.... I had no more leniency when it came to the Arab world.. -
![Lying to Children by Alex Shahla]()
Lying to Children by Alex Shahla
Rated: 3.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA fictional father writes letters to his college-aged daughter and son remembering events, large and small, from their family’s past in the poignant and hilarious Lying to Children... -
![How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely]()
How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely
Rated: 3.69 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhat Pete Tarslaw wants is simple enough: a realistic amount of fame that will open new avenues of sexual opportunity; the kind of financial comfort that will allow him to spend his life pursuing hobbies such as boating or skeet shooting at his stately home by the ocean or a scenic lake; and perhaps most importantly the chance to humiliate his ex-girlfriend at her wedding... -
![Big Time by Jen Spyra, Stephen Colbert]()
Big Time by Jen Spyra, Stephen Colbert
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe debut collection of raucous, dark, strange, satirical stories from the former 'Late Show with Stephen Colbert' writer and 'New Yorker' contributor, featuring a foreword by Stephen ColbertA bride so desperate to get in shape for her wedding that she enrolls in a new kind of workout program that promises the moon but costs more than she bargained for... -
![My Little Husband by Pascal Bruckner]()
My Little Husband by Pascal Bruckner
Rated: 3.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratings‘When Léon and Solange entered the church everyone was struck by the difference in height between them. Even though he was wearing heel inserts and held himself ramrod-straight, he still only came just above her shoulder. But no one was bothered by it…’However, when their first child is born, Léon gradually shrinks by fifteen inches... -
![Hollywood Hunk (A True Hollywood Lies Novel) by Josie Brown]()
Hollywood Hunk (A True Hollywood Lies Novel) by Josie Brown
Rated: 3.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA TRUE HOLLYWOOD LIES Novel, by Josie Brown "Josie Brown writes with all the secrets, sex and scandal of a tabloid cover story. Truly entertaining reading... -
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![An Innocent Fashion by R.J. Hernández]()
An Innocent Fashion by R.J. Hernández
Rated: 3.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratings“Writing in a fervently literary style that flirts openly with the traditions of Salinger, Plath, and Fitzgerald, Hernández is a diamond-sharp satirist and a bracingly fresh chronicler of the heartbreak of trying to grow up. Honest and absurd, funny and tragic, wild and lovely, this novel describes modern coming-of-age with poetic precision... -
![Forgetting Elena by Edmund White]()
Forgetting Elena by Edmund White
Rated: 3.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCombining glittering wit, an atmosphere dense in social paranoia, and a breathtaking elegance and precision of language, White's first novel suggests a hilarious apotheosis of the comedy of manners. For, on the privileged island community where Forgetting Elena takes place, manners are everything... -
![WLT: A Radio Romance by Garrison Keillor]()
WLT: A Radio Romance by Garrison Keillor
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn the spring of 1926, the Soderbjerg brothers, Ray and Roy, plunge into radio and launch station WLT (With Lettuce and Tomato) to rescuer their failing restaurant and become the Sandwich Kings of South Minneapolis...Categorized as:
humor satire literary-fiction fiction historical-fiction contemporary comedy romantic-love -
![The Mark and the Void by Paul Murray]()
The Mark and the Void by Paul Murray
Rated: 3.57 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsClaude is a Frenchman who lives in Dublin. His birthplace is famed as the city of lovers, but so far love has always eluded him. Instead his life revolves around the investment bank where he works. And then one day he realizes he is being followed around, by a pale, scrawny man. The man's name is Paul Murray.Paul claims to want to write a novel about Claude and Claude's heart sings... -
![The Material by Camille Bordas]()
The Material by Camille Bordas
Rated: 3.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA single momentous day transforms the lives of students and professors at a school for stand-up comedy in a novel that explores the humor and tragedy of everyday existence, from "an invaluable new voice" (George Saunders)Can comedy be taught? Someone, at some point, seemed to think so. The Chicago Stand-Up program has enrolled young comedians for nearly a decade... -
![Pure Drivel by Steve Martin]()
Pure Drivel by Steve Martin
Rated: 3.61 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSteve Martin's talent has always defied definition: a seasoned actor, a razor-sharp screenwriter, an acclaimed playwright, and, of course, the ingenious comedian who turned King Tut into a national craze. In this widely praised collection of humourous riffs, Martin shows he is also a master of the written word...
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