Here is a refreshing look at life as it ought to be. Bare feet, gardening, dawdling over the newspaper, oversleeping, and idle summer vacations are infinitely more satisfying than counting fat grams, eating only vegetables, and sitting behind that desk every day. So toss out the guilt and rebel. Don't just stop and smell the flowers--call in sick and lie among them, preferably with a good friend, a bottle of wine, and a handful of chocolates. Endangered Pleasures is a delightful reminder that rest and relaxation are more rewarding than a job performance review. After all, life's too short. Why not have some fun while you're supposed to be living it?

Endangered Pleasures: In Defense of Naps, Bacon, Martinis, Profanity, and Other Indulgences

Humor & Entertainment

Holland, Barbara

Humor

William Morrow Paperbacks

A delightfully funny and quirky look at the pleasures of modern life challenges the American work and productivity ethic, defends the good things on life (and the so-called "bad"), and serves as a reminder that relaxation and leisure are necessary to our well-being. Original.

Harpercollins

What is really going on behind those luminous feline eyes? Affectionate yet aloof, intelligent and inquisitive yet dangerously careless, the more-or-less domesticated house cat intrigues us as no other animal can. Now Barbara Holland offers cat lovers a fascinating, funny, and refreshingly candid look at their feline companions: their history, lore, and secrets, and their complicated relations with people and with each other. Secrets of the Cat is a lively appreciation of cats as we know and love them, with witty analysis and fresh observations about felines both high and low. Here are Winston Churchills ginger tom, who attended cabinet meetings; Teddy Roosevelts cat, Slippers, who came to dinner; and even the authors own George II, who was bitten by a mouse and adopted by a blue jay. Barbara Hollands warm, vivid speculations on cats lives and timeson their social, psychic, and mythological legacy, and their impenetrable mysterieswill give readers a delightful cats-eye view of the world.

Secrets of the Cat: Its Lore, Legend, and Lives

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Pets & Animal Care

A young girl wins a pony in a contest and throws her entire suburban neighborhood into an uproar.

The Pony Problem

Children's Books

Puffin

Bingo Night at the Fire Hall: Rediscovering Life in an American Village

A humorous portrait of the author's life in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains details a small town where everyone gets along and her adventures there, which include finding shelter in a bar during a blizzard and writing obituaries for the local paper.

History

Americas

Harcourt

Liquor cabinets, suntans, clotheslines, childhood, world wars, pianos . . . What do these things have in common? They are all headed the way of the dinosaurs. Children are opting out of childhood, liquor cabinets and pianos have vanished from homes, and unimpressive mini wars are the norm. In Wasn't the Grass Greener?, Barbara Holland shares her sentiments on this deplorable but inevitable outcome, as she moans and groans, wistfully remembers, and sarcastically decries the state of the world today. With a style reminiscent of E.B. White and a wit like Erma Bombeck's, Barbara Holland's short, sharp, and all-original essays are laugh-out-loud funny, whether or not you share her memories. An engaging reminder of the past, Wasn't the Grass Greener? is a straight-up collection of a curmudgeon's complaints with a shot of nostalgia on the side.

Wasn't the Grass Greener?: A Curmudgeon's Fond Memories

Houghton, mifflin, harcourt

When Barbara Holland inherited her mother's small cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, she quit her job in advertising and moved from Philadelphia to her new home high on a mountain, with only her cat for company. In Bingo Night at the Fire Hall, Holland recounts her adventures and misadventures adjusting to life in a rural community, as her small town adjusts to the inevitable encroachment of suburbia. Whether writing obituaries for the local paper or learning how to handle a chainsaw, Holland shares the triumphs and travails of being a newcomer to an old land with a rich history, a beautiful place sadly losing ground to subdivisions and four-lane highways. Filled with wonderful anecdotes, humor, and insight, Bingo Night at the Fire Hall is a fascinating portrait of a paradisical yet disappearing world.

Literature & Fiction

Essays & Correspondence

Harvest Books

Liquor cabinets and pianos have vanished from homes. It's been over fifty years since the last worthwhile war. Doctors never visit and no one hangs their clothes out to dry anymore. In Wasn't the Grass Greener?, Barbara Holland shares her sentiments on these deplorable results of "progress," where entertainment has come to replace idleness and children are skipping childhood. Written with impeccable style and a sharp wit, Holland's all-original essays are laugh-out-loud funny, whether or not you're old enough to remember clotheslines. Not quite a peaceful stroll down memory lane, Wasn't the Grass Greener? is a straight-up collection of a curmudgeon's complaints with a shot of nostalgia on the side.

Wasn't the Grass Greener?: Thirty-three Reasons Why Life Isn't as Good as It Used to Be

Mariner Books

The minute the alarm clock punctures our dreams, we go to work. We have convinced ourselves that productivity is the name of the game and that leisure is a notorious sign of laziness. In Endangered Pleasures, Barbara Holland insists that enough is enough. It's time to kick back, relax, and relish the truly good things in life. "Delightfully quirky".--The Boston Globe.

Little. Brown and Company

ENDANGERED PLEASURES IN DEFENSE OF SELF-INDULGENCE AND SIMPLE LUXURIES Barbara Holland takes up arms against America's current ethic of industrious virtue. We work longer than we did twenty years ago, she says, and eat more vegetables, but why get rich and live forever if our lives are gray and arduous? According to Holland, morning sex, bare feet, gardening, dawdling over the morning paper, and idle summer vacations are more fun than shopping malls and cable television, and certainly more fun than working all our waking hours. She exhorts us to rebel, to oversleep, and when we get up, to eat bacon. Holland's recommended world includes not just smelling the flowers, but calling in sick and lying down among them, if possible with a friend, a bottle of wine, and a handful of strawberries. It calls for Fourth of July parades and Christmases lasting twelve whole days. She's also in favor of less respectable joys like happy hour, chicken gravy, driving without our seatbelts, gambling, and swearing -"one of our least expensive and most flexible pleasures, ready to hand wherever we may be" - and laments those now snatched from us forever, such as cigarettes, furs, ocean liners, and comfortable bathtubs. Eloquent and merry, Holland persuades us to notice and guard the small delights that cheer our days.

Little,Brown & Co

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Holland, Barbara. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Holland, Barbara

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Holland, Barbara. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Endangered Pleasures: In Defense of Naps, Bacon, Martinis, Profanity, and Other Indulgences

Endangered Pleasures: In Defense of Naps, Bacon, Martinis, Profanity, and Other Indulgences

Secrets of the Cat: Its Lore, Legend, and Lives

The Pony Problem

Bingo Night at the Fire Hall: Rediscovering Life in an American Village

Wasn't the Grass Greener?: A Curmudgeon's Fond Memories

Bingo Night at the Fire Hall: Rediscovering Life in an American Village

Wasn't the Grass Greener?: Thirty-three Reasons Why Life Isn't as Good as It Used to Be

Endangered Pleasures: In Defense of Naps, Bacon, Martinis, Profanity, and Other Indulgences

Endangered Pleasures: In Defense of Naps, Bacon, Martinis, Profanity, and Other Indulgences