The Prisoner of Zenda

tags: fantasy, historical fiction, satire

⭐⭐⭐⭐

From Goodreads

Best known for his political fairy tale, The Prisoner of Zenda, which saw four major screen adaptations, including the acclaimed 1937 incarnation starring Ronald Colman, Anthony Hope was one of the few novelists to achieve wide popular and critical admiration during his lifetime. Regarded by many critics as the finest adventure story ever written -- and certainly one of the most popular -- The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) tells the story of Rudolf Rassendyl, a dashing English gentleman who bears an uncanny resemblance to the ruler of the fictional kingdom of Ruritania. Rassendyl masquerades as the king in order to save the country from a treacherous plot and secures the release of the wronged prisoner. In the process he wins the heart of the beautiful princess Flavia, but ultimately surrenders the crown and the hand of his beloved princess to the rightful ruler. Full of swash-buckling feats of heroism as well as witty irony, these adventure tales are also wonderfully executed satires on late nineteenth-century European politics.

I liked the novelette's swashbuckling with plenty of dead men, evil half brother, and a bit of romance. Highly recommended. 

I'm currently watching the 1987 series available on Amazon streaming and it looks accurate to the book.

Cookbook For Deplorables

tags: cookbook, humor, non-fiction, political satire

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

from GoodReads

As if fighting an invisible enemy hasn’t been enough of a challenge for everyone, we’ve also had to listen to an inordinate amount of antagonistic political discourse for the last four plus years. To stay sane, we need to take a step back and try to find some humor in these trying situations. It was important for me to laugh again in my everyday life, and I thought many of you might enjoy a little laughter as well. Since we are all confined to our homes now and cooking more, I pulled out some of my old recipes and renamed them to have some fun. You’ll not find diet food in these pages—only comfort food recipes, and if needed, fortifying cocktails to help you deal with the crazies.

For everyone who has been branded as deplorables, irredeemables, ignorant rubes, uneducated, ill-informed, racists, misogynists, populists, apologists, xenophobes, homophobes, selfish, chumps, rednecks, Bible-thumpers, Nazis, Uncle Tom, intolerant, bitter clingers, and blah, blah, blah, I hope you enjoy the recipes and have many laughs in the process.

Remember, laughter is the best revenge. Love, Laugh, Live.

Great simple recipes with funny names and caricatures. One of the funniest but yummy recipes is TRUMP'S SUPERMAN SPAGHETTI WITH EXTRA BALLS (Make them HUGE). 

The cookbook triggered so many hate-filled, sense of humor-challenged leftists on Goodreads and Amazon rated the book 1 star, as expected. 😂😂😂

Highly recommended for readers and cooks with sense of humor.