When a bat flies into a hotel restaurant, Melissa comes to the rescue.

Ever had someone tell you just a little too much about himself? Meet Eric Broder, who made a habit of doing this—in the newspaper! Certain classic elements make a humor column irresistible. Workplace humiliation, weird food, rotten vacations, cats getting rubdowns, sex machines, raging self-delusion, enraged babies, at-risk squirrels, and of course pitiful date fantasies with Madonna and Katarina Witt—pure catnip to the modern reader. At least, that is, if you judge by the regular readers of Broder’s “The Great Indoors” newspaper column. Between 1987 and 1996, Eric Broder captivated and even astonished readers of Cleveland’s alternative weeklies with just such intimate and rarely believable details from his own remarkable life. And he did it with remarkable style. In fact, Broder’s writing style has been said to recall an unholy combination of Dave Barry, Barry White, Dr. Laura, Super Joe Charboneau, Walt Disney, and former Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker Jack Lambert. This book is a treasure sure to be cherished throughout the millenium. Or at least to be left in the bathroom until it gets too mildewed to pick up. Either way, it will change your life.

Bat In The Dining Room is a Marshall Cavendish publication.

This extravagantly illustrated handbook features the work of famed nature photographer Merlin D. Tuttle and in-depth profiles of megabats and microbats.

In a hilariously charming domestic memoir, America’s celebrated master of terror turns to a different kind of fright: raising children. In her celebrated fiction, Shirley Jackson explored the darkness lurking beneath the surface of small-town America. But in Life Among the Savages, she takes on the lighter side of small-town life. In this witty and warm memoir of her family’s life in rural Vermont, she delightfully exposes a domestic side in cheerful contrast to her quietly terrifying fiction. With a novelist’s gift for character, an unfailing maternal instinct, and her signature humor, Jackson turns everyday family experiences into brilliant adventures.

Damn This Inn Failed inn. Perfect Vermont village. Growing business. Besieged rookie innkeepers. Panic. Deborah and Woodes are a bored fiftyish couple from Washington, D.C. who decide to buy a New England inn despite unanimous advice from dozens of inn owners: DON'T. They visit more than twenty available inns, including a farm house with a stinking barnyard. The smitten couple make an offer within an hour after viewing a failed Victorian inn in an attractive Vermont town Challenges begin immediately: a tipsy wedding guest vomits onto the parquetry floor in front of the local Congregationalist minister. A skunk holds two dozen dinner patrons hostage. The inn sewer line collapses hours before the dinner hour. Their promotional brochure repeats the first paragraph. Deborah tumbles down a mountain glen. A bat flies into the inn. A drunken New Year's eve celebrant falls head-first onto the men's toilet with predictably bloody results. A breakfast special is so riotously successful cops are called. Revenue grows but the inefficient steam heating system sucks oil and depletes the couple's savings. Deborah panics as endless business and financial pressures crush her dream.

This collection is a generous selection of Shirley Jackson's work, consisting of three complete books: The Bird's Nest, Life Among the Savages, Raising Demons, and eleven short stories--including the world-famous "The Lottery."

Driving away from the cabin, John wondered how this weekend's events would turn out. He had a very good feeling that this would be his new beginning and that this woman would save him from the man he had become. He had bet his life on it. John knew that he was trapped in an abusive marriage with his wife Heather, but he never expected what Heather would do to him or his kids for a chat room lover. When her lover ends the relationship, Heather inadvertently starts John's life in a direction he never would have fathomed. If only John had the gumption to do something about their problems sooner, his life might have turned out in a way he could be proud of instead of the misery that it had turned into. In an effort to do for others what he could never do for himself, John takes action and distributes his own brand of justice, but his chosen path constantly torments him. After a series of disturbing yet fulfilling events, John readies himself to end this chapter of his life. He begins searching for the one person that will finally extinguish his rage and free him from the man he has become. When John finds the ideal person, his life unfolds in a way he never could have anticipated or dreamed.