Mark Twain's inimitable blend of humor, satire and masterly storytelling earned him a secure place in the front rank of American writers. This collection of eight stories and sketches, among them the celebrated classic "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," shows the great humorist at the top of his form.
Also included here are "Journalism in Tennessee," in which a novice newspaperman is shown the "correct way" to report a news story;...

Recollecting school escapades, ridding a house of lust, a practical joke misfiring, dealing with a boy's swearing, a talking dog, a woman's take on the Odysseus legend, dogged self-centredness, a suspect solution to the world's problems, bizarre seductions, an afterlife wish granted, a jinxed lover pursuing his beloved… These are some of the themes of the seventeen humorous short stories in Pursuit involving a variety of comic expressions: situational,...

Life is a journey which the soul embarks on. It is like an unfinished book, waiting to add new chapters from stories not yet written. One never knows what the journey will carry one through or even the seasons the journey will bring forth. Only God knows. Yesterday one could have been in a Desert season. Today one could be in a Valley season, looking up at the Mountains. The same God who was with one in their Desert season is the same God with one...

Chicken Foots Stew is centered around the life and times of quadrupled-divorced Michael Devin Hughes. The stories are Hughes' observations on family, life, and love, though not necessarily in that order. Fast-paced and genuinely funny, Chicken Foots Stew provides entertaining family reading. Among the short stories included in Chicken Foots Stew are the following: "Birthday Parties" as Hughes and his son Malcolm attend the ultimate children's birthday...

A creature with tons of teeth and way too many butts is stealing the Bad Guys one by one.

Tom, a.k.a. the Great Brain, is off to attend boarding school in Salt Lake City. Now his little brother, J. D., is free to follow in Tom's ingenious, conniving, and profitable footsteps. All of J. D.'s attempts at turning a profit fail miserably, and he soon realizes that he just doesn't have that crafty Great Brain knack. But when his younger brother is kidnapped by outlaws, J. D. finds that his little brain may not be so ordinary after all.

The Bad Guys, Mr. Wolf, Mr. Shark, Mr. Snake, and Mr. Piranha, want to be heroes, and they decide that the way to do it is free the 200 dogs in the city dog pound--but their plan soon goes awry.

When her parents suggest moving, Amelia Bedelia turns going to open houses and exploring new neighborhoods into an adventure.

Thirty years after their disappearance, the previously frozen Willoughbys have thawed out and returned from the Alps, to the consternation of their children and grandchildren.

Excerpt: "There is an intermediate ground between our knowledge of life and the unknown which is readily conceived as covered by the term mysticism. Mystery stories of high rank often fall under this general classification. They are neither of earth, heaven nor Hades, but may partake of either. In the hands of a master they present at times a rare, if even upon occasion, unduly thrilling – aesthetic charm. The examples which it has been possible...